The crying had done Larka some good and the sleep that followed, cuddled to her wife, had been that much better for her. Larka had woken first as normal and while she laid there for a bit snuggled to Celeste, sadly nature had taken her from the bed. Afterwards Larka had splashed some cold water on her face to wake up a little more and then had gone to the kitchen to get some breakfast going. She got the little fire stove going and let that heat up with some carefully cracked some eggs. Larka was no great cook, but when it came to the basics she had learned well enough, eggs weren't too hard to fry and bacon just needed to be flipped now and then.

Kyu was at her feet looking up, tail wagging so Larka snuck the wolf pup some bacon with a grin as she thought she heard some footsteps from downstairs. Ah, Celeste was up, good. But then everything changed, as she heard Celeste yelp before the noise of her falling down the stairs. ”Celeste!” Larka dropped what she was doing and ran to the stairs and carefully made her way down to find Celeste in a heap curled into a ball tears in her eyes.

Larka dropped to her knees next to Celeste and reached out to carefully put her hand on Celeste's shoulder. ”Celeste, are you okay?” Larka asked, not realizing what Celeste was going through mentally, and not wanting to move Celeste in case something was broken. What she did figure was that Celeste had tossed a curtain open without checking that it was bright out and got too much light too fast and had been blinded momentarily.

Kyu came down the stairs and joined Reika in licking at any exposed skin that she could, protective both pets were despite how young they were. Larka dropped down a little further to the floor and once making sure that nothing was broken with Celeste, carefully draped herself protectively across Celeste's balled up form, shielding Celeste from the outside. ”I'm here, my love, I'm here, always.” Larka whispered and just stayed close until Celeste seemed herself.

Breakfast would burn upstairs, but that was a small price to pay, Larka could start that over again afterwards.

Another opening of the eyes, another sleep cycle broken to the sound of approaching boots pounding against stone. They echo in the darkness, rattling against her drums. Three men entered the small cave, glaring down at the scaressly clad elf before them, with her matted, knotted hair, and filthy upkeep that would take hours to completely scrub off.

Taunting, laughing, jeering, the men found tormenting their prisoner to be more entertaining than merely forgetting her existence. She must remain alive, but their cousins never mentioned whether or not she needed to be whole. Never did she give in to their voices, trying to keep herself small and hidden away from them. This enticed their wrath. Boots pounded into her body. Elf curled up into the fetal position, trying to roll into the stone for escape and relief.

One man forced her to stand, pressing her against the wall. Immediately, she began to retaliate, pushing and clawing, scratching and doing everything she could to drive them off.

Celeste began to shudder and screamed out, pushing on the warm body gently pressing against her. "Stop! Stop!" Larka's soothing voice slowly pulled her to her senses. The elf burst into tears as she wrapped her arms around Larka, holding her close. "Ma vhenan, ma vhenan," she whispered, sounding very relieved. It seemed to take forever, but the tears finally slowed, and Celeste calmed, yet remained silent saved for ragged, after crying gasps.

If it wasn't for the stench of charred, burned food, Celeste would have been content to stay where she was as she pulled her mind back from the darkest recesses fraught with terrible memories. She wrinkled her nose. "Did I make breakfast burn?" She was about to roll over when she realized the pets were practically under her. A soft, half chuckle came forth. "I'm fine, girls. Really. Thank you all."

Celeste yelled stop but Larka stayed close and kept whispering soothing words until Celeste calmed a little realizing that it had been a dream. She wrapped her arms around Larka who pulled her tight and just held on until Celeste's tears started to slow. Neither of them said a thing, silence between them wasn't uncommon, they didn't always need to say anything to know what the other was thinking.

But after a while Larka was well could smell the food that was burning upstairs as Celeste commented on it. ”Don't worry about it, food can be replaced, you can't.” Larka replied kissing Celeste's cheek with a grin as Celeste spoke to the two fuzzballs that were after her to feel better. Larka smiled and gave her wife another quick kiss before starting to get up, gently pulling Celeste with her. ”Come, I'll get you something to eat.” Larka commented heading up the stairs holding onto Celeste's hand.

Ya, the eggs and bacon were burnt but that was fine. Larka pulled the pan off the stove and set it aside to cool before opening a window to let the smoke and smell out. She got another pan and some more eggs and bacon and started to cook again. She cooked in silence the bacon and then the eggs, allowing each feline and canine some bacon as well, before setting the meal down to eat. After a moment Larka spoke. ”Is there anything more I can do to help, Celeste?” She questioned. ”I want to do more, but I don't know what to do to help you with your nightmares.” Aside from what she already had been doing of course, which was being there for Celeste when she was woken up by them. But Larka wanted to do more, her love for Celeste was obvious, and she'd do anything Celeste asked at this point if it meant helping the elf get back to her old self. Or at least as close as was possible now.

