"Heart Like a Hurricane" [Finn]

[Arvælyn]

"Heart Like a Hurricane"

88 Frost 121 Steel
Continued from here

Vexing as Arry found the cavalier demeanour of Finn's strange acquaintance, he was a bit relieved that the man had drawn up to them. With those starkly luminscent, crystalline wings unfurled he was far more eye catching to potential assailants than either Finn or himself. As the stranger dealt with whatever attention was doubtless directed at him, Arry took the opportunity to pull Finn toward that black smoke. Finn was already on the floor, having just straddled and pummeled one of the enemy combatants and Arry thought it wise to join him, dropping to his knees and crawling- Ever mindful of keeping the human safely at his side.

The alarming sound of gunfire was unfamiliar to the elf of Antiris- Least of all in such abundance, and he winced with each of the many shots fired around them. A more recognisable sound split the air after a moment- That of thunder, and soon a welcome fall of rain began to dissipate the blue-green gas that initiated the onslaught. Unfortunately, the black smoke seemed to be wafting away from them as it did, but he felt a shift as soon as the gas was suppressed enough for him to engage his Runes.

He immediately felt the cacophonous, discordant symphonies crying havoc all around them. There was terror on all sides of whatever dispute had erupted into this conflagration- The raiders were afraid for different reasons than the guests, but it was the latter whose symphonies sounded the loudest. As people ran to and fro to escape the gunfire, Arry's golden eyes were alight with energy as he emitted a commanding energy compelling those nearby to:

"Protect!" His voice sounded like a chorus emphasised directly into the minds of those nearby. Their fear did not dwindle in the slightest, but it was redirected. He projected the overwhelming sense that his and Finn's lives were more important that their own and that they must be defended at all costs. Instead of fleeing, they surrounded the pair- standing between them and the bullets that seemed to fly from every direction.

With a shield of flesh surrounding them, Arry rose and offered to help Finn stand as well, as he squinted to find a point of exit. He could see two equidistant from where they stood, but both were flooded chokepoints where people were being mowed down with abandon. He had little more than a moment to assess before another frightening sound emanated from the general vicinity they'd last seen the royal family making their ill-starred toast. He knew at once it was Talon's voice- the agony inherent in those aetherial tones was heartrending, but more than that- It was flesh-rending to many of those surrounding them. The sounds of gunfire were supplanted by the sound of mortal shrieks of pain and terror as the raiders seemed to explode from within.

His eyes rose as Talon took flight, and widened as he seemed to be struck with something that sent him tumbling from the air. He gripped ahold of Finn's arm, and gestured toward the nearest point of exit.

"Clear a path." He sent a surge of emphasis to the wall of people surrounding them- Reminding their symphonies that Finn and he must be defended at all costs, and urging them to push through anyone who stood between them and their escape from all the chaos. Some of those under his sway were ignoring their own open bullet wounds received in defence of the elf and his beloved- using all of their waning energy to push other guests aside to make way for the object of their compulsion.

In his own, unaugmented voice he spoke into Finn's ear.

"Talon has fallen! We must hie from here in haste!"

[Finn]

In the throes of old trauma, Finn clung to Arry as soon as he was near. It was perhaps a testament to their relationship that he mindlessly followed, trusting the half-elf to help him through the morass of his emotions and the field of bodies and bullets. If he didn't wield his own Rune with such success, he was able to find that sure melody of focus that allowed Arry to make decisions and act, and he incorporated it into his own symphony, self-soothing enough that he could function. Later, he might have misgivings knowing that he would use his magic in such an instinctive manner, but that was a problem for another day.

With perhaps a bit more self-awareness, he caught sight of a blade that looked familiar enough, aligned the slipspace, and hitched it. It blinked out of existence and back into his white-knuckled grip.

"Fuck etiquette," he snarled. "I'm never leaving home without my sword again."

