gabriel_tam | (no subject)

The room is fairly nice, all things considered. There are several chairs, a porta-cot set up discreetly against one wall for visitors that for one reason or another are reluctant to leave, and it's clear that whoever designed this particular private room in the first place intended to make it seem as warm and welcoming as possible.

Of course, given that it's a hospital, there's really only so much that can be done.

Currently, the hospital bed is tilted upwards at an angle, with the evident intention of making the patient comfortable. It seems to be working, at least a little, because Gabriel Tam is asleep.

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From:

gabriel_tam

"That's not... actually what I meant."

In service. Something in Gabriel's expression twists, as if from sudden pain.

"I'd not be here if you weren't a good man," Prior Fell had told him. "What matters now is what you do next."

He'd taken those words -- the words of an angel, he knows now -- to heart, and done what he could to live by them.

Until the day when a different, avenging angel had showed up (been sent?) to kill him, he had thought --

--well, that doesn't matter now, does it?

"It doesn't matter," Gabriel says aloud.

From:

simon_doctor

He assumed the more deserving was a gracious social lie, the kind both his parents do so much better than he's ever been able to.

Something in his face, now, and in his words --

"Dad, it's up to you," he says, trying not to sound overly concerned. Overly alarmed.

From:

night-hibiscus.livejournal.com

Yuna frowns, wondering if the conversation is taxing him too much or if something is worsening, and her fingers begin to close around the staff, preparing to employ the Sensor magic again--but she halts at the sound of Simon's voice.

She doesn't know these people very well, she realizes. But something seems to be hanging in the air, here.

From:

gabriel_tam

"Not entirely."

Gabriel meets his son's eyes. "Can we honestly afford the sort of scrutiny that would be directed at us, if I were to get up and walk out of here without any sign of injury?"

As an aside to Yuna,

"That is what you're proposing? I've understood you correctly?"

From:

night-hibiscus.livejournal.com

"You've been scarred," she says, without any trace of her earlier lightness. She picks up the staff, and again views him through the lattice work of the head. It would be simply odd, if the magic didn't throw shifting blue and red shadows on her face; as it is, it's slightly eerie.

"Looking again--I think it's in your lungs. I can't be sure. Your vitality will never be what it was, and you'll always be vulnerable, now, to certain kinds of harm that weren't as dangerous before. I can't change that."

"But yes, I can heal most of it, as if it had had time to heal naturally, but much more quickly." She frowns again. "I didn't mean to press you, and I apologize if I spoke out of turn. I do understand why."

"But you do deserve it, even if you can't have it." Most people's first impression of Yuna is a docile and pleasant child. But there's a stubborn streak a mile wide in any summoner.

From:

simon_doctor

He wants to repeat those last words; wants to make sure they're believed.

(you're worth it)

"It's up to you," he repeats instead, very low.

From:

night-hibiscus.livejournal.com

"Wait," she says.

Her voice is different. It's lower, for one thing, and flat. "What did this to him?" She's still looking through the Sensor.

There's something here. Something subtle. Something--something like something she's seen before.

From:

gabriel_tam

His reaction is very, very clear.

Gabriel tenses, every muscle tightening. Pain sears through him, and bitterly, he almost welcomes it.

There's a long, long silence, and then,

"An angel. Of vengeance."

His voice is hoarse, and the few words flat, and utterly bleak.

From:

simon_doctor

"...what?"

Simon's voice is altogether too sharp.

From:

night-hibiscus.livejournal.com

"I don't know what that is," she murmurs. She's not putting the staff down; her eyes move, trying to read a map that shifts and changes with every heartbeat.

"But I believe you about the vengeance." Somewhere--probably inside her head--thunder rolls.

"I've seen burns like these before. Not exactly like them, but close enough. Fire that consumes utterly, and leaves taint and poison behind it, subtle and deep-rooted."

"Simon's seen it, too."

From:

simon_doctor

His gaze flicks to her, puzzled for a moment, then darkening with understanding.

"At the Temple," he says. "After the battle."

From:

gabriel_tam

"You heard me."

Just as flatly as before, but Gabriel's expression is darkening now.

"What battle?"

From:

night-hibiscus.livejournal.com

"Simon came to my world, to help, as a doctor, after a monster attacked a large group of people," she says. She's amazed, on some level, to hear herself explaining Djose with such brisk clarity and calm.

"Many were burned away utterly, but others were left with a lingering poison in their flesh, a subtle taint that hide from the normal healing we use for such things."

"Your burns are--similar. Not the same, not from the same creature or even the same, kind, but--"

She shakes her head, a curt gesture that raises a brief clatter of the beads in her hair. "I would have to teach you a lot of magical theory to explain properly."

