73- Unwelcome Arrival

"Hold it together, just a bit longer."

Tau heard Cole's coaching over the agonized groans of Kyffin.

"Tau, sign faster!"

"I'm going as fast as I can. This is much more difficult with short, fleshy fingers," he replied as he continued to make different forms with his hands while keeping a close eye on the paper in the bowl.

Every time he would lower his hands, a dot or several runes would appear, slowly drowning the scorpion under the added weight of the dampening paper.

"That's it, he understood," Tau relayed before signing, 'thank you, we will contact you again.'

"Force the scorpion through," Cole shouted to the ever-tightening grip of Kyffin's hand on his arm.

Slamming his hand down into the ritual bowl, he ended the scorpion's life, and forced it into Naldinrenu's waiting hand, before grabbing the top of the candle and snuffing it out, ending the ritual and severing their tie to the realm of the dead.

"Keep your eyes closed Kyffin," Cole spoke more calmly, as he released Kyffin's hand and frantically began to untie his from Tau's arm.

Kyffin was hunched over, sweat soaking his shirt and dripping from his brow as he groaned and clenched his teeth, despite struggling to catch his breath, his breathing deep and rapid.

"He's almost free, just hold still a little longer," Tau told him as he looked down to where Kyffin's hand was clutching at his arm, the white fabric of his shirt now dyed red, a steady stream of blood dripping from their elbows; a myriad of thrones protruding from Kyffin's mangled flesh, the cause.

"Tell me what went wrong," Cole said as he grabbed the scissors and hurried to Kyffin's side.

"I don't know," he panted as Cole cut away the fabric, and quickly dislodged his hand from Tau's arm.

There was an immediate relief for Tau, the sharp thorns no longer cutting into his bicep, but his concern for Kyffin's state was only heightened as Cole helped him shift off of his knees and he fiercely groaned, holding back his screams with every move of his arm.

"Tau, I need you to go and get Quays' first aid kit. We need tweezers, a bowl of warm water, and a couple of towels," Cole said as he carefully maneuvered Kyffin's arm into a more comfortable position.

"Everything was fine." Kyffin struggled to speak through his labored breathing. "Then I… I couldn't hold it back. Something was pulling it through me. I tried to stop it. It felt like sandpaper against my insides. I was being washed away. Pulled into the darkness. I don't know… I don't know, but the pain in my arm, it's like every vein of magic has ruptured."

"That not be far from the truth," Cole replied as Tau stood up and headed into the bathroom.

Giving his own hand a quick rinse off, he grabbed the first aid kit he had seen under the sink and dropped it off on the way passed as he headed to the closet. Retrieving a clean towel, he tossed it to Cole and went to the kitchen. Taking a bowl from the cupboard, he filled it part way with warm water and returned to find him tugging at one of the thorns. Much to both of their surprise, the thorn easily slipped free, and although the hole left behind bleed quite significantly at first, it quickly shrank and closed up, leaving a small black welt behind.

"Did that hurt?" Tau asked as he knelt down beside Cole.

"No, it made the agitation stop," Kyffin replied as he opened his eyes.

Lifting his arm, he cautiously turned it over and winced as he flexed his fingers.

"Fascinating," he murmured as he reached out and pulled one of the longer thorns from the palm of his hand. "Your arm," he said as he looked over at Tau.

"It's nothing. I'm far more concerned about yours," he replied as Cole pulled the tweezers from the first aid kit. "This happened because of me though, didn't it?"

"I can only assume so," Kyffin replied offering a strange but kind smile to him, as Cole began to examine the damage to his arm more closely.

"It appears that refined magic isn't entirely compatible with the death aspect of this ritual," Cole remarked as he turned to Tau. "Think you can get me a roll of paper towels. I suspect this is going to bleed a lot."

Standing, Tau went to the cupboard near the washing machine and pulled a new roll from its packaging as Kyffin continued to speak despite his inability to calm his breathing.

"I couldn't keep up with the demand. The void required, so much more. It latched on and tried to take everything. It tore through my flow forcing me to loosen my control. Then my magic, it burst through. It felt like it was trying to protect me."

Cole nodded as he began to pull the thorns from Kyffin's arm, starting near his elbow, where they appeared to be causing the most pain. Each one slipped free without any trouble, and Cole dropped them onto the plate where the worm's corpse now resided. Tearing off sections of the paper towel, Tau folded them several times into small squares, and did his best to staunch the bleeding, although that only seemed to make Kyffin more uncomfortable.

