Hand Off

[Taro Nakamura]

Continued from Here

Taro did not appreciate that he had to stop in the middle of what he'd been doing to handle any more drama than was absolutely necessary, but when he found out that Justinian had Aaron (and plus one, whoever the hell she was), he did not fail to act. He looked up as he shut his phone, which Benjamin believed him always to be on, and lifted his chin a little. "How long 'til William gets here?" he asked.

"Not long," he estimated. "His whole immunity thing is rather inconvenient, though," he muttered.

Taro agreed. "Listen, bad news. Something's come up, and I need to go for a while. I will be back, though. Oksana, what do you want to do?" he asked, turning to the petite blonde fox, who was leaning against the fridge with a bottle of water in her hand. She'd just returned, and she had blood all over her. It was truly a sight to behold, because none of it was hers.

"Don't know," she said honestly. "After what just happened, blowing my cover now would be... idiotic. I'm sure there will be some sort of backlash about how I could have stopped that lunatic from getting to Fawn." She looked upset, but only for a moment. "We have a lot of good, sturdy hunters here. I think Benjamin will be fine until William gets here. If he needs it, I'll help, but I doubt it will be a problem. Stavros was up for consideration with Diamond, was he not?"

Taro nodded. "Turned it down. Likes his gig here." He watched as a tall blonde darted by. "Can't say I blame him."

"Taro." The way Benjamin said his name was a warning.

"Just sayin'," the vampire said, holding his hands up defensively. "Anyways, I'll explain when I get back. Let's just say that now is one of those times I'm awesome for being me." And with that, he vanished.

"What the hell does that mean?" Oksana demanded.



When Taro had met with Justinian and Iloquil, he had been shocked to find that Aaron was in such bad shape. They told him very little, assuring that Aaron would tell the story in due time. They suggested he not separate them, but Taro wasn't fucking likely going to move them back at the same time, and so he took them one at a time, and successfully scared the everloving shit out of Eithne when he arrived rather abruptly, Aaron draped over his shoulder.

"Grab any medic on staff right now," he told her. He walked the ten or so feet from the stacks to the infirmary and dumped him down on a cot, then went back for the female. When he'd put her down in a bed next to Aaron, he straightened his jacket out a little and waited for the medics to arrive. "They smell like.. salt water," he said. "And they both look like shit."

"Where'd you find them?" she asked. "And how?"

"Not important, not important. Suffice to say, looks like Aaron was not successful with whatever he was doing overseas, and this girl got caught up in it. She doesn't feel human, though. Don't know what she is, but I don't like it."

"I can call Jordan and get her back here," Eithne offered.

Taro held up his hand. "No, don't. They didn't know he was missing. No point in shocking the shit out of them with the details now when we just know that he's alive and beat up."

Eithne hesitated, but nodded. "Fine, I understand. Come on, let's get out of their way," she said, reaching out to take his arm as the staff practically swarmed the bodies. She walked him out of the room and down the hall a ways. "I'll call you when we get a status change," she assured him.

Taro looked mildly irritated - but he always did. "See that you do. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to Mr. Sunshine and Fluffy," he muttered. Eithne did not miss his disgusted sneer as he turned, vanishing into nothing. She knew it was more because he was friends with Aaron and he was concerned than it was animosity towards Benjamin and Oksana. Taro may have been a magnificent jerkass in every sense of the words, but he still respected his guildmates.

She sat down outside of the room and opened her laptop, which she had brought from her office. She had seen an interesting symbol on the woman's arm, and she intended to try and identify it so that she could perhaps find some answers of her own. After several hours passed, her eyes lit up in recognition while surfing the archives of the Therrayan Scholars, and she nearly choked on her orange juice box.

"Not good," she whimpered. "So not good."

[Aaron Thorson]

Eithne may have had perfectly good reason to choke on her juicebox, but Aaron was completely oblivious of what that reason would be.  Of course, he had no idea that he was back at Diamond, getting pieced back together by one of their talented surgeons or that he was really as close to dying as he'd been.  He didn't consciously know that one of the crossbow bolts had gotten so close to his heart, though some part of his brain seemed to have understood that death was a very strong possibility.  In all actuality, he thought that was what happened while he was unconscious on the operating table.

