Peacemakers Dusk

[Neron]

Dusk, how wonderful it was. Mists from the ground seeped in to the air slowly, lazily, and magically. Cecily had been waiting for this moment for a while. A full moon was rising as the sun’s light died in the sky. The light that flooded the sky was of a strange quality, but it wasn’t going to last much longer. Luckily, Cecily had finished what she had come for.

Standing by the entrance of the garden her small frame seemed to glow. Her silvery hair flowed from her like liquid starlight, and her amber eyes shone with a strange fire. “Perfect....just perfect.” She muttered to herself as her nimble hands tied some herbs together. She had completed her task of gathering herbs sooner than she had expected. “It’s good luck to finish before the end of dusk.” She smirked. “That means my precious plants that you will bring great peace to many, lovely swift peace.” A smile spread across her face, but it was not one that brought warmth, but coldness to your heart.

The herbs had been tied and opening a purse and tucked her herbs in their silver bed. Lately Cecily’s mind had been racing, something that happened around a full moon. She couldn’t keep her mind from formulating new poisons, trying new things, or breaking rules she had put before herself. After all that’s what rules were there for right? With a quick movement she closed the purse and brushed her flouncing skirt to rid it of the dirt specs. “Off we go my dear.” She smirked again. Just as she was picking her foot up to take a step forward she heard something. Shifting her eyes towards the source the smirk remained on her face. “Hmm, I guess I will linger a bit longer.”

[saerwen]

Jaedon had not stopped running since she had left the others. Blood was draining down her leg where her mended wound had come undone. Her mind was screaming nasty things at her and her heart was not there to defend her. She had nothing left...There was nothing to help her now. She was desperate and in need. She had seen Damion and Miriel together, they were so happy. And every time she thought of that, she thought of that day in the cafe where Neron had been reaching across to her, but stopped himself. It hurt to remember that. She had not been able to figure out why until Neron had stepped in front of Miriel just then. Whether Neron knew it or not, he had come to mean more to Jaedon than she had ever thought possible. Jaedon longed for the kind of love that Damion and Miriel shared. She had always heard that love was a wonderful thing from those that she trusted, and she knew that love between two separate people was greater than that of a family. She had never had either, and she longed for one. She had no more hope left for one, and now, she knew that her heart had betrayed her by choosing someone who couldn’t care less.

Not only this, but the longing for such a feeling was making her jealous and hateful. She knew that she would never be able to look at Miriel and Damion, even on a good day, without a strong longing for what they had, and that would make her taciturn and angry. She was losing everything it seemed and her mind was panicking for control, wanting to start exacting things, making them less important. Her heart was fixing to let it take over, and Jaedon knew what happened when her mind was in more control than her heart. She would die before she went there again.

She didn’t know why her feet had carried her to the garden, and she didn’t know why she was so happy to see the silvery figure of Cecily until she remembered. Peacemaker... Cecily would be able to give her the peace that she desired, and she wouldn’t have to worry about Cecily’s conscience being taught with grief. Without ever being able to foresee this happening, Jaedon went to the person that had once been an asset to her murderous crimes for a weapon to commit her own murder. This will be the last time that I kill...Ever. Jaedon ran up to Cecily, still in her usual form.

“Cecily!” she gasped, a little worn out from running with an injured leg. “I need a poison. I need it now. I don’t care what kind, just make sure that it will kill a large animal. It has to be efficient and effective. I’ll don’t have time to pay you right now, but just find me or one of the other guys that I usually hang around with after. This is not something to play with so please hurry.” Jaedon was urgent, are her lie was good. She hoped that Cecily wouldn’t see through it, but even if she did, Jaedon would still require the poison. And there were many ways of killing ones self, but poison was the least likely to fight against your conscience.

