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Realms Converge	By : Candice Category: +G through L > Legacy of Kain Views: 3562 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Legacy of Kain, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.Don't get to Nosgoth itself til chap 5

Chapter List
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Chapter Forty-five: Facing the Past

While we waited for word back from the Eldar King, Brice and Lucius were kind enough to help us acclimate to some of the every day tech that people used nowadays, which made for a few amusing incidents here and there, one even revolved around an espresso machine of all things. We found out as well that the full blooded vampires on Gaia could actually Turn a Childe as Kain was learning how to via necromancy, though they preferred to scout out their future Childeren from amongst the living and turn them as the Breed did, as Janos and Vorador did back on Nosgoth, and not turn long dead corpses due to... complications.

"Easier to get a bead on a persons personality and you have less of an issue acclimating them to societal changes," Brice had explained. "Finding and Turning someone dead for even fifty years tends to lead to a bit of shock regarding any changes or, if older then that, initial memory issues. We try to avoid that as it makes the rearing of the fledge take longer."

"Understandable," Kain said thoughtfully and I knew he was briefly contemplating how best to rear the six long dead Sarafan, especially as I had confirmed the lack of any human memories. "Do their minds regress to infancy or do they still retain knowledge?"

"Fledges turned when dead over seventy to a hundred years act on instinct at first," Lucius pipped up, knowing as I did the 'why' behind the question. "More like intelligent animals then sentient beings really, but eventually they will regain any speech-craft, reading and writing that they had in life. Memories on the other hand are a complete loss due to the long term brain degradation in the once corpse."

"Technically it should be the same for speech and reading," Brice said with a frown. "Nothing in magic or science has yet explained why a fledge that long dead does not have to be retaught like a newborn babe, but they do regain the ability about a month to two months after being Turned. Extreme handful 'til then."

~I think we may need to leave Vorador and Alma with you for a time,~ I Whispered. ~Six wild-seeming fledges would be a bit of a handful for even you my King.~

~You may be correct,~ came the thoughtful reply.

Brice was also kind enough to share what he could about my parents history while we waited. Altair had not long been the King of the Draconian Clan before the Clan's arrival on Gaia. There had been a major coupe due to the horrid treatment of the half-bloods during the harshest years as their original sun was dying as older and crueler vampires took what they wanted regarding the until then beloved, treasured and protected half-bloods that in many cases became not but a food source. Altair had taken over in order to stop those atrocities with my then century old Father and several others who stood willingly at Altair's side. That had been roughly a thousand years ago. I shook my head at the information and looked at Kain.

"It sounds almost as if Auron might have been one of those half-bloods mistreated and then decided to perpetuate the horror himself," I said with a frown.

"Understanding the mindset of our enemy will only help us defeat him," Kain tilted his head at me and raised his brow. "Do you suddenly pity him due to this new information mine own?"

"Pity? Mayhaps," I said with a shrug of shoulder and wing. "But sympathize? Forgive? Excuse? Never. He continued the cycle of pain, which means to me that he either had to have been one of those to break just as he breaks his pets or he had joined in eagerly from the start when it came to causing others pain. He prized virgins above all as well, which means he had a dedicated taste for the sweeter blood and chance to break the innocent which leads me to believe he was more along the lines of the later rather then the former. How many of the children within the castle were un-Awakened half-bloods stolen in the middle on the night? Kept for their sweet blood and broken to his hand early on? No. Death would be too good for him, yet I will not make the mistake of visiting anything but a swift and immediate punishment lest he escape and cause others yet more pain just because I want to make him suffer in turn for what was done to me and the others."

"Aye lass," Brice rolled his own shoulders, which ruffled his wings and he shook his head. "From what all you've told us, were you to issue a punishment equal to what he has put others through... he might well enjoy it and believe he still has some power over you."

"Indeed," I said with a wince. "I would rather like to avoid his gloating that I have yet retained his detailed lessons regarding the torture of others."

"He would indeed take a victory in that," Kain said with a nod and sneer. "Better to end him swiftly."

"Exactly," I shook my head and looked back to Brice. "So Altair took over the Clans with my Father's help, what happened next?"

"Until that point no one had been looking for a way to survive, to see if there was a way to outlive our original world's end," Lucius interjected eagerly. "Lord Altair gathered together the greatest magical minds of our world to figure out a way to get survivors to a new home."

"Creating the Path Stones in the process," I nodded my head and then frowned. "How did Auron get trusted with one of the Stones?"

