Private Tales An Extra Shadow

[Gaage Eberwhit]

Of all the inane, dumbass ideas he'd ever been presented with. Of all the excuses for keeping him out of missions, out of the action that all his peers were reveling in, this one had to be the most infuriating of them all. It was true, prior to his injuries he'd had trouble getting along with some of the others, there had been some accidents, some hurt feelings too...

But now they didn't trust him at all.

And that hurt, really it did. Gaage was of the mind that he'd never hurt anybody who didn't deserve it. It wasn't as though he was some bloodthirsty maniac with a lust for violence. That was the case he'd tried to make, anyways. That wasn't enough though, they expected him to prove it. That was how he ended up being assigned with somebody shadowing him for the entire duration of the week. Literally.

The shadow he cast as he traveled through the hall from his final lesson of the afternoon was not a reflection of himself as it should have normally been. Instead, it twisted from him and connected to another. Delaney Lennox. The slim, pale initiate looked just as unpleased by this assignment as Gaage was, but the intent was clear; The Academy wanted to be sure that Gaage could go a week with another student without getting into a fight with them in any capacity not ordered by a Proctor.

So, from breakfast all the way until he retired to his room, Delaney was beside him, and had been for the last several days.


"This is absolute nonsense." He sighed at his forced companion. "It's literally our job to kill people, isn't it? Why are they so worried about me doing it now?" He'd simmered down a bit since the initial assignment, his rage having given way to mere unease. They would choose somebody who could potentially outmatch him, wouldn't they?

Gaage stopped, turning to look at the sullen faced woman tasked with watching him. "They didn't need to drag you into this too. Somehow I doubt you're any more pleased about this than I am..."

 

[Delaney Lennox]

"Because the rebellion..." Delaney sneered in response to Gaage. "Everyone needs to be friends and yada yada," she rolled her eyes.

Delaney truly liked exactly two people at the Academy and Gaage was neither of them. It wasn't that she had reason not like him, she just didn't have friends. She had people that she hated and people she didn't hate. Gaage fell in the latter category - she didn't hate him.

She did think this assignment was dumb as fuck though. If he accidently killed some Initiates...oh well. They were probably weak and they wouldn't make it in the real world anyways. He'd be saving them some time. Mercy, if you will.

Gaage did entertain her and she may have even cracked a few smiles, but that didn't mean they weren't sour about all this bullshit.

Gaage suddenly stopped and Delaney almost ran into him. She hadn't been paying attention. "No no, you are my favorite person to be around. I have never been happier with an assignment before." Sarcasm dripped from every word, every syllable.

The Proctors had even given her permission to kill him if he was unable to control his power and there was a potential to hurt others or himself again. Delaney had gotten slightly more excited at that point. Chances of killing always brightened her day.

So far...he had been good though. Very depressing.

"Do I need to come hold your hand while you do your homework so you don't hurt the paper?" Damn, her sarcasm was strong today.

 

[Gaage Eberwhit]

Gaage didn't loathe Delaney. He didn't loathe anybody for that matter. He did his best to be cordial, understanding, and flexible towards the other students. The issue was that they so often found ways to irk him, and Gaage wasn't entirely fond of people pressing his buttons.

Delaney was... an odd case. Gaage didn't particularly like her, but she also didn't make him angry. In fact, that dark sense of humor she had hidden away under the surface actually amused him quite a bit. Gaage couldn't even begin to remember the last time he'd felt amused by anybody in that way.

Even so, Eberwhit couldn't help but feel like there was something that hadn't been told to him. There had to have been something that Delaney found promising out of this entire affair; they hadn't been checked in on by a Proctor once, and he figured she could have easily bailed during the free periods without worry of consequence.

Of course, he hadn't been made privy to Lennox's standing order to off him if he did anything stupid. If he had been, he would have made Delaney's day much more interesting. "You think you're bored? I haven't been on an assignment in months. I'm going crazy in here, Delaney. I've got all of this pent-up energy and nowhere to use it. It's maddening!"

Granted Eberwhit had been badly hurt for much of that time, a rather unfortunate incident that had nearly expelled his own organs from his body. It wasn't a lie though; Gaage was so restless he felt himself shaking whenever he sat still.

