Trítos (Lake Baikal)

[Elias Donovan]

Lines of water pushed out across the surface of the lake. There was no specific purpose to the exploration but for the sheer fact he could claim ownership over all he surveyed with the act. The screeching hinges told him that Asha followed. He didn’t look down despite the crawl of her eyes on his profile. His hands curled around the top rail of the deck as she spoke of her uncle.

“Your uncle is a tool,” he replied without a second thought. Asha was protective of her uncle’s memory, and he was grinding it into the dirt, but the asshole deserved all of it and more for the way he treated her.

After a moment of considering the water, he turned to her. His presence pushed outward, though he was aware his emotions were oblivion to her so long as he used the power. Such was exactly why he still held on: to shield her from how pissed he was at the man. If he wasn’t dead, he’d track him down and kill him again.

“You are a fucking badass, Asha. You’re capable of facing whatever the hell you want to face. You think I’m not afraid?” he scowled at the admission, but the question furrowed his brow with grim determination to face it down anyway. It was clear he used fear to funnel into anger. It was the only way he knew how to exist, and he was certain to stay off her senses when he admitted as much.

“Now. Go inside and get my other coat before you freeze to death, and let’s go.” He crossed his arms, clearly going to wait until she put on something that stopped the shivering. It was only going to be colder on the water.

[Ashavari]

Asha looked down at her hands when he said that about her uncle. It hurt like little trembles on a spiderweb to where she kept that part of herself, and she didn’t follow it to the source of pain. When Elias spoke next her eyes were wide as the moon in response. He had too much faith, but then he’d never seen her really suffer the way her gift sometimes made her suffer. Even in the crowd around Ascendancy’s Arch he had caught her before she drowned too deep in the chaos all around them.

She didn’t point out that she was actually in her pyjamas. The fact he offered his coat sent little butterflies swarming all in her stomach and she didn’t want him to rescind the offer. With a smile Asha tugged on the fold of his arms to insert herself against his chest. He was thin as a reed and not much warmer than her, but that wasn’t what she was seeking as she hugged her arms around his waist. It was because of what he said about being afraid.

He smelled good though. Clean. Realisation of which flushed her cheeks warm.

“Just give me five minutes to shower, El,” she said when she pulled free. Her trust in him went without saying. And she would be quick.

[[Can go ahead and assume she goes and gets ready. She will totally wear the coat]]

[Elias Donovan]

He didn’t like to think of Ashavari in the shower. If it was up to Elias, he imagined she was just some kind of cat that kept itself clean on its own. Stretching and licking… Nope. That imagery was no good either. She just existed in perpetual states of cleanliness. Better. That worked.

But in her absence, he could still feel the press of her hug against his chest. Could still feel the hesitant way his arms hung at his side before he brought himself to pat her gently on the back. Could still smell the aromatic waft of hair floating up from the top of her head. Every inch of his body was tense; frustrated and defensive. His jaw clenched as he stared at that stupid door even minutes after she was gone, and with a frown, he suddenly moved. He flung it open and stalked inside, and Elias was all the way to the bathroom door in moments, hand on the knob, before he caught the realization of what was happening. He could hear the water rushing within, and the power tempted him to use the essence as proxy for absent hands. 

Instead, he swore to himself and left just as suddenly as he rushed in. When she was ready, she’d locate him down by the water hurling rocks into the lake.

[Ashavari]

True to her word, she did not spend long getting washed and dressed. A few bites of porridge lined the trepidation in her queasy stomach, and the rest she spooned into a container to take with them. Accustomed to nomadic living, as well as surviving on a shoestring, Asha disliked waste; she did it without even thinking. A flask of coffee also joined the possessions stowed in her bag before she slung it over her shoulder. Elias’s coat wrapped her up tight, though it utterly drowned her. Though he was slender he was still much taller and broader in the shoulder. He was right that it was warmer than anything she owned herself though. Not since she lost almost everything when the car was stolen back in Moscow anyway.

He was hurling rocks at the glass surface of the lake when she hurried down to meet him, and for a while she watched, like she fully anticipated something would be summoned from the deep. Nothing happened, of course, as it never had when Elias brooded over the water. In fact it all looked beautifully calm, and so blue it almost reminded her of the lakes in the mountains back where she grew up. She was anxious, and more than a little worried that this was all a very bad idea, but there was curiosity too, and trust as she peered up at him. Her thoughts still circled his admission of fear, but she was not so sure of his reaction should she ask him why. He was determined to see this through either way; that much was clear, and Asha would see it through with him.

[Elias Donovan]

It was from a small dock that Elias pushed the boat out. He dropped the ropes at his feet and sat near the engine in order to steer — not that he had a single idea how to steer a boat. It couldn’t that much different than driving, he figured, and if push came to shove, he’d summon the winds to do the steering for them.

He had no idea what he was seeking, but he kept a close eye on the app for guidance. The gps signal lagged, much to his annoyance, but he knew enough of their location to generally aim.

The air on the water was dozens of degrees cooler than it was on land. He glanced at Asha to see how she fared. She seemed no less comfortable in the climate than he did, but at least she did what he said and wore a coat. She was drowning in black. Her head popping out from the oversized collar like a child in the adult’s clothing. That it was his stirred something uncomfortable in his chest, but what was he going to say? It would have been an enormous waste of time if she grew too cold and he had to take her back to shore. Better that she just start the journey properly and avoid the hassle.

He was about to say something when that familiar sense of power swept his attention elsewhere.

Frowns drew down his face as he turned sharply in the direction from which it came. “I sense another man channeling,” he explained. Almost that very moment, the app sparked to life, but the signal that the energy source pinged was in another direction altogether.

The boat slowed to a stop. The motion of his standing rocked it side to side and he summoned the power to him for purposes of enhancing his sight and senses. Nothing was revealed, however. So he resumed his seat and stirred the boat in a wide arc toward the direction of the signal. It several miles away, and he revved the engine as fast as it would go. Soon, they were speeding across the lake.

[Ashavari]

She was comfortable in the boat, and Elias’s coat took off the worst of the chill – being as it was almost like being wrapped in a blanket. Only her face and the braid of her black hair spilled out the top. He felt all spiky and trepidatious to her senses, and it probably meant he wasn’t sure what he was doing, but she also knew he wouldn’t thank her interference. He figured it out quickly enough, and they were away.

Asha found it peaceful on the water. It was a muffled quiet, like the first clear breath after too much time spent in a city. The people were all distant, an entirely rare luxury. She half closed her eyes to feel the emptiness. Elias’s frustration and impatience was so familiar these days she almost didn’t feel it, else it was so buried within her own emotions there was no difference between them.

When he spoke, she looked in the direction he indicated, but of course felt nothing. Absence in absence told her nothing. She wasn’t certain if they should be concerned by it or not, and Elias was too distracted to ask. The boat rocked when he stood, enough that she freed an arm to rest her palm on the side. When they began to speed along again, she shifted to face the spray, smiled into it, loose wisps of hair tickling the side of her cheeks.