The Day My Dream Died

12 - Fall

— 12 —

Fall

\\//

Lise tumbles in empty space, drawn into his chaos. He laughs. She opens her mouth to scream as a memory not her own is forced on her mind...

—1 Week Ago—

 Pelezel looks up at the clouds splitting around the colossal tower that looms over the small town; a gory dagger scoring the starless sky. He frowns at the dour sight, "Why are we here again? I don't seem to remember you ever explaining our purpose in coming all the way up here."

Elin sighs. "I did explain it, you were just too preoccupied with your own fingernails."

He shrugs. "Guess I'll just wing it, then..."

"Let's not. We're here because the town's only dweller recently passed without someone to take his place." He stares at her to indicate that isn't enough of an explanation. She sighs again, "We're just here to keep things under control until someone else can be dispatched—we'll be gone before the end of the quadrant."

"If you say so."

She turns to him, narrowing her eyes. "If you're only going to respond with a child's petulance I'll start to treat you like one."

"You say that as if you don't already."

"...Pelezel, I don't intend to belittle you, but your behavior recently has been erratic at best. I can't always be the one expending the effort to understand what the problem is, I need you to meet me halfway." Her visage, pulling on a facade of empathy, casts him down. She condescends to meet him halfway... "To me, it seems you are losing touch with harmony, placing your own feelings above the needs of others."

Pelezel scoffs and shoves his hands into the pockets of his robe. "When does it end, Elin? When can we stop running from one place to the next? I feel like we only care about others. What about you? What about me? I feel like I haven't done something on my own terms in years. Waiting on her holiness' summons, only to be sent off again. How long since we spent longer than a quadrant in Kellean? I barely recognize my family, my friends, my home."

Elin pulls her fur cloak closed around her robe as the chill of early-night wind roars through the valley. "I don't know what you want me to say, Zel."

He blinks, "I don't want you to say anything. I just want you to understand."

She frowns, and for the first time, seems genuinely bothered. "I... I don't know if I can."

"Then perhaps you aren't as good at this as you thought." He says, and starts toward Dejed.

Pelezel sits in his room, contemplating his fingernails, when the knock comes. He figures it must be Elin so doesn't pull on his robe, wearing just his pants and undershirt. Instead, as he opens the door, a different woman shoves into the room. She shuts the door behind her, dark eyes peering down where he landed. She's tall—taller than him—and still the thick coils of black hair hang to her waist. It is hard to make out her features in the dim room, but she appears young.

"Who-Who are you?!" He stammers as he staggers to his feet. "And why are you barging into my room?"

"Hello Zel, it's me," she says simply, "I am Seli."

Despite her apparent familiarity, he is on guard. "I...You...?" He racks his brain, trying to recall where he knows her from. He hedges, "I think... You're the girl from Opis Luma, yes? What are you doing here?"

"I am just passing through." She replies.

Something's off. He takes a step backward. "I see... And how did you find me?"

"I saw you." She taps her temple.

"You're a dweller?!"

When he met her last she was barely into adolescence and seemed of a particularly flighty disposition. Now she is far taller than he, and has the most unsettling gaze he's met yet—and The Kelle herself has gazed upon him.

"I was unblinded, yes. It is great, isn't it, to see as we do." She smiles, voice distant but eyes transfixing. "I have attained freedom now."

"Er, yes, it is great..." He says, uncertain what this situation has become. "But why approach me like this?"

"I thought you wanted to be free?"

"What do you mean? Freedom is important, of course, but..."

"Your obligations." She cuts through his attempts to process what's happening. "You suffer from them. Cast them off, and be freed. Come with me, and I will show you."

My obligations? How does she know of this? He hesitates, "To where... do you intend to go?"

"To the place where freedom is chained." Saying this, she growls with barely restrained rage. Her tone is placid the next second, "Come with me, and I will show you."

Freedom? Chained? He looks up at her, trying again to piece all of this together. "I... I don't know, Seli. I'm not sure what's going on here."

Without a second of hesitation, she kicks him in his stomach. He doubles over, bile rising in his throat. Her knee cracks into his skull, and he is out before his face hits the floor.

When he awakens in the undermind—evident by the fiend feasting on his arm—he starts. 'Agh!' He cries out, trying to break free from its vice grip. He reaches for the first thing he can think of, and slams down on the creature with the heavy spade that appears in his other hand. The fiend leaps off him, jaws dripping with his essence.

He can't help the indulgence of horror as he looks down at the shredded remnant of his arm. It takes a moment to gain his bearings, reminding himself that he is in the undermind. His arm flickers, then a new hand sprouts from the wound. No time for relief, however, as the fiend lunges for his throat.

'Get back!' He shouts, jabbing his shovel at its gaping maw. The spade lodges in it. He lets go and runs.

A manic bark of laughter escapes him. What is going on?! Out the open door of his room and round the corner he runs, but he's never been the fastest guy around, even here where he can will otherwise. Elin! I need to reach her! He can feel the fiend on his heels, and desperate, he imagines a false wall around the next corner.

Pelezel pivots and runs straight through the wood slats. A glance back reveals the fiend turning about in confusion, but he can't maintain the illusion long, and it's right back on his trail. Being unable to hear it behind him terrifies him. How close is it? He dares not look again.

'Elin!' He calls and crashes through her door.

He throws an illusory door back in its place, giving him enough time to close the actual door. It is only after he leans against it that he takes in what awaits him in the room.

'Pelezel... I've come to a conclusion.' Elin sits on a chair in the back corner, holding her bent legs tight to her chest.

'Elin! There's an enormous fiend right outside!'

'Yes.' She says, and for the first time he sees that there are fiends inside as well. They are small, flittering in the darkened corners, hovering around Elin herself.

'Elin...' He can't breathe. His chest is so tight. 'Elin, what's happened?' He recalls her first words to him here. 'What conclusion...?'

Fear... Fear coils around. It squeezes from him every breath.

'To betray harmony is evil manifest. My dearest friend, Pelezel, I must not allow you to be corrupted by selfishness.' She speaks placidly.

Pelezel, without a second thought, turns to open the door. For whatever fiends wait behind it can't possibly approach the terror he feels towards Elineal right now. Her fiends are upon him before his hand reaches the knob. He screams silently as they take of him.