Sea Serpent

Chapter 46- Conscience

Third Person

There were many emotions that filled up Tanith when she heard a familiar voice call her by her real name, but anger was the first one and the most overwhelming too. As they stepped into the light, all of her suspicions were confirmed.

"I have a proposition for you."

Tanith had many things to say, but she settled for one. "Nope, no way." She answered, turning away from them, not even wanting to look at them.

They just sighed. "Way to be open minded."

Tanith's rage only increased, and she whipped back around. "I normally am, but to you? No. You know what you did, I can't trust you, Cece."

Cece only laughed dryly in response. "And yet, you insist on using nicknames. You sure you don't hold onto some sort of fondness for me? Any good memories? We did have successful moments after all."

Tanith's eyes only narrowed further. "Don't flatter yourself, I call you Cece because I'm not calling you "Conscience"."

Cece paused for a moment, her eyebrows knitting together as she thought to herself. "Well why not? That's what I am." She answered, confusion laced her voice.

The hybrid's fist clenched. She finally did something she hadn't done in a long time: Looked Cece in the eyes. "You are not my conscience! You're not me! Plus," She added. "It just sounds ridiculous."

Cece and Tanith looked alike in many ways, having the same skin color, the same body form, and even the hair color and length. However, there were two major differences to their appearances. Cece had no tail, being more human if anything, and her eyes were a bright green instead of blue. Outside of appearance, her voice sounded different. It was slightly lower and always seemed to talk grimly, especially when serious.

Cece groaned again, her shoulders finally slumping from their close to perfect posture she tried to keep up. You didn't even have to look at her to know how exasperated she was. "How many times do I have to explain this to you? I. Am. You."

"No you're not!" Tanith shot back. Her teeth began to grind, trying to hold back. "If you were me, we'd think the same, act the same, feel the same, all of that! But you're different from me. Plus, if we were the same, wouldn't we be saying the same thing at the same time because we think the same?"

"All this time and you still don't get it." Cece crossed her arms, leaning to one side while still standing up. "I said I am you, but we're not the same. I'm your conscience, not your actual being. Your second half? The yin to your yang? We're almost opposites in many ways, but not polar opposites. It has to work like that or it wouldn't be balanced."

Tanith twitched as Cece's borderline condescending tone filled her ears. "I know that. Stop explaining everything to me! Sheesh, not even Bartholomew does that!"

"But you weren't understanding."

"I did understand I just-" She let out a puff of hot air, trying to cool herself down. All the events were starting to get to her. "What do you want? We had a deal, you broke your end. You know what happens when people break deals, we can't trust them. You promised you'd stay away from me."

"I know." Cece replied calmly. "I only broke my part of our deal because I want to make sure you don't break yours."

Tanith soon found herself filling up with confusion. She thought to herself for a while before saying anything. "I left you alone, what are you talking about? I'm still keeping mine!"

But the conscience shook her head slowly. "Not our promise. I'm talking about the one you made to Rasmus."

The hybrid froze. Cece had struck a little too close to home. Tanith had been worrying about keeping her part of the deal for sometime, so of course she'd use it against her now. When she continued to stay silent, Cece continued on. "You're getting dangerously close to breaking it, and you said it yourself: He's not waking up. I'm proposing a deal."