Amputation [Belizna]

[Adrian Kane]

Micro-expressions flickered across Rachel’s pretty face. Vulnerability. But resolve too. She was like a startled bird that had landed too close to a hawk, instinctively sensing danger but hadn't determined whether it was safer to remain motionless or flee instantly. When she finally extended her hand, her palm was slightly cool, her grip brief and hesitant before she retreated behind the shield of her coffee cup. Adrian’s handshake was gentle enough to meet her palm, but his enveloped hers through sheer anatomy. There was nothing he could do about that. But it was a touch shared on the promise that he held back because he chose to. Because he was a decent person.

But instantly a counter to that thought replied in his own mind with an opposing one that rippled like a stone thrown into water from a far distant shore. You are better than her. You are better than-

Speaking out loud interrupted the thought before it carried itself too far.

“I’m an investor, primarily," Adrian replied, his tone calm despite himself.

He gestured at the room around them slightly, "I enjoy real-estate and entrepreneurship. So i've been helping Natalie manage some of the upfront capital required for a restoration of this scale. I haven't actually been out on-site in a few months, so I thought It was time to see how the work is progressing.”

Her direct question regarding his relationship to the estate's residents ignited a flicker of amusement that he couldn’t help from touching the corners of his mouth. A heated memory of Natalie suddenly surfaced. Sex was an amusement, but a common one. He had no qualms about using it to gain power should the game take him to such a place. It hadn't. But it wasn't of Natalie that his thoughts lingered.

The notion of calling Jay a friend felt almost quaint after the past few days of conflict between them. But as the strategic blueprint for his future began to crystallize in the back of his mind, he realized the utility of claiming that connection might be useful now. 

"A friend," Adrian repeated, letting the word roll off his tongue as though he wasn’t accustomed to claiming the title. He took a slow sip of his own coffee before nodding in agreement. "Yes. Yes, I suppose you could say Jay and I are friends."

He held Rachel’s eye, noting the way she processed the information, before pivoting the conversation to center on her. A girl this high-strung, this steeped in quiet insecurity and hidden friction, didn't wander into a sprawling neoclassical estate in the middle of winter without a reason.

"And you, Rachel?" Adrian asked, tilting his head slightly all politely curious. "Are you one of Natalie’s protégés?”

[Rachel Shale]

Rachel nodded at Adrian's statement. She wasn't surprised this man was an investor and he was checking on his investment. She hoped he was pleased with what he saw. The place was coming together quite nicely. It still had a lot of work to go and that likely wouldn't change anytime soon. It was ongoing, but the place was more habitable now. After all, Rachel was staying here.

Real-estate and entrepreneurship was a common hobby among those who were wealthy. Property could be a big money maker.  As far as she knew though, Belizna wasn't meant to make profit. Rachel might be wrong about that, but she didn't know for sure. Maybe Adrian just believed in the mission that Natalie had laid out, or maybe Rachel was completely wrong about Belizna's money making potential.  Emily was the entrepreneur in the Shale family. It wasn't a skill that Rachel had.

Friend. The way Adrian said friend was odd - as if the word was unfamiliar. Rachel wasn't sure what it was about it that drew her attention, but she did wonder about it. There was something there - something Rachel didn't understand. She supposed it didn't matter so much - as long as they all got along anyways.

Rachel sat down at the table as the conversation turned to her. She wrapped her hands around her cup. Adrian was an investor. He knew why this place was being built.  It was reasonable to believe that Natalie trusted him. She had no reason to answer his question anyway but truthfully. Emily also didn't hide and Nox's protection took away any worries about the Atharim. Rachel didn't hesitate to answer.

"I am," she said, beaming. "I also work for Natalie - helping her with whatever she needs." She turned and pointed to another wing of the castle. "Room is that way. Bright sign on the door that says 'Rachel Shale'" She turned back to face Adrian. "Here to work and learn - and I'm already learning."

Adrian was an investor and she really hoped she could show him that his investment was already doing something. She tried to find it - that calm place where the magic came to her - a look of intense concentration on her face. And it just wasn't there. "Damn it!" she said, and took a few deep breaths and closed her eyes. She thought of floating in the river - surrendering to the current. She felt it fill her and lifted her right hand. She opened her eyes and pulled a thread of fire, causing a small flame to hover over her hand before she let it go and dropped the magic. "Not very impressive, I know. But I only found out I could do it last month. I'm just starting and it's progress."

[Adrian Kane]

The casual display of power hit Adrian like a slap.

A perfect little bead of fire flickered and hovered above Rachel’s palm, dancing for a fraction of a second before she snuffed it out. It was a parlor trick, a minor spark, but the implication was an open-hand slap across his ego.

Adrian stared at her hand, his expression frozen for a few seconds too long. His jaw clenched, the carefully cultivated mask of effortless charm fracturing under a surge of raw, bitter disbelief. A month. She had been touching the weave for one month.

