Going through changes

@Amos + @Baal <33

It had been a good few weeks since Saoirse and Amos had arrived at the cultist hideout. Every day Buffy would oversee her daughter's healing process, and she was getting better. But the light worried, mostly because she felt so powerless. Amos was still refusing to talk things out, and as for her daughter, she felt her slipping away too. Baal had made every room in the cultist hide out scarce of any worship, except for the altar that their daughter used for their healing.
She was sitting at her desk, which she had moved in to the altar room just to have her notes close by if something were to happen to Saoirse. Buffy needed to learn her powers, but she felt so powerless when she looked at her child in pain. The trybrid had trouble doing much, as it seemed to affect her too much to even go for long walks. She could almost feel Amos' eyes burned in to her back, but she knew she had to keep focus and learn more.
"Staring at me won't help much," she said, turning around to look at the young daemon. "What do you want?" Buffy hadn't been unreasonable. She had kept Baal away from Saoirse as per his request, what more could he want?

Buffy sighed. He seemed annoyed today, and she didn't blame him. She wanted Saoirse to be up and running too, but no amount of bickering would help. "Just for a few more hours," she said, turning back to her notes. Saoirse had left the room a couple of times, mostly on small walks with Amos or just to get some food, but the infection always became a problem the further she strayed from the altar. "The weather is nice today ... She might like a small trip to the sanctuary, " she said. The sanctuary was a small garden that was in the middle of the compound. It was basically where the healers could get herbs and spices.
"You are growing more irritabl; are you sure you don't want me to look at your finger?" She asked, which she did almost every day now. She could feel the spread in him, she knew he was trying to hide it. "Or at least let me give you some clean bandages."

"If her father hadn't been such a dick she wouldn't exist," she simply stated as she flipped through an old book, stopping at a page that she found useful. He was stubborn, just as his father she thought, but saying that out loud would only aggravate him further, so she held her tongue. "The infection in daemons can be quite severe ... Most feel their anger becoming incontrollable, like a berserker going in to battle," she said, getting up from her chair to check on her daughter, holding her glowing hand over her chest.
"Even though you are trying not to touch her with your infected hand, it really doesn't matter, as the infection is already in your body - You could potentially be drawing out the infection in her simply by holding her hand," she spoke so rational, but she had to. If she succumbed to her emotions when Saoirse was in this state, she couldn't stabilize her daughter. "At least think about it."

He ignored her statement with an angry grunt. He wasnt really agreeing with that at all, but on the other hand, he didnt want to argue on who was right and who was wrong in that matter, because Saoirse was still lying on the altar regardless.
As she started speaking of the infection, he seemed like he wasnt listening but he was. As she spoke about him possibly drawing out Saoirse's infection, he removed his hand from his sister's in a swift movement, looking angrily at the light. "I cant trust you. You may want to save Saoirse, but I'm not your son," he simply stated, looking to her to see if she could prove him wrong. He doubted it so much. Even if she had been nice then, she was different now. He grabbed around his infected hand. "If you really wanted to save people, you would have saved all the innocent people they drag in to infect and monitor," he then said, applying a bit of pressure on his hand before he grunted in pain. "Yeah I've seen them," he assured her.

"You don't trust me, but you clearly value my knowledge," she said, watching how fast he had actually removed his hand from the trybrid. Saoirse seemed to react, whimpering as she felt like he was gone, but she was still unconscious. Amos thought he had the upper hand in all of this, didn't he? Thinking he could intimidate her with what was going on. "You think I don't want to save them?" she asked, but it was clear he didn't think so. Breathing out in a deep sigh she shook her head. What was the point in discussing this anyways?
"Regardless of what you think of me, it does not change the fact that I care for you, Amos," she said moving her glowing hand up to her daughter's head, making the trybrid whimper as it clearly wasn't pleasant, but it was needed. "And my daughter cares for you a great deal, so healing you would also be healing her - You can feel her worry."

"No," she said quite blankly. She could not afford to be distracted any more than she already was with Saoirse and Amos here. "You really think a family of seraph would care for what I am doing right now? Do you honestly believe none of my relatives would even hesitate to strike down Belial for what he has done?" There were clear answers to both. Her choosing Baal hadn't changed what was in her relatives heart. She just had to prove them wrong at the end of the day.
Buffy was a family oriented person, she always had been, but her family had also never been shy of excluding her from seraph only events. She had often just been at home with her father or a nanny while her family was off to gatherings. But Amos wouldn't understand regardless. He only cared for Saoirse, so there was no need for a sob story. "It's better this way, and even though you hate it right now, I promise you it won't stay like this forever," she said, removing her hand from her daughter. She was doing better, she could feel it. "Now, let me wrap your hand properly," she said, approaching him with a calm demeanor, and she wasn't taking no for an answer.

"Yeah I thought so," he said in a lowered tone like he hadnt expected a different answer. He could definitely reason with her family now then, they at least agreed on Baal being a threat more than a solution. He shook his head as she seemed to be so adamant that things were better this way. He definitely did not agree with her on that at all. He would have guessed that she wanted to help him with his hand regardless and got up as she started approaching him. He felt forced up into a corner and if she really wanted to approach him any further, he saw no other option. Grabbing a piece of broken mirror that he had wrapped in cloth from his back pocket, he swung out for her if she got too close. "I said I'm fine!" he yelled angrily.