Her jaw is set and tense. "Please--what's an angel?"

From:

simon_doctor

Simon opens his mouth to explain, and what comes out is a ragged puff of air that can't quite manage to be a laugh. One hand comes up to rub his forehead.

"I'm sorry. It -- it's complicated."

From:

gabriel_tam

By the time Yuna finishes speaking, Gabriel's rubbing absently at his chest again.

He starts to answer, but cuts off his own words as the door opens-- or starts to. Simon's there, quickly, and slips out into the hallway to discuss matters with the nurse who's just tried to come in.

Gabriel waits until the door shuts before saying,

"An angel-- it's complicated, yes. I suppose -- think of them as beings of power. Servants of God."

From:

night-hibiscus.livejournal.com

"--wait. I have heard of angels (http://community.livejournal.com/milliways_bar/15439341.html?thread=631977453)," she says slowly, striving to remember what Suzi Darley told her. "Someone told me about them, long ago."

I just know that they're the most comforting things in the bar, and they're all really, really sweet.

"But why would an angel do this to you? How could one? The poison--"

Her hands clench in her long sleeves. She doesn't know enough about this; she doesn't have the toolkit. But she's stubborn, and she can't walk away now. "That doesn't make any sense."

From:

gabriel_tam

"Sense enough."

Wearily said. Gabriel's growing more tired by the moment.

"This one-- he's a creature of judgment. We've met before."

From:

night-hibiscus.livejournal.com

"I don't understand. I don't understand a lot of this."

Yuna overinvests herself in people. She doesn't know this man very well at all. But she knows that he's a leader of his people--one chosen by them themselves, no less--and that he nearly spent the last of his life in front of her, and that when he came through that door he was surrounded by people who loved him, every one of whom was ready to protect him to their last breath, who would've given all they could to save him.

She doesn't know him, but she knows his son, and she saw his son fight to save him. And Yuna invests in people, when they set off the right triggers.

"There's judgment--" she says, and the light fixture flickers, "and there's judgment. Not all vengeance is holy."

"This taint--the taint of Sin--I saw it when brave men and women laid down their lives, in defiance of all the teachings, to protect their families and their world from senseless death and destruction. Maybe they chose the wrong time, the wrong weapons. But they didn't deserve to die, burned and poisoned and confused. They deserved to live."

Her voice drops to nearly a whisper: "You deserve to live. I know you do."

From:

gabriel_tam

Not all vengeance is holy.

Gabriel closes his eyes, thinking of the Miranda broadwave.

We meant it for the best. To make people safer.

His voice is hoarse, and a little weaker, but still clear.

"I've tried-- I swear I never intended -- I don't know. I just don't know, any more."

From:

night-hibiscus.livejournal.com

"You're not well," she says, gently. "Will you let me try to help you? Not the cuts, because you're right, you need them. And not your lungs, because the damage is done."

"Can I try to heal the taint it left?"

From:

gabriel_tam

There's a long silence, and then:

"My son brought you here."

Gabriel opens his eyes and looks at Yuna.

"He trusts you. And so I will, too."

From:

night-hibiscus.livejournal.com

She smiles; it's an old one, on a young face.

He's Simon's father, and she likes Simon, and trusts him. But more than that, he's suffering, and she has her duty.

She views him through the staff again, and then nods; casts Esuna. A prism-shape around him flashes with red and blue light, fire and ice weaving together to purify and flush out any abnormalities.

She views him again, and shakes her head, then casts again, sweeping her staff more forcefully through the air. But that's not the way.

She's not going to back down. It's amazing how easy it is to reach out to Ixion's dream, Ixion's raging thunderous heart, here in a building (a world!) of machina. She offers a silent prayer of thanks for Moiraine and Lucy as she focuses that crackling intensity not on summoning the unicorn but on the spell.

And then her prayer is not silent, as she calls out to the Creator as she understands it, in the way she was first taught to cast Esuna:

"Light shine strong--woe be gone!"

The fire flashes around him, but it does not consume anything but what it was called for, what taints and chokes with despair and slow spiritual poison. It flashes out, and then is drawn away in cool and soothing ice.

From:

gabriel_tam

At first he struggles against it, coughing and wincing in agony -- he can't help but do so, as the rush of heat-cold-heat pours through him, over him, reminding him horribly of drowning and choking on his own blood while he burned from the inside out.

But as she tries again, and again, finally crying aloud, Gabriel feels some deep shadow within him dissipate, pulled up and out and away.

His face still hurts, as does his body; he still can't take a single truly deep breath-- but despite that, he feels lighter, somehow.

Gabriel Tam stares at her, in shock that turns to slowly-dawning wonder.