"He was The Dreamer lass," Brice said.

"Clarify that please?" I asked with a tilt of my head.

"Creating a new link between dimensions isn't an easy task," Lucius said. "I don't understand the process completely, but when a person dreams more oft then not what is seen in their dreams is actually a glimpse into other worlds."

"I figured that out already when I realized that I had landed in Nosgoth," I said dryly. "Though for a brief time I had thought that my mind had finally snapped. But I have never really experienced pain and pleasure while in a true dream state. Sleep became a refuge for me for a reason. Thus the reality of where I had suddenly ended up sank in pretty quick. Within the first week of my being there even."

Kain's mind brushed my own with a distinctly smug sensation. I sent back a mental push of fond exasperation that made his lips quirk briefly with amusement.

"Fair enough lass," Brice said and he continued the narrative. "In any case, the mages used combined sleep and dimensional magics to keep Auron in a dream state for long periods so that he could use the time to 'explore' other dimensions. He was then one who found Gaia for us."

"And the rest, as they say, is history," Kain rumbled softly from where he stood leaning against the kitchenette.

"Aye," Brice acknowledged with a nod.

"And my mother?" I asked. "How did my parents meet? Hell, how does a thousand-year-old vampire end up getting a human or half-blooded woman pregnant anyway?"

"Ah... that," Lucius blushed fire-truck red and I realized suddenly that the vampires of Gaia might well be a bit more prudish then their Nosgothian counterparts.

"I'll explain it lad," Brice said with a roll of his eyes. "Youngsters these days... roughly one in a thousand male vampires have the potential to release viable seed when they orgasm. Bit o' inherent magic lets others sense the viability in a particular male, even though it just becomes a matter of a little bit of extra enjoyment for the full-blooded females and even the males... an' he's off..."

Brice said the last part just as Lucius bolted for the kitchen door and as far away from the conversation as he could be whilst still able to be on hand in an emergency. I could not only sense it through his Aura, but could also smell his embarrassment as he fled the kitchen. The kid seemed a mirror of myself when I had first been getting used to Vorador's Brides, only I had at the least tried to listen in on the conversations at first in order to learn a few things. I hadn't initially bolted those first two years until the point where the conversations started going over some of the more 'kinky' aspects of sex. Kain and I shared a bemused look before I turned back to Brice.

"Most fledglings get over the whole 'casual sex-talk' thing within the first century in Nosgoth," I said in a bemused tone.

"Was the same way here for a time before humans started to get all 'prim and proper' and 'missionary for procreation only' like," Brice said with an amused huff. "Gotten better about it in the past two-hundred years, but you still end up with a lot of sex-talk-shy fledges these days."

~You cannot deny your own shyness when you first arrived mine own,~ Kain Whispered in amusement.

~I had better reasons behind that shyness then 'eww sex!'~ I shot back with a mental huff. ~Nor did the shyness much long last after I imbued my own Symbol. It was more a confidence issue then prudishness.~

~True enough,~ he responded in a soothing rumble.

"At any rate lass," Brice continued with a small snicker of sound as he turned to pour himself a cup of coffee. "Way to tell if a male full-blood is viable is his seed. If it feels equally as if it is freezin' and yet warm at the same time when it comes in contact with skin, then he has a chance at... eh.. 'sowin' his oats' if you will."

I looked at Kain with widened eyes and then let out a bemused, if slightly exasperated sigh as I took in his changed stance.

~Mine King... if you had wings, you would be mantling them in an obvious display right now...~ I Whispered. He could be such a male sometimes.

Kain shot me a smug look and a smirk that flashed fang.

~I am a prideful creature, as you well know mine Little One,~ he hummed into my mind with dark satisfaction. ~Finding out that I can indeed create my own Childe and not have to rely forever on Vorador for troops was a boon indeed. To find out that there is a probability, based on your own comments, that I could also potentially get a woman, my woman, my Queen, with child with enough time and luck? A balm to any male's pride it is to know that one has not been rendered as sterile as a gelding because of the machinations of others.~

~I understand Kain, my King,~ I Whispered back gently knowing he was referencing his forced change into a vampire. A number of things had proved to parallel Nosgothian vampires and this might well prove to be the same. ~It is a good thing to know that the potential is there.~

Brice turned back around and we turned our attention back to him.

