Good Intentions lead to Terrible Ideas

Good Intentions lead to Terrible Ideas
Date of Scene:	10 May 2013
Location:	Narshe - Outskirts
Synopsis:	Alma wants to teach Kyra how to actually use her White Magic well. A harmless idea, what could possibly go wrong?
Cast of Characters:	Kyra Hyral, Alma Hyral

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Alma Hyral has posed:
All she had left was a set of GPS coordinates for Kyra and a message to be there at 23:00 hours.

Alma had in reality arrived hours earlier. The coordinates led to a small campsite near a lake, that Kyra might recognize had a few.. Shivan, touches to it. This definitely would appear out of place given that Alma had very little, if any exposure to She began her ritual for every evening. She set up her telescope, collimated its lens fussily, set up a folding table beside it with her laptop.. And began. She charted every star's location by degrees, carefully rechecking the position of each celestial body against the data she already had. Every so often she'd compile, and check it against the star charts from back on their home world.

It appeared to be boring, and repetitive work at a glance, nothing all that exciting, as compared to Kyra's research and its usual.. dynamic results.

The Northern Lights were out tonight, the Aurora Borealis being one of the few things that Narshe had managed to preserve from its merger. A myriad of dancing lights which gave the sky a sort of magical mystique to it, even if it could be entirely explained by scientific studies.

When Kyra approached, she would notice a few things that were.. /off/ immediately. Alma was wearing winter gear under the traditional dowdy robes she favored.. and firewood was stacked. But the fire wasn't lit, and Alma was shivering. The telescope was set up, the laptop was humming a sound to show it was on.. but she wasn't looking through either. She was just staring vacantly at the heavens while seated.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Kyra does do her research, especially where random GPS coordinates are concerned. They turned out to point to a place known as Narshe, which Kyra learned is a place of considerably colder climate. Before disembarking she had to pick up some warmer clothing, especially to cover up her normally very exposed legs. She herself had not been to the continent of Shiva, though.

Kyra arrives on foot rather than braving a ride upon a chocobo. While it was exciting seeing the birds in person, Kyra was no less anxious about actually riding one of the creatures. Those birds seemed to be more suited for travel through warmer climates anyway. It is, at least, very easy for her to find the camp that Alma has set up today. As she nears, something in the gut of her stomach seems to twist.

Even this far away, she can tell something is wrong. Why wasn't a fire going? Why is Alma still shivering and not moving very much?

The fields of medicine with Kyra's strength as white magic and standard medical practice did seem to go hand in hand. It wasn't enough to just cast a healing spell and go-practitioners had to understand what they were targeting. That Alma was exhibiting signs of exposure to cold.

"Alma?" she says, approaching her quickly, reaching out to place a hand against her younger sister's neck.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma didn't move for what seemed like an absurdly long time, not responding to Kyra's touch or stating her name. If not for the rise and fall of her chest, and the fog of her breath against the chill air. Kyra might not even have known she was breathing. And then after a few minutes, she'd turn around, and smile at Kyra. She looked.. serene, and happier than Kyra typically saw her. And then she was wracked by a coughing fit, sniffling as she wiped her nose against one of her mittens.

It wasn't just exposure to cold, she was ill. Kyra would remember how easily she fell ill when they were children. Her body just didn't seem to fight off infection very well. Fortunately for the girl, their family had been full of expert White Mages which came as a result of most of them being devout practitioners of their faith.

"Y-You.." She coughs again. "..came.." She continued to shiver, as she groped for small lighter for cigarettes which lay on the table. She'd then use it to light the campfire, which quickly became a warm blaze. She then draped a few furs from around the camp over her shoulders, motioning for Kyra to sit with her near the fire.

"A-Alright.. what I-I'm g-going to tell you h-here. I-It can't leave this c-camp. P-Promise?" She'd cough again, seemingly unconcerned for her own welfare.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
When Alma doesn't respond, Kyra presses her again, this time a little bit more urgently. She removes a glove and starts to feel Alma's skin, checking for surface temperature with a sudden surge of panic. It was obvious that she was breathing, though, as she could see a small puff of steamy air escape from the younger Hyral every few seconds. "Alma!"

