A Tale of Revenge Ch. 13

"You can approach," she said in Orlith's voice.

"What—" Orlith began saying, the face he wore twisted in shock. She cut him off with a raised hand.

"You will not speak in words," she forced her power into the command. The lumbering form of the jailor appeared before her.

She gestured to the hanging prisoner in the cell, "She is all yours," she said again in Orlith's voice.

The jailor looked confused. "But you said that this 'ere was royal business, that I coudna 'ave any part innit," the man looked wary. It seemed she'd underestimated Orlith's previous behavior to the man; the giant looked properly afraid.

Anna looked back at the girl in chains, she could see Orlith's furious eyes beneath the illusion. An angry scream erupted from the prisoner.

"I thought I'd give you a go. She doesn't appreciate me, perhaps a taste of you will change her mind," Anna said. The man didn't look convinced. "I'm bored of her." That seemed to work. The man looked at the girl he saw and rubbed his hands together, nodding at Anna.

Anna took a moment to look at the brute before her. The naked excitement in his face felt all wrong. But wasn't this justice? For her tormentor to suffer as she had? To wear her skin and feel what it was that he had done to her? She looked back at Orlith's masked form. The benefit of the illusion meant she was spared the intensity of his face, and the myriad of confused emotions it elicited from her. But she was confronted with herself, the image of a girl hanging from her chains, bound and presented for injury by another. The effect was confusing deep in her core.

She walked back into the cell, back to stand before Orlith who was wearing her own face. It was him, she could see his glittering eyes through her spell, and he deserved this. For Dev. For her. She ran her finger, Orlith's finger, across his cheek that was now hers, mirroring his favorite touch. "Goodbye," she said. He yelled again in her voice, raging and shaking in his chains.

She turned back to the door, the jailor looking over her shoulder at Orlith. "'Ow long do I 'ave wid 'er?" he said, licking his lips grotesquely.

"Take your time. Don't do anything beyond what I've told you is allowed. And don't release her. She's faster than she looks." And with that she departed, her own screams ringing out behind her. As soon as she was out of sight she fled, throwing herself from the darkness, though the sounds still echoed in her ears. She wore Orlith's image back to the main palace, entering the royal's wing and seeking out the room she'd sensed Serena in.

Serena looked up, shocked to see Orlith burst through the doors of Evo's suite. Anna shed the illusion like a cloak, eager to be rid of it, as if it would remove his influence from her. She crushed the spell, destroying the wisps of fire that made up his image. Serena waited calmly as Anna shredded the image, having recovered from her initial surprise.

When Anna stood there, looking at the last twinkling remnants of the spell, Serena came and put her hand to her shoulder.

"I didn't kill him," Anna said, her voice tight with unshed tears. "He's contained—" she started but left off. "I can't do it." It was only then that Anna noticed Evo sitting silently in the corner. His face was drawn and worried as he looked between the two women standing there. His rooms were luxurious and inviting but Anna felt cold and out of place, the reds and golds of the furniture and drapings bothered her.

"It's alright Anna," Serena said, "We will figure something else out to make sure you do not have to see him again if you do not wish."

Anna raised her eyes to Serena's face. "Does that make me weak? That I couldn't manage to? After what he did to me? What he did to Dev?"

Serena gave her a sad smile. "Of course you aren't weak." She reached into her dress and pulled out a small silver chain with a bright blue bead hanging from it. "Marek and Ian found Dev's body. They removed it for a proper burial and they found this in his pocket. I thought you might want it."

Anna throat squeezed tight, tears burned but did not fall. Their first day in the city, she had stopped at the vendor and told Dev the story of the gypsies and the necklace the blacksmith had bought. He must have slipped out while she was sleeping that day so that she wouldn't notice when he bought it.

She took the smooth bead in her fingers, the luscious blue color permeated the opaque glass and yet the light still suffused it. That dreaded grief that she'd been keeping at bay reared up, blackening her insides and closing out all other feelings.

Serena slipped the long silver chain over her head and the bead came to rest against her sternum. "Thank you," she managed to whisper.

