----------------------------------------------
BOUQUET ESTATE - MORNING
----------------------------------------------
Tarbin and Melia passed through the West Gate with no problems, the lack of a certain lizard guard being there not really a disappointment, since that sort of luck was fairly unlikely. Tarbin also has no idea where Xochi lives or may be in general, so their first real choice is to head toward the estate in search of Teis... If he can find his way there. It's a wonder the two of them don't get lost along the way by their own curiosity, but Tarbin does know that the property is vaguely North-East of where they'd entered. An hour and some later, the lizard is approaching the familiar, yet never seen gatehouse, and it's wolfy attendant. With a cordial nod, the now grey-eyed lizard looks directly at Jax's face with a grin. Of course, he doesn't recognize him by face, so avoids addressing him until he's heard the voice. This is going to be an interesting week of learning, for sure. "Good morning! Is miss Teis around, by chance?"
Melia follows along inside Tarbin, sort of knowing what his plan is yet not wanting to interrupt or make things worse. Not that she's even sure... [Do you think he could even hear or see me if I did something?]
Jax's eyes settle on Tarbin's own, perceptively taking immediate note of Tarbin's newfound ability of eye contact. "Good morning, Tarbin. You're looking vastly better than the last time I saw you. And happier, I might add." Jax nods. "Teis is indeed around, though I'm afraid I can't just grant you entry. I'll have to ask the young lady myself, as per her updated requests."
Tarbin almost replies to Melia, opening his mouth slightly before catching himself. Perhaps talking to the voice in his head right at this moment would be a poor decision. Instead he gives a short sigh, his smile fading a bit as he nods in understanding. "Of course, Jax. Is... She came back feeling very badly, didn't she?" He shakes his head slightly, "I would like to talk to her about that day, if she'll speak to me."
Melia muses: [Teis... Teis... why does that name sound familiar? Was she there when you sorta... 'oops'?]
Jax: Jax nods. "She's... Certainly been struggling with it all. She may not want to see you. But, is there anything I should say to her on your behalf? It might serve to improve the changes of her wanting to meet with you."
Tarbin nods to Melia's question, following it with his reply to Jax. "Yes, actually. I think there may be a way to revive the elemental. I can feel it, in the Flow. She's still around somewhere. I may have failed, but with her help we can possibly undo the damage and give the elemental her new home."
Melia: [That's one way to lie about it, Tarbin, but you know what you're doing I hope.]
Jax nods in return, gathering himself together and leaving his booth. "Very well. I'll be back momentarily."
Tarbin nods to Jax as he steps away, folding his hands over one another as he relaxes. As soon as the wolf is out of earshot, he replies to Melia properly. "I didn't lie, you are still around. I'm just more sure of it than I told him. If I said you were in my body first he or miss Teis would maybe think I am crazy."
Melia can be felt crossing her arms (figuratively speaking): [More or less crazy than having a 'ghost of past mistakes' in your head?]
Tarbin chuckles quietly. "More. If I thought I was losing my grip at that, imagine what others might think. They need to be eased into your existence as much as I was, if not more. They have less to lose for locking me up."
Jax returns to the booth, with Teis in tow. The wolf gives Tarbin a thoughtful, silent nod.
Teis herself looks only barely presentable, with minimal care having gone into maintaining her appearance, not that it has typically ever mattered with Tarbin. Whoops! She approaches the gate, talking to Tarbin through it. With a very gruff, poor morning voice, Teis speaks to Tarbin first, "Alright. You have my attention." She sourly grumbles, seemingly unconvinced by the message Jax had conveyed to her.
Melia gives a small mental 'humph', but quiets as Teis comes to view. For the moment, anyway.
Tarbin nods back to Jax before turning to the other, shorter person. He closes his eyes as he bows respectfully to Teis as he greets her. "Good morning, miss Teis." He comes back up, looking directly at her with a faint smile. "Thank you for coming out. I have news. And other words. First-" He bows his head again, "I am terribly sorry for putting you in grief for my failure."
