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Nadya was reading when Athina came to her. A week had passed since the proposal and Sen had almost completely convinced the people of Radiant Garden of her insanity. It was only a matter of time before she showed up, looking for solace. Nadya barely looked up from her book as the blonde barged in the door, a look of anxiety firmly planted on her face.
"Oh thank god you're here."
The pink-haired mage finally looked up as her 'friend' fell, almost sobbing into her lap. Blinking slowly, she marked her page and set the book on the desk next to them, sending a light pulse of magic through the glass paperweight beside it. Her hands then moved to pull Athina's face out of her robes.
"What is it?"
"I've become just like him."
The reply was broken and cracked, reflecting the emotional state of the girl who said it. Just twenty years old and she'd already defiled human remains in the name of science, had her parents killed, been betrayed by the man she loved and now her entire kingdom wanted her dead or gone. And yet, Nadya felt very little for her. To her, Athina was still the spoiled brat crying, literally, over spilled milk; over second place at the science fair, over a cheating boyfriend. She was the braggart whom Nadya always comforted, but never once showed gratitude. Regardless, the mage played along to stall time.
"Just like who?"
She gently wiped the tears from Athina's eyes for the thousandth time, her face softening as she did. The girl couldn't even look her in the eye.
"Ansem."
A pause then,
"I thought I could be different. Th-that maybe I wouldn't make the same mistakes. But look at me; I'm just like him. Do you think they'll banish me to darkness forever?
Nadya did her best to keep her face from screwing up in disgust. She was acting like a child. Sen was right, she didn't deserve to rule. Yes, they had aided in the destruction of her life, but the ideas came from Athina. She designed her own end. A slow sigh kept her true feelings at bay and, with a quick glance at the paper weight, Nadya helped the blonde into the chair across from her.
"They couldn't do that if they tried."
She consoled, the statement holding truth simply because the masses had no knowledge of the subject. They couldn't banish a flea to the realm of darkness, let alone an entire person. There was no movement inside the paperweight and so Nadya continued to stall.
"How could I have been so wrong about Sen?"
Mauve eyes flashed slightly, surprised by the question. She scrambled quickly to find a suitable answer.
"He knew your weakness, like a wolf in sheep's clothing. When no one else believed in you, he gave you support. It was cruel of him."
"But I should have known."
There was indignation now, rising up from the ocean of self-pity she'd been drowning herself in.
"He's never wanted anything than to 'one-up' me. To steal what was mine..."
Athina continued on with her rant, but Nadya's eyes were drawn, once more to the glass on the desk. Deep within it, there was a spark, as if someone had lit a tiny red light inside it. It was the signal Nadya had been waiting for, a small charm she'd taught Sen as a means of communication. They were ready.
...how could he call me the monster?"
Athina finished, her voice breaking hysterically at the end. Nadya's face went still, showing little of the softness from before as she replied.
"Just look at yourself."
"What?"
There was a growing look of horror on the royal's face as Nadya continued, her voice eerily calm.
"You're sitting here bawling your eyes out over your misfortunes while hundreds of corpses rot in your basement. Corpses you experimented on. Sen may have helped, may have procured the bodies, but it was you who wanted them, you who turned a blind eye to how they got there. You didn't even recognize your own parents as they lay broken on your table. They were just another set of bodies."
She said, her last phrase echoing what Sen had said to her days earlier. With a shriek, Athina stood, the force pushing her chair backwards. Nadya remained where she was, her features sharpening cruelly.
"What did you say?"
"You designed your own demise, you always have."
"Take that back!"
Nadya did no such thing. In her indignation, Athina mirrored the little girl on the playground that had all but thrown her friend aside to prove herself right.
"Ten years ago, you boyfriend cheated on you because you called him 'thick'. Eight years ago, you lost at the science fair because you tried to deface another student's work."
"Stop it!"
"Six years ago, your thesis was denied because it involved harming live test subjects. Five years ago, you had to carry on your research in seclusion because of it's extreme nature. Three years ago, your parents died and you were too caught up in your work to even order a thorough investigation, let alone recognize their faces while you sliced them open just two weeks later."
By now, Athina had moved beyond horror at the words and advanced on the pink-haired woman at the last phrase, her fist raised to strike.
"Go ahead, hit me. Prove me right. You have never cared. Your work was the only thing that mattered. You fell in love with Sen because he was willing to do anything for your work, not because you actually cared about him. You probably can't even tell me what color his eyes are."
The fist froze, along with the rest of the Queen's body. Her face went slack as she realized the truth in the statement. A cruel smirk wove it's way slowly across Nadya's face.
"All this time, you were the only one too blind to see the destruction you created. But now that there's no one left to hold up the veil, the whole world knows. And the whole world gets rather angry when they find out people have been desecrating their dead."
As if on cue, there were shouts outside. In horror, Athina rushed to the window, the sight of torches and homemade weapons visible below through the marbled glass.
"You knew!
She exclaimed in disbelief, turning to face Nadya. With her hands still resting on the sill and her shoulders tense, the blonde looked like some sort of terrified animal. And Nadya, now standing just a few feet away, was one of many wolves hunting her down.
"You were the only one blind enough to not notice the nightmare you made for yourself."
Athina pushed her away, heading frantically for the door. Nadya did nothing to stop her, only stumbling backwards at the force glancing out the window at the rainy night and then returning to her book.
F a l l o n SF_- · Sun Jan 26, 2014 @ 01:07am · 0 Comments |
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