"As to how your parents met," Brice started, unaware of our mental byplay, "your mum was a nurse in her younger years for the Clans. Kind, gentle, with a good bedside manner as long as you kept an even temper. Try to go off before she and the doc's said you were fit for duty and you'd wake a hell-cat you would."

"I take it that Father made such a mistake?" I asked in a dry tone.

"Aye, that he did lass," Brice said with a fond chuckle and a far away look. "You know too well how vulnerable our wings are. Eldar or youth that vulnerability remains, at least in part. You'll already have noticed your own wings have gotten a little more resilient, but are still points of potential weakness. Well, your Father and I got ourselves injured badly at one point due to an incendiary grenade. We protected a handful of men from a blast by using our wings as a shield."

I winced at that. "Burn damage does take a long while to heal."

"Not as long as loosin' 'em," Brice said with a nod as he took another sip of his coffee, "but near as bad. Depending on how extensive the damage you can still fly a ways..."

"But that's not suggested unless you have to in order to get away from an immediate threat," I finished.

He gave another nod. "Exactly. At any rate, your Father thought he was well enough to get back to the field. Your mum said 'no' to us both and told us not to go anywhere. Well... suffice to say, he ignored her."

"How would she have stopped him?" Kain asked with a blink.

Brice shot him a bemused look, "You've yet to be hit by a taser, have ya?"

Kain gave him a blank look even as I burst into laughter.

"She didn't!" I said, highly amused. "She tased him?!"

"Those things are designed to overwhelm the nervous system lass," Brice said with a grin. "Doesn't have to pierce the sub-dermal scaling, just has to catch on the first few layers of skin to send the shock through someone, even a vampire."

"Katrina..." Kain said with a faint grumble to his tone. A demand that I clarify what the hell we were talking about.

I turned to him with a small grin.

"You remember when that one fledge that tried his luck by mouthing off to you about a century ago and you hit him with that controlled lightning burst that left him twitching on the ground uncontrollably for several minutes?" I asked.

Kain blinked at me and then nodded. Brice pulled a small object from his belt and set it on the kitchen counter. He tapped one talon tip lightly against the small device. A device that could easily be hidden in his large hand.

"This is a taser. Does to humans and vampires via technology what it sounds like you did via magic to this fledge the lass is talkin' about," the Eldar said with a grin.

Kain raised a brow as he eyed the object before he looked up at Brice.

"You gave your humans access to such things prior to the Unveiling?" he asked in a dry tone.

"To the healers that we trusted, yes. Doctors and nurses that have trained with us and are loyal to the Clans," Brice said with another nod.

"'Loyal to the Clans'?" Kain repeated as he tilted his head. "You do not have Clan specific healers?"

"We do," Brice said with a shrug. "But we also have healers that are not assigned to any particular Clan. They take a sworn Oath to ensure that they have no affiliation to any particular Clan. This allows them to minister to any who come to them. Rather like Switzerland. If one does gain affiliation for any reason to a specific Clan, the magic of the Oath then forces them join that particular Clan."

"So when Father and Mother developed an attachment to each other..." I started.

"She became a nurse for the Draconian Clan as a result of that relationship, yes," Brice nodded at me with a smile. "At any rate, even before tasers were invented we gave our healers charged lightning runes meant to act the same way. Bad manners t' drain the healer trying t' tend t' yer wounded arse it is."

I laughed softly at the mental image and shook my head.

"Any rate," he continued, "your Father took umbrage to that. 'Do you have any idea of just who I am woman?!' Ha! Your mum yanked his still twitching form back onto the medical bed, shoved him down onto his stomach so he wouldn't be on his wings and responded with dry tone, 'I don't care if you're the second coming of Christ, Gandhi and Marten Luther King combined. You're in my hospital and you'll do as the doctor ordered and remain in that bed or do I need to hit you with the rune that I have as well?' Love at first verbal beat-down it was. Your Father had his flings over the centuries, but I'd never seen him outright smitten with someone til tha' day. Two could fight like cats and dogs and yet they still loved each other deeply."

Kain's lips twitched into a smirk and I chuckled softly at first before I fell into a fit of laughter.

Several more stories were shared with us as the days progressed while we waited for Altair to bring news. I had been, in turns, ecstatic and sorrowful at the history he shared with us. For history it was...

By the time Brice had shared several dozen additional stories of my parents, I found that I was anxious indeed to move on to other things. It was... hard to face one who had known both of my parents so well and to hear stories about them when I had been denied the chance to truly know either of them due to a sniper's bullet. A bullet that had been meant for Altair's skull. Even a vampire's Torpor driven evolutions did not protect against such long range weaponry. One shot denied me the both of them.