After taking a single bite of the eggs, Celeste pushed at the rest with her fork as she slowly chewed.Thanks to the light, she had a splitting headache that seemed to grow by the minute, but she was getting better. At least she could be up here for some time and not be secluded all day long in the darkness. She shrugged in response to the question of help.

"We'd have to ask around, I guess. Nothing that time can't heal though, right?" To be fair, Larka was doing a lot for her now. With her current condition, Celeste was finding it difficult to think beyond the here and now.

---

Yesterday, they had stopped by an apothecary and received some helpful tip to help with nightmares. Drops of lavender oil on the pillow, lavender infused sticks that release the sweet fragrance through the house, along with other herbs and such. Celeste had even made a purchase of something else while there while Larka was looking into a professional sharpening on her weapon, or at least that's what Celeste had assumed.

Today, she took some of the vile substance she had purchased. The effects were immediate. Everything became fuzzy in her mind, but she was relaxed in euphoria. Celeste was sitting in bed, her back against the wall as she stared into the darkened room. One hand lazed upon Reika, absently scratching her. Larka came downstairs to check on Celeste who had not been up to even consume breakfast. She merely briefly looked at Larka, gave an odd smile, and went back to staring at the one thing giving off a minor light.

They had taken a trip to the city the day before and had made a few purchases to help with Celeste's nightmares. At the same time Larka had left her sword with a smithy to have some work done on it, not only a sharpening, but she wanted the linking cables that made up the whip sword looked at as well. Last thing she needed was in the middle of a fight was a cable snapping and flinging half her sword away and making it useless at the same time. She had had to explain how the unique sword worked to the smithy first since he hadn't worked on that kind of weapon before, but, while Larka was a little nervous, she trusted the smith to do a good job and have her sword ready in another day or two.

Larka had got up that morning before Celeste as normal and had went upstairs to make some breakfast. But first, Kyu had decided to wanted to play so the Reaver had take some time to play with the growing wolf puppy. After that Larka had got the food cooking and by the time it was done was wondering where Celetse was, maybe sleeping in a bit? Larka shrugged it off for now and quickly ate her meal before taking Celeste's plate downstairs for her.

”Time to wake up, sleepy head, I have breakfast for you.” Larka spoke as she carefully walked down the stairs with the plate in her hand. However the look she got from Celeste, who was sitting there still and petting Reika, unnerved Larka to the point she stopped in her tracks. ”Celeste?” Larka questioned stepping closer while setting the plate down on the nightstand and sitting in the bed to look at Celeste. ”Celeste, what's wrong?” Larka asked reaching out to put a hand on Celeste's shoulder.

When Celeste didn't react really and only kept staring off into nothing Larka looked at her eyes closer. She knew that look, she had had itself in the past and had seen it some of the other Reavers; Celeste had taken something, something strong. ”Celeste! Celeste, what did you take?!” Larka spoke, shaking Celeste by the shoulder. ”Reika, what did she take?” Larka asked the feline who was helpful enough to push the bottle over to Larka with her nose. Larka took it and opened it and sniffed the contents and instantly drew away, wow that was strong!

Setting the bottle aside Larka ran upstairs and came back with a cup of water. Sitting on the bed again in front of Celeste she held it to Celeste's lips. ”Celeste, please drink.” Larka pleaded thinking water might dilute whatever it was that was now in Celeste's body. Whether that worked or not Larka pulled Celeste to her. ”Come back to me, Celeste, please. You didn't need that shit, you're stronger than that.” Larka spoke into her wife's ear as she held her close.

Reika, while helpful, was enjoying the attention she was receiving. The low purr rumbled through Celeste’s hand, the vibrations feeling quite nice to the dulled mind. As the plate of breakfast placed on the nightstand sat, it saturated the air with delicious aromas. Despite Larka’s efforts, the elf continued staring off at that pale light. Feeling crowded, Reika jumped to the opposite side of Celeste, burying her head under the new hand.

Her wife refused to give up, however, and tried to get Celeste to drink water. For all she knew, it was infused with something to take away her high! The elf began pushing at Larka. ”Who’er you, ‘o tell me wha’ I need?” she grumbled, slurring her words. ”I ‘appen to like this.” While Celeste had difficulties getting drunk, and managed to keep her words relatively straight regardless of how intoxicated she became, this was something different.

