Act 1: And then a Bath

Diem ex Memoria

A silent snarl crossed his features as he saw her wrapped in Calix's arms, but his face quickly went stoic, masking the viscera being rent apart inside him.

Manipulator. Monster. Fiend. And he didn't see the vampire vanish as the shop door was flung open and he stepped inside, eyes perhaps wider and breathing faster and harder than he should have been. "Renna...?" Sudden confusion. Where had the creature gone" Mentally snarling to him....until, something else snarled back in his minds eye"

He was going to feed on her, Kaius....on....me.....he sought to....CONSUME!

Whether actually there, or some byproduct of her blood flowing through his brain....The inner voice assumed a sweet tone he'd heard before when the Manticore had tried to bait him, You wouldn't let that happen....would you....you know....we are not to -BE- consumed.....WE....WILL CONSUME!

And he was shaking his head at something, "No, never....I'll break him..." the words were muttered, his eyes were on her, and the voice he was hearing should be coming from her lips, if at all, but it wasn't! It was....INSIDE HIM.

His hand slipped against a rose bearing table, and he leaned as if the world was turned on its side, spinning before his eyes. "What..." shaking his head, "....just happened here?" and his eyes met her again, filled with confusion that she would be all too familiar with feeling herself, and once again that named slipped, "Renna...?"

"Wait! Calix, please-" Too late, she moved forward to catch nothing but thin air, as she had moved to embrace him. She stumbled forward, and fell onto her knees. She looked back over her shoulder, searching for Calix, but then found nothing. She turned her gaze to the shop door, and then looked to Kaius, as her bottom lip trembled. Her eyes were wide as well, but pain was existing there. Old wounds reopened, her mind, had started to scramble with all the pain and sensations of heartache and now a heavy helping of guilt. She looked down at the ground, when he asked what had happened, and then, she looked back up to Kaius, her head shaking, "....He was hungry. I....I told him how I was used to....Vampires taking blood from me - I didn't mean for him to, take it....I didn't mean from the neck and....I wanted to give him some from the wrist - I didn't mean to, make him think....It's all my fault!"

She shook her head, as the tears kept on streaming, "....I tried to, resist him but, my feelings....They won't change....I won't to be friends, nothing more, I swear, Master Kaius!" She slipped up herself, "I told him and he....It's all my fault. I should had not had said anything....Please, believe me, it wasn't his fault - it was mine....I did wrong....I....I did..." She broke down into tears, and dropped her face intp cold, metallic claws.

This was a conversation he'd been looking forward to not having.

Ever.

He was generally non confrontational unless he felt truly passionate about something, and his emotions ruled him. Perhaps that's why his Other quieted so quickly....his mind wasn't broken like hers was, it was a strange dichotomy of tandem working Instinct and Self-Control. "The reason I'm not their friend right now, is because of how....what do you remember about him' About them' Not....I don't want....to know anything intimate." And those words bubbled over his lips almost accidentally and he tried to ignore the fact he'd even thought about that, "....but what do you remember about....who ....they tried to tell you were" ...didn't it seem like they were just....making something up?" His eyes were watching her face again; thoughts racing through his mind faster than his mouth could process, "....I couldn't watch them manipulate. And..." he just shook his head, as if in remembering the disbelief he'd felt, and still feels, "....and she LET him..." those words were almost hissed, before he gathered himself.

Her eyes widened, and pupils fell into maddened pinpoints. Her mind, scrambled as it was, was like an open door for anyone and anything to abuse.

And while Kaius was not abusing her as much as Calix and the others were, Kaius was simply providing a singular truth, while everyone else, was content with filling her mind with lies. She was bound to find out that she was Renna - it was unavoidable. People attacked her on sight, and she had no clue as to why - that man captured her, raped her, and she had not a clue why. But Calix knew why....

And, she felt happy in the lie.

Not that she knew, not until Kaius opened her eyes as to who she truly was....

Or used to be. She stared, and barely blinked at her gauntlets. She just did not look at any thing, whatsoever - she saw nothing, she didn't breathe, she didn't move, she just....Was no there, anymore. But, the tears did slow flow, if a little less than before. There were almost no more tears to shed. "Little Bird..." She whispered, "Rosa....I did not know my name....So....They made one for me..." Her words were dead; monotones, and robotic. But as she spoke, she gently rocked back and fore, trying to soothe herself. "Manipulate....Who....She" Manipulate." She repeated. "Used....Lied." These words Kaius has broken to her before and present. They were resounding in her head like a gigantic church bell, deafening even her own voice, as she just whispered. "....I am a lie....A lie..." She looked to the flowers around her, "It can't be true..." She stood then rather suddenly, turning, her claw slashing out to knock over a few pots of flowers onto the ground from a shelf behind her. She was no longer dead inside, now.

