Chapter Three: Sudden Eloquence

Lyssa. Wake up. An unfamiliar voice echoed through the depths of her mind. A butterfly flapped into being in front of her. She reached out and tried to touch it, but it stayed just out of her grasp, a little purplish-pink shape in the surrounding gloom. Wake up. She opened her eyes to a similarly unfamiliar scene. There was a woman standing over her; a woman with silver hair and a hawk-like visage. The woman looked once at Lyssa and her smoldering eyes, literally, seemed as though they were only giving her a cursory glance. Her deep violet eyes seemed as though they were in flames, a slight wisp of smoke wafting up from those orbs as she turned her head towards... Aco? He was in the room too. In fact, he was asleep as well. He was seated right beside Lyssa's bed, chair facing her and he lay asleep on her. Evidently, he must have waited for a long time for her to wake up.
Something was missing. Lyssa thought for a moment and realised: it was too quiet. For Aco and the woman to be within such proximity to her, it was far too quiet for their subconsciousness to be. Granted, Aco was asleep and Lyssa could feel the sense of being troubled from him, but the woman was strangely quiet. Quiet? No. Lyssa could just make out a slight interest, quickly stamped out. The woman was controlling her own emotions tightly, leaving a murky mind to peruse.
Lyssa blinked as the woman offered her a cup of water. Odd, Lyssa's throat did not feel as bad as it had been. In fact, she felt much better, as if she had completely recovered. Lyssa took the cup without a word, not wanting to break the silence first or risk waking Aco up. Funny how she cared for his comfort that way.
She took a look about the room as she sipped the warm water. The room was like a mirror of the woman, the colour scheme dark and purple. Lyssa noticed a few butterflies around, some perching on the woman, others just flying about with no apparent destination in mind. The butterflies were a lighter colour as compared to the walls, a bright pink and blue pattern on their diaphanous wings.
The door creaked open as the woman left the room. The noise was enough to wake up Aco as he stirred, lifting his head up from Lyssa's blanketed abdomen.
“Lyssa? Lyssa, you're awake! Are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah. I'm okay. What about you?”
“I'm alright. I was worried about you. I'm sorry, please forgive me.” Aco clenched his eyes shut as if he was fighting his emotions deep within. And he was, that much Lyssa could feel.
“What's there to be sorry about? Thank you for rescuing me.”
“I let you get caught.” His words were laden with guilt. “You wouldn't have needed rescuing if I had been able to protect you better.”
Lyssa didn't know what to say and she pondered for a moment before replying in the way she thought best.
“I'm so sorr- Lyssa!” Aco gulped as she hugged him tightly. “What.. what are you doing?”
In response, she simply drew him closer and tightened their embrace. He slowly hugged her back, arms lifting up to encircle her back.
“I'm sorry.” He whispered.
“It's okay. I don't blame you.”
Lyssa became aware of a mind coming close. She couldn't remember who it was, though it seemed familiar.. Then the door creaked open again and Aco pulled away quickly, startled. It was Ren. She didn't look as if she had seen the interaction between the two and she moved to Aco's side.
“Good morning, Lyssa. Feeling better?”
“Yes. Thank you for saving me, Ren.”
“It was what needed to be done, nothing to thank for.”
“Where are we? Who were those people you saved me from? I still don't know what's going on. Who's that woman with the butterflies?”
“We are in a sanctuary. A safe place for our kind. The people we saved you from would be the Guardians. Just think of them as our enemies for now. The woman with the butterflies is the person who runs this place, her and her cell.”
“Cell?”
“Her group of people. An example would be my cell, consisting of me, Psycho, Aco and now, you.”
“Oh. A little family then.”
“That's how I think of it.” Ren agreed.
A man garbed in a brown robe entered the room, carrying porcelain cups with steam rising off the top.
“So she's awake. Here, I bring tea, brewed by the grand Mistress Allende herself.”
Ren and Aco accepted the elegant cups with a word of thanks.
“Oolong?” Ren asked as she sipped.
“Yeah. Your taste buds are as sharp as ever.”
“This doesn't taste like the usual.” Aco commented.
“Truth. Sorry, Aco, we're running low on deadly nightshade so we put in monkshood.”
“It's alright.”
The man pulled back the cowl of his cloak, revealing a bright, silver and messy shock of hair. By now, Aco was starting to look out of place with his ebony hair. The man smiled widely at Lyssa, his manner familiar and obviously intended to put her at ease.
“So, what's your story, girlie?”
“I'm Lyssa. Who are you?”