Cool fingers tilted her chin so that she was looking at the woman before her. "It is okay to cry, Anna. It is okay to be sad." She fretted with the power that held Evo to her control. "We will move past these times. We will heal."

Anna looked into her eyes, sea green and kind. She wanted to cry, to lose herself again in the arms of someone who cared. Like she had with Dev, who took care of her, healed her and made her smile, carried her burdens and made her feel human again. And he was gone, really and truly gone from her.

People were approaching. She whipped her head around and listened beyond the door. It was the men from the prison. She turned back to Serena, quickly producing the semblance of a collar at her neck while she simultaneously hid Evo's.

"The Lord High Steward is here. He returned with a spy from the front just last night. Some Duke is with him, one who was with the king when they came to Evo's room. I left Orlith inside an illusion in the dungeon with the jailor who was torturing the spy. I don't know what they want but I'm sure they will want Evo and the king. You must go, help Wreg, make sure no one suspects."

As she spoke she backed into the bedchamber at the side of the room, leaving Serena and Evo in the cabinet to receive the intruders. Serena nodded silently and Evo moved at her command to relax in one of the chairs by the fireplace. She in turn took up a seat at his side, kneeling on a rug. Anna shut the door to the bedchamber, finding herself in the darkness therein.

She listened at the door while the men conversed, speaking plainly of the events in the castle, more casual references to their crimes. Evo, at Serena's behest, was as he ever was, but perhaps a bit more accommodating than usual. It was finally decided by the Duke that it was time to rouse the king from his chambers, temptations of the flesh be damned.

Anna breathed a sigh of relief when they left, her body still buzzing. She sank to the floor, her back against the door and she put her head in her hands. Her face was aching terribly and distracting her so she started healing her bruises from the fight. Was everything taken care of? Wreg and Serena would divert suspicion. Orlith was confined. The others were working together to keep watch and destroy the projects Evo had already begun. There was nothing to do at the moment. It seemed almost unnatural to be so unoccupied.

The heavy curtains were drawn on the windows but light still filtered through, illuminating the large chamber. She saw the great bed set against the far wall and she stood, intent on it. How long had it been since she'd slept more than a few tortured moments at a time? Days now. Her body loosened with the promise of rest, clamored for it, seeking out comfort and rest. And yet the thought troubled her. Relief was not something she was accustomed to. She was stumbling forward when something moved in her vision.

She turned her head slowly, suddenly terrified. The dark in the corner of the room seemed to bend and move for just a moment, and then it stopped, innocent as the next shadow. She shook her head. It was just exhaustion. She took another step towards the bed when a hand brushed the back of her neck. The hairs across her skin stood on edge. She turned back towards the door. Nothing.

Anna looked, considering the door for a long time, the light coming through above and below it, through the minute cracks in the wood. Then again, the feeling of a presence in the room with her, she sought it out, peering into the darkness as it tumbled and oozed around her. Then it stopped. Fingers ran down the back of her shirt, tracing the marks of beatings long since forcibly washed away.

Was Orlith free? Was he here?

Impossible.

Serena knew where he was, she could have told them. Why would she do that? She wouldn't betray her like that. But she had Evo under her control now; she was powerful. What if she wanted this all along? Had she just played the victim? No, Anna stopped herself. This was nothing but lack of rest and a tired mind. She turned back to the bed.

The shadows whispered to her. She was alone again. Serena had turned on her, the others were just playing along. They were keeping her complacent until they could marry her off, secure the throne with her bloodline. The darkness came up from the floor, trickling up her body. She tried pushing it off, fear and magic working together to no effect as it encircled her, caging her for when Orlith returned. Panic burned through her. And yet the darkness kept her still.

She tried to move back to the door, surely she could escape if she tried. But she recoiled from it. She could not touch the light. She was a thing of the dark, a marked soul. Dev had been her light and she'd let him be killed. If she touched the light it would burn her for her crimes against it. She whimpered in fear, turning back to the oily shadows that welcomed her into their embrace.

"Anna," Leonid's voice called out to her from beyond the swirling gloom. She sought him out. His body was light and glowing. It was just another illusion wasn't it?

