They turned and looked towards the door where Xeadis stood. His face was paler than normal, and while there was a mockingly amused expression on his face, the tightness around his eyes and a faint glitter of tears bespoke of a deeper sorrow. Firia stood beside him, her face white and a haunted look about her eyes. Her eyes darted around the room, then focused upon Lina in Zelros's arms. A tremulous smile alighted briefly upon Firia's features, but was quickly replaced by tears that streamed down her cheeks. Tears that were only briefly seen as Firia rushed upstairs, quickly followed by the slamming of her bedroom door.
"Que sera ..." Xeadis murmured, following his statement with bitter laughter. He looked at Lina, the Zel, finally addressing his next statement to his brother. "I wish you both well .... and farewell, my brother."
With those words, Xeadis disappeared from the doorway at a run, and was soon lost from sight. When Zelros made a move to follow his twin, Zelas barred the way with her arm. "Go help Lina with Firia. I have already called for someone to fully awaken his heritage."
Lina and Zel shared a glance of puzzlement. "Fully awaken his heritage?"
"I made him Mazoku, I made him from the flesh of his father. Contact with Firia has awakened his memories as a Mazoku .... But now, his heritage from his father needs to awaken, thought it will cause him great pain.
So damn close! For once he had dared hope that maybe now, with his new body and powers, he could dare be close to Firia. And she had paid for his hope in pain. "Once a Mazoku, always a Mazoku." Xeadis spoke bitterly, anguish raging within him even as he finished his third lap of the city.
"And to a dragon's fair flesh, the touch of a Mazoku's skin burns like a red-hot iron." The only Mazoku Xeadis - then Xeros - had ever seen without this curse had been Valgarv ... Valgarv who had done what he had never been able to do. A simple touch, not even a romantic one, shared with Firia.
Val sighed, watching Xeadis come close to completing another lap around the city. He had thought that burning off some of that energy would have helped, but it seemed all it had done was give Xeadis more time to think.
Val stepped forward, directly into Xeadis's path, his outfit carefully selected to match what he had worn the first time they had met. Xeadis skidded to a stop, his eyes wide with shock. Val spoke, his voice even, and calm. "I challenge you."