Rheagn's Fairy Circle

The xenon female had been in front of him in a flash.

Now laid to sleep before him among the scattered dead on the canyon floor, dosed by his bouquet of Lunir’s lilies, the xenon was still nothing short of divine strength. Four muscular arms, two sharp as a needle point weapons, and a face bearing a nasty snarl only a moment before he’d smacked the lilies in her face. With skin as blue as the deepest depths of the sea and long, straight hair gleaming an even deeper hue of blue, she’d been like a tsunami rearing to strike.

Dropping his netting of gore, Li only allowed himself a moment to survey her before hefting her incapacitated body over his shoulder. He reached around to unhook a thin, metal disc from its strap on his lower back and with a flick of Li’s wrist, the contraption went flying. The disc expanded as it spun in the air, before coming down to a low hover over the canyon floor. Li laid the female down onto the expanded disc and pulled some spare sea twine from his pack to tie both pairs of the female’s wrists together, as well as her ankles. The sea twine was useful for its nullifying abilities but Li was slightly concerned the material wouldn’t work the same with this new being in front of him. Though his concentrated sea twine netting had worked – glowing blue as it had contained her – he wasn’t sure what the raw material would do. The sea twine seemed to glow lightly against her skin as he finished his knots. That small confirmation calmed Li’s apprehension only slightly. Nevertheless, after watching the xenon take down the pirates, he didn’t want to take any chances.

She’d been like lightning, as he’d watched her attack the group of males with both her maw and those needlepoint appendages. But her onslaught of fury had seemed too brazen and if not for the speed of her skills, she may not have had such an easy time taking the group down. 

Her techniques had felt far too bold for Li’s taste. Too much vengeance. She had relished in those kills and though Li might’ve brought the pirates to the same end, he never reminisced. Killing was something which had to be done for survival nowadeys and even when killing in vengeance, Li took that life with the intent of ending a destructive cycle. If he had to be a part of the cycle to end it, then so be it. That was his own sacrifice.

Studying her now, the female xenon seemed so at peace dozing in Lunir’s realm. He scanned her for any serious injuries. Other than a few scratches and nicks here and there, she seemed to come out of her pirate scourge with minimal harm. The sleeveless dress she wore however, was torn terribly at the bottom and around her neck. With further inspection, the dress’s fabric seemed incredibly thin; So thin, the plain white dress left very little to the imagination. But it was a streak of black ink on the inside of the female’s leg that caught Li’s eye. He gently twisted her foot so the ink faced towards him.

There was a finger-length tattoo just above the female’s ankle which only read ‘KITT’. It was rare for Li to see tattoos on others since the Scourge, let alone a xenon. Where he’d grown up the art of inking one’s skin was common, even celebrated within his people’s culture. In his hundred aeons of living, he’d seen more tattoos than he could recall but the ones he did remember always brought a sort of quiet peace to him. 

Li had not seen almost any ink upon one’s skin since the Overlorde arrived; all of his own people long gone. So Li’s own ink pieces remained hidden beneath dark fabric. But something about this tattoo gave him a sinking dread in his gut. There was a feeling he got from the tattoo, that perhaps the piece had not been given to the female consensually, nor was the ink for artistic purposes like he’d been used to seeing. Tearing a thick strip off of a square of dried seaweed from inside his pack, Li wrapped the strip around the female’s ankle, covering the small ink piece entirely.

Once the strip was tied on, Li gently set the female’s foot back down onto the disc. But his eyes flitted unconsciously over to a tear in her dress, which went up so far he could see a peak of shining silver metal against the female’s body. Ever so gently, Li rolled the female over to get a better look at her back. That’s when he saw the long, metallic mechanism which seemed to be installed along the entirety of the female’s spine. From the middle of her neck to just above her bottom, the metal seemed to breathe as the female did. Li guessed the metal would have to be malleable enough to move as a spine naturally would and he got his confirmation after applying some pressure to the mechanism. The metal-like material felt to be a mixture between the smooth steel of a finely crafted sword and rubber. From further inspection along the device, he found two small holes on either side of the mechanism, around the area he’d seen the female’s appendages come from during the fight. The mechanism must’ve housed those needle-point weapons as well as allowed her to contort her body the way she had while dodging the pirates. 

Li swung his pack to the front of him and dug for something he could use to keep those appendages from coming out and causing him trouble. His fingers drifted over cold metal at the bottom of the pack and it was as if his heart ripped out of his chest right there. He knew what it was before he pulled the piece from the depths of his pack. 

Anela’s breastplate shown a beautiful, bold crimson in the deylight, so stark against the beige and brown canyon rock. This armor had been his favorite of the Moakyn armies and rightly so. He always believed the females deserved the best armor; the most visually stunning as well as the most maneuverable and protective. Just this armor piece alone covered the entirety of the female’s torso and had a high enough neckline to come up mid-throat. The armor was forged from volcanic steel, the material harvested from one of Kilnar’s volcanic peaks. The specialty steel made this armor entirely impenetrable. From both the inside and outside. 

He’d been holding onto Anela’s breastplate specifically for when he rescued her. Brought her back to the Isles of Kilnar with him. Rebuilt their home together. 

With a shaky exhale, Li began to strap the breastplate onto the xenon female. He had to situate a few different strappings and between the female’s extra set of arms and the mechanism along her spine, the armor’s fit wasn’t perfect in any way. But once Li finished the final strapping, he was sure this was the only way. The breastplate would keep those needle-point appendages from making an appearance as well as keep her safe from any outside danger. He had no doubt they’d run into more extreme threats than the pirates. Li rose to a stand, admiring the female in the Moakyn armor. The brilliant red, to his surprise, complemented her blue complexion quite well.

