"Oh, alright." Faewyn replied, nodding to Aertan as she accepted his help to get on her feet, "I'm going to go check up on him. I think...I think I need to talk with him for a bit. Oh, and Aertan?" she added, lowering her voice out of consideration for the fact that there were two others in the room, "You didn't have time to change those bandages with all this commotion, did you?" she casually slipped the messenger bag off her shoulder, placing it on the table, "I've got plenty of spares here if you don't have any of your own. Just...don't push your luck with that arm, alright?"
With that and a last nod to those gathered, the girl strode up the staircase, soon disappearing from view. There weren't many places to go upstairs, just three rooms: hers, her parents', and the guest room. Well, there was a fourth if you counted the small balcony. A sudden, chilly breeze brushed against Faewyn's face as she passed the aforementioned entrance, and as she spun around in surprise at what should surely have been a firmly closed door, she thought she glimpsed a figure on the moonlit balcony. A blink later, it was gone, however, a single pair of bootprints within a puddle of half-melted snow the only evidence that anyone had ever been there.
Drawing the obvious conclusion, the girl rushed out to the balcony, peering around in confusion. It was then that she spotted the figure again. It was perched on the very top of the roof that faced the wilderness beyond town, overlooking the landscape from a hunched position, wings spread wide.
"Reece?" Faewyn ventured, flapping her dragonfly wings for a moment to get them up to speed before flying up to the rooftop. Precarious though the perch on the top of the panels was, she stood just as firmly as her friend, "I..." she paused for a moment, searching for the right words, before approaching the figure, "I just wanted to say...about what happened on the ship, I-"
"Reece?"
There was something wrong about Reece's voice. No, that wasn't Reece's voice at all. It was the voice of a woman, and as the figure turned around to face her, her gender was effectively confirmed, "So sorry, little girl." the woman drawled, the piercing eyes set into her tanned face -- reminiscent of burning coals -- sending a shiver up Faewyn's spine, even as the heat radiating around her caused the snow around her to evaporate, wrapping her visage in a thin mist, "You just missed him."
"Who..." Faewyn began, staring at the stranger in confusion "Who are you?". The body was the spitting image of Reece's, clothes included, save for the key fact that it was female, even the weapon held casually in her right hand was identical. Yet this was clearly not Sieglinde either; the eyes were a clear indication of this. The girl's eyes narrowed in suspicion, her hand darting for the staff the moment the obvious conclusions crossed her mind.
Noticing the gesture, the woman merely laughed. A cold, malicious little laugh, "Such hostility..." she purred, "...and here I thought we could be friends..."
"Shut-shut up, negafael!" Faewyn retorted, returning her gaze with a glare of her own, spear-tip pointed firmly at the stranger, "Get out of my friend's body right this instant! Give him back!"
"Give him back?" the negafael echoed mockingly, "And here I thought you didn't care where he was as long as he stayed away from you. You should be thanking me for making that wish come true."
"What are you talking about?!" the girl retorted, "I've never said anything like-"
Just then, the conversation back at the ship struck her. Specifically, the ending.
"Finally sinking in, is it?" the woman prompted, sauntering a few steps closer, "Reece isn't here because you don't want him to be, and right after he put his life on the line joining up a band of strangers just to protect you. Oh, Fay, Fay, Fay..." she tutted, shaking her head in mock-disapproval, "Behind that sugary-sweet little face of yours you really have a cold personality."
"Shut up!" Faewyn retorted, clenching the spear-mode weapon harder, "SHUT UP! You're lying! Reece knows I didn't mean what I said! He knows that I was upset, he-!" tears welled up from her eyes once more as she charged towards the negafael, "He would never do something stupid like that! I'll make you give him back!"
"Just as I thought..." the woman said, continuously calm even as the spear tip came ever closer to her, "You call him a friend yet you have no inhibitions about harming his body at all. What did I tell you, Reece?" she seemed to address the last remark to the air around her, "Not even a hint of remorse." the negafael shook her head, "Looks like you leave me no choice, Fay."
Before Faewyn could alter her course, the negafael had brought both wings around herself, following it up by flapping the violently to the side and sending forth a wave of heat that rippled and distorted the air it coursed through, melting the snow packed across the roof into water which immediately cascaded down the steeply angled roof, claiming the girl's footing and sweeping her with it.
Faewyn felt a dull ache course through her body as she slammed down on her left side, rolling helplessly down with the deluge as she attempted to grasp a hold of something. The next thing she knew, she was all out of roof, experiencing the force of gravity pulling her downward with all its might, the sky glinting with stars above her. She attempted to flap her wings, but numbed by the freezing water and bruised by the tumble, they could do little but flap feebly, barely breaking her fall.
Was this it, then? Was this how it was going to end? Would she end up in the same place as mama? Right after she had found a new reason to keep going? What about her friends? Had someone heard the noise? Would someone be there to break her fall? Would they-would they be able to get through to Reece and help him? Would they be able to tell that this was all...her fault?