"I think it best if we just let them bleed on their own and contain the mess," Cole suggested as he watched what was happening. "Unfortunately, this is going to be a long and uncomfortable process. As much as I would like to just pluck this out with a quickness, I don't want to risk overwhelming your system and it not being able to stop the bleeding."

"It's fine. Just don't stop working," Kyffin replied as shook his head and wiped the sweat from his brow.

"This some magic you have, Hawthorne. Don't you ever mistake your power for being weak. You lucky you held out as long as you did."

"I'm just glad it's over," Kyffin replied as he turned to Tau. "Hey, would you mind opening the patio door for a bit? It's terribly hot in here, and I just can't seem to catch my breath."

"Of course," Tau said as he got up and made his way to the patio opening the door to let in the breeze.

While he hadn't found it overly warm, the apartment had become quite stuffy and an overpowering scent of vanilla and juniper still lingered in the air, possibly contributing to Kyffin's continued struggle.

"Hey now, you feeling a bit queasy there?" Cole asked as Tau looked back just in time to see Kyffin sway and shake his head.

"I'm not…" barely escaped Kyffin's lips as suddenly, without warning, he collapsed limp, back against the floor.

"Kyffin! Kyffin!" Cole shouted as he tapped against his cheeks. "Dammit. Tau, the ink she used for that Escadaram, where is it?"

"It's here," Tau replied fetching it from the nightstand drawer.

"I need a paint brush. A small one," he said as he picked up a towel with one hand and folded it in half while still holding up Kyffin's arm with the other.

Tau shifted the items of her drawer around until finding the paintbrush she had used on him before.

"Got it," he remarked as he moved back to Kyffin's side.

"Take his arm," Cole said as he took the paintbrush from him.

Taking Kyffin's arm he traded spots with Cole and with the paintbrush firmly held between his teeth, he wrapped the folded towel around Kyffin's arm.

"Okay, set it down, gently," he instructed as he helped Tau find a comfortable position for it to stay in. "Cut a strip of cloth from the edge of the sheet. The scissors are beside you."

Tau took the scissors and began to cut a strip from the edge of the sheet while Cole opened the bottle of ink and plunged the brush into the liquid.

"He is not going to be happy about this when he wakes up," Cole said as he opened up the top of Kyffin's shirt and drew a sigil in the center of his chest. Tossing the brush into the bowl of water, he set his hand to Kyffin's chest and breathed, "Ferav'emptu," as he closed his eyes. After a few seconds, he shook his head and sighed. "Tau, go turn on the shower, barely warm water. His insides be all over the place, we need to cool his temperature down," Cole explained as he removed Kyffin's glasses and set them over on the table.

"Here's the strip of the sheet," Tau replied as he handed it to him before making his way into the bathroom to do as he was asked.

Turning on the faucet, he adjusted the temperature to what he thought qualified as barely warm, when Cole came into the room with a semi-conscious Kyffin propped up against his side, his arm slung over his shoulder, his eyes slowly drifted shut again.

"No, no, no, none of that now. Keep them eyes open," Cole said as he tapped against his cheek causing Kyffin to pull them open again.

"It's set," Tau said as he moved to Kyffin's other side.

"Watch his arm. That towel ain't tied in place all that well. Just don't want any of them thorns to go falling out and him bleeding all over Quays' floor. Going to be having a hard-enough time explaining all this as it is. I'll keep a close watch on him. Why don't you get him a dry shirt, and another towel?" Cole suggested as Tau helped him lower Kyffin to his knees at the side of the tub.

Reaching over, Cole tested the water and pulled up the plunger on the faucet to start the shower.

"You probably not going to like this either, but this be for the best," Cole said as he hoisted Kyffin over the side of the tub holding him into the gentle shower of cool water.

Kyffin braced himself against the far edge of the tub with his good arm, as he breathed as deep as he could and kept blowing water away from his mouth, to avoid accidently inhaling any in.

Tau didn't like the idea of leaving them, but with no room to help, he did as Cole suggested and retrieved two clean, dry shirts from his bag, one for each of them, along with towels from the closet.

"Will he be alright?" Tau asked as he placed the shirts and towels on the floor next to Cole's feet, having returned to the bathroom.

"Yeah, he'll be fine come morning. If we manage to get the thorns out of his arm and give him a chance to recover, that is. This just be his body's reaction to the damage that was being done. He'll perk up here in a minute and then we can get him dried off and moved to the couch. Sorry to say, but he isn't going anywhere tonight."