It numbed her senses, her magic felt so weak, almost non-existent. Even her ability to control her own body was lessened. ”Seri… Seriously, Larka. ‘Ow you get to make my decisions? I’m an adult. You take that reaver shtuff! At least, this ‘on’t kill me if I don’t use it.” Yes, it was a massive strike on the poor woman, words that sober Celeste would regret. Tears burst forth from the elf. ”I’m tired of being strong, all the gods damned time!”

Larka frowned when Celeste started to push back against her, that wasn't normal for the elf to do. But when Celeste spoke, slurring and grumbling Larka stopped, that was even less like Celeste. Celeste continued to speak, questioning why Larka was getting to make decisions for her. But the comment about Larka taking the Reaver solution was a hard blow to Larka, but Celeste wasn't wrong, if Larka didn't drink the solution properly she could and would die from not having it.

Larka leaned back away from Celeste as she continued before Celeste burst into tears and Larka moved closer again and wrapped her arm around Celeste after setting the water down. ”Celeste, my love, I'm sorry, I'm not trying to make decisions for you, I only wished to help the best I can. But you're right, it's hard for someone like me to tell you what you can and can't drink considering what I have to drink each month.” She spoke hugged Celeste tight to her if allowed. ”Why don't you want to be strong, Celeste?” Larka asked before she could stop herself. ”Know that I will love you no matter what, but why? You seemed to be doing so well, what drove you to take that stuff?” Perhaps in all of Larka's attempts to take care of Celeste and help her wife recover Larka had gone too far and maybe had smothered Celeste with too much love and attention. It was Larka's thinking that the more she showed Celeste that she was there for her the better, but perhaps she taken things too far and now Celeste wasn't feeling independent enough for what she was used to. Perhaps this was Celeste's way of trying to get Larka to back off a little and give her some space? Or, perhaps, Larka was still thinking thing in the wrong way and Celeste was doing this for other reasons that she had no idea on.

All she could do was hold into Celeste until pushed away. While Larka was always one to put a brave face on, more so when she was around Celeste at the moment to do show to Celeste that things would be okay, deep down it was heartbreaking for Larka to see Celeste like this. Larka when she was away from their home on jobs would sometimes cry into her pillow at night until she fell asleep. She was terrified that Celeste wouldn't be the same woman she had been when they married. But Larka, deep down and in a place she refused to accept, knew that there was a good chance that Celeste wouldn't fully go back to what she was like before being captured.  

Larka held her, and this time, she didn't push Larka away. She just cried, the feeling of euphoria dissolving into a tidal wave of despair. Celeste was adrift in a storming ocean of emotions, drowning her with no ray of hope. For the moment, she couldn't answer her wife, for she didn't quite know how to put it into words. It was always the words, things she had not used for so long, that tripped her up in all communications.

There was so much to be afraid of, so much to worry about. Would things ever go back to being the same as before? Could this addiction to this unknown thing be kicked? Cold turkey didn't seem to work as she went crawling back to it. Her powers spiked with her emotions, and thus she was always fearful of how any little thing that sets her off could be disastrous for so many people. Too many lives were at stake, more than she could comprehend.

Gripping onto her wife, burying her head, Reika being squished until she got up and darted off the bed, Celeste wailed into her wife's chest. "Fear and death. One slip, others die." With the muddled mind, she couldn't convey the fact that this substance actually takes her powers away temporarily. If she were in a clear state, perhaps she'd begin to think of ways to dilute it enough to lessen her connection to her powers, yet not enough for the debilitating effects upon her mind. Yet, this wouldn't come to her for a long while yet.

"No power, no need strength. No more strong, please!" This babbled nonsense in between wailing continued like this for hours. It tore Larka up inside, unsure of what to do to help her wife beyond just holding her and whispering encouragement. Surely, even in this warmth of love and compassion from the reaver, there would pain to follow soon? The elf was still painfully thin, but her wounds had healed up nicely by now, only random small splotches of yellow from the last beating remained. Yet, there were other, hidden injuries she had inflicted herself that Larka had not yet noticed. Patches of blue and purple around her ribs where she had thrown herself against furniture deliberately while Larka was away.

When finally quieted down, Celeste lay her head in Larka's lap, staring off into nothingness as the lack of emotion settled over her. No longer feeling like she was drowning under the negative emotions, she felt like a chasm had opened underneath and swallowed everything up. Idly, she scratched at her side, her shirt dislodging itself and revealing a small tip of the bruises. If Larka couldn't see them, she could definitely feel the raised tender skin. Reika jumped back on the bed and curled against Celeste's stomach, cat napping under her hand.