Teis' mood seems to vaguely improve upon noticing Tarbin's eyes, her expression and posture softening a bit. "Tarbin... " Teis starts, "Your... Your eyes?" She quietly whispers. She intentionally avoids, at least for now discussing the topic of grief, failure and fault, her posture and expression souring back yet again at it's mention.
Tarbin looks to Teis again, unable to keep the smile from coming back as he nods. "Yes. They've healed. Nature helped to break the rest of the curse after your efforts weakened it. I didn't know that at the time... Thought I was being punished." He sighs. "There is much to talk about, I think."
Teis: "That's... At least something good." Teis lets out a little sigh. "Look, I'm happy your eyes have healed, really... " Teis glances down at the ground beside her, "But... My heart can't handle this, Tarbin. I'm sorry, but... I don't particularly feel like talking much. About any of it."
Teis: "I figure I owe you at least enough to tell you that personally... "
Melia gives a small 'aww' at Teis' words. [...what can we do, Tarbin?]
Tarbin steps forward, nodding. "I understand, but my news is good, honestly. And I need your help. I know it... Seems like I only ever need your help, but this is more important than me. The elemental is still alive, in a way. She still exists. I know it. I can feel her influence." He crouches to be at eye level with Teis, his voice low as he pleads. "We can undo what I've done, but I can't do it alone."
Melia: [I mean, I'm not sure if you actually are ever alone, now, but that's probably not your point I'll shut up.]
Teis takes in a deep breath, sighing it out, softening as she looks back at Tarbin with a look of pity. Poor Tarbin, consumed by guilt, unable to come to terms with it. "... I saw her disintegrate with my own eyes, Tarbin. Even if her residual magic is around... Is that even her at this point?" Teis questions.
Melia: [I'm pretty sure.]
Tarbin nods slightly, bumping his forehead against the gate as he sighs. "I know, Teis. I was holding her when she faded. I knew it would be difficult to convince anyone, but I hoped you would..." He pauses, leaning away from the gate. "What if I can prove it? Will you give me a chance then?"
Melia hesitates: [I thiiink I can try to briefly appear again? It hurts, but I can? Hopefully.]
Teis takes in yet another breath, pinching the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes as she sighs once more, Elizabeth's words running through her head briefly as she wills herself to not simply walk away. She looks up at Tarbin again, crossing her arms. "Fine. What do you need to prove it? What do I need to verify this?"
Tarbin smiles cautiously, nodding. "Just your mana lenses, miss Teis."
Teis: "Fine... " Teis turns to Jax, giving him a nod.
Jax: With that, Jax opens the gate, letting Tarbin enter.
Tarbin nods, standing up straight and stepping into the grounds and preparing to follow with Teis. "Thank you."
Melia: [I can do this. I can do this. I can do this...] She's not suddenly nervous, of course, that'd be silly.
Teis leads Tarbin over to her lab, which she promptly dips into to grab her greater mana lenses, quiet all the while as she focuses herself into keeping an open, objective mind. As much as she thinks Tarbin is either following a fools magical thread, or has guilted himself into believing this, science still requires that her biases be checked at the door as much as possible. Soon, the pair are outside the lab, Teis with mana lenses on.
Tarbin nods as he sees her with the lenses, looking at them with a bit of curiosity. "Hm. So that's what those look like. I had imagined something more..." He finishes the thought with a vague gesture, shrugging. "Anyways. When you're ready, Teis. Melia." He stands at a rest, not sure what he needs to do if anything.
Teis: "Melia?" Teis vaguely questions the open air.
Melia takes a figurative deep breath. [Okay. Here goes.] She concentrates, and after a brief moment, shimmers into 'existence' next to Tarbin. She seems to be a partially see-through figure that's vaguely okapi-shaped, made of green mist of natural magic. She waves at Teis with just a bit pained smile, not sure if she's actually being seen.
Tarbin looks at the form, then back to Teis with a cautious smile. "A-anything? Please tell me you see her..."
Teis: Teis, at first, is more fixated on Tarbin, whom prior has mostly been devoid of his own magic. That was, of course, the point of her learning nature magic to begin with. But, the presence of magic alone isn't enough to confirm or deny anything. Then, as Melia manifests herself, Teis can indeed see Melia through the lenses, though also sees the magic draining from Tarbin. "... Yes. I can see her. But I also see 'her' connecting to you. And your own magical reserves draining." Teis un-enthusiastically replies, unconvinced and unimpressed.