[Neron]

Cecily raised an eyebrow at Jaedon’s appearance. “Looks like you need a doctor.” The smirk twisted on her face and she let out a sigh of exasperation. “Usually I like to specially concoct my teas, choosing very carefully which would suit the job best....But you are in luck.” She paused and rummaged around in her silver pouch for a moment. “Where is it...” She muttered to herself. A moment more and she found what she was looking for. Out of the bag she pulled a vial, very small, something that could fit in your fist. It had a clear solution in it, resembling water. “Be glad I had this solution with me and that I know a great formula right off the top of my head.” With a sigh she shook her silver head. “People always underestimate how long it takes to come up with my special blended teas...” Handing over the vial she continued. “Don’t touch the stuff, very acidic. But if you place a special plant in it you will be able to neutralise it. Now this plant can be found around the corner by the pansies. It’s a sort of tall bladed grass, more of a weed actually. Just crumple up a handful of them and stick it in the vial. Swirl it around until the color turns slightly green. Then just have whatever, or whomever drink it. Works pretty quick and is one of the simplest teas I have. ”

Cecily studied Jaedon for a moment. “Hmm...I guess this can be your free trial of my teas. Next time though, don’t expect me to be handing out free samples.” Her amber eyes narrowed. “Oh, I almost forgot. Make sure the blades of grass you get are new growth, they work the best. Though the more mature shoots won’t do to much damage...” Her voice lowered, “hopefully.” Turning she examined the sky. A cloud had blocked the full moon. “hmm... well I better be going. Hope everything turns out like you want.” She smirked and waltzed off, her voice shimmering back. “Enjoy the peace Jaedon...I’m sure you will get the desired results...though I quite liked you.” Then she was gone.

[saerwen]

“Screw the doctor...” Jaedon muttered under her breath as she change back into her human form. Her eyes were bloodshot from tears, and the rims were red from distress and exertion. Her skin was pale and worn, as though all of the blood had been drained from her body. Her limping was obvious and the rest of her figure seemed to fade into the black of the night. Her hair hung loose and wild, as though it had been ruffled after being brushed. She listened with disinterest to what Cecily had to say about her finessing with her ‘teas’. When she had what she needed to know, Jaedon grabbed the vial from Cecily’s hand and started to walk off. She barely heard the rest of what Cecily said about peace. She stalked off towards the pansies.

How has it come to this? she wondered. Why did I ever have to find friends? she shook her head as the thoughts came pouring through with tears as a side mark. This is what Fische tried to beat into me with such thorough intensity, but I still never got it. He wanted to make sure that I would live forever and continue to do my job for forever. Friends don’t corrupt you as a person, they corrupt an assassin, and their purpose. My purpose was to be a loner, but now that it has been corrupted, all I long for is death. She knelt down next to the pansies after finding the weed that Cecily had spoken of. She thought it ironic that her poison was found directly next to her favorite flower. Then, as she worked on crushing the weed up, she saw that one of the blooms from the pansies had fallen off. It was starting to wilt and die away. It reminded her of the day that they had all been in the garden and Neron had been shredding the poor flowers. She had gotten so mad at him...Her heart started to ache, but she quelled it with a vicious furry. It was too late to start having feelings for him. It was too late for everything. She was beyond the point of help, and there was no looking back now. Neron would go on without her, probably not even thinking twice, and he would find someone, and be happy with them, but it would not be Jaedon. She didn’t allow herself to cry about it, and so, she continued with her task.

She pushed the weeds into the vial, using a stick to push them in a little ways further. She placed the lid on the vial and started to swirl it with intensity. It was not long before the deep green of the plant had seeped into the rest of the solution. Jaedon sat back, and held the bottom up, surveying it in the light of the moon. Yes, the green had gone all the way through...It was ready.

[Neron]

“Quite an interesting drink you have there.” A deep voice rolled through the night. The moon was shining with a great intensity down upon a lone black figure that emerged from behind a nearby statue. It seemed like the moon was having fun playing and sliding over Neron's head. A slight smirk was on his lips. There was something different about him, something lighter, but it was hard to find. Perhaps it was because the haunted look had left his eyes and the dark halos had faded. Even though his skin was still pale and had a pasty pallor to it, it seemed like he was started to get on the mend. In reality, you wouldn't notice these things unless you looked very very closely.

