INT - Windgrace Manor Hall and Ritual Room to EXT - Windgrace Manor Verandah
Dorian's sister had gone to do her thing in the hidden ritual room, which required a minder to wait outside. This meant that Dorian had with him his own journal and was scribbling just outside. He'd also brought a book of poetry he planned to read though he knew much of Wyatt's work inside and out without reading it. He also had left a pile of crumbs and a few pear cores from the snack he'd eaten out there. And last but not least a long emptied cup of ale. As was his usual when performing this duty, he needed distraction so he did not try to reach out to Dinah through their native bond. It was one time that he needed to mind that bridge. Worry told him to do otherwise, but instead he sat himself down unceremoniously in the hallway and would be accounted eclectic as wealth was wont to do. He read and wrote and munched by the bookcase.
Dinah had told the pirate that curses were no problem for her. She knew exactly what she was doing, after all. The rest of the magical items had been identified and logged, categorized in her grimoire as 'family treasure', but the necklace...the talisman.... that one was harder to pin down.
She was fairly sure that she had an idea that it was a curse that was respective that would only be when she was wearing it. It didn't *Seem* to be the sort of thing to stick around her throat when she tried it on. She had ritually cleansed herself, she had readied herself, preparing the wards. Protect herself...and she lifted the black metal skull with the emerald in its teeth to snap around her throat.
At first, she felt no different. She frowned, making a little note in the grimoire, but her hands were trembling. Frowning, she set the pencil down. Her skin seemed... colder. She seemed... empty. Hollowed out, like something was scraping away at her from inside. Scrape by scrape by...
this wasn't the normal sort of Dark that she dealt with. Di drew a deep breath that was simultaneously smothering, and she felt it *tugging*, hungrily reaching out to siphon just a little energy from every living thing in the immediate vicinity. oh, it was hungry. so hungry..
Dorian waited his long wait, sitting in a hall whose chandelier he'd counted every light upon, every wooden rung in the banister had been counted, studied for sturdiness and polish. The artwork admired, remembered from its first origins. It was a strange thing, trying not to feel for Dinah, and left him hollowed from his own lack of usual behavior, always pinging her in case she had need of him.
In recent days he'd been idler than his start on the isle, but without shop duty, he'd still done his morning rides, predawn, gone to the docks to help with loading, ships or aether. There was always business to chip in on. He'd been spending an inordinate amount of time thinking about Charles when outside his siblings' company. His voice would ever be in Dorian's head, someone to argue with, to try and prove wrong. Dancing, drink, Dinah, Drystan and Delilah helped with that. And Dockwork. And Irene, his beloved philly. And sometimes a verse by Wyatt that he'd need to take note of, it rang somehow differently in this moment;
[They flee from me that sometime did me seek
With naked foot, stalking in my chamber.
I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek,
That now are wild and do not remember
That sometime they put themself in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range,
Busily seeking with a continual change.]
Dinah was wrestling whatever it was that inhabited the necklace. it was quite a thing for her to not be in control of magic; whatever it was *inside* it was a wilful, living thing, fighting her for control. It was hungry, and she could feel it wanting to creep from her in pulsing waves, to drain as much as it could. It wanted to eat, to devour, to rot everything. It wanted her to want it too, to use her hands to wither and spoil...
The plants in her ritual room started to mold and bend, turning to greying mush.
Di turned it inwards, fighting it to feed on *her* instead, letting it send it's icy fingers down her spine and probe into her internal organs. With shaking hands, she wrenched the necklace off around her throat and hurled it at the center of her ritual circle, stumbling from it to collapse by the door and she *shrieked* for her brother.
Dorian leapt up, sweeping his things into a wallside pile the moment he heard her voice. He'd move the bookcase, too heavy for mortal hands, like it was nothing, more than the books he'd swept aside. Then he'd venture to swing open the door, and was fully planning on stepping inside the room, seeking to set his eyes upon his sister. It was not his usual to do more than that, already stepping in with his bare foot was uncommon. Drystan and Dinah were the magical ones, and his mind was not meant for fighting the maddening things they faces with such regularity. That caused the momentary hesitation at the threshold before he'd seek to wrap his arms around her and saying nothing open himself mentally to her to make sure she seemed like his sister, and not some worst case scenario he'd need to contain until he could call big brother.