Then she coughs. "/Alma/!" she says with alarm. "You're /ill/! Look at you, you shouldn't be out here!" Already she's tugging Alma to her feet, "We need to get you back to a town." But Kyra quickly let's go so she can dig through her own coat for...who knows what. Medicine? A potion? Kyra carries all sorts of things on her. She probably had a good twenty pounds of gear on her.

Alma lights the campfire and sits down like it's no big deal. "Of course I came, I did make a promise, didn't I?" She sounds a little resigned. "Alma, what are you doing? You need to lie down."

A suspicious look is given. "I promise." she says warily.

Alma Hyral has posed:
When Kyra dug into her pockets, her younger sister would just place a hand upon her arm lightly, shaking her head.

Once the fire was lit, she improved rather quickly. She was still shivering a little, but the light of the fire did wonders already, as she simply held the furs ever closer to herself. It hadn't progressed far enough that she'd develop frostbite, at least, so active warming could be done quickly and without consequence. "O-Oh I'll l-lie down l-later Kyra."

After Kyra promised to her a second time that she'd keep this all a secret. Alma would give her a relieved look, but she still looked stricken. She even placed a mittened hand over her eyes, which quickly shifted to her mouth once she started coughing again. After wiping off her face, she'd finally add, "M-Mom and D-Dad are going to k-k-kill me."

She'd then look at Kyra, and manage a small smile, "I-I'm not such a g-great a-adherent to N-Naturalis, Kyra. I l-live by i-it.. but t-there are certain t-things I've found to be.. t.." Coughing, "..true. O-Outside of it. Blessed C-Cosma is creation. But science.. s-science is the study of the l-laws of creation. The e-essence of C-Cosma. And w-while I t-think that science s-sometimes goes.. t-too far.. I a-admire much of it."

She'd reach out to take Kyra's hand, "S-So..I t-tried to quantify w-what W-White M-Magic is.. s-something that our C-Church forbade. The e-energy we draw u-upon. And w-well.." More coughing then, "W-Well nevermind. T-That isn't i-important. W-What is i-important is that e-even if you don't k-know how white m-magic works, you have f-faith that it works. W-What you need to l-learn Kyra is t-that...you d-don't need so much f-faith to /focus/. I-I've seen you w-when you focus on s-science. It's a-amazing. So f-for you... you just n-need to treat m-magic less like a m-matter of i-ignorant faith, and m-more like a s-science problem."

She'd take Kyra's hand and put it to the center of Alma's chest. "S-Streptococcus P-Pneumoniae. H-Haemophilius I-Influenzae. C-Chlamydophila p-pneumoniae. M-Mycoplasma p-pneumoniae. All r-resistant strains." She'd then smile at Kyra, "Gram p-positive clusters, Aerobic g-gram negative coccobacilli, o-obligate intercellular p-pathogens. W-What I want you to do is to /v-visualize/ t-them. R-Right now its just mucous and c-congestion. S-Soon p-pulmonary e-edema will come, b-bronchiolar constriction...Alveolar surfactant loss.."

She says this all casually, but Kyra had the feeling that she wasn't actually condescending her. She knew that Kyra's specialties consisted of microbiology, and genetics. Instead the impression that Kyra would have is.. that this was planned. "..Y-You can w-wield the l-light of c-creation. If you can v-visualize the p-problem, and d-deploy it p-properly... t-then you can d-do almost a-anything."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
The warmth would help, she knew. Alma was cold but fortunately Kyra did not observe any of the signs of frostbite. Now if she had felt Alma to be cold and had her insist that she was instead very warm, then something definitely would have been very wrong. "You shouldn't be out here if you're /sick/." The coughing and sniffling definitely was not a sign of regular cold weather exposure. "/I'm/ going to kill you if you don't start taking care of yourself." Kyra interjects before Alma says something that stuns her into silence.

It made no sense. Alma pushed the faith as much as her parents! Disapproved of her deviations! Perhaps it was humility that drove Alma to admit that she did not follow the faith as ferverently as she had hoped.

Disbelieve settles upon her, followed by annoyance that her science could be compared or even linked to Cosma. "White magic was their domain." Kyra points out as her way of agreeing that, yes, the Church did forbid serious study of white magic. It still happened in some places but the Church went through great lengths to suppress it and the results-quite seriously for those that followed Cosma Naturalis. She seems reluctant, though, to really buy into this. It would be quite easy to tame her magical energies had she focused upon it like she could on her studies-or even Mogstep.

