A Cycle Of Parallels

Esei blinks.

Esei inclines their head politely to you.

Rhalkyr tilts his chin back slightly to Esei, the fingers of his right hand
rippling a gentle beat over his heart.

Esei's shadowed wings drift closed, then open, leaving behind little particles of silver and
darkness behind.

Esei pats a headstrong young manticore in a friendly manner.
A headstrong young manticore growls menacingly.

Rhalkyr absently flicks stiffened fingers against a headstrong young manticore's
nose, uttering a strange, warbling chirp, which causes the youthful creature to grow quiescent.

Humming softly, Esei tilts their head curiously at you. Their eyes trail over your chest, lingering
over the palm over the heart.

Esei sways back and forth.

 Lifting his gaze from a headstrong young manticore, Rhalkyr cocks his head at Esei
for a moment, swaying slightly in accompaniment to the music. Tracing a circle about the handprint,
he speaks in a soft, fond voice, "Silent One."

Esei tips their head to one side, dark eyes glittering. "What did He tell you?"

Regarding Esei for a time in silence, Rhalkyr's eyes gleam within the depths of his
mask, still tracing a slow circle about the handprint. "Did not, tell, much. Asked. Guided, with,
questions. Very clever, yes?"

With smoky, sotto tones, Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk says, "Ah, but one
can tell things by asking questions, too."

Expression reminiscent, Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk says, "Especially if
you already know the answers, but are too afraid to say them."

Rhalkyr dips his head aside in quiet acknowledgement of the point, hand drifting
back down to hang by his side. "Rekindled, fire." Again, the hand lifts, though this time he draws
his fingers across his eyes, as if wiping something from them. "Cleared, clouded, vision."

Shadowy wings blurring with motion, Esei rises to brush their fingers along your shoulder. "He often
has that effect, yes."

Rhalkyr's eyes snap to the wings, but slide almost immediately away, with only a
minor tremor of his fingers betraying any suppressed motion. Twisting his head, he lowers his chin
to rest it briefly atop Esei's fingers. "Is always, kind, to 'little ones'?"

Esei tilts their head the other way, humming slightly. "In a manner of definition, I suppose," they
muse. "He helps us grow stronger, you see?"

You think to yourself: The humming, that sweet music emanating from one cherished and adored,
resonates with something deep in his core, soothing.

Rhalkyr contemplates this for a moment, then angles his head aside in a tiny,
bobbing nod. His eyelids draw slowly down, until they veil all but thin slivers of glittering
emerald as he sways back and forth, like a sapling in a gentle breeze. "Yes. Like, beloved, Warden."

Sounding faintly amused, Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk asks, "How so?"

Lifting his hand to probe delicately at the folded vellum, the corner of Rhalkyr's
eyes crinkle with quiet pleasure. "Gentle. Quiet. Wisdom, delivered, with few words. Much, veiled,
in shadow, in quiet."

Esei's lips quirk, dark eyes sweeping across the locale for a moment before returning to you.
"Well," they murmur, voice mild. "One can simply say I learned well."

In accordance with a silent beat you can't quite hear, Esei begins to softly hum a low, dark tune.

Filib Shee-Slaugh goes about his daily chores as he hums a tune too low for you to hear clearly.

With smoky, sotto tones, Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk says to you, "I trust
you learned from the experience."

Attention sliding over to Filib Shee-Slaugh at the humming, Rhalkyr is distracted
for a moment, before he returns his focus to Esei, sinking gracefully down to rest his weight upon
his haunches. With a slight upwards roll of a single shoulder, the motion accompanied by a sidewards
tilt of his chin, "Could, say, yes." At the question, he grows quiet, gaze traveling down to study
the ground before him for a long moment. "Yes. Instructive. Lesson, similar, to what, beloved
Warden, sought, to teach."

Esei's other hand lightly cups your left cheek, pulling your face up. "Then," they whisper, voice
low and gentle. "I am glad He could teach you what I could not."

A thickening of the shadows that enshroud Rhalkyr's eyes hints at a frown, as he
lifts his own hand to rest it, rather more firmly than is his norm, upon Esei's. Forcefully, he
rumbles, "Not, fault, in beloved, Warden." Shifting his hand from Esei's, he lifts it to rap his
knuckles against the side of his head, a slight curl of irony in his voice. "Hard, of head. Did,
much work, to pave way, for Silent One."

Gently, Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk says, "I know. Lady Rancoura helped
pave the way for Him, for me, once, a long time ago."

Rhalkyr blinks at Esei, mask tilting in a curious manner. "Who, is?"

With smoky, sotto tones, Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk says, "Ah, she was
the first Wyrden Haruspex, my teacher in the Order, His Avatar, among other things."

Rhalkyr's toes flex up before they dig down into the yielding loam beneath them as
he utters a thoughtful grunt. "Was. Is, dead?"

Esei's lips twist, expression falling briefly into melancholy. "Though, she went deep into
meditation shortly after last Ascension. I do not know when I will ever see her again, if at all."

Softly, Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk says, "No, not dead. Just very far
away."

Esei tips their head back to face the dying day, dark eyes briefly tracking the sun.