All she could feel....Was pain. "Lie! All a lie!" She turned to look at Kaius, her blank lips curling into a strange, manic smile, "A lie! A lie! I AM A LIE!" She screamed, "Who am I"!" She turned, and simply punched downwards onto a counter close by, shattering it into splinters and large shards of wood, "I...AM, A LIE!"

That was it. She snapped again.

"Renna..."He spoke her name again; she was looking at Kaius, but she was not really looking at the man. Again, she was staring off into a space that only she could possibly see. She turned slowly, regarding the mess she made, and the flowers that was discarded onto the ground, laying helplessly on the ground, soil spilt, and roots revealed to the naked air. She looked from plant, to plant, and finally, she started to breathe, ever, so gently. She had not caught a single breath in all that time, and now, she was trying her best to calm down...."Pieces....I am....A piece..." She whispered, "They hurt me....I....Wanted to be, their friend....Or did....I....They made me think that too....No....I wanted to be their friend..." She looked to the plants with more compassion, her blood red eyes softening, as tears once again swelled, her heart thumping at the terrible feelings rising in her chest. "....My flowers," she whispered, dropped onto her knees, and quickly cradled one flower in her cupped metallic palms, eyeing the broken stem and the damaged petals. "What have I done to my flowers..." She took her gaze to Kaius, guilt ridden there, now mixed with confusion as one thing he said, came to the fore. "You, love, me?" She looked to Kaius, her bottom lip trembling, "You....Kaius Master....Loves me....Not, just a piece of me" The bad me..." The....Good me?"

His brow furrowed in confusion, and he would finally make his point clear to her, "The only real you, Renna. All of you." His tone soft, heart opening, finally perhaps able to express himself, "....it's obvious to me that no matter how you're....fragmented, you'll always be in there. All of you. I didn't know for a long time if....if that would be the case. But you can't just love part of a person. Not and really love them. I looked your....the one you called the Other in the eyes, and was at its mercy....your mercy. And it knew how I felt. Something is wrong with the stories....all the gossip. It just doesn't make sense. Not if the person they've made you so afraid of remembering you are is really evil. There has to be more to it than that....and the more I searched to find what those things were..." his hand, his bare fleshed hand now, traveled again to her cheek, resting there as a truly warm and sincere smile graced his lips. "....I do love you. I just....I didn't want to tell it to only a piece of you....it felt like I met you so many times, and every time....you never remembered, but I did....I remember every moment." His voice trailed off, and his eyes broke from hers as the sudden realization that he'd just poured his heart out caused his face to heat with a blush, eyes searching the flower pots, and strewn roses and roots. "....I'm sorry about your flowers..."

And his eyes closed, the closest he'd come to telling her before had resulted in him being mocked to his face by the Manticore, wearing her form no less, instead of its own armored one, adding further injury to the wide gash its laughter had cut across his heart.

"They're....Not real....They're....Imitations..." She whispered, "Like me....Just a pale imitation of....A whole. A whole you love." Renna gently placed down the dying flower, and looked about the room, noticing that a lot of the plants remained untouched. She took a deep breath, and then smiled towards Kaius. She looked like a wreck. She looked like she had cried for several days, but now she looked happy. "I'm remembering so much easier now....It's coming back to me, bit by bit, but, I know I will forget things, Master, but....I....I remember you now..." She smiled gently, and closed her blood red eyes, "....You, have so much faith in me, Kaius. And....If it makes you reach that love then, I will try my best to help you so that....So that the real Renna can return, so that you can tell her, how you feel." She flushed a deep red, and smiled sweetly to herself; the expression alone hurting her cheeks, which had been the victim of tears all day. "....They say she was bed. And, the say she was bad. And the, tome..."

