Fate's Delusions: Why are you haunting me? [Completed]

[Delirion]

The smoky-looking orange sky roiled and tumbled overhead, and inky black patches lay in the folds of the clouds, shifting, coiling, and undulating as the clouds, still stained on their undersides by a newly risen sun, writhed in the sky above and flinched and shuddered as they begot drunken-appearing lightning that staggered down through the murky air to strike savagely at the charred ruins of Vader's castle.

The rain was falling from the sky in a thunderous roaring, to cast a sulphurous smell into the murky air, and each drop of the acid substance seemed to burn away the earth and stone, eating away through layers of bitter earth on an eternally destructive path down to the very core of the planet.

Delirion lay silent upon the smoke-blackened stone, her face bathed in the fiery light from the sky and periodically glowing dead white in the intense flashes of the stuttering lightning. The lethal tendrils struck the stone all around her, and the earth seemed to soak up the static energy like a ravening beast, leaving white currents running ecstatically over the coarse stone.

Nothing seemed to touch her. Rain and lightning could not take hold of her, devour her like the earth. An almost placid smile stood etched in her still features, like a deathlike mask.

A sense of extreme tension and expectation surrounded her inert body. She lay waiting.

Then finally, out of the scornful skies one single white tendril of lightning snaked its way towards her, and the lethal electricity struck her - almost tentatively, almost afraid.

PAIN!!!! the hot white agony of the electric currents coursed through every vein in her body, filling every cell, burning muscle, making her blood boil! It was almost unbearable, but she would need to do this.

Cutting off the sensory flow from her over-charged nerves, she falls within her own mind, looking deep into her own self and beyond.

http://delirion.clanpages.com/del/Del_green.jpg
<font face=Times New Roman color=#cc9933 size=2>[<font color=#ffffff>Delirion's Lab</font> (http://pub48.ezboard.com/fsuicidalthoughtsfrm2)] [<font color=#ffffff>Send IM</font> (aim:GoIM?ScreenName=Nya+Halcyon)] [<font color=#ffffff>The Black Hand</font> (http://pub47.ezboard.com/btheblackhand23755)]</font>

[Delirion]

Cutting through her veins like a sharpened knife, blood boils like fire, unrelenting, unresisting, uncaring to quell the unending agony inside.

Her thoughts breaking through untouchable walls, snaking like invisible tendrils through memories of a past unforgettably denied. Odd snatches of flickering memories here and there, her own forceful will driving them on and on through a long tunnel, by the power of her will alone crushing and brushing them out of the way until finally nothing remains.

Searching for something. Searching for the thin smoky strand of memory that is the last remaining memory that connects her to her old master.

<font color="#c0c0c0">Why are you haunting me? What have I done, that makes me deserve this misery? Is it only revenge you seek? Do you not realize the damage you had done to me already, before you chose to inflict your own agonised clutching for the last whisps of your fleeting life? Why did it have to be me?</font>

She recoils from the thought that suddenly imposed itself upon her will. She knows, she knows oh so well why she does deserve this fate. Was it not herself who was responsible for his death? What use was therefore trying to deny her involvement? The guilt drove her on every day, made it possible for another day to live in this universe, no matter how hard she tried to escape it, to find some way out, to flee the agony of her twisting mind.

The truth hurt, and it was not something she wanted to have to face. She remembered the undescribable agony as she had suddenly come to realise after his death that without him, there was precious little of herself left to live on.

Now she could feel his every waking sane moment of thought drifting into her mind, as she touched the thin strand connecting their minds. She could feel his probing spirit sort through her memories, searching, searching evermore for the moment in her personal history which, when she would be faced with it, would break her again and again, make her succumb to his frail and shaken mind.

[Delirion]

-----Several hours later-----

Like a black spectre, she crouched in the shadow of her massive ebony chair that was standing at the darker side of the hall. Her chair with its intricate carvings was the only piece that furnished that dark and gloomy hall, through which a chill wind seemed to breeze. The cold felt almost solid... palpable.... and cloying and heavy it took the warmth from the flickering fire of the torches and the glowing embers upon the fireplace up with it to swirl it away in a biting breeze.