Kalzasi, the shining beacon of civilization, had proven once again it was assailable, even its divine Shinsei fallible. When Arry told him Talon was fallen, he felt a tide of grief and despair threaten him, but could only grip tighter to his sword, to Arry's arm, and to that melody that became a marching song. If Talon was fallen, no power of his could help. But perhaps if they survived, they might rally with the others and figure out something. He didn't even know if the entire city was under attack or if it was merely a surgical strike against the palace.

It occurred to him that he was going to have to devote more of his time and energy into developing his new Rune. While risky, he felt certain he could Vault home from here, but he couldn't leave Arry behind in danger. He wouldn't rest until he knew he could open a portal for both of them to escape the dangers of the world.

[Arvælyn]

By the time their living shield was pushing aside other retreating guests to guide them through an egress, the imminent danger seemed to have passed. Before tumbling from the sky, Talon seemed to have willed the perpetrators of the attack to suffer prompt but painful deaths. He assumed it had been Talon, anyway, since he was a literal divine being and that awe-inspiring power was a terrifyingly potent and precise manoeuvre. He didn't even want to think about how it knew to only explode the bad people and spare the good.

"I think the etiquette went out the window when the bullets started flying..." Arry conceded, grimly. "And that's fair enough." Once they'd made it through the bottleneck at the exit, people had much more space to disperse and they did so with reckless abandon. With that in mind, Arry shifted the tenor of his compulsion over the group of people surrounding them. Instead of telling their Symphonies that Finn and Arry were all-important, he began to emit the sense that they weren't important at all. They were forgettable, even. And with that descant inserted into the greater movement, they quickly fled in sundry directions- Some suddenly aware of bullet wounds they'd been neglecting in favour of protecting their quondam master collapsed to the ground. As the aether depleted from his stronger Rune it fed across his body into the opposing wrist, as he attempted to camouflage their escape from the view of any who might still be angling to pick them off.

Arry clung to Finn's wrist and ran with no clear destination. Just... away. There was still an airship above poised to rain down destruction whether through bombardment or its own collision. A skyward glance would inform Arry that the vessel looked to be in passing poor condition, after all.

"I don't know where to go!" He admitted, as they jogged downhill. "I just wanted to get you away from there. Do you need me to soothe you?" Dutifully, even in the midst of panic, he checked in about consent before leaping to use his Craft on Finn.

[Finn]

At least one thread of tension relaxed when Arry released his audience, and then he was blinking at the weave of Arry's glamour. At least, he thought it was his glamour, weak and imperfect, but then it was a new bit of magic and it ought to be enough given the cover of chaos.

"No," he said, "save your strength. This is just going to have to be awful for a while..." But he squeezed Arry's hand, both in thanks and to reassure him. Perhaps he was learning to control his own symphony a bit, self-soothing and emboldening himself in order to get them to safety.

"I don't know if we can quit the palace anytime soon. We can't fly, and flying vehicles might be flying targets right now. Or wait... there are permanent portals if we can..." He paused, gaze swinging hither and thither. "I think they're this way..." And then he was tugging Arry in a new direction. There had been portals that led to private gardens where the royal family spent time together, as well as down to terra firma. Hopefully, the magic-depressing gas hadn't disrupted those. "If we can't get to them, we just have to find a defensible spot. Like behind a heavy door. And if it comes to it and we get separated... just go. I can... blink out of trouble if I have to, so you have to be the priority, all right?"

He hoped Arry wouldn't argue. He hoped his cowardice hadn't been the straw that broke the camel's back and prevented Talon from being victorious. He hoped they wouldn't get separated, but they both had their different magical abilities, each with their own limitations. He just couldn't handle Arry getting hurt on top of everything else today.

[Arvælyn]

Arry's control of the situation was faltering now that he'd acknowledged that he was on unfamiliar ground. At first, his instinct had been to take the lead because he knew that Finn was in distress. Finn's recent brush with violence made the half-elf even more protective than usual. The lad had a self-centred streak, sure, but it was borne not of privilege and comfort, but of looking after number one when no one else would for years. Finn was afforded a special place in his life. Unlike the people he'd just used as a flesh shield, Arry was invested in his survival.

