"Aw man, it's all gone South man, all gone South. We shoulda figured it, what with that Mint brat and Rue kid, aw man..." He aimed a kick at the wall and managed to stub his toe on the hard rock. While he hopped around, yelping and cursing, Kirielle finally looked up.
"Stop messing around, it's hard to figure out if someone has a heart beat with someone else cussing a blue streak in the background," She said, looking at him with red rimmed and black streaked eyes. Narcius stopped, but only because he didn't want her to start crying again. It seemed like she hadn't done anything other then cry since the atelier had fallen and they'd found Karwyn. That had been around three days ago. Narcius walked over to where she was with Karwyn and looked at him for a moment. No change, no change what so ever, and Narcius didn't think there would be for a while, unless he died on them.
"Why'd you have to go and do something noble like savin' that punk, huh?" Narcius said, standing back up and heading to a far corner away from the rest of the group. "Why'd he have to go and do a stupid thing like that?" Kirielle didn't look at Narcius while he spoke, mainly because she was wondering the same thing. Why had he bothered to save Rue, when Rue was one of the factors that had caused their Master's death? It bothered her. The whole idea of it bothered her. Kirielle looked watched Karwyn's immobile face for a long moment, trying to will him to tell her what exactly had been going through his mind when he took a short breath. Narcius turned so quickly he almost fell down at the sound and hurried over.
"Is he finally waking up?" He asked Kirielle, looking at Karwyn for some sign of an awakening. Before she could answer, Karwyn opened up his own mouth and spoke.
"Yes, I'm awake," he answered in a voice that cracked from thirst. Kirielle winced at the sound and helped him up, knowing even if it killed him he wouldn't stay down for long. Narcius helped him stand by putting one of his arms over his neck. After a few seconds he opened his eyes and both Narcius and Kirielle felt a tingle, like a cold breeze that makes ones hair stand on end. Narcius felt the urge to let go of the dying man and get the heck away from him, but didn't. Kirielle, however, did move away a bit, looking uncomfortable. Karwyn didn't address it, and seemed to be a bit more focused on something else. He took a moment before speaking. "They're going to wake up today too," He said calmly, as if addressing the weather or some other menial fact.
"They? You mean Mint and Rue?" Kirielle asked sharply, a slight fire coming to her eyes. Narcius helped Karwyn sit down on the altar before speaking. "No Kirielle, he means those Poppul Purrel things I've heard so much about," he snapped with heavy sarcasm, "who do you think he means?" Kirielle looked over at him with more life in her eyes then he'd seen in the last few days. Narcius was just beginning to follow her train of thought when Karwyn said, "No."
"No? No?! Why not?! Mint and Rue, they're both the reason that we failed! If they were gone it all would have worked just fine!" She yelled at him. Narcius had the urge to step between them just to make sure Kirielle didn't kill Karwyn herself. When she set her mind to something, she did it. No if's, and's, or but's about it.
"We're not going to try to start a war in the middle of Carona, Mode Master. If we do we'll have at least four people against us, maybe six if those two wake up early," Karwyn said, still calm and 'reasonable' but now adding a slight edge to each word that forced them to sink into Kirielle and Narcius's skulls. Narcius knew what the outcome of that kind of fight would be, Carona one, Washed Up Tools of Ruecian zilch. What a heart warming thought that was. Kirielle looked at Karwyn as though getting ready to start arguing again, but she had no ammo to combat that statement. She fell silent and stared at the floor, her eyes refilling with tears. Narcius sought his defense in his temper.
"You might wanna call us by our names now, hot shot. I don't think we have much of a job waiting for us at East Heaven," Narcius quiped. Karwyn didn't answer for a moment, and Narcius was sure he must have passed out or died, and then said, "Alright then, Kirielle it's not in our best interest right now to try to lead an attack against two people who are probably guarded by some very strong individuals."
"Can't you tell?" Kirielle snapped, more out of displeasure then actual anger. Narcius had always considered Karwyn a tool that begged to be used, but now he was starting to see that Kirielle wasn't far behind him. It was kind of a scary thought, actually, that Narcius may have been on the same path as them. Maybe it was best being the youngest of the three, it meant he still had to time rearrange his career options before he got too caught up in it. Karwyn shook his head at Kirielle, which meant one of two things: either 'Be quiet' or 'No.' Right now it seemed to mean both.
"...So what do we do now?" Kirielle said, her voice sounding choked with a new wave of tears. Narcius looked close to strangling her for crying so much. It was hard to tell what Karwyn was thinking, but then it always was. Narcius thought it was pretty darn obvious what had to be done. They had to get outta dodge, so to speak. Apparently Karwyn was thinking the same thing.
"We'll need to leave as soon as we can," he said, standing on his own with what looked like great effort. Kirielle hurried back over to him, but he didn't even acknowledge her attempts to help him. Kirielle saw the tell tale movements of extreme pain, mostly in his back. She looked away and stared at the statue before them.
"Where can we go? They probably know that Narcius and I are still alive, so they will be searching for us. When they find out you are too, then it'll only get worse," She said, sounding more under control then she was a moment ago. Narcius heard a dry click when Karwyn swallowed, and he finally took a good look at him. His skin had taken a strange pallor, and his eyes seemed unusually bright, even for him. Narcius had a strong suspicion that he and Kirielle hadn't done a good enough job cleaning out the wounds they'd found on him. Maybe he had an infection, or a fever. At least he didn't look like he was going to die quite yet. People who looked like that were normally shruken with a papery look to their skin, and he still looked like he had plenty of life left in him. That was good. As far as Narcius could tell, they still needed to stick together if they wanted to stay alive.
But how long exactly could they stick together, before they were found and seperated? Kirielle stared at the ground as she considered this thought. They had been together for so long, since they were all children. She couldn't stand the idea of them all being seperated, they were like a family. Narcius looked over at her, and after a moments hesitation, sat beside her.
"We just need to get as far away from here and East Heaven as possible. Go somewhere those two royal pains won't find us, and that punk kid," Narcius said, trying to comfort Kirielle. Karwyn watched them with something close to curiousity, but didn't interupt. He leaned back against the wall and felt small threads of heat that threatened to turn into horrendous pain curling around his spine and head towards his head.
"...When do we leave?" Kirielle asked, wiping black and tears away from her eyes. Narcius looked at Karwyn, the eldest of them, for a clue as to their next step. He looked at them both before answering, "We'll be leaving immediantly if we can."
As the three began to talk about where to go, a small boy slowly closed the church doors and headed out into the square, to tell Prima and anyone else who would listen about the strangers in the church.