The frail, deathly-pale figure huddled between the armrests of the massive chair trembled like an autumn leaf in the wind. Thin black strands of her long hair fell into her face, as she sat curled up with her arms around her knees, her aching head rested on her arms.

She was weeping.

Nothing remained from the brief brush with one of nature's elements - the fire that had boiled within her veins had silently abated, bled off into nothingness, leaving only a dreadful black emptiness inside.

There was no memory left in her of what had happened in the moments after lightning had struck her. She tried to think back, tried so hard, but her actions made no sense to her now. What had been her intentions? Why had she played with her own life in such careless ways?

'How do I know that my own death is but so near? Is then this what crazed Adalric cursed upon me? My death? Foretold? Am I to follow him, walking limply into my own death there to meet him on another plane to another fight, so the victor can remove his spirit from that plane unto the next?'

She closed her tear-stained eyes for a long moment, seeing, for the first time in so many weeks, her own death stand before her. Death became her - she looked healthier in death as she did in life Then Death stretched out a beckoning hand, and with a welcoming smile, silently asked her to approach. All she had to do was stretch out her hand... to take that pale white one of her own deathly reflection---

'Is this what thou intendest, Brandl?'

Death was not so dear to her... not yet. It was her time to wait. To wait out the shadows until death overtook her in an uncertain moment. And then she would be ready for Death.

[Delirion]

Sleep did not come natural to her anymore. Her dreams were haunted by the anguished faces of her past, and she did not wish to be confronted by them.

But her life was running on borrowed time, and the future did not not have as tight a grasp on her as the past had. Lulled by her tired spirit, and her aching soul, she slipped into a state of half-dream, half-nightmare as the past, the terrible, painful imagery of her old life, revisited her; falling deeper and deeper into a never-ending abyss of a life that had never come to be...


<font color="#cc9933" face="Times New Roman">“Nya! We’re going over to the station for the meeting. Will you be alright?”
Her mother’s voice sounded distant, hollow; she didn’t bother replying. Again she looked at herself in the mirror, critically re-arranging a lock that had strayed from the elaborate hair-style she had so painstakingly laboured over for the past hour.
‘If only I had dark hair,’ she thought, and sighed. ‘Light hair just doesn’t look serious enough.’ Dark brown or black – that had a certain dramatic flair, but light, nearly white blond? It just looked ridiculous.
For Nya Thyan, having a dramatic flair was very important. Her biggest ambition was to become an actress – not one of those silly holodrama stars, but a real actress, on a real stage. Of course, none of the grown-ups wanted to take her, at 12, seriously – they all just patted her on the shoulder, and looked at her with a look she interpreted correctly as “Sure, sure, young Nya – a gift for acting will come handy in the trading business one day; don’t we all have it? You’ll be a fine help to your parents one day.”
Ach! How she hated them – all those fools squandering their time and money day in and day out on things they thought someone would be eager to buy up from them some day. No, she had no intention of ever becoming like them.
A more important question for her right now was how to procure the costume she would need for tonight’s rehearsal. Sure, her parents had never made a big deal out of her using whatever she could come across on the ship, but they shrugged any of her demands for new costume material off, not taking her ‘little infatuation’ with the theatre serious at all.
“Nya! Did you hear me calling you?”
Her mother stood at the door to her quarters, with a saddened look that did not hide her annoyance of being so completely ignored.
Nya monotonously replied, “Yes, mom. I’ll be fine, don’t you worry.”
Her mother stepped up behind her and put her arms around her. Nya looked at her own and her mother’s reflection in the mirror before her. Thin lines furrowed her mother’s forehead, small wrinkles surrounding her mouth and eyes. Her mother’s face looked old, prematurely aged far beyond her real age. She had not been young when Nya had been born, but it was as if every sorrow, every pain she had ever had to suffer was etched onto her face. ‘Her eyes look dead,’ Nya thought, and touched her mother’s arms.
A rare smile touched her mother’s frail face, as she began to brush over Nya’s hair softly with one hand. “Don’t wear that awful cream on your face, my darling – you are far too young to need it. I doubt you ever will…” her voice trailed off, as her eyes lost focus in the mirror.
Times like this made Nya wonder what had happened to her parents in the past to make them cause so much pain and sorrow. For both of them wore that same look, the same grieved expression on their faces whenever they were alone or something reminded them of past times. They hid it well in company, they laughed and joked along with everyone else, shared stories and the latest gossip from Imperial Center, but afterwards, in the private sanctum of the family’s starship, the mask would fall, to reveal faces where every trace of grief, of guilt, of remorse and pain was written clearly. It was a sadness that Nya could not understand, a sadness the reason for which she had never been told.
Her mother’s hand brushed once more over Nya’s hair, trembling slightly. “Please don’t make a mess again like the last time, Nya – promise me? You know how upset your father gets if you do.”
Nya nodded at her mother’s face in the mirror, and squeezed the hand she was still holding. “I promise,” she said, softly.
Her mother kissed her on the top of her head then, and with a last quick embrace, said goodbye. As she walked toward the door, Nya could hear her long dress trailing on the carpeted floor.
“Mom?” she called out, as her mother reached the door.
With a weary sigh that betrayed her thoughts, her mother turned around. “Yes?”
The expression on her face showed so much weariness, so much gentle forbearance that Nya for once decided to leave any more requests for a new cloak to another time. She did not want to add to her mother’s pain by asking for something she knew her mother would have to deny her again.
“Take good care of yourself and dad over there.” She finally said, smiling gravely.
Her mother returned her smile, a look of grateful surprise on her face. Then she turned around and left.</font>

