Choosing to say out of the Alliance, the Cinders are isolated in their own conflicts, and when Helia Cinder reaches to the void for answers, she inadvertently draws a creature out. Expecting to be eaten alive, she is instead left with a man with no...
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By the time Helia caught up with Horus, the door to the library's back room was torn open and Horus had a flame sword in either hand. Helia grabbed her brother's and held it down as he locked eyes with Stone. In the corner, Stone was buttoning the cuffs to his shirt, and he'd found one of the short half cloaks they wore out into the battlegrounds when on patrol. It wasn't embroidered with a house, as Horus often wore them out to the fighting pits and didn't want to be named as a Cinder line inheritor.
"Helia." Stone smiled when he saw her, near oblivious to Horus clutching his blade harder. "These garments make me look like a mage." Stone spun to flare out the cloak, and she chuckled as he settled and pressed down the cravat when it popped out of the suit coat. At least with the layers, Horus couldn't see the muscles built for killing, and Stone wasn't so blatantly an assassin class battleground vampire.
"You have to clip that in," Helia said with a soft sigh, passing her brother and giving him a warning look as she approached Stone.
"I was unsure what this was for." Stone said, bowing his head as he delicately offered her the pin. Horus took notice of the over the top formalities and cocked his head as he shuffled his blades in place.
"Well, people don't use them as much in society, but if you're flying around fighting vampires, you can't be hit in the face with your own fancy clothes. You want to clip it here, in the back but far enough up that you have full range of motion in your neck. No one wants to choke wearing those things."
"Why do you wear something so difficult," Stone asked, and Helia shrugged.
"Beats me. These are worn by guys, and I'm not interested in petitioning for a wardrobe change for battleground mages." Helia pat his chest and then turned back to her brother.
Horus was watching Stone, listening to every word, and assessing him as a threat. While Horus might have a soft spot for Rodney, he was also a battleground-trained grand mage and knew the threat unknown vampires presented.
"Horus, drop your blades. Stone is docile."
"No vampires are docile, Hel," Horus countered, his amber eyes darkening.
"Ones missing their memories after being trapped in the void for hundreds of years are. Stone said that he has no idea who he is but also insists that he's not dead. Said he got lost in the void a few years ago, our time. I want to help him, not gut him, so can you please extinguish yourself."
Horus frowned but dropped his blades back into the magic from whence they'd come.
"Is this your brother?" Stone asked, planting his hands as harmlessly as possible by his sides. With him all dressed up and his hair neat and trimmed, he looked like a naïve acolyte. The absence of dark magic did him favors in blending in, and if he didn't open his mouth or touch anyone, he could pass for human with some of the more inexperienced mages.
