Recuperatio [Khyan]

[Finn]

The bard could hear the racing of Khyan's heartbeat as it thrummed through his symphony. It was a disjointed, dissonnant jangle of nerves jittering through his aether. Even without that, he could see tics and twitching, a face full of dread. It reminded him of the last time Finn had been grievously injured and his friend Torin had gone into a seasons-long depression. That, he now knew, had been the work of Arvælyn's Mesmer used to punish the one he thought responsible for the loss of his former lover, if not for the injury done to his current one. This, however, seemed more subtle, more studied, and he could only imagine it would require a great deal more time and effort in order to help the servus learn to regulate his own emotions without using magic as a crutch.

Finn frowned. He put a well-muscled arm around slender shoulders and held him close. While he didn't want to regulate his friend's emotions for him, he knew the look in his eyes. He had seen it in the eyes of men coming into the tavern for a drink that they needed more than they wanted. This was all too much to deal with on top of recuperating from such a dire wound.

First, he was humming. Then, gently rocking the man. Finn recalled his childhood, helping tend to his younger siblings. Tendrils of his aether crept into Khyan's aura, gently nudging him toward calm as he began to sing a country lullaby. He wouldn't urge him to sleep even if the lyrics did, though he supposed Khyan might fall asleep from the relief. If he didn't have both hands to hold an instrument, he still had his voice, and that too was exploring new things here in Solunarium. One might imagine that he was even harmonizing with himself if that was possible.

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[Khyan Nykara]

As Finn obliged and imparted ætheric energies to assuage the breadth of Khyan's panicked emotions, the relief was instantaneous. Finn's ministrations felt nothing like those of his dominus, but the sense of his feelings being in the hands of another was all he needed to at least cease his hyperventilating. It was so much easier, he felt, to forfeit the responsibility of his emotions to someone else... someone more objective, who might manage them without the frantic feelings that tended to tug at his edges when he was left to his own devices.

"That's it..." He whispered through a sigh.

After a time, Khyan was able to take note of the distinction between Finn's softer sort of soothing and that of Æros. The feelings Finn imparted were less familiar to Khyan, whose upbringing had been more closely aligned with that of Æros. The song he hummed and the sensations associated with it felt rather like one of the stories the arcane storytellers would offer... Remote, but charming. Quaint had never been a word to which Khyan held any affinity, but this felt fondly so and he found he liked it.

"I... would be grateful if you told him, but I feel like I should be there. You shouldn't brook the full brunt of it." Apparently he'd been sufficiently soothed that he could once again focus on the more practical concerns beyond 'Quiet my mind!', which had been his sole, emphatic concern moments earlier.

"Whatever the case, I now feel that we can both weather whatever storm this yields." He relaxed back and let his eyelids droop over his dark irises. "Now then... I wonder what this means, really... This new bond you've forged with me." He pondered the implications and tried to recall any salient points he'd learnt at the Academia Arcanum.

[Finn]

It helped to remain calm when trying to calm another, whether by arcane or mundane means. Finn was perturbed, however, by what he had done, what had transpired, and what it meant about him as a person as well as his future. It felt right in a much more real sense than his slow assimilation of Solunarian culture. With this power came responsibility. Now he was responsible for Khyan, albeit in an extralegal manner. Aværys had said plainly that the laws, religious and secular, of Solunarium were not entirely in line with his actual desires for his people, but he hadn't sent Finn to break it all down. Render unto Æros what was Æros', though whatever love existed between slave and master didn't seem healthy to him.

The bard found himself torn between his mother's voice telling him to mind his business as any villager of virtue would, and that of his father saying the world needed more kindness. Whether he had done Khyan a kindness in bowing to the will of his divine emblem, he didn't know.

As his friend didn't pull away, Finn kept his arm around his shoulders.

"I will send word to him," he promised. And as for what the bond entailed, "I think it allows me to pull you out of yourself to use your skills and powers. At least, that is what I have read in the Pontifex's library. I haven't tried. I'm not certain I should. The bond could just... exist... if we don't act upon it. Perhaps that will be enough."

Finn might have released Khyan from the bond except Aværys had been so pleased and might not look kindly upon such mutability in his Radiant bard.

"Regardless, I will explain what happened to Æros, take full responsibility, and try to mediate peace so your life isn't unduly complicated by this."

[Finn]

Review

Experience: 10 xp, available for magic.

Injuries: Many much recuperatio.

Loot: +1 thrall for Finn

Note: Sorry this took so long. Pharaoh, you can translate these XP to your new character. RIP, Khyan.