Completed Reconcile

[Kristen Pirian]

A loud bang, like a door being slammed shut.

Kristen would awake, a touch groggy, but immediately she would take in her surroundings. The room was square, sparse, and dark, save for a sole lantern which hung above the table where she was sat and out of reach. Sat across from her was another Initiate. Their left arms were bound at the wrist together with shackles and a short chain, the chain itself bolted to the table. The sensation of being separated from her magic was palpable—whether it was the chain which nulled it or something else she couldn't say.

Unbeknownst to her, underneath the table was a small contraption of alchemical and arcane construction, set to explode in one hour's time.

What Kristen did know, however, was that there was a note atop the table, near where the bolt secured the chain. She peered curiously at it, up at her fellow Initiate, and then back to the note. Upon it was writ a single word, which she spoke aloud:

"Reconcile."

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(Dialogue thread! Short posts focused on dialogue!)​

 

[Delaney Lennox]

Delaney was already glaring at Kristen by the time she woke up. She had already tried to call her tendrils of shadow to get her out of the shackle but they didn't come. She felt her darkness roiling inside her and it was mad. It was contained against its will and it just had her to be angry with.

Right, this was all her fault. She totally wanted to be chained to a table with Kristen and no access to her magic. Totally awesome.

"Reconcile what?"

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"I don't know," Kristen said. An idle try at the chain, jerking her arm against it, but of course it didn't give. "Yet here we are."

* * * * *​

Garron Banick could see them, but they couldn't see him. He was elsewhere, the room visible to him and a few choice friends who appreciated live drama and who didn't appreciate House Pirian. Trivial enough to set this scenario up for the Darling Daughter and her commonblood friend. And now to enjoy the show.

No one hunted foxes that were trapped in a cage, did they? No. One's quandary needed a sporting chance. Therein lay the thrill.

Delaney Lennox

 

[Delaney Lennox]

"I already tried that," Delaney said with a harsh bark of laughter. "It obviously did not work and I cannot call my tendrils out. They are just pissed off and pissing me off more than the situation itself."

She looked around the sparse room and then back at Kristen, "how did we even get here?"

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

A brief reproachful look came over Kristen's expression, but she spoke no further in regard to the chain.

"I cannot feel my magic either."

Then.

"All I remember...vague as it is...is that there were men waiting for us once we arrived for our mission in Vel Yuna."

Yes. Vel Yuna again. Only this time there had been no drunken frivolity.

Delaney Lennox

 

[Delaney Lennox]

Delaney nodded. Yes, they had been in Vel Yuna to meet with a citizen about a kidnapped child. They had never made it to the meeting spot. They were attacked. She did not remember anything else.

"Yes, they hit us with something that nullified our magic and knocked us out. That is all remember."

Her eyes traveled around the room again. There was nothing that gave them clues about why they were here or how they could escape.

Just the note.

"Reconcile..."

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Kristen sat back in her chair, eyes askew, frustrated. The arm bound by the chain lay on the table.

"It should not have happened," she spoke aloud, a mirror of what she had said to Drastus Tal'deneshaar at the celebration of Festum Libertatis. The same sentiment felt.

Her promise, her oath to herself, silently watching her from the back of her mind.

"I could have been better. I need to be."

Delaney Lennox

 

[Delaney Lennox]

I am better.

It was not something she voiced though.

Between whatever bullshit Kristen and Drastus had and the darkness that was slowly consuming her, she wanted nothing more than to snap at the Initiate.

"They snuck up on us. I did not even have a warning," her own tendrils had failed her. That was not like them. "I am sure you will be better someday...with Drastus' help..."

Jab.

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Kristen's eyes came back up from their distanced angle. She regarded her friend with a slightly puzzled look, that then became a slightly hurt look, and then leveled out.

"Tell me something, Delaney. That night in the dormitory, the one with Bull and I...what did you see in me?"

Delaney Lennox

 

[Delaney Lennox]

"A fighter."

It was a simple reply. She had never doubted Kristen's abilities and she had been the only one who actually gave a shit about her for a long time.

She had never been good enough though.

She would never be good enough.

"Someone who just needed someone to care about her and tell her that she was not pathetic like everyone else had since she arrived. Someone to help her discover that she was a badass."

It was Delaney's turn to look away now.

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"Yet they spoke the truth. And you told me a comforting lie."

It hurt to say.

And, now in retrospect, it had hurt to endure—being within Delaney's shadow.

Delaney Lennox

 

[Delaney Lennox]

Delaney’s head wiped up to glare at Kristen.

“I never lied to you, Kristen. Ever! You lied to yourself everyday thinking you were pathetic like they said and that you would never be more. If only I had known…”

Her words trailed off.

“We need to get out of here.”

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Kristen ignored the last bit. Honed in on what came before. On something she had vaguely sensed for a long time and never truly reckoned with until now.

"You like Chasmine, do you not, Delaney?"

Delaney Lennox

 

[Delaney Lennox]

“Of course but she isn’t you. She isn’t the same as you. She is weak and she does need people to protect her.”

