Difference between revisions of "Betrayal (Elliana Fairchild)"

Latest revision as of 06:30, 19 June 2014

Slump.

Elliana's body ached. The strain of another Binding, one she was unprepared for, was telling enough... but to add that to the surge of power from a Greenshift was exhausting to the extreme. Her body was telling her to collapse, to sleep. To give in.

Her rage kept her awake.

"Your mind is restless."

Elliana looked aside, glaring at the purple serpent that had appeared, coiled beside the recliner. It wasn't really there, of course... this manifestation of Wrathborn was in her mind alone, and even angry Elliana had the mental acuity to recognize such. It helped that the Shajem did not even attempt to fool her in that way.

Yet she still spoke to him. "Yes. That was difficult. Hard enough to come up with such a plan on the fly, but Psyber..." Her fingers clenched on the arm of the chair, the wood underneath the plush covering starting to creak under the pressure of her inhuman strength. Normally, she would control it much better, but tonight... not tonight.

Wrathborn was, surprisingly, a comfort. The snake coiled around her, manifesting the faint tingling ripple of false contact before setting its head on her shoulder. "Fury rarely does you good, Elliana. Let it go. He is a good man, you said so yourself. That he should make mistakes makes him mortal, not worthy of your contempt."

The irony of Wrathborn giving such council was lost on Elliana for the time being. Later she would reflect on it with puzzlement, but at the time, all she could do was grit her teeth. "He is a fool and an arrogant, self-righteous..." she hissed, never finishing her thought. Her vocabulary was failing her, for once.

Quietly the phantom snake hissed in her ear, "Are you angered because he was upset with you again? You place far too much stock in his opinion."

Elliana shook her head, "NO! ... No. Not this time. I am angry because he /betrayed/ me for no good reason. No, worse than that..." She shoved herself upright, the aches in her body protesting as she started to pace. "He betrayed me and almost ruined everything. He risked my- OUR world, Wrathborn. And then he had the gall to lecture ME as if I had done something wrong!"

The snake somehow seemed amused, but at the same time gave a reassuring, phantom squeeze. "He was upset that you did not share your plan. That is what upset him before, yes?"

"THERE WAS NO PLAN!" The words are shouted loud, and Elliana doesn't even care that some of the servants in the house had likely awakened to her fury. "There was no plan, you know that! I had no plots, no intentions aside from finding Wightseer. Which we did. I did the only thing I could think of to save everyone, on the spur of the moment... and he almost ruined it! I TRUSTED him, just as he asked me... and this is how he returns it? Abusing my trust to get close and ruin me? Ruin my WORLD?" She could feel the nails, almost talons by now, digging into her palms. "And then have the gall to say it was all for POWER?"

The snake around her body, spectral or not, felt like a heavy weight. Surprisingly, the tone it had was gentle even now. "Perhaps, from his perspective, that was so. I cannot reassure you, Elliana. It is against my nature to provide..."

Silence. Elliana barely heard what the Shajem was saying, dropping to her knees and staring at the floor. "This... collaboration will not work. Tomorrow... tomorrow I will withdraw from his organization and agree to be enemies. This half-alliance is foolish and will only slow me down."

"You should speak to him first, Elliana," Wrathborn hissed quietly. The good advice was heard, this time, but again the young woman did not pick up on the incongruity.

"Fine," she muttered. Elliana slowly climbed to her feet. "I will keep my end of the bargain, even if he has not honored his. I can be the better one here."