Dinah was trying to regain her senses, trying to ascertain that her consciousness was her own and free from the presence of that...contamination that she had felt. The sickly sweet smell of sickness and rot hung about her, and though she hadn't noticed it yet, the colour had been rotted out of her hair.
"Dorian!!" her voice was rattled and hoarse as she called again the second time as he burst in through the door and she reached for him, limbs feeble beneath her. She looked *ill*, a greyish pallor on her skin and hollows in her eyes and cheeks. "dori..Help me"
Dorian noticed her hair colour almost as an afterthought, because he went to her naturally, his other half. But his wide eyes when he reached her might betray that she looked... startling. The pallor was more noted than the hai's new shade, and he'd lift her in his arms, and against his better judgment, make to carry her out of the room. "I am here, beloved. We are together. Shall we get ourselves into the sunlight?" Concern rang through the low tones of his voice, past the astonished wide silver eyes, it was his first best thought, to get her out into the light so her hair could catch it's shade again. And it's light dance upon her skin. He just needed verbal consent to leave the room.
Dinah reached to wrap leaden-feeling arms around his neck and she buried herself against him, pressing herself to his chest. "...yes" was uttered in a husky whisper. She closed her eyes, trembling against him. She remembered how it had felt when she was mortal, even as a child she remembered the fever-sensation of sickness. Feeling like her limbs weighed a ton, even if her frame was light against him.
"s-sunlight. yes." light and warmth. Something to help fight the sucking coldness she'd felt from inside her. She lifted a trembling finger, pointing to where the macabre necklace lay abandoned in the middle of her ritual circle. "...d-demon" she husked out eventually
Dorian looked where she pointed, scooping her up to take her out of the place. She seemed like his twin, inside, despite not looking so much like her. So he trusted his gut, and striding from the room without another backward glance, he'd shove the bookcase back in the way with a kick which shuddered glass and tomes inside. She'd feel how warm he was by comparison, he ran hot, his aged spirit, like his youthful one was vibrant and pumped through an athlete's form. He'd bring his sister to the verandah, and seek to set her upon a reclining chair, then kneel at her side, holding her close as he could. He did not speak on the way, just sang, an old song one he'd sung to her before, though he was no professional:
"This sweet and merry month of May,
While Nature wantons in her prime,
And birds do sing, and beasts do play
For pleasure of the joyful time,
I choose the first for holiday,
And greet fair Dinah with a rhyme:
O beauteous Queen of second Troy,
Take well in worth a simple toy."
He could carry a tune almost as well as he carried his sister, music did touch his soul deeply, afterall. Questions could come after she was alright.
Dinah already felt better by being near to him and she sniffled a little as she cling to his chest. She reached for him as they sat in the sun and she drew in a fresh, clean breath that didn't taste of rot and sourness.
"Demon" she mumbled again, flopping herself flat against the recliner, reaching for his hand and pulling it close to tuck underneath her cheek. Her breathing had steadied, at least, and the clamminess of fever was subsiding steadily. She still felt enfeebled though, and she gave his hand a trembling squeeze, watery eyes opening to watch him as he sang for her.
Dorian was easily pulled to hold her face, and he entangled his leg with hers to anchor her to him as well. He'd be studying her visage with worry plain as his hair was yet yellow, and he'd not speak to it, only to what worried her, "Demon, back there? Shall I go stamp the thing to bits? Does it yet have some hold on you that must be broken?" He didn't have to say that she usually did not need help. He could count the times she needed aiding by him in her otherworldly endeavors on one hand.
The spring sun was steady and shone on them both, easily piercing the coastal breeze's mistiness.
Dinah closed her eyes at his words and she shook her head. "no" she murmured "no..." she added to his second question and she burrowed her face against his shirt. "...the talisman has a demon in it. He said it was cursed.. i was... i was prepared for curses, but not a demon" she spoke softly, her words a whisper. "...it was hungry. so hungry. but powerful. it wanted to reach out and eat and eat and..." she trailed off again and rested her cheek against his chest.
"..I was reckless" she admitted begrudgingly. "...unprepared" she amended herself in a mutter. "it is powerful though. I could feel it."
Dorian cuddled her close to his bare warm skin, donning only Japanese silk robe and pyjama pants. He'd sit silently and think on what she'd said, then he'd look into her eyes probing mentally, with one question in his silent voice, ['Are you sure?']
