Louis sat beside her with a glass of scotch in his hand. With the other hand, he touched her shoulder lightly (his hand warm against the coolness of the silk), calling her attention. "Kay?" He was now curious, but he knew that she'd just tell him if she wanted.
"Tell me... Louis .... Do you believe in things that Terran science can't explain ? In sorcery ?", Kay asked, her voice so small as to be almost unheard, "On the surface it was very festive indeed. All the right trimmings were there -- a bountiful buffet that I was too nervous to sample, folks all dressed up in their fancy clothes, live music and alot of dancing".
She sighed, then continued, words tumbling out like a flood. "But just as I was starting to wonder if my paranoia was unjustified, all hell broke loose. Dark-souled ones came out of hiding, ... one of them was disguised as a guardsman and was apparently after the guest of honor, the vai domna Alar-Lanart --- or so I heard ... and I think they attacked the host dom Elhalyn as well, he looked as though he'd been struck by either sorcery or poison ... a man lost his life chasing another of them ... and some foul sorcery hit my new sister, though there were no visible signs of any attack --- and it BIT me when I reached out to her ".
Kay shook her head in confusion. "I don't understand ... back home, a party really IS a party ... and folks can relax and have a good time ... nobody gets HURT, and nobody DIES ... it's just not RIGHT ... ". She sighed again, then demanded angrily "Are all these lowland nobles completely taken by madness ? Is this some sort of a Zandru-bedamned GAME to them -- that party guests try to kill each other and the host ?"
Louis licked his lips, trying to find something to say. "I...I don't really know what to say...Sorry, I'm a pediatrician, not a psychologist." He gently touched her hair. "You asked me if I believe in sorcery...I guess the honest answer is 'I don't know'. There are some things we can't deny."
Kay reached out a hand to take the glass he was holdng out, then noticed that her glove wasn't very clean any longer. There were distinct sticky spots marring the smoothness of the silk. That second firi (the one she'd grabbed on her way out) must have spilled without her noticing. With a frown of distaste, Kay muttered "What a mess", quickly stripped off the offending glove and roughly shoved it into the top of one of her boots.
The drink was drained in a single gulp -- not a polite way to treat good alcohol, but she was past caring (or even noticing) such things. And when Louis reached for the empty glass with his free hand, long, slender bare fingers wrapped coldly around his forearm and tightened to hold him near.
"By Bright Brighid's blessed bones !", Kay exclaimed in desperate frustration, leaning forward and staring him full in the face with ferocious intensity, "I wish there was some way to SHOW you ... to make you understand ...". Her hand tightened on his arm, the knuckles beginning to turn white from te force of her grip.. Without fully realizing what she was doing, Kay lowered her own barriers just enough to PUSH the pictures in her head at him the same way she had done with Melissa. Just enough of a nudge to catch his attention enough that he'd be able to SEE for himself if he was willing to look.
Louis almost jumped in surprise and consternation when he felt it. For a moment, he COULD see/hear/feel (as if it was a dream) what Kay hadn't had the words to explain. He didn't want it to stop.
Kay had been expecting to communicate with Louis the same way as she did with Melissa. She certainly hadn't been expecting her *push* to be met with a *grab-and-pull* sensation that washed over her with all the strength of a tidal wave. She instinctively tried to pull back and felt her self-control slipping. THIS wasn't what was suppossed to happen. Calling upon the last of her energy reserves to try to avoid either of them getting hurt, Kay determinely focused her fading strength on powering her "panic button" trick of breaking the connection by grounding the energy.
Before Louis could think straight, he heard Kay saying something.
"OH !", came a soft cry of pain-shocked-surprise from between Kay's lips as the contact between them snapped. Then she fell limply against the back of the seat like a marioette whose strings had abruptly been cut, and sleep claimed her in little more than a second later.
Louis quickly caught her before she could slide onto the floor, more out of instinct than anything else. It seemed to him that she had merely fainted from exhaustion. Trying to ignore the dull ache in his head, he laid her in his bed and took off her boots. Seating himeself in the armchair, he tried to figure out what had just happened. He had been seeing the images in her head. But HE hadn't lost control this time, and certainly he hadn't done it on purpose.
It could only mean one thing. *She has it as well! Not a great surprise, now that I think about it. Didn't she say her ancestors were Darkovan? Well, I'd better get some sleep now. I'll talk to her tomorrow.* Within minutes his tiredness took the best of him and he snored softly.