That, or he was really underwater, which was slightly less possible, but it was the sensation surrounding him.  He felt like he was caught up in a current that swirled around him, dragging him deeper every second.  The harder he fought to swim towards the light above him, the faster he was flung down into the darkness, until his lungs burned and his brain fought with his body over drawing in a deep, desperate breath of cold water.  He didn't want to, knew that it would be the end of him, but the current was too strong to fight and his vision was spotting from lack of oxygen.  His skin felt like ice, the surrounding water only getting darker and colder the deeper he sank, and finally, finally, his stubbornness failed him.  It's natural instinct eventually to breathe, even when your brain knows that breathing is going to kill you just as surely as holding your breath indefinitely would, but he tried.  Nobody could say that he didn't try to hold out.

It was cold, so much so that the icy seawater burned as it flooded his throat and lungs, and the burn was worse for the fact that it was not the oxygen that his lungs so badly needed.  He choked, trying to expel the water in favor of air once again without being able to stop himself, and again only got more cold, salty water.  The pain increased as his brain went into overdrive, gasping and choking on the fluid desperately as his consciousness began to spot and dim again.  He didn't expect to wake up.

Only, he did.  On a hospital bed with a heart monitor, breathing apparatus and pretty much every other machine possible attached to him to make sure that he didn't stop breathing, beating, thinking and whatever else they were afraid for, and he dragged in a deep, desperate, greedy mouthful of air that threw him into a coughing, choking fit.  Naturally, that sent his monitors into a fit and sent sharp stabs of pain through him, but once he'd started coughing and gagging, the saltwater just didn't seem to want to stop until it had been completely expelled.

Imagine everyone else's confusion as they rushed in to find him spitting seawater everywhere, fighting with cords, tubes and wires as he finally just clutched at the sidebar on the bed to ride it out.  He had no fucking clue where he was or what was going on, but he officially hated his life when it was finally over and he was left breathing hard, in pain, and staring across the room at the clearest blue eyes he'd ever seen. 

What.  The Fuck.

[Eithne O'Shea]

 As soon as Eithne heard the machines go wild, she jumped out of her seat, running into the room to ensure that Aaron hadn't just died. She understood the bonding process as violent as the vampiric one from what she'd read. He may have died, but he wasn't undead. Eithne had drowned before; in fact, most of the guild had. The humans had all undergone things like waterboarding to get them used to the idea of it; Eithne and Nicolette, too, unfortunately. Nicolette had been dead for 10 seconds, Eithne for 35. She'd heard Aaron had been dead for longer, but she didn't really gather that it was a feeling you got used to.

She pushed 'send' on her phone as he began yakking up seawater. "Taro? He's awake. Yeah, he's - " she paused. She looked over at the Elemental, who was propped up but in a total daze, staring straight out ahead; at Aaron, but with no focus to her aqua eyes. "I think he's okay. I'll let you know." She put the phone down hesitantly on the counter closest to the door and approached him, hands thrust into the pocket of her jeans.

"Aaron?" she asked, waiting until he'd done with spewing the wretched water all over. Thankfully he'd leaned over the bed - an instinct from drinking, no doubt - and had gotten it solely on the floor, which was now being mopped quickly. A doctor checked all of his tubes, but he backed off when the larger man began to fuss at him. Well, fuss wasn't the right word. Aaron bared his teeth and took a swipe.

"Ahh, maybe you should lay back," Eithne said, nervous laughter filling the spacious room. "You've been through quite a bit in the last few days. It's best if you just relax..." she pleaded, clearly out of her element. She looked over her shoulder at the Lyr, who did nothing, and said nothing.

[Deja Aretusa]

 Azhure had no concept of time, at the moment. She existed in that moment and in several hundred others; time was not linear, her memories were not linear. She jumped forward and backward, standing with her feet in the sand of a land not yet even discovered; exploring Easter Island only a week prior. Conversations and thoughts blurred together until she could only hear one noise, and it was a rhythmic and technological beep, and it beeped at exactly the same point in time every time for a long time.

She blinked.