He liked slaying dragons and thought demons weren't much different than that. His main interaction with enemies or foes was to smash or slash them. It was foolproof. Unless one was dealing with magical things. He'd say aloud, "You are so strong." What he meant was she did not normally need help. His large warm hands stayed upon her face, the other upon her dress-clad hip.
Dinah felt the mental probing and for half a moment she was tense. When it was
Dorian and not the sensation of the demon again she nodded "I feel queasy and weak but... I am fine. I think" she confirmed, wrapping her arms around his middle.
"... i wasn't expecting a demon" she added in quiet laugh. "...next time... i will be more prepared. it definitely felt... very powerful. the magic in it was...corruption. Either way, that is not the sort of thing I want for people to have" she opened her eyes, looking up to his face.
"I got a lot of things. A present for Irene, too. Horseshoes. magical ones. and magic rings. and a little crab robot..."
Dorian: "What do you mean you GOT these things? What did Dashrix have an estate sale?" He was trying to lighten the mood, show her he understood what needed doing was not his brand of security. He did not push past her mental barriers anymore than usual, which meant that she might read someone among his thoughts that he was bursting with not telling her about her hair colour. Afterall, she was still beautiful. And importantly she seemed whole and well or on the way to it.
Dinah chuckled quietly and she shook her head. "...the pirates" she explained almost sheepishly "have been running their mouth about there being magical treasures there. So I went to see. I got them. One of their crewmen was a snake-man who was pacted to the captain." she trailed off "...he said they have a golden mermaid in there. I will go back for her soon... but I broke the pact. and the snake told me what to take. he warned me the necklace was cursed but not how" she sighed, wearily sinking into the cushion again. "...the storm was me. Or.. sort of. I told the old gods."
Dorian knew he hadn't heard aright. And his vexation showed what he meant when he burst back in answer, tugging on her dark hair with the hand near her cheek, "I am certain I have not heard you correctly. Love, I did not think you even liked my navy stories so well.... so well as to go onboard without so much as a word to someone who knows that you cannot trust pirates. Not ever. Beloved, they are irascible, unscrupulous brigands. And not like your horse."
The next breath he took calmed him and he'd append, "Though, who am I to tell you what to do? I am not your fa- I would not seek to restrict you, but Diiiiiiiiiiiii...." He was petulant that she'd done so, though he knew with his better self that she was more than capable of protecting herself... most of the time.
Dinah laughed quietly and she forced herself to sit upright, tilting her head back uppwards to face the sun.
"I hadn't expected to go and do all that. I was just going to swipe a piece of interesting shiny bauble and hope for something fun. But then the snake wanted freeing and he told me he would show me what to collect" she placed a hand upon his chest "And I knew if i told you I was going to go and mess with the pirates you'd have come too and waded out in blood after the fact." she pointed out "I was in no danger. I could have just jumped into the sea had it been too dangerous for me"
Dorian chuckled in turn, watching her stretch into the sun. "Fair play to you, you are right. I think I just had a thought too large for mine own mind... but Dinah.... if the pirates have a mermaid and the academy does... would they not try to capture and hold the old ones too, Snow White?" He was shaking his head at what his sister had done, and knew she was right, knew she was alright. Surely in some moments the sun would wash away the dark hair as it had the pale cast of her skin.
Dinah frowned at the thought of the academy mermaid "I don't care about the one in the academy." she said sorely, but she paused, looking at him quizzically "...snow white?" she echoed "I don't recall her stealing from pirates in her story..?" she turned to look towards the ship "the captain apparently has one and he's keeping her as booty. I don't like that thought." she murmured.
Dorian: "Shall we plan an extraction? You and me? Perhaps we get Drystan and Lilah involved? I am sure we could... but you have not seen, have you? Look. Look with my eyes." He'd seek to lock eyes with her and let her see from his perspective what she looked like. An image of a fair beauty, the fairest of earthbound goddesses, made fairer by contrast to the ravenblack hair. Knowing his sister's vanity was no smaller than his own he did endeavor to go about it calmly. The untwinning of her new plumage.
