To acceptable levels of scowling

Brutus stiffened at the distant slap of footsteps on stone, someone was around her. Possibly approaching her.

Which sucked, she had picked this bench because, normally, there weren’t many creatures around. It was within the winding caverns of the Pyridekk manor, but still had a nice window that faced the ravine and brought with it the refreshing scent of seaspray.

The solitude, the scent of salt, and the rumble of waves in the distance had make it a pleasant respite for Brutus.

But not now. Her respite was being invaded.

With a grumble, Brutus pushed out her reach, and gripped the bench under her with resulting lightheadedness. Not long after a diamond fight and in fragile form… whoever this was, it better be important.

Like ripples left from a pebble dropped in water, new particles of keyaa appeared in ghostly shades of yellow and orange. Though she always felt them before she saw. The warm pressure that emanated from the flickering specks pressed against Brutus’s body in pulsing waves.

If her reach was small, it was a gentle, even comforting, sensation. Worn out as she already was, it felt prickly and hot. Like a heated, weighted blanket that was constantly pressing against every bit of your skin.

Amorphous tan blobs clustered against the tall stone walls- moonmoss, lichen, and the like. As all things she saw with Keyaa, they were translucent, and the more layered upon eachother, or the more healthy, the denser their color and light appeared.

Beyond the stone ceiling, the ground was interspersed by translucent, spidery roots, glowing a faint cream color. It was the roots that were often the most helpful in orienting Brutus. Most biomes had some kind of root-system, even arid ones. And the heat that roots gave off was never too harsh, just a low, constant thrum. Though they were sometimes so far below the ground that they only disoriented her, making her feel dizzy.

Past the wall to Brutus’s right, outside of the building, were towering pillars of deep yellow, almost brown, reaching toward the sky; redspire trees. Of everything around her, these plants gave off the hardest pulse of energy, it fell in heady waves against her right side.

However, the heaviest, hottest pulse was coming from the radiant mass getting worryingly closer to her. Closer to her, as if Brutus was their destination.

Fantastic.

Brutus didn’t have to get a scowl ready to scare the creature off, because she was already wearing one.

Then, she made an unfortunate realization, and, with difficultly, dropped the scowl.

Marginally. To acceptable levels of scowling.

If she was more with it, she would have recognized the creature immediately. Few creature’s keyaa auras were as vibrant gold and as dense as Hyun’s.

Just before he turned the corner where Brutus was sitting, she straightened up and detangled her hands from one another- knowing she’d worry them together if she didn’t.

Especially since,

Brutus swallowed her wince as Hyun’s aura barreled against her, sharp and splintery and much worse now that he was right Infront of her.

Over the last month or so, she’d thought she she’d gotten used to it, but when already overstimulated, it still bothered her.

Which wasn’t… that wasn’t fair to Hyun. He couldn’t help that. Hokk, it was part of the reason Brutus took him on in the first place. Normal creature’s keyaa auras weren’t like that.

She made a mental note to do some keyaa-overexposure training or something- she should be over this by now.

Despite the way he acted, Brutus had a feeling Hyun noticed a lot more than it appeared. Though, she hoped that he chalked up her grumpiness being around him to just… her general grumpiness, and not because of his, frankly insane, keyaa-aura.

Brutus levelled him with an unimpressed glare, “Kesska, what are you doing here.”

And, oops. That came out much more biting than she wanted– but gods above, all the keyaa particles were writhing against her senses.

With gritted teeth, she shrunk her reach to encapsulate only herself and Hyun– unfortunately, that was the smallest she could go. As much as she had yearned for it, she could not “turn off” her keyaa-sight. Even closing her eyes– her eyelids were no barrier to whatever allowed her to see them.

“Well uh– I got that spell you wanted me to try mastered and everything! Super huge thorny plant this time, all wriggly and dancing around like you said it should.” Hyun was making some kind of hand-gestures to express this, though Brutus couldn’t tell what distinctly, Keyaa auras being ghostly and translucent as they were. “You told me you wanted to see what I could do of it by the end of today? And it is the end of today.”

Hokk. She had said that hadn’t she.

But if she had to not only witness but analyze spellwork right now, she might start biting someone.

Spellwork was the absolute worst against her senses, spellwork and okkseuja. They were bright enough to make her squint and disorientingly heavy and sharp, especially complex spellwork. On a bad day and unprepared, spellwork could knock the air straight out her lungs.

“… Brutus?” He chittered softly in question.

Ah, zeit, she had paused too long.

There was no way she could give Hyun tips on her spellwork right now.

“I have…” Brutus ran a twitchy hand through her hair, desperately trying to dig up a reasonable, believable excuse. “Something.”

