How long?

How long had it been since she'd last walked this path? She could remember it as clear as anything - around this rock, over this pile, through this puddle - although there were some definite differences. Throughout the many cycles, rocks had shifted, bones moved and destroyed, puddles dried up and filled again. And throughout the whole cave was white. Blinding, sickly white, and the combination of the location and the fungus that dominated it brought back memories she had spent so long running from. And today, at last, after so many cycles alone and afraid and trying to push down her mistakes and her regrets, she had finally turned to face them. With the taste of cosmic magic, pink and gold, the echo of wings and meteors on the humble winds of the caves, she returned. Hopeful.

On her way through, fire blazed at her feet, white hot plasma sparked into existence in spaces around, burning away patches of the fungus of Order where she walked. If she would come to trouble him, she would, at the very least, bring some positive with her.

She found her steps, as she approached the home of the Bonebound, slowing, until she was almost at a standstill. There was a bump at her back and she glanced back towards Vaati - who had point blank refused to stay home to watch the kids while she did this - looking at her with wide eyes. He bruxed softly and she felt his encouragement. She took a deep breath as her tail drifted over to touch his flank, turned, and continued.

Once she had arrived at the place she knew, where she had once called home, where she had taken on the name Wilder - The Friend! and had dedicated her life to the Bonebound, and failed and betrayed them, she stopped. She didn't enter their territory, but drifted outside. "Aure?" She called softly, just loud enough so that her voice would travel. She felt Vaati crouching just behind her. She could feel his breath on her tail and it was enough to keep her present, keep her from slipping into fear and flight.

She could do this.

@Aure

Oh, how far the kingdom had fallen.

It hurts, knowing whose idle talons had permitted it— whose quiet slumber had preceded its infestation, unimpeded in all ways except for by the occasional spark of light. He'd retreated once again, instead of urging himself into the faith and confidence to know that there could have been something done; to know (or at least believe, if nothing else) that his kith and kin could've managed something after all. Who better to stand against unity than unity itself?

Auré knows where he went wrong, then. He'd not held something as simple as faith.

Faith is still in short supply, but at least he's working today.

There's hardly any sleep in his eyes, as long as he'd been absent for. His carmine gaze's seated into dark sockets, pensively focused on the clot of Ordered white lying near the end of a wing-claw. It withers, purged beneath his magic— but, it's feeble, hardly enough to construe a drop of water fallen from the cascades in Pisces. Flicking ears turn, then, always-attentive as he is now for the rhythmic scrabbling of paws. His gaze comes next, checking for foggy eyes watching from afar, and—

His name's called, but it's in a voice so, so unlike that of his mother calling him own. A voice which he's not heard in so, so long.

And despite every lingering bit of terror still seated at the base of his skull, Auré spreads his wings to follow it to its source.

Missing her is impossible, a glittering dark spot amid the white-hot, sizzling plasma and the rising stench of fungus scorned. Auré makes a single, lazy loop against Canis's ceiling before he alights some fifteen feet away, eyes wide and disbelieving, flicking back and forth and blinking blearily. He can't help the subtle, hopeful wag of his tail.

"Wilder... ?" His voice's soft when he manages to find it again, but it grows more urgent, more worried as he glances— "Behind you, Wilder. Please, don't make a sudden move—"

@Wilder

The color of rust in her vision made her heart pulse heavy, like a shock of lightning had just run her through, nose to tail. Her mouth felt dry, her paws trembled where they met the stone, but she stood still and tried to relax, although her muscles seemed to want to seize tight as well. Every thread of her was anxious and alert, but she forced herself to breathe through it all, breathe carefully and normal. Her tail brushed across the tip of Vaati's nose and it kept her there, an anchor for a balloon that wanted to drift off into space.

He was so close. So close. She couldn't remember the last time he'd been this close. Not the last time they saw each other, not in dreams, not since...it had been when she had cried before him, burned and hurt and on the last thread of hope she'd had. When she had thought that maybe dying would be better then continuing to fail and hurt and be hurt.

How much had changed since then.

Did he even know there was a surface? Did he know Tamulus's name? Had he seen the wishing stone, the power of Hume, did he even know she existed?

And then, more terrifying thoughts interrupted her musing. He had been scared of Order, from his brush with the hive long ago. Had he fought here, when they invaded? Had he been hurt? Or Giggle? Or any of the other Bonebound that she could have helped, but didn't dare go near?