It had been a bitter sense of relief that filled me when Altair arrived with news. Even with advanced technology at his talon tips, it took Altair four days to get back to us on several viable locations where Auron's castle might be hidden. In all honesty, both Kain and I had expected the search to take longer then it had. Thankfully the map I had drawn up for them regarding what I had memorized of the castle layout had narrowed the search for the Eldar as far as the general size of the cliff he was looking for.

Scouting the locations proved difficult at first. We needed to be able to fly in low enough yet remain unseen and Kain refused to be left behind. What we worked out was actually simple in the end. A long rope for Lucius, Brice and Altair to hold to while I had my Gift active. It took time to perfect flying in such a formation but we were able to have things worked out to my satisfaction with another day. Kain had changed into his Cloud of Bats to act the part of a migrating Cloud. I ended up with a few small passengers holding tight to various parts of my armor as we approached each of the locations.

The first location proved to be a dud. Even flying along the full edge of the cliff revealed no signs of a castle anywhere along the rim.

It was the second location that revealed Auron's previous hide-away where I had been kept.

I say 'previous', as once we flew within range we could easily see that the castle seemed to have been abandoned and we could hear no sounds of any potential inhabitants, namely the near constant screams of pain that I could remember. I guided the others in a circling pattern and found the very window that I had been flung from by the chemical and magical explosion that had heralded my forced arrival in Nosgoth. We landed carefully and used that very 'exit point' to slip inside the building only to find said room stripped bare of objects, though there were still signs of a fiery explosion left upon the walls.

Kain reverted to his normal shape and took hold of the lengthy rope. Using the Whisper, and keeping my Gift active, we moved carefully through several rooms before we all realized that the entirety of the place had been gutted. Kain and I had a brief mental conversation and I dropped my Gift once we were done. There was no point to having the Gift active it seemed, but I was ready to conceal myself and the others again in an instants notice.

I led the small group room by room through the former castle of horrors as we searched for potential clues as to where Auron had fled to. Some of the rooms still bore traces of blood stains upon the stone walls and grout, though it was plain that someone had done their damnedest in trying to remove it all. Even now, two years time since my escape as far as Gaia was concerned, the scent of bleach and lye lingered in the air.

I came to a halt at one point and crouched to brush shaking fingers against deep groves dug into the stone floor. I stared at my shaking hand and froze as I felt the aching tug of painful memories push at the edges of my mind. I might not be as susceptible to flashbacks as I had been in my early years on Nosgoth, but the memories could still try to pull me under from time to time. Here, back in the place where it all happened? The memories were far closer to the surface of my mind then they had been in years.

"Katrina?" Kain rumbled a firm sounding query of noise when he noticed my trembling hand.

I flexed said hand and then slowly drew my claws along the grooved lines instead of answering him. My claws fit along the lines perfectly and Kain let out a low growl as he realized what I was showing to them. I stood and then pointed out several other claw-made groves that led away from a large set of wooden doors.

"Second to final escape attempt," I said in a voice void of all emotion. "It didn't matter at that point what I dug my claws and fangs into. I wanted out. I had been three levels down when I broke out that night too. Got fairly far before they realized I had gotten loose."

"Lass... if ye need to step outside..." Brice started, his accent thick with controlled anger and worry.

"Silence," I hissed out even as Kain moved to rest a calming, taloned hand against my left wing where the others could not see. The touch soothed as much as it set me further on edge and I knew my eyes had gone white with power. "This place... the past will always be a part of me but it will not control me. We press on to see if Auron left any clues behind as to where he might have gone."

Lucius looked like he was about to say something when Altair's hand fell upon his shoulder and silenced the boy. He looked at his King with a lost expression on his face and I turned away from the pair to glare at Brice. The dark-haired Eldar nodded his head in a respectful bow.

"As ye wish Lady Katrina," Brice responded in a more formal tone.

I shifted as I turned and briefly caught Kain's hand in my own, the gesture was easily hidden by the angle of my body and where he stood in respect to my own position. I squeezed his hand and he let a small spark of energy zap between us using his magic, a spark of pleasing, soothing, electrical energy meant to chase away the memory of pain and anchor me more completely to the now. He had to do that covertly a number of times to help steady me as we made our way through the castle, idle zapping touches carefully ministered where the others could not see. Touches and magic that reminded me I was safe as we traversed the dark halls.