Clamping down on his river of thought, Li looked away from the xenon entirely. He was only making use of the armor until Anela was with him to wear it. 

With the xenon thoroughly detained, he turned his focus to his netting, which lay in a heap of blood and gore only a few steps away. He wanted to clean it before folding it back up to hook onto its place on his belt, but had no desire to waste his drinking water on the task. His first instinct was to burn it, but that felt like a waste of a perfectly good net.

Li made his way to the closest deceased pirate; one of the more unfortunate ones, whose throat had been torn out by the xenon. He ignored the blonde pirate head hanging onto its body by red tendrils and began raiding the body for anything of use. He repeated the process with all of the deceased pirates scattered around the canyon clearing. A little over a dozen bodies and all Li could find of use was a few rolls of sea twine (stolen from him, initially, he was simply taking them back), two now-empy leather packs – one small, the other about the same size as the one he carried now – and a few jerky sticks at the bottom of a rather rotund pirate’s pack. He didn’t trust to drink from any of the pirate’s canteens. He had no way of knowing the specific dynamics of the group but pirates nowadeys were popular for their use of poison. Li had no desire getting caught in the middle of some dead pirates’ feud nor spending the rest of the precious deylight on finding poison remedies nearby. And when it came to foraging plant-based remedies, he knew he’d come up empty handed. There was little vegetation on the land anymore, let alone any specific remedy he’d need. 

But thoughts of poison had Li glancing over at the skinned male to his left. Li’s blood still boiled just at the sight of him. Jakul had been one of the Overlorde’s many tyrants and that tyranny had spread for far longer than Li would’ve liked. He’d been after the horrendous male for some time but unfortunately, it had been Pya’s plan who’d brought him close enough.

It was her idea initially; if all went to plan, it’d end in a win for them both. Pya would fabricate a scenario ending in her capture; intent on finding out as much insider information as she could, before Li showed up and brought an end to the ruse. Particularly, she planned on bonding with Jakul as much as she possibly could. Li had hated that part the moment he heard it. The part where Pya had been only sixteen aeons of age, quieted none of his concerns. She had really tried, though. She expressed to him that she thought herself capable and even stressed to him on the importance of this part of the plan.

When the Overlorde chooses to enter someone new into his Thaumatagis, he entrusts them with one of his many artifacts. Every artifact is stolen; either from species long extinct because of him or from the small collectives of species, still getting by with the scraps he left for them. The Overlorde entrusted Jakul with the Bangle of Raheeli; an ancient relic for Pya’s people, the Dunian fae. Pya did some digging around, asking people around the makeshift town they’d stopped at, and found out Jakul had thought the bangle ‘worthless’ and ‘looked more like a piece one of his whore’s would want’. 

So he’d stashed the artifact away somewhere. A place only he knew.

Pya thought she could figure out exactly where, before Li caught up and brought havoc down upon the base. The Shadows could mark every spot of shade she entered or touch, creating a clear path for Li to follow. A path leading straight into the pirates base and to her. And if she had to take matters into her own hands before Li arrived, she had put a hand on his shoulder, told him with the utmost certainty, “You’ve seen the beast I contain. I can simply unleash myself. And tear them all apart.”

The plan had seemed perfect. Except, Li guessed one of the pirates overheard them talking details or asking around about the group, and put enough together to know the pirates needed to be the first to attack. The morning after their plan was made, Li awoke to his sea twine netting gone and Pya’s bedroll empty. He still had no idea how he’d not awoken, but Li would never forgive himself for allowing her to be taken so easily. He felt a stab of guilt knowing it was his netting she was captured with and with it, the netting nullified that beast within. 

From the look of Jakul’s skinned body, Li saw no bangle. Finally stepping over to take care of his netting, Li went to work detangling the mash of twine. He discarded the pieces of flesh and gore onto the canyon floor, quickly becoming a decent sized pile at his feet. He was searching for a sturdy piece, something that wouldn’t give way when he grabbed at it. But with no luck, Li only finished removing the rest of the gore and flesh from the netting. Then, he went on to fold up the bloodied net as best he could before shoving the messy bundle into the smaller sack he’d raided and emptied. He tied the sack closed before putting the sack inside the larger of the two packs he’d raided. Once he was able to clean the netting, he would discard the smaller sack and give the larger one to the xenon. 

He believed everyone deserved the right to have items which were personal to just them. Even if it’s only the pack itself for a long while. His own had been the same for many aeons before deciding to always keep a bouquet of flowers with him. A token to remind him of his mother; specifically lilacs. But Li took what he could find these deys and he’d found any floral scent could spark the ache that came with the memory of his mother.

Swinging the new pack over one shoulder, he brought his own pack around once more and dug for a fist sized stone. The round, smooth stone glowed bright green as he pulled it from his pack. Taking it in both hands, Li twisted the stone in opposite directions, allowing him to separate it into two halves. He placed one piece back inside of his pack and stuck the other on the underside of the hovering metal disc. 

Swinging his pack back around onto the shoulder opposite of the xenon’s pack, Li tapped into those Shadows once more, letting them scan their way through the rocky maze. Even once the path out was made clear to him, Li kept the Shadows close, keeping them scouting for any potential conflicts ahead. The female would most likely wake a little before dusk. Thankfully, he still had Pya’s bedroll for when Lunir’s nite fell. He was just giving everything away to an arbitrary xenon female. All he could hope was she would be worth all the trouble.

With one final glance back at the detained xenon, Li took off for the canyon’s exit, the metal disc trailing close behind.