“Persience Albans, welcome to our humble abode.” He bowed with a theatrical flourish.
“Then where are we?”
“The Butterfly Grove, Lyssa, one of the last few patches of unblemished forests this side of America.”
“And, uh, which side of America is this?”
“That,” Persience said with a grin, “Is a really good question.”
“You don't know?”
“He doesn't know anything, Lyssa.” Ren interjected.
“Come now, Ren, I do know something. I know that Aco likes Lyssa.”
“What?” Aco exclaimed, roused by Persience's words.
“Don't act so surprised, dear boy. You know very well that I can see what your deepest fears are. And right now, it's a fear of failing in your duty, of letting Lyssa get captured again. You don't want her gone from your side.” He nodded in a mocking, sagely manner.
“That doesn't mean anything.” Aco replied irritably.
“Yes, it does. Your deepest fears used to be regarding bad things happening to Ren and Psycho.”
“They're my family and Lyssa is too. I don't like failing in my duty.”
“And you like Lyssa.” Persience stroked a non-existent beard. “As for you, girl, I can't tell. Your fears are strangely murky. I wonder why I can't see it.” He shrugged.
“Don't be so rude, Persience. This is my family you're talking about.” Ren warned.
Lyssa took in the information silently. So Aco liked her? It was.. reassuring. It gave her a warm feeling deep in the pit of her stomach. But did she like him? As a friend, certainly. As something further? Lyssa wasn't sure. Was this what a crush felt like then? Lyssa suddenly wanted to be closer to him.
“Aco,” She murmured, “Could you come closer?”
He obliged, leaning forward. She shifted herself close to him and lay her head against his chest. He stiffened again, clearly not used to such physical intimacy. Ren pretended not to notice anything and spoke.
“Lyssa, when you feel better, you can leave your bed. I have been assured that you are fully recovered. The Mistress serves dinner in an hour's time. Aco, take care of her needs.”
“Yes, Mother.” He somehow contrived to speak, even with Lyssa's hair just under his nose.
Persience winked at him and stepped out of the room with Ren as the pair sat in silence, enjoying their shared warmth.

“How did this happen?” Karl yelled. “Answer me, damn you, how did this happen?”
“Sir, I-”
“How is it that you alone are alive? When almost everyone else died fighting? I expected more of you, Tobias.”
“It was not cowardice.”
“Then what is it?”
“The girl, she planted a mental command in my head.”
“Bullshit. None of the darkers are telepathic. Telepathy doesn't exist.”
“I felt it. It's up to you whether or not you believe me.” Tobias looked squarely at Karldon in the eyes.
“Do you now understand what I mean, Tobi? These beasts are a threat to all.”
“No, I refuse to understand your interpretation. They came for the girl. We provoked them.”
“So what you're saying is that if we don't hunt them, they won't be a threat to anyone?”
“No. I believe that most would not. We should not use the criminals as a gauge of a species.”
“Where did you get such an idiotic notion?”
“The girl had mercy on me. She let me run. She could easily have killed me.” Tobias made no mention of what he had felt and how the girl had also felt his pain.
“They are irrational beasts.”
“We are the true beasts here. That girl was innocent. And we, we provoked them by kidnapping her from her fellows.”
“You're a sympathiser.” Karldon spat. “After all these years, I never truly knew you, Tobias Albans.”
“You can continue on this, Karldon Grave. You can pick up the pieces of the Guardians and rebuild it as an extermination agency. But. I quit. I refuse to follow your warped logic any further.”
“Warped? It is your mind that has been corrupted! You let that girl make you think she is innocent. You let her, just because, just because,” Karl choked his words out with a sob. “Just because she resembles Nadia.”
“No. That's you.” Tobias replied quietly. “I won't have another part of this. I will seek them out and learn their side of the story. They can't be more unreasonable than you.” He tore off the shield emblem of the Guardians from his shirt and walked out of the crypt where they had lain their dead to rest.
As Tobias stepped out into a rainy, overcast day, he took a deep breath. The air smelled of wet mud and fresh grass. The air smelled of change. He would not hurt them unless absolutely necessary, he vowed. Justice and honor, truth and fairness, that was what would lead him. Now all he had to do was to find them. He checked a piece of paper, an address that his brother had given him, in faith that he would never lead the Guardians there. The Butterfly Grove.

Ren had shut herself in her room with Aco, so Lyssa took the liberty of wandering the lodge. The décor was generally green and brown, reminiscent of the forest all around the building, visible through the windows. Psycho was pointedly ignoring her, sitting on a couch and reading a newspaper. Persience had apparently gone out to find someone else, the third member of his cell and the Mistress was still cooking. Pots of plants were placed all about the lodge, plants which Aco had warned her were poisonous. She sat down beside Psycho.