It was mean to say but the protection she gave each girl was different. Chasmine needed the protection, Delaney protected Kristen because she loved her. She couldn’t bear the thought of living without Kristen in her life.

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"I am glad that we agree. Chasmine will never become a Dreadlord. She lacks a killer's heart. With her, you are doing the right thing."

Kristen leaned a bit more forward now, intent sparking in her gaze.

"But with me, you have not, and you are not."

Delaney Lennox

 

[Delaney Lennox]

"Kress, Kristen! I love you! Fuck!"

Delaney's hands had balled now but only the right slammed down against the table.

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

If anything could have waylaid her thoughts, it was that admission. Kristen's eyes widened, and briefly she was taken aback, paused in her ability to proceed. She thought she would've been prepared for this moment. She wasn't. Not truly.

"I have...pondered...that you might feel so."

Memories of the kiss in her dorm room stood out most vividly, and whatever barbed tone of voice she may have adopted in the previous moments softened to gentleness.

"Yet...that caliber of love is unrequited. You are my best friend, Delaney. It is in this way that I love you."

She blinked, and a tear overflowed from her eye. Rolled down her fair cheek.

"I am sorry to aggrieve you with this necessary wound."

Delaney Lennox

 

[Delaney Lennox]

"I. Am. Aware. Of. It. Already. Kristen."

Each word was punctuated with a pause.

"I was always aware but I accepted what you could give. It doesn't matter though since I have done you a disservice our entire relationship."

Not friendship. Relationship. The simple way two Initiates were connected. There were no tears in Delaney's eyes. She had done her crying. She had given herself to the shadows who promised her comfort.

"I am leaving once I graduate. You will never see me again."

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Kristen's demeanor tightened up immediately.

"You..."

So it was with Edric.

"...coward."

So it was now.

Delaney Lennox

 

[Delaney Lennox]

Delaney yanked her left wrist which would pull Kristen closer. She didn't remember pushing up from the chair or wrapping her right hand around Kristen's neck but it was there when she came back into her mind.

Kill her, Delaney. She is only holding you back. She is the reason we had to take control.

Delaney hissed at Lady Kristen Pirian, "I do not want to be around when Drastus turns on you. I do not want to be here when all I will want to say is I told you so!"

She knew there was darkness in Drastus. She knew there was something up and he would go as mad as her someday. She just knew. Her shadows knew. No necromancer ever kept their humanity.

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Unbeknownst to Kristen that she, as well, experienced the exact same thing as Delaney—acting without awareness of the act—she own hand moved. Delaney's hand had clamped to her neck, and thus too did Kristen's clamp to Delaney's own neck after she had spoken. Fingernails poked into flesh.

She lay on the table, reaching up, and said in a strained voice:

"Your wild tongue distracts me not from your cowardice, Delaney Lennox! You would abandon everything!? Everything!? WHY??"

Delaney Lennox

 

[Delaney Lennox]

They were in a standoff. Right hands clamped around the others throat.

A harsh, slightly muffled, laugh rumbled out of Delaney's throat but she only squeezed harder.

"You mistake my life for yours. I have nothing, Kristen! No family, no friends, only darkness. The Delaney I am would have walked right past you and Bull in the hallway. The Delaney I was should have!"

Now tears did fall from her eyes.

Do not cry, you bitch! You are ours! You do as we say!

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"Yes..." Kristen growled as the vice of Delaney's hand tightened about her neck, "...you should have!"

She didn't want to depart from her shock, her anger, the actual betrayal she felt at Delaney's declaration that she would leave Vel Anir. First Edric, the Initiate she had looked up to more than any other as the pinnacle of what a Dreadlord ought to be, and now Delaney, her best friend...both of them...craven...

Both of them, willingly leaving the nine-year-old Kristens of the Republic—to be kidnapped, to be accosted, to be murdered—while they possessed the strength to protect them. She and Edric would allow for their gifts to go to disgraceful waste.

But Kristen did leave that point for now.

"I needed to learn, Delaney! I needed to learn!"

Teeth clenched.

"IT! ISN'T! FAIR!"

Delaney Lennox

 

[Delaney Lennox]

"Life isn't fair, Kristen! You think you are a big bad Dreadlord but you are nothing! You are a noble child who was so unloved that she was shipped away to the safe Academy as soon as possible. They did not want to throw you away until your sister had left the city!"

The words were cruel and said as tears dripped into the mouth.

"Would you like me to tell you about what I have gone through? Why the fuck I do not want to dedicate my life to these pieces of shit?!"

Kristen Pirian

 

[Kristen Pirian]

Kristen's expression hardened: her nostrils flared, cheeks risen, brow furrowed with anger and lips tightened with the same. This, as Delaney spoke her bile concerning her beloved mother, her beloved father, and her beloved sister Amelia as well.

Through the choke she said, "It matters not...what you have gone through...for you would see it all amount to nothing!"

She stole a gulp of air.

"Your lack of loyalty to your homeland...I find...contemptible."

Delaney Lennox