Renna nodded her head, but she kept her head bowed. "My blood flows through your veins....It means....I know it means nothing....But, it is what my Master once told me....And, I know, I will stop. I'll try to remember to stop saying it. I promise this and - huh' The way....The way I, looked?" She looked up at him, her blood red eyes confused, searching his eyes for an answer she did not know. Once her gauntlet was taken and guided, she blinked up, tilting her head just so. "What are you-"

Feed from him' Was he....Mad" She did watch the lines mark him; it was like some twisted ritual - some darkly pact between two, that from a distance, could had looked mad. Of course, her tongue licked about her lips - blood was a pleasant drink, but flesh was but a better meal to cease her undying hunger. She was unsure, what to do. She looked from his eyes - to his chest, then back down to the ground. "I will....Try to resist calling you that, Kaius, I'll try..." She leaned towards him, and pushed her lips against his neck, and then ran her tongue down over the self inflicting wounds. She drunk alright; rather, she lapped at it like some kitten would from a saucer of milk. Of course, this liquid, smeared about her face, as she fell deeper into her blood lust.

She could never be sated.

Only tempted. Only urged and hungered forever more....And Kaius was feeding a beast he almost had no clue, what he was dealing with.

Or was he? She pulled back, gasping, coughing.

Blood tasted....Wrong, to her in this form. It felt wrong - it just did not stomach her, but, something else, found it....

Pleasant' It found it....Intoxicating. It found it....Erotic. Twisted. Fantastic - bloody brilliant!

She struggled to not smirk, wavering from an innocent smile to an maddened grin she simply could not resist. "....I hope you get your wish....And your reward, the moment you see her again..." She tilted her head, just so, and looked to his lips. She glanced to his eyes, then back down again. She pressed the bloodied lips against his, pecking it, as if testing out the feeling. Then she kissed it again, and then she pulled back, looking away.

She was at a loss, as what to say.

Path of the Heart

Soliloquy

Solitude however, is one of the easiest illusions to perpetuate. All of his life, he'd been a boy - a man, now - who was able to be alone in a room full of people; not in the sense that he was unnoticed, but rather from the deeply birthed notion within himself that he was ....misunderstood.

Here it was impossible, no matter how it might seem to an outside observer - If Nemesis would even allow such a thing, and praise be His name, you dogs! - for him to truly be alone - though he knew only a partiality of that.

Somehow always comforted beneath the blood red-orange sun, feeling inexplicably kissed whenever he turned his face skyward - except in those times when the warm rays were blocked out by the figure in black; Him to whom prayers were sent, and rarely - if ever - answered. And that was his role, and never mind the name - for what?s in a name" Can not things change, while their names remain the same" Or names change while the substance never wavers" So, let's call him Grandfather.

He couldn't remember now, exactly the look on Grandfather's face when he'd spoken of her - and told her exactly how he felt and what his intentions were; the moment was too intense for him - and maybe he hadn't been able to look at his face even, when he'd said some of it. But he wouldn't lie, the poor loving, clod - not here, not in...

The Field of White Flowers.

It was as if it was - the Field - her temple, just as she was his temple - and hadn't he come to adore....'worship'"

(Blush for him, loyal readers, if you'll lend him an ounce of shame.)

Wife.............. Daughter.... Lover....... Sister...... Mother...

But for Nemesis's sake, literally and metaphorically, don't ask him to explain all those - not yet! Not here!

Let him instead, lose himself in....recollection.

Unfortunately for Renna, though, the Manticore was not too fussed in parting with that knowledge to help ease the pain that kept Renna's mind locked into the limbo of her self....

But that was until blood touched her lips. It was strange to witness, but the blood did not slip into her lips - it did not trickle over her cheeks. Bizarrely, Kaius's infected blood was for a lack of a better term, just sitting there on her skin, collecting into large pools of red that....Slithering as if alive, washing over wounds and healing them as they go....They spread out, fixing the severe burns as if they could all be washed away with one sweeping advance of writhing red. It was then at that point, that her heart kicked in, and her eyes, suddenly, sprang open. Her first breath was taken into her throat, gasping as if she were hyperventilating. Flash backs came flooding past her eyes. She remembered it all - the fight. Kaius. The pain - the wounds - the madness! And Calix....

Oh what has she done" That poor kid and his parents....How did it happen" Why did it happen?! All of these questions flooded her, as she shook her head, wide blood red eyes gazing up at the sky, as what hair was cindered away, regrew. And as the blood collected around the stump of her arm, the flesh there started to mend, and regrow. Bone, muscle and skin tissue was being reconstructed on a cellular level, and, as the arm regrew back to the wrist, the blood, continued on, and reconstructed the mechanical gauntlet that was blown apart by Sylus's attack. She was healed, but the blood did not stop there....No. It slithered out onto the floor....And slithered back onto Kaius, absorbing straight back into his skin.