Alma rattles off a list of bacteria that Kyra easily recognizes the names of, but finds very hard to believe that they're coming out of Alma's mouth. The smile is met with a frown. "/Alma/, are you telling me you infected yourself with no less than FIVE antibiotic-resistant strains of infectuous bacteria?!" Kyra's quickly trying to pull her hand away from Alma, perhaps fearful that she'll catch something from that terrible concoction.

That Alma's talking about this so casually tells her that this infection was intentional. Kyra glares at her little sister as if she was a crazy person. "I know exactly what they all look like. Chlamydophila pneumoniae, you realize that is transmitted by /respiratory secretions/, like the ones all over your gloves!" The bacterial load was definitely one far too much for her leeches. Antibiotics wouldn't help... Her white magic...

She didn't want to resort to THAT. Kyra peers down her coat, which is of course what she needs to do in order to look at what she has carrying on her.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma actually found that statement amusing of Kyra killing her, giggling for a moment, before being wracked by a coughing fit, "G-Good, t-then maybe I won't be such an i-inconvenience to you a-anymore." There was no malice in her tone, she just seemed wry, a little whimsical.

Whether any further explanation would be forthcoming or not as to why she wasn't all that supportive of Kyra, Alma didn't offer it. Not yet, and after all, Kyra didn't ask.

"It /is/ their d-domain. But t-they d-don't understand i-it. T-They don't u-understand that f-figuring it out.. is w-worship. T-They were afraid of it was based l-less on faith. B-But.. the m-more I studied it, the m-more I came to b-believe in her." She'd rub the mitten across her face.

She'd give Kyra a smile, "O-Oh, yes. I d-did d-do that. And I r-realize t-that I'd be on d-droplet i-isolation. I-I'm fully c-capable of c-curing myself in an i-instant if I w-wanted to. B-But what would that s-show you? T-That I'm just your l-little sister, blinded by the l-light of faith. J-Just as ignorant as a-all the rest. W-Without a brain of m-my own to speak of. T-That I can p-perform m-miracles w-without k-knowing how it's done."

She'd just look at Kyra, before coughing again, "I-I want you to f-focus and do it y-yourself. S-Show me what you can d-do when you're in the /zone/."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"Don't talk like that." Kyra suddenly snaps angrily. Could she actually be bothered by the thought of losing another sister? She doesn't seem fit to try to explain her comment, her anger at this entire situation, which felt like a trick now, quite palpable in the white mage and chemist.

"All that...you /studied it/?" she gapes a little, "How did you manage to conceal that? You barely had the time away from our parents." Not to mention it was something-a bit of rebellion-that not even Kyra would have done. Personal rebellion was one thing-but going against the Church in such a blatant and dangerous fashion...

"This makes no sense. Are you saying you've proven Cosma's existance?" Kyra replaces her glove and rubs her face, eyes pinched shut. She seems to be keeping a good distance from Alma now, perhaps out of fear that she was going to catch something.

The steely gaze returns. "You want me to do it. With my white magic." she says flatly. "Know this, I do not approve of this /trickery/ to prove this point. Nor do I have any plans on following the religion that our parents forced on me again."

Kyra lets out a sigh. "If you can, try to hold in your coughing for a while." She has her work cut out to her-not just because of the bacterial load Alma is walking around with, but because how -angry- she is right now. Drawing her coat closer to her, she closes her eyes.

As Alma suggested it earlier, she turns her focus to the bacteria that were listed earlier. Kyra was very familiar with all of them, could easily list their pathologies, probable origins, shapes, and many other obscure details. She'd handled all of them in the laboratory before and had even sequenced the genome of Haemophilius Influenzae at one point. Typically antibiotics were prescribed for them with aggressive treatments that lasted for weeks. But these were clearly different-antibiotic resistant, so there was a bit more functional DNA in each that conveyed that ability. She'd studied other pathogens with that unfortunate characteristic before as well and in her mind, began to extrapolate the alterations. Bacterial genomes were fortunately, quite simple to picture.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Maybe Alma would take just a little bit of pleasure out of Kyra's concern. Just a little. Not because she wanted the attention necessarily, it was just knowing that she did.

