The first rays of morning light pawed at her eyelids, scrapping at them
like a torturous provocation, trying to pull her back from a nicer
place, a shrine of darkness within her unconsciousness, where her mind
was her own, free to delve into all the wonderful corners she liked to
seclude herself in. Though lately she had found she no longer craved
that seclusion, having now someone to share it with, right at that
moment Blaze just wanted to stay there and never come out, did not wish
to wake to that memory or that decision.
But no sooner did she decide to cling to slumber did her mind start waking, as if cruelly called to face the new day and with it remembrance of all that had happened the previous evening. She pulled the blankets of the bed over her head yet they sifted to her consciousness like an eerie mist creeping beneath a locked door, refusing to take no for an answer and finding a more stealthy way inside...
~
She had felt that call, the call to listen, to open up, to hear. She had expected Sveta’s weak frightened voice to whisper her pleas, beg for safety, for Blaze to keep her from harm again yet when it came it was a different voice entirely. Another mind surrounded hers; but it was not Sveta's. No. This was far darker. It held sense of a fully destructive power that was simply there to terrorize her, sending flashes of the young vampire's pain towards her mind. "Enjoy it. Know what you are doing to such a little vampire. A little blood sucker. Be merciful to her, walk in, and stake her. Remove her very existence. I am watching, albeit from far away. From Daeldrolm, to be more exact. And know that I am very much smiling...”
Blaze had staggered backwards, past Amante, dark eyes staring ahead she tensed as she dared to ask “Who are you?” in somewhat demanding tone. In an instant that invading presence became stronger and then suddenly, with the force of a battering ram the voice roared in horrendous magnitude. "THE SPYMASTER!"
Literally stumbling backwards Blaze felt the wall against her back, not even aware of little Fel entering the cave and Amante telling her to stay back. She was oblivious in that moment even to the blood that ran freely from the Delta’s arm, as he tried to distract her from her cold grip. She was listening only to that voice, seeking to bare its cold clutches and learn what she could as it continued. "Destruction and deceit in a bottle, my dear. The one who knows it all and enjoys the pain of others so much. The one who slammed Sygnet's head against those rocks, time and time again and then made sure I lured the vampire nearby her body by attracting her to the Crypts. She was the perfect puppet... And you can do nothing."
A dreaded cold laughter echoed through the presence now. "If you speak these words, they will think I am in you. And you will be in there, perhaps even with her. You believe me a parasite, but you are so mistaken, my dear...” the voice continued and it made her feel sick to her stomach, that sarcastic term of affection, reminded her so vividly of another tormented demon of times past. And yet it was like a switch had been hit, but there was no time to experience the foolishness...it all somehow seemed clearer...and only terrible for it. Her lips made to move, but she found the voice to be somehow right...what could she say?
Blaze sank down eyes still staring ahead, hand gripping her temples as the voice continued, she did not want to listen but she found she had to, whilst he spoke to her he left Sveta alone, or so she hoped. “Now do you wish this all to end...? All this suffering... all this pain... do you wish for it to end...think it hard, dear." Summoning defiance Blaze answered unspoken, directing each clear word in return "End her suffering, leave her be...just don't kill her...she’s died one death already, let her try for a life even if it must be wrapped in a cursed one...leave her be...she is weak, she cannot help you in here...she will not be freed"
Genuine amused laughter greeted her in response "Help me? She is the one that limits me. She is the only one with the skill to fight me. She was born with it, the only one in these lands to use her mind to try limiting my range. And for her trouble, I ensured that constant tragedy is in her way. To make her turn dark, I need the light to shun her. As you are doing right now. I never used her. I used everyone else."
"I do not shun her! I have tried to help her...though she does not hurt herself! I care about her, despite what she is!" Blaze spat back in defence, feeling her blood rage within her, eyes trained to Sveta’s crumpled form within the cells, seeing the blood ooze from her wounds, wounds inflicted by Nethya for a yet unapparent reason. "Tsk tsk" came the reply one said with a sinister smile Blaze could feel in deliverance. "Expose her arms, my dear. See the scars, see the lines. She did that to herself, for each time one of you blamed her for something. I suggested it to her, made it sound like it was her own idea. That is what she has done. As I have been doing with all of you. Simply suggestions, which seem your own mind. Now answer me. Do you wish all this to end...? And I mean all of this..?"