There was still time in the evening, and yet they were here now, arriving at the door to his room solely because his months of inactivity had left him with a mountain of studying he was expected to catch up on. Until he did, there was no free time for him. "You heard them. Together until I'm done for the night, and I doubt I'll be done for a few more hours."

It was a lie.

Without Delaney around, Gaage would have likely fallen asleep as soon as he closed the door behind him. With another voice in the room at least maybe he could accomplish something.

"Come in. It's not dirty or anything. They basically redid the whole room while I was out."

Delaney Lennox

 

[Delaney Lennox]

I could think of something to do with that pent up energy, Delaney thought with a wry smile. If nothing else, he was nice to look at. She could've been stuck with someone who was not good looking so that was one bright side even if she didn't get to kill him.

She rolled her eyes when he mentioned her being in his room for a few more hours. "So you do need me to hold your hand while you do your homework? Noted." Her lavender eyes slid towards him with a fake shocked look.

They stepped into his room and she immediately sat on his bed, scooting back so she leaned against the wall with her feet hanging off. She would never put shoes on a bed. That was gross. She crossed her arms and watched him as he came in.

"I am surprised they didn't bring you your homework while you were recovering," a hmmmm escaped her lips before she continued. "Actually, I am not surprised. They clearly didn't think you would survive. Why bother..."

One of her tendrils of darkness crawled up her arm and she let it weave its way through her fingers.

Gaage Eberwhit

 

[Gaage Eberwhit]

"Yes well, as they say, the news of my imminent death was greatly exaggerated." In truth, Gaage should have died. He'd manage to shift his own organs around in his body until they were all mixed around. The only reason he'd lived was that he was in an Academy full of magic people. Anywhere else in Arethil he would have been fucked. Eberwhit missed the brief mischievous look in Delaney's eye, instead looking up when she hopped onto his bed to make herself at home.

The desk pushed up beside the headboard had a sizable pile of books and paper on it, all of it expected for him to complete. The nerve. It was all he could do to hold back a groan as he pulled the chair out and sat down, reaching for a book.

"It takes more than a little re-arrangement to kill me. I survive that and then they act as though I'm not smart enough to go out on missions. You try sitting through all these books in the few days I've been given and tell me this isn't stupid."

Lennox wasn't listening; she was fiddling with her shadows and wandering around her own thoughts. A smirk crossed his lips. "Maybe we've got this backward. Maybe they actually just want you to loosen up and quit brooding so they're trying to find you a man. With an attitude like yours, I bet it would do you good."

Delaney Lennox

 

[Delaney Lennox]

Delaney had been listening and the tendril she had been twirling around her fingers shot out and wrapped around Gaage's neck. It squeezed hard around his throat with her mental command.

"They gave me permission to kill you if there are any issues. I can make it look like there were issues. Do not presume to know me, Gaage Eberwhit." She did not let go of her chokehold as she glared at him.

She was broody and uptight for a reason. Her darkness consumed her and ruled her. She did what it bid and it had led to her killing her baby sister. She always listened. Always.

Delaney still did not let up. She was a little curious if he would be able to fight her off. She was not even giving a fraction of what she could.

Gaage Eberwhit

 

[Gaage Eberwhit]

His entire body stiffened as he felt something wrap around his throat suddenly. What on earth? It wasn't her hand, it was cold, almost as though the air itself was closing around him. Hands gripping the table he sat in front of, he turned his head to look at Lennox.

Her shadows. Of course.

Eberwhit could barely breathe. but that didn't stop him from coughing up a laugh at her words. It all made so much more sense now. "That's why you agreed to this. Maybe you'd get a chance to fight me, maybe kill me on a Proctor's okay...." She was just as bored and in need of an outlet as he was. How cute.

Gaage wasn't scared of this bitch. She thought she could threaten him and get away with it? People who threatened Gaage fucking Eberwhit ended up in a lot of pain, he made sure of that. Hands raising up to clutch at the shadow, Eberwhit stumbles off of the seat and to his feet, glaring at Delaney with a burning fire in his eyes.

His feet struggled to find their balance, his face turned colors, but his gaze never left hers. With a pathetic croak, he spoke again. "Fuck you, Lennox. If you wanted to fight, you should have just said so."