She kept approaching him and as he swung with his makeshift weapon she was lucky it only cut her cheekbone. Blood started trickling down her face, and the hurt in her eyes were clear. "Amos, it's alright, you don't have to be afraid of me," she said, but he wasn't the one bleeding from his face. Reaching out she grabbed his hand that held the glass, managing to loosen his grip until he dropped it. She kicked the glass away in to another corner as she looked at him. She cared little for the fact that she was hurt, and it was as if this was a true glimpse of the Buffy from before, so adamant on helping others she didn't care if she got hurt in the process. "I'll only clean it and wrap it," she promised him.
If he still resisted she would simply have to do it fast, because he needed it before he would get hurt further. While the cleaning wasn't perfect, she held him in place as she wrapped his whole hand before releasing him. The blood on her cheeks had dried, and it looked almost like golden flecks were in it. "I won't tell anyone about the little weapon you made - But perhaps consider something safer to carry around than glass," she said before she walked over to her daughter. She was almost done for today, and the last thing she wanted her to wake up to was her mother bleeding all over the place. "She's waking," she said, leaving the room rather fast.

Saoirse could hear the commotion, but it was almost like a dream so far away. And as she was finally waking up, her eyes started flickering from the bright light that would disappear as soon as she sat up. "Amos?" she said, her voice a little dry, but she couldn't feel him near her.

She had planned to just head straight to their room, washing it up and hopefully get it to heal a bit before Baal saw her. But alas, he seemed to know just how to time it. His demanding words barely phased her.
"I cut myself on the pages of a book, it's really nothing to worry about," she said calmly, reaching out to take his hand in hers. She looked at him with a light smile, although it was stinging a bit to stretch the apples of her cheek like that. "I guess clumsy isn't just a fenix trait, it's a me trait," she chuckled.

Saoirse sat up slowly, but the words spoken to her made her frown, her eyes looking betrayed. Wasn't he the one saying that they shouldn't trust what her mother was saying? "No, please Amos ... You can't deny me that too," she pleaded in defeat, reaching out to take his covered hand. "She's just playing with you to drive us apart," she said, getting off the table and stumbling a bit until she felt him catch her. Her body was still rather weak. "All I feel when you hold my hand is relief ... maybe she's just jealous that you are helping me heal where she can't."

It didnt really make sense that she had cut her cheek this deep on a page, but as suspicious as he was, she probably wasnt going to tell him. He was far too easy to aggravate as it was. "Clumsy, hm?" he repeated, but he just grabbed a firmer hold of her hand before he led her to their room. Once inside he let go of her hand and made a small sigh. He had been quite busy today, but there was definitely something on his mind. "They are not too happy with the destruction of their sacred articles. Which means that we are losing the favour of a small portion of them," he explained, looking at the mural that he had had them destroy at some point. He looked at Buffy with a small frown. "We have to be very careful now, which is why they cant see you bleed, my light" he said as he reached up to carefully touch her cheek, looking at the cut with an analyzing gaze.

Her plea was hurtful but couldnt she see that he only wanted to do what was best for her? He wanted to pull his hand away from her, not wanting her to be near the infection but he let her take the bandaged hand. Was that really just Buffy's intention? He really wanted to believe Saoirse but he was also conflicted, because he had seen how Buffy had only done anything to keep the trybrid alive, and how she was willing to get hurt to tend his infected finger. "... I'm tired of dealing with their bullshit and these mindgames Saoirse. Cant we just run away and go to the temples? I'm sure the clergy can help you just the same," he then said after keeping quiet for a bit.

Following him she stood in their room, but as he reached out to touch her cheek she just sighed. She knew he could see it wasn't from a piece of paper, but saying who and what might create more tension. Amos had only reacted this way because she was pushing him. "I'll patch it up," she promised, walking over to a dresser where a small mirror was. The cut was clean, so she didn't worry about getting a scar from it. Cleaning up the blood, she placed some tape along it, just to keep the skin safe and not risk any sort of infection.
"I need to know what is going on in your head, my love; Your sudden need to destroy imagery of the daemon god intrigues me," she said as she had cleaned up, returning to him and taking his hand. He was frustrated, she could feel his annoyance in the air.

"I want to run away with you, I really do ... But I wouldn't make it long, and while we are still on the same continent, Raleska is far from here," she said, looking at his neatly wrapped hand. Had her mother done this? It looked like it, but she wondered what was going on with her. Breathing out, she leaned her head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat calm her down. She felt the most content when she was just close to him, as if her body just relaxed completely and the pain subsided for a while. "Besides I think my father would rather kill me than let me escape," she mumbled.

The way he touched her hand was soothing but what he had to say was risky. Not that she didn't support it, hell she loved the idea, but the risk that it was. How he could lose the support of those who actually needed this change. "It's a big decision, " she said calmly, looking at their hands pressed together palm to palm. "But ultimately I believe that destroying the temple might only work symbolically, " a small frown on her brow as she thought it through. The daemons took great care of their temple, but they didn't only operate out of there, as she had seen Alyssa speak of multiple locations.

Feeling his hand rub her back made her sigh, her posture was fine, but he just made it feel more natural. The notion about negative things made her shrug."I guess not ... But we could go for a little walk and talk about some good things?" She suggested. Her walks with Amos at this point were one of the only things that made her feel somewhat normal, even if she got tired

"I think you underestimate the power of symbolism on it's own. Even if every cult has their own place somewhere hidden in this city, the rest of the world is not aware of that fact. They only see the temple, and if that is destroyed, that alone could be a culminating point for the daemon race," he explained, walking over to the table that they had, sitting down to grab a scroll and spread it out. He looked at it for a bit in silence before he sighed and leaned back, resting his marked hands on the table. "There's only one thing that worries me. I'm getting weaker," he then said, looking at the map for a bit before he looked at her. It was definitely a bad sign, but he wasnt sure what they could really do about it. It had partly been a reason for his lack of patience because the timing couldnt be worse.