Blaze twitched, scent of Amante’s blood began to filter through, as such could never be kept from a vampire, no matter how distracted. The voice had hit her like a slap in the face with such words. Inwardly she retaliated, insisted her defence, outwardly she tasted that blood on Amante's arm and in anger she bit down hard, the thrill of impact swallowed aggressively a few times but then suddenly released grip of her bite, almost suffocating herself as she snarled in anger, a mouth full of blood snaked down her chin "YOU DARE BLAME US! YOU MADE HER DO THAT! YOU JUST SAID YOU DID! SHE KNOWS I UNDERSTAND FOR I DO IT TOO...TO MYSELF YOU SMART ASS BASTARD!" she yelled, aloud spitting blood everywhere and causing Amante to growl beside her, not even sure Blaze could see him.
"Fel...” came his voice commanding but not aggressive.”Go find Alpha please, or even Beta." Not sure he was strong enough to help her "She isn’t talking to us." That much was clear. "We need Alpha to steady her." Fel jerked and her pupils dilated as she smelt the sour odor of Sveta’s seeping blood filling her nostrils. It...Was horrible. A swift pain punched her in the chest and she hissed, her eyes never leaving Blaze and Amante as she swiftly backed out of the den and gulped in fresh air. "Alpha or Beta," she muttered, spinning on her feet and rushed down the hill, intent on the words Amante had said.
Wincing he reached out and gave a firm tug to Blaze's hair. "Pay attention! Focus on me! This is what Alpha warned about huh? Is it the shattered?" That was his first thought. "No one taught me how to centre you...but think on Alastair...think on your daughter...if your letting this thing get to you so easily Blaze you won’t be able to protect them. Stop letting it distract you. You’re fighting back verbally. It’s a mental thing, push back that way, build up a mental barrier like you can do with emotions...Do it!” he was of course unaware of the war of words that ranged unspoken between them. And she turned her wild eyes on him "ITS NOT CONTROLLING ME!" she yelled "It's boasting...." she spat gaze snapping to the door as Fel left as if looking out across to the castle "Always do those that seek power above their station boast...it makes them weak!" she sneered, blood boiling with insults. Still mention of her daughter was powerful thing and for the first time she looked at him properly.
"Then tell him to shut the fuck up and close the door in his face! You’re not helping anyone by just bitching with him. Close it off and start thinking properly!" he insisted. She held his gaze, fierce look in her eye before she turned back again "HOW DOES IT END?!" she demanded internally in that same stinging fury. And almost at once images poured into her mind, scenes that the spymaster had witnessed before. First was a glorious, golden city, many times bigger than the port, filled with thousands of people. "That was the Great City. Beautiful, no, my dear?" came the accompaniment. Then the picture changed, till it had become ruins; the streets lined with the dead. "And that is two weeks after I arrived. I will kill the vampire; you have already forfeited her life. And I will do so by manipulating the ones around her, and not even touching her. As I have always done. But to save more lives... There is a price."
Blaze was in an internal fury now that elevated above her own nature, infected by that deeper strain within her, hidden away and yet now awoken "What Price!?" she raged aloud forgetting where she was speaking "Why are you showing me this? Every detail you give me makes you more able to fail!"
The spymaster laughed again, just as coldly. "Because I enjoy my former successes. And wish to share them with you, my dear. The price... You shall obey all my words, for the duration of three days. That is all. Then I will leave." Narrowing her eyes Blaze near snorted "Obey you? I think not...you do not control me! I am free of that now...no one controls me again!"
