Night Sky

It's been a few slightly messy days since the sun couple last dropped in on Daechir, but all has been set to rights. Dolan's breastplate, freshly repaired, is once again in place, although he has this time left all weapons behind for the safety of all. The sheepskin surcoat is omitted today owing to the pleasant weather, and he has, as is his wont, rolled up the sleeves of the shirt beneath to the elbow. You can take the kid out of the farm, but you can't totally take the farm out of the kid. The only thing he's got with him, when he approaches the door, is a basket of some sort of flaky pastries filled with honey or strawberry jam - mixed in the basket. "Is Daechir up for visitors?" he asks cheerily of whoever's guarding the door.

Andelena's accompanying Dolan, wearing her own full plate armor. Deliverance is with her, as Daechir's responded positively to the sword's voice in the past, but she's peacebonded in the swordbelt. "Tell him Andelena and Dolan are here to talk to him," she tells the guard at the door. "Y'know, so he knows we aren't just any old shits off the street."

There are two Silverguards on duty - which is really no surprise. They look at one another and eye Dolan and Andelena carefully for a moment before one of them nods and knocks on the door. "Just let me check." He opens the door and pokes his head inside. "Hey, you've got two visitors. Andelena and Dolan?"

It's not difficult to hear Daed's reply, which is a moment of silence followed by a somewhat warm response. "Let them in, if you would?" It's a polite request and as the pair enter the room they find it little changed from the way that it had been. The most notable difference is perhaps Daechir himself. The man is sitting upright on his bed, the coin that Dolan gave him rolling over his fingers as he looks up at their entry. He has had his hair cut into a somewhat short style that is currently tucked into a ponytail, and his clothes are of a much better state than they had been before. He's even wearing boots.

"Course." Dolan accepts the hesitancy easily, but when the call comes to let them in, he steps in, and surveys the change in look, the mobile half of his features immediately curling into a warm grin of understanding. "Brightest of days. You look like you're feeling better," he offers, stepping inside and setting the basket down on the table. "Thought I'd bring a snack while we talk. You probably haven't gotten much in the way of sweets."

"Looking sharp, Daed," Andelena says with a grin as she comes into the room with Dolan. "The hair looks nice. How've you been doing in here?"

"Brightest of days, Daed," Deliverance adds on in that maternal tone of hers. "Have you been eating well?" Oh yes, she is apparently _that_ kind of maternal.

As they enter the room, Daechir's coin flips into his palm and he rises to his feet. "I have not had much in the way of anything more interesting to eat than stew and bread, but... Do not think that a complaint." A flicker of a half-smile that is quickly wiped from his face by something darker in his crimson eyes. His hand half-lifts to his hair and the smile slowly returns. "You are kind. It is better than it was before at least."

His eyes flicker toward Deliverance and he nods politely to the blade. "I am trying lady... Deliverance? Is that right?" It's interesting how quickly fear can filter over his face.

"Know that one," Dolan replies, the grin fading at the darkness in the man's eyes. It fades entirely into seriousness, and he uncovers the basket to reveal a dozen pastries. "Some are honey, some are strawberry jam. What have you been up to? Want a light on that?" He gestures to the coin, a query in his tone. "I've gotten pretty good at that."

"Yeah, but I call her Livvie. Deliverance can be kind of a mouthful," Andelena replies with a little smirk. "Stew and bread's not a bad thing so long as it's flavored well. Some of the soups I had to eat when I was a kid were as fucking bland as it _gets_."

She pats Deliverance. "I can ask her to keep quiet if that's alright with you, Daed? I don't want you to deal with anything you don't want to deal with."

It's hard to miss the small gleam of interest and pleasure that lights in Daed's eyes as he spies the sweet rolls. "You are very kind Dolan..." The coin in his hand appears with a flick into his fingers and he looks down at it. Uncertain. "I... I do not need it anymore."

