(Untitled)

[gabriel_tam]

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

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[night_hibiscus]

"Oh, but you mustn't be so humble!" she protests. "You're a leader of your people, a public servant and a symbol of their hopes and good order. You are more deserving, because your life is spent in service, and because when people see that you are safe and well, it makes them feel safe and well."

"I understand," she adds quickly, "that your world doesn't have magic, and it would be hard to explain. But you deserve it, at least."

[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.

[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.

[night_hibiscus]

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.

[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?"

[night_hibiscus]

"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.

[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.

[night_hibiscus]

"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.

[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.

[simon_doctor]

"...what?"

Simon's voice is altogether too sharp.

[night_hibiscus]

"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."

[simon_doctor]

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

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

[gabriel_tam]

"You heard me."

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

"What battle?"

[night_hibiscus]

"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?"

[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."

[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."