A fresh batch of tears obscured the figure observing her fall from view, a single word crossing her lips, "Reece..."
The negafael didn't even raise an eyebrow as Faewyn's body suddenly halted in mid-fall, hanging in place like a bizarre marionette, what little chest she had disappearing from view along with her right arm, a thick covering of mist swirling around the spot where the insect wings had once been, soon molding itself into the shape of a pair of majestic angel wings.
"Rather slow reaction, I should think." the woman remarked casually, smirking at the figure who hovered up to roof level again, glaring at her with deep, blue eyes, "For a moment, I almost thought you wouldn't show."
"So sorry to keep you waiting." the fael replied dryly, Wionus gathering around his one remaining arm, "Who are you and what have you done with Sieglinde?!"
"Still those same old questions?" the negafael asked in a bored voice, "The name is Ifalna, if you must know, and I haven't laid a finger on your little girlfriend. Happy?"
"The moment I see you banished to the recess you belong in, negafael."
"Real charmer, aren't you?" Ifalna teased, effortlessly raising the glaive in one hand, Fionus coiling around her body, a decidedly hungry grin on her face as she made a challenging hand gesture towards her opponent, "Well then, do your worst."
In response to the statement, the phantom wings on Isaire's back gave a flap of their own, a roaring whirlwind forming around the negafael, collecting the recently released water within it, the half-formed ice crystals glistening in the starlight as the fael flew straight up, floating just above the reach of the gale before lunging vertically downwards into the eye of the vortex, Wionus-tipped spear first.
A blast whose sheer luminosity would have put an emergency flare to shame erupted on the roof, the sheer noise of the impact rattling the windows of the house and effectively alerting everyone who had somehow managed to miss the struggle thus far.
When the light and smoke cleared, the damage to the roof turned out to be surprisingly small. The tiles had been scorched around the spot where plufael and negafael had clashed, but surprisingly the tiles still clung together, even as the snow had long since evaporated. Standing on the right-hand edge of the roof, Isaire panted, grasping the stump that was his right hand as what little remained of it began dissolving into particles of green mahstion. He was losing power, and quick...but why? Certainly, he hadn't been at full power, but the power should have been returning to him in queue with Sieglinde's wounds healing, not leaving. It made no sense! Unless...a terrible suspicion crept on Isaire, but just then the taunting voice of the negafael interrupted him.
"Is that it?"
Ifalna looked decidedly bored as she stepped out from the veil of smoke and steam that had surrounded her. The arms of the overcoat had burned off and she bore a number of minor abrasions on her skin, but given the force of the attack the wounds should have been far worse, "How boring..." the negafael complained, pretending to pout, "I was almost enjoying myself for a moment there. Don't tell me it's over already..."
Isaire merely glared in response, panting as he coaxed more mahstion out of his reserves and straightened his pose.
Ifalna cocked her head to the side, "Not coming? Oh well..." she gave an indifferent shrug, igniting a flame at the tip of each finger on her right hand, the left still holding the glaive steady, "Looks like I'll have to come for you then." the negafael swung her hand towards her opponent, releasing the flames into the air where they scattered into a formation reminiscent of the tips of a five-point star, each flame blossoming into a tiny fireball as they surrounded Isaire, who immediately countered with another powerful gale which snuffed the flames from existence, only to find the negafael's glaive mere inches from his head as he had finished.
"Pretty good." the negafael conceded as her slash rammed into the tiles of the roof while Isaire took distance from her again, a set of Wionus-induced cuts appearing on her cheek, "Too bad you forgot about the sixth."
It was then that the wave of heat caught Isaire's attention, a last-minute air barrier being the only thing that kept the roaring fireball Ifalna had sent to circle him from inflicting critical damage. The blast was still considerable, however, and knocked the fael onto his back.
Groaning, Isaire struggled to his feet, even as his left index finger took its leave. It was then that the direction of the green mahstion caught his attention, the plufael's eyes widening in realization, "You...you're using-"
"Looks like you finally figured it out." Ifalana said, striding over to her fallen adversary and casually raising the shirt to reveal the lower half of her abdomen, several tendrils of green clearly visible in-between the skin while the mahstion circled around the cuts on her cheek, soon filling them, "Fael healing techinque. Your healing technique, to be specific. Lovely thing, but you've got to be careful where to aim it...doesn't end until it's done you know. Oh well..." she snapped her fingers, a new fireball assembling in her palm, "I suppose you won't be around to benefit from that knowledge. It's been fun, but I do so hate to leave loose ends." a wicked little grin appeared on her face as she released the projectile, "Ta-ta."
OOC: Okay...I think it's random intervention time. Though if you don't feel like it I can always improvise a way to get Faewyn out of this situation. But really, I think it was about time to finish this post. Resolution to come in my next. :3