InkSkin

Air

LuSol returned to her in what seemed days later to Alsuha but had only really been a couple handful of hours. She still sat in the large wing backed chair with her knees drawn up against her chest. As soon as LuSol entered the room he walked immediately over to her side. He stood looking down at her without saying a word. Haku raised his head from where he lay at her feet but he too remained curiously silent.

"Not now," Alsuha mumbled, keeping her head buried in her arms. She held her legs up to her chest even tighter despite the slight pain.

"I got you some sparing partners."

"Alright."

"Alsuha?"

"Thank you." LuSol stared at the back of her head. She could feel his eyes burning into her. His mind was sealed to her at the moment, just as hers was sealed from his. She hugged her knees a little tighter. She couldn't face him; she didn't have herself completely under control just yet.

She breathed in deeply, haltingly as she heard him walk away. She breathed a slight sigh, but not of relief. Her emotions were still too raw and she was filled with regret. She fought her instinct to call LuSol back to talk to him and have him help her understand what it was she was feeling. She longed for him to hold her. But she didn't speak. She tightened her hold around herself and refused to acknowledge or analyze why her heart ached. Alsuha stood slowly. She winced as her body cracked and groaned itself to life.

"How long have I been sitting here?"

'The moons have long since come abreast of one another.' Alsuha groaned. She could see the slightest of pinks tingeing the horizon through the large windows of her new room. Suddenly, her body tensed and her head snapped up. Her Ink was giving up its familiar heat, which only meant one thing: danger.

"LuSol?" She called to him even as she was darting through the huge double doors that connected her new bedroom to his.

Everything moved in slow motion as it usually did for her at times like these. LuSol was in the process of turning towards her, but she could already hear the sharp twang of a chord. She knew LuSol was too far from her and Haku. She could see LuSol's profile now.

Her Ink pulsed and spoke to her as she Drew. Instantly, she felt as though a cold wind had passed through her. LuSol was almost completely facing her now. She saw his eyes widen in surprise as he flew backwards seconds before three arrows embedded themselves in the wall right about where his head and heart would have been.

Without pausing she Drew her bow. Her Ink stirred and she felt a cold wind pass through her once more only this time it was chased by a heat that left her flushed. She pulled back on the bow's string and let loose twice in rapid succession. She felt her arrows fly silent and deadly. They passed straight through the wall the would-be assassin hid behind; nothing was impenetrable to them. She knew the moment they had found their marks – both through the chest. Alsuha felt them drive deep and sadness filled her. It disturbed her how empty she felt. Killing had never made her feel anything like what she felt in that moment.

How odd that I ever wanted to live to see another day in the Pitts. The thought came to her unbidden and filled her with a strange emotion she could not describe.

'You are changing, Chisana.' She turned to look at Haku, a strange sense of inevitability filling her. "So I am."

"Are you alright, LuSol?" she asked without turning to him. She couldn't tear herself away from the emptiness.

"This is becoming a habit."

"What is?" she asked, finally turning to face him.

"You, pushing me to the ground," he replied with that smile that did odd things to her stomach.

"You are fine."

"Are you fine?" he instantly countered as he pulled himself up.

She looked away from him before replying; she didn't want him to see the lie in her eyes. "I am."

"How did you knock me down?"

'She Drew,' Haku said, when Alsuha failed to respond.

"What? Air?" LuSol asked jokingly as he looked over at Haku.

'Yes.' LuSol's smile slowly died away before he glanced back at Alsuha.

"That is impossible," Alsuha whispered, fear clearly evident in the two words. And yet she could not deny what she herself had done; what her Ink offered her upon asking.

'It should be impossible for you to have all four Ink'd Ranges and yet there they are.'

"Do you know something you are keeping from me, Haku?"

'There are things I have yet to say to you, things you are not yet ready to hear, but knowledge of certain things have been... lost to me, for all that my kind remembers events you and your people have long since forgotten and assigned to myths and legends.

'But I do know no one has worn all the ranges in eons; for very good reason.'

"Then why my Ink?"

'You know the answer to that. You chose.' Haku finished lightly when Alsuha said nothing.

"I did not choose this." Alsuha snapped and she meant everything she and her brethren had been forced to endure.

'Everyone chooses their path when they go on their Visit. Their Ink is a reflection of that choice. Your name is a testimony of your choice.'

"Stop."

'You will eventually have to stop running from the truth. You are Bani, but you are also Alsuha. You made the choice.'

"Then why can I not remember?"

'There is much you let go of to survive. You must simply find what you have lost.'

"Way to be vague," LuSol chimed in, confusion clearly evident in his voice.

'She understands what I say. My words ring with truth. She simply does not wish to accept them. Yet.' Alsuha shook her head in frustration. There was an awful ring of truth to Haku's words that she could not deny and she feared what their truth held for her. She turned on her heel and walked away from them.

"Where are you going?"

"To go find who it was that just tried to kill you!" she shouted over her shoulder.

She stopped once she was out of sight. She unwound the bandage from her right hand and held it up in front of herself, splaying her fingers wide. She looked at the faint scar on the back of it, it had been redder before but now it was almost completely healed. She could have easily mistaken it for one of the dozen or so scars on her hand already if it hadn't been for its slight itching.

"Guess I am back to normal," she mumbled to herself as she went off on her search.