CHP43

“What are you doing?” Seneya took up a seat next to Kael at their fire. He had ditched the jeans and shirt in favor of his wrappings. He took up space near their burn pit, sitting with a small cup of water, a vial of some sort of slick dark sludge, and a box. Kael stared up at the simple vial in the early day’s light and grinned.

“Well, if we’re going to be drinking tonight, we might as well make it a cause worth celebrating!” He pulled the vial’s stopper with a gentle tug and held aloft the glass rod that slipped from inside the stirring mess. Its reflective surface dappled gently with small swirls. Carefully, he touched it to the water’s surface with the most gentle motion. The surface rippled as oily black spread through the water, stirring before going pitch black. An acrid smell wafted off of it, and Kael capped the vial quickly.

“Tatsuli!” He said with joy.

“Ehhh, this seems like a bad idea, Kael. Alcohol and tattoos just don’t go together.” Seneya stared at the acrid liquid as his dark nails tapped over the box.

He flipped it open and rummaged around for a few brushes, and pulled out a fine-tipped one. “Hold your arm over.”

“What? No! Dee said it hurt. You said it hurt. Also, I don’t even know what I’d want on me. What if I change my mind?”

“Then let it wear off and get a different one in a year.”

“So, it’s not forever?”

“Mine are fading. Yes?” He turned his arm over to show some dusty lighter-colored spots in his arms’ black swath.

“And how does it feel?” She reached over and gently touched the black of his skin against the natural color. He grinned down at her as she did so—curious and full of wonder.

“Like your skin is on fire there, and then when it gets into your bloodstream….” Kael shuddered.

“And why do you do this?” She winced, squinting from the brush in his hand to the tainted water below.

“To show how tough we are and… just to feel something….” Kael stared at it, an honest and sad admission. Seneya stuck her arm out with reservation and turned her head away.

“Just a little.” She added to him, conceding. His eyes lit with delight.

“Just a test spot!” He dipped the brush, leaned over her upper arm. “Deep breath,” he ordered.

“Okay,” she said, gritting her teeth as she tucked herself tight.

She chanced it, peeking back for a lingering fearful moment.

He touched the tip of the brush to her arm, watching as it spread and sank into her skin, tingling at first, then stinging as it absorbed. She waited, tensing and breathing heavily, until it faded away into nothing, leaving just a black mark behind.

“That wasn’t pleasant… but it’s not that bad….” She said as she peeked over, “That because you diluted it?”

Kael stared from the new black spot on her arm, then to his own. He drew a little line of it over his flesh and hissed sharply, gritting his teeth to usher the sensation away.

“Maybe takes longer to hit you,” He groaned. The pain crawled over his skin and sank into his veins. A dark wash went through his eyes as his fires flared.

Seneya turned her arm over to stare at the paleness of her skin, the freckles, and the crawling sensation that suddenly ripped through her veins. It hit her then that what she felt, those sensations, the storm of it roiling through her, should have been pain. What else could it be? But then again, the visceral sensation pooled within her—icy and hot, running through her veins.

“Kael… I kind of like it,” she laughed, letting the fire shimmy through her with a sigh. “Kinda tickles.”

“Creators… ngh… feathers, starling,” He panted and grit his teeth a final moment before spluttering out an exhausted breath. He flopped back into the grass and sighed a low groan.

“Yeah, I’m not taking a drop more without liquor,” he demanded before reaching his hand out blindly to the air. Seneya glanced around for their bag and pushed a new bottle into his hands. He sat up, wrestled with the lid, and brought the mouth of it up to his lips for a trembling sip.

Bubbles made their way across the amber bottom of the bottle from Kael’s thirsty swallows.

“Alright!” He wheezed, plunking the bottle down beside him with a satisfied sigh.

“You going to keep doing it?” Seneya tilted her head.

“Nah. You’re going to keep doing it. I’ll talk; you just don’t color outside the lines already there.

Seneya fumbled as he tossed her the brush and gestured for her to continue.

“Do I do it with this little brush or get a bigger one?”

“You know what? Go for the bigger one. I’m not going anywhere today! He grabbed around for the box, his clumsy fingers spilling its contents before he snagged a short wooden dowel from the pile. He clamped it between his teeth, shrugged his shoulders, and braced himself.