Melia blinks, frowning a bit: "Uh, hi. I'm pretty sure I'm here, Teis? I already told him I'm not a ghost of his mistakes." Her voice is muffled and unclear, so it's not very certain what Teis can actually hear.
Tarbin pauses, shaking his head slightly as his expression falls. "My own... Teis, I don't have magic. You know that." He looks to Melia's shimmering form again and sighs.
Teis isn't quite capable of hearing Melia. "Yes, it's true that you usually don't, but you yourself said that nature's power has healed you, and I've certainly felt you channel nature's power into me. All this proves is that you've been able to hold it all this time, or at the very least, are now able to hold some with the curse having been weakened further." Teis replies. "Just, how do I know that isn't just some stunt to make me feel better about it all?"
Melia frowns again: "I'm not a stunt! Whatever that means." She winces as her ability to keep visible is rapidly nearing its' comfortable end.
Tarbin shakes his head again, spreading his arms as he makes his case. "I have never held Nature's power, not before the curse, and not now. Melia, the elemental is the power you see. I am host to her." He looks to Melia, the concern over her effort clear on his face. "Take it easy, Melia, you can... Stop now. She won't believe us..." He looks back to Teis. "Her power is weak right now. She's disconnected, I can move the Flow to... YOU could!" His scales had started to change as he prepared to feed some of the Flow to Melia, to ease her efforts, but an idea strikes the lizard. "Miss Teis, please. Try to move the lines, help Melia."
Teis sighs yet again. She's just the sigh singularity right now. She's concerned for Tarbin's behaviour and talks of 'us', but will do this just so that Tarbin can't complain that she isn't taking this seriously. "Fine... " She flips her mana lenses up, as she's become accustomed to no longer using them when Tarbin has been teaching her. She moves closer to this 'Melia', closing her eyes and focusing as best she can. Her bare feet and tail touch the ground, beginning to channel what she can of nature's power into what she presumes 'Melia' is.
Melia smiles weakly as she feels slightly more stable: "O-oh. Thank you, Teis." She looks at her hand, it being just teensy-tiny bit more solid-looking, at least for the moment. She can feel her form won't stay for long, though, either way.
Teis: Teis' eyes shoot open and she suddenly pulls away, having now heard the decidedly femine voice of the elemental, clearly in her mind. It's completely jarring. Her efforts immediately cease, looking to Tarbin for a logical explanation. Even if that was Tarbin talking, that wasn't his voice at all, nor is Tarbin in her head. Hesitantly, Teis begins to reconnect, this time keeping her eyes open, carefully looking at both Tarbin and Melia. "H... Hello?" Teis tilts her head.
Tarbin watches Teis intently, nodding his approval as he sees the lines of magic bending to her will and making contact with Melia's form. He can't help but smile in a combination of hope and amusement when she reacts to Melia's voice, and nod again as she continues her attempts. His scales have all returned to their normal blue, indicating he's not channeling anything whatsoever as the lizard relaxes.
Melia waves hesitantly, having startled herself at Teis' reaction. She smiles again: "O-oh. Sorry. Hi. I'm Melia, the uh... well, that elemental. Still. Just in Tarbin. It's a mess. Melia means 'honey of ash tree'. Dunno why I said that. And um... yeah." She trails off, not having thought about at all what she'd even say in a situation like this. Clearly she should have.
Teis can see Tarbin's blue scales, though requires more convincing to confirm. She flips down her mana lenses quickly, confirming that Tarbin is providing no energy to the elemental as she's listening to Melia 'talk', keeping her connection as best she can. "... No connection to Tarbin." Teis mutters to herself, thinking quickly about what she can ask.
Teis: "Melia, is it? Prove something to me." Teis quickly reaches down, plucking a blade of grass from the ground, then clicking to make it levitate from her hand, such that it has no physical contact with anyone or anything. "Make this grow." Teis requests, looking VERY intently through her mana lenses now to see where the energy would be coming from, should Melia even be able to do it of course.
