My Drow is home safe. I can feel him, if only just enough to know that he’s where and when he belongs and he’s safe. “Your word, on something that matters to you the way he matters to me. Swear to me you’ll cause no harm to Drow or his loved ones. Myself excluded, of course.” I watch, and I wait, poised to sever the only tie I have left, the only bond to anything or anyone that has ever meant anything to me. It’s all I can do to protect him at this point, and he’s the only thing I give a damn about.
As soon as he gives his word, and not a moment sooner, I will slice through that last remaining connection, throw down my walls, and let the dark god in. Let the dark god win, for Drow’s sake. I will cut away the last of my memories, of my loves, of the life I’ve built coming back here and all the lives I’ve lived before this. All of it, gone in an instant. For Drow.
“You took something of mine. Gail belongs in the afterlife.”
Ah. Of its own accord, one corner of my lips curls upward as comprehension dawns. “This is about her?” He wasn’t the someone she’d come back for. I’d dragged her from the afterlife at her request, because I understood wanting so badly to cross the great divide for love. And she’d asked because of someone else. I might have sympathized with him a few minutes ago. Might have felt his pain at the thought that the woman he loved - as much as he could love - had chosen someone else.
Now, though, all I feel is grim satisfaction. It may have been the only blow I could deal, and I may have dealt it all unknowing, but good. Let him hurt. Let him suffer. Let him grind his teeth and lash out, vicious little temper tantrums to mask the pain of being alone. “She’ll be back there soon enough. There’s only so long what I did can hold. But you’ll always know she didn’t come back for you, won’t you?”
Not that she couldn’t. Not that it hurt too much. Not that what was dead needed to stay dead, and somehow those thoughts soothe the sharp pain that stabs through my chest as I speak the last sentence aloud. No, Gail had been given the choice, and she’d made it. And it hadn’t been him.
((If he does give his word in some way, feel free to assume she followed through, because she would do. Just not before doing what little she can at this point to protect Drow.))
As soon as he gives his word, and not a moment sooner, I will slice through that last remaining connection, throw down my walls, and let the dark god in. Let the dark god win, for Drow’s sake. I will cut away the last of my memories, of my loves, of the life I’ve built coming back here and all the lives I’ve lived before this. All of it, gone in an instant. For Drow.
“You took something of mine. Gail belongs in the afterlife.”
Ah. Of its own accord, one corner of my lips curls upward as comprehension dawns. “This is about her?” He wasn’t the someone she’d come back for. I’d dragged her from the afterlife at her request, because I understood wanting so badly to cross the great divide for love. And she’d asked because of someone else. I might have sympathized with him a few minutes ago. Might have felt his pain at the thought that the woman he loved - as much as he could love - had chosen someone else.
Now, though, all I feel is grim satisfaction. It may have been the only blow I could deal, and I may have dealt it all unknowing, but good. Let him hurt. Let him suffer. Let him grind his teeth and lash out, vicious little temper tantrums to mask the pain of being alone. “She’ll be back there soon enough. There’s only so long what I did can hold. But you’ll always know she didn’t come back for you, won’t you?”
Not that she couldn’t. Not that it hurt too much. Not that what was dead needed to stay dead, and somehow those thoughts soothe the sharp pain that stabs through my chest as I speak the last sentence aloud. No, Gail had been given the choice, and she’d made it. And it hadn’t been him.
((If he does give his word in some way, feel free to assume she followed through, because she would do. Just not before doing what little she can at this point to protect Drow.))
@[Carnage]