He moves toward the other man just the same though. "I would be glad to accept one of these though. As to your sword; let her speak if she wills. What of you Deliverance, do you prefer Livvie over the other?"

"Help yourself." Dolan takes one for himself, and pushes the basket towards Daechir and Andelena. "Sure. If you ever do, just ask. Nothing beats sunlight." He bites into the pastry and chews contentedly. "As for what the sword prefers, pretty sure it's damned seldom she gets what she'd prefer, I s'pose. Good of you to ask."

There's a chuckle from Deliverance at Dolan's words. "Brydion, aside from the fact that Andelena does swear an awful lot, I am otherwise quite satisfied with her and in her taste in potential spouses. Of which I must clarify that you are the only candidate. My apologies to Daed if he was hoping to be on that list. I have no real preference for the name that is used--so long as it does not contain a vulgarity, of course."

"Hey, I have no reason to call you a bitch like I do my actual mother," Andelena says with a smirk. She reaches in and grabs one of the strawberry ones herself, popping it into her mouth, pausing long enough after her first chew and swallow to add, "I'm with Bry. Sunlight's probably the best for you."

Daechir hesitates a moment, before picking out a honey-filled pastry and eating it delicately. It's humorsly clear that he'd rather be eating it wholesale like Andeleana, but that his manners prevent such. Their words seem to draw him out and after a moment he nods. "If... If it would be no hardship to you?" He offers the coin after a fashion. He holds it toward Dolan with his fingers still tightly gripping the small bit of copper. In fact he's holding it tightly enough that his fingers are going a little pale. He does not release the coin.

Dolan's entire demeanor softens, and he reaches out to touch the coin with the tip of a finger from his free hand, staring at it with great focus. Almost at once, it lights up with the blue-white-gold of sunlight, but captured in the strength of a candle. "There. Does that help?" He draws away, watching it with a warm and reverent smile, and takes another bite of his pastry. "That still amazes me," he admits, but lets it drift away at the talk of suitors.

"If that's true, then I'm a damned lucky man," he goes on. "She can do better than me. Not that I'd ever want her to," he adds hastily.

Andelena snorts and gives Dolan a little grin. "It is true, and no, I can't, because you're the only man I'd ever want," she says, before she looks back to Daechir. "Bry and I here are getting married this summer. So don't mind us being all flirty with each other."

She looks at the coin that's now touched with the mote of light, and her eyes behold it like it's a reverent and holy thing. "It's gorgeous, Bry," she says softly. "Always is. No matter what you use it on."

Daechir's eyes immediately lock onto the little bit of light. "I certainly have no intentions toward your lady." He looks up suddenly, his body seeming to relax and a real warm smile touched with mischievousness crosses his face as he eyes Andelena. "Though there are plenty of fun things that one can do with four."

He laughs suddenly, a little sound followed by the twinkling of bells, and he waves his free hand. "I mean dates. I... Have not taken my own lady out in..." He trails off, amusement fading like water from a glass. "Too long."

Dolan's eyebrows start towards his hairline at Daechir's remark, and his gaze is torn away from the light. Fortunately, he seems to laugh it off entirely, his eyes alight with joy and relief. "Good thing, too. I'm not sure your lady would be interested in going drinking with us." He polishes off the remainder of the pastry in his hand, licking his fingers. "It might be fun, though, and certainly leaving these walls -" He hesitates, the beaming fading away. "You want to try it?"

Andelena almost cackles with the remark, taking it entirely as jest rather than a serious proposition. "Yeah," she says, "I don't know about double dates, but hey, who knows."

She looks at Dolan and the thoughtful expression settles back onto her face again. "Could start small," she says, before she looks over to Daechir. "Have they been walking you around the Temple at all? Outside? Just to get you out of the room for a little while."

Mirth fading, Daechir looks toward the door, the coin flipping over his knuckles idly. Slowly at first, then faster and faster. "I have not... been outside." He sighs and motions toward the two chairs in the room. "What a host I am to not offer you seats. Please, sit."

