Chapter 15

Part 2

“She is not sentenced to be raped until the end of her days, Yazadril, but until the end of days!” Alilia barked. “As long as the sun rises above this world, he will rape her! Forever and ever, as far as we are concerned!”

“But… How can that be?”

“How should I know?” Alilia asked, her voice returning to calm, her gaze to Bezedil’s face. “It is not a spell, it is an intuitive curse. It is enough that I said that it would happen, and the curse took enough power from me to make it so. My power may not be fully recovered for a year, or it may never be. A human can live longer than you think, perhaps as long as one hundred and twenty-five years. The curse will last at least that long, for it will let nothing kill him. Perhaps after he dies, it will animate his corpse, so that his dead body can keep raping her, and perhaps when she dies, it will do the same to her. One corpse being raped by another, until the sun eats the world. Or perhaps when he dies the curse will fail. I do not care. It will last long enough that I will see her punished for my son’s death.”

“Your son killed himself in a moment of youthful foolishness, as my daughter did!!!” Yazadril yelled. “Can you honestly say that Talia deserves what you have done to her?!!! That for a few moments of stolen pleasure she deserves to be raped by a corpse for millions of years?!!!”

“No.” Alilia admitted calmly. “It was done in a moment of thoughtless anger, and it was horribly excessive. I do not care. I can do nothing about it now. After I have seen that she is punished by him a few times, you can kill me for it if you wish. I will not hinder you from taking my life, for with Bezedil gone, my will to live is gone with him.”

Yazadril could only stare in shock for long moments, then his eyes hardened. “Perhaps I will kill you, Alilia. Or perhaps I will gather the power to cast a similar curse upon you. You can spend a few thousand years taking turns with my daughter, being raped by the corpse of my friend.”

He waited only long enough to see the shocked fear on Alilia’s face, before turning and carrying his wife from the hall.

Nemia woke in his arms as he left the hall and emerged into bright sunlight. “You have not carried me like this since I was a child.” she murmured. “I knew even then that you were my destined love. I was only eight years old when I first saw you, and I knew in a moment that you were destined to be my husband.”

“Did you?” Yazadril asked in surprise. “Well, you certainly took your time at letting me know about it!” he chuckled.

“Would you have believed me, if I had told you at the age of eight that you were my destiny?” Nemia giggled.

“No, I suppose not.” he smiled.

“When I became an adolescent I rebelled against the idea, as I was so attracted to young males my own age.” Nemia mused. “I convinced myself that you were too old for me, and that my feelings for you were only childhood foolishness. Still, my heart leaped in my chest every time I saw you, and to escape that, I moved to Final Valley to live with my aunt. As far away from you as I could get while still remaining within the lands of The High People. My parents could not dissuade me, so a month later, they moved there as well. And there I dwelt for two centuries, happy but lonely for love. Then came the day you visited, to oversee the renewal of the Wards. The moment I saw you I knew how wrong I had been, and I ran away and cried for all the decades I had wasted. Then I washed my face and brushed my hair, and put on my prettiest blue dress…”

“And you came and told me in no uncertain terms, that you were to be my wife!” Yazadril laughed, caught up in the memory.

“Yes! And you stared at me like I had grown another head!” Nemia laughed.

“Is that what it looked like to you? I was so smitten by your beauty that I could not even speak! Your words filled me with such hope, that I was terrified that you were only teasing me!”

“Truly? I was so afraid that you would reject me that I stepped up and kissed you! I knew you would not reject me after that!” Nemia giggled.

“I remember. I remember it like it was this morning. And from that moment, I knew not one moment of unhappiness. Until yesterday.”

Their mood sobered, and he continued carrying her home, between the widely spaced gigantic trees.

After a while Nemia spoke again. “Yazadril, my love, I know not what will happen to Talia, or what the curse will do to her, but as long as we have each other, I know we can find a way to be happy. I will never stop loving Talia, or stop trying to help her, but even if the worst happens, we cannot give in to despair. Right now I feel more horrible than I ever dreamed I could, but whatever happens, we cannot let it ruin the rest of our lives.”

“I know, Nemia. I cannot lose you. I could not bear to live without you.”

“Or I without you.”

When they arrived home they discovered Hilsith asleep at their kitchen table. Yazadril called to her, then shook her shoulder a little, then more firmly, to no effect. He quickly read her aura, and shook his head in consternation.

“She has had Sleep cast upon her. By Talia.” he pronounced.

“Talia!” Nemia cried as she ran from the room.

Yazadril hurriedly cast Awaken on Hilsith, and hurried after his wife.

He found her hurrying from their bedroom.

“She is not in there!” Nemia told him, sounding on the verge of panic.

“Check her room, I will check Dalia’s!” Yazadril said.

“Talia! Talia!” they called as they hurried from room to room.

“She is here!” Hilsith called from the central room, and they hurried there, then out to the balcony, where Hilsith stood in amazement.

Talia floated in mid-air a meter past the balcony’s railing, spinning slowly in all directions like a child using her first Levitation spell, with no attempt to control her orientation. Her nightgown was mostly covered with her blood from the waist up, because Nemia’s largest kitchen knife protruded from her chest. It was clearly through her heart, because the handle bounced a little with her every heartbeat. Of course, her heart should not have been beating still with the big knife through it, but there it was. Talia was softly crying, hanging limply in the air.

Yazadril cast Movement upon her, and gently stopped her spinning while drawing her into his arms. Then he almost fell with her, because the moment she was back onto the balcony the Levitation spell dissipated. Talia had not dismissed it, it simply ended.

Yazadril carried her in and gently laid her on the couch. He discovered as he did so that the knife point protruded from her back, when it cut his arm.

He Healed his wound as Hilsith carefully tore Talia’s nightgown from the neckline down the front. Only a few drops of blood still leaked from around the wiggling knife blade. Hilsith firmly grasped the handle and pulled it straight out. Talia gave a short scream and convulsed a moment. The wound healed as fast as the blade was removed. It was completely gone the moment the tip of the knife came out of her flesh, and no scar remained to show it had ever been there.

“Talia? Talia? Please speak to us my love.” Nemia quietly begged.

“I cannot kill myself!” Talia sobbed. “The curse will not let me fall, it will not let me die, and I will go to him! I will go to him soon, I cannot resist the urge to do so! I am damned!”

“Talia, we know what you are going through.” Yazadril gently told her. “Alilia has told us of the nature of the curse. It is a powerful curse, but I will find a way to defeat it, I swear I will!”