Dinah wrinkled her nose and she hummed "I'm not sure. the snake told me he didnt want the captain dead and I am quite sure that we would be very good with not doing that" she admitted shyly. She frowned somewhat worriedly though when he mentioned her not having 'seen' and she reached out towards his mind, reaching to see through his eyes and...
she screamed, recoiling backwards from him and landing with a thump on the decking beneath her, hands reaching to grab clumps of blackened hair,
"Wh-what...what is this?! It's *HIDEOUS*!! i'm *HIDEOUS!!*" she wailed, covering her face in her hands. "Dorian it's awful, it's so awful!"
Dorian did not address the thing about her hair once he'd failed to catch her from scrambling away, instead, he'd lead with thh other topic. "What is it with us and serpents lately. Roesler, the butler, now this....? All we need now is for Lilah to come home with a serpent entanglement. Please, be calm my love, no no, you are not hideous."
He could not help that he laughed just a tiny bit, because she was so wrong, and so alarmed about this, more than the demon or the pirates or the eldritch matters she daily navigated. But he straightened out his face and explained, "It is rather fetching I think. Shall I darken mine too? Would that make you feel better? I am not certain I would wear it as well-- hahahaha"
His hand came up and clamped over his mouth, leaving the other to reach for her to help her back onto the chaise.
Dinah was sobbing behind her hand, full on shoulder-shaking boo-hooing "it looks awwful, I look *awful*!" she wailed, clutching her face. "I should have just let that demon eat me! why didn't you tell me before now?!" she cried into her hands, though as he laughed, she reached her hand out to telekinetically snatch the pillow from the recliner and bash him with it, even though she meant that he hadn't meant it maliciously, she was easily dragged back up onto the chaise, still sobbing.
Dorian fended off the pillow with the arm that wasn't heaving her up. This meant he got bashed a few times in the face while helping her back to her seat. After a minute a large dexterous hand would seek to grasp the thing to stop it where it moved. This was not even a strange enough occurrence in his world to marvel at, not at this moment. He'd cuddle himself very close, in fact put his face between her and the chair back to whisper to her, and hide from cushion assault, clinging close like they did in the womb. His voice would get to her that way though she sobbed, "You are beautiful, Dinah. Most beautiful. I would see you grey or green haired before I would let a demon eat you. Maybe with green hair... hahahaha. I am sorry, love, truly, truly, you are still beautiful. You look like...."
He had no words, whispered nor otherwise to say what she looked like. But he could tack on with unforeseen grace, "...your hair now matches your stars. Like a goddess."
Dinah was still sniffling and crying as he pulled her back to his lap and she wailed again, though as he kept teasing her she grabbed the pillow with her physical hand instead and battered at him again. "you're lying, you're just trying to make me feel better, it looks awful!" she sobbed, pausing to bury her face against the pillow to wipe her tears and nose. She sniffled again, giving him a reproachful look over the top of the cushion.
"I should just cut it all off. Cut it all off and wear a wig." she whined.
Dorian put up his knuckle to his brow in a naval salute as he averred and avowed, "On my--" he ducked a pillow bash then went on, "--honour as an Englishman," again with the bashing, "I swear to you this day that you are ever as-beautiful-as-you-were." He spoke that last quickly and with an arm covering his yet yellow head he'd speak below it, giving his voice a hollower tone projecting under that arm against the chairback. "That different is not bad. Think on it, my love."
He'd stay with his head bent, almost to her bosom and kiss black spilling tresses as proof, and then speak ot them, "Have you not been on a change inducing journey all along? I cannot lie to you and you KNOW IT!"
It was true, if she searched him, he still thought she was the most desirable thing in all creation. He managed another bit of proof, "I like you in dark colours, remember?"
Dinah stopped her pillow onslaught with a whine, and she pouted at him over the top "...it looks ugly" she sulked, only minorly appeased by the sensation that he was right, that she had not diminished in his view even fi she had in her own. She sniffled again and reached for him and she flopped against his side. "...we don't look alike anymore" she mumbled sorely, wiping her eyes on his robe.
Dorian would never stop her from quenching tears on silk he donned. He'd give all the skeins of silk in the world to stop her tears if that was what it took. He would, upon comprehending her true distress, stop being a brother about it, in one way, no longer teasing, but he would argue, "It does not look ugly. And anyway, I can tell people when we are abroad together that you are my French mistress Sabina of the Pyrenees, and no one will look askance at me for kissing you as I wish." It could be a win, the way his prurient mind took it, naturally. They didn't look so much alike anymore. But the careful eye would note the same silver on both faces about the eyes.