Even in sleep, the trembling overtook her, her entire body convulsing, and she blindly raised a trembling hand out, to call the shadows of her own past to hold her once more, to forgive, to lead her away from this dreadful dark and emtiness that held her captive so much. But the security of her past was never to return to her now, and even as she wished she could escape her fate, a great cry full of anger at the unrelenting forces tugging at her escaped her blood-less lips.

Her body slipped from the cold ebony smoothness of the seat that held it, and she sank upon the ground before the great chair, where she lay curled up in death-like sleep, twitching now and then, as the images spun and twisted before her eyes, but the clarity of that one moment of her old life never returned to her again.

[Adalric Brandl]

Life was nothing. Even death was nothing. Not now. Not ever. Although death had its advantages.

It wasn't like he was tied to one place anymore - he could go wherever he wanted to. As long as he could make his little girl go there. Of course, it had its restrictions.

But that WOULD COME TO AN END. Soon. Soon he would make her see that this life was nothing, that she would only find a way out of this prison her mind put her in, by following him into death.

Adalric's ghostly voice cackled inside Delirion's head.

She was talking to the stones, wasn't she? Well, the stones would have a different song to sing when she woke up this time... he would see to that.

Something was being changed. Slowly, the texture and material of the air around Delirion was subtly altered. Adalric hoped that this was enough.

He would know soon.

http://www16.brinkster.com/delirion/Adalric3.jpg

[Jeseth Cloak]

For once, the halls stood silent outside the room where Jeseth dwelled. He had grown accustomed to the subconscious whispers, ignoring them, drawing off them, even fighting them (at times)... but it was different now.

Even outside of this occurrence, there were other things...

Delirion always seemed to be chased or haunted by something. His dreams were now usually of that strange aura that seemed to pursue her, and he would come to wonder if they were not her dreams he was seeing. On several occasions, he had attempted to seek this thing out, but it would flee from his probing senses. Rane, however, had simply been locked away in his quarters as always. It was nothing out of the ordinary, as solitude - if not rage - seemed to be his closest companion.

A cold breeze kissed Jeseth's neck, causing him to shudder as the candles in his study died in whisper of smoke. His slender fingers ran down across the broken pages of a book he held, then slide around the binding and clamped it shut, placing it back into his bookshelf. He needed to talk to someone. He was going made. Surely that's what it was; Just pure and simple madness.

The voices talk to Delirion... She'll have to know something about it.

Moments later the door to his study clicked shut behind him, several beeps indicating a successful activation of the security system.