He didn't see the regeneration, not all of it, though his hands hinted that something was happening even as his own wound sealed....and he felt....something strange as the blood seeped back inside him, it was noted by something ....but not by the man who now had his head firmly against her chest, eyes widening and raising himself up with his left, right still bunched underneath her. He hadn't really noticed the boy (though Sirrush had), nor given thought to the family (Sirrush would not care in the slightest) the cared for him; he and his other had both felt....something, and had come to the Inn.

Trusting on her judgment to bring her back to him had perhaps been foolish....but he had to trust her, even if....well, he would suffer beside her, whatever the case. He'd been too absorbed in the land he had been preparing for her, and though the Others would think it was obscene....the bracer on his wrist and its ability to form a variety of implements had helped him to both clear and til soil, making huge fifty foot beds of deep, rich soil.

Now....now the Talon knew its true purpose though. But all those facts slipped his mind right now, as the very human part of him was filled with mind numbing gratitude, and the instant his eyes found her face, and saw its repair her name left his lips, soft, and ....hungry, and his mouth was on hers, hand under her tangling in her hair.

Act 2, Scene 2: Reconstruct

Diem ex Memoria

Early Morning. Bristle Crios Coven. Mage House grounds.

The eastern sky was slowly paling from midnight to lighter shades of blue as the suns first rays cut the darkness and the soft knock came to her door before he entered cautiously, eyes cast aside for the nonce, uncertain of how he'd find her though....it wasn't the first attempt he'd made to wake her. The garden was waiting, he thought they could talk there, perhaps....he had questions, and wanted to be away from prying ears, yet still....within the sanctity of the Coven grounds. He remembered speaking words last night to Wanda describing....well, the words were famous and spoke for themselves. Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage. Memories of time spent as the Other haunted him. He hadn't meant to let it take control, it just....did, reacting out of pain - hers. The fact that she exerted as much control over it as she did was impressive, but she could master it. Work with it, as he had, without letting it control. He was certain of it. "Renna...?" His voice called as he stepped in, quietly but firm. A thin vein of worry creased his emotions, that she'd slipped, and wanted to ....help her sort out what had happened, and perhaps ....just letting her express herself about it, or something he might say could help give direction, his mind having been racing since the incident. Miranda would be asked for asylum, and that went without saying.

The witches" anger had provoked one thing in him, if nothing else - a way to ensure safety, not just against Renna, but against any interloper on the Coven grounds who would have sought harm against a Coven member. And perhaps those ideals didn't save everyone - but it was a start.

Though, it would cost him. "....Are you ready?" His eyes slid from the floor, searching for her as a Gate opened in the hallway, spiraling blue and red.

She was ready. Renna was standing before the window, staring out at Coven grounds she still was getting used to. She had no lived here long, but already she felt at home. Not that she left the room without Kaius's presence, for she was too afraid to wander alone, even to sit alone amongst the white flowers that Kaius planted for her. She kept her back to Kaius, even as he spoke, her rust-colored eyes void of its pupil, as she seemed to be locked in some kind of trance. What was most noticeable was the long white dress she wore - frilled at the hem of her skirt and about the sleeve's cuffs. The collar too was also frilled - the whole dress was quite Victorian in its appearance, and it went bizarrely well the black blazer she wore over it. White high heels adorned her feet, and her hair" She had bleached it again that morning. She wanted to drop the color of black altogether from her hair, but unfortunately, despite how blonde her hair actually were at that moment, there was still some strands of black present, but lost amongst the golden mane. Her altercations of late with Calix have left her....Not talkative, at best. But at least she was dealing with the pain in her heart, rather than letting it out and attacking someone. Eventually, she answered, her voice just above a whisper. "....Yes, I am."

Pausing before stepping through the gate, "Here..." and reaching up and gathering a stray lock of hair that had slipped forward with the blond, but this a solid and obvious midnight streak, and lightly stroked a fingertip over her and gathering it behind her here, "...there. Ready now." Smiling and taking her through, letting it snap shut without a thought after they'd exited, standing near the center of the garden, the same place they had escaped to earlier. The area that had been compacted by their arrival now held a rather overly large bird bath & fountain, around which three benches sat. Kaius wasn't a kleptomaniac, but he was willing to do what he had to do in certain circumstances - and the ability to manipulate gates like he could basically made certain things in life into a game of Finders/Keepers.

