by Jen on Thu Mar 26, 2009 9:51 pm
"Grandfather!" Sebilla fell in a pool of her own skirts as she watched him kill the girl in front of Kahlan. Her mouth formed a sweet little O as she watched the carnage unfold before her eyes. It was horrific for her to witness, the sheltered and gentle young child that she was.
It was mere moments before she felt her grandmother's arms and shadow descend upon her, finally erasing the horrible scene from her sight. She stiffened as she felt hands pressing her face against cool skin. She felt a warm wet sticky substance on her face and heard a faint shriek that seemed hollow and very foreign to her ears. It took her a moment to realize it was her own throat making that horrible noise. She clawed at the hands holding her back, fearing the warm wetness was their own blood, coming to her for saving. She suddenly couldn't wipe the girl's tragic body from her mind. The blood, so much of it, was everywhere -- she could see nothing else.
She felt her body and hands flying, Sebilla felt strong hands holding her down, she felt the cold stone of the temple hard against her back.
"Mother!" Her voice was strange to her, but she was certain she'd spoken the words -- but surely that scared child's voice couldn't be hers!
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"Sebilla! Ebi, come on! Its okay! You're okay!" Isabella had one hell of a time holding onto her granddaughter as Caela came flying into the room -- as if the demons of hell were on her heels. She flung her body tight against her daughter's and held her fast. It took all the strength they had between them to hold the girl down without hurting her. It was the first time the girl had seen any carnage at all, the women understood the shock.
"What in the nine hells has happened here?" Caela asked without looking up and at Kahlan and the body that was laying prone in the doorway. She knew who it was and she had an idea, by the way her father was acting, what had happened. She couldn't fathom how so much blood had come from a girl so slender and little. Surely her body couldn't have expelled all of it!
"Your father." It was all Isabella had to say and Caela understood perfectly. It took a moment of soothing talk before Sebilla calmed down enough for Isabella to give control of the girl to Caela fully.
"Vylrath..." But what could she say? There was nothing to be said. What was done could not be undone.
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"Willow!" Mikhael fell to his knees as he watched his lover's blood spew like a thousand rust colored rubies down the broken temple stairs. His eyes filled with something akin to tears, or acid, he couldn't really tell. He couldn't see, and it felt like a thousand angels had descended on him and were beginning to tear him apart, one particle at a time.
"You...bastard!" Mikhael stumbled to his feet and launched himself at Vylrath. "You lying old bastard!" Brother or not, Vylrath needed to die.
Unable to see, Mikhael just blindly aimed his attack. He was sorely off target as he plowed through the weather worn wooden door into the wall behind it. Dizzy from the pain of his heart, and now from his shoulder, Mikhael paused to take a breath and redouble his efforts. He leapt like a vicious wolf over his lover's body, over Kahlan, and straight into the Temple. Mikhael uttered a gutteral noise from deep in his chest as he tried to focus his light green eyes on Vylrath -- but he just couldn't see him. All he could see were women. Beautiful women.
They reminded him of Willow.
Mikhael let out a long low howl that tapered off into a soft whine as he turned, still crouched, to look at his dead lover. Dead.
Tears poured down the demon's face. He looked around, as if stunned to find himself in the Temple, and his eyes settled on Trydian.
He looked a little like Vylrath -- but the difference was significant enough that he didn't leap to attack. All Trydian would see was a deeply wounded Demon that had lost his mate. They had a common enemy now.
Vylrath.
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There was a soft pressure on Kahlan's hand as she stared at a vacant spot of stone that wasn't smeared with blood. The cleanliness was quickly overcome as her daughter's blood spread in a crimson pool around her body and around her mother. It was, in effect, Kahlan's blood spilling there -- running down the stairs -- sinking into the earth.
The pressure on Kahlan's hand slowly began to fade, and she knew that the life in her daughter was fading with it. A soft wail escaped Kahlan as she scooped her daughter up as if she weighed nothing at all. She cradled the grown girl in her lap and pressed her bloody hands to her forehead, smoothing back her blood caked blonde hair. Tears, fat and as clear as the freshest spring water, rolled down Kahlan's cheeks as she kissed her daughter's face.