"Then say good bye to that Vampire. Now. Say it, now, and spare her more agony. Kill her yourself. And say good bye to Sygnet. Shoep. Amante. Alastair. Your daughter... I will make you last on a long chain of deaths...” This caused Blaze to sneer "If you are so goddamn powerful then you would not need a little toy like Sveta...you would come out and do all yourself, not fearing blame or capture...still you skulk in shadow like they all do. You claim you can kill them all? That means you claim to be more powerful than Kain, than the dark lord, than the shattered one himself!" Again came the same dreaded laughter "Blaze, my dear... Look at her. Sveta is almost dead. In another ten minutes, she will be dead. And never again will she be comfortable, or happy, around any of you if you do save her. I have woven my trap for Sygnet. She will die soon. The list continues. You have spat in my face, Blaze. And for that, Sygnet's life is also forfeited. This is your last chance. Obey me, for three days, and maybe I will even let Sygnet live."
Still being goaded into an argument...Blaze managed to look desperately to Amante, feeling him still beside her "Help me Amante!" she whispered "I can't stop! He’s making me choose...what do I trust?!!" she asked him, not trusting herself to decide when it came to believing others lives were at stake. "You trust me" he said firmly. "You need to not think on it." And then he remembered Blaze saying if Sveta was unconsious, that it may not bother her. "I'm sorry Blaze...I’m going to help...and it’s going to hurt and I hope I don’t get neutered." He gave her small kiss on the forehead. "Leave her alone and pick on someone else you bastard!" He roared out. "Wait..." Not wanting to hurt her...for his word...but needing her out he held her neck in his hands and wrapped them firmly at certain 'points' and he waited...and waited...and waited for her to slip from shadows to unconsiousness.
~
Blaze’s eyes snapped open properly and she sat upright, clutching at the blankets in a cold sweat. Her head ached as if hit with a hammer, neck tender and yet she could only thank Amante in her thoughts for taking her away. Still it only left the dreaded wonder of consequence. Would he seek answer again, or simply take her leaving as default rejection and continue with promised chaos. Were the lives of her loved ones really at stake? She slipped to the window, wrapped tightly and looked outside. It seemed a bright spring day and yet she felt only a fog. The sun was now high in the sky...and would soon be fading. No one had come for her, not even to check she was alright. A heavy sense of foreboding washed over her and so she sat beneath the window sill, wrapped tightly in her blankets and watched as shadows slowly crept across the floorboards before her...waiting...
But no sooner did she decide to cling to slumber did her mind start waking, as if cruelly called to face the new day and with it remembrance of all that had happened the previous evening. She pulled the blankets of the bed over her head yet they sifted to her consciousness like an eerie mist creeping beneath a locked door, refusing to take no for an answer and finding a more stealthy way inside...
~
She had felt that call, the call to listen, to open up, to hear. She had expected Sveta’s weak frightened voice to whisper her pleas, beg for safety, for Blaze to keep her from harm again yet when it came it was a different voice entirely. Another mind surrounded hers; but it was not Sveta's. No. This was far darker. It held sense of a fully destructive power that was simply there to terrorize her, sending flashes of the young vampire's pain towards her mind. "Enjoy it. Know what you are doing to such a little vampire. A little blood sucker. Be merciful to her, walk in, and stake her. Remove her very existence. I am watching, albeit from far away. From Daeldrolm, to be more exact. And know that I am very much smiling...”
Blaze had staggered backwards, past Amante, dark eyes staring ahead she tensed as she dared to ask “Who are you?” in somewhat demanding tone. In an instant that invading presence became stronger and then suddenly, with the force of a battering ram the voice roared in horrendous magnitude. "THE SPYMASTER!"
Literally stumbling backwards Blaze felt the wall against her back, not even aware of little Fel entering the cave and Amante telling her to stay back. She was oblivious in that moment even to the blood that ran freely from the Delta’s arm, as he tried to distract her from her cold grip. She was listening only to that voice, seeking to bare its cold clutches and learn what she could as it continued. "Destruction and deceit in a bottle, my dear. The one who knows it all and enjoys the pain of others so much. The one who slammed Sygnet's head against those rocks, time and time again and then made sure I lured the vampire nearby her body by attracting her to the Crypts. She was the perfect puppet... And you can do nothing."