By and by, and without making the conscious choice to give up the reins, it was Finn taking charge of their course. He was more familiar with their surroundings. Arry would never have known about the portals to which Finn referred. He'd never used a portal, and his awareness of their existence was cursory at best. In another scenario, the notion of passing through an arcane gate between distances might have been fun. For now, it just felt necessary.

"But... I don't know where I am. Just... try not to lose me, all right?" The notion of being separated was daunting to say the least. He'd have felt helpless if such were to transpire, though when Arry felt helpless he tended to give himself over to the part of himself that was anything but. Those were the times when Finn seemed to think Arry's was being controlled by his magic more than the other way around. In truth, Arry thought that was an overly generous assumption on the part of the minstrel, but he'd never sought to correct it.

"What does a portal even look like? Is it just a sort of door?" His eyes darted hither and thither, seeking out some sign of their novel destination. "We won't be alone in this idea..." The notion entered his mind and left his mouth concurrently, as he tried to listen through the mayhem for symphonies that were tinged with the hopeful lilt of imminent escape.

[Finn]

Finn brought Arry's hand to his lips and kissed it, showing no signs of letting go any time soon.

"I'm not letting go until we're home," he said. "Maybe not even then..." He blinked, trying to remember the portals so he could describe them. "They're basically just a raised dais with guards. The guards touch a button on their gauntlet and the aether comes up and envelops you and then you're somewhere else." The ones that led to the private spaces of House Novalys were heavily guarded, but the ones that led back into the city weren't unguarded either. They ought to be safe. The guards ought to be holding them for the slough of guests retreating.

He felt Arry reaching out with his powerful gift and began to do the same, trying to use his sense for symphonies to help orient him. It was imperfect, of course, because they weren't a music that reverberated the same way as actual sound, but it helped.

"This way," he said, and tugged Arry along. He was gentle with his leading man, but he led him firmly now that he knew where they were going. It didn't take too many twists and turns to get from where they had been to where the portals were; they were near enough to where air taxis docked long enough to pick up and drop off passengers. Now, of course, they were glutted with fleeing guests.

Finn took a deep breath and reached out with his more modest talent to spread calm. He might have been able to manipulate as Arry could, but...

"Best not to be too aggressive with your Rune," he murmured, just loud enough to be heard over the din. "It's more likely someone will recognize what you're doing and retaliate." Around them, people did start settling into their queues. The immediate danger seemed to have passed, but people were still frightened.

[Arvælyn]

"Sweet boy." Arry tightened his grip on Finn's hand and drew it to his own face to return the warm gesture the human had offered. With those reassurances lodged from both sides, he let their hands fall to hang between them gently clutching one another.

"Do you think the guards will still be attending them or will they have joined the fray?" He realised as soon as the question was out of his mouth that Finn had no way of knowing the answer. He may have known more about the palace than Arry, but he was hardly an expert on the ins and outs of the grounds.

He was relieved for both Finn and himself with the minstrel in control of their escape. For Finn, he was pleased that he'd broken free of the mania that had sent him into a berserk rage against one of their attackers. He seemed altogether lucid, now, and whether or not he felt it, he projected a confidence that mitigated Arry's abject terror into a softer form of fear.

He shot a narrowed glance sidelong to Finn at the critique of his magic use.

"I was just acting on instinct in the moment." He replied sharply, "Like you did when you smashed that sod's head in." In the half-elf's mind that might have put a target on them as much as anything Arry had done by plying his invisible tethers.

"That's why I'm using the new one!" Not that he could do much with it, but he could at least try to make them seem nebulous to the senses of onlookers. "Besides..." He turned his eyes to the front once more and his expression softened,

"I can tell who is susceptible and who isn't."

[Finn]

Finn smiled tightly at the gentle words and the soft lips on his skin. It was a comfort, but he couldn't relax into it. Arry's presence had exacerbated the trauma-fueled rage that had made him attack—he couldn't let something similar to what had happened to him happen to his lover. His presence also helped him level out and focus his intellect on getting them out of this mess and not just his emotional, primal reactions. He could only shrug about where the guards would be. They were disciplined, but he didn't know what the protocols were for something like this. Surely they had heard the commotion, but would they prioritize keeping control of a point of egress or would they prioritize the emergency? Finn didn't know.

