Puzzle pieces (Cerverous)

[Xiomara]

Xiomara looked around to make sure no one had followed her as she approached the borders of Caliph Lake, her smile widened and she stepped forward, off the edge of the shore and onto the water. The cryokinesis she had been blessed with four months ago bloomed from the bottoms of her shoes and spread out; freezing the lake with each step she took. One foot was raised after the other, hand sliding across the sole of her shoes to create blades of ice, perfect for ice skating. Headphones were pulled into her ears and the music turned up as the lake finally froze over. She stretched her legs and arms out, then with clicking feet she ran forward slowly, letting her feet drag and the skates move her into a glide along the ground. Her eyes closed as her right leg stretched out and her left knee bent, arms stretched out; gliding backwards in a semi circle. The air blew her hair into her face and out of it, wild and free as she had always dreamed of being her entire life.

This was a little piece of home away from home as she slid and pivoted, then with her body still relaxed she’d bend her knees and lean forward to gain a bit more speed and keep herself centered. In the middle of her make shift rink she raised her arms like she was throwing confetti and a rain of snowflakes burst from a singular; scattering around the ground and continuing to fall as she had created her own personal flurry. It was all quiet, save for the music from her headphones and the click-glide of her skates along the ice. Xiomara cleared her mind of all of the things that had cluttered it, just wanting to be free of worries and responsibilities, of people unburdening their stories on her.

The only thoughts that managed to plague her were those of Cerverous, this was the place she had found him and he had not been well. After that, things had gotten strange. Tripping over her own skate she fell on hands and knees, the harsh slapping of her palms the only thing breaking her concentration. Plumes of white smoke filled the air, fog coming from her mouth and reaching for the skies. She stared at her reflection and then suddenly she touched her eye, if what was happening to Cerverous could be helped… she thought she knew how. The answer lay inside of her eye, but it would also more than likely mean her death. Huffing she sat back on her legs and stared up into the sky, the flurry continuing to let snow fall around the entire rink, it melted on the warmth of her rose-red cheeks, softly the tigress laughed. Of course she’d save Cerverous, even if it meant surrendering her own life in the process.

Taking a deep breath she looked around the area slowly, the tendrils of darkness made themselves known in the form of stripes along her body, and then they began to spread out. Darkness was one of the only connections she had to him, darkness and something else. Something she kept secret and hidden, cold and frozen like forever-snow. She could feel it, the shard was awakening inside her eye and it turned the iris red and black, freckled with crimson blood. Then she was seeing out of his eye and knew that soon he would see out of hers. On the ice she wrote a swift message and stared at it, she would continue to stare until he arrived.

Cerverous, come to Caliph Lake.

[Cerverous]

The darkness. Not many truly understand it. Those who don't believe it evil, those who do know it is not. The same way ice and fire reside on different faces of the same coin, both consume equally, both provide equally, both destroy indiscriminately, so to are light and dark. Cerverous is one such being that knows this, that dark and light are not aligned, they are not beings, only forces, and forces can be controlled, directed to meat the ends of those that control them. Cerverous is a warrior of the dark, it is where he thrives, it is where he found himself when he received Xio's message. With enough light missing, darkness becomes heavy, and thick. It presses in and disables the senses, starting with sight. With the light present, Cerverous' vision is so powerful that it literally blinds him. He sees everything and as a result, nothing. In a certain density of darkness, however, his vision is stunted so much that he can actually use it, a certain density that, for example, currently fills his bedroom.

It is the same room it has always been, he was never one to change what didn't need to be. It had remained untouched for the entirety of his absence, but for some reason, likely his useless senses, it smelled and felt and sounded and even tasted like he had never left it. He would be meditation when Xio reached out to him with her own darkness. The feeling actually brought a smile to his lips, and when his eyes opened she would see his room as if a dim light shown over it, where he would see the words carved in ice. One great thing about this link was that what he saw was not effected by his own senses, it was her vision and he saw it exactly as she did even if he would have literally seen nothing with his own eyes. His legs unfolded and reached to the ground so he would be standing in the exact same place on the empty piece of carpet. He lifted his hand and a ribbon of his blood slid slowly out, forming into a message of his own. The words floated in the air before him and he stared them down the same way she was. Look at an empty space before you as if I were standing there already.

[Xiomara]

A smile curled her lips and she closed her eyes before giving her head a small shake, it wouldn't do to make the man dizzy. Breathing in and out slowly she opened her eyes once more and looked around, the snow had clouded her vision, filled it with blurry little flakes here and there and everywhere. But between the trees past the borders of the lake she saw the entrance to the caverns, and memory surfaced of time they had explored them. Dusting off the snow that had filmed over her trousers she slid along the ice towards the floor and the flurry extinguished leaving a lake bed covered in a soft and fluffy blanket. The flakes dried in her hair, others remain like ornaments, clinging for dear life on the strands. She couldn't bring herself to melt them and let them continue their lost cause.

Standing at the awning of the caves Xiomara took a deep breath and focused on the darkness that led deeper into the depths of the intricate cave labyrinth. She wasn't quite sure why it was that she was staring at darkness, but the irony itself was amusing. Without having any other place to write on or with, she just stood stock still and continued to stare, in her mind she pictured the cocky Cerverous coming out of the caves like it was nothing to him. He always had that attitude, like he was indestructible. Only she had seen how fragile his psyche was. And at times, his body betrayed him. Still, she waited to see if he would appear as he always had when she called many times before.

[Cerverous]

When Xio begun her movement toward the cave he closed his eye. Clever girl. He knew that seeing his vision always hindered her balance and it wouldn't very cool way for her to go if she fell and say, snapped her neck, he'd seen it happen before. He trotted across the room to his closet, watching the snow drift, lazily past his face. Just inside the door, he pulled out a katana, flames emblazoned on the sheathe. When it was held behind him, small tentacles of darkness yanked it away and attached it to his hip, spreading until the entirety disappeared all together. Xio reached the cave and began to stare again. His own eye opened on another hovering blood text. It's like you know me or something. Just long enough to read it was just short of how long she had before she saw nothing and then herself silhouetted in the mouth of a cave, a single green-blue glow standing out above the rest.

[Xiomara]

Reading the blood writing she grinned but didn't reply to it, she did know him quite well though not well enough. At least she hoped she knew him well enough to guess some things. Right now her eye fixed on that single green-blue glow the other looked out onto the darkness of the cave. Her body relaxed and the rest of the world behind her, it didn't matter if it all fell away; she was always focused on one point. Cerverous. It just tended to feel right whenever she was bothering him. Words tumbled from her mouth, mumbling. "To think that I used to be afraid of you, a feeble old man with a potty mouth." She mused, calling quietly into the cave as if he could follow the sound of her voice. Wincing when she remembered the way sounds had affected him and regretting ever saying anything at all. She'd cause him pain soon enough.