The roses still slept yet, not rising and opening to find the sun quite yet, in the yellow-blue morning light. He would walk with her between the beds for a moment, to let her see the changes to the once completely wild field; now a field of partitioned wildness, filled with hundreds of huge beds, deeply tilled to allow for deep roots and a long life. Kaius of course, didn't realize that that also meant roses were sensationally hard to get rid of. But who ever thought of doing such, anyways.

Only monsters.

After a few moments he would break the silence again, and speak in quiet tones, letting the stillness of the garden and the wild settle over them, "...so, we're going to talk about ....everything that went on." He paused, "Everything. Because there's still one question that, no matter how many times I ask myself, ends up returning the same answer. And that's....why." Soft toned, yes, but blunt. He couldn't help it, when he was with her, and they didn't have to put up a facade, or defend themselves....he was Kaius, almost as he had always been, without any of the other voices or influence. And all the voices were in agreement on why, and that's why they remained silent.

Her presence made him feel a sense of....Unity.

That word was supplied by the Sirrush, but there none the less. It was a reflection of the last change that had come over Kaius that was done by Kaius's choices alone. Bringing himself together to approach her, before the bracer, before the Myriae had formed the Void Knight in response to his will, and before the Blood. When his mind wasn't spinning in a thousand directions, assaulted from without, it was that person's mien who kept all the others in check. And he was sure Renna could do it to, at least he hoped. But for that to happen, he had to ask his questions. Exercise her mind, make it strong, and when the time was right....hand the leash back to her. Once she had no more need of a ....Master. The concept is one that brought him a certain perverse joy which he was becoming less embarrassed by all the time, but the public concept, that others took it as....was....vehement to him.

His head tilted somewhat towards the flowers, as if listening to the sound of the morning breeze on petals, causing a slight rustle among them, "....maybe why was the wrong question." He sighed slightly, "It wasn't coincidence that I found you were I did, at the Inn, in the situation you were in." Fool me once, shame on me, twice....shame on....he shrugged somewhat, fingers manipulating a white bloom, very gently. "I stand by what I said, some people deserve to die. It's making sure it's the right people....is the problem. For some people....death is mercy. For others..." he shook his head again, "I remembered reading something, somewhere....when I saw you that day at the Inn, before....you came here with me." He smiled, in remembering, not the scene but....particular aspects. "....You appeared like something out of myth, these full, glorious wings....like an angel, kind of, the way they're read about in books." Something else like the working of the land that he remembered....he'd been fitted by his brother to join the priesthood on Alluvius before he came here - and that was part of the reason he'd fled home.

Small wonder if his feelings towards her seemed obsessive, when she gave purpose even subconsciously to all the things he'd ever disliked about himself. He continued, rather softly as if in after thought, "Perhaps once you were....an angel of mercy." And now he decided he was deluding himself, but....a tongue seized by romantic notions seized control before he could fall silent, "...but someone didn't see what you did as mercy....and wounded you unto....forgetting." He knew full well, even in saying it that he was only making a comparison, and that he'd not accused her of such being reality. Even softer now, "I ask why because....they say there was a ....boy. I don't know this, I didn't....I was too focused on you. But if there was....an innocent....then....what?s happened has happened, and there is no proof left."

No, there wasn't. All blown to dust.

"But we need to make sure ....if you lash out again, that the proper targets are....met. And there are people, who deserve it. The unsavory, the users, the abusers....men who hurt wives, children. I think....if there were a way to target....them, maybe....it wouldn't make you look better to everyone....but it might make you look better to you when you look in the mirror."

"No, there's one huge difference - those I'm suggesting as ....prey....would be the Unrepentant." Perhaps many -had- tried to change her, but that didn't mean Kaius would give up. And there -was- no changing the past, so he wasn't trying.

Only trying to give her....a future. And the future can only really be built in the present, day by day, not in a prison, secluded from reality. Then nothing changed. That was Stasis! "The difference is, when you go to bed at night, I listen to you cry, and sob about the things that you've done, that ....clearly was you, but, not entirely the you that's in front of me now."