[Delirion]

<font color="#cc9933" face="Times New Roman">--staring down at the hand on the ground, half hidden by the black material of the curtain. The fingers clutching emtpy air, spasmic trembles running through blue veins underneath an almost translucent skin. The ring on the little finger sparkled with blue incandescent rays as it caught the light of the dim spotlights above.

And again, in the dream, the little ring with the green gem slipped off the finger that lay so still suddenly, and infinately slowly, rolled towards her own feet with a whispering metallic sound, then came to lie before her as her eyes had followed its every move. Catching the full light from above, it blazed in a blinding flash at her eyes, searing her vision, burning her soul, blackening her heart.

The ring on her mother's finger.

She stepped back, unable to comprehend what she saw before her. And as she did so, the sword she held slid back through the black material, and Nya stared with eyes unseeing at the red blood the cloth had not managed to wipe off completely. The sword fell with a heavy clatter to the ground as her slender wrists could not hold such weight; almost like thunder, it fell, the perfect companion of the ring's lightning fire.

A red sea of blood seeped through the heavy curtain, flowing forward with seeming hunger to drown out the gold and green light of the ring--</font>

An icy chill ran down her spine, sharp pain hammering through her skull. She dug her fingers into the ground, and it seemed almost as if the stone underneath her skin was giving away.

She could feel herself falling, falling deeper, yet there was nothing but the rough stonework of the ancient floor underneath her. It seemed warm to her, welcoming her.

Darkness enfolded her once again.

"Nya?"

It seemed to come from far away, a voice that was both ethereal and real.

Light seeped in through her eyelashes, and as Delirion opened her eyes, she saw the shadow of a person standing there.

A small person. A child. Yet was it just a shadow? A figment of her crazed dreams? Was she seeing herself?

A soaring noise swept through her mind, building in volume until she heard a bright, violent cackling.

MASTER!

Yet the hollow laugh ebbed away, to be replaced once again by a thin voice.

"Nya?"

Delirion opened her eyes, to see the shadow melting into the firm outline of a child. Yet this was no ordinary child, and she remembered now.

Raising herself up on her elbows, her head throbbing with agony, she tried to make sense of where she was. Tried to call upon the familiar song of the stones that teemed with the Dark Side energy.

There was no reply.

A silent crackling disturbed the silence... a crackling that rose to a loud cracking crescendo, its tearing noise echoing through her mind. A jolt of pure malevolence shot through her from her palms upward, riding through her veins, bringing her blood to boil, seeping through her nerves up into her brain. There it tore like like lightning into her mind, a terrible brilliance blinding her from the inside, to leave nothing but the hollow darkness she had forever feared.

Delirion collapsed back onto the ground, but the stone beneath her did not welcome her this time. Her body felt cold against an icy surface.

"NYA!"

[Jeseth Cloak]

Nya? Who in the devil is Nya..?

Jeseth grasped the child's shoulders as she attempted to run forward, Delirion's body striking against the stones. How splendid that just as he decide to drop it, there happened to also be another unpleasant interruption.

The girl clung to him for a moment before he pushed her away gently, calming her with a flowing change of facial expressions. She stood back as Jeseth began to edge towards Delirion’s body. He put his hands against her neck and wrist to feel for the beating of life within her, but all he sensed was cold and emptiness.

Wake up, Delirion.

He couldn’t even make sure she would here him - Not until her next coarse of action, anyway; Delirion scrambled upwards and to her feet, shoving Jeseth to the ground and knocking the child out of the way. The Dark Jedi growled as he rose up from the floor, chasing after her. He followed her down the corridors, their panting becoming synchronized. Where the blazes was she going?!

I've had enough of these childish games!

[Delirion]

<font color="#cc9933">"Take this, my child - this is your punishment, your doom. What strengthened you once, what gave you sustenance, is now gone, and you shall not find it again, for as long as you walk these halls. Take this, my revenge, upon you, for as long as you live!"</font>

Again and again, Adalric's words to her as she lay on the ground, tore through her mind, until she could stand it no more, could hear it no more.

She had to get out, had to get away, had to get him out. Yet there was no way. All she had tried in the past, to rid herself of him, had not brought her anything - and had ultimately led to feeding his hatred of her.

