Heirot

The unicorn felt her pulling at his leg. He knew the man couldn't curse her now. But he was still a despicable human being....just one without any power. Too weak to fight back, too disgusting to look at. His hand shook as he considered the option of killing him anyway.

The stone on his forehead fought for leverage, but his will was stronger than it. It always was. He couldn't be controlled the way this man had, but he was able to weild black magic for the same reason. He was tainted, corrupted, stained.

His hand glowed back to normal and his eyes cleared back to a vibrant brown. His fingers shook slightly as he drew his hand away from the man's forehead and instead formed a fist. He clocked the man across the side of the head, and he collapsed to the floor.

Adonis knelt next to Laya and looked at her neck. He raised three fingers in her field of vision, focusing on keeping the shaking down. "Can you see my fingers clearly?" he asked her, looking her over for signs of shock.

Laya watched his fingers swim in front of her face. Swim, that was a good word, but she could still see that there were only three of them. "I'm fine," she whispered to him, looking at his face. She pushed the fabric she'd tied around her neck to slow the bleeding closer to the skin. She felt fine. Frighteningly fine. She was too fine.

Laya twisted onto her knees, and pushed up to her feet. The moment she righted herself her head swam. Dots exploded in her vision and she started falling. Her hands reached out for Adonis, grabbing onto his shirt and his arm, anything she could touch to stop her decent.

"Not fine," she breathed faintly.

Everything came flooding back to her. How close she'd come to being another victim of an evil man. How he'd nearly killed her on accident. How she was willing to give up her body to save just one person in the hopes of saving others. But, what made her feel overwhelmed the most was the fact none of it had happened. He hadn't been able to take her. Adonis had saved her.

Adonis stood up with her and didn't resist her as she collapsed. His hands shot out to support her weight against him. It was strange to hold a human...especially her. Her blood filled his senses like a hammer to his skull, but he managed not to show it too much as he sagged slightly against the wall behind him. "We're going back to the deck," he breathed, pulling her up into his arms.

Laya didn't resist him carrying her. She wasn't fond of people carrying her, especially men, but she couldn't argue with him after what he had done for her.

Laya swallowed. "Adonis," she said softly. "Thank you. I know that... I'm not you favorite person in the world."

"That's...an understatement," the unicorn panted as he carried her unsteadily down the hallway. He used the wall for support every few steps but tried not to pause with her soft weight in his arms. A final gust of adrenaline got him up the stairs and back out into the heavy rain on deck. The winds were beginning to settle slightly, but although the owrst of the storm was over, it would be some time before the ship floated still again. Telanis was kneeling on the deck where they'd left him, following his brother's orders for once. It was a relief he hadn't just fallen overboard.

Adonis knelt next to his brother and let Laya down next to him. Telanis took one look at Laya and his eyes flashed to Adonis uneasily.

"Wasn't me," Adonis explained. "Do something."

Telanis frowned at Laya, noticing her blood before he had even identified her injuries. He put a hand to her cheek. "It's okay," he said, leaning down to touch his forehead to hers. A warm white light surrounded them.

Laya tilted her face into the palm of his hand, just so happy to be safe. Happy to be whole. She felt Telanis's power around her, felt the wound close, and when it had she pulled the cloth bloody cloth from her neck and through it a ways away so it wouldn't bother the two unicorns.

"Thank you," she told Telanis, trying to resist the urge to throw her arms around his neck and hold on to him. She felt shaky, and the edge of fear was still in her. She couldn't get rid of the feeling of her attacker's hands and mouth. It was something she knew would stick with her.

Telanis pulled his arms around her and drew her into a close hug, too relieved she was okay to do anything. He hadn't thought she'd make it back. He thought his brother might kill her first. But instead, his brother was.... where was his brother? He glanced up from Laya and saw no sign of Adonis.

Laya closed her eyes when he pulled her against him. She wrapped her arms around his waist, rested her head against him. Laya felt safe, even in the cold roaring rain. She tried to stop herself from crying, but she couldn't help it. She was so happy to be safe, so happy to be in his arms. The relief was too much for her to take.

