(Sigyn Draegonheart) Blood isn't always Family

Raven stood in a cave set deep in a wind-swept mountain. In her hand she held her wand, pointed at Bellatrix Lestrange, who was sitting bleeding and chained before her. Beside her stood Sigyn, her shoulders sagging, tears and anger clouding her face. Slumped in the corner was the lifeless figure of Rudolphus, Sigyn's father. Raven's eyes turned to meet her grandmother's and they burned. Rudolphus had told her that they had tortured and killed Sigyn's dragon just to get to her--to bring out the anger in her that was the Hand of Blood. The Powerful Ones--he hadn't been given the chance to elaborate--needed the power Sigyn had to win. She repeated all of this back to Bellatrix and added, "Elaborate. Now."

Bellatrix gurgled as blood bubbled up her throat. She spit it out and laughed, "Elaborate! I will not." Sigyn screamed as she shot forward and slapped her. She didn't care that is was rash. She didn't care that this woman was her mother. A switch was flipped and Sigyn had only vengeance and hate as an emotion. She stuck her wand to her mother's throat and through clenched teeth asked, "WHO WANTED the Hand of Blood back and WHY?"

Raven's eyes narrowed as she considered intervening. Finally she stepped forwards and grabbed Sigyn's arm firmly. "Mother," she met Bellatrix's eyes and anger burned in them. "She will do us no good if you kill her like you did Rudolphus." She had been close to getting the information out of her grandfather when Sigyn's feelings had gotten the better of her and she had killed him. She wasn't going to let it happen again.

Sigyn just looked at Raven with dead eyes. She heard Raven and she moved back into the shadow and just watched her daughter proceed, feeling nothing.

Raven frowned and watched her mother retreat. It had been a mistake to bring her here, to her long forgotten parents. She knelt in front of Bellatrix and heated the chains red hot again. "I'll make this simple. You can tell me what you know, if you have any last vestiges of regret for what you did to your daughter, and I will kill you quickly. If you don't, I'll kill you slowly," she talked too quietly for her mother to hear. "I'm leaning towards the second option."

Bellatrix squirmed but kept her mouth shut. She could with stand a lot of torture. So she soaked in the heat of the chains

Raven sighed and shrugged. "Not going to talk, that's alright." She tapped the chains and murmured a spell to keep them burning red hot for a few days, which would be how long it would take for Bellatrix to die. She stood and turned to her mother. "She isn't going to talk. Let's go."

Sigyn didn't even turn back as her mother screamed and writhed against the chains. She screamed, "Sigyn!!! SIGYN! I am your mother! I tried..." She began sobbing through her terror, "I tried to win you back! How are you so soft!" And then there was silence as Sigyn got close to the end of the cave. A deep and almost eerily comment came from the deep, "coward." Sigyn felt a twinge of rage and turned back so fast and sent singing fire roaring towards Bellatrix.

Raven ducked the flame just in time as it shot at Bellatrix and grabbed at Sigyn's wand. "Mother," she said firmly. "She's not worth it," she muttered, trying to steer her out of the cave and away from the woman that had caused her so much pain already.

Sigyn just turned away and continued out of the cave. She didn't say a word as she scaled down the mountain to Azeecia. She hopped on his back and waited for Raven so they could head back home.

Raven spent a little time putting spells around the cave to keep her from getting out or anyone from getting in. Then she followed Sigyn down the mountain until she came to Azeecia and frowned. ~Know how to calm her down?~

Azeecia rode them back in silence. When they landed Azeecia lightly sent to Raven ~how bad?~

Sigyn dis mounted and quickly disappeared when Raven briefly turned to grab all her weapons. Sigyn needed to find a haven and quickly.

She shrugged and leaned against Azeecia, watching Sigyn walk away. ~Not good,~ she frowned lightly and played with the hilt of her sword. ~I'm not good at this whole...~ she sighed. ~Human touchy feelings thing.~

~you can't let her alone. You have to find her. You cannot let her alone~ Azeecia said, weirdly but firm.

Sigyn found her way to fireplace in her study, she quickly sang a bird tune and the fire went out and the back of the fireplace swirled open. She walked through, whispered, "lumos," and walked down a hall. She came to the corner and Sid down it hard. She began to tremble as she brought her knees up to her chest, wrapped her arms so tight around them it hurt, but she felt nothing. She felt nothing. Her eyes were dead. Her mind was gone. She only saw blood, blood, and more blood. It didn't phase her. Just just stayed in the corner rocking back and forth. Her nails dug into her biceps, causing them to bleed. She was empty.

Raven stared at Azeecia for a moment then took off running. The dragon wasn't very upfront about anything unless it was really important, so she ran. Raven clattered her way into the main entrance hall, frowned, and went into Sigyn's study. She entered the room just in time to see the fireplace slide back into place. She tried spells, she tried pulling and pushing at the mantle, got frustrated and hit the stone until her fists bled. Then suddenly her eyes widened. She had heard Sigyn many a time singing an odd little tune in her office, and so she replicated it. Sure enough the fire slid away to reveal a hallway, which she walked down. When she reached Sigyn she knelt, pulling her hands firmly away from her arms. "I'm here," she said simply.

Sigyn looked up at Raven as she felt the last bit of her soul seep out of her body. She didn't know who was with her or where she was. The oddest things was, she didn't care. All she wanted to do was sit there. She cocked her head in wonderment at the woman before her. Her recognition gone. She couldn't feel, understand, or see properly. Sigyn was lost, more so than she had ever been lost before. No normal magic could repair her now.

Raven sighed, looking down at Sigyn. The woman before her didn't look like her mother--sure, physically, but her eyes showed the real story. "Come on," she took her arm none too gently and tugged at it, hoping to get her on her feet. Something in the corner of her mind was preparing to fight her, because if she truly didn't recognize her daughter, there would be nothing holding her back. "You need to get out of here."

Sigyn pushed the woman, hard, away from her but she did not follow through. She just stood up and stared as she hovered like a ghost in the corner.

She sighed and let her back hit the wall hard, calming her instincts to immediately fight her, before grabbing her arm again. "Sigyn, it's me, your daughter, just come with me, okay?"

She continued to stare but she nodded involuntarily and followed Raven out. She didn't know where they were going but she felt each footstep get heavier and heavier. The hall began to blur and her senses dulled.

She pulled her outside of the hallway and watched the fireplace slide back into place. "Okay, we're going on a little ride." She started tugging her down the staircase towards the front door.

Sigyn continued to follow. She had no idea what it meant that they were going on a ride.

Raven strode out onto the lawn, put Sigyn's arms around her shoulders, and transformed so that her mother was on her back. Before Sigyn had time to rethink anything she lifted off into the air, drifting higher and higher. She roared something in Dragon's Tongue and suddenly there were dragons everywhere, Raven's dragons and Sigyn's, soaring and diving through the air around them, chasing each other, singing.

Sigyn didn't know what was going on but she felt a comatose sweep over her. The light fade and only the dragon's music rang in her ears. It was a deep sleep. Healing so peaceful as she drifted from consciousness.

Raven joined in the singing as she felt Sigyn's weight shift slightly. She didn't fly around, so as not to knock her Mother off of her, but flapped steadily to stay in one place as the other dragons swooped and soared around them in circles.