Private Tales Crossing Over

[Keernan]

Mortals were such tedious creatures with such basic concerns. The elves thought they were above it all, but they as child like as mankind.

"Not as an elf. As a fae who ruled over my lands for a thousand of your lifetimes," she replied. There was a flash of disgust, a glimmer of fear in her eyes.

Past lives. She didn't care about them all, just the one. The elf didn't need to know that she needed proof to gather all those who had stood against Khalldryn before.

"His name is still cursed for the anguish he brought. Thousands. Thousands died by his hand."

 

[Syuri]

"A fae?" Syuri demanded incredulously, glancing back toward the sleeping Keernan with a frown of confusion. She noted the fear in the woman's eyes, whether genuine or not she didn't know, but if it was..It must have taken something seriously terrible for a creature such as her to feel afraid.

Syuri listened and tried her best to process what she was being told. After her encounter with the fae, the creatures terrified her. This might have been a cruel trick, but she couldn't understand why the Aralyssian was so obsessed with getting her hands on Keernan that Syuri couldn't help but consider that she may have been telling the truth.

Thousands.. She looked back to Keernan. She had only known him for a short time, but he was kind and gentle. Even in a past life, she couldn't have imagined him being the sort of monster that she described..

"Why should I believe any of this?" she asked, not taking her eyes off of the sleeping elf.

 

[Keernan]

The Aralyssian tilted her head to one side.

"Why would I lie?" she asked in turn. She looked towards Keernan.

She didn't care about the lives of mortals, but she was able to feel just a little bit of sympathy. Very little sympathy.

She wasn't a kind creature. Since Khalldryn had gone she had manipulated and schemed to solidify her own power. Whatever ills she had brought about were lighthearted japes compared to the terror he had wrought.

"A piece of him might be hiding in the shell of a kind elf. It would be a shame for him to die, but...He can never be permitted to come back."

 

[Syuri]

"To get your hands on his power?.." she suggested.

Syuri swallowed as she looked back to the woman, her blue eyes like melting ice as she stared at her. "What is it that you want from me, exactly?.. He has no interest in returning to your lands...whoever he is. Why not just leave him to his new life?" she asked bitterly.

 

[Keernan]

The Aralyssian ignored the question, shaking her head.

"Silly girl," she said in dissapointment. "You have no notion of how much destruction he could bring. You think of your own selfish needs."

"Touch my hand, I will show you the fire you are playing with"

 

[Syuri]

Syuri's fair brow knit at the insult. She was not, in her opinion, silly, nor had she ever been selfish. Her jaw clenched, seeing no good in argument, and her gaze fell silently to the offered hand. She stared apprehensively for a long moment before reluctantly relenting.

She wasn't sure she wanted to see, or if what the queen would show her would hold any truth, but curiosity drew her hand into the woman's outstretched palm, and her eyes closed..

 

[Keernan]

The scent of blood was overwhelming. It crossed the barrier between them before any visual images. A shard of light, cutting in from a high window to illuminate a circle around a dais.

There sat Khalldryn, golden eyes looking down at the offerings with indifference. He stood up, carrying himself with the same lithe, ethereal grace as the Aralyssian.

The shadows were slow to diffuse. It was a memory. She looked down at her offering of gold, jewels and the skull of a rare animal from the mortal realm. She looked at the other offerings, trying to gauge if hers was the weakest.

Then she looked to the walls. A throne room and a torture chamber in one place. Bodies adorned the walls. Some of them still moving. Fae flayed to the bone. Entrails strung out in chaotic patterns. Bodies arranged around a frame in some twisted mimicry of art.

"You," he said, pointing to a creature at the end of the line. They didn't even protest as hand grasped them from behind and dragged them into the shadows.

They did scream though. Long and loud whilst the other Lords waited and tried to shut it out.

"You play with fire."

She repeated the phase as she took her hand away, tears streaming down her cheeks.

 

[Syuri]

Syuri drew in a sharp breath and her heart instantly started a staccato as the scent of blood swathed her senses, her eyes moving rapidly under her lids as she took in the horror of the vision. She watched the memory unfold, she followed the aralyssian's gaze to the walls adorned with mutilated bodies of the dead and still living, the sight of innards and bone and the sounds of suffering robbing her of breath, as though the fear and horror wrapped itself around her neck and squeezed.

This couldn't be him...

Could it?...

Syuri's panic surged as another was chosen from the crowd, the sound of screaming still ringing loud in her ears even as she pulled her hand away from the fae and stumbled back onto the ground, dragging herself away. Her skin was ashen and slick with sweat, and her stomach threatened to empty itself onto the grass. She stared, wide-eyed at the woman and looked to the sleeping Keernan as she tried to wrap her mind around what she had just seen..

"That..That was him?.." she asked, her voice quaking.. "I don't understand - he.. He's not like that now, he's not dangerous." she frowned, but there was a lilt to her tone that made it less a statement, more a question in need of reassurance, not that she expected it from her..

"How do I know there's any truth to it?.."

 

[Keernan]

"He's in there. Hiding. Wearing the skin of that elf as his own to go unnoticed. You can't know if it is true," she said, standing up.