She opened her mouth, to speak, to say something back, but then his eyes shifted and she felt Vaati shift behind her.

He was watching Aure from just behind her, but as soon as that bright gaze shifted over, his fur began to raise in anxiety and slowly sidestepped to hide behind her. Which didn't work of course, as he was larger then her. Wilder noticed his shift just as Aure pointed him out and she realized, in that moment, how it must look. A large, heavily scarred rat - the same kind of aggressive rat that most smaller gembound avoided, and even larger gembound treated with caution.

Her eyes widened and she shook her head. "Oh, no, it's okay! This is Vaati." She glanced back and sidestepped so that he was more in view - he just shifted again so that Wilder was firmly between her and Aure. "He's my familiar - he's a little shy. I know he looks kind of scary, but he's actually quite gentle." She turned back, embarrassment like liquid lead in her chest. "S-sorry, he's been with me so long now that I've forgotten he can intimidate people. Probably should have left him at home, huh?" She tried to force out a small laugh, her talking and behavior a runaway train swiftly approaching the point of no return. A great start, she thought, bitterly.

@Aure

A spiked brow furrows. It's strange, watching a pitch rat be so... skittish, so akin to a child merely hiding behind the leg of a parent— especially in his insistence to remain behind Wilder, even after being introduced. "Shy" is putting it mildly.

Auré huffs a quiet sigh, tucking his wings more comfortably at either flank. "I was more worried about you," he confesses softly, putting on a reassuring smile where he feels none. "... been with me so long now..." How long has it been... ? Last they spoke was... "Took me a minute to realize— more scared of me than I am of him or... for you." A soft, nervous laugh blusters from him, but it feels faker than it sounds. Wasn't hollow-sounding, right?

Bright eyes look her up and down, and she looks well, if nervous and uncertain with glittering wings lying at either side of her; and Auré, suffocating in the awkward silence doomed to fall between them, wonders if he should make mention of any of it. Does he get the chance to, after isolating and minimizing himself for so long? It's less a matter of feeling as if he deserves it, but wondering if Wilder does.

He's not treated her as well as he could've in the past, and even now, he can feel himself reflexively reaching deeper—

A shooting pain cracks white between his eyes, and he shuts them with a quiet hiss through his beak. The fungal bloom of the cave sears at his sixth sense, visually loud and overwhelming in every sense of the word. Casting his snout downward to face the floor's no help.

Auré's already reaching for his own muzzle before the sudden migraine's over, a wing-claw pressing at the bridge of his nose as a poor salve. "M'okay, I'm okay," he insists quietly, blinking until the backfire's withdrawing into a dull ice pick of aftershocks; until his eyes can focus again on Wilder and he can force himself past wondering after his own worthiness in just... knowing about an old friend.

"Um," is an eloquent start. Maybe not "What brings you here?". "How are you?"

@Wilder

"I was more worried about you."

Of course he was. Of course, selfish stupid Aure still cared, probably still saw her as that out of control child with far too much power and far too little sense of responsibility. With dreams and wishes in her eyes and nothing but stupidity and ignorance to back it up. Oh, how much she had changed since the last time they spoke. When had that even been? She could barely remember the sound of his voice until moments ago, when he had brought up those echoes of memory back to the present day.

Her tail shivered nervously behind her, touching Vaati's ear. He shuffled to the side again, his momentary nerves passing as Aure relaxed a bit, the danger gone now that the air had been cleared. He still stayed behind her, bought she could feel the tickle of his whiskers against her back legs and that was enough to keep her grounded, present, and feeling in control. Of herself, her words, her emotions...perhaps not the last, but at least for now it was all feeling...okay. Awkward, but okay.

"Y-yeah," she responded, equally as nervous. "He's my support and I'm...his, I suppose." She didn't really care to elaborate more then that, at least for now. He relationship with Vaati was important and sacred to her and this didn't exactly feel like the best time to go explaining it, if she ever would.

She noticed the magic backfire - how could she not? The wince of pain, the insistence that he was okay, he was all okay, even though she knew he was not...it made a spark in her light up that she'd never felt before. No...no, she had. In Paradise, when the meteor had flown close, when that faint outline of Hume had appeared in the light. And when she'd stood in the wisteria tree with that holy owl beside her, eyes gleaming of gold and wishes and madness. And she had to do something. She had too, else she would go utterly mad, she would never scratch this itch away.