The beeping became all she heard; was it growing louder? No, but possibly faster. She did not notice the people as they entered and exited the room, and she did not concern herself with the commotion from the other side. They - it - inconsequential and tragic, falling silently; flowers with no scent. Even as he began to choke on the water, she said nothing, did nothing, was nothing.

What had this stupid, stubborn mortal man done?

[Aaron Thorson]

Actually, the stupid, stubborn mortal man hadn't done a damn thing except get shot up with a fucking crossbow and then metaphysically drowned in such a way that he almost physically drowned.  Or, maybe he HAD drowned somewhere in there, he didn't know.  The doctors who were making a fuss about him were talking quickly and quietly amongst themselves about the seawater he'd just hurled all over the floor, and about the machines.  He wasn't at his best and didn't care to eavesdrop properly, but they made it sound like he'd fucking drowned and somehow revived himself.  Yeah, because that made buckets of sense.  Morons.

"Get awa--" he started the threaten, but the efforts to be volatile and aggressive just didn't sit well with his current condition.  He couldn't tell if the spikes of pain in his chest or the choking sensation in his throat kicked him into his next fit first, but the attempt sent him into another coughing fit.  Fortunately, this one didn't make it look like he was a kid who couldn't swim just yanked out of the ocean.  Still, it wasn't very scary, and he didn't like that it made him want to do exactly as Eithne said and lean back against his pillows.  He hurt, he felt sick, and he was stupid confused, so why should he cooperate like a good patient for anyone?

Eh, maybe because he was hurt, sick and stupid confused.  Seemed like good reasons.

He also didn't know who the fuck the dark haired woman with the amazing blue eyes was, but she seemed very, very familiar.  Part of it was the way she looked, so he'd definitely seen her before, but that wasn't the big part.  Somehow, it was more a sensation of her, like it was her presence and not just the impression he had of her from his physical senses.  It was something deeper than that, which made absolutely NO sense to him.  He must have hit his head really, really hard.

"I'll relax," he started, coughing a little less this time and getting more complete words out, which seemed like a success if he ever heard one.  "Only if you tell me what's going on."

Starting with the water.  He was already putting the rest together in his mind, about why his entire body hurt and where the big injuries had come from.  Midnight, gladiators, normal and totally sane stuff.  Right.  No drowning and no strange women.  Ready, go.

[Eithne O'Shea]

 Aaron should have been thankful that Eithne wasn't Nicolette. She could only imagine how the petite blonde would have delivered this crippling blow of information, and she hesitated, trying to find the right words to describe what had happened. She reached behind her and pulled up a chair, sitting down at his bedside with her hands folded in her lap.

"Well..." she said, looking at those hands, fingers laced together and balled up; she was nervous and it showed. She didn't want to be the one to tell him this. Aaron wasn't known for being a loose cannon, but she knew that he valued his mortality. He was pristinely ungifted, to the point where he could not even be bothered by most magic - it sounded bad, but it was actually good. It made it difficult for others to read his mind (though not impossible; and he could still pass through Irene's mirrors), and it was, he thought, a useful trait. Nevermind that it also meant he couldn't even cast the most basic of spells or realize he was crossing into a ward until he got virtually electrocuted by it.

But now? Eithne cleared her throat. "I have formed no good way to say this, so I'll just tell you what I know. You've been bonded to a Lyr; a Water Elemental. The process is not unlike being turned into a vampire, although it includes marginally less dying, and as far as I know you're legitimately alive as we've all drowned before. Your vitals suggest as such; couldn't hook Taro up and expect to get any signal, so I'm pretty certain my information is correct."

She paused. "From what I understand of her, she's young by their terms, but old by ours. Not a lot of documentation about her history, which means she's kept mostly to herself. She is in every bit as much shock as you are, so please don't try to startle her. I can't guarantee she's not capable of hurting all of us if she thinks she's got to. Although," she said, turning to look at Azhure, "it seems like she's content to be catatonic for the moment."

"Taro found the both of you, where he didn't say. He brought you here and left. Nobody even knew you were in any danger," she said sadly. "I don't know how it could have happened." Clearly, nobody knew, or he wouldn't have been in Midnight for as long as he had. Once Diamond found that out, there was guaranteed to be a sternly worded letter to someone.