Dinah finally quelled her sniffles though she remained clutching to his robe, burying her face against him again. "...sabina is a prettier name than dinah" she conceded "...but *french*, dorian? truly?" she gave him another sulk, though she cuddled close against him.
"...we will need to be careful with that talisman. I think I shall definitely want to keep it." she trailed her fingertips over his chest. "...there are horseshoes there. did I tell you? magical horseshoes. For irene" she wiped her eyes on the back of her hand again, reaching to look at the black locks in her grip with distaste "...such an ugly colour"
Dorian chortled, and immediately balked, "There is no lovelier name than Dinah. The Hebrews' answer to Diana. As close as they'd let a woman come to being a goddess, I suppose. Dinah is finer than any name I know. Dinah whose hair defies black to the crow! For the colour is fine, radiant when thine, and uh.... the Greeks would call it wine-dark. It is almost purple in this light." He hoped that was helpful, his stupid clumsy rhyme made up on the spot when he ran out of better things to say and went for it, both brows trying to reach their golden arcs up to the flop of golden curls that made up his own now fairer mane.
Dinah shook her head in protest once more though she sighed, sitting upright to run her hands through her hair "I dont *want* wine dark hair" she sulked petulantly, but she sighed "...i still think sabina is prettier than Dinah. maybe if we have to move again, I shall calll myself sabina" she clutched her hair in her fingers, peering through it towards him.
"...you are sure it isnt ugly?" she asked hesitantly "...you arent just saying that to be kind?" she reacched out to touch his own golden curls, curling her fingers in it.
Dorian put an arm around her, while she was curling fingers in his hair, holding her very near, and nuzzled the dark hair as he would have and had done the golden or stark white of her head in the past. He'd lace a leg through hers again while they had this stolen moment of no gazes upon them. And then he'd answer her, "I am not saying it to be kind. You look like a fairytale princess now, instead of the golden goddess. It does match your stars, and it catches, bends light in a way I am sure I shall fall entirely in love with." Sabina had been the first name he'd come up with, and thus he on reflection japed, "Would Italian have been better? It suits Sabina, but I think somehow you'd like that just the same as French. Greek, that's the one. Then if I fumble and call you Dinah I can explain it away as Diana, because obviously you're my twin goddess."
He was not scared anymore, now that she had gifts and explained how it all had happened. THe house didn't seem to be getting sucked into a vortex behind them or anything. So clearly it was a perfect time to unfurl imagined futures where no one knew them to be siblings and they might... some day marry.
Dinah didn't resist as he cradled her close and she rested her cheek against his shoulder. she sighed wearily, but she nodded, chuckling softly. "...a fairytale princess. I suppose I might have a few dresses like that?" she chuckled. She begrudgingly peered at her hair again and she sighed. "...i suppose it does match my stars" she mumbled, but she smiled faintly again. "I think I wouldn't suit the accent for any of them, don't you think? I would do terribly at the accents for any of them but mine own" she looked back towards the house and she touched her brow, sliding out of his grip to stretch and taking a few deep breaths "it's.. i'm feeling a little better, but i still felt so weak when i wore that talisman. i'm glad you were behind the door, dorian darling" she pulled a face "...i think i killed my plants though"
Dorian: "Let's get you something to eat, and then we shall look for new plants, hm? A walk will do us both some good, and we can hold hands," He'd wriggle his brows up and down, before explaining, "Keiko made this thing, this amazing thing. It is all of these crepes with this matcha creme between them. It is sweetish and almost fitting for a princess. The raspberries are just the piece de resistance. Come, come, you can try your accents." He did in fact leave her little choice, pulling her up into his arms in a bridal carry.
Dinah sniffled once more and she nodded sulkily, wrapping her arms around his neck as he promised her cake, and being carried. "...i do like raspberries" she admitted quietly, pressing a kiss to his neck. They could definitely get plants afterwards, though she'd still feel a little shaky and she gave him another little squeeze. "...thank you Dori"
Dorian: "Don't thank me, Dinah, kiss me for the gods' sakes." He had to answer before he'd press his face in for a smooch to her lips while carrying her to her room.
Even if she was shaky, he'd be there to help her at every step. His most sacred purpose. For once in a long time he'd not feel useless by comparison.