And for the first time since that cosmic feather had touched her cheek, she Wished. Please, give Aure peace from Order. I wish he would not have to fear infection, or fear those he knows are infected. It was almost subconscious, and she didn't know what to expect from it. Not when she had never used such an unknown, distant magic before. The moment passed by, imperceptible for a moment, so she continued on as if she had done nothing.

"I...I think I know what you did, and I promise I'm not infected." Her tail gestured towards the patches of burning fungus some ways away. "I probably wouldn't have done that if I were. I know it's not a huge reassurance but...yeah." She trailed off, ears tilting back as she realized that it probably wasn't...much reassurance. And what a good way to start this reunion, huh?

"I'm good," she tried to feel casual, out of simply not knowing how to act at all. "I've...not always been good but it'd good now. ...A lot has happened." She looked around. "And...a lot has happened here. How have...you been? And the Bonebound? Did you lose anyone in the fighting?"

@Aure but also gm tagging for that wish magic

Quiet hush wove its way between them as if waiting on Wilder's last words before it acted: to free one of the fear that Dontacael might close His grip around one's mind. Her intention was clear and, unfortunately, familiar to the magic she called upon for this act of will. The air around them shimmered and their time slowed to a standstill—conscious though they were, it would feel as if no time passed, but they were present together as the bones melted into gray mist and they were suddenly at the base of the Spire in Polaris. Not physically, but it might have been so. The Spire erupted with glowing blue particles that swirled upwards around it, except one strand that reached for them—for Auré—and encircled him. The glowing specks clung to his feathers like dew drops as the grey began to fade and the bones began to return.

As time regained itself, the glowing bits of blue would dissipate from Auré and a small streak of Skystone etched its way down his right brow-stone like a bolt of lightning. It would not hurt, but he would see it, as if it were being shown to him in third person—briefly, like a daydream.

A knowing came between them: he was not immune, but he would not be so easily infected by Order or Disorder. Should he need to, he could return to Polaris and breathe its air and rid himself of any fear of contamination. He would be safe, but he was branded—infected, ironically—by the radiation of Natural Order. It would not impose on him any more than Wilder had wished for but it was indeed permanent. The infection would weave itself further into the stone so that even if he were to lose the right brow piece, the Skystone would remain.

Their conversation also drifted back into time, with Wilder's words hanging in the air: Did you lose anyone in the fighting? came her voice, like an echo, as they were both released from the moment of the wish enacting Wilder's intention like a daydream of déjà vu.

"He's my support..." "Ah," Auré manages in response before the backfire strikes him. Her support, in a way that he never truly was. It does little to assure the upswelling of guilt settling in his stomach; but, his mother wouldn't want him to linger too harshly on that acknowledgement (nor his father or Eythan, but—) and so, he kicks that photo album box back under the figurative bed.

It's heavy, so of course it hurts and the bruise stings as Wilder catches him red in the feathers.

Carmine eyes are suddenly caught on the arc of Wilder's tail, then the smoldering fungus behind her. Her voice brooks reason, but all Auré immediately hears is that he shouldn't have done that. Ears flick back in the very picture of regret. "I'm sorry," he murmurs first. Beak casting toward the floor, he continues, "No, you're right." ... so much for a new step taken toward faith and hoping.

Then, she's moving on without him, just as she had before. And to that end, he does feel a little proud— happy, even— for her; that she can be honest about the retrospective and still know that they need not to let Auré sit and catastrophize about this conversation, lest they get nowhere.

He lifts his muzzle to admit that he'd not been awake for the seizure of Canis by Order, just in time to witness promise.

Time crawls to a halt, and the world spins into monochromatic refuse marked by pearlescent cyan. Auré stumbles slightly as he's plunged into the daydream— despite no sense of having moved a single inch. Feathers ruffle as he blinks, wide-eyed and gasping softly at the Spire's looming presence, bright and yet hardly seething with raw magicka as it tends to; it reaches for him, and to his own surprise, he doesn't exactly run.

There's no push, no pull. Merely a dreaming warmth as the bones bleed back into dim, clear light and Skystone strikes him and offers him that promise she'd Wished for. Insurance. Assurance.

Auré blinks rapidly as he comes to again in his own awareness, shaking his head. All guilt forgotten, he turns his head to face Wilder again, eyes wide and pupils sharply dilated pinpoints. Lifting a wing-claw to touch at his stone, he almost dares to not ignore the echoed reminder of her question before, but it seems an impossibility.