We came across rooms that still smelled of fear and torture. Across rooms that still smelled of children's blood. Rooms that yet carried the scents of acts performed that were both willing and not. Auron's hidden room behind the spear statue had been stripped bare. Only one room in the entire place remained untouched...

The room that would have been 'mine' had I broken and given into Auron's demands of me.

Pure rage filled my thoughts when we came across that last room with its' four poster bed and light colored sheets. The chains and shackles used to hold me in place were still attached to the wall and showed signs of careful maintenance, same for the second set of shackles hanging from a hook on the far wall. This was both the room that had been 'promised' to me and the room where I had been taught the unwanted knowledge of how to torture people and keep them alive for long periods of time. There was even a number of dresses hanging in plain view from a rack like a visual mockery of a ladies room. Kain, giving the illusion of a comforting, one-armed hug around my waist that was in truth a restricting hold meant to prevent me from flying off the handle, looked around the room critically and sent out a small pulse of his magic.

"Strange," he said, a soothing sub-harmonic rumble echoed in his voice and along my skin.

"You noticed it as well?" Altair said as he moved further into the room.

"Noticed what?" Lucius asked as he looked the large room over and voices the very question I wanted to echo, though my current rage would have resulted in a more... rude... query, thus I kept silent.

Brice's expression was grim, "Look around lad. There's no dust and no magic to preserve the room. Yet the room is neat and smells like fresh cleaning oils. Someone was here. Recent like."

I turned my head to look at Brice and then let my breath out through my nose in a strong huff to clear it. I took several careful scenting breaths of air and then let out a low, enraged growl.

"Other then the cleaning oils I can smell the scent of Sakura blossom oil... he liked that scent for some reason," I rolled my shoulders and shifted as my as Kain's firm grip allowed for. "I also... there is another scent that is familiar to me and yet... it is not a scent that was well known to me."

"Someone newly broken to your tormentor's hand mayhaps?" Kain asked as he looked to the rooms entrance. "Or someone you did not oft have contact with?"

Brice was closest to the doorway and had moved so that he could keep watch in case of an enemy approach. It was obvious now that we weren't the only ones here.

Kain's words struck a cord of memory though and I closed my eyes and just let my mind wander for a few moments as I simply focused on breathing. I hummed a few bars of a song to myself as my mind wandered before an image of a door slamming shut and the enraged pounding of a fist against a steel door popped into my head. A woman shouting at me to open the door as fear-scent filled the air to make a scent that smelled like bitter almonds and cinnamon. My eyes flew open.

"The guard I escaped from just before I landed in Nosgoth," I said. "It's her scent."

"Good mine own, very good," Kain murmured softly next to my ear. "Can you track her?"

"I... believe so," I said as I looked around with a small frown. "The sheer amount of cleaning solvents and solutions that have been used here cloud the scent however."

"Do as you can," Altair said softly. "We may yet have the chance to capture and question the female."

"Right," I rolled my shoulders and pushed one wing lightly against Kain.

He released his hold on my waist a moment later and I started for the door. Brice moved out of my way and the others immediately moved to flank me once I was back in the hall. I carefully scented the air for the females scent and found it stronger in the direction opposite of where we came from. I led them quietly, a pack on the hunt, as I tracked that scent. The smell of bleach and cleaning oils grew stronger and I had to let out several silent huffs of air to regain the females scent hidden beneath the fouling smells. Kain, Altair and Brice all had various pained expressions while Lucius' face was twisted in a faint grimace. The full-blooded vampire's superior sense of smell compared to a half-blood's was a detriment due to the harsh scents in the air.

I slowed my pace as we neared a set of doors that led to a grand stairway. Below would be a mockery of a ballroom. I signaled the others and they fanned out carefully, Kain staying close to my side, and I eased the door carefully open. The soft yet rough sound of a scrub brush against stone filled the air. I eased carefully toward the grand stairways banister and looked down. Even with centuries spent on the battlefield and helping to tend to various injuries and illnesses it still took my mind a moment to process the physical state of the girl below who was working diligently with one hand to scrub away a stubborn stain on the stone floor.

The girl only had one hand... one arm... to use in order to complete her given task.