'I have brought this on myself. Yes. It is my own fault. Had I not tried to sever the bond he has with my mind, he would not have seen it necessary to exact this punishment. It is my own fault.'

Suddenly it seemed so clear, so perfectly clear to her.

She didn't want this life. She didn't need to live. There was nothing holding her back, nothing keeping her in this life. And she was so weary, so tired, so... lifeless.

Why live, when all she did brought pain and suffering not only to herself, but also to those around her? Why live, when death had so much more to offer - a way out, an end to this pain.

At the back of her mind, Adalric filled her thoughts with manic laughter at her sudden decision.

She ignored him, for now. She ignored the child, and Jeseth who had come, and got up from the ground and ran towards the place she longed to be. Behind her, she could hear, could feel Jeseth, but he would not stop her this time.

'Do not follow me, my brother, for you cannot follow me to where I wish to go. Stay away, Jeseth, leave me be. It is all for the best.'

The spiral stair-case was narrow, and led up high into the one remaining tower of the castle. No torches lent light to the strenuous climb, yet Delirion did not need light. Her feet carried her automatically higher and higher up, an inner eye leading her on.

Then, finally, she stood high up on the tower, at the edge of the wall, overlooking the ash pits and red flowing lava-streams that made up Vjun. The air seemed even thinner, an eerie wind brushing through her hair, through her cloak.

She looked into the ebbing red sky with tears standing in her eyes, and raised her fists against the roiling clouds.

"Mad Adalric, knoweth with this that thou hast reached thy goal. I will join thee in death, yet knoweth that as my spirit shalt perish, so shalt thine, and this be thine second death. Thus do I triumph over thee, even in the death that thou hast wished me to find."

Then she stepped forward, over the edge.

[Lasitus Tielle]

<font color=orange>NYEH! NYEH! NYEH!

[i]The yell sounded through the corridors. Disturbed in his quiet meditation, Lasitus growled. If this was that little girl again...

He stood. Translating the nyeh into no, he began prancing down the stairs. But... what was that? That black figure, all alone? The figure itself was too far for Lasitus' weary eyes too see, but the monolith shadow revealed it was a woman.

Delirion!

He ran to the palisade, placed his hands on it and sprung over. Running, testing his legs to the maximum, he moved forwrard, in what seemed ever so slow.

And she stepped over the edge.

Everything, slow motion, in strobe as Lasitus blinked, blinked, blinkedblinkedblinkedblinkedblinked!

With a sickening crunch, she hit the ground hundreds of feet below.</font>


Lasitus' eyes popped open and he jerked into a rigid posittion. He was bathed in sweat.

Oh no... it wasn't a dream. It couldn't be a dream. There she was again, a black effigy, looking over the edge. And Lasitus knew it was hopeless.

Yet... He couldn't leave her for dead. He stretched his hands over his head, then, keeping one up to serve as a force lightening rod, of sorts, he extended his right horizontily. Slowly uncurling his clenched fist, he stretched, taxing his body of the force as he prepared for a powerful blast of telekenesis.

Then, the moment came! She jumped. Throwing his other arm horizontil, he flung the blast forward, hoping that the blast could work over such a range.

It hit her, and hard in the gut. Trembling, he let the bond slide all across her body, and he shakily motioned her back towards the tower. Slowly, ever so slowly, she floated there, and he laid her to rest on the cold stone.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth picked up Delirion's half-stunned body, cradling her in his arms.

Damn it Delirion... You have to stop doing this. I won't be around to save you forever... and neither will any of the others.

Jeseth took a deep breath, looking down at her. The child was close by now... he sensed her. Why was child here so quickly?

Don't try to move, just think to me.

The Dark Jedi tilted his head, then looked to Lasitus and nodded a thank you quickly, his wings bursting forth in a geometric display of mastery. Jeseth took to the skies quickly, carrying the sleeping woman who he would not allow to die.

[Jeseth Cloak]

<font size=1>______ Moments Later ______ </font>

Jeseth placed Nya down onto the large couch that often doubled as a bed within Jeseth's study. He waved his hand, the room illuminating dimmly as several half-melted candles flickered to life. Several of them died out again, only to bflash back to life even more brightly under Jeseth's sudden glare. He focused his attention to Delirion, who had only moments ago attempted to seal her own fate. Did she think he would allow her to go?

