Chapter 12

Part 2

“That is truth.” Alilia agreed. “You know, I simply cannot picture you being friends with such a… person. What is he like?”

“Well, he is well educated, for a human of his age, and very respectful, in his way. Not deferential, mind you, except when he first met me, for then he thought I was a god! But he is respectful.”

“A god! You? Why would he think that?” Alilia giggled.

“He said I was glowing. I believe he can see my power, somehow. But he is a good youth. He trapped some small game, a rabbit and some squirrels, and said a prayer to apologize to their spirits for their deaths.”

“You refer to his youth. How old is he?” Nemia asked.

“He is sixteen years old, though one would never guess it to look at him.” Yazadril chuckled. “Here, let me show you.”

He cast an Illusion of Markee, and the young man’s image appeared in the center of the room, or at least his image from the chest down appeared, since the ceiling was only two meters high. “That is how huge he is. I will move the image down, so you can see what he looks like.”

The image moved down, its feet and ankles disappearing into the floor, until the top of the head was below the ceiling.

“By the Source! He is a monster!” Alilia exclaimed.

“Hardly a monster!” Yazadril laughed. “He is simply more in need of a barber than anyone else I have ever seen! Nemia has agreed to perform that service for him, which I am sure will leave him in a far more presentable state.”

“His body hair is disgusting!” Alilia said with a shudder, and pointedly looked away. “You should shave him from the neck down when you shave his face, Nemia! He is probably infested with lice and ticks and vermin of every variety!

Suddenly Nemia stood and screamed: “Dalia!”, and Translocated so hurriedly that she made no attempt to compensate for air displacement. The sudden implosion of air that resulted sucked both Yazadril and Alilia from their seats to their knees on the floor.

Then Alilia screamed: “Bezedil!”, and she also disappeared, though she compensated for displacement perfectly, without even considering it.

The horror and terror in their voices struck Yazadril’s heart with a lance of panic. Though he was risking his own life and the lives of others to do so, he Translocated to follow, targeting his wife’s unknown location without taking the time to project his consciousness there, aiming to appear a meter behind her.

His aim was understandably off a bit, and he appeared a quarter of a meter above the ground below his home. He fell to his knees in the grass, just as Nemia looked straight up and screamed: “Talia!”

He looked up, following her gaze, to see his daughter falling directly toward them!

Nemia cast Levitate on her daughter faster than Yazadril would ever have believed possible, but Talia was then only six meters above them and falling sickeningly fast. Nemia had more than enough power, but it could not be in time! But someone else was also throwing their talent and power into Nemia’s spell, and Yazadril thought for a fraction of a second that it might be enough.

Then his shoulder was seized in an iron grip and he was thrown forward to his hands and knees, and Alilia’s voice was screaming in his ear: “Read him!”

There before him, close enough to touch, were the twisted, shattered and bloody bodies of Dalia and Bezedil. He gaped in shock.

Beside him, Talia impacted Nemia with a sickening thud and drove her to the ground, as his wife physically caught his remaining daughter. Even with another to boost her, Nemia had been unable to cancel all of Talia’s momentum without hurting her.

Yazadril did not even have time to consider whether either of them lived.

“Too late for Dalia! Read him!” Alilia screamed in grief and rage, and she roughly seized Yazadril’s head with both hands. Her immense power and will flooded into him, and he had no choice. He cast the Reading, and merged with the sickening remains of Bezedil’s dying mind. Less than a twentieth of the young elf’s brain still lived, and it would be dead as well in a second or two, but the power that Alilia poured into him was of such immensity that he was able to Read the last few seconds of Bezedil’s life. He was later to learn that everyone in the valley was forced to experience it with him, so intense was the power and projection of the Reading.

For those few seconds, he was Bezedil. He was in a dim room, and Dalia was in his arms, her lips soft beneath his in a loving kiss, their bodies about to join, his heart filled with love for her. There was the sound of a door opening, and sudden light from the doorway. He looked up in surprise to see Dalia in the doorway, her face struck with the grief of betrayal. He looked down at the girl in his arms, and realized to his horror that it was not Dalia he held, but Talia. He looked back up as Dalia ran across the room and leaped through the curtains and out the open window. He tried to scream “No!”, but his voice could only make a hoarse croak around the lump in his throat as his mind filled with guilt and horror and grief. He sprang from the bed and ran naked the three steps to the window, leaped through without slowing, saw Dalia’s sickening and fatal impact against the ground far below. Hopelessness overcame him, and he made no effort to save himself.

Alilia wrenched them both out of the vision before they could experience Bezedil’s impact, as the last of the young elf’s mind died.

Alilia released Yazadril, and he slumped to the ground as he was overcome by a blinding headache. He vomited violently, and barely managed to avoid choking on it.

Then he was overcome by panicked concern for his wife and Talia. He forced himself to his hands and knees and looked to them in time to see Nemia finish Healing his daughter and herself. Then they both began to cry, with great wracking sobs of utter grief, Nemia on her knees holding Talia, who lay utterly limp and naked in her mother’s embrace.

He looked to the shattered bodies before him, and his own eyes flooded with tears as the reality of Dalia’s death struck him fully.

“You caused my son’s death! Now you will die!” Alilia suddenly screamed, her face awash with tears as she seized a fistful of Talia’s hair.

“NO!!!” Nemia screamed as she knocked Alilia’s arm away from her daughter and imposed herself between them.

Talia simply lay there limp and crying, and did not appear to have noticed that Alilia had ripped a handful of her hair out when Nemia had knocked the arm away.

“If you kill her you had best kill me too, Alilia, for you will make a Death-Enemy of me!!” Nemia screamed, her sudden rage matching Alilia’s.

“SO BE IT!!!” Alilia yelled, spraying the other with spittle, and gathered her power.

“Have mercy!” Yazadril croaked, and spat out the remains of a mouthful of vomit.

“She raped my son by trickery, and because of that he is dead!!!” Alilia screamed as she turned on him. “Why should I have mercy on her?!!”

Yazadril swallowed hard and shook his head to clear it of lingering stars as he struggled to his feet. He forced himself to speak with a semblance of calm. “Have mercy on me, Alilia! I have lost a child this day, as have you! Please, do not take my remaining daughter as well! Do not take my wife! I am begging you, Alilia, for the sake of the friendship we have shared these last four thousand years!

“Talia has lost her twin sister, and her love as well, for she could not have done such a thing if she did not love your son! She obviously did not mean for this to happen, and could never have foreseen such a horrible consequence! She will have to live with this result for the rest of her days, and it hurts her enough that she tried to take her own life! Has she not suffered enough?”