She wore tight fitting clothes and the top was specifically designed to show off the missing right limb. A limb that, one could easily see by the scaring that was visible even at a distance, had been ripped clean from its' socket in a single harsh rip. I felt a flash of pity as I looked at the girl and I knew, just knew, that the loss of that limb had been because of my successful escape. A punishment for failing to keep me in line. Kain and Altair both moved to either side of me while Brice and Lucius remained close to the doors to watch our backs. I looked at Kain with a pained frown.

~She looks to be alone and I can scent no others beneath the cleaning solutions,~ I Whispered to him. ~Shall I risk approaching her?~

~Do so carefully mine own,~ he responded after a moment. ~We do not know how she has been trained to react to an outside presence.~

I nodded once in response and looked at Altair.

~I am going to approach her,~ I told the Eldar. ~Watch my back.~

~Are you sure that is...~ I held up my hand in a 'halt' gesture and frowned at him. He nodded his head. ~Very well. Be wary~

~Of course,~ I responded.

I moved to the stairs and as I did so I brought my feet down with more force then usual. Mind you, that meant that I walked at that point with human loud footsteps instead of the silent pace that I normally moved at. The girl dropped the scrub brush she had been using and twisted her form in my direction. We both froze and stared at each other for a long moment before she let out a soft whimper of noise.

"Our Master was right... you came back," she whispered softly. Her voice seemed louder then it should in the empty castle.

"I have no master," I said with a quick sneer. I tilted my head and frowned at her as I took a few further steps down the stair case. "Nor should you. What was done to us and the others here should never have happened."

"Shoulda, coulda, woulda. It still happened," she murmured as she stared at me with blank eyes and she settled into a respectful kneeling position with her hand on her knee.

I took a moment to look her over. She had soft, Asian features and a slight build. Chocolate brown eyes and dark hair that was cut raggedly short, as if a child had attacked her hair with scissors. I brushed my Aura against her in a light touch and could feel how drained, tired... and afraid she was. I took a few more steps and her hand clenched tight enough that I could smell blood as her claws dug into her hand. I went still.

"Shhhh now Childe," I said softly. "I intend you no harm unless you lash out first. You do not have to be afraid of me."

"Why... why did you have to come back?" she asked with a whimper in her tone.

My hand tightened on the barrister and I shifted my stance enough to be ready to leap aside if there was a need. I did not like the way she asked that question.

"I came back to kill Auron," I said in a gentle tone. "To stop him from hurting others further."

"You couldn't have just... stayed wherever it was you went to?" she asked softly. She shook her head a moment later. "Master knew you would come back... he said you would want revenge and that he would bring you to heel instead."

"I will not leave an enemy at my back, nor would I ever yield to him," I said to her firmly. I softened my voice when she flinched. "Let me help you Childe. That monster is no one's master. He is just another mad man that needs be put down."

"..." she looked down at her hand and then back up at me. A small flicker of almost defiance flickered through her eyes before they went dull again. "I... I can't."

"Childe... he held me captive for a over a hundred and fifty years and I still got away from him," I took another step, almost to the bottom of the stairs and I carefully held my hand out toward her. "You are not a slave. You can be free of him. Let me help you."

"I... I..." she took several, near hyperventilating breaths before she froze. "You came back... just like he said you would..."

Everything felt wrong. It was like talking to a fledge who had given up and was about to jump into a lake to... oh shit!

She looked back up at me with those dull, dead eyes and spoke in an equally dead voice.

"'Know that this is your fault'," she whispered and her voice was somehow painfully loud.

She pulled a gun from its' resting place beside the bucket of water, put the muzzle to her temple and pulled the trigger all before I could begin to react. The explosion of noise caused by the gun going off rang violently through the air. Blood, skull bits and brain matter went flying across the room and I flinched back as her body thudded against the ground. The gun fell from loose fingertips to clatter against the stone.

Lucius let out a choked sound from up at the top of the stairs as if he were about to throw up. Altair was in front of me a moment later, back to the body and wings spread in a shield as he forced me low. Not to protect me from the gruesome sight in front of me but to shield me from any other potential hidden surprises. Kain was next to us a moment later, the energies of his magic coiled and ready around his hand with a shielding spell if needed. Brice landed close to the body and carefully approached the broken form.

"Be careful Brice," Altair hissed out as he looked at Brice over his shoulder.

"I know what to look for my Lord," Brice said grimly as he moved the gun away from the body and slowly started to check the fallen form over. "Stay over there, keep yer heads down and let me do my job, aye?"

Altair let out a huff of breath at that.

"Are you alright?" Altair asked as he glanced down at me.