A dreaded cold laughter echoed through the presence now. "If you speak these words, they will think I am in you. And you will be in there, perhaps even with her. You believe me a parasite, but you are so mistaken, my dear...” the voice continued and it made her feel sick to her stomach, that sarcastic term of affection, reminded her so vividly of another tormented demon of times past. And yet it was like a switch had been hit, but there was no time to experience the foolishness...it all somehow seemed clearer...and only terrible for it. Her lips made to move, but she found the voice to be somehow right...what could she say?
Blaze sank down eyes still staring ahead, hand gripping her temples as the voice continued, she did not want to listen but she found she had to, whilst he spoke to her he left Sveta alone, or so she hoped. “Now do you wish this all to end...? All this suffering... all this pain... do you wish for it to end...think it hard, dear." Summoning defiance Blaze answered unspoken, directing each clear word in return "End her suffering, leave her be...just don't kill her...she’s died one death already, let her try for a life even if it must be wrapped in a cursed one...leave her be...she is weak, she cannot help you in here...she will not be freed"
Genuine amused laughter greeted her in response "Help me? She is the one that limits me. She is the only one with the skill to fight me. She was born with it, the only one in these lands to use her mind to try limiting my range. And for her trouble, I ensured that constant tragedy is in her way. To make her turn dark, I need the light to shun her. As you are doing right now. I never used her. I used everyone else."
"I do not shun her! I have tried to help her...though she does not hurt herself! I care about her, despite what she is!" Blaze spat back in defence, feeling her blood rage within her, eyes trained to Sveta’s crumpled form within the cells, seeing the blood ooze from her wounds, wounds inflicted by Nethya for a yet unapparent reason. "Tsk tsk" came the reply one said with a sinister smile Blaze could feel in deliverance. "Expose her arms, my dear. See the scars, see the lines. She did that to herself, for each time one of you blamed her for something. I suggested it to her, made it sound like it was her own idea. That is what she has done. As I have been doing with all of you. Simply suggestions, which seem your own mind. Now answer me. Do you wish all this to end...? And I mean all of this..?"
Blaze twitched, scent of Amante’s blood began to filter through, as such could never be kept from a vampire, no matter how distracted. The voice had hit her like a slap in the face with such words. Inwardly she retaliated, insisted her defence, outwardly she tasted that blood on Amante's arm and in anger she bit down hard, the thrill of impact swallowed aggressively a few times but then suddenly released grip of her bite, almost suffocating herself as she snarled in anger, a mouth full of blood snaked down her chin "YOU DARE BLAME US! YOU MADE HER DO THAT! YOU JUST SAID YOU DID! SHE KNOWS I UNDERSTAND FOR I DO IT TOO...TO MYSELF YOU SMART ASS BASTARD!" she yelled, aloud spitting blood everywhere and causing Amante to growl beside her, not even sure Blaze could see him.
"Fel...” came his voice commanding but not aggressive.”Go find Alpha please, or even Beta." Not sure he was strong enough to help her "She isn’t talking to us." That much was clear. "We need Alpha to steady her." Fel jerked and her pupils dilated as she smelt the sour odor of Sveta’s seeping blood filling her nostrils. It...Was horrible. A swift pain punched her in the chest and she hissed, her eyes never leaving Blaze and Amante as she swiftly backed out of the den and gulped in fresh air. "Alpha or Beta," she muttered, spinning on her feet and rushed down the hill, intent on the words Amante had said.
Wincing he reached out and gave a firm tug to Blaze's hair. "Pay attention! Focus on me! This is what Alpha warned about huh? Is it the shattered?" That was his first thought. "No one taught me how to centre you...but think on Alastair...think on your daughter...if your letting this thing get to you so easily Blaze you won’t be able to protect them. Stop letting it distract you. You’re fighting back verbally. It’s a mental thing, push back that way, build up a mental barrier like you can do with emotions...Do it!” he was of course unaware of the war of words that ranged unspoken between them. And she turned her wild eyes on him "ITS NOT CONTROLLING ME!" she yelled "It's boasting...." she spat gaze snapping to the door as Fel left as if looking out across to the castle "Always do those that seek power above their station boast...it makes them weak!" she sneered, blood boiling with insults. Still mention of her daughter was powerful thing and for the first time she looked at him properly.