Jeseth brought his wings closer against his back, hoping to relieve the pain; Sudden mid air acrobatics took a heavy toll on him.

"Nya..? Is that your name?"

Jeseth whispered as he watched her, wondering if she'd wake up tonight, or at all...

[Delirion]

Darkness. She had been falling, falling, but then the light came. Holding her, supporting her, carrying her with it towards an uncertain fate. She did not want to face the light, face the dark neither - she wanted to stay where she was, somewhere between that life and this death, hearing words spoken softly, unable to understand their meaning. Nothing but an unsteady whisper, neither scorn nor pity.

But then the memory of the last hours came back to her. She was still alive. Was still doomed to live this life, utterly alone. Yet... was she alone? From far away, the whispering seemed to come.

"Nya? Is that your name?"

She turned her head towards the source of the sound, slowly, and sent her weary senses outwards. Almost sure, she was, of who she would find, even with closed eyes. Almost sure, even if he hid his voice. Almost sure to find Jeseth standing there if she would only open her eyes.

'He. Has he saved me then? Saved me from the death I wanted?'

Bitterness seemed to choke her, made the words catch in her throat. Yet the anger she had wanted to direct at him, did not bleed over into her words. Instead, when she finally opened her eyes and met his own across the chamber, anger left her, seemed to change, to mutilate, into wonder.

"Why have you brought me here?"

There was something in his eyes she didn't understand, but it gave her comfort, made her feel warm. What was this?

[Jeseth Cloak]

"Because I don't trust you to sleep any where else tonight. I left the child in Rane's quarters for the time being. He seemed quite eager to take her anyway."

Why again?

She knew what he was reffering to, as his hands rested against her cheek in a comforting manner... and for a moment she thought to answer his questions. He seemed concerned, but in his own small way he had always seemed concerned for her.

[Delirion]

The child... yes, she had forgotten about it. It would be alright in Hob's care.

She looked up into Jeseth's eyes, and saw the concern in them for her. Maybe this brother of hers really did care what happened to her... yet why would he? Had she not pushed away any effort of his to watch over her, had she not paid back his trust in her by pushing him further away?She had no wish to let him or her brothers perceive how weak she really was, how tormented her mind was - so she had cast him aside again and again.

But as she now looked up into his eyes, what did she see in them?

"That was my name, before I became Delirion. I don't know why it was that I told the child to call me by this old name - it brings with it memories I do not wish to be reminded of. Yet... I do not tell her to call me by anything else."

She didn't know what had prompted her to whisper that to him, no more than she knew what made her reach out with one hand and touch his face with her fingertips now.

[Jeseth Cloak]

He couldn't explain why her touch had suddenly shocked him, but now he stood motionless, staring at her for a moment, his face cast in the thick maw of shadows that formed between them. Directly behind Jeseth a single candle suddenly sparked and burned out, their lips meeting as he kissed her softly. A sister... no, she was no mere sister now. He could half expect her to murder him for what he had just attempted to do, but his mind was lost as his lips touched to hers, the link between them open, allowing thoughts to pass more freely.

[Delirion]

'What am I doing? What is happening to me???'

As their lips touched, she first wanted to shrink back, to wrap her hands around his throat and crush him for doing this to her, yet she felt helpless. Instead, her hands reached out, not to tighten around his throat, but to touch his face, to let them slowly stroke over his hair, to fold around his neck.

She found herself pulling him closer, giving in to his kiss, her lips touching his first tentatively, then with more force.

Her thoughts were a chaos, as the images of herself falling deeper and deeper from the tower, waiting to strike the earth, and the single image of herself in his arms returned again and again, switching faster and faster. She didn't know where her thoughts were, what they were - she had felt so cold, and lonely after the voices that had been ehr company for so long had suddenly deserted her; and now she was beginning to feel something she had never experienced before, warmth flooding into her veins, drowning out the bitterness.

The coiled snake of Adalric's spirit at the back of her head stirred at that thought.