[Aaron Thorson]

If he'd thought about it, I'm sure Aaron would have been thankful that Eithne wasn't Nicolette and that the more...exuberant girl would have told him all of this.  Regardless of the girl delivering the information, it probably would have been a better idea if she asked where he'd been and what had happened before dropping the 'bonded to a water elemental' bit, since he could have told them.  This way, he was only going to be unhappy with the news.

Not that any of this was 'happy' information.  Being nabbed by a pair of freaks with Deliverance accents and a weird incest vibe only to be dumped into a cell in Midnight and then thrown into what looked like a supernatural upgrade on the Roman Coliseum didn't sound like fun.  The crossbow bolts weren't cool, either, but it was the rest that was fuzzy.  He'd remember the details in time, after it all sank in and he understood it better, and wasn't so flipped out by it.

The big issue was that the information he wasn't clear on was the information he didn't want to know.  There was no way that expelling large amounts of seawater from your lungs when you haven't been anywhere near a body of water (except in a dream) could be good, or explained in a good way.  Eithne had to be the bearer of bad news, especially considering who she was talking to.  'Pristinely ungifted' was a nice way of putting Aaron's former state of being, one that he agreed with, though he wouldn't argue that he had the magical talent of a common rock.  He liked not having even the slightest hint of psychic ability or magical openness, and if he had no way of recognizing wards or even simple spells before they blew up in his face?  Well, that was just something he had to live with.  There were other hunters in Diamond for that, and he was fine not having those complications in his life.  He dealt in weapons, which were solid, physical and honest about what they were and could do.  Magic was sneaky and untrustworthy.  He didn't like it.

That meant he wasn't going to like this, either.  As soon as Eithne started explaining, jumping right into the bad news because how could you tell a guy who LIKED being completely and utterly human that he just got an unwanted upgrade?  Still, her approach was surprisingly blunt for her usual, which threw him off a little; he made to speak so suddenly over her telling him that he'd been bonded to a water elemental that he threw himself into another small coughing fit.  It was probably for the better, since it meant he didn't hurt himself worse than the coughing did by freaking out and Eithne had a chance to finish mostly uninterrupted.

The comparison to being turned into a vampire, if only that the 'process' was similar, only made it worse.  His brain did a few mental somersaults over it, and then she was talking about how much dying it involved and that he was legitimately alive because they'd all drowned before.  Yeah, they had, he remembered the waterboarding.  William was the only one who'd beaten his 'record' for longest time dead after drowning, and they'd all thought they'd actually done the jackal in that time.  It wasn't really something that was brought up often.  What she said made him think that perhaps he'd heard the doctors right, and he'd somehow drowned in his dream, but hadn't stayed dead.  That was a nice thing to know.  

His eyes followed Eithne's gaze when she told him about the Lyr that he was supposedly bonded to now, and his eyes narrowed when he was told not to startle her.  Uh, really?

"How is she in shock?" he demanded, but really, 'demanded' was too strong of a word.  After his initially strong movements and reactions, his strength seemed to be confined to his thoughts while his body told him that it just didn't want to deal.  Taking a crossbow bolt to the chest seemed to have that effect, he was finding.  It was annoying.  He just didn't understand how a being like that could bond a human and be in shock over it.  He certainly hadn't done it.  "I was in Midnight, a Coliseum-thing.  Like Gladiator."

He wasn't so sure he liked that movie anymore.

[Eithne O'Shea]

Eithne frowned. "You've got the mystic knowledge of a fern, so I'll try to take that into consideration," she muttered. It wasn't like she wasn't concerned about Aaron; she was, but the prospect of having a Lyr on hand to study, to interact with... Eithne was a Therrayan, to the core. "She's over a thousand years old, Aaron. That she could have killed you with but a gesture is among the many reasons why I'm asking you for a modicum of tact, especially now that she is here."

She shifted her weight in the chair, letting that sink in. If Aaron wanted to get unruly (as much as his bed and current state would allow) and provoke the Elemental, Eithne would leave the room. She didn't want to drown to death on the water in her own body. "Now, as for where you were. I'm sure there are going to be a lot of questions when you get back, but for right now, everyone has gone to the main guilds here to put a stop to everything that's going down. In your absence you may have gleaned that someone upset Midnight enough for them to attack." She paused. "Evidently the lesser guilds are too stupid to realize someone else has been in charge there for a while now."

