Sequel

Mari makes me giggle. She could probably scare the crap out of the entire nation just by smiling at the right time. It'd be like, "and what are your plans for the future, Mari" *grin* "RUN!"

I feel bad for Mm, I feel worse for Rel, over the next few chapters. Mm at least gets better and won't have any more pain. He won't even recall the surgery or anything. Rel will, for obvious reasons.

Read, Review and enjoy.




The woman who stepped through the door was lean, with black hair and dark eyes. She was dressed in a pair of jeans and a sweater. Not quite the casual business style of everyone else of the program. As soon as she entered, Rel stood.

“About time, I’ve been calling for hours for help,” He snapped at her, plucking the tooth up off the food cart as he approached her.

“You’ve what?” her eyes narrowed and her calm look disappeared, “hours? And no one has responded?”

Higher up, who just found out that someone had abandoned their post. Higher ups usually dressed better than the lower ranks, she seemed to have stumbled into the program building on a day off or something. Maybe she had.

“No. If you aren’t here for that, why are you here? It’s dangerous to be in here.”

“I know,” she flashed him an innocent smile and stepped away from the door, glaring back over her shoulder for just a moment, “but they’re too smart to come in here and I needed a bit of quiet.”

“From who?”

“The board.”

“Of… the program?”

“Of the nation.”

Rel blinked at the woman, speechless, “I’m sorry, and who are you?”

“Mari Illuen,” again the innocent smile, “and you would be Rel DeAniege.”

“Yes. And that is Mm,” Rel motioned to the Sidhe in the bed, the male hadn’t moved since Rel had pushed him into the bed, was just laying there, staring up at the ceiling.

“Hello Mm, hassune Mm,” Mari made a greeting motion, though Mm didn’t respond, “still not responding to Sidhe? Suppose he can’t learn it if he’s not around it.”

“You’re over here,” Rel wiggled his fingers far off to the side of his body, while holding his other hand near is sternum, “I’m here. How about coming to join me?”

“He’s not hurt and you are not hurt, thus, nothing is really wrong,” Mari said calmly as Rel held the tooth out to her. She took it and held it up to the light, inspecting it as a frown creased her brow, “To get this kind of striation…”

“He’d have to eat the file, not have his teeth filed. I know, he’s in pain, he’s just good at hiding it. He can’t put pressure on his stomach, at least not after eating. I really hope you didn’t do an MRI on him.”

“No, we took blood and the such, nothing that wasn’t absolutely necessary. Even Nort agreed that giving him an MRI was a waste of time. Thankfully. Though… with Essuan there he probably would have survived.”

“Having metal torn out of his insides via a giant magnet? His insides would be shreds.”

“You should have seen them before Essuan started,” Mari muttered at Rel, “this is likely one of the somethings that she said she couldn’t fix. We thought she meant tooth and bone and mind, not flesh damage. She can’t heal him, which means he can’t heal himself. We’re going to have to put him into an x-ray, see where or how many there are and remove them with surgery.”

“How exactly do we explain that to him?”

“We don’t,” Mari held the tooth back out and Rel took it from her, “we put him under and do it all before he wakes up. He falls asleep with you by his side, he wakes with you by his side. It’s either under or not under with Sidhe, it’s very difficult for us to find a happy medium for a pain killer. I will speak with Essuan before we start planning. Perhaps she has something or knows something that could help.”

“Thank you.”

“You are an Illuvan, are you not?” Mari asked after a quiet moment.

“Yes. Wait. I am a follower of …” too late to change his answer, the woman had already formed an opinion of him. Her eyes looked him over, up and down as if calculating everything she could judge about him from his body alone, “…Illuva…”

“DeAniege, dark… angel?”

“Dark butterfly, my father used to tell us that our last name meant angel and I wanted to get as far away from that as I could.”

“Butterfly?” Mari’s lip curled up in a smile.

Rel had done something very significant with his name and hadn’t even realised it. Butterflies. What did butterfly mean? Ayato was seen as a butterfly, to symbolize him in mainstream media. Butterflies stood for power and Sidhe and souls that the gods carefully watched over. But the symbol of the butterfly was so overused that it rarely actually meant that.

None of that gave him any hints as to what Mari was thinking of.

“It’s nice to see you have a new lease on life.”

“Caring for someone else can do that to a person.”

“But I hope you remember that it is a lease.”

A chill ran down Rel’s spine, “I don’t… get your meaning.”

“This body of yours. Is not yours to give away as you please-” butterflies were servants of the gods, bound by the laws of the throne to. Shit. Do whatever the fuck the gods wanted, “remember that the next time you think about taking your own life.”

“I haven’t-”

Mari’s eyes narrowed, cutting off Rel’s protest. Rel instinctually tugged down the sleeves of his shirt to cover the scars across his wrists. She was kind enough not to look down, not to acknowledge the fact that he had just done that.

“Eat, drink, set a good example for him. I should be back in a few hours with a plan,” Mari’s lip curled up in a snarl, “if I can get through the board.”

“Why are they bothering you, even?”

“Because the Sidhe used their powers on the board when the board stated that legally speaking the Sidhe must obey the laws of man. Of course, the laws of man say nothing about illusions or mind games,” Mari responded quietly, “so most of the board are upset with me for running the program and some can’t stop laughing at the ridiculous notion of Galt pissing himself.”

“Isn’t there an ambassador to the Sidhe?”

“Yes…”

“Then Norash has already publicly stated that it will view the Sidhe as a separate nation. They might be able to try and keep the Sidhe from using their powers, but just like any visiting dignitary, they have immunity.”

Mari smiled, “thank you, Rel, politics is not a strong point of mine.”

“No problem…” Rel muttered as Mari left through the door.

“Neeeshashnaor?” Mm sat up on the bed as Rel turned towards the sound.

“Lay back, in a few hours,” Rel approached the bed and sat on the edge, pushing Mm gently back to the mattress, “we are going to give you a needle and you are going to go to sleep. When you wake, your stomach will hurt but you’ll get better.”

Mm looked at Rel confused. So Rel repeated it all, miming his words with hand motions. Mm watched it all, fear playing over his features as Rel finished. Rel gave the Sidhe his best ‘it’ll be okay’ smile, and took Mm’s hand.

“I’ll be right here, the entire time.”


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