The girl would just listen to her incredulity of her studying it, rubbing away at her runny nose before coughing again, "I-It wasn't t-that hard. I h-hid it in r-research of a-another science w-which most everyone l-looks down u-upon. W-Who is going to r-regulate a dumb t-teenage girl l-looking through a telescope and r-recording data that's b-been mostly u-unchanged s-since the time of the ancient Shivans and L-Levitani? M-Mom and D-Dad thought it was a harmless h-hobby that I'd grow out of. O-Our Church tells us that the d-daylight is her t-time. But I a-always t-thought the night, was m-more beautiful. E-Each star, each d-divine spark of her c-creation shining b-brightly against the d-darkness. S-Showing that even the s-smallest l-light can hold back the d-dark. S-Showing that there's so m-much life and h-how vast c-creation is...S-Sometimes I just see.. things..."

There is a pause as she considers how to go on, "I.. w-went too far. I c-can't say that I p-proved her e-existence.. as s-some things are s-still based on f-faith. I j-just believe in her more b-based on what I d-discovered. I t-tapped into something t-that we're not m-meant to have. T-There should always be...some l-limits."

She'd close her eyes for a moment, "I-I'm not as b-brave as you are K-Kyra in y-your rebellion. I m-may still believe.. in w-what I've d-discovered, but I t-think, I committed a g-grave sin, g-given what h-happened."

And then she'd narrow her eyes at Kyra, "A-And how else am I s-supposed to get you to l-learn? Y-You're closer to /Helena/ than you are me. We b-barely even t-talk, and y-you don't b-believe half of what I say, or d-don't listen. E-Even now you think I'm t-trying to trick you b-back to the C-Church. I d-don't /care/ if you w-walk the path of N-Naturalis Kyra. I j-just want you to be e-everything you can be.. to believe in /her/ no matter what form your b-belief takes on.." And then she'd sniffle a little bit, her eyes misting up before stating quite calmly...

"No matter what you think of me, Kyra, you are, and always will be my hero."

And then she'd just sit there, with her eyes closed, letting Kyra concentrate.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Devious. Alma was devious, Kyra discovers. She hid it really well because she certainly wouldn't expect the little bullied, limp-wristed, weak-willed Alma to do something like flagrantly violate church doctrine behind her parent's back. Though with the perspective she's looking at it, it hardly seems like /violation/.

"Astronomy." Kyra murmurs, easily recalling this little hobby of her sisters, though she didn't take much interest in it herself. It wasn't something she could change, just observe and record. Kyra had to change something.

But Alma clearly saw something out there. Kyra looks curious-that was her downfall and why she was here anyway, that horrible curiosity.

"Tapped upon what...precisely..?"

Then again, she's accused of being closer to Helena than her little sister. Kyra's focus dissolves immediately and the anger returns. "...my relationship with Helena is not what you think it is. She was a way to help me rebel. She is wild and dangerous and will get you into things that you'll regret later." As if that wasn't demonstrated neatly with their 'date'. This jealousy is really starting to grate on my nerves." she pauses, "And Helena is not family. She will never be family."

Whether or not this is a good thing isn't explained.

Bitter with her sister's nagging and accusations, she massages her head through her hood. She stops, though, when Alma admits that she's her hero. Maybe, she thinks, that's what prompted Alma's research. Maybe, she reached her discovery through trying to emulate her older sister and thus had committed a great sin against the Church.

Satisfaction finally strikes Kyra with this realization and she slowly smiles a small smile. "Hearing that...fills me with joy, Alma." she looks up at her little sister. "Now...if you don't mind, I'm trying to get in the zone."

Kyra lets out a sigh of air again and resumes focusing on her extensive knowledge of bacteria. As she does, she starts to rub her hands togther.

Alma Hyral has posed:
To Kyra it might seem that way. To Alma's perspective, she'd done something abhorrent.. sinful. It was a violation of everything she'd ever been taught. And at first.. she'd delighted in it a little. It made her /special/ when before the only people who thought she was special were her parents. But then.. everything in her life went wrong. It plummeted on a downward spiral that began with Tira's death, and only continued to plunge her deeper into despair.