And with the last of his strength, Gaage flung himself at Delaney, tackling her back onto the bed in an attempt to free himself.

Delaney Lennox

 

[Delaney Lennox]

Delaney's smirk was vicious as Gaage struggled to breath and then to stand. She let out a wicked laugh when he said fuck you, Lennox. He was so easy to rile up and that was her favorite type. Easy. She was going to return a sarcastic comment about how he would like to fuck her and fight her, but he tackled her instead.

Her head hit the wall with a thunk as she fell back and she mentally instructed her shadow to loosen up so he could breath again. She was laughing sardonically as she slid awkwardly to the side and down onto the bed before he ended up on top of her.

"I don't need to fight you, Gaage, I already know that I would win." Her right hand came up and wrapped around his neck. She could do this the old fashioned way. Her hand tightened as the vicious smirk crossed her face again. "You are going to fuck up again and I am going to be there to kill you," she said quietly.

Gaage Eberwhit

 

[Gaage Eberwhit]

Gaage knew well this could have been considered a failure on his own part. If the proctors learned of how badly he wished to rip Lennox's skull from her head right now, he'd never see sunlight again. He felt the impact of her head against the wall followed closely by the loosening of that shadowy tendril around his neck. Finally, some fresh air, and he hadn't even needed to rearrange her stomach and lungs to do it.

The cheeky bitch wasn't done yet though. Like the snake she was she slid out from underneath him and wrapped a hand around his throat in a chokehold, her jaws flapping once again as she spoke all that shit about how she would win, and she would kill her. Gah, the woman sounded like a storybook villain with how she prattled on. Gaage was done pulling his punches with her.

Tightening his gaze on the arm of the hand that gripped his throat, Gaage reached out and felt the life flowing through her flesh and bone. She was just as anybody else, and she would bend to his will. Eberwhit was certain she'd be more agreeable when she felt a tugging on her elbow, her bones shifting as her arm suddenly began to twist, threatening to pop out of its socket.

When her grip was broken at last, Gaage grinned widely and reached out to grab a handful of her hair, shifting forward to pin her on her back, sliding atop her to pin her down. This smarmy whore had nothing on him. "That so? You don't have what it takes to make me beg, Delaney. You fucked up agreeing to this mission, that's what you did."

Delaney Lennox

 

[Delaney Lennox]

Delaney's smug smile was wiped off her face when Gaage used his magic on her. Her hand was forced away from his throat and she growled at the pain it caused before he stopped. She did not have time to react before he was on her, pinning her to the bed and grabbing her hair.

Her entire body was hot as he grinned down at her with such a wicked look. She liked him. She had been indifferent to him, but now she liked him. Not many people could handle her like this and that impressed her.

Delaney lifted one of her hands from his hold and touched his cheek gently. "Oh, Gaage, sweet boy. I will make you beg like you have never begged before..."

She smirked and ran a sharply nailed finger down his cheek. "You will beg me to not stop once I get started..."

Gaage Eberwhit

 

[Gaage Eberwhit]

That's right. The bitch wasn't so cocky now was she? That had been a mercifully light twist of her arm, but she kept playing games and he wouldn't hesitate to pull her heart up out of her throat so she could watch while he crushed it in front of her. She had some nerve, talking to him like that.

Wait, why did she stop struggling?

She wasn't making any attempt to escape him now. No, she was rather still beneath him. His weight wasn't so great that she shouldn't be able to at least mount some resistance. She just lay there, staring up at him with a smirk. There wasn't anger in her eyes anymore, it was gone, replaced with... something else.

Gaage wasn't entirely sure what it was, but it made him feel a bit off balance.

Lennox raised a hand, and Gaage's body stiffened in preparation for an attack. Instead, her fingers trailed delicately across his cheek, nails teasing at the flesh without tearing as she spoke up to him in an... uncharacteristically sweet voice.

Oh.

His grip in her hair loosened at the realization, but his other hand slid up to rest around her throat as her's had been around his, squeezing slightly. "Awfully bold of you, assuming I'd be interested in doing anything to you that didn't involve mutilation..."

The edge to his words though was... noticeably lacking. And there was something in his gaze as he looked down at her that matched hers. Maybe just a smidge.

Delaney Lennox