[Jeseth Cloak]

He felt his kiss returned, the touch become more forceful as he pried at the part in her mouth, deepening their contact to each other. He should have seen this sooner... Why hadn't he? As his mind continued to come undone, Jeseth's arms slipped around her, pulling her slowly closer to him. He wanted this so much... but why? He'd never needed to revert to his primal needs in the past, he merely did whatever pleased him - whatever suited the situation - though here, this was not the case; He felt as if it was needed.

Why are we doing this..?

He felt a sudden stirring of emotions from within her, then spoke to her through his thoughts once again.

Don't stop.

[Delirion]

'Why are we doing this?'

The thought rang through her mind, yet she wasn't sure if it was her own thought or Jeseth's. She could feel her thoughts, her emotions, even, mirrored in Jeseth's mind.

She could feel his hands on her back, pulling her close, yet instead of the revulsion she would once have felt at the touch of another on her body, her body seemed to welcome his touch after a moment's hesitation.

As if this was what she needed.

'Don't stop.'

It had been him who projected the thought into her mind. She could feel then that he seemed to feel that need as much as she did. It drowned out the voice of reason.

<font color="#cc9933">BUT IT SHALL NOT DROWN OUT MINE, MY DAUGHTER! I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS!</font>

Her eyes that had been closed before, snapped open, to see Jeseth's eyes staring back at her, and she realised that he had heard the voice in her mind as well as she had.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth looked at her, wondering if that had been some manifestation of her own voice. yet it carried with it it's own aura of hatred... It had to be another...

"What is that?"

He moved to kiss her again, then stopped. She was afraid... or in pain? It was too hard to tell, his own feelings nearly relfecting those she had felt moments ago.

[Delirion]

'Afraid.. or in pain?'

Her fingers trembled against his skin. She seemed to drown in his eyes, seeing the same thoughts and feelings mirrored in them as she felt and thought. Her lips still almost touching his, she felt herself fall deeper into the abyss that Adalric opened in her mind. She knew he would not hesitate to control her every waking thought if she was not careful enough, and he had the ability to rive her into actions that were not her own.

Yet this time, when he struck, he did not strike at her, but through her, at Jeseth.

<font color="#cc9933">"SHE IS MINE, JESETH CLOAK - MINE, AND MINE ALONE. NO ONE SHALL POSSESS HER BODY BUT ME. AND MINE SHALL BE A TERRIBLE REVENGE IF YOU TRY TO GO AGAINST ME."</font>

The thought reverberated through her mind, and through it, into Jeseth's own thoughts.

And following that, by a mere split second, came stabbing pain as a white light seemed to be extending from the base of her skull. Running through her nerves, setting every part of her body alight in stabbing agony. Then an echo of the same pain flooded her mind.

In horror, she looked back at Jeseth and saw him wince. What was happening? Was he somehow experiencing the same?

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth closed his eyes, a sharp pain growing at the base of his skull. He had known what it was to have another's influence manifested within his consciousness, but this was different. It was more than a mere touch of minds...

<font color="#cc9933">"SHE IS MINE, JESETH CLOAK - MINE, AND MINE ALONE. NO ONE SHALL POSSESS HER BODY BUT ME. AND MINE SHALL BE A TERRIBLE REVENGE IF YOU TRY TO GO AGAINST ME."</font>

Thoughts and visions seemed to blur, his head shaking violent within. What was this?

Nya? What is this... thing?

Jeseth began to pull away from her, but his motions stopped in place. With a forced thought, the voice was shut out, echoes still traveling through his soul...

[Delirion]

Pain ran through her own body, was mirrored by that he felt himself. She could see it in his eyes.

But Adalric was wrong. Her body was hers, not his to make use of whenever he wished. He would make her suffer, he would try to make Jeseth suffer, but she could not stop what had begun between them.

And oddly, she did not care. Suddenly, her own will seemed powerful enough to override her own worst fears. She looked into Jeseth's eyes, and projected her thoughts as much at him as at Adalric.

That is nothing but an old fool who thinks to take revenge on me for his death. He thinks he can control me more than I can control myself - well, he is wrong. he shall not.