At least that had an effect on the girl. There was no point forcing matters. She did not, in fact, know if it really was him. It was a suspicion she was going to test. She would draw him out.

"I'll find a way to prove it to you," she said, forming a statement with the lie woven into the truth, "stay out of my way."

She stamped one heel.

Syuri would find herself back under the blanket, slowly waking next to Keernan's warmth. As if it had all been a dream.

 

[Syuri]

Syuri could only stare at the woman in disbelief, wide eyes capturing the moonlight and betraying every ounce of fear she felt in that moment as those images and screams burned into her mind.

She had been about to speak when she found herself jolting from sleep with a loud gasp, only to loose another as she realised that he was right beside her once more. Mango hissed in fright as Syuri sat bolt upright, throwing the cat from her legs and clutching the blankets to her naked skin, her wide eyes scanning the surrounding forest before settling on him.

A dream.. One that had felt so real that she didn't know if it had truly been a dream or not. Regardless, the possibility was there, and the fear she felt was very real. Her breaths were erratic, her skin slick with the same sweat it had been after seeing what the aralyssian had shown her.

 

[Keernan]

Keernan was slow to wake up. He wasn't accustomed to sharing his bedroll. The sunlight usually roused him much sooner than this, he could trll it wasn't first light.

"Syuri?" he asked softly. He tensed, staying quite still but gaze darting around them. At first he thought a predator had wondered close to their camp.

He soon realised that her eyes were fixed firmly on him.

 

[Syuri]

Syuri stared, her heart pounding in her ears as she replayed those ghastly images in her mind. Her mouth went dry, and as he looked back at her, all she could feel was fear and confusion.

It didn't look like him, and she wasn't entirely sure she hadn't dreamt the whole thing. Somehow, it'd felt more real than a dream. How could she ever know if it were true, and if it were, could he be held accountable for crimes he'd committed in a past life?...Or was that spirit still in there somewhere?..

"I.." she swallowed, finding her voice gritty with sleep. "Please.. Tell me who you are.." she frowned, her chest aching at the thought that he may not be who he seemed. Someone who's spirit and company she'd come to enjoy..

 

[Keernan]

Keernan had been reaching for her, his left hand stretching out towards her shoulder. At the question, he stopped. Hand stayed just a few inches from her skin.

How did he go about answering that? What had set this sudden apprehension off?

"Did I...do something...to frighten you?" he asked.

He looked genuinely concerned. There was a touch of frustration on his brow too. His reaction spoke volumes. He wished he had a better answer for her and Keernan was worried that maybe he'd done something to frighten her in his sleep.

 

[Syuri]

Syuri stared at the outstretched hand. She knew he'd be able to hear her racing pulse, it was so loud in her ears, he couldn't not. His question caused her brow to furrow and she swallowed..

"I...No, you didn't I.." she stuttered and got herself to her knees and then to her feet, holding her blankets around her chest as she took another careful step back. "I don't know.. what is real and, and what is false. I don't know if I am dreaming or awake.." her head shook, and she knew she wasn't making much sense, but there was not much sense to be found in what had frightened her so.

"I saw. a Fae..A male. And there were bodies, hung up all over the walls and he, he was having them tortured." Syuri paled at the memory, her features wincing as she recalled the screaming. "I think it was you..."

 

[Keernan]

His frown deepened. Prisoners on a wall. Mangled corpses as decoration.

"Why do you think it was me?" he asked. No visceral memories came to him. There was a sense of familiarity in what she described. It was like the point where a word seemed to lose meaning. You knew it was there, it was something you had known, but suddenly it was beyond comprehension.

He finally let his hand rest on her shoulder. She was frightened. There seemed no good reason to make that worse by keeping his distance, but he did not know how she was going to react.

 

[Syuri]

She knew how terrified she must have been looking at him, and it made her feel terrible. It might have been a lie, a dream, it might not have been him at all. And yet, it might have been. She was sure that here, in this form, that he wasn't capable of the sorts of atrocities that she'd witnessed in the vision...dream. But if what the Aralyssian said was true, and that his spirit really was in there somewhere, how was she to know if he wouldn't break free?

Syuri flinched back from his hand at the thought, her cheeks flushed.. "She came to see me... She showed me, it..it was like I was in her memory and she said that it was you." she stared at him, apprehension in her gaze.. "You really don't remember anything else about who you were?..."

 

[Keernan]

"She was here?" Keenan asked, looking clearly perturbed by the idea.

The idea was less of a shock than Syuri flinching away from his touch. That stung just a little. As dreams and the fog of sleep faded to the cold reality of day, it was hard to see her acting like this after the ending of the night before. A clear disconnect that was hard to reconcile.

Just what has that fae done to her? The thought was an angry reaction. Syuri had a right to be upset, to ask questions. Keernan just had to question why the dread fae queen would go to her.

Probably to make this happen.

"No. Maybe. I don't know. I know I don't want to seek her help in finding out the truth."

 

[Syuri]

"I think so." she frowned and gave another glance around before reaching for her clothes and starting to dress, her hands trembling. Last night she had shared her body with him, they had connected with such a passion she'd struggled to make sense of, and yet here and now she shielded her bare skin from him and avoided his gaze entirely.