Telanis held her as tight as she held him. The fear that the ship and everyone on it was sinking into death around him seemed almost impossible in her presence, though he knew they were still very much in danger. "What happened?" he murmured gently, not wanting to upset her more.

* * *

Adonis regained some stability as he walked down the hall, back toward the ward. In his hand was the talisman Laya had stolen from the psychopath that attacked her. He'd swiped it from her while he was carrying her. Walking into the infirmary, he sat down on the floor and placed the talisman in front of him. He took the knife he'd discarded earlier and carved a circle around the artifact, then connected it with the symbol for life. Drawing a slow breath, he carved the same symbol into the palm of his hand and placed it down on the stone.

He knew what he was doing. The power wielded by the stone on his forehead was far stronger than this trinket. But that didn't mean this was an easy spell to cast. The dark magics flowed most naturally in the direction of their current: pain and demise. To use dark magic to heal meant swimming against that current and tapping into the deepest aspects of the darkness to assert control. It required an investment on the part of the wielder. He'd done this once, to heal Laya the first time she'd been ill. That one act had taken a memorable toll. This time, he meant to reverse a curse against an entire ship full of people. This would not be a light task.

He had to ask himself why he was bothering. Just because he needed these mortals to get him to shore. Because he couldn't crew this ship with his brother alone?

Laya didn't know if she wanted to tell Telanis. She wasn't sure he would understand. "The man from the cargo hold..." She swallowed, feeling a cold chill run through her and nausea grow. "He tried to force himself on me. He had a knife to my throat..." She felt at her neck where Telanis had healed. "Adonis pulled him off, but then he tried to kill Adonis. So I made him more interested in me than Adonis so he could get away." She curled up against Telanis, like she couldn't get close enough to him. "Adonis would'nt leave me. He meant to kill him, but I took the man's power... and Adonis calmed down."

Telanis's eyes widened in confusion as her words sank in. She'd been attacked. Again. He wished he'd been able to protect her from that new scar he couldn't heal. "I'm sorry," he whispered to her, because humans seemed to need words to say for times like this. "I'm sorry I wasn't there. I'm so glad Adonis helped you. Although I don't understand what's going through his head right now..." He looked back at the entrance to the lower decks and wondered if Adonis had left to get away from them, or to do something even worse than what he'd done so far.

"I'm alright," she told Telanis. "He didn't... Its okay." Laya pushed away slightly to look. "Maybe he went to break the curse?"

Telanis looked at her uncertainly and shook his head in confusion. "Why would he break the curse after casting it?" All of this seemed very strange...his brother wasn't fond of Laya at all, so why was he helping her after dooming the whole crew?

Laya looked at Telanis. "Oh," she said quickly. "Adonis didn't curse the crew. The man who attacked me did. He thought he had cursed everyone on the ship but me. I think he was surprised to see Adonis."

Telanis stared at her. A swelling feeling of relief expanded and finally burst inside him. It brought him no pleasure that a human had fallen prey to the temptation of black magic, but knowing that it wasn't his brother was such an amazing and merciful relief. He'd suspected him wrongly and accused him of poisoning them all...he'd had good cause to suspect him. But he still felt guilty for it now. "Do you think he's actually trying to break the curse?" he suddenly asked her, sounding uneasy.

* * *

Adonis tried not to focus on the scent of his own blood as the symbols on his hand dripped down across the emblem he'd carved in the floor. He narrowed his eyes and summoned power from the amulet in front of him, his eyes goign black with power. When the amulet offered nothing more, he turned to the source of power he wore and channeled it into the spell as well. The power came forth easily enough, filling his body and essence like black sand, until his whole body throbbed with the energy he's summoned. Closing his eyes, he cleared his head as much as possible and began the spell. It was getting the power he commanded to flow as he ordered it that made this so difficult, and he found himself fighting with it immediately as he forced it like magnets against their poles.