priorcommitment | i am swallowed by the guilt of this

He had known from the first night that Robin didn't return to their hut, that something had gone wrong.

It wasn't that Ishiah kept a close leash on the puck. In the end, no matter how often others believed Robin somehow tamed, beholden as the puck was suddenly to a peri's wishes and desires, Ishiah knew better than anyone else that he had little to no hand in controlling whatever it was that Robin chose to get involved in. Caliban Leandros had been proof of that— half-Auphe, and immediately for it, the target of a number of different species and groups all across the globe, advocates and enemies of a dying race, and yet Robin had gotten himself involved, because for the first time, he had found friends. Ishiah and Robin would always be two sides of a coin, necessary halves to make a whole, but to have someone who did not functionally require Robin's assistance in any manner still linger about was new to the puck. Something to be cherished. No matter how many warnings Ishiah had given— and over time, even the peri had been made to change his views on the subject, because the Leandros were something else entirely— Robin had not been deterred, and that was how the standard held for all things in the puck's life. If he was at the point of a sword, inches away from death, it was because he had given up and chosen to believe in futility.

If he came back home for Ishiah's sake, it was also for his own.

Every evening, the two of them had lain together, knowing that at the very least, they had each other on the island. But that evening, Robin never returned, and a sleepless Ishiah sat on the corner of their bed, watching the sun rise before he headed over to the hut across the community from his own. He'd have to search the island thoroughly over before he told the Leandros brothers, because they deserved that, because Ishiah still had trouble rubbing out hope himself, but there was one person he could tell immediately of his suspicions, because if their gut reactions lined up, then there was trouble. When He and She agreed on matters, it became truth.

Thrice, Ishiah knocked on Trixa's door, the line of his lips thin and chapped.

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It was a valid question, but she had an easy answer.

"You're it. There might be those two guys from our world, but I don't know them from a hole in the wall. You're it."

She started soaking another slice of fruit, playing with it a bit and stirring it around as she suddenly found it harder to meet the peri's eyes. It was humbling - she was a trickster, a loner and here she was admitting she needed someone, her friends.

Leo, damn him. But she wasn't drunk enough to admit that yet.

Ishiah still mimicked her motions, even if he wasn't hungry, nor particularly desiring a drink. He followed, because it was the easiest thing to do when he didn't especially want to think, to be clear enough of mind to see where he was and all that he'd lost. Another generous piece of mango slid down his throat, and it caused him to cough once again before the peri finally put it aside for the time being as he stared thoughtfully at Trixa.

"You're not accustomed to being on your own," he observed, mostly for his own benefit. "No longer accustomed may be more accurate. When did that change for you?"

"The long game." She ate her own piece of fruit, a bit more gracefully than the peri seemed to manage, but the burn still made her eyes water a little.

At least that was the story she'd stick to.

"Set a trap for a demon that meant I had to stay more or less in or around one area for ten years. Made some friends - probably a bad move on my part, but Zeke grows on you. So does Griffin."

Fingers rose to play with an unruly curl, even as she threw back the entire shot, now tinged with a fruity taste. Staying in today suddenly seemed like a great idea.

"And Leo stuck around too, if you can believe it. Set up shop with me."

"Set a trap for a demon," Ishiah repeated thoughtfully, leaning back and dipping another piece of fruit, nibbling slowly at it this time, biting back pieces carefully so as not to choke on them again. He imagined that after a few more days, he could grow accustomed to hard liquor. And he knew that Robin had stashed quite a few bottles back in the sand pots they kept behind their house, along with a great number of other items he'd pilfered now and again from the island populace.

"Practically, making friends comes with risks. Alters judgment, presents the possibility of loss, but... intangible benefits," he muttered, before looking up in confusion. "Which demon?"

"Solomon."

Another shot is poured and tossed back with a wicked grin. Something to mask the memory-sharp tang of his blood in her mouth, the sinister feel of satisfaction she feels when she thinks about that day.

"He got bored about half a century ago, decided to go hunting. Found my little brother. So I stopped being bored and I went hunting."

A slice of the fruit went in, but truth be told, she didn't need it. Her mouth was getting pleasantly numb to the alcohol.

While he couldn't entirely approve of the grin which passed over her face, something about it too righteous when there was very little about revenge that was ever fully justified, Ishiah had grown enough as a peri that he couldn't begrudge the sentiment, either. His own expression darkened at the mention of Solomon; he'd had very few direct encounters with the demon, but among angels and peri, the names of more troublesome fiends cropped up on a regular basis. Solomon... he'd taken thousands of souls, had mastered the art of harvesting them until it was almost an art. Ishiah's lips curled in sympathy, exposing a canine before he took a long draw of alcohol.

His lips were starting to lose sensation, he noticed.

"Solomon," he muttered with a hiss. "Should have been taken down centuries ago. That he took your brother... he must have a deathwish."

She gave a wry grin, "He had no idea who I was when he met me, no idea what I was."

Leaning back, she actually chuckled at the memory. Solomon, teasing, taunting, using every trick he could think of. "He even tried to seduce me."

"Seduce you," Ishiah repeated with a soft snort, amused, aided by the low buzz of alcohol keeping his skin warm and flushed. It was crude, it was sordid, and yet the failure or miscalculation of any demon was still satisfying to the peri after so many years. Comeuppance. For all the times people claimed that God was one to hope for turning the cheek, Ishiah knew better. God's soldiers certainly didn't allow matters to idle out.

And if he was darkly amused, he didn't see the point in hiding it.

"Sounds like you got the better of him."

"Oh, Ish."

She intentionally used the shortened version, feeling her own buzz bring out her more playful side. She even topped off his drink, filling her own and inserting another slice of fruit. Stirring it around a bit, she smirked.

"I got the best of everyone that day. Heaven, Hell and a few earthly pawns, too so don't think your side had a good day either, feathers. And at the end of the day, Leo and I had the prize, and Zeke and Griffin were free."

Ishiah stared bemusedly down at his liquor, at the raised level, before he drank enough to bring it down to where it was before, like the everlasting fountain needed to be kept in check. His head swam, his senses were fuzzy around the edges, but he was able to catch the mention of his own bearing the brunt of some violence, and that was enough for him to raise a skeptical brow.

"Heaven's business is no longer my own, unless they see fit to call in favors," he muttered, with a little bit more bitterness than usual, stranded as he was on the island. "As long as the peri weren't involved, that's enough for me."

She rose her eyebrow at Ishiah's insistence that Heaven's business was no longer his. Not that she was entirely surprised, retirement had its benefits, after all, but that he was so nonplussed that she'd knocked his former bosses down a peg or two. Well, maybe nonplussed wasn't the right term, she heard some bitterness in the peri's voice, but still, maybe he had mellowed out these last few years.

She'd have to give Robin some credit... if she ever saw him again.

She wasn't pressured to speak so she remained silent, sucking some of the alcohol off her fruit slice as she watched her guest.

i am swallowed by the guilt of this

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