And so, he whispers in the tone of someone who's seen God: "Wilder? What was that?"

@Wilder

The conversation they'd just finally about brokered was immediately ripped away from them - Wilder's fault, of course, as usual. But should she feel bad about it, when she had Wished for him? When she had tried to help? She gazed up at the Spire, and the tendril it reached for him , the flash of lightning arcing through him and staying there, imprinting on his stone. Her eyes widened at that. Oh, what had she done?

They had returned, and Aure was quiet. He was staring at her with wide eyes and in the moment, she couldn't figure out what they meant. Terrified, of what had happened, of her? Angry, for tampering with powers (again) that she should never have even touched? Grateful? Or just shocked? She didn't know and she fumbled for magic for a moment to try and give herself time, but she'd already run out of it. He was already asking his question and she was already trying to clean it up without even realizing she'd begun to babble.

"I'm so sorry, Aure, that was the first time that I tried that I didn't know what was going to happen! But I just wanted you to be free from that fear of infection and stuff I know that was a whole thing and it was really hard on you and I don't even know if you're still afraid of it but if you are then its my fault because I did that to you and I think about it every day and I thought I could make it right because I have this power now but I didn't ask you first and now you have this thing and"

She was very suddenly brought out of her ramble by a sharp pain on her tail. She instinctively jerked away and the tip of her tail slid out from Vaati's grip where he had bit down. There wasn't any blood, he hadn't tried to break skin, but rather "pinch her awake" in a way. She blinked, realizing tears had collected in the corner of her eyes. "S-sorry." She squeaked, pathetically.

She'd fucked up again, hadn't she?

@Aure

Wilder crumbles, and somehow in that, Auré finally finds his strength.

One of them has to be strong enough, maybe.

Vaati intervenes before he can think to step forward, feathers rustling and wings halfway to outstretched and reaching. His tail feathers knock against his ankles, hanging looser yet as Wilder apologizes. It's unbearable, looking her in the eye and seeing the tears threatening to fall forth; and so, Auré closes his, shakes his head, and audibly chokes down every bit of apprehension in his bones with a gulp.

"Hey— hey, mmh," the hybrid babbles a little uselessly to fill the space between his footsteps. Ahead of him, a feeble spark of a wisp takes shape. "Look, look. Like... old times." It's a mote of light almost unlike that which had just doused his feathers; without warmth and despite that, more like fire than energy and electricity. Auré's gaze guides it onto the path before him, toward the space he's closing between them.

It's an achingly familiar sight, having a will 'o wisp put forth between them.

"I... think that I'm okay. It didn't hurt at all, but—..." He hunches as he reaches her, lowering his muzzle to nudge the tip of it into the top of Wilder's head, if she'll allow it. "What power... ?"

@Wilder

She couldn't look him in the eye, not at the moment, but the feeble light had her flicking her gaze over to the will o wisp, at least. And it brought the smallest of smiles to her face. It was something so old to them, so precious. They'd once sat together, wisps alit, and shared their pain with one another. They'd also sat together, flank to flank, purring and resting and watching those little wisps dance the night away.

Her eyes moved to the spot just next to it and her own wisp, pink, but different then it was before. A lighter, softer shade, with the faintest sparkle of gold in its heart. Visible proof that she'd changed. She was still Wilder but...she had grown up. It had taken her long enough.

She looked back up at Aure, slowly calming down from the momentary panic and blinked slow. "Like old times."

She allowed the contact, brief as it was, and she suddenly wanted to cry from how good it felt to just touch him after these years apart. Even just the smallest touch.

She took a deep breath, wondering how she was going to explain to Aure what had happened. She really hadn't thought that far about it - it had been a momentary decision, spur of the moment. "It's...I don't know if Giggle told you about the Meteor and about Paradise...but its from that." She opened her eyes and looked his way, although she didn't quite meet his eyes, instead focused on a point on his jawline. "The meteor gave me this power. It's...she's called Hume. And she's wonderful. She gave me a wish and I wished she was here with us, that her love could help us, and offered myself to be that bridge for her, and...she gave me the power to wish. I can't...all the time. But sometimes. That was the first time I really tried it." She reached up and rubbed at her eyes with a paw, trying to get out the tears that had collected there before they properly fell.

"I'm sorry, I should have asked first. I wanted to help but...I seem to still have that problem of trying a little too hard."

@Aure