Hey Tala, I know it's been a while, but I need some help and I was hoping maybe you still remembered your promise to me? I sent Silvia Copse to speak with you, and she was quite frightened, so please treat her with care. I really like her.
I know she's a mage, but she's not really all that powerful. What she lacks for in power, she makes up for with her heart. After so many years stuck with my father, I'm not what I think you'd hoped I'd become. I get angry a lot and frustrated with people easily, but with Silvia around, I've been able to cry and remember where it all started.
I want to be strong and kind like she is, like you are, and in order to lay my violent past to rest, I need your help. If you would be willing to help me, I want to take down Angelus, to finally remove the last traces of my father from everyone's lives.
Silvia doesn't know much about my past with you, so she has been pretending to be my blood slave and property. Let her know she is safe with you and that she doesn't have to pretend there. I've put her through hell, and she could use a break.
Thank you for always being there for me.
When this is all over, let's catch up.
Neil Arc
Tala crumpled the paper in anguish as he looked at the woman sleeping in front of him, her breathing finally calm as she rested. Neil hadn't said it directly because he probably was afraid to even write it down, but he loved her. This was the woman who had taken the shattered pieces of Neil's heart and put them back together after Vincent. It was no wonder Neil hadn't come to him after his father's passing. This woman had stolen all of his attention.
What a failure Tala was as a living being.
Neil had entrusted her to him, believed that he wouldn't harm her, and look at how far that had gotten him. Let her know she is safe. It had been a while, but Tala cried, bitter tears dripping through his fingers as he was unable to undo what his anger had wrought. All those years of telling Neil that he didn't have to lose his heart to Vincent, and Tala himself was the one who'd let Vincent take hold and control him.
A hand touched his arm, and he expected it to be Vice, but instead it thrummed with dim light energy. Unable to move at first, Tala stared into his fingers as it retreated but lingered just inches from his skin. Tala turned to find Wren Song standing warily at his side. What had possessed the man to come near him, to touch him, when so many years ago his own touch had revolted him?
"Please," Tala said to him, and Wren's grey eyes sharpened on him as he tried to figure out what he wanted. Shakily, Tala reached out a hand, and Wren watched it like it was clawed and moving for his throat, but he didn't pull away as Tala pulled him in.
There, Tala clutched the man and cried into his abdomen like the broken piece of trash he was. What would he do without Wren? Without the one who eased his suffering? The one who was always there when he woke in agony and needed someone? How was he supposed to live? Neil would never forgive him, not once he saw what he'd done to the woman he loved, which meant he was alone again.
He didn't want to be alone.
Wren touched him again, and Tala froze from the contact of light magic. It was just a hand through his short pitch hair, and it felt more like the man was curious than trying to soothe him. The mage had never been able to touch him, so he didn't care if he was just an outlet for his desire to try and figure out the man who'd held him all this time. Just the closeness was enough to wash away his agony.
Letting Wren go was difficult, but as the girl roused, Tala composed himself and wiped the tears from his eyes. Wren returned to his chair and scooted it in as the girl's eyes fluttered open. There was nothing Tala could do to change the way Silvia was going to react, so he remained still in his chair a few feet from the bed.
For a moment, her eyes drifted over the ceiling as she tried to process where she was, and then Wren moved, placing a hand on either side of her face to turn her toward him. Away from the monster that had burned her. The scent of fear filled the room as she looked into Wren's grey eyes, and just as Tala was expecting her to burst into tears, she swung her hand straight for Wren. The poor man went down like a ton of brick from her knuckles to his throat, and the fear was enveloped by a wash of rage.
Tala stiffened in his seat, torn between his protectiveness of his prisoner and the girl on the gurney who was Neil's. Any other person who had touched Wren without his command behind it would have already lost their hand. He doesn't belong to you anymore. It was hard to beat that in as Wren gasped and pulled himself up into a sitting position on the floor. It eased only just so much as the woman really got a look at Wren and noticed his poor condition.
The man was half starved and drained from using his already weakened magic to heal her.
Wren grabbed the chair and sat himself back into it with a huff of agony, and Silvia dropped her aggression for what seemed like pity, though he couldn't see her expression, merely sense her emotion through scent.
"Are you okay?" Silvia asked, as Wren rubbed his throat with a frown. "Your energy is so weak that I'm worried you're going to pass out."