It had taken him over a year of grinding, agonizing discipline just to pull a fraction of that current through his veins and even now, it was a volatile, intermittent thing that mocked him. He had bled for every inch of progress, locking himself away in silent rooms, beating his mind against an invisible wall, while this fragile, trembling creature sitting across from him conjured fire after a month.

It wasn't fair. The realization grated against every core assumption he had.

"A month,” Adrian repeated, the words slipping out thin and sharp before he managed to catch himself, dragging a heavy hand down the lower half of his face.

He let out a dry, humorless breath, icy gray eyes fixing on her with a mixture of disbelief and genuine, unfiltered frustration. "Do you have any idea how long it took me to manage that? A year. More than a year of tearing my mind apart, and it still fails me half the time.”

Fuck. He hadn't meant to say that out loud. He prided himself on control, on never letting the churn of his inner thoughts show on his face. But the sheer absurdity of had broken the defenses of his discipline. He looked away, staring down into his black coffee as if the dark liquid might offer some explanation for the cosmic joke of it all, his shoulders tight with the lingering ache of his own stalled ambitions.

[Rachel Shale]

Iason’s healing had worked. Rachel’s emotions were her own now, but despite all of the healer’s power, Rachel still had scars, and she still had been changed by Lucio’s emotional manipulation. Fear was the big one. She got scared easier. Adrian’s reaction triggered that.

Had she been standing, Rachel would have stepped away. Instead her gaze lowered from his and her hands, previously around her cup wrapped around her abdomen on a protective gesture. She shook a little but quickly got that under control, and when she spoke, it was quiet and reserved.

”I didn’t know,” she said. Her brain registered that Adrian probably wasn’t trying to scare her, but she wasn’t rational when her mind did this. She tried to calm herself, working enough to simply make it so she could talk and try to defuse him. ”I thought you’d be happy because your investment was working. I…I had good teachers - like Em, Zhe, and Natalie and they said,” she paused, searching for the words that Zhenya had told her. ”I learned it backwards - how to control before the magic came. They didn’t…i was lucky. I didn’t get sick and I learned the hard part first. How to yield without disappearing. A luxury you didn’t have.”

She chanced a look up. Tears welling in her eyes, but not falling. ”I hear it’s not the same for men…that yielding doesn’t work. And sometimes people can’t do it all the time because there is some sort of block that stops it. Maybe that’s why you struggle I don’t know. I didn’t know you could. I didn’t mean to offend…” her speed quickened and she shifted in her chair. The response was all based in her trauma, regardless of how she understood it. Her posture shifted, ready to stand if she had to. She knew why it was happening, and knew it shouldn’t be. It made her hate Lucio more and in some ways hate herself for her failures.

[Adrian Kane]

The shift was instantaneous. One second she was offering a comforting smile, and the next, a heavy, raw wave of distress crashed over them.

Adrian was motionless, entirely taken aback. The sympathetic connection he had momentarily slipped into snapped, leaving him stranded in a space he actively despised: dealing with a visibly distressed, emotionally unraveling woman. He didn’t see a smooth enough exit to simply stand up and walk away, but every instinct he possessed said to run before it was too late.

What kind of can of crazy have I just opened? he thought, a cold knot of irritation tightening in his stomach.

He leaned back, putting physical distance between them as she curled inward, her hands dropping to wrap defensively around her abdomen, her petite frame trembling. She was babbling apologies now, trying to rationalize his frustration while explaining away her own rapid progress with fragments of lessons from Natalie and others, stumbling over words about blocks and the agony of yielding.

Adrian’s stare was flat and detached. He loathed the raw exposure of tear-bright eyes, the pathetic, self-hating panic radiating like a sunburn in summer. And cleared his throat. His voice dropping an octave, slipping back into a smooth, practiced vagueness designed to defuse a bomb he hadn't meant to trip. 

"Rachel, stop,” he said, holding up a single, placating hand, his tone carefully neutral. "There's no need for any of that. You haven't offended me.”

He forced a tight, perfunctory smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. He needed to change the subject, fast, before she completely disintegrated across from him.

[Rachel Shale]

The movement helped. Stepping away helped along with the calm words. It took time for the the fear to recede and she began to breathe her calming breaths. She wiped the tears that had been forming in her eyes, fear replaced by embarrassment. She hated that he had seen that - her weakness - and felt like she had taken a step back. Slowly she let go of herself and put her arms on the table.

”Im sorry you had to see that - god that was embarrassing,” she didn’t stand or move. Her gaze was still diverted and her breathing was still quick, but going down. She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. ”J feel like I owe an explanation. At least a general one. I’m a trauma victim and a recent one. Sometimes something sets me off - makes me feel afraid. And even when I know I’m okay, it just doesn’t stop.”

She sighed. ”Im sorry and I hope you can understand and forgive my outburst. It’s one of the things I’m working on improving.” she took a couple more deep, calming breaths. The whole situation had been unexpected. She hated that it had happened, but moving on from things like this was something she needed to learn too.