"The Gladiator thing is new news to me, but then again, I don't focus my study on that place. If she was there, I may be able to get information from her, too. I wonder why she was there," she said, trailing off with a glance over her shoulder. "Water Elementals aren't usually aligned that way." She shook her head a little. "Oh well, I'll find out later. For now, I'm going to contact Irene to find Gunnar and have him come back here. I doubt Jordan will want you out and about, but I don't think she'll protest to coherent and on your feet."

[Aaron Thorson]

"A dumb fern," he corrected just to be an asshole, though that was very obviously an exaggeration.  Even ferns and other plants seemed to react to magical energy. 

That didn't mean he was uneducated in such matters, though.  He fought plenty of things that used various types of magic and he certainly understood bonds and the like enough to know just how fucked he was.  Or make a pretty good guess, anyway.  This was in no way, shape or form a good thing, and Eithne could be as interested in studying the elemental lady as she wanted, as long as Aaron didn't have to be involved.  Actually, if he could just forgo being involved in any of it, that'd be fine.  He'd trade places with Eithne, since she was so interested.

Yeah, and then Murphy would kill him.  Awesome idea.

No, he wasn't going to provoke the elemental (wasn't going to try, anyway; accidents could happen), nor was he going to provoke Eithne (accidents, remember), because as unhappy as he was, he was not in top form.  He felt more like sleeping than arguing or fighting with anyone, but he felt as though he'd drowned enough for one day and didn't really relish the idea of falling asleep again so soon.  It was another reason not to provoke Eithne, since she was his best source of information while the elemental was silent and letting them talk about her while she was sitting in the same room. 

"She said she 'couldn't let me die', back when I was bleeding in the dirt," he told Eithne, because suddenly, he remembered that.  He turned his eyes back to the woman that he'd been very upset with so far, and wondered if maybe he wasn't being just a little bit of an asshole even being at all upset about it.  He'd have died, he knew that.  That was where he'd been headed when she showed up, and nobody in Midnight would have cared.  It was some kind of medicated, injured enlightenment that would probably not be so successful later on, but for the moment, he understood.

He also understood that he'd definitely been slipped a light sedative of some kind after he'd thrashed, but that was okay.  His day didn't require anything strenuous anymore, and even knowing that Gunnar was going to flip someone the bird and tell them he wasn't leaving the ridiculous number of patients he'd have in the main guilds (which would leave Aaron to hurt for longer until the healer returned) didn't bother him much.  He was about as okay with everything as he ever got.

Fucking sneaky nurses. 

[Eithne O'Shea]

 "Yeeeahhh..." Eithne trailed at Aaron's claim that she said she couldn't let him die. "I don't know if this is what she had in mind." She looked down as her phone went off. With a raised brow and a sigh, she said, "I guess I can further update you on how your favourite people in the world are doing."

She sat forward in the chair, resting her elbows on the bed. "Taro is at Crimson with Benjamin. William just got there. Oksana watched a Crimson trainee blow her own head off to stop Bacchus from gaining access to the guild through her - that's one of the old Midnight vampires, so I'm thinking that your romp in their version of Playland ended up on the good side of up," she added, a dry tone to her voice. Of course she wasn't happy or glad that he'd been taken. But if all that had happened was this?

"Link says that Frost is short members, Varekova included. Considering Connor Batten is accounted for, I don't have a good feeling. Speaking of guild leaders, the prestigious Cobriana is missing. You didn't see him in your stint at Midnight, did you? Because it's either that or he's at the bottom of a ravine somewhere." She frowned. She was picking up her brother's language habits.

"Sorry. Dante and Irene are holding cover at Onyx. Firuza is at Frost, no report of trouble. So, it's just you, me and Nicolette for right now. Want some wat-errr juice?" she corrected, reaching for the small refrigerator by the bed. "We have apple and orange. You probably do considering you have a drip hooked up to you. I'm surprised you're even still awake."