Cosma Naturalis had broken Alma. Now she couldn't even delight in the simple pleasures that her discovery could afford her.

When Kyra mentioned astronomy, she'd just nod, she sounded more calm now, like she was witnessing some sort of inevitable trainwreck that was her life, despite having regular coughing fits. "There's more to astronomy than most of our world afforded it, there's observational astrophysics and theoretical astrophysics. Theories on how the universe began.. theories on how it grew. Theories on light, fusion, gravity, time.. relativity, electromagnetism. But all of those scientists looked at it as a way of trying to prove our faith wrong. To prove that there is no intelligence behind creation. To prove that the very fabric of our existence is not /her/. That it was just something they could quantify.. I looked at her creation, and sought to prove that she existed. Sometimes I just see.. glimpses, of how it all fits together, when I focus. Equations for how the above forces interact. I could probably describe to you how each one works individually, but to put them all together...I couldn't do it..I would look at the streams of data, I would feel inspired by the glimpses I saw of how the universal forces related.."

She'd just stare at Kyra for a time, "....it's impossible to put them together. But somehow I did it in my head. It all clicked. And my magic just changed. It's white magic still.. I think. But it uses spheres which we traditionally relate to time magic, or black magic. I'm able to be.. creative, with the light of creation. You have the /zone/. I.. have whatever this is, in my magic when I put my mind to it and concentrate. It's equal parts faith, science, and art. Equations which become arrays, arrays which become magic, magic which becomes reality."

And then all that confidence melted away, as she shrinks back into herself, into the furs when Kyra rebukes her about Helena, she sounds very meek again in-between the coughing fits, "T-Then why do i-it? I-If you regret w-what she'll have you d-do, w-why do it? I-If you w-want to rebel. F-Fine. I can a-accept t-that and still l-love you. I'd be a h-hypocrite otherwise. B-But I always t-thought your r-rebellion was m-more because it was t-truly what you b-believed. N-Not just to get b-back at us...n-not rebellion for the s-sake of spite, b-but on your p-principles."

She sounds conflicted, but she nods at the comment on family. She's not going to touch that one, just to assume that deep down Kyra truly loves all of them.

Kyra's comment on joy manages to bring a small smile to her expression. But she doesn't say anything else.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Perhaps it had started with astronomy. Moved onto astrophysics and the like. Kyra was familiar with those sciences and was even quite proficient with some-but they didn't really 'light her fire' as the more biological-based sciences did. Forces felt so cold. Life was /warm/. Even with the explanation, she still seems skeptical. It wasn't that she doubted Alma's intelligence-they're related, she's probably quite smart too.

It's just that was her nature to question. It's a lot to accept on face value-she wanted to see the data too. She wanted to see what Alma saw.

The lovely explanation is ruined by Alma getting all defensive over Helena. "It was about spite when I started. I had realized how deprived I had been." Kyra says truthfully, "But it slowly became more than that." And in the process she may have given Helena the wrong idea about certain things.

She makes a faint angry and discomforted noise as she tries to focus.

She had to focus. Not that she believed Alma would die to make a point. Her thoughts remain on the organisms currently wreaking havock throughout her little sister's body. A faint white glow slowly spreads over her gloved palms, though Kyra doesn't seem to especially notice it. Her gaze remains pinned upon her quailing sister, still coughing and miserable.

Advancing, she presses her palms against Alma's chest and continues to focus. The effect is...pretty weak it seems. Kyra's white magic doesn't feel all that strong to start with, but the sensation gradually builds, flooding Alma's system with the undeniable command to /purge/.

Alma Hyral has posed:
She was intelligent, but she couldn't really call herself a genius, like Kyra. She could excel at any subject that she put her mind to, but biology, and medicine didn't really light /her/ fire. She learned them purely to become a better healer, and to learn to emulate her older sister in some way. She might be a fine research assistant in many of the hard sciences, but she wasn't creative..

Except with her magic. It was equal parts science and faith. She couldn't really show Kyra the results on paper, but she could show her her /data/ in some other way. Something that would sate her desire for empirical evidence. Perhaps one day soon she would.. ..but for now it still shamed her beyond words.

Alma would at least respect her honesty, and nod to Kyra.