Tarbin nods, looking between Melia and Teis. He thinks it's a good test, even if he'd never considered testing Melia. After all, he can feel her presence constantly, not like anything he'd known before outside of healing himself.
Melia blinks, then reaches out with her hand. "Oh. Okay, I will try..." The green magic flows directly from her to the blade of grass as she intently focuses... not noticing that as she does, her being starts to fade, her magic not going to the blade of grass starts floating back towards Tarbin in a cloud. The blade of grass grows noticeably, but by the time Melia is done she's faded back into Tarbin as well. She sounds barely conscious once her form has entirely faded from view: [Ooff... worse than your eyes. Ow.]
Tarbin watches the blade grow, but also feels Melia fading back into him, laying a hand on his chest. "Alright, that might have been a little much for her..." He closes his eyes for a moment before looking back to Teis. "She can't hold much right now, but she has more energy today than she did yesterday. What... What do you think?"
Teis follows the flow. When all is said and done, Teis flips her mana lenses back up, levitates the blade of grass back into her hand and bends down to plant it back in the soil, using her own nature magic to mend it back into the ground as mentor Tarbin would. Then, she looks back up to Tarbin, with crossed arms and a flat expression, taking in a deep breath as she contemplates.
Teis: When Tarbin talks, she breathes out calmly. "I'm convinced that 'Melia' is in fact, not you, and that she, at least on minimal initial observations, is in fact, an elemental, and seems to share the same voice as the one encountered in the garden. The question, then, is if that is actually the same... Person, for lack of a better term." Teis opts to speak very matter of fact, as she's still processing.
Melia: [Tell her that... I am. I remember way too much of all that. I'm gonna...] She goes silent in Tarbin's head, her energy spent again for the moment.
Tarbin nods, shivering slightly as he feels Melia's magic fading a bit. His tail scales shift as he draws on the Flow to tend to Melia as he replies to Teis. "She is. I... Admit I thought it was just something in my head. She hates when I say that, but it is true. Still, she helped me heal my eyes, something there was no way for me to do before. And she knows things, has told me of conversations she had with Xochi and Erika that I never knew." He gives a light sigh, shrugging. "Thank you for at least giving us a chance."
Teis nods. "You've got Elizabeth and the scientific method to thank for that, I suppose. Assuming that this isn't the most elaborate hoax I've ever been witness to. I'm glad that she was able to help you fully heal your eyes. Which has it's own set of questions, but those are questions for later." Teis ahems, moving on. "Even if she has the memories, the knowledge... Like. If you cloned me, gave the clone all of my memories, then killed me, yes, the clones would for all intents and purposes be me, but I would still be dead. If that makes sense."
Tarbin shakes his head slightly. "I don't think elementals work that way. They likely are their thoughts and memories, since magic is always shifting."
Teis: "Something to research, I suppose, though I suspect that no one has thought to ask an elemental such a thing, nor how to verify it. Either way... " Teis sighs. "Look, this doesn't absolve us for what we did."
Tarbin frowns, nodding before he pauses and looks at Teis. "What I did. You did nothing wrong. But either way, it gives us a chance to make things right. I am not going to ignore that chance. Not leaving Melia to fade away into nothing."
Teis nods. "Yes. You're right. Focus our energy into what we can do."
Tarbin nods again, relaxing into a cautious smile. "I am glad you spoke to me, Teis. Thank you for trusting in me. And er... Confirming I wasn't simply losing my mind." He looks a bit to the side for a moment, mumbling, "I know, that's what I am saying. No I- Alright." He turns back to Teis, clearing his throat a little. "I want to find Xochi and Nesseth as well, make sure they're doing alright, and to give them the news as well."
Teis nods. "Good luck. I'm... Going to go apologize to the house staff." Teis saddens. "Kinda... Been treating them terribly since... Well. Yeah."
Tarbin nods slightly, offering a faint smile again. "Much to do to fix this, I think. Fare well, miss Teis." He gives her a slight bow, turning away and walking toward the gatehouse. For once, he actually gets to look about and admire the full beauty of their garden on the way.