Comprehension flickers behind Rhalkyr's eyes as he watches Esei, swiftly followed
by a softening of their habitual ferocity - replaced, largely, by concern. Gently, he reaches a
massive hand to cup Esei's cheek - though his monstrous paw is so vast that it extends far beyond
the curve of cheek or jaw. His touch is warm, and rough as unworked leather, but light - the manner
in which he holds the appendage indicating an awareness of the perils of unchecked strength. After
brushing his calloused fingers along Esei's hair, he withdraws, lowering his hands to rest upon his
thighs. He says nothing, merely watching, quiet and still as a stone.

Esei tilts their head, dark eyes observing you.

Esei bows their head so their face is closer to your. "There is nothing wrong with criticism," they
whisper. "So long as it is constructive."

You think to yourself: A brief sense of melancholy, weighing down as a sodden blanket pressed upon
the shoulders - cold, uncomfortable, unwelcome. He would mourn, as well, were the beloved Warden to
drift into endless somnolence. Was he but the latest in a cycle of such? Would he, too, someday
teach a cub to wrest themselves free of self-doubt, only to grow distant, felled by the grip of
dormancy?

Esei's fingers dart lightly over the place where the dark sap decorates your jaw before their hand
drops to their side.

Rhalkyr seems not at all bothered by the increased proximity - indeed, his initial
reaction is simply a languid blink as he gazes into Esei's eyes. The touch, too, is permitted
without so much as a flutter of resistance, as he leans subtly in the direction of the fleeting
contact. Shifting, gradually, the massive muscles of his calves bulge as he raises himself to tap
his masked brow against Esei's forehead, the touch as fleeting and light as the passage of a shadow,
before he sinks back down again. Simply, he says, "Yes."

Esei's lip quirks, eyes glittering with faint amusement.

Esei hums thoughtfully.

You tilt your head curiously at Esei.

With smoky, sotto tones, Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk says, "Ah, I need to
pray to Him about something."

Rhalkyr turns his right hand in a forward, rolling motion, followed by a skittering
motion of his two forefingers. "Go, then."

Esei blinks.

Esei gestures to Ebon Prayer Beads of the Silent Lord, an amused expression flitting across their
mien for just a moment.

Rhalkyr's attention shifts to stare at the beads for a long moment, his mien
serious. Eventually, he asks, "What is?"

With smoky, sotto tones, Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk says, "Prayer beads
that allow me to pray to the Divine I follow."

With smoky, sotto tones, Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk says, "If I, say,
left His and joined Lord Shikari, they would change with me."

Rhalkyr breathes a soft, "Ah." of understanding, the angle of his mask shifting to
the right as he considers the beads. "Useful. Will, acquire, for self."

In accordance with a silent beat you can't quite hear, Esei begins to softly hum a low, dark tune.

Immediately, Rhalkyr begins to sway in tandem with the soundless beat of Esei's
humming, the blunt fingers of both hands lowering to brush slow, sweeping ellipses in the dirt
before him.

Esei lazily draws their wings to and fro through the air, fanning them slowly.

Abruptly, Rhalkyr asks, "Developments, should be, aware of?"

Esei blinks slowly.

Esei shakes their head.

With smoky, sotto tones, Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk says, "Ah, not at
present. It is..."

Esei purses their lips, deep in thought.

With smoky, sotto tones, Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk asks, "You recall
when we visited His Fulcrux together, some months ago now?"

Rhalkyr's throat vibrates with a low sound at the response, his attention flicking
about the area. He nods in a curt affirmative.

With smoky, sotto tones, Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk asks you, "And you
may remember how the Fulcrux seemed to move in sync with our breathing, our thoughts, yes?"

With a mild blink, Rhalkyr nods once more, head canting aside.

You think to yourself: Is that not how it always is? The silence of harmony, the harmony of silence?

Quietly, Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk says, "That... is not something the
Fulcrux does, and I have spent many days within the Fulcrux, meditating on many different subjects."

You think to yourself: Ah.

With smoky, sotto tones, Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk says to you, "It only
happened once before, when I was alone, perhaps a month or two before you and I went there."

The blink, this time, is one of muted surprised. Rhalkyr considers this for a time,
before uttering a rippling grunt, the thick pads of his fingers pressing into the soft loam. "Did
not, know. Significant?"

Esei hums thoughtfully.

With smoky, sotto tones, Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk says, "Perhaps. I do
not know."

The battered knuckles rise and fall like rough-hewn boulders, buoyed by some
fathomless swell as Rhalkyr drums a silent beat upon the ground. "Commonality, is, you. Pray, and
ask?"

With smoky, sotto tones, Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk says to you, "That is
the intent, yes."

Rhalkyr raps his knuckles decisively upon the earth in two, sharp beats. "Will
write, and think, on task. Call, if need, yes?"

Wyrden Auspice Esei Shee-Slaugh of the Ascending Dusk says, "Of course. Be well."

Esei leans close to you and gently lays a kiss upon your forehead.

Rhalkyr's eyes shut in quiet pleasure at the contact, his hands lifting to join
over his heart in a peculiar, entwining gesture of flowing fingers. This done, he taps the two
forefingers of his right hand upon the dried sap over his heart, and gently presses the calloused
pads upon Esei's own chest - and then blurs away in a burst of sudden, almost violent motion.