Lurasetta finds Elachi home from war

From FiranMUX

Lurasetta comes out of the white room.

pass: you unlock the door and relock it behind you.

Elachi is in the hallway, brutally injured, his eyes dark and empty. He looks tired, consumed by a bone-weariness that seems soaked into him so deeply in will never leave. He wears a beard now, and his hair is longer. One hand braces on the doorframe for support.

Lurasetta opens the door and looks out, no shouting this time since the kids are asleep, but seeing Elachi (Who is not in armor!), she steps to his side and throws an arm around his waist to try and usher him into the room. Not a word passes, though she looks like she could just cry with relief to even see him again -- even in this broken state.

unlock: Lurasetta unlocks door to white room with a click.

Elachi starts following you. Elachi looked at you. Elachi does not protest the contact, or the help. He lets himself be led in an encompassing silence.

You head into the white room.

Anarinuell: Hydra District -- N'Gato Estate -- White Room <edit room desc out> Obvious exits: Out <O>

You are followed by Elachi.

Elachi has arrived.

Toddler Ariadne peeks over at Lurasetta and smiles shyly.

lock: Lurasetta locks door to White Bedroom with a click.

Lurasetta is almost afraid to ask, which makes the silence all the more welcoming. He's filthy. Injured. His eyes are black and hard to read... all she sees there is ... bad. Leading him straight for the bed, she lets go by the edge and kneels with every intention of getting his shoes off and getting him into bed if she can without being too pushy about it. He doesn't have his armor, which is sort of contrary to how she envisioned his home coming, but she tries to make him comfortable.

Elachi does not sit on the bed. Instead, he catches Lurasetta by the wrist as she moves to kneel, probably holding it too hard to be pleasant. After an instant, he releases it, then lifts his good arm and touches her cheek, fingers trembling. Gently, so gently, he leans forward to touch his lips to hers.

Swollen as she is, any overly-tight squeezing is difficult, but also causes her to wince and her eyes to widen. In trouble? But then he surprises her again by releasing her arm, and just as she's about to ask, silences her with a kiss. It's weird to kiss him with a beard, but it's good too. Her arms rise and she steps in, intent on hugging him if he'll allow it, and holding on to stay close and possibly hold him up.

Elachi accepts the hug, his eyes closing with the embrace. As they do, tears, that final betrayal, swim behind them and finally spill. His knees give way, and he crumples, weeping like a child, beside the bed.

Lurasetta had thoughts of holding him up, but she really isn't strong enough. So when he goes down, she just holds on to follow him to the floor, pulling him to her with shaking hands. Without any idea of what he's gone through, or what to do, she just squeezes him to her and starts to rock like she would if one of the babies was upset.

Elachi cannot object; he has no strength or will for it remaining. Instead, he just lowers his head until it is cushioned against her breast, and cries, and cries. Now that he has started, he cannot seem to stop, and he sobs out the pain, and grief, and horror of the last months, and then he cries for the beauty of the land to which he has returned, and then he cries for guilt and shame. He cries for long minutes which stretch and stretch, and stretch, into half an hour, forty-five minutes. He cries like a child, desperate and lonely and without understanding that the hurt can ever fade.

Lurasetta's heart is too tender to be strong for long. The more he cries, and the more she doesn't understand what will help him, the shakier she becomes. Soon her own tears, quiet tears, track down her cheeks and she tilts her head to press her cheek against the top of his head, petting his back and continuing to rock. Having never seen a man do this, it's hard for her to wrap her mind around whatever horrors must have spawned it, and all she can do is try to offer what comfort there is in her to give, she she gives all she can.

It takes too long, but finally Elachi has no tears left. He remains where he is for a moment, then pulls back a bit. "You are so beautiful," he whispers, and his voice aches. "I thought -- I prayed for you. You are more beautiful than I remembered."

He might pull back, but she's not really letting go. Her arms loosen some, but she keeps touching him, hand lifting to stroke his hair back from his face, eyes searching him. "I prayed for you too." She whispers after a long silence, "I knew Zutiv would send you home." There is no need to ask him if he's okay, since she can see he's not. Instead, she tries to give him some good word, "I knew Zutiv would send you home to us." And then reaches for one of his hands to guide to her rounding tummy. It's easy to conceal beneath the folds of fabric, but to the touch, there is a definite rounding.

Elachi's eyes drink in Lurasetta's face, and his voice breaks on his next words. "I failed, Setta. I failed, and so many have paid for it. Zateen is dead and lost. Hypeius broke on the field. And at the end -- at the end, I let them take me, still on my feet. I didn't -- they didn't even strike me down. They just took me, and held me, and I could do nothing. I failed." *Firan*

Lurasetta can't stop petting him, especially as the horror he faced begins to filter out. Zateen dead... with new wife and baby on the way. Hypeius broken? She doesn't follow that exactly, but she tears again and they spill. "They got you?" That part /is/ clear to her, and she swallows, "But you got away? You didn't fail. You came home. You came home, and ... I know you. I know you did all you could. Brother Piarres sent me a message. He said you were a hero. He said you were in horrible battles and you got hurt really badly each time, but you got better and you kept fighting. That's not failing, Elachi." *Firan*

Elachi shakes his head, and speaks bitterly. "They bought me back. I walked out of the cell, and I left behind..." He cannot finish the sentence. "By Zutiv, Lurasetta," he says, and his voice is a whisper, "what manner of man am I, that I could walk out of that room?" *Firan*

"You're a good man." Setta whispers her ardent belief, still petting him with shaking hands. "What could you have done? Stay? If they gave you back, then it was for a reason. Everything happens for a reason, right? Zutiv made it so you could come back." She wants to drag him to bed still, make him rest, make him better some how. "Would you like me to get Brother Piarres?"

Elachi shakes his head. "I need to talk to His Honor. I should report... I need to tell him of my failures. He had faith, and I..." He breaks off and shakes his head. *Firan*

Baby Kinemar cries and cries!

Lurasetta leans forward and kisses his forehead, and then one of those bushy brows, arms wrapping around his shoulders again to hug tight, "I love you, Elachi. I may not be very smart, but I know you. I know what a good man you are. You just need rest, baby. You just need to sleep. Everything will be okay." *Firan*

Elachi lets out a thin breath of laughter at that. It is not a happy sound. "Sleep," he repeats. "Yes. I should sleep." *Firan*

Baby Kinemar sobs softly.

The tension in the room upsets the baby, but he can just join in the masses and cry with them. The bitter sound of his laughter and words finally settle and Setta realizes... she's not helping. She is desperate to help, but just isn't. Not the happy homecoming she kept imagining, indeed. That fantasy was full of hugging, and twirling, and possibly running at one another through a field of wheat -- because that's just how it's supposed to go. But this ... it's weird to be so sad and so relieved at the same time.

No, this is not the homecoming Elachi would have asked for his wife. "I will sleep," he promises her quietly, and climbs to his feet, seating himself on the bed. "The boots belong to a Mes Zaynee," he says. "Could you return them to her, with my thanks?"

Lurasetta stays in the floor, letting him go as he rises, and reaching out to draw the boots from his feet, as she had wanted to previously. "Mes Zaynee? Okay. I'll tell her." It sounds paltry, but she adds again, "I'm glad you're home..." *Firan*

Baby Kinemar cries and cries!

"I am glad to be home," Elachi answers, but it sounds hollow, despite his best efforts. Once the boots are off his feet, he lies down on the bed, curling around his injured arm.