"I am fine," I growled out in an angry tone.

"Why did she say that?" Lucius asked as he moved down the stairs to our side. He glanced over his shoulder and around the room carefully, having pulled himself together.

"A message from Auron most like," Kain growled, his magic still crackling unformed around his hand. "Something meant to dishearten Katrina."

"The only thing he succeeded in doing is making the desire for his death more solid in my mind," I said in a low, dangerous tone.

"Calm mine own," Kain rumbled.

"I am calm," I responded in a level tone.

"Odd..." Brice muttered as he stood up, something held in one hand. "All clear."

Kain, Altair and I all stood up and slowly made our way over to where Brice stood. Lucius remained at the stairway and kept an eye out. Kain let go of most of the magic he had pulled forth but I could still feel the tingling edge of power that signaled his readiness to act. I looked at the object in Brice's hand and did a brief double-take. It was an old iPod touch with a cracked screen.

"Brice... may I see that?" I held out my hand to him.

"Here lass," he passed it over to me.

I turned the iPod over and, sure enough, there were my initials scratched into the metal back.

"This is my old iPod... why the hell did she have it?" I muttered as I turned it over and tapped the power button. "Thing still works..."

I opened up the menu and then blinked when I saw a series of recently dated, voice recorded audio files. I say recently dated but it was more that the audio files started roughly half a year before my escape and there was a file dated every few months. I rolled my shoulders and felt my wings give a small, volatile jerk against my back. I tapped on the first audio file.

-Oh... it... it's recording?- the girl's voice filled the air in a soft whisper of sound. -Still pays music and the recorder works... lot of old stupid classical shit... but...- There was a long period of silence. -I... I think I'll keep this hidden... I hope that Au... no no... remember to call him Master... have to remember... have to remember...-

The recording ended there and I let out a soft growl. I tapped on another file dated a few months later.

-Master doesn't know I hid this away. I make sure to get all my tasks done and he's done with me before I take it out of the cubby...- a soft whimper. -I hope he doesn't find it... he doesn't like us having things he didn't give to us directly. I don't want to tell him though... I'll be punished... I don't want to be here... wanna go home...-

Again the recording was brief. Kain's hand settled on my hip and I took a slow breath before I jumped ahead six months in the recordings.

-Angry... Master's so angry with me. I'm scared,- she was crying. -I let her trick me. I let his pet l'ange get away from me when I went to move her to his chambers like he told me to. He threw me into my room... he said he's going to 'talk' to me later,- sounds of panicked sobbing filled the air. -I've seen the results of him 'having a talk' with the others... I don't want.. I don't... oh god... I can feel his Aura... he's coming...-

There was a scrambling sound, stone shoved against stone, the crack of glass. A few moments later an angry, french accented voice sounded but was muffled by where ever she had hid the iPod, but the sound of flesh tearing, bones breaking and her sudden shrieks of agony were easy to make out. There were no recordings for another five months. I moved to tap the next recording and Brice's taloned hand closed over my smaller hand.

"Lass... ye don't need to listen to all of these," he said in a kindly tone. "Let me deal with it and we can store it as evidence for later if need."

I stared at his hand for a long moment before I shifted my hand out from under his. I did lean subtly against Kain, but I still tapped on the next recording.

-I'm alone now, it's safe to keep this with me now that Master is gone. The music helps, a little, so that I don't hear the phantom screams of the other... I'm to clean the entire castle within the next two years. I have just enough blood available to me in the cold storage room to last me that long,- the girl's voice sounded dead. -The only room I'm supposed to keep intact is l'ange's. Master said she will come back. That all of us come to heel at his feet eventually. If she comes back... I'm to deliver a message to her... Master taught me how to use a gun just so I could deliver the message properly to l'ange. I remember the message... I... I'm a g-good... g-g-girl...-

There was a long, painful pause.

-Don't come back l'ange... he wants to make you... just don't come back.-

The rest of the recordings were nonsensical. In most of them she would sing a few broken bars from the songs on my old playlist and then ended each of the remaining recordings with 'please don't come back' and 'I'm so t-tired...'. It was heart-wrenching to hear the deterioration in her voice. So completely broken...

I looked back down at the body and let out a soft sigh as I powered off the iPod.

"He'll pay for this," I murmured softly to the corpse of that poor girl. "Rest in peace childe. Be free."

Dark turn with this chapter but hope you all enjoyed. Please read and review!
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Realms Converge