"Anna, it's alright." He reached his hand out to her. She looked at his hand. Was she seeing things now or was he a spell sent to calm her? Wasn't she actually far below in the dungeon, offered up to some new form of torture? Which was real? Her power surged inside her, seeking out the cause of her dismay, looking for something to attack to protect them both.

She stepped away from the man before her, feeling the restraining hold of something at her back, forcing her head forward so she couldn't twist to see what it was. Someone was behind her, she was sure of it. When she couldn't move to see, that was when the pain came, the nails plunging into her skin, the whip biting at her flesh.

Leonid was still there before her. He had whipped her, just as Orlith had. They had both hurt her, both hidden themselves from her gaze and done as they wished. Her memories flowed into one continuous painful play of her body twisting away from the whips they bore. Pleasure and pain were the same, all jumbled together. Her tormentor and her owner bled into one another.

She had not seen him hit her, never seen his face when he hurt her.

It could have been anyone.

Leonid's eyes grew wide as she whimpered in fear. She was held in place by shackles of blackness, magic pouring into the air around them. "Anna, you are safe," he said coming forward, his voice gentle and coaxing. He did not see the darkness around her, the presence at her back, the conspiracy beyond the door.

Because they weren't real.

A moment of lucid thought blossomed in her head. She saw herself as she was, standing in the center of a dark bedroom, Leonid before her, no restraints, no one behind her.

"Leonid," she choked out, her hand finding his, solid and real. He swept her up into his arms, holding her body against his. Tears slipped down her cheeks. She buried her face in his chest. "Help me," she whispered. She could feel it rising again, coming to pull her back.

Leonid brought her face to look at him, his eyes glowing blue in the dark. "You're safe now Anna, there is nothing left to be afraid of." But he was wrong. He didn't know she'd buried it in the dungeon, that her demon may be the victim of her greatest offense. He didn't know that there was another being tortured on her command, that she had succumb to the wickedness she found in this place.

The madness swallowed her up again; she was pushed under the surface of the blackness around her. Whispers of voices sounded in the room and she twisted in his hold to try and hear them all at once. She was afraid again, her magic pooled in her fists, clenched against the chest of someone holding her, someone caging her and keeping her trapped. She looked into his face as though it were the first time she'd seen him and she let loose the torrent of power inside her.

The initial blast took Leonid by surprise, she had been there a moment before, said his name. But she was gone now, looking at him as if he were a stranger to her. He fell back, losing his hold as her power pressed at him. But her power was his and he quickly absorbed the spell, moving back and grasping her to his chest again, he quieted the magic inside her even as she shrieked and fought, desperate and out of control. But he held her until the raging stopped. She sobbed into his chest when her strength gave out.

"Anna, it's alright, it's over," he stroked her hair, pressed his cheek to the crown of her head. When she didn't answer he reached through the thread of power into her thoughts, shocked at what he found there.

Her mind was fractured, thoughts and emotions lit up and went dark at lightning speed. The normal connections she should be making between what she could sense and what she knew were damaged, her memories mixed up with the present, feeling what she thought as if it were happening to her now. She was afraid, potently and uncontrollably so. It was an aimless and all-consuming panic driven by the loss of understanding the world as it was around her.

He tilted her head back. Her eyes were closed. A moment of connection occurred, her thoughts coming together as they should, "Make it stop, Leonid." She opened her eyes, looking to him for help. "I can't make it stop."

She felt the swirling darkness inside her like a tide, her head barely breaching the surface. His touch was soothing but the fear was not gone, the abyss inside her was inescapable. Hadn't it always been so? Hadn't she known from the day that her family had been killed that this was inevitable? Madness. How appropriate. She felt the emptiness inside herself and could not fight it any longer.

She looked up at Leonid, wishing there was something to say. And she slipped back into the void.

***

So closure...It is coming. I swear. Stay with me. Chapter 14 is almost finished with some new scenes based on what you guys have said. Also thank you to MJ, without whom I would be lost in a sea of typos and plot holes. And as always, Lee and Lethicia were integral to editing this story so thank you two wonderful ladies again.

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