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"You'd fucking think they'd have come up with a cure for it by now." Alesca's voice is deceptively calm, only the curse and her tight grip on the letter she's just received giving away her feelings. She sits down on the ottoman in the common area of the Motley Crew house, and Ethuil gets the distinct feeling this is something she shouldn't be listening in on, and something her father and sister are not going to want to hear.
"I mean," Alesca continues, despite the looks Artemis is exchanging with Kage, "the magic world, the non-magic, in no world we've ever traveled to, and we've been to more than just a lot, none of them have found a cure. No way to escape it."
"Mother," Kage still calls her that, despite the fact that Raven is her mother and not Alesca, despite the additional fact she is not the child the harpie bore and lost, despite everything Alesca is still Mother to Kage, "What is it?"
"The mortals would say I'm dying." Ethuil wants to walk away, to be unaffected by the news that is about to wreck her twin's world, but she can't move, eyes locked on Kage's unusually stiff form. Alesca goes on. "I apparently got it from Remus," the name is poison on her lips and virtually taboo in this house, "and the test results confirm it. There's nothing that can be done."
"You're immortal," Artemis points out. His voice is harsh and he looks ready to kill Alesca’s half-human former lover for tainting what was HIS. "How does this affect anything, surely you'll heal in time..."
"I wasn't always immortal, always harpie, Artemis. Don't you remember? I'm of the damned, the ones who challenged the gods and lost." Her smile is bitter. "Twice damned, now, it seems. For the mortals this sickness is a slow death spanning a couple of decades. I'll be dying for pretty much the rest of eternity. There are some things immortality can't fix."
"Maybe I can." Kage looks determined, doggedly hopeful. Ethuil knows the limits of Kage's power, of her own, and there are some things they cannot change, the past included.
"My dear, you'd have to destroy my physical body completely-and I do mean completely, not an atom can be left of this body- and then recreate me from scratch, all without losing my soul to the process of rebirth or the whims of the gods. It's impossible to do, no matter how powerful you've become."
No, not become. Kage has always been this powerful, this ridiculously strong, and she's never known a second of pain for it. She's feeling pain now, and it's not something she understands, not something she wants to feel. It is a feeling Ethuil herself is acutely familiar with and one she wouldn't have wished on anyone.
Ethuil walks downstairs, making her presence known, and stops just behind Kage. "I'm ready when you are."
"For what?" Alesca asks, and Ethuil knows the other woman hates her just a little for intruding on this, knows Alesca knew she heard it all.
"To find a cure." Ethuil shrugs and pretends to be interested in the huge tree dominating the other half of the floor. It hasn't died yet, something that surprises her. Lemur's tree was nothing special, had no longevity spell cast upon it, but still it thrived. "That's what you wanted to do, right?"
Kage stands and faces her twin. She won't thank Ethuil and Ethuil doesn't expect she ever will, but it wasn't like the darker haired girl was looking for thanks. "Yeah."

Description
"You'd fucking think they'd have come up with a cure for it by now." Alesca's voice is deceptively calm, only the curse and her tight grip on the letter she's just received giving away her feelings. She sits down on the ottoman in the common area of the Motley Crew house, and Ethuil gets the distinct feeling this is something she shouldn't be listening in on, and something her father and sister are not going to want to hear.
"I mean," Alesca continues, despite the looks Artemis is exchanging with Kage, "the magic world, the non-magic, in no world we've ever traveled to, and we've been to more than just a lot, none of them have found a cure. No way to escape it."
"Mother," Kage still calls her that, despite the fact that Raven is her mother and not Alesca, despite the additional fact she is not the child the harpie bore and lost, despite everything Alesca is still Mother to Kage, "What is it?"
"The mortals would say I'm dying." Ethuil wants to walk away, to be unaffected by the news that is about to wreck her twin's world, but she can't move, eyes locked on Kage's unusually stiff form. Alesca goes on. "I apparently got it from Remus," the name is poison on her lips and virtually taboo in this house, "and the test results confirm it. There's nothing that can be done."
"You're immortal," Artemis points out. His voice is harsh and he looks ready to kill Alesca’s half-human former lover for tainting what was HIS. "How does this affect anything, surely you'll heal in time..."
"I wasn't always immortal, always harpie, Artemis. Don't you remember? I'm of the damned, the ones who challenged the gods and lost." Her smile is bitter. "Twice damned, now, it seems. For the mortals this sickness is a slow death spanning a couple of decades. I'll be dying for pretty much the rest of eternity. There are some things immortality can't fix."
"Maybe I can." Kage looks determined, doggedly hopeful. Ethuil knows the limits of Kage's power, of her own, and there are some things they cannot change, the past included.
"My dear, you'd have to destroy my physical body completely-and I do mean completely, not an atom can be left of this body- and then recreate me from scratch, all without losing my soul to the process of rebirth or the whims of the gods. It's impossible to do, no matter how powerful you've become."
No, not become. Kage has always been this powerful, this ridiculously strong, and she's never known a second of pain for it. She's feeling pain now, and it's not something she understands, not something she wants to feel. It is a feeling Ethuil herself is acutely familiar with and one she wouldn't have wished on anyone.
Ethuil walks downstairs, making her presence known, and stops just behind Kage. "I'm ready when you are."
"For what?" Alesca asks, and Ethuil knows the other woman hates her just a little for intruding on this, knows Alesca knew she heard it all.
"To find a cure." Ethuil shrugs and pretends to be interested in the huge tree dominating the other half of the floor. It hasn't died yet, something that surprises her. Lemur's tree was nothing special, had no longevity spell cast upon it, but still it thrived. "That's what you wanted to do, right?"
Kage stands and faces her twin. She won't thank Ethuil and Ethuil doesn't expect she ever will, but it wasn't like the darker haired girl was looking for thanks. "Yeah."