“Go!” He ordered, and Seneya rummaged in the tools to find a small brush with a wider bristle. She dipped it carefully and brought it to his skin with a cautious lean, her eyes losing focus for a moment. Then, suddenly, she drew back, uncertain of herself.

“It’s a’right, just pain’ I’ on!” He told her, and the first stroke she laid down his arm lit the entirety of his being on fire in the worst possible way. He remained stone-still, despite everything, every muscle on his body tensing as veins rose and spidered. Tears gathered at the corners of his eyes, and he growled with a joyful wavering noise.

“You learn to like it…nff… after a bit.” He tried to assure her as a heavy sweat broke out over him.

She pulled the brush away and stared at the fresh streak as it sank into his skin, blackening to match the rest of the faded ink around it. Spidering tendrils of stinging black spread and ebbed around the stroke. Then Kael gasped, grabbed for his bottle, and took another heavy swig.

Seneya’s expression turned sour, her eyes pleading and fingers tensing in a strained draw, “Kael. I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t like hurting you.”

“Girl, is my aura spiking?” He stared at her with watering cobalt blue eyes.

“N-no.” Seneya shrank against herself.

He sighed and grabbed for the dowel and reseated it over his teeth.

“A’right. Kee’ goin,” He choked out as he braced his arm. Seneya braved it and took another stroke, then another before wetting the bristles down again and again. His breath hissed reedy and sharp over the bit of wood in his mouth, and she heard an ominous creaking coming from it as the wood began to splinter.

Seneya reached the edge of his wrist and delicately edged up to the line with as steady of a hand as she could. Kael crushed down on the wood for a tense wavering few seconds before he spat it hard onto the ground.

“THERE WE GO!” He shouted up at the skies with a whoop that contained within it all the frustration, pain, and anger welling within his shaking chest. Seneya pulled the brush back and watched as he rotated his wrist with a tender roll and let the arm fall limp to his side.

“This really gets the heart running!”He sighed heavily with delight and snagged his bottle for another drink.

“D-do I start?” She turned her attention to the bottle with an ominous gaze. The thought of doing that to him unsettled her.

“Nah, get the rest, and you can drink. Gimme a head start on getting drunk. You’ll be better at it than me.” Kael teased before tilting the bottle back up to his lips to swallow in throat-bobbing gulps.

A half-hour later, when Seneya finished both of his arms and had started on his tail, Kael called it off with a rasping breath.

“Gaff Ryel NAH!” He shouted a slur in his words on the edge of a tongue numb from liquor.

“Know-wha… fink I will call Dee, yes?” He tried to lift one of his hands, and it trembled hard.

“Nevermind. This is as good of a time as any… yes. I’ll teach ya how to send a moth!” Kael laughed a little.

Seneya gazed up with rapt attention and listened.

He took a deep breath, and on the edge of his shaken words, he told her to cup her hands and summon her fire, drawing the image of a moth into her mind with soft wings and light form.

”That’s it? No spells or hand movements or anything?” Seneya stared at her hands a bit and cupped them, letting her fires pool in the supplicative form of her palms.

“Yep, just draw n’image in yer head! Like t’ rest of our magic. Just will and image. It’ll all c-come t’ya in time, y’ll ramember,” His words slurred together, and Seneya thought about the fluttering form of the moths she’d seen him send to Sael. Like that, a simple little green moth shaped and pulled itself from the tickles of her gently coveted flames and fluttered just in her palms, waiting for orders.

“Now tell it, who to find and what to say. Juss… tell’er that we’re doin tatsuli. Should scare’r enough to come.” Kael laughed and threw his head back with a shaken rasp of breath. “Mind you, only messages for me can come in. Will haf’ta get Sael to help me fix that for ya when it’s safer.”

Seneya nodded, took a deep breath to say something, then Kael halted her.

“Wait! Say’it in English so tha’ she knows what you’re sayin,” He spoke up quickly. Seneya twisted her lips, spoke in a whisper to the moth, and opened her hands to let it go, watching as it floated up and out of sight.

“Hmm… Go get the other bottles from inside, and mebbe we can call Sael, too.”

“Okay,” Seneya said quietly. If Kael needed the distraction, she’d gladly offer it. So, too, did she whisper to her palms once more and ask Sael to come. It fluttered up and away.

“That boy’ll beat her here, I bet,” Kael shuddered.