"Then tell him to shut the fuck up and close the door in his face! You’re not helping anyone by just bitching with him. Close it off and start thinking properly!" he insisted. She held his gaze, fierce look in her eye before she turned back again "HOW DOES IT END?!" she demanded internally in that same stinging fury. And almost at once images poured into her mind, scenes that the spymaster had witnessed before. First was a glorious, golden city, many times bigger than the port, filled with thousands of people. "That was the Great City. Beautiful, no, my dear?" came the accompaniment. Then the picture changed, till it had become ruins; the streets lined with the dead. "And that is two weeks after I arrived. I will kill the vampire; you have already forfeited her life. And I will do so by manipulating the ones around her, and not even touching her. As I have always done. But to save more lives... There is a price."
Blaze was in an internal fury now that elevated above her own nature, infected by that deeper strain within her, hidden away and yet now awoken "What Price!?" she raged aloud forgetting where she was speaking "Why are you showing me this? Every detail you give me makes you more able to fail!"
The spymaster laughed again, just as coldly. "Because I enjoy my former successes. And wish to share them with you, my dear. The price... You shall obey all my words, for the duration of three days. That is all. Then I will leave." Narrowing her eyes Blaze near snorted "Obey you? I think not...you do not control me! I am free of that now...no one controls me again!"
"Then say good bye to that Vampire. Now. Say it, now, and spare her more agony. Kill her yourself. And say good bye to Sygnet. Shoep. Amante. Alastair. Your daughter... I will make you last on a long chain of deaths...” This caused Blaze to sneer "If you are so goddamn powerful then you would not need a little toy like Sveta...you would come out and do all yourself, not fearing blame or capture...still you skulk in shadow like they all do. You claim you can kill them all? That means you claim to be more powerful than Kain, than the dark lord, than the shattered one himself!" Again came the same dreaded laughter "Blaze, my dear... Look at her. Sveta is almost dead. In another ten minutes, she will be dead. And never again will she be comfortable, or happy, around any of you if you do save her. I have woven my trap for Sygnet. She will die soon. The list continues. You have spat in my face, Blaze. And for that, Sygnet's life is also forfeited. This is your last chance. Obey me, for three days, and maybe I will even let Sygnet live."
Still being goaded into an argument...Blaze managed to look desperately to Amante, feeling him still beside her "Help me Amante!" she whispered "I can't stop! He’s making me choose...what do I trust?!!" she asked him, not trusting herself to decide when it came to believing others lives were at stake. "You trust me" he said firmly. "You need to not think on it." And then he remembered Blaze saying if Sveta was unconsious, that it may not bother her. "I'm sorry Blaze...I’m going to help...and it’s going to hurt and I hope I don’t get neutered." He gave her small kiss on the forehead. "Leave her alone and pick on someone else you bastard!" He roared out. "Wait..." Not wanting to hurt her...for his word...but needing her out he held her neck in his hands and wrapped them firmly at certain 'points' and he waited...and waited...and waited for her to slip from shadows to unconsiousness.
~
Blaze’s eyes snapped open properly and she sat upright, clutching at the blankets in a cold sweat. Her head ached as if hit with a hammer, neck tender and yet she could only thank Amante in her thoughts for taking her away. Still it only left the dreaded wonder of consequence. Would he seek answer again, or simply take her leaving as default rejection and continue with promised chaos. Were the lives of her loved ones really at stake? She slipped to the window, wrapped tightly and looked outside. It seemed a bright spring day and yet she felt only a fog. The sun was now high in the sky...and would soon be fading. No one had come for her, not even to check she was alright. A heavy sense of foreboding washed over her and so she sat beneath the window sill, wrapped tightly in her blankets and watched as shadows slowly crept across the floorboards before her...waiting...
No comments:
Post a Comment