“So are you going to drink it sip by sip or are you going to bottoms up it?” Coming closer his smirk grew larger. His green eyes flickered playfully. A slight breeze floated through the air, just enough to send the faint scent of the poison in Neron's direction. Neron's face fell for a moment and his eyes dropped immediately to the drink. “Well now, what do we have here?” He drew closer, his eyes dilating slightly. “What type of goodies are you hiding my friend? ”

[saerwen]

Jaedon almost dropped the bottle to the ground when she heard Neron. Practically jumping out of her skin she gave him a vicious look that warned him to stay away. Why did it have to be him of all people? Then she shook those thoughts from her mind. Who cared who it was, no one was going to stop her. If Neron took the poison, Jaedon would make use of her knife. Slitting her throat would be just as easy. Her leg had been jarred by her jump, and a grimace of pain soured her face. She drew the hand that held to bottle in close, not ready to give it up quite yet. If Neron really wanted it, he was going to have to fight for it.

“What do you care?” she asked rather dully. Her voice held no sharp edge, it held nothing of joy. The usual hints of sarcastic humor had died. “I think I’ll drink it any way that I please.” She stared in front her, not making eye contact with Neron, knowing that if she did, her emotions would run away with her. She was already on the verge of committing acts that were nothing but pure evil, but she was not willing to give in just yet. She had to fight them for as long as she had the strength to carry them out. He came closer and Jaedon felt every muscle in her body tightening, causing another string of pain to shoot up her leg. She let out an angered sigh as she tried to snuff the knowledge of pain from her mind again, but it was getting harder now. “My goodies.” she bit out from clenched teeth. “Go get your own.”

[Neron]

“What do I care? What do I care.” Neron's eyes lost their sarcastic gleam and reaching down he placed his index finger below her chin and lifted it. “Jaedon look at me.” His eyes were warm and gentle. He knew that she wouldn't look at him unless she wanted to. He waited for a moment before dropping his hold and his eyes grew sarcastic once more. His finger felt warm where he had been touching her, it tingled in a strange way, but not a harmful way. Yet the feeling had made him loose contact with her. He was frightened by this strange feeling that filled him when he was around Jaedon, he had never experienced it to this intensity before. “ You're right, what do I care? Why would I care for someone like you. Perhaps it's because I have some common ground with you.” He smirked. “We are both beasts Jaedon, except I'm just a different species.”

Looking down at her he whispered slightly, his voice like smooth chocolate. “I don't want my own drink Jaedon, I want yours.” His smirk turned into a sort of grin. If she didn't give it to him he was going to take it from her. It smelled so...delightful. In fact it brought a memory back, a very good memory. Could it be what he thought it was? His gaze shifted to her hands, if she just let loose her grip, even slightly, he knew he could take it.

[saerwen]

Jaedon was not willing to look at Neron but she had no choice because he gave her none. She looked at him through bloodshot, lifeless eyes that seemed to grow darker by the moment. His green eyes held a different kind of look than what they usually did. It was strange, and Jaedon began to curse it as her heart rate increased. He was too close...close enough for her to...No, she couldn’t. How could she think so? Was she so hopeless as to have faded this far? Yes, she had. But she would fight until there was no more reason left to fight. Neron pulled away just in time for Jaedon to stop herself. She listened to the words he spoke, but none of them took their full meaning. She was not registering anything. Her green eyes were blank, as though she understood nothing.

At first, Jaedon was tempted to give into the smooth voice that seemed to coax the bottle out of her hand, but then her grip around the bottle tightened so much that she was sure it would break at any second. “Well, that would be stealing, and I won’t let you.” She spoke as she stared ahead to bush that was nondescript in the dark. She suddenly felt very small, and began to draw her legs in towards her self. The one thing that she forgot was her injured leg, which, as she pulled it closer to herself, rubbed against the soft green grass. She let out a groan of pain as all attention that was everywhere else went to the pain. With her mind she fought it, and her hands went loose. She still held the bottle, but her grip had slackened. She tightened it as soon as she realized what she had done.

[Neron]

Neron looked down at Jaedon as he saw hopelessness. Such despair reflected in her eyes. Had he looked like that? Bloodshot eyes, pain, not just mental but physical. His quick eyes noticed her wince and his sense of hearing picked up her groan of pain. Her leg, it was wounded, scarlet with blood. But he knew that he couldn’t do anything to help, he was not a healer, never had been. Neron didn’t think she would let him heal it even if he could, no, a smirk crawled on his lips, no she was too stubborn for that.