Something. Hokking hells, She wanted to ram her horns into a wall, great excuse.

Smartly, she elaborated, “Something I have to go to. Soon.”

Even if her face and voice rarely gave away her emotions– as flat and dead as they often were, especially when tired, Brutus knew it sounded like she was just trying to avoid Hyun. Which, wasn’t untrue, but not what she meant.

“Oh. okay.” Hyun said, small.

Oh no, that’s not what Brutus wanted to happen. Her heart dropped with a feeling that could only be described as: somehow accidentally dropkicked a furwurm puppy.

Quickly, she added, “In the morning, you can show me then?”

“But.” There was a pause on Hyun’s end now, though it thankfully sounded more confused than upset. “Aren’t you leaving tomorrow morning for a mission?”

“Hokk you’re right,” Brutus accidentally said out loud, instead of safely in her head, which was now also in her hands.

She gnawed on the inside of her cheek, because this didn’t happen, she didn’t just forget the things on her own gods damned schedule– that was hokking pathetic. Getting things done and getting things done on time, that’s what she was good at.

But. That was just her things. Now she has to account for Hyun’s– her Kesska’s– things alongside her things.

Which, she should be able to do that. She should have already been doing that, actually. Hyun’s things are her things because Hyun’s her Kesska. She just has to get it together.

A cold, twisted thing curled in Brutus’s stomach, because she shouldn’t have agreed to this. She wasn’t doing right by Hyun.

And she shouldn’t be surprised, should she?

She hokked up being a mentor last time too.

Suddenly Hyun burst into cheer, “Do–don’t worry, I get you’re busy. Busy with Kirjnhas duties and all that, very important, I’ll just, um. I’ll get uuuuh… Wil to look at it! Except–“ he mumbled,” that’d be hokking stupid now wouldn’t it, she’s not growth ordered– OH I know, I’ll get Fergus to!” Hyun snapped, “There! Problem solved, once again. That’s why they call me The Problem Solver, you know.” That statement was punctuated by a scratchy, staccato trill, like sifting gravel, that Brutus had learned was the equivalent of Hyun puffing out his chest.

Brutus’s head hadn’t left her hands. “Doesn’t Fergus not like you?”

“Lots of creatures don’t like me. No taste, frankly, but I know how to make it work!”

Despite the grin Brutus heard in Hyun’s voice, his words only made her feel even worse. Made that cold thing claw at Brutus’s insides. Usually Hyun’s overconfidence was a bit amusing, but right now, for a reason she couldn’t pinpoint, it left a bitter taste in her mouth.

The mission, it was just a few Okkseuja no one else had managed to take down. The creatures had already evacuated, the damage had already been done to the crops. They could wait a few hours.

“No.” Brutus massaged the bridge of her nose “I’ll look at it in the morning, it’s fine.”

“Come oooooon,” Hyun plopped on the bench next to her, far from touching, but the sudden proximity was a flare of fire against her side.

Instead of flinching, Brutus managed to simply tense, wire-tight, and begged Hyun not to notice.

“You think I can’t convince Fergus?” That smug, gravelly-trilling continued. “You don’t know how annoying I can be, apparently.”

“I know exactly how annoying you can be, Kesska.” Brutus got up, hoping it looked casual, and pawed for her cane she’d left resting against the wall. A breath escaped her lungs, when she sunk into its familiar handle and got a step or two from Hyun, that blaze against her side calming to mere uncomfortable, squirming, heat.

Then, a flash of oh zeit hit her, making her freeze. Had Hyun realized she was teasing? Had Brutus sounded like she was teasing? Oh gods, maybe not, since her voice was so dead.

The fact that Hyun hadn’t whipped back with a response, or even moved from the bench, exponentially heightened that oh zeit.

“It’s not,” Brutus grasped for literally anything, “a bad kind of annoying, though.” What. What the hokk does that mean.

You know what, plan aborted; everything failed. She should just stop talking today.

Brutus sighed, defeated and achey and wanting to crawl into a corner. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning? For the spell.”

“Uh, yeah!” Hyun chittered. “Tomorrow morning, right! I’ll have it all prepared for you so it’ll be fast and zeit and you can get right along to your mission.” She knew Hyun enough to realize the ghostly, golden blob of her hand was a thumbs-up.

Still, Brutus paused for a moment, attempting to parse Hyun’s tone with only half of a braincell bouncing around in her skull.

Didn’t sound upset, thankfully. Fake-cheer-y but… She’ll try to fix that in the morning, she decided. Would only hokk it up more right now.

Brutus grunted in agreement, “sounds good,” and made her leave.