[Aaron Thorson]

No, he didn't think that was what the Lyr had in mind, either, but it was what she'd said and he DID appreciate the sentiment.  He didn't know why she cared, but he appreciated it.  He much preferred hearing about the rest of the guild than thinking about Midnight right about then, though.  Updates were good, even if he was too banged up (and medicated) to have any chance at getting out there. 

Maybe that was for the best.  He'd had enough of Midnight to last him awhile, and from the sound of it, Midnight was running rampant.  Hearing about the missing Frost members (which included Level 5 hunters, not good) and Cobriana was sobering news, but somehow it bothered him more to think about the trainee that blew her own brains out to protect her guild.  There were higher level hunters who didn't have that kind of loyalty and devotion, but there was a trainee that would do it?  How fucked up was that? 

He shook his head, obviously disturbed by the news, and leaned back into his pillows for a long moment to consider the last few days.  He hadn't known what was going on at all; had some of the people he'd fought and killed just been hunters that were captured during this mess?  Like that poor girl that Oksana had been with?  "Didn't see Cobriana, but the only way I would have would have been if they threw him in with me.  That would have left one of us dead."

It was the truth, and he wasn't so sure which it would have been.  He didn't much like Cobriana only because of what he'd heard from earlier reports about Onyx, but that didn't mean the man couldn't fight.  Plus, he was a king cobra, and though Aaron didn't know his fighting style, he'd have been amazed if the man didn't use that to his advantage.  Diamond or not, Aaron was glad that he hadn't seen Cobriana, just in case. 

Juice?  He glanced up at her as she almost offered him water (not a good idea, which she obviously understood), and she had a damn good point about him still being awake.  He honestly thought it was only because she was talking to him and he was worried that going to sleep would put him in the drowning 'dream' again.  It was probably a stupid fear, but it was still there.  "Please, orange.  Force of will is keeping me up, won't be long.  I wouldn't complain if you removed the drip, though," he told her, somewhat hoping she would. 

[Eithne O'Shea]

 Eithne nodded. She'd wait until Gunnar arrived before she taxed his mind anymore with her questions. "Orange it is," she sang, standing and exiting the room. She called Gunnar while she was in the hall, practically begging for him to come back. He was going to say no until she gave him the tidbit of information about Aaron's whereabouts for the past week or so.

She went back in with a 20oz of the man's requested beverage and opened it, holding it out to him as she took her place in the chair again. "Gunnar's coming back in. He won't stay long, but I need him to patch you up so you can give me the rest of the details before you forget them. I'm going to have him look at her, too," she said, nodding to the woman, "but I don't know how much good he can do. She's not of this world, and I worry that he might be a little out of his league."

She didn't mean it in a bad way; on the contrary, she had faith in Gunnar, but she didn't know enough of how Elementals worked to say that he could just fix her.

[Gunnar Arissen]

As if on cue, Gunnar stepped through Irene's mirror just in time to miss hearing anything from Eithne about him possibly being out of his league, and that actually sucked.  Truly, he wouldn't have liked hearing that she thought so, but knowing why would have been extremely useful in the next few minutes.  After regaining his bearings for a few seconds, he straightened and approached Aaron, who looked like he'd just started drinking the orange juice Eithne got for him.

"Sorry," Gunnar said quickly, plucking the juice out of his hands to hand it off to the pretty lady who'd called him in, and only because he was afraid Aaron might spill it everywhere if he was allowed to hold it during the healing.  Weirder things had happened, and Gunnar probably wouldn't have told half of them even if he wasn't sworn to secrecy by his oath of confidentiality.  Some things just shouldn't ever be spoken of.

Without even wasting time to look Aaron's chart over to clarify where he was injured, Gunnar took up the usual healing position, a hand on the forehead and one over the heart and just started pumping energy into his friend and guildmate.  It didn't really MATTER where he was hurt, because Gunnar was going to fix it all.  It was like finding leaks, plugging them and making it seem as though they'd never even existed, and after a few moments, Aaron was as good as new, minus a few issues.  "Alright, orders are to rest, drink lots of fluids and do what Eithne says until I get back, got it?  No strenuous activity for a little while."

