Dreamselves (Elliana Fairchild)
| Dreamselves (Elliana Fairchild) | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 11 May 2013 |
| Location: | Elliana's Nightmares |
| Synopsis: | For the first time, Elliana speaks with the Shajem inside her. |
| Cast of Characters: | 92 |
| Tinyplot: | Wrathborn |
It was a dream. Or a nightmare, more properly. Elliana knew this, as it was one of the powers she had gained. She also knew this because it was one of the most common of her nightmares, or a variation of it. A scene she'd seen many times before... though usually her power to affect things was much less.
Not that it had mattered. She was still breathing heavily. Her body, tiny and frail-looking, was still battered and starving. Her hand and arm still covered in blood, some hers... some part of the brick she held in her hand. At least this time, the bodies on the ground were those of the original two boys, rather than her friends.
The ones she had betrayed.
Usually, it ended here. This time it did not. The alley was silent... looming above her. She could feel reality wavering, as the nightmare often did, but it had yet to fall apart. And it was now that she said words, at last. Voice childish and small, she asks the night sky, "Why this one? Why always this one? I didn't even know what I was doing, why do I have to relive this memory rather than..."
She trailed off. It could be worse. She did not think of this incident as her greatest sin, not by far. She was a child, she'd fought for her life. It was far more righteous than the many more questionable, willing decisions she had made.
"This is the field you choose."
The voice was hollow, rising from one of the teenage corpses on the ground. The body stirred, sitting up with its ruined face somehow still speaking, one good eye swivelling to look at Elliana. She knew what that voice was... it was the being she'd been trying to reach out to, to speak to.
The little girl that she was tonight stepped back, startled, then narrowed eyes. "You... can talk? You understand me after all?"
A dry chuckle, and the corpse rose. "Yes. And no. The mind you speak with, my mind... is primal. Simple. Yet just as you tap my power, I can use your own. Your... intelligence. Your creativity." He spoke with obvious relish, the bloodied grin missing many teeth thanks to the earlier, fatal blows from Elliana's own hand.
This put Elliana on guard. If the creature could tap into her mind, could think and plan now... that changed things. She swallowed. "What do you want?"
The grin never faltered. "What do you want? I am what I am. I want freedom... but now I know what that means. I am trapped here as much by your will as I am your nature. You want to know how to use my power. Something you must teach yourself, mortal child... something that should come naturally, if you would accept the truth."
That sounded unpleasant, yet Elliana could not help but ask the question. "What truth?"
A crippled hand of broken, twisted fingers lifted up, rest upon Elliana's chest. The 'boy' that was speaking was silent for a moment, then he hissed, "You call yourself the Lady of Nightmares, yet still consider yourself Elliana Fairchild. You think you are a girl using my power as a tool. Our beings are one, Lady of Nightmares. There is no Lord now. And no mere girl or Binder. You are something more, something greater than both... if you accept it."
The small girl stared. "You want me to cast aside my humanity?"
Another chuckle. "No. I want you to share it."