[Adrian Kane]

Adrian’s instinct was to find the nearest exit. Immediately. Every pore of his body rejected the raw, untidy theater unfolding across the table. He wanted to unceremoniously drop his napkin, walk out of the room, and leave the trembling wreck of a girl to piece herself back together on her own time.

But Adrian was a strategist, not a blunt instrument.

His mind rapidly calculated the variables. He was an investor walking the halls of an estate where he needed to project absolute influence. If he bolted now like a panicked animal, or if he lashed out with cold dismissal, he would leave a fractured, volatile variable in his wake. Worse, he would likely cross paths with her again before his stay at Belizna concluded, turning a minor social misstep into an awkward, lingering liability that would only siphon future energy. Abandoning a sinking ship now meant dealing with the debris later.

No. If he wanted a clean slate, he had to steady the vessel himself before he walked away. He had to choose the part.

He consciously smoothed the tension from his jaw, reigning in his irritation and replacing it with the calculated, unflappable facade of a benevolent benefactor. It wasn't about comforting her out of the goodness of his heart; it was about managing his environment.

"Drop it, Rachel,” Adrian said, his voice dropping into a smooth, steady register designed to anchor her spinning thoughts. He offered a slow, deliberate shake of his head, injecting a calculated measure of warmth into his expression just enough to look magnanimous. "We all have problems. I am hardly in a position to judge simply because an old frustration slipped out.”

He leaned forward slightly, resting his forearms on the table, maintaining a controlled, non-threatening space.

"Consider it forgotten,” he continued smoothly, giving her the explicit permission she was desperately fishing for. "And as for your progress, don't let my clumsy moment make you discount a month of actual work. A spark is a good start. Just... keep it pointed away from the upholstery.”

A faint, dry twist of a smile touched his lips.

[Rachel Shale]

Rachel did smile and it was a genuine one. ”Thanks,” she said in regards to his forgiveness.

She finished her cup of coffee and rose to refill it. She began to look in the fridge, finding some eggs and bacon she could make for breakfast. That is after all, why she had come down the stairs. Her hunger wasn’t gone and it was time to eat.

”Could I make you anything?” she offered. It wouldn’t be an imposition or anything to add more to the pan. She refilled her cup. ”Or a refill?”

Her mood had changed quickly and she wondered if she should perhaps see a therapist about seeing if she was bipolar or something. Perhaps Lucio had done more damage than they had suspected. It was something to talk to Hayden about.

She began to work, adding more food if Adrian requested it and filling his cup if he had asked. ”Youbhave my thanks for investing in this place. It’s really starting to come together - even if it still has a long way to go. It’s had so much potential. It will be nice to see more people start to come and learn. I’m pretty excited about it. And,” she gave a slight grin. ”Ill make sure to keep it away from the upholstery.”

[Adrian Kane]

Adrian watched her pivot from near-tears to domestic utility with a faint, internal wince. The prospect of sitting across from her while she fried bacon and eggs felt about as appealing as a root canal, but he held his ground, masking his impatience behind a calm posture.

When she offered to cook, he didn't blink. He shifted slightly in his chair, the effortless adjustments of his frame subtly highlighting the broad, disciplined lines of his shoulders and chest. A physique maintained through punishingly strict regimens that left zero room for deviation. 

"I'll pass on the food, thank you," Adrian said, his voice smooth. "I keep to a strict morning fast. My body operates best on empty fuel.” He offered a brief, easy nod toward his empty coffee cup, a confident charm underscoring the gesture. "Though I wouldn't say no to a top-off, if you're pouring.”

Sensing he needed a buffer to keep her occupied and prevent another emotional nosedive, he reached into his jacket, pulled his Wallet, and tapped the screen to check up on events. As the local weather aggregates loaded, a sharp frown flickered across his brow. He tilted the screen slightly, light eyes narrowing as he looked over the incoming alerts.

"By the way," Adrian murmured, half to himself before looking up at her. "Have you looked at the weather this morning? The snow forecast climbed from yesterday.”

He wasn’t long in Moscow, but it seemed excessive even for Russia.

[Colette Moreau]

Colette had texted Natalie from the car as soon as they departed the Radiance. After a few initial conversations brokered by Evelyn, the open invitation to visit Belizna was something she’d been genuinely looking forward to. It explained why she was up so early to get on the road.

On the way, She watched snowflakes tumble past the window with mild interest. Growing up in New York City meant she was no stranger to winter weather, but yesterday's forecast predicting three feet of snow had been startling enough. Halfway through the drive, an updated bulletin hit her wallet with the kind of sudden, escalating warning that gave anyone serious pause. She’d actually texted Natalie to ask if she should turn back, but they were already too far out. At that point, pushing through made more sense than navigating the snowstorm back to the city.

By the time the car finally pulled up to the estate, the historic grounds and sweeping facades were entirely swallowed by a heavy, driving wall of white. The driver carried her bags inside while Colette hurried in right behind him, pausing in the grand foyer to brush the melting flakes from her hair and shoulders. She thanked him, tipping him generously for braving the worsening roads, and then turned to peer around the unfamiliar space.