It was then that he saw her grip loosen on that vial, that vial of curious liquid. The smell was intoxicating to him, purely wonderful. Reaching out with swift hands he snatched it from her hands. What had looked like black fingerless gloves turned out to be black bandages, wrapped around his hands and one bandage crawled along his forearm. They covered his burns from Miriel, whose fire had even pierced through dragon scales, and her bite that had freshly fractured his arm. Swirling the liquid around in the vial under his nose his eyes dilated a bit further. Those green eyes of his closed halfway, “Mmm... I can’t believe it...This is a rather strong drink don’t you think. I didn’t know you liked your drinks this strong.” He stepped back, out of her reach. “Though you are the daring sort of person aren’t you.”

[saerwen]

Yet again, Neron came next to her. Why did he keep hanging around? Why had he shown up? Then a thought struck her. Had he followed her from the lake? No, it wasn’t possible? What could have been the motive for that? Surely not for any good reason, unless he would have just felt guilty letting her go alone. She smirked and then her head fell to let her eyes gaze upon the ground. Her heart was playing tricks on her.

As he spoke Jaedon knew what he was going to do...He was going to down the whole thing. She felt her heart skip a beat. That was poison he washolding, and knowing Cecily, a rather volitile one. She couldn’t let Neron drink that! That was her death in that bottle. She wanted that to go down her throat, not his. She didn’t want Neron to die. Why would he be so foolish as to drink something like that. When she had made up her mind to stop him, he had already lifted the drink to his lips. Her hand reached up to his quickly in a desperate attempt to stop him from drinking it, but she had no strength left, and by the time she said, “Neron, it’s poison!”he had already gone and sucked it down like a professional drinker with a shot of whiskey. She sat there, eyes wide in shock and disbelief. Her hand was gripping around his wrist, unable to move or do anything else for that matter except think, Now Neron is going to die because of you...You bloodthirsty nature has killed again without you even meaning to. Why had Neron been so foolish?

[Neron]

Neron’s gaze showed worry for Jaedon. That wound on her leg, it wasn’t pretty, and was very deep. He had, something like that, long ago. His lips curled into a slight smile. Yes, he had a wound that deep, perhaps even deeper and that was how he met Miriel. Without Miriel he never would have met Jaedon. What a twisted world, everything relied on everything else. Without one piece of the puzzle would the picture ever be complete?

Knowing that Jaedon wasn’t one for much pity, Neron settled down by her, crossing his legs. IT was nice to sit, he had come a long way to get here before Jaedon did something brash. Just the thought about doing something brash caused Neron’s eyes to drift to the vial clasped between his hands. This liquid...it was intoxicating. “I don’t know about that Jaedon... I tend to like my drinks with a bit of kick in them. ” Lifting the vial to his nose he inhaled the fragrance deeply. That grass, it was the one he was thinking about. His half open eyes gazed at it longingly. Then with a swift movement he put the vial to his lips and downed the whole vial, draining every drop that it held.

[saerwen]

Jaedon had a desperate look on her face as though she was thinking of a way to get the poison back out of him. She was sure that in only a few moments, something would happen, but Neron was being impreterbable. She just couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him? From one moment to the next he shifted from goofy to serious. Then he started his act and Jaedon’s face went from shock, to confusion, to slight anger, and then to shock again. It just kept rotating until he stopped, and when he did, she just sat there for a moment in stunned amazement. Then she lashed out at him, slapping him on the arm with her palm, full force. She turned away from him with a sour expression on her face. He had known the whole time that it wasn’t going to hurt him at all, and even worse, he had known that it was a poison, but had said nothing.

She was sick to her stomach now. Her anxiety of having Neron die at her cause was fixing to drive her insane. And that heart attack had been quelled most malignantly with Neron’s joke. Her heart was racing and she was pushing back thoughts of what she would do if Neron did die because of her. With her thought consumed, her answers became taciturn and quick. “I’m not a gardener Neron, of course I have no clue what that is.” She was not happy with him right now. Not only had he drank her poison, he had lived! She was not mad that he had lived, but rather that he had acted as though he was going to die. What a jerk.