And then Kyra would start to focus, and Alma would just try to /feel/ how the magic was working. Kyra's magic felt so weak at first, but then it felt so raw, and wild, and powerful like a fire that might burn her if she didn't intervene. Indeed it was already starting to hurt. She didn't really want to interrupt Kyra from /the zone/ but she felt the need to offer her some advice, her voice calm. "You've gone from using it like a broad spectrum antibiotic, to an autoclave, trying to sterilize the infection..narrow your focus. You need to /control/ it. Feel out each little pathogen, and cause apoptosis. It's about control, Kyra. Perfect control. And you have that...when you focus."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
The raw magical power is there. Natural talent, perhaps, or just potential festering inside the vessel known as Kyra. How such a thing worked was a mystery-some people were just born with the power readily at their fingertips. Others had to train for years to develop such an ability. It was terribly unfair, in some ways. A boon in others.

Kyra's was vast and dangerous. Her limiter was whispered about amongst the other children for years, all the while Kyra herself unaware of her burden.

Pain always felt like a natural part of healing to Kyra. White magic might not supposed to hurt so it never struck Kyra as unusal when it did-especially now as she works upon Alma.

Alma speaks again, giving instructions and the magic suddenly wavers. A few seconds pass and the power recedes, back to the low level of before. Kyra's eyes open, eyebrows pulled into a frown. "This doesn't seem to be working the way it's intended." she scowls.

At her scowl, the purging feeling returns, but only for a split second before it drifts back to the weaker feeling.

With a sigh, she closes her eyes and tries again, visualizing each type of bacterium, working on each 'species' one at a time. She knows them, inside and out, and through that she can target them easily.

Slowly it works. Very slowly, one infection at a time. Alma would do well to remain silent until Kyra's finished-who knows what another interruption might do.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Healing through white magic generally did hurt. There were some who had such control that the pain was lessened.. Alma's magic generally diminished the pain of the mending process, but that was for one sole reason. She didn't have the raw power that Kyra did, she didn't have the talent to create such waves of absurd strength that it was like a tidal wave of holy power. What she did have, was nigh perfect control with the power could bring to bear. She was still jealous of Kyra's ability, in some way.. but she had a feeling that if Kyra saw what she could do, that Kyra would perhaps reciprocate that feeling. Power, and Control. If only the two could share with each other, or act in synergy.. Such thoughts crossed her mind, but it was more an amusing thought. Kyra's magic was at least.. a gift. Not some abhorrent mutation that Alma's had become. Yes, she was indeed jealous of her sister.

As Kyra speaks to her, she just bites her lip, and lets her work through it. The pain of the purging returns, causing her to grit her teeth and just.. bear it, and fights the urge to shriek. She could feel Kyra taking away some healthy tissue with that. She might have to fix some of that later, if Kyra forgot about it. And Kyra would seemingly begin to learn to modulate her magic, working at one type of bacterium at a time. Alma just remains quiet, feeling her work. Occasionally she'd cough, or muffle down a whimper. But otherwise.. she'd try her hardest not to interrupt her.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Sharing like that might be a little too much for Kyra. She had no intention of being smothered by family as she had before. Being magically joined at the hip did not feel like a good prospect to Kyra.

It becomes difficult to keep her thoughts from drifting to the clingy jealousy that Alma has been expressing lately. If she asked for space, she wondered, would Alma bother to give it? Or would she bitterly note everyone that wasn't her that she talked to or spent time with. Utterly exhausting.

This healing was utterly exhausting. Remaining focused on this was not quite like the zone-like experience that brought her that near-supernatural concentration. Not at first, not when she was still a little angry.

But it works. Slowly and surely, she keeps the power at the right level where it targets /only/ the bacterial cells throughout Alma's system. To get it to work, she focuses on one strain at a time, eliminating each one in turn before focusing entirely on the next bacteria.

She knows when she's finished too because, at that point, she senses not a single remaining pathogen.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Maybe, but probably not. Alma wasn't jealous of the rest really. It was just that the thought of /Helena/ of all people seemed to know more of what her sister was like now, than she did that galled her. So far.. she actually liked all of Kyra's other friends, despite them being upperclassmen, they treated her kindly.