He sighed, and as she searched his eyes....she would find nothing but unconditional ...support, and veiled hope. He closed those eyes for a moment, gathering his thoughts. "....there's either more to you now, that....let's you be the you that's here with me now....or something from before was....lost....and what filled the void was something....that made the potential you have now greater than you ever were before." And the pendulum swung between mercies and...."What you would be doing wouldn't be murder....what I would do with you, wouldn't be murder. It would be....punishment. You're comparing the people I suggest to yourself....but really, I'm comparing them to the people that have spurred you to become....the weapon you sometimes become. And if you must be a weapon, then be one....but....let what you are now choose how it's wielded. Not someone else."

Renna looked up at him now, unsure as what to say. Or rather, how she should say it....

"Punishment..." She whispered, nodding a touch, "....I could punish people," she affirmed to herself, liking the idea. "I....I don't have to kill them....I could punish....And kill them if they deserve it.?

He was silent for a long moment, and his heart quavered at her mention that she only needed the acceptance of one....even as he knew it was something he would accept, though not forever. "You won't be alone....you're....from the first moment I saw you, you were....inside my head and I couldn't get you out." His head lowered a fraction, and in a more hushed tone his voice quavered as had his heart, "I wish I could have met her too....I would have taken her....I would have made her safe." His voice suddenly almost fragile in its halting stammer. His gaze hit the ground, and her momentary beaming smile brought a flash of one to his lips as well, but...."....people love who they love." He shrugged, but still looked at the earth beneath the roses. You'd think he'd seen enough of it tilling the ground. "....they can't help it. I don't....judge you for that either." He'd told her how he'd felt before, and the youthful, stupidly sincere part of him that he became sometimes when it was just around her, emerged in his lack of eloquence, "....I ....I told you, how I felt about....you. And that's completely separate from the fact that I'll help you, I swear it. I help you because....it's right. And I feel how I feel because....I just do."

Because it felt right, too, Kaius, you dolt. He shook his head, suddenly flustered, more so than usual - given his lack of caring how people took him lately. He continued down a different path now, hoping to....draw her away from his foolish sentimentality, and the fact that he would accept her love in any fashion she gave it, from a piece of herself, a dozen pieces, or as a whole; he couldn't separate them, and never could. "....see. Talking is training. It would be....rather foolish of me to try to show you how to use....those." And he gestured with his chin to her hands, "You already know....what you need is....self knowledge. Realization. Awareness. To be your weapons when....your instincts call."

"Yeah....It's good....I feel a lot better about some things now....It's hard for me to think for myself, so it's good someone else can tell me what I am doing wrong, and how I could make things right....I am just so used to....Picking the easy way out..."

Giving in. Accepting the Manticore - allowing it to run rampant, allowing it to deal with her problems through blood and gore, death and destruction. In the end, it was just an easy way out of the emotional pain of preventing such torment from happening in the first place....Her blush, remained as she placed most of her weight on the foot closest to Kaius, she then quickly stole a kiss on his cheek, and pulled back, smiling rather shyly, "I know....It's going to be hard for me....To try and resist....But I'll do it....Not because I want to..." She admitted, "I....I'm afraid. Terrified....So scared, that....If I mess up....The fear, it makes me want to run away, and, I can....I feel here, with you, I think I can go on living with myself....As Renna." She stood up from her crouch, and held out claw towards him, "....I hope one day the Renna you want will love you back, just as much as I..." She turned her gaze to the side, mumbling a touch, "....As much as I....You..."

There's a warm, tingling sensation on her wrist. She blinks when his hand leaves her own, and quickly she turned her gauntlet over to spot the small change to the skin there. The mark left on her by him, in a way, was something only a Master could do to his servant, and, in a way in the back of her mind, she was settled with the idea that even if he did not like it. She, was his, now. Rust-filled eyes warmly gaze at the design marked into her skin - a lovely red rose, with the stem twisting around her wrist, much like a thorny shackle....It was funny, but, she remembered a time, when she would have hated being branded like that. She would had torn and bitten at it until flesh came off with the mark, but, this was....

She looked from it, back to Kaius, and felt the touch of a tear forming at the corner of her eyes, and eventually, they streamed down her cheeks just once. The droplets fell from her face as she blinked her eyes, the moisture splattering on the blades of her index and middle finger blades....Such....Longing was now displayed for him, in those eyes, and her bottom lip trembled as she struggled to contain the emotions bubbling up inside of her. "....I don't know....W-what to s-say..." She moved forward, pressing into Kaius, as her arms wrapped around his neck, she pressed her face into his shoulder and simply held him close. "I....Won't let you down," she smiled a little, "Kaius.." She giggled a touch through her happy whimpering of tears, "my pretend Master..."