"It's okay baby. The pain only lasts a moment. You'll be so surprised when you get there. Heaven is such a beautiful place, and I'm only glad that you have the chance to see where I was born. Oh god..."
Kahlan's whole body began to shake as she rocked like a mad woman holding her first daughter in her arms. Her eyes saw nothing but Heaven as she spoke to the ever wilting young flower in her lap.
"Its perfect, like you. I never went back because I knew, I knew I would have you to keep me."
Kahlan shook so violently as she held her daughter, letting her blood seep deep into her white robe, that she feared her whole body would rattle to pieces.
"I forgive you. I'm sorry I wasn't able to give you everything that you deserved. Your father loved you, very much. You'll see him up there. Tell Theoren and Shane that I love them very much. Keep them company, sweet heart."
Willow's hand relaxed in Kahlan's and she felt her life beginning to shatter.
She lost it.
All Kahlan saw was death. She was surrounded by it and she knew she couldn't escape it. Shane, broken and bloody on the castle grounds where he'd killed himself. Theoren, broken after freeing himself to ascend once again. Thomas...gods above...Thomas. Her one and only son. The Angel that started it all. Bloody feathers, dark black blood on her hands.
Sabotage.
Kahlan tilted her head back and screamed to the heavens above her.
"You take everything from me! Its as if you never want me back, as if your perfect gift wasn't what you thought it should be!" She broke into tears and dropped her face into her daughter's blood smeared hair. Her eyes closed, remembering her as the sweet and greedy child that she had always been. Kahlan's throat closed as she came to each sweet memory, her mouth and nose filled with the scent of her daughter's blood and sweet fragrance oils.
"Why? Where did I go wrong?" Kahlan whispered to no one as she clutched her dead daughter to her breast. For a few minutes she could see nothing but death and blood, but after a few minutes her eyes cleared and she held tighter onto Willow's dead body.
"My baby..."
Kahlan's body would seem to melt as she pulled her daughter down the steps and laid in the ferns next to her body, holding her like she had when the girl had been very young -- after a nightmare that had brought her crying to Kahlan. She was a broken woman, and the more she held her daughter, the darker her hair became.
It would take all of twenty minutes, long enough for a deathly palor to set in Willow's cheeks and the warmth to run out.
The woman laying next to Willow had given up, at least for the time being, and her black hair and dark blue eyes were a testament to the change in the woman. Kahlan sat up after a while, her eyes puffy and red from crying and speaking soothing words to the corpse of her beloved and estranged daughter. She had spoken the girl's last rites, and with the final words, her will to live for good had ceased.
This woman, with jet black hair, fathomless blue eyes, and alabaster skin -- this woman was a glimpse into what it must have been like for Kahlan when she fell from Heaven.
Kahlan got to her feet, her white robe looking foreign on her body -- spattered with blood as it was. The form was not going to be permanent -- but the change itself was frightening. Kahlan looked into Vylrath's eyes and more tears burst from her as she came to him covered in her daughter's blood -- the body now far enough away that he'd never be able to consume any of it.
"I understand why -- but I do not have to like it." Kahlan pressed a hand firmly against Vylrath's chest and her form changed slightly -- and Vylrath would feel the concentration of holy power in his chest. Any demon within him would recoil at the sudden introduction of the power. It would not kill Vylrath -- but it would cleanse him and by the gods above it would feel as if his chest were splitting apart. Kahlan loved him and would not kill him - but the demon in Vylrath had bloody well caused enough damage to everyone gathered!
The other demons present would feel the power but nothing like Vylrath would.
"This is only a fraction of what I feel right now. A part of me is gone until I decide to rejoin her, if I can rejoin her."
Kahlan kept her hand on Vylrath's chest as her robes started to tighten around her body, thickening from cloth to leather as black as night. Kahlan looked entirely different -- and nothing short of lethal. Only a fraction of what the leaders of Hell had done to her, had given her. It would fade in time -- but for now it was a comfort to know she didn't have to be a good girl.
Besides, what was the fun in being good anyway?