Completed Reconcile

Delaney was suddenly so tired. It was like the darkness had let go of her and that caused her to let go of Kristen's throat. She didn't fight Kristen to get her to let go. She didn't care. If Kristen killed her then it would be all the better.

"Just kill me, Kristen. My darkness won't let me do it myself and I have tried...many times..."

Delaney just stayed in the awkward position as Kristen held her by the throat.

"Maybe that will get you out of here," there was a soft bitter laugh.

Kristen Pirian
 
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Kristen sputtered for breath once her throat was released, coughing a few times, then stabilizing.

She looked up at her friend, the girl who had spared her from the depredations of Bull many a moon ago, with an unreadable expression. Slowly she slid herself back across the table, back to her seat. The chain rattled almost lazily as she did.

"Sit down, Delaney."

* * * * *​

Garron and his cabal of like-minded friends had in unison leaned forward at this. None of them, not even Garron himself, had thought this would go so spectacularly. And they wondered, eagerly, if the Pirian girl would do it.

A disappointed groan rose up from their collective throats when Kristen took her seat and said of the other Initiate to do the same. But Garron rose his hand.

And reminded his fellows that the night was both still young...and that time was slowly running out for the two girls.

Delaney Lennox
 
Delaney closed her eyes and took a deep breath in before she sat down again. She just stared across the table in sad silence at Kristen.

"I never intended to be a Dreadlord, Kristen. I intended to die at graduation or on a mission or something that would keep me from fulfilling my duties. It was not until last year that I had the chance to see something else in my future. I had control of my darkness and then I started to care about you."

She closed her eyes and just let the tears leak from the closed lids.

"I refused to kill you every time I was commanded to by the darkness. They got more and more angry. They took more and more of me. When I fell down the stairs on that mission with the orcs...I died. They brought me back. They took control."

She had not let on during the remainder of the mission or even afterwards the extent of what her injuries had been. No one survived falling down that many stone stairs.

"Every time they order me to kill someone, I throw myself off one of the towers...they keep bringing me back! I cannot...I do not...want to live like this."

Kristen Pirian
 
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The bubbling mix of anger and sorrow was powerful, frothing unpleasantly within her veins and trembling just beneath the skin throughout all of what Delaney had to say. Kristen took a few moments to compose herself, for if she had spoken what had first come to mind it not only would have been needlessly malicious but also untruthful.

"I see," she said, hazarding words and finding herself to be in control. Good.

"It is, and shall forever be, a great tragedy...what happened to your sister. For in your case, your magic is more curse than gift."

And thus was Delaney now herself like Chasmine to Kristen. It was not a matter of cowardice, like it was with Edric. It was that she should never have been at the Academy to begin with. And that was okay. The business of being a Dreadlord needed to be left to those with the strength, wherewithal, and in this case, stability to handle it.

"But I must tell you the truth. You are my friend, Delaney, and you deserve it."

She swallowed.

"If your shadows command you to kill me, and you can no longer resist them..."

Kristen's eyes met Delaney's. Sorrow and steel.

"...I will kill you."

And now her tears as well fell silently from the perch of her eyes, but she did not break her gaze.

Delaney Lennox
 
“Please do,” Delaney said with a small smile. “And make sure you cut off my head or some shit…I don’t know…”

She reached out with her free hand and took Kristen’s. She expected her to pull away and she wouldn’t fit her if she did.

“I’m not leaving because of you, Kristen. I was just being cruel when I said that,” Delaney’s voice was softer now. “I met someone when we were at the warehouse that one time. He pulled me into some kind of dream or something. I have no idea. His name is Tulio and he can help me learn more about the darkness and how to control it…how to become more powerful…”

Delaney had zero intentions of not using her power. She just was not going to be confined by the rules of this polite new society and the Guard.

She was a killer. She was not a Dreadlord.

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Kristen grasped Delaney's hand. Didn't pull away.

The part about Tulio was surprising to hear—Kristen hadn't the slightest notion that it had happened in Vel Luin. But it provided hope. Hope Kristen thought was not there.

Still, an edge of worry.

"Do you trust him?"

Delaney Lennox
 
Delaney chuckled, a genuine chuckle, and shrugged.

“I have no idea, Kristen, but he gave me a whistle to blow whenever I am ready to meet him. I just know I wouldn’t be a good Dreadlord. Maybe before the revolution but not now. I like killing too much.”

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The question, then.

Kristen had equated Delaney to Edric. Then to Chasmine. Now it was time to make the definitive distinction.

"And if this man, Tulio, does impart upon you the knowledge necessary to properly control your magic...will you honestly still abandon your duty to Vel Anir?"

A small squeeze of the hand she clasped.

Delaney Lennox
 
Kristen looked down at their clasped hands. She felt surprisingly free for the first time in a long time.

“I wish I had an answer, Kristen. I don’t know if they would even take me back. I don’t know if I would even make it out alive. The darkness has a strong hold. Before you, it let me have my own way but then I started to care and it didn’t like that. I wasn’t allowed to be,” she paused. “Happy. You made me happy for the first time in my life…”

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Delaney had a valid point. The Academy system was ill-equipped to help stabilize her magic, but in going to an outside source, there was no telling of Vel Anir would take her back. If she were a reservist then this would not be an issue, but she might not have the luxury of waiting until after graduation.

