A Beauty With Barriers

                                    

                                          
"Do you happen to know where the temple of Nut is?"
The Sylph's face fell. "I'm sorry, I do not. I only go by aura signatures, not landmarks," he explained. "And I would help if I could, but my Air Stole has been stolen, and I'm grounded!"
"Your what has been stolen?" Mateo wondered aloud.
"My Air Stole," Shael elaborated. "It's an elemental-infused fabric that allows Sylphs to fly. If I could still fly, I would have sought out the temple for you. But, as it stands, I have the miserable task of having to create a stole from scratch. That takes many months, sometimes even a whole year!"
::
The door opened silently, and Viktor poked his dark-haired head in. He'd been fussing about, nearly expiring of curiosity, until Gin had snapped at him and thrown him out of his own kitchen with a tray of drinks and snacks. Viktor would have been more put out if it hadn't been a marvelous idea.
"I brought refreshments," Viktor announced proudly, holding up the tray and nearly dumping the glasses when he caught sight of a certain blue-eyed Sylph leaning one well-shaped bun against the side of a table and looking generally delectable.
"I thought you were bringing them a Tome?" Farshael questioned, his gaze automatically drawn to the oldest vampire in the room. "Either way, I've delivered my message. The Gods have surely blessed me for the purple aura'd men to have been led here. I thank you sincerely, Viktor."
Mateo barely managed to keep himself from gagging aloud at the sound of such flowery praise falling from the Sylph's lips in regards to someone like Viktor. But, Pax tilted his head slightly as his thoughts raced. Just what could be going on between those two?
"No thanks are necessary, Shael," Viktor said quickly, wondering why his cheeks felt warm. Was he blushing? He hadn't blushed for a rather long time. It wasn't an entirely pleasant sensation. "I'll fetch the book immediately," Viktor continued, setting down the tray on a low table. "Please, help yourself. I won't be long."
The grey-eyed vampire was gone before the drinks stopped sloshing in the glasses.
Mateo leaned over to whisper to January. "Is he sick, or something?"
Confusion could easily be read in the redhead's purple eyes, as well. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was," January admitted. "But, we shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth."
"Agreed," Pax added. He glanced over at the Sylph. "Shael, you said you can see auras...can you see your own?"
Farshael shook his head. "I can only see the auras of the people I need to deliver a message to. It's a gift from the gods so that we don't deliver a message to an impersonator," he explained. "I see no other auras until the following mission."
"That's really cool," Matt said, snitching a cookie from the tray. "What color's mine?"
"Aside from Mr. January," he began. "The five of you are a vibrant purple with different outer 'flames' flickering. Yours is a deep red. Mr. Pax's is a golden yellow. The three that aren't here have green, blue, and orange, respectively."
January frowned. "Do I not have another color?"
"Double purple," Farshael pointed out. "If the base aura's already purple, and your personal 'flavor' is purple, then it will simply blend into the hue."
"Why purple?" Mat asked in curiosity. "Does it mean something? And do mates usually have the same main color?"
"Yes," Farshael replied with a smile. "Mates usually have the same main color. That is quite right. A purple aura generally means a strong sense of perseverance and a vital spirit."