As she feels the healing process end, she clears her nose one last time, and allows herself to breathe more easily. She never wanted to have to do that again, fortunately, she didn't think she had to. She'd just sort of look away from her at that moment, again embarassed, and ashamed. "I-I'm sorry K-Kyra.. it was w-wrong of me to put you in this p-position. I s-s-should have never done it.. t-there's more I can t-try to teach you t-though, if you'd like to learn. I'm a-actually just as good with o-offensive magic as h-healing. B-But if you don't t-trust me, then I u-understand.."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Kyra lets out a long breath and withdraws her hands. Beneath the gloves, her palms are sweating an through the weave, she can feel it. At some point she'd need to at least wash her hands, though not because she feared infection. Any of the bacteria that might have gotten upon her were eradicated, either through her harsh purge or the more gentle application of white magic that followed.

Kyra looks at her hands for a long while before looking up at her sister. Before saying anything, she examines her, most for signs of infection. Besides lingering coughs, Alma seemed okay.

"I may as well." she mutters, sounding embarassed herself though for reasons unrelated to why Alma felt the same way. No, it's more that she was learning from someone younger-the bratty younger sister no less. "But..."

She grasps both of Alma's hands in her own and squeezes, "Only if you promise to /never/ pull anything like that on me again. Ever. Do you /understand/?"

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma would appear fine, other than a ruddy color on her nose and cheeks from the cold. The congestion had been entirely cleared up, and she'd never progressed to a point where her illness would have been critical. Still, she looks flushed, and her clothes are now soaked with sweat from a combination of having a rapidly climbing fever and so close to a fire.

Alma would sense some of that. In a way she was embarassed too, that she had to teach her sister something that was like second nature to Alma now. It had taken her years of both study and healing to refine it, but it came with little effort. Her sister's gifts were so much greater than her own, that it felt.. wrong that she had to. Embarassment tinged with some jealousy.

When Kyra grasps both of her hands and squeezes, Alma would slowly slide closer to her, before wrapping her arms around her sister in a loose embrace. Her voice was soft, and she sounded just as embarassed as Kyra did, "I p-promise. N-Never again. N-No matter how much I e-exasperate you K-Kyra. I l-love you. I a-always will. And I m-meant every word. You are my h-hero."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Though the illnesses had never gone critical on them, it had nonetheless been a very dangerous thing to do. Perhaps Alma fell asleep or became unsconscious? How would she have been cured if Kyra was unable to do it successfully? Kyra could go on and on but...

Bah, lecturing. She didn't feel like a lecture right now, not while Alma is looking at her like that.

But despite her own embarassment, at this point, when she demands the promise from Alma that she'd never do -this- again, she looks the younger Hyral in the eye. "Then we can continue." she says slowly, not doing anything to stop Alma as she inches closer and brings her older sister into a hug. After a moment, Kyra returns the hug.

"You're a brat." she mumbles, "But I love you too."

Alma Hyral has posed:
The thought had actually occurred to Alma. Many times over. She'd timed introducing the microbes and the amount of exposure she actually gave herself to only allow it enough time to incubate to a point where it'd be a threat, not critical. But she was frail of constitution, and it might have been that she'd have fallen to the point where she'd have been useless before Kyra even arrived. She really did just have that much faith in her older sister. Blind, stupid, faith. The sort that Kyra tended to hate because it was so irrational.

She'd embrace her sister a while longer, even giggling a bit at the brat comment, before drawing away, wrapping herself more in the furs. "W-Well, we s-should get g-going, this c-campsite isn't even mine. R-Rena might be a bit c-cross with me, but I d-don't think so."

She'd stand, and start to pack up her things, gingerly, wiping off the frost from the lens of the telescope meticulously and from the laptop, before packing both away into her pack, and hoisting it on her back. "S-So...what does H-Helena have on y-you anyhow, to m-make you c-consider wearing that d-dress...?"

And then a pause, almost as an afterthought, she'd look at Kyra, seemingly conflicted. "K-Kyra...would you l-like m-me to show you o-one thing, t-that I can d-do?"

It seemed only fitting that she show her.. after all, she'd only really demonstrated it for /Helena/.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"Rena?" Kyra seems surprised to hear that name. So that's where she had been hiding all this time. A place that did emulate Shiva in climate, hmm, perhaps the red mage missed her home more than she was letting on. Rena always did keep a lot of her emotions to herself.