Not that anyone listened to him.  Aaron was healed, so he didn't HAVE to be careful, but he'd lost blood and been through a lot, so Gunnar was all about encouraging him to take it easy and recover.  On to the next one, who wasn't far away or difficult to pinpoint, though when he approached, something struck him as odd.  She gave off an unusual aura, perhaps a psychic or something that he wasn't familiar with, but that didn't negate the fact that she was injured and he was low on time.

"Don't worry, I'll only be a second and I promise I'm not being fresh," he told her in a soft voice, being particularly careful with this strange woman and where he placed his hands as he lined up the power centers, and then started pushing his own energy into her, directing it towards the single injury he could find.  He was surprised to find that the power just flowed, almost like letting a raft float down a river, taking him directly to the wound and swirling his power around it like a whirlpool.  He had no idea why he got such a strong sensation of water from the exchange, but it was both pleasant and a little unnerving how easily this one worked out.  He was used to directing his power and weaving it over and through another person until they were healthy again, but this had just happened like it was the natural order of things.

It was when he was withdrawing that the ease of the exchange became an issue, the issue being that he couldn't withdraw.  When he tried, it was like trying to swim against the tide and being swept further back with every stroke he made until he actually tried to strike out at the force that wouldn't release him; being a Smoke, his magic was suited to healing, but he'd learned that there was a way of drawing energy from someone if he really had to.  In the end, he had to, and it was all that kept him from being sucked utterly dry in no time flat.  He couldn't draw from her as quickly as her power was draining him, but he was pulling like he was dying of thirst, and that wasn't a bad comparison.  He'd never truly felt fear of being utterly consumed before, but this?  This was big, and it was endless.  He was weakening despite his best efforts, and he couldn't even get a sound out to warn Eithne.

[Deja Aretusa]

Oops. When Gunnar tried to help, all he did was ensure that he was going to have a very bad night for himself. Azhure, of course, was only just coming into consciousness, so she didn't know what was going on. She reached up and pushed him away before he could accidentally kill himself but that didn't mean there wasn't any damage done.

She said something in a language none of them understood, and then tried to get up and out of the bed, but fell short as her injury still hadn't healed.

"Whoa, whoa!" Eithne said, rushing over to her. She kept her distance, but she held her hands out, palms up in a non-threatening motion. "You're hurt, you need to rest," she sputtered, reaching down to drag Gunnar away from her before she could zap him with her magic again.

"Who are you?" she finally demanded. "How did I get here?" Her tone was incredibly entitled and angry, and it didn't surprise Eithne much at all. She really could only assume if she were some sort of nigh-omnipotent being, she'd be pretty ruffled if she woke up in an infirmary, too.

[Gunnar Arissen]

It was true, when Gunnar tried to help, all he did was ensure that he was going to have a very bad night, but he had no way of knowing that beforehand.  If he'd waited to get more information from Eithne about the situation, he'd have been in better shape, but why should he expect this kind of trouble?  Aaron was a magical null, so that wasn't an issue, but this woman being taken down by the kind of injury she had shouldn't have meant that she was the badass that she was.  He didn't know that it wasn't exactly the injury that had brought her down, but the bonding process with Aaron.  Hell, even if he'd known that Aaron had nearly drowned after never being anywhere near a body of water, he'd have been ahead of the game.  He knew none of it, and he hadn't taken the time to ask.

So not making that mistake again.

He'd never been so happy to be shoved away from a beautiful woman before, and all of the training he'd endured completely failed him when the sudden lack of contact with her and her power centers basically just dropped him in a heap on the floor.  Eithne was dragging him away because there was simply no better way to help him, and he certainly couldn't help himself right then. Essentially, he was just dead weight -- pale, shivering, icy cold dead weight -- despite maintaining some semblance of consciousness.  He was technically 'there', but his eyes were glazed and he felt like he had nothing left to him to even attempt functioning.  If the dark-haired elemental had made any attempt to finish him off, he might have tried mentally and metaphysically to fight her, but his magic felt depleted and he was exhausted.  That she was conscious and talking finally wasn't surprising, because she'd just drank in so much of his rather impressive energy stores that he wasn't sure he was even going to be getting up.  He'd never worked himself into a situation this bad before.

All he could do was lean his head back against Eithne's warmth, which wasn't actually feeling that bad right about then.