"And I am happy for you, Delaney." Here at last a smile could take hold. "You were the first person to make the Academy tolerable for me. For that, know that you will always have my heartfelt appreciation."

The smile faded.

"Still, there remains something on which we must speak."

Delaney Lennox
 
"We'll figure that out," she said. Their situation wasn't the best, chained together and trapped in an unknown room. Someone had even disarmed them and taken Kristen's armor. So yes, it was a major concern.

But one which could be put aside in this moment of undetermined peril.

"Delaney...you need to let me go. You mustn't protect me anymore."

Delaney Lennox
 
Delaney studied Kristen’s face. She had protected her for so long. Her only friend. Her best friend.

“Can I still murder anyone who dares to hurt you?”

A simple question that some might take as a jest but that was not the case. Delaney would die if anything happened to Kristen. She was family…Delaney’s only family.

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Kristen shook her head.

"No."

A brief reconsideration, eyes off to one side and an acknowledging dip of her head as she weighed this new angle which popped into her mind.

"If we are on a mission, and they are enemies of Vel Anir, that is fine. Otherwise, I must say no."

With her free hand she fervently patted her chest with the tips of her fingers.

"I cannot become she who protects..."

Utter sincerity in her eyes.

"...if I myself am constantly protected."

Delaney Lennox
 
But what if she got caught up in love...what is she missed the signs...what if Drastus hurt her...

Those were the questions that ran through Delaney's head but she did not ask any of them. The two girls finally started to make amends to the rift that the darkness had grown between them.

"I can make no promises, but I will make sure that you cannot kill them yourself before I kill them," it was delivered with a sly Delaney smile.

"Now, how the fuck do we get out of here?"

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Kristen's eyes closed, and within her heart she smoothed out what would have been a barbed initial response into something gentler. Truly it helped, thinking before speaking.

"I appreciate the sentiment, Delaney."

And her eyes opened.

"But that is not good enough. Birds in the nest must take flight some day. So must I."

A soft, almost pleading look.

"Or would you see me clipped of my wings forever?"

Delaney Lennox
 
“Fuck, fine!” Delaney said with mild exasperation. “I will wait until you are dead and then I will exact revenge. Is that acceptable to her ladyship?!”

If someone killed Kristen, it would be a very bad choice. A choice that would leave them dead shortly there after. Delaney didn’t play when it came to her friends.

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Kristen nodded. She knew that it was hard for Delaney to hear, for Delaney to do. Did Kristen herself not want to protect those she viewed as incapable of doing so for themselves? How she would react much the same if she was barred from doing so!

Yet it had to be done.

"Please, Delaney." Gosh, was it difficult to keep her voice level, to keep it from cracking with stress as it most assuredly would have before. "You saw something in me. A fighter, you said."

Their right hands still clasped, and here a punctuating squeeze.

"I am asking that you let me become what you saw. I am asking that you trust me. That is all."

Delaney Lennox
 
“I said okay,” Delaney replied with less emotion this time. “I will avenge your death though if you perish by the hand of another. You can stop me from doing that because you will be dead,” savage but true.

Delaney just smiled sweetly and innocently.

“Now can we please figure out how to get out of here?!”

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The double confirmation was satisfactory enough. Kristen hoped so, at least. All of her peers, Delaney included, had struggled and survived the old Academy. They had been tested in tribulations Kristen could only imagine. But it remained that Kristen needed to be tested as well, in whatever demanding capacities were still available to her. She adored helping hands, but she also needed to be able to stand up for herself, to be a helping hand for others as well.

Kristen looked at the chain binding their left wrists. "Yes, we ought—"

She paused. Puzzled and alert.

"Delaney...do you feel something...warm? By your knees?"

Delaney Lennox
 
A single brow rose at Kristen’s question. It was followed by a frown. A mixture of too many clothes, close quarters, nervousness, and anger had brought her body temperature up.

Now that she focused on a specific spot on her body, she did feel that it was hotter than the rest of her.

“Yes, I do now that you pointed it out. I thought I was just hot.”

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So it wasn't just her.

Kristen's brow flattened in consternation and, with a look that invited Delaney to do the same, she slowly edged herself over such that she could look under the table. It was awkward, having her left wrist bound at the middle of the table, but she was just able to do it.

And there underneath the table, stuck to it, was a glob of baleful looking black putty, big enough to fill the palm of her hand. Faintly, incredibly faintly...wisps of thin steam rolled off of it.

"Delaney...?" Kristen said, uncertain and nervous.

Delaney Lennox
 
Delaney let Kristen put herself in the awkward position to look under the table. She would trust whatever the girl said was warming up their legs. No need to go and hurt herself to look down there.

That is what she thought until Kristen said her name. The way she said it is what made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

Delaney followed suit with how Kristen had moved herself to look below the table while still attached to it. She paused and narrowed her eyes when she say the thing.

"What the fuck is that?"

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Delaney looked from the device to her best friend. Even when she was frustrated and hurt, Kristen was her best friend. That would not change and right now she needed to figure out how to get them out of here.

"Alright, Kristen, I will..." Her voice trailed off and she let a very small smile cross her lips. "We will figure this out...together..."

She studied the weird steaming contraption and an idea formed in her head.

"Hey, you are taller than me. Do you think if I got on the table and gave you the extra bit of my chain, you could get a better look?"

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