Eyes watched impassively as Aure was dragged to the ground. The desperation was finally becoming too much. Victory was at hand, magic was before them. There was only the act of taking it left. "Red Jasper has been grounded. Magic shall be extracted." A single paw stepped forward but then it froze. The hazy eyes looked past Aure, into nothing and strain passed across the features. "No...no no, mine. All mine. You are mine!" Who or what the voice spoke to...that was unclear.

A shiver passed across the cat's body and the eyes rolled back into the head as Wilder slumped forward with a groan. The image of Wilder before, standing so straight and still it couldn't be natural, was shattered in an instant. Her whiskers twitched as she slowly rounded to consciousness and, a moment later, she stirred.

"Hm?" she purred, drowsily, her eyes slowly cracking open. There was a dazed, dreamy look in her eyes as she regarded Aure. She was so warm and comfortable, she didn't want to wake up. But then her eyes caught sight of the hybrid's expression and her features changed to concern. "Aure? Friend? Is something wrong?"

She tried to jump to her feet but a pounding headache suddenly banged at the inside of her skull and she hissed in pain, stumbling forward. "Ow, my head." She shook herself out but then it suddenly occurred to her that she didn't remember being here. The last she remembered, she and Aure had been curled up. She'd been quite upset and she was telling him about her visit with Blackberry. "Wait, hold on, uh, wasn't I saying something to you? Did I fall asleep?"

@Aure

The cat rocked forth, taking only a single step as she spoke in simple, unsettling monotone. There was a pause, and Aure began to breathe faster, trying to wind up what magicka he could, to do something to save his own hide. Then, Wilder slumped forwards.

A pause.

And she woke up as if nothing happened.

The wyvern, trigger-happy and ready to blow at any second with anxiety, dread, the need to survive, stared. Bright eyes searching. Ears back. Gemstone faintly glimmering with uncast, but prepared magicka. Wilder continued to speak, but Aure unconsciously drowned it out in a static, mind fogged over with the pure desire to live and continue leaving. Right now, she was a threat. She was a ticking time bomb and that awful voice and sound was her true self, a facade up to attack him and kill him and take his stone and Mother wouldn't be around to revive it again---

"You need to go, Wilder," Aure snipped, neither chirping nor growling. It was an instinctive response, and he barely even registered saying it amidst his tension. Softer, closer to tears as he realized where this was going, he repeated, "you need to go. Away from me. Don't--- don't come near me."

@Wilder

Wilder wasn't sure she had heard correctly the first time. He wanted her to leave? Why? What had she done? Wilder grew concerned. If she had forgotten about something and Aure was this freaked out, then she knew what had happened.

Head still reeling, although she wasn't really sure why, she lifted a paw to take a step forward, opening her mouth to speak when Aure beat her to it. Her brows furrowed and confusion and hurt filled her expression. "W-what? It's me, Aure. Friend. It's me. Whatever I did..." Sudden fear took her as she remembered the last time she had gone into such a bad trance near Aure. "I...I didn't hurt you did I?! Or it didn't hurt you? Or, whatever, I don't know but..." she trailed off as she gazed at Aure, her tail and ears drooping.

"I'm sorry...I didn't...I don't want...if you want me to go..." But she didn't want to go. Not now. She couldn't. Aure was her best friend. Her brother. Without him, who could she turn to? Dragon? No, he would surely cast her out for what she'd done. Blackberry? She couldn't get involved in that again. Miru? She had no idea where the fox even was. No, there was no one else.

@Aure

Aure opened and closed his beak a few times, voice failing him and tears threatening to spill out over his cheeks. The little black cat didn't seem to know, she always didn't seem to know, even when she was tearing the flesh from her own legs, cutting into them with razor-sharp claws and bringing about havoc with pure magic. Could she--- could it be justified to just...

"I---" he stuttered, words dying in his throat and dissipating into a short whine. Wilder made to move forward, and he immediately tensed up. His warning was clear enough. She was just trying to figure it out, she was just doing her best.

"I need time to think," the wyvern concluded, completely forgoing the situation with Blackberry for the time being (he had that figured out, anyways.) Actually... "There are too many Gembound here," Aure began, slowly, ears flicking back, "you need to go, before it isn't me that you---"

He hesitated, again. Could it "work?" he murmured, mostly to himself. "Go to Fornax and wait there, Wilder." That room was spacious, capable of allowing him to fly far out of magic's reach. He could from there; the roof was too low and the room was far too small with too many obstacles. A single miscast could cause a massive cave-in and the deaths of the Bonebound. Far as he knew, the furnace hosted little life other than fish and prey. No Greaters.

"Stay away from me until then, okay? I need time to think."

As he spoke, it was with little emotion, other than shaky, measured breaths and a wary gaze.

@Wilder

Wilder was lost in utter confusion and dismay. From where she was standing, Aure didn't look to be in any pain or remotely damaged at all, but he was so tense and even the smallest of her movements freaked him out. She tried to think back to what had happened, but all she could remember was trying to link her mind to Aure, a terrible splitting headache, and then she was suddenly waking up to this situation.

She was infuriated with herself that she was like this. She didn't even know what caused it, why she couldn't control it. Why did she always forget? And why did she make people hurt? She could barely stand the concept of harming people as she was, especially herself and Aure, but the scars on her leg were a constant reminder that she still had the capability for it.

Perhaps Aure was right. Leaving the Bonebound, leaving behind her friends, and staying somewhere out of the way, was better for everyone. Then she could think, she could try to figure out what to do and how she was going to fix this without so many distractions.

But still, that didn't at all alleviate how much it hurt to face this truth. The way Aure said it, demanding that she stay away from him, it was crushing. Her head drooped and her tail touched the ground. "I...understand. I'll go to Fornax, then."

This rejection was far more wounding then Pride's. It was deeper and hit her so much harder. As she turned away, her eyes, which had been glassy and watery, finally began spilling tears and her small body shivered with silent sobs. This had to be the worst week of her life.

*exit

@Aure

Was this one of those 'necessary evils?'

Aure managed to gather his wits just enough as the little black cat trudged away, out of Canis and towards Fornax--- he hoped. It would be safer for her and for everyone else, wouldn't it? The wyvern wanted to apologize, but... should he?

It'd just be a day or two until he figured this out, until he processed it in his head and pressed on with the situation. He'd have to put off the meeting he had been planning with the Bonebound, to see how best to proceed. They'd endure another day without his purposeful guidance and ideas.

Bright eyes glanced at the space Wilder once occupied, and vanished into the Chambers.

;exit Aure