This delay seems to give him time to think. "I want to leave but... I am... Uncertain how I will be able to handle the world. I can not be a risk to others."

"There's only one way to find out." Dolan removes another pastry from the basket, sighing, his smile gone. He walks over towards the offered chair with it, and with his free hand turns it around, sitting backwards in it and straddling it, arms resting on the back as he takes a bite from his pastry, running the problem over in his mind. "Start inside the Temple itself, maybe in the early morning when it's pretty quiet. That pool down there is pretty peaceful. I notice nobody ever talks loud down there. I get the impression you aren't supposed to? Anyway - start by going places when it's quiet." He chews, thoughtfully. "Maybe don't go too far at once, and maybe don't go by yourself. Early mornings. Late evenings. Bad weather."

"Maybe us, or the guards, could go with you," Andelena suggests. "Someone you know, at least a little. That way if you get overwhelmed, you're not surrounded entirely by strangers, you know? I may cuss an awful lot, but I'm told I'm not halfway bad to walk with."

There's a little smirk on her face as she looks at Dolan, like maybe that's a reference to an old, old joke. Or maybe it's just how their relationship is.

"That..." Daechir sits on his bed and never misses a beat with his coin. He blinks at Dolan. "Yes. I could do that..." After a moment of silence he looks at the other man solidly. "You have been of great assistance to me; bringing me out of the dark. I do not know how to express my gratitude to you save to say something I have never said to another."

"Thank you."

The smirk from the Sunguard gets returned with all of a cheeky grin. "I look forward to walking with you, baby." Dolan has turned his full face towards Andelena, and he winks his lone brown eye. Daechir's remark draws the teasing away from him, and he turns fully back towards the man. It's an odd quirk.

"You're welcome," he replies seriously. "I take it damned seriously. I've been led out of the dark twice now by others, and being able to do the same for someone else is pretty damned important to me. It's part of what I do, and I'm not going to leave someone else in a hellhole like that." The gaze holds no rancor. It's open and honest, and simple. "If you like, I'll go with you. I know what to avoid at first, because there's a lot of those things that I don't like, either, yeah?"

Andelena reaches out to put her hand on Dolan's arm, smiling gently at her Corona before she returns her gaze to Daechir. "And I've been there with him as he got out of the darkest shit," she says. "But he's the man best suited to help you out of the two of us. He knows what you've been through first-hand. I'm mostly just a healer and a source of moral support--which Bry says I'm good at." There's another sly little smirk in Dolan's direction.

"Which is to say--both of us are here for you." That's said as seriously as anything.

"I would be glad of your further assistance Dolan." Daechir says softly. He looks down at the coin in his hand, a flick and it disappears. Gone. Then it returns in a flicker of light. "I thought escaping my father and grandmother was the trial of my life but... I did not expect this." The coin is crushed in his fist. "You are both lucky, to have one another... I find myself envious of it."

The smirk on Andelena's face is reflected in Dolan's, but it's short-lived, coalescing into an affectionate smile meant only for her, and a transfer of food to the other hand so that he can reach for hers. He doesn't say anything for a moment, instead regarding Darchir thoughtfully. "Aya's not helping you, is she." It's not a question. "Sometimes it's like that, where the people around you are trying to help and they don't know shit. Andie listens to me, and she does as I ask, because she trusts me that there's a reason why. We've been together since we were teenagers, except for one thing." A quick glance at the redhead next to him, a guilty look, and he goes on. "What is Aya not doing that you need, or doing that drives you insane?"

That smile gets returned, and it's like the warmth of Daeus's sun on Andelena's face. Even as he looks at her with the guilty expression, she just gives him that loving smile, her hand in his squeezing gently. She finally turns her head back to Daechir. "Listening's the best thing she can do. And she needs to know that. If you haven't already told her--then you should. But if she's not listening to begin with..."

"It is my failing." Daechir says immediately, rolling the coin into his palm again. "I have not told her, but then... how can I?"