The confident tone laced with concern for one of her kind emulated the mage order. This one had been trained and raised in it, so Tala wondered just how she was connected to Neil. The man loved her, but Tala was unsure if she reciprocated his affection. After all, they might just be on the same mission to take out his father's legacy. What was to say that she saw him as more than a pest? Tala had to smother his sudden urge of aggression if she thought ill of the boy he'd raised.
"I'm... fine." Wren nearly whispered in a hoarse voice. The man normally didn't speak but to scream, so his vocal cords weren't yet familiar with the process. "I used what energy I had to heal you, and I was already weak beforehand. I could use a nap." Wren chuckled weakly, and the sound had Tala gritting his teeth with how he wanted to keep him close. It was not a sound he'd heard from the man, and Tala didn't like other people experiencing new sides of Wren that didn't belong to him.
"S-sorry. You touched me right when I woke up, so I was frightened." Silvia seemed very down to earth as she settled into the gurney.
"I know." Wren's grey eyes softened, and Tala couldn't unclench his hands from his thighs. "I just wanted to tell you that you're safe and that no one here can hurt you anymore, before you turned around."
"Turned around?"
Tala stiffened into a statue, all of his muscles tensing and hardening as she swiveled around to see him. So many mixed feelings churned that he wasn't able to choose one to manifest as the girl clutched the sheets and the first hint of tears shone in her eyes. Before they grew heavy enough to fall, she averted her gaze, focusing on her hands. A safer direction. She lifted her slim pale hands to touch her stomach, as if fully reliving what he'd done.
"Are you not done with me?" Silvia's voice was bent between terror, anger, and anguish, and Wren stood to sit on the bed next to her.
"You are safe," Wren said the words that would mean nothing coming from Tala's own mouth. Anger flared in the woman as she looked Wren over again, but it simmered down as she found his hand on her shoulder trembling. It was a feat for the man to lift it stably. "I was a prisoner in his dungeons, and he had no other healing mages. I healed you in exchange for my freedom and safety but demanded yours as well. I would heal you no other way, and the agreement was a blood pact. The seal will cripple him if he raises a hand to you."
"You were a prisoner?" Silvia said quietly, but the regret for striking him rang thickly in it.
"Yes, I'm Wren. Nice to meet you." Wren smiled so kindly that Tala had to hold in his growl.
Why was he getting so upset by the man being nice to her? That was what Neil had wanted of him. In some ways, Wren was embodying that which Tala struggled with, patience, kindness, and a brighter attitude. The man was everything Tala wasn't and balanced him, and without him, Tala feared he'd fall into a dark pit.
With a sigh, Silvia turned Tala's way again, and he remained silent as she examined him. Frustration knitted her eyebrows as she did so, as if she didn't know what to make of him, how to treat him, or if he was safe. In place of her fear, suspicion manifested, and he understood the confusion. The cruelty he was capable of was quite opposite of the gentleness he regarded Neil with.
"Did you... read my letter," Silvia spoke again to her hands.
"Yes." Tala's voice was quiet enough that she felt it safe to look at him once more. All the while, he wondered what she saw. What Wren saw... Was there anything of the man he'd used to be after all of the bitterness and anger of his past?
"Can I return now," Silvia asked, impatient to be away from him, and he couldn't blame her for that.
No one stayed with him, not really. His family was bound by blood, but no one was close to him. No one but Wren, and he was heading for the hills as soon as he was able. The chains connecting them had been broken.
"I'm sorry," Tala whispered the words that he knew carried no weight.
"Piss off, you deranged piece of shit!" Silvia nearly yelled at him, and her anger bit but lasted about as long as the lift of his chin to meet her gaze.
That was all it took for the tears to slip out. Instead of breaking down like a normal human might, she shoved her face into the gurney pillow and growled into the fabric. This woman was a trained mage, no doubt, and she raised her attention back up to him once the tears had dried. With swollen eyes and a scowl that cut to his core, she spoke with strength he didn't expect her to have.
"I suppose vampires don't use the phrase, 'don't shoot the messenger.' If you read the letter from Master Neil, I would like to return to Angelus as quickly as possible. I don't want to be here anywhere near you." Silvia had a nervous tilt to her voice, and when she used the word Master, he realized that she was worried about blowing her cover for her mission.
In all of this he'd had no time to tell her she didn't need to pretend here.
Like that mattered anymore.
Word Count: 2006