“Hello again.”
He tried to ignore her and focus on his paper, but she could see that he was juddering, shaking as if nervous, bringing to mind the first time she saw him when he was a jittery wreck.
“You don't like me, do you?”
Silence greeted her comment. But she could feel, even through the disturbing sprawl of his thoughts, that he was trying not to reply. Lyssa twitched involuntarily at the wrongness of his mind.
“I know we got off on the wrong foot and I'd like to patch things up.”
No response.
“What do you have against me?”
Psycho glared at her.
“You are insane. That's what I have against you.”
“But you're mad, aren't you? What makes you think I'm crazy anyway?” Lyssa asked, genuinely curious.
“You kill for the sake of killing. You revel in bloodshed. If those aren't signs of insanity, I don't know what else.”
“That was only in self-defense. I'm not mad.” Lyssa retorted. “The Guardians were trying to kill me.”
“The others might believe your lies, but I know the truth.”
“If you refuse to believe me, then I guess we won't ever be friends.”
“You see that now.”
“But I'm part of your family now. It's going to be awkward.”
“I will protect you if the need arises, but don't expect me to be civil.”
Psycho set down his paper, popped a couple of pills into his mouth and started to head outside, but abruptly a couple of butterflies landed onto their heads and Lyssa saw a vision of trees. The edge of the forest. A man with onyx hair carrying a haversack, staring straight at her. No, not her, Lyssa realised, her perspective was that of a butterfly. The man looked somewhat familiar, just where had she seen him before...
Then it hit her. That Guardian who had shown care for her. The one she had let go. The one she should have killed.
“Psycho, that's a Guardian! It's him!” Lyssa gasped.
The vision faded, even as a voice sounded in their heads.
“Northeast edge. Everyone.” The voice was feminine, soft and calm, though the last word was pronounced with a certain emphasis. The voice was the same that had woken her up. The two butterflies hovered in front of them for a moment and then flew into the distance.
Psycho shot her a sharp look and motioned for her to follow, his movements more controlled than his nervous actions previously, before running out of the house.

Gasping for air, unused to the exertion, Lyssa came to a sudden halt, nearly crashing against Psycho. Persience was there already, looking expressionlessly at the Guardian. The mysterious woman, the one with the butterflies, the one they called the Mistress, was standing beside Persience as if preventing him from moving. The Guardian had put his backpack on the ground and he glanced for a moment at Lyssa, eyes widening in recognition. The ubiquitous butterflies fluttered around, indifferent to the scene, though there were substantially more of the insects about the woman. The atmosphere, to anyone else, was tense, but Lyssa could feel the truth under it. Persience was struggling, alternating between anger, fear and joy. His melange of emotions all but covered the woman's quiet mind, though the Guardian's feelings were equally loud. The Guardian was feeling something similar, but there was more of an element of feeling uncertain, as if he had taken a path that he now doubted. Psycho's, as always, was hard to read and Lyssa tried to focus away from the twinging oddity of his insanity.
And then Ren and Aco appeared from the side, their minds in a whirl. Persience seemed to know the Guardian, but Ren and Aco were definitely confused, that much Lyssa could surmise. The Guardian didn't just look familiar, there was something about his features there that reminded her of someone. Lyssa's gaze shifted from him to Persience and back. They looked... similar, if not for the disparity in hair colour, Persience's silver and the Guardian's black.
They all stood there, the silver-haired folk and one Chinese boy in a rough semi-circle facing a sable-headed man among the trees under a starry night sky. Slowly, the Guardian raised both hands up, palms facing outwards in the universal gesture of peace.
“Tobi.” Persience broke the silence first. Tobi? Was that the Guardian's name?
“Brother.” Tobias replied.
The wave of shock from Aco and Ren almost overtook Lyssa, for a moment threatening to make her faint. She gathered herself together and found that she could only stare at the revelation. Persience had a brother who was one of the enemy?
“Don't tell me you finally revealed this place to your superiors.” Persience said, narrowing his eyes accusingly though his tone indicated that he knew otherwise.
“No. I come of my own accord, brother. I'm no longer one of the Guardians. It's a long story, brother.” Tobias faced the woman with eyes with violet flames and bowed low. “Lady, I mean no harm. I would greatly appreciate it if I could rest and tell my tale to all of you.” He stumbled over his words slightly, nervous.
The woman looked at him for a moment as if judging him, then spoke a single word.