Helena is brought up. Kyra shudders. "I made her promise that you wouldn't do anything else horrible to you shortly after she had us both for dinner." And poor Alma became intoxicated. "Don't worry about it."

Another offer, "Does it have to be out here or can it wait until we get somewhere warmer?"

Alma Hyral has posed:
"Y-Yeah. S-She's supporting some of m-my research." She usually kept her growing acquaintance with Rena a secret, ever since she found out she was a potential competitor with Souji's company. She liked the Shivan woman though, and didn't want to be ostracized by the other employees for it.

And Alma grows stock still as she looks at Kyra, eyes widening, "Y-You what? R-Really? K-Kyra.. you d-din't have to do that. I.. I c-can take your p-place.." She frets over it.

And then on the final subject, "W-Well, sure..but i-it'd be less f-fun for you i-indoors..."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"No." Kyra says firmly, looking up suddenly with a glance that is like a fired bullet. "You will not take your place in this. Besides, it looks like Seloria will have a nice gift for you ready soon. Isn't that exciting? You will will have something nice to look in."

Kyra scrambles to that topic quickly She knews that Alma will want to bargain the torment away. She must not let Alma do so. "I can withstand her much better than you, plelase, trust me."

A suspicious look follows. "What exactly are you going to show me?"

Alma Hyral has posed:
Her frown at the situation would eventually melt away to a demure smile, she still sounded rather self-conscious though, "I.. w-well..I a-already have it. I w-wore it at the o-office today. A-Artyom complimented me."

"Oh, it's rather h-harmless r-really, you'll l-like it." Without a word, or even a gesture a radiant yellow aura comes into being around her, limming her body and illuminating the night. To Kyra's mind, it may seem like a strange contradiction, didn't Alma say she needed to create arrays, to use her magic? There was none that Kyra had seen. She'd place a hand to her chest, concentrating, and then it would become more brilliant, eventually becoming a bright white color. She'd then lightly place a hand against Kyra's palm. Alma's aura would instantly dim back to being simple yellow in color, and now Kyra would find her own body limmed by one that was slightly dimmer than Alma's. "You'll have f-full control over y-your p-personal gravity and m-momentum for three m-minutes. T-Think on where y-you want to go, and y-you'll g-go in t-that direction."

She'd just smile at Kyra as Alma's own aura faded away entirely. "H-Have fun K-Kyra. Y-You can return to m-me if you w-want it renewed. And y-you'll know w-when it's a-about to wear off instinctually. A-About t-twenty seconds b-beforehand."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"Maybe you should show me it on you." Kyra gently suggests, favoring Seloria's meddling far more than Helena's. At least Seloria wouldn't push to flagrantly violate conventions.

Kyra is familiar with arrays as a mathematical concept. What follows is certainly not something that Kyra has had experience with before. Handed control over her personal gravity, of course, the first thing she does is go up.

Up she goes, soon out of earshot, but not THAT high. There had been an old Ifriti legend about someone who had flown too close to the sun. In Kyra's case, she just fears flying too high and falling from that height. While she doesn't go too high...

Experimentation clearly follows, from what Alma can see on the ground. Kyra...is clearly having fun with this, seeing what sorts of speeds she can achieve and moving in all sorts of directions.

Alma Hyral has posed:
"S-Sure! W-When we get b-back!" The girl would flush a bit with pleasure. She wasn't used to thinking of herself as potentially pretty, or receiving compliments.

And then she'd just watch Kyra, giggling to herself as she watched her fly. And in a way...she was envious of her too for being able to have fun with it. Alma had resolved never to use her magic other than healing for /herself/ except in dire circumstances. It was only to be used for the sake of others. For the enjoyment of others. She felt the temptation was too great for her to abuse it for herself, to use it too casually..

The first time she used it, it was on Chocobo, /indoors/ at night. She learned how to use it there. By the time she returned home.. Tira was dead, and her life was shattered. Alma had never used it simply to fly, and enjoy flying, to revel in it. Just to evade certain death.

Cosma Naturalis really had broken her to many simple pleasures of life.

And so she just watched Kyra while standing on the ground, just envious that she was able to enjoy something that Alma never could.