"Maybe?.." she asked as she pulled her shirt over her head. "What does that mean, Keernan? Either you remember who you are or you don't." she frowned, wriggling into her leggings. She had felt safe with him, his presence had been soothing, even.. "I don't know whether I should fear you or not. Whether I'm being naive, whether you're lying to me, or whether she is.." she rubbed at her face. Either way, she felt used and confused..

She looked up at him, and all she could see was the elf she'd tangled with. All she had were the memories of his hands and lips on her skin and how he'd made her toes curl. The face she'd seen in the vision had not been his, it had been cold and cruel and nothing like Keernan. But if a monster like that could return through him? What if he remembered who he was?

 

[Keernan]

"I'm not lying," he said firmly. He felt a flutter of distress, deep in his gut.

This was all because of him. It might have been the Aralyssian that had been manipulating her, but his uncertainty was continuing to fray her nerves. She had trusted him implicitly, given herself over to him in the hidden world beneath the waterfall. Now she was trying to work out if she had left herself exposed to the worst kind of demon.

He kept his hands to himself, deliberately placing them in his lap. Frowning at them, Keernan looked crestfallen.

"I don't know who I am, but I've never felt...never felt like a murderer? That sounds weak."

 

[Syuri]

Syuri stared at him, a speculum of strain.. Is this what she had intended to do? Turn her against him, hand him over to her on a platter? She could see how troubled he was, and she believed it..

Silly girl... The fae's words echoed in her ears causing her jaw to tighten irritably. She felt so incredibly torn, she wanted so badly to trust him, and yet if she made a mistake, the cost could be immense.

Something in her chest cracked at his words, and the compassion in her had her kneeling beside him, a hand reaching cautiously to settle over his. "You don't seem like one to me either.." She believed that he didn't know, but how could she know if what the Aralyssian had told her was true or not?..

"I suppose.. Everyone has past lives, the sins committed don't fall to us to claim responsibility for, we weren't responsible for those actions.. But if he is in there? He can't ever return, Keernan." she frowned. The Aralyssian had seemed to think it possible, she only hoped that it wasn't.

 

[Keernan]

It was painful, so very painful to see her look at him that way. He remained where he was, trying to think this through. There was no way to convince her otherwise. If he did not know himself, then it would have been deception. That would have made him just as bad as the fae queen.

Keernan looked up at her, the amber of his right eye so familiar from her vision even if his face bore no resemblance to the monster.

"Then maybe I need to find someone who would know for certain. I don't like magicians, but this isn't something I can do. I need to prove I'm not a danger to you."

He sighed and looked down at the grass.

"And if I am then I need to go far away."

 

[Syuri]

Syuri studied his eyes as he spoke, unable to hide the mental turmoil in her own. Her throat ached as he looked away from her and she reached with both hands to cup his face and lift his gaze back to hers. "Then we find someone who can help us." she frowned in determination, sorry that her own fear had hurt him.

"If what she said is right, well.. We can deal with it. That's not who you are anymore, you know who you are now, right? Even if you remember those lives before, who you are now is your choice." she let out a breath, her expression softening as she leaned closer to softly kiss him.

 

[Keernan]

A harsh breath fell from his lips as she reached for him. He hadn't realised how how much tension had gripped him. From the set of his muscles to the way it held his breath.

He shouldn't have reacted so quickly. Woken quickly, his heart had started thumping and he had been exposed, open to being hurt by the way she looked at him with unadulterated fear.

He kissed her back and everything was just a little bit better than it had been before. As their lips parted he gave a gentle nod.

Do I really know who I am?

"I know my own mind," he said firmly. "I don't always know why I know what I know, but my thoughts are mine."

 

[Syuri]

Syuri stayed close as the kiss was broken, desperately trying to claw back how things had been before. how things had been last night. But they weren't the same, she'd never unsee what was shown to her, and yet in her heart she knew that she wanted to stay with him, with who he was right now.

She nodded back and rested her forehead against his, her eyes closing as she breathed and tried to settle the chaos that she'd woken in. "I know. I trust you, Keernan. For all we know, she was lying.." she frowned, her jaw tightening.

"We'll find someone who can tell us the truth." she nodded firmly, her thumbs slowly brushing over his cheeks. "I'm sorry.. It, she..frightened me." she frowned. She had never seen anything like that before and even now her stomach churned uneasily.

 

[Keernan]

"You don't need to be sorry," he said, "Of course it was frightening. I was just...caught by surprise."

It was a a seed planted in his own thoughts. Taking root where he could not reach to pull it free. If it was going to plague his own thoughts, of course it would continue to plague hers.

No matter the real situation, it wasn't going to go away until they knew the truth of it. It wasn't just Syuri that was frightened. Keernan had seen the Aralyssian's fear up close. Could it have all been an act when that had been the fae's instinctive reaction?

It had been there for barely an instant before her face had contorted in rage. She had locked Keernan in place and seperate him from Syrui.

"I think...I think she did believe it. Whether she still believes it...whether she's right or not...that I don't know."