Avolire Fort

"Mage. Is there something you needed?"

"We need to talk," she replied, walking over slowly, her cloak heavy on her shoulders.

"Please, by all means. Have a seat."

Slowly she moves over, sitting down, though her muscles are tense as she takes a breath, sitting straight and almost regal. "Before I go on, I want you to wait until this conversation is over before you think about trying to react. There's more to things that meet the eye, and I want you to listen before you try to act out brashly, regardless of your pride or the rules. Do you understand?" Her voice gains a tone that she would have used years ago before she became a traveling Cleric, one that she hides on most occasions, though once in a while it slips through. Especially when she's fighting her emotions.

"I will listen, then decide on how to react."

She takes a deep breath, her eyes piercing through the shadows just a bit, appearing a dark blue gray under her hood. "Despite all that's been done to help your knight, Avery, by both my hands and the Florasven woman, something went awry during the healing process." She pauses, mulling over the theories that she had deduced on her way here. "And there are numerous factors that could have caused it."

"What do you mean something went awry? What is wrong with Malyns."

"I believe she's comatose, though I haven't fully understood why," she raises a hand at the flare of anger, her gaze sharpening in warning. "Though there are a few possibilities. When I had healed her from the wall, my magick is white magick, pure. But because of the damage she suffered there, I wasn't able to remove all of the shadow's influence. When Kiyori had tried to pull her from her nightmare state yesterday, she had used black magick, though not in any terms to harm Maylyn's any further, that much I can guarantee you. Which brings me to the conclusion that the clash between magicks has put her body into shock in an attempt to recover and balance once again. The second is that the poison that Kiyori once used had a negative reaction to her attempts of reversing it's affects, and my aid had made things worse. Both are very logical, and both are circumstances that no one had stopped to consider, and for that I am at fault."

"So had Aristark not poisoned her in the first place, or healed her last night, Malyns would be awake?"

"Commander, listen--" Cursing the gods when he storms out, she stands abruptly and chases after him, dashing inside the tent, stopping when she sees him holding Kiyori, and without thinking she darts over, hand jabbing at the creased of the elbow of the hand that held Kiyori. She strikes again, pressing a pressure point in the wrist to force the muscles to relax in his wrist, her hand icy as she grips Galen's forearm, shoving it away from Kiyori as her other arm reached out to keep the woman from falling to the ground. However, she swift movements cause her hood to slip a little, revealing a bright and icy gaze as it bores sharply into Galen's, a stand of black hair brushing her cheek and neck.

Lowly, almost dangerously, Zaire murmurs to him, for the first time using his name, "What did I tell you back at your tent, Galen? I told you to listen until I was finished."

"I did wait! So, finish, or I will kill her."

"Yes, if she hadn't poisoned her, we wouldn't be in this position with the risk of Maylyn's not waking up," her hold tightens just a little on his skin, "but for someone to poison a companion means that there was much more at stake than just a life. If you know of anything about the clans of the region, the Florasven are very fond of keeping cut off from the outside world and keeping to their own, and after living among them for so long, for a clansman to turn and leave to see the world is blasphemous in their eyes as well as an act of treason. And to see a job finished, they will risk a fellow clansman to see it done. Yes, Kiyori was the hand that dealt the blow, but she made a choice to give Maylyns a chance to live instead of taking her life. This woman has risked her name, her blood, her own life, to see that Avery has a fighting chance, and for that, Commander," the word hangs heavy and sharp on her tongue, "you should be thankful. Even if now your knight's life hangs in the balance and can only be saved by her body's will to live. If it had been someone else sent for her, she would not be alive."

Zaire releases him, eyes sharp and daring. "And as such, I cannot let you bring any harm to Kiyori any longer. She has repaid her debt, and her fate from here is of her own choosing. Should anyone try anything without her permission, I will not hesitate to intervene."