It was a strange thought, a new feeling, that overcame her as she felt Jeseth come to an understanding of her. Never had she said a word about the voice in her mind, never to anyone. The walls she had built around her mind had ever stayed high and strong, never even allowing her brothers a glimpse of what Adalric did to her. But now Jeseth knew. And it did not cause her pain to give away this secret, to this brother of hers.

Then the pain returned, stabbing deeply into her mind, into her body, running through her nervous system, making her twitch as she tried to cry out in her mind. Again she felt an echo of the same agony from him, could sense his pain.

Terrified, she backed away further, repelled him from her thoughts. He had to leave, had to break off the contact with her mind. Dangerous, this was - never should she have allowed anyone to know what was happening to her. It was her Adalric wanted revenge from, not Jeseth - if she did this, she would only draw him further into the mire of revenge and hate that Adalric was casting out beneath her feet.

Confusion reigned in her mind. She needed him, needed his company, was afraid of being alone - yet could not allow him to come near. If there was one thing she knew, then it was that he did not deserve to be drawn into this. He did not deserve to be punished for her own sins.

Hastily, she backed away further, away from his reach; she clutched the cloak she wore tightly around her, and looked back at him.

But there she stood. What should she say to him? How could she explain? It was but a moment ago she had felt triumphant, yet now...

She stood there, and looked back at him, trying with all her might to keep her mind closed towards him. Totally closed, as it had never been before, ever sine they had first set eyes on each other.

[Jeseth Cloak]

"Don't do this, Nya."

Jeseth stood up and walked towards her, his eyes dilated and fixed on hers. Adalric might have hurt him, but he didn't care. She had seen what dwelled in his mind, and pain was something that came and went to him with casual ease. He didn't worry for himself, but he worried for her. Why hadn't she come forward with it before, and asked for help? Jeseth would have gladly searched every volume of lore at his fingertips to find some resolution...

"If you run away now..."

His voiced trailed off. She knew what he was implying, just as well as he did. If she left now, Adalric won out in the end - but then again, how did Jeseth know that Adalric hadn't always won in the past? This was all different for him. He was shut out of her life again, as he had always been. His anger rose steadily, not so much with her or himself, but with the seemingly hopeless nature of the situation.

Damn it, Nya. Listen to me.

[Delirion]

The sense she got from him was growing weak. She could vaguely sense him imploring her to listen, but it was as if he was already receding into the distance, far away.

Her body trembled as she realised that that was how it would be from now on - if she wanted to save him as well as herself from Adalric's revenge, then could not allow him to be close, to sense her thoughts. Terror gripped her. She did not want this, did not want to leave him... but how could he understand?

How could she make him understand that she had no other choice?

She could not meet his eyes, could not make him see how much this hurt her. Somehow, he had to see that this was her own choice, not something she was forced into. He would understand that much more easily - would understand, even if he would not like it, that she would not accept more than his friendship.

The pain at the base of her skull throbbed dully. She looked back at Jeseth, and finally spoke, forcing her voice to sound neutral, cold, clinical,

"I am not running away - but I do not want the same thing as you do. I have let you see deeper into my mind and heart than anyone else - is that not enough for you? No, Jeseth - leave me be; I have no wish to be more than a sister to you."

In her mind, she heard the sinister cackling of Adalric; but the pain in her heart was worse than anything Adalric had done to her before.

Holding her head up high, she turned to leave.

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth watched as Nya stood there, her eyes struggling for composure. He knew she still betrayed her emotions, allowing the conflict within to rage on...

"Very well."

His eyes narrowed as he watched her, a cold and almost non-caring stare coming across to her. She couldn't understand what Jeseth was feeling, but in recent days it had all seemed to be tangled in threads of anger and hatred. He was changing... So was she.

"Do as you wish."

His back turned to her as he walked into a darkened corner of his study, the candles there blowing out, save one. Jeseth picked up a book, looking into it without bothering to read the words. Seconds later, the door closed behind Delirion, and the book feel to the ground, a single tear now adorning it's pages.

[Delirion]

<font size="6" color="#a0b0e0">THE END</font>