“Come.”
She turned and serenely glided towards the lodge gracefully. Her voice was the same as the voice in the butterfly-induced vision. Did this Daughter of the Moon have some form of control over butterflies?
Tobias muttered something that sounded like “Thank you, Lady.” and he hefted his pack and followed the woman at a respectful distance, avoiding eye contact with the others except for Persience.
The others followed behind and Psycho muttered to Ren, “I don't trust him. We're inviting a snake into our midst.”
Ren nodded in agreement and replied, “Yet it is not our place to decide. This is her home after all. Who knew Persience had a brother? A brother who is evidently a Guardian no less?”
Lyssa walked beside Aco and clutched his hand nervously. She was still new to this, she still had no idea why the Guardians were against them and she still wasn't entirely sure what she was if not human. Aco held her hand tightly in return, his own emotions more of surprise at this turn of events than uncertainty.

Persience handed Tobias a mug of coffee and folded his arms. Without waiting for Tobias to drink, he started speaking.
“So, little brother, what brings you here after all this time? Finally decided to betray your brother? What? Tell me.”
“I have left the Guardians, brother. I.. don't agree with them. What they hold true goes against my ethics.”
“You and your ethics led you to join them in the first place.” Persience was angry and he didn't restrain himself. “Why now? After that time when I came to be who I truly am, after that time when you were angry at me and you left them for your high-and-mighty morals, now you come running to me, telling me that they aren't the righteous saviors you believed them to be?”
“It's all changed. They didn't use to be like that. Now they just want genocide. It's all changed.”
Persience snorted derisively. “Please, don't be dense. They always wanted to kill us. We're just bugs and you're the exterminators, wasn't it?”
“No, no, brother. They only retaliated when darkers- I mean, you Children of the Moon attacked.”
“But now they have gone from peacekeepers to hunters and so you leave them? Don't make me laugh.”
“I am not lying, brother.”
“Yeah? Sure could have fooled me.”
The woman with the violet fire in her eyes laid a hand across Persience's chest, an obvious signal to tell him to back off. Tobias looked to her instead and found that he couldn't look away. Those eyes with a fire that couldn't be there, impossible eyes that seemed to see everything, unreal eyes that held his gaze there, immobilising him. Her lips curved into a small smile as she looked at him.
“Tobias Albans.” She pronounced his name slowly.
“Lady.” He inclined his head in respect. He didn't know anyone there except for his brother, but he could see that she was clearly the one in charge.
“You know me.”
“No, Lady.”
“I am Kaia Allende. You may call me Lady Allende, or Mistress Allende. Tell me, how is Karldon Grave?” The Lady's voice grew hard.
“You assume that I'm still his good friend, Lady.” Tobias' voice matched hers and he stood up to face her. “He is the reason I left. How do you know of him, Lady?”
“That,” She replied softly. “is none of your concern.”
“I apologise for interrupting, Lady Allende, but can we stop reminiscing about the past and settle on the problem here?” Ren cut in, clearly impatient. Lady Allende, in return, gave her a condescending and infuriatingly patronising look but nodded.
“Of course, dear Ren.” She replied dryly. “Now, should I grant you sanctuary, Tobias Albans? You clearly mean no harm. But.” She tapped her long fingers against her chin. “You might bring hunters down on our heads.”
“I would never-”
“Not voluntarily, of course.” The Mistress Allende smoothly continued in that soft, controlled voice.
“I was careful, I left no traces-”
“No, you did not, there are two trackers currently outside the forest, reporting to their superior, presumably Grave.”
Persience tensed noticeably and looked as if he would throttle Tobias right there and then. Instead, he asked the Mistress, “What do we do now?”
“What do we do now? We kill them.”

A/N: Okay guys, I am a terrible, terrible person. I am so very sorry for taking so long! I stonewalled for quite a long time on this one, particularly towards the end. Chapter Four has not been started and likely will never be. Yes, I know, I promised to finish this story, but its hard for me, particularly because whenever I feel like writing, it tends to be in school where I don't have my computer at hand to type in. I also can't write on paper and then transfer because I can never remember just what line I stopped at. Incidentally, I have started several new Floaters, stories that I haven't decided whether to continue or not. Bleh, I am so sorry, people, I've just been really emotional recently. I hope you guys enjoy this story. I certainly didn't. This isn't one of my better ones. Honestly, I ought to consign this to the Great Recycling Bin in the Sky. Okay, I'll stop babbling. Once again, I am so sorry. Have a good time, unlike me!
-Agoraoptera.Ben