He closes his eyes but for only an instant. "Everything is... She stays until I am convinced that she must be other than what I think she is. Or that she _is_ what I think. Then she leaves, and I am convinced the other way. She looks at me and... she sees someone other than who I have become. Every success makes her think that I am better and I do not... feel better."

He looks at Dolan sadly. "How do I explain that her hope is misplaced? That I can not touch her because I remember how much it hurts? That I may never be more than a burden to her?"

Dolan lets out a long, deep sigh. "Shit." He takes another bite of his pastry, chewing thoughtfully, then a second, and chews that before he speaks. "I - " He stops, staring at the pastry in his hand. "She wants you to go back to who you were," he says finally. "That won't happen." Here, he hesitates again. "Shit like what you've been through - it changes you. You're not a burden. You see things a different way, and she doesn't understand. When you say _better_, it sounds like you're talking about what was before all this happened."

"People change," Andelena says softly. "For all kinds of reasons. What happened to you--that's change. And she _will_ have to adapt to it. One way or another, she'll either figure it out or you tell her--but she may be able to take it better if you tell her. But..."

She looks soberly at Daechir. "I was told after the darkest hour that Dolan and I have had that there was a distinct possibility that he wouldn't come back as the man that I loved. That he would be so different that what we had wouldn't be possible. I accepted that, but I also knew that Dolan and I--we've grown together. We've changed together. We're not teenagers anymore. And I love him _because_ of that. Because we've grown together into the people we are, together."

There's a moment where she pauses, before she says, "So--it's possible. To come back from it in terms of your relationship. It just depends on if she's willing to accept that there is no going back. That the man who is in front of her is what she's getting."

Daechir nods. "I know that I need to say these things to her, and you are right. There is no going back to the way things were. I can only hope that she will accept..." He lowers his hand and soothes his fingers over his pant leg. The coin vanished for the moment. "What I have become. As I must accept myself."

Dolan looks at the pastry in his hand again, and squeezes Andelena's hand again. "That's - the hard part." He lets out a long breath. "So after that - Andie and me - we compensate. And we do it together. She's accepting some of this shit better than I am, if we're honest. Would it help if I told her? That this is how it is. What was is gone, and it's not coming back? What you've got to do now is work out - where do we go from here."

Andelena has a mote of something in her eyes. Realization. She returns that squeeze of the hand. "I want to talk to her about it," she says. "You can be there, Bry, and absolutely Daechir can be--but maybe she needs to hear it from my perspective. A woman who has loved and still loves the man changed by what happened."

She looks a little wry for a moment. "Not shoving either of you off on account of gender, but, well--sometimes it really does matter to hear it from a woman's perspective if you're a woman too. And... like Bry was saying earlier. He knows what Daechir's going through personally. I know what _Aya's_ going through personally. So maybe it ought to be me taking the lead on that front."

Daechir considers this for a long moment then nods. "Then I would be indebted to you as well Andelena. Moreso than I am now. If you would talk to... Aya. I will appreciate that greatly. In the meantime." He looks at the pair. "It is late, perhaps... you would be willing to accompany me to where I might view the night sky?"

"Sure. Andie, what say you?" Dolan looks startled at first by Andelena's assertion, but nods. "Sure, baby. If you want to, that's fine. Might even be easier. Let's go out to the Temple Plaza. It should be pretty quiet by now, yeah?"

"Night sky? Sure," Andelena says with a soft smile to Dolan. "Sounds like a romantic time."

Okay, that put a grin on her face, but she turns back to Daechir and makes a motion for the door. "Don't worry, you're not gonna be watching us shove our tongues down each other's throats the whole time. C'mon, let's get out of here and into the plaza."

So the Daeusites lead Daechir out to behold Eluna in the skies, surrounded by the majesty of the stars. For while the man may change, there is comfort in that the stars hardly ever do, and that they, fixed in the firmament of the night sky, watch on as an audience for the man transformed--and the man transforming.

-End