"Quayleigh isn't going to like this. She has to be up early tomorrow."

"If we lucky, he can wake up long enough for us to get him down to my car, and I'll take him back to my place for the night. We can always come back for his car in the morning."

Kyffin groaned and sputtered water away from his mouth as he attempted to turn and reach for the tap. Grabbing the upper part of his injured arm, Cole stopped him from attempting to turn off the water.

"No, you don't," he said as he turned the tap off for him. "Best let us do all the heavy lifting, Hawthorne. You need time to recover, and we need to get that arm of yours fixed up." Picking up one of the towels, Cole unfolded it and set it over Kyffin's head. "Tau brought you a dry shirt."

"I don't feel so great," Kyffin replied as Cole helped him turn around so he could sit on the side of the tub.

"I don't suspect you do. Your body got a taste for your magic, and it seems it is quite over being starved by that fucked up refining technique they forced on you. You need to be very careful what you do for the next little while," Cole said as he went about drying Kyffin's hair. "Now let's get you out of this wet shirt and into something more comfortable."

"I'd appreciate that," Kyffin replied, his breathing having now returned to normal. "I'd also appreciate knowing if this was worth it. Did you get the answers you wanted?"

Tau shook his head as Cole finished unbuttoning the rest of Kyffin's shirt.

"Unfortunately, not. Naldinrenu hasn't seen my body since I left and hasn't been alerted to any problems by my shepherds either. After I explained, in short, the situation, I asked him to seek me out and to take me directly to Death."

"And he just believed you? No questions asked?"

"I'm sure he has many questions, but he had no reason not to believe me."

"Why is that exactly?" Cole asked as he pulled the bottom of Kyffin's shirt free from the top of his pants.

"Aside from the fact that I'm the only one here that could possibly know his name, or use the hand language, there is also no one else capable of reading his replies. That was more than enough to verify to him that I was speaking the truth of my identity."

"I see. Careful now," Cole muttered as he pulled Kyffin's shirt free, working the sleeve down over the towel wrapping on his arm with great care.

"It may be more important to get the thorns out than to get a shirt on," Kyffin remarked, his face scrunched as he was clearly still in a great deal of discomfort.

Cole agreed and with Tau's help, they took him back to the couch and laid him down. Moving the coffee table over, they rested Kyffin's arm against it.

"Take a minute to relax. I'm just going to patch up Tau. Unlike you, he not be healing," Cole remarked as Tau removed his shirt, taking note of the blood on the edge of his sleeve. "At least this not be as bad as I thought."

"Luckily not many thorns grew from his palm," Tau said as Cole examined his injury.

"And most of them were small. These should heal just fine over the next couple of days," Cole replied as he grabbed a large bandage from the first aid kit. "Just going to stick this on you, so you don't go bleeding all over the place."

Once Cole had set the bandage into place, Tau retrieved a long sleeve shirt from his bag, and finished putting it on as the apartment phone began to ring.

"That might be Quayleigh," Tau said with a spark of hope as he answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Dylan, it's Yechiel. I'm downstairs, buzz me in."

"Now isn't a good time."

"I'm here on police business. You need to let me in. I tried calling you to let you know I was on my way…, oh, never mind, someone's coming out," Mazurka said and the line went dead.

Tau slowly hung up the phone and looked around the apartment.

"This isn't good," he stated as he rushed over to the ritual bowl, grabbed it and moved it into bathroom where he dumped it into the sink.

"What's going on?" Cole asked as Tau came back and tossed the candle to him.

"Hide that. The police are here, and on their way up," he replied as he grabbed the sheet and tarp and hastily began to fold it up, before carrying it into the bathroom and throwing it into the tub.

Grabbing the second clean shirt and towel from the floor, he threw them at Cole, and as he gathered the books and stuffed them under the couch, Cole stripped off his wet shirt and put the dry one on, as a loud knock came to the door.

"Open up Dylan!" Mazurka called out as Cole tossed him his wet shirt and towel.

Moving to the bathroom, Tau tossed the shirt and towel on the floor and closed the door, while Cole finished sliding everything else that would fit, beneath the couch.

"Hold on," he replied in an attempt to stall as he watched Cole move Kyffin's arm onto the couch and grab the blanket off Quayleigh's bed.

"I'm not joking, open the door!" Mazurka shouted, pounding on the door again, as they moved the coffee table back to a more normal position.

"I told you this was a bad time," Tau shouted back, giving Cole just enough time to throw the blanket over the damp, half-naked, semi-conscious, MET registered Mage on the couch.