"Sorry," he managed. He hadn't intentionally been casting aspersions at Arry's magical intervention, only wanting them to get out without a hitch. He still had his borrowed sword in a white-knuckled grip, though there hadn't been any violence since they quit the original site.

In the end, there were guards at the portals, and they wouldn't let anyone through until someone with authority cleared it. Both Arry and Finn were locals and on the guest list, so when their time came, they were allowed through. Nobody said anything about the sword in Finn's hand. Once on the ground, he didn't want to answer the questions of the coach driver, so he took a page from Arry's book and commanded him to be quiet and take them home. His voice rang strangely in his own ears laced with the power of Mesmer.

And then they were sitting close in the carriage. Finn finally set the sword down, pinned between his knee and the wall of the carriage. His arm went around Arry, protectively at first, and then clutching at him like he was a lifeline. He began to shake.

"I'm sorry... I don't... I don't know what to do."

[Arvælyn]

Waiting on a queue was perhaps the most maddening thing Arry could imagine at the moment. Having just literally fled for their lives- crawling a ground covered with shattered crystal and wine that mingled with blood, then running as fast as they could without breaking the grip that held them together- it was confounding to just stand and wait. Overhead an airship was aflame and descending toward an imminent crash which was, fortunately, in another direction than the one in which they stood. He fidgeted, clinging to Finn's arm until they were finally permitted through and out of the immediate area of danger.

Arry huddled close to him as soon as they were in the coach, squeezing Finn's arm in both of his own and burying his face in the human's shoulder. He knitted his brow and frowned to hear the abject vulnerability in his minstrel's voice.

"Finn." He lifted his head and cupped his beloved's face in his hand, turning it to force eye contact. "You did wonderfully. You are a hero." He leaned forward to press a firm, determined kiss to his cherished lips. "My hero." He emphasised as their lips parted just slightly.

"You didn't let go of me and you got me to safety. If you hadn't been there, I don't know what I would have done... what would have happened to me." He was whispering, close and warm as he leaned his golden brow against Finn's fair forehead.

"I know that was very difficult for you and I'm so very sorry you had to deal, again, with violence so soon after your last brush with..." He stopped himself, eyes welling at the thought of what might have happened. Then his thoughts turned to what actually did.

"What will become of this city, now?"

[Finn]

Finn melted a little around the edges at Arry's kiss and his approval. With the world seeming to descend into chaos, at least there was what they shared between them. He relaxed a bit, though a part of him wondered what became of the man he had attacked—he didn't know whether he wanted him to be alive or dead, or what it would say about him either way.

"I don't know," he admitted. "People have been talking about war off and on, I suppose I never thought anything would actually happen, but this could be it... The council will have to elect a new Shokaze. I don't think they will wait to see if Talon survives. I don't think they can if we are going to war." He paused.

"I just want to go home and... I don't know, push something heavy in front of the door. People will panic. There might be riots or something... Do you... Do you want to go to the theater instead?" He knew that Arry had at least one person there he cared about and Finn didn't want his craven reaction to all of this to keep his beloved from the other people he cared about. Especially if that other person had information they didn't, or a plan to evacuate the city. A part of him wanted to bundle Arry up and take him out to the country to stay with his parents for a while, farther from danger, thinking there would be no reason for violence to break out at a place with no strategic value.

"Whatever happens, I'll stick with you."

His arm tightened around Arry, and he sought to hold his hand.

Knowing Talon personally, there was another layer of awful to this whole experience. The prince had seemed to be a promise for another just Shokaze and divine protection for Kalzasi against the ever-present dangers of Ransera, but now that was gone. Now his friend was gone and he hadn't the first idea how he might do anything about that. The powerlessness reminded him of the previous season's trauma as well.