[Neron]

“Neron it’s poison.” The words of Jaedon rang in his head just as the last drop had flowed down his throat. Before he knew it she was grabbing his wrist, trying to make him stop, but it was to late. But against what would be expected, Neron was perfectly calm. Lowering his hand that she had a death grip on, he used his other to pull out a piece of the grass and run it under his nose. “Poison you say?” A thoughtful expression came across his face. “Hmm... how unfortunate.” Looking at Jaedon a goofy grin came to his face and he closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. The breath was held for a moment before released in a huge sigh.

“Well then my friend, I suppose you can have my Cd’s and my science books, it seems that you need all the help in those areas as much as possible.” A deep rolling laughter came from him, but only lasted for a second or two. “Well, if this was poison I suppose I would be feeling it right about...” He winced slightly before a grin came back on his face. “Now?” An eyebrow raised and he stared into Jaedon’s green eyes, which were full of despair. Removing her hand from his wrist he stood up for a moment before extracting another green blade of grass and chewed on it like a farmer does straw. “What a shame...I guess I’m immune to it.”

His gaze turned to the sky. The moon was beautiful at night and though the spring air was cold, a warm breeze floated through the garden. “Or it could have to do with this.” He extracted another blade of grass from the vial and held it in front of him. “Do you know what this is?”

[saerwen]

“For once, you show some shame for your jokes.” She bit out, hardly softened by his comment. She just sat there and stared hard in front of her. She was not going to be easily moved. What a sore little thing she was now, and Neron being around her wasn’t making it any better. The fact that she was starting to like him made her hate being around him. She wished that he would go away and let her get back to the business she had maintained before hand. As long as he was here she knew that she couldn’t do anything and she knew that she would be fighting herself, trying to convince herself that there was no reason to like him because he certainly didn’t like her.

She then sat and listened to his explanation with much indifference. Then he mentioned that day in the garden where he had acted so out of character. She suddenly started to laugh. It was almost a giggle, but it had a little more gaiety in its tone. Then she stopped, a wicked smile on her face as she looked at him. It seemed as though another side of her had come alive by what he had said. Her green eyes laughed at him with cruelty and she had a very dangerous appearance. “Trusting me is a bad idea. Assassins are tricky folk you know. You never know when we might strike.” Then it faded as quickly as it had come as she looked away. Jaedon was having trouble silencing the side of her that was rather evil. She wanted to kill that part of her but it just wasn’t working. She could only smother it for some time and then go and release it on some poor soul in the underground.

When Neron spoke of cauterizing her wound she stared at him hard. He is kidding right? He has got to be kidding. I am not gonna let him touch it! I might as well not even cause the trouble seeing as how I won’t be alive to appreciate it much longer. Her green, unforgiving eyes told him the answer to his suggestion before she even spoke, and when she did her voice was like concrete smacking against skin at a high speed. “Forget it. There is no point.” She then looked away and went back to her occupation of pulling at the grass.

[Neron]

Neron raised an eyebrow at the slap. It had stung him like a thousand bees, but he wasn’t going to let it show, that much. As his cheek turned a slight hue of pink he smirked, “Ah I thought my face needed a bit of color. Thank you Jaedon.” It seemed that he had gotten her mind off of killing herself quite successfully, well now she was angry at him, but that was a step in the right direction.

After studying her for a moment as she turned from him, he couldn’t help but notice how the moonlight played with her long black hair. But he didn’t spend long looking, for she answered his question. “This...” Her twirled the plant in his fingers. “Is one of the few plants I care about. It’s called Areiora, or in the common tongue of English, Dragonsbite. To of other species it is extremely deadly, but for us, it merely gives us a little burn on the way down. The solution that it was in is a very secret combination of many things..” He lowered his voice and looked at the vial in his other hand. “Which makes me wonder where the person you got this from got the recipe.” Dropping the grass he lifted his gaze to Jaedon. “It tends to make us go a little crazy in the head, sort of like what catnip does to cats. Which explains what happened here last time. Next time Damion’s in a bad mood just bring some of this to him...very useful.” He smiled slightly. “So now I have just told you dragons greatest weakness...Probably not a smart thing...but it is to late for me to take it back.”

That smile of his came to his mouth and he looked down on her. His green eyes shone brightly, even in the darkness that filled the night. “Ah well, I trust you.” Neron ran his fingers through his raven black hair and let his gaze drop to her wound. “Now let me at least cauterize that for you. ”