Seeing as things were as good as they could get, Cole picked up Kyffin's feet and sat down, putting them back on his lap, as Tau moved to the door, unlocked it and opened it up, only for Mazurka to step inside with Kavak close behind him.

"Look I know this is a bad time, but this really can't wait," Mazurka announced as he turned to face him. "It has to do with Quayleigh."

"Is she in danger?" Tau questioned, and although he was irritated by the way Mazurka had barged in without even giving him time to properly step out of the way, Quayleigh's safety was far more important, then addressing his intrusive behavior.

"No, but I need you come with me. She's going to need you when she hears what I have to say," Mazurka explained as Tau released the door allowing it to drift shut of its own accord, latching with the familiar, distinctive creaking sound.

"Care to give us a preview?" Cole questioned with a heated tone as he moved up behind Mazurka, having slid out from under Kyffin's legs.

"Sir, I'm going to ask you to step back," Kavak commanded as he quickly put himself between Cole and Mazurka.

"It's fine, Cole, I happen to know them," Tau remarked while he glared at the back of Kavak's head, not even trying to hide the fact that he was examining all of the wide open, tender, unprotected parts of his body.

Kavak turned and looked at Tau, shifting in an uneasy manner as Cole stepped back towards the couch, and the cool breeze blowing in from the open patio door, did nothing to ease the sense of danger that had filtered into the room.

Tau reached out and turned the deadbolt, a loud clunk, announcing the locking of the apartment door, and in a calm, slow, stiff manner, he shifted his gaze to Yechiel and said, "I do hope you plan to explain yourself for this intrusion. Worrying me about Quayleigh, without good reason, would be, ill advised."

"I assure you, Dylan, I've good reason, and I didn't mean to intrude, but I think this is far more important," he replied as he pulled the photos out from his pocket. "Does any of this look familiar to you?"

Tau looked at the pictures, and he easily recognized the room from the green, as well as the younger Quayleigh, but knew that saying anything could raise too many suspicions.

"The woman is obviously Quayleigh, but I don't recognize the location," he lied, knowing full well it was his only option as he pushed passed Kavak and handed the pictures to Cole.

"What the hell?" he muttered as he looked them over. "Where you get these? What be the meaning of this?" Cole demanded as he held up the pictures.

"We got them off of the computer of a man named Kenneth Ogilvy," Mazurka replied as he took the pictures back from Cole, returning them to his pocket. "Quayleigh knew him only by the name 'Three.' We recently discovered that he had been stalking her, and tonight we discovered that he had been secretly recording her, when she lived at this other location."

"That is her bedroom at Garren's. I know because I helped her pack up her stuff before bringing it here," Cole said as Kyffin moaned causing Kavak to move up beside him.

Pulling the coffee table out of the way, Kavak knelt down and press his fingers to the side of Kyffin's neck, as he asked, "What is he on and how much has he taken?"

"He be fine, just a bit under the weather, is all," Cole replied as Tau stepped towards the couch.

"I'm fine," Kyffin mumbled as he swatted Kavak's hand away.

"Dylan, who is this?" Kavak asked as he look up at him.

"He is my brother, and as you were told, he is unwell. I suggest you move away from him," Tau stated as he looked down upon Kavak, trying to not appear as if he was about to tear him limb from limb as a strange, unusual need to protect Kyffin welled up from within.

"He hasn't drunk too much or taken anything illegal?" Kavak asked, refusing to move from his position.

"No, he hasn't. I believe something he ate has made him quite ill. Now back away, and explain why this can't wait until Quayleigh comes home from work?"

"It's because the camera is still somewhere at the store, and we need to retrieve it," Mazurka said as he set his hand onto Tau's shoulder. "Quayleigh needs to know what Three did. We don't have time to get a proper warrant, so I need her to convince Garren to let me in to search her room and any belongings that she may have left behind. I'm going to have to explain all of this too her, and she needs to know that the recordings he made; they were uploaded to the internet. She's going to need you with her when I give her the news."

"You have got to be fucking kidding me. Shit, Tau, you need to go with them," Cole said, looking him dead in the eye as he stepped closer, Mazurka cautiously retreating. "I'll stay here and look after him. You go take care of Quayleigh, and stay with her until you can bring her home."

"I will," Tau replied as Cole pulled him in and gave him a hug, his behavior making it obvious that there was something going on that he didn't quite understand.

"You pass that along to her for me," he said before turning to Mazurka. "There be a few boxes in the closet that she didn't have room for here. You might want to start with them."