--[closed!] it's a long way down when all the knots we've tied have come undone

[thebooksaysso]

Characters: thebooksaysso & apyrostrategy
Setting/Location: Her room
Date & Time: Day 55, late afternoon-ish?
Warnings: None.
Summary: An emotional wreck of a witch needs company, and Zhou Yu is more than happy to provide.

Comments

[apyrostrategy]

Zhou Yu hadn't lied when he had said that he worried for Anathema. The girl was not really an ally, not even a friend, hardly more than an acquaintance as it were - and he had to admit that what she had told him about magic worried him more than he let on. And still... she had been nothing but helpful for all his stay, had provided him with all the information he had needed upon his arrival, and had proven herself to be more intriguing company to him than most of the caravan's passengers. And what was more, even with her involvement in powers he would rather not think about, there was something like an inherent goodness about her, a genuineness of her beliefs that he found admirable. He didn't like knowing she was in such a state, and even if he couldn't really help her, it seemed time to meet her face to face for the first time after their brief encounter as werewolf and vampire

[thebooksaysso]

He head snapped up at the knock, and she was half a beat away from telling whoever was on the other side to bugger off. Cassandra, like herself, just walked in, and Anathema couldn't bring herself to be in the mood to deal with anyone else at the moment. The voice that followed, however, had the words die in her throat. That was....he came after all?

"You...." The smallest twinge of annoyance surfaced again; he shouldn't have been there, and really shouldn't have been concerned at all.

But he was.

"I don't care." She didn't know when Cassandra would be returning, and she should probably let her know she let someone else by, shouldn't she? But it wasn't as if he was going to be staying for long. "It's unlocked."

[apyrostrategy]

The approval was enough, even if it was wrapped in irritation. He followed the invitation and entered, casting a long glance at the girl after he closed the door behind him. She really wasn't looking good, eyes red from crying and all. It was interesting how vaguely he recognised her; she gave him a sense of someone familiar, but at the same time, now that his perspective was not distorted by vampiric senses any more, and that she was fully human again, she seemed like a completely new person. Despite her foreign looks and the obvious traces of crying, she was pretty. The eerie contrast between her dark hair and light skin gave her something interesting.

He smiled faintly and apologetic, but kept a respectful distance of about a metre to her. As she didn't seem to change her mind so quickly and decide to kick him out, he leaned against the wall and looked at her.

"I thought you were troubled," he explained calmly, "but now I find you and see that it is worse than expected. What happened? What brought this on?"

[thebooksaysso]

And Anathema herself had almost been expecting the smell of death to enter the room with him, unreasonable a thought as it was. He'd been cured with her, she had to remember, they weren't on opposite ends of a bloodthirsty free for all any longer. It did nothing to take away from the critical look she gave him as he walked in, however; nice enough as he'd been in the past, she still watched him with a tired wariness.

Trying to fix on his aura got her nowhere, her concentration already shot as it was. Anathema wiped away at the new tears that had gathered in the process, tried to dry her face, anything to look just a little more presentable and not so much like a wreck. And when that didn't seem work she just looked away altogether.

"I don't know." That time it came out as little more than a shaky growl, though the anger was quickly lost as another sob bubbled up in her. "Everybody needs to stop asking that, I don't know."

[apyrostrategy]

He nodded pensively instead of answering. No, she wasn't just embarrassed, after all. He had suspected that she was, and that that was the reason she had not wanted to talk about it over the junogam. The idea that it was really something beyond her ability to explain it suddenly seemed to make sense, however, when he remembered the temporary and involuntary bout of blunt honesty he had suffered upon their arrival in this town.

"This place, then?" he theorised, little helpful as it was, of course. "Don't mind them, though. Shouldn't your friends be worried about you when it is clear you are under the influence of something?"

[thebooksaysso]

"No," she snapped, shook her head vehemently. "They already have enough to worry about, the last thing any of them need is me adding to it."

And that was exactly why Rookie had gone and sidelined her, wasn't it? As much as it hurt to even admit that his decision had been the right one.

[apyrostrategy]

Zhou Yu answered that with a frown, and an expression that wasn't too far from a teacher about to scold a child. "Then perhaps you should not have made it so public how upset you are. If you don't want people to worry for you, you must not show them that there is reason to. You cannot blame them for reacting to what you made them witness."

There wasn't much hardness in his voice, but rather a sense of calm observation. Of course he understood that Anathema's mood was beyond her control right now.

[thebooksaysso]

Hard or no, the words made her flinch, and her mood again veered hard into the opposite direction as her shoulders shook under the attempt to hold back more crying. It lasted about as long as every other time she'd tried.

"I know that now," was all the answer he got before she hugged her knees to her chest and let her head fall again, whatever else was to follow muffled and incoherent.

[apyrostrategy]

Something about this helpless picture actually inspired some compassion in Zhou Yu, rather than irritating him. He approached her where she sat, and put a hand on her shoulder. His grip was not soft at all; hard and heavy, his hand gave her shoulder a light squeeze. He didn't want to coddle her. He wanted to make her understand that she was fine, and that she had his support.

"Calm yourself," he advised in a slightly lowered voice. "What is it that you fear?"

[thebooksaysso]

"I should be able to help." At least that part was understandable. The hand on her shoulder was reflexively shrugged off, but otherwise Anathema made no more objection to his approach when she finally looked up again, and she wiped her eyes before she continued on.

"I should be able to see what's coming so we could actually do something about it all. And we should know by now why people keep coming and vanishing again...."

[apyrostrategy]

Now that was something unexpected. Zhou Yu raised a brow, but then understood.

"Your magic?" he asked and nodded. "I could see how this would be useless. But are you really that powerful?"

[thebooksaysso]

Anathema just shook her head, made a noise that could have been a hiccup or a laugh. Maybe both.

"Not even close," she admitted, sounding almost bitter despite the wry smile that tugged at her mouth. "But you could say my ancestor was, I suppose. I just need her book."

[apyrostrategy]

"Her book?"

Zhou Yu could not even imagine how exactly magic worked, and where its limits were. He had come across it, but it was far from usual in his world - and if he was honest with himself, it frightened him a little. Even with Zhuge Liang and his mysterious powers on his side during the battle of Chi Bi, these had always been unfathomable and threatening in his eyes - nothing short of demonic.

He held back his curiosity a little. "Then what do you propse you could do?" It was an honest question; he understood too little of magic. At the same time, however, he could not understand how Anathema insisted to blame herself.

[thebooksaysso]

"Nothing. I can't do bugger all without that book." The book she lived her entire life by, before Newton had suggested that, just maybe, it was time to start living her own life, and not the life written out in Agnes' prophecies. With the apocalypse averted, she really had no need to continue with them.

And the moment she took his advice and set the book aside, everything was turned on its head again. That was how these things always worked, wasn't it?

[apyrostrategy]

"Nothing to predict the future or find answers, perhaps," Zhou Yu corrected gently, "but hen, who could do that? This is hardly the only way that you can be useful, if that is what you wish."

Then, he suddenly smiled, and sad, "You have already helped me a great deal. And I suspect that I am not the only one whom this applies to. I never thanked you for that, did I?"

[thebooksaysso]

Fortunately, Anathema managed to refrain from snorting at that, though she did go quiet, seeming to mull over his words.

"You're welcome." She looked at him, uncertain. "But what exactly am I being thanked for?"