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 Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 2:34 pm
"I wouldn't have offered if it would inconvenience me. Besides, you've dealt with me and my silly problems enough, this is the least I can do." Emma shifted position, making herself a little more comfortable.
Her powers were at the point where she didn't need physical contact to enter the Faun's mind. She simply nodded at Kaok. "Whenever you're ready."
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 3:15 pm
"If you're sure." She nodded slightly, shifting into a vaguely cross-legged position herself. "Thank you..."
Kaok waited a second or two, trying to compose herself again, when she hadn't been in the first place, and then nodded again. It was marginally more confident this time. "I'm ready."
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 3:18 pm
"Right." Emma closed her eyes, sending her consciousness forth into the Faun's, heading past emotions and memories, straight for the dark and not-often traversed landscapes of her dreams.
It was taking more effort than it should to hide her own thoughts from the Empress. Much more effort.
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 4:01 pm
There would be various relatively bland dreams at first, and then the various nonsensical ones that she sometimes got wherein she knew how to fly, and then the ones of questionable appropriateness that she tried to hide from view.
Then there were the more depressing dreams that she had over the years, that were more like more twisted versions of bad memories - Tragicosos, William's suicide, terrible battles, the conflicts with Romulus, seeing 'Emma's' dead body on the floor, Evros' lab, Evros, being split in two, lying to Remus. There were many of that last sort, and those weren't entirely pleasant either, but they weren't the dream. They weren't the thing that made her dread going to sleep for fear that she'd see it.
No, that one was the most recent, and last dream that she'd had to date. It was of the Empress as a little girl again, running in a field with William and Mandia - both of her parents happy and holding hands. The Faun's eyes began to tear up as the scene replayed over and over.
((Wow self.))
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 4:11 pm
Oh, Kaok...
Emma's features grew solemn as her eyes remained closed. The enchantress took that particular dream, gently plucking it from where it had been tormenting her adoptive daughter. Folding it upon itself, Emma stored the image of the field, William and Mandia in a part of Kaok's unconscious mind where she would never find it. A gentle touch smoothed over the hole she had left behind until it seemed that no change had been made.
She faltered only once, and Kaok would catch a glimpse of what Emma was seeing night after night.
A human woman stood before Emma. Or rather, stood while Emma struggled to kneel fast enough. She had brilliant red hair and striking green eyes compared to Emma's own plain brown. She was tall where Emma was short, possessed of shapely curves where the elf had sharp angles, and more beautiful than the enchantress had ever dreamed of being. She wore no jewelry, only a golden band on the ring finger of her left hand. Her gown was simple linen, dyed the same green as her eyes.
There was also a gaping wound in her chest, just over her heart. But she still lived.
What hurt Emma was not the image itself, but the knowledge that came with it.
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 4:48 pm
After it was done, Kaok's eyes would dry slowly, but she still felt the need to hug the Enchantress. Despite the fact that she now would dwell on what could have been for a brief while, Emma had been having unsettling dreams, too, and needed comfort just as much as she did.
Of course, Kaok still did feel pathetic that something so normal could affect her so. She would almost have felt better if she'd been kept awake by a very vision of hell itself, she would have had something worth being scared of. Well, it wasn't scary, her dream. Just... far too painful. No wonder she'd tried to forget about it.
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 4:51 pm
Emma withdrew from Kaok's mind, opening her eyes as she curled her knees up to her chest, hugging her legs closer to her. She was silent for a long and awkward moment, but finally marshaled the common sense to speak.
"I hope that was of some assistance..."
The enchantress made herself just a little bit smaller, now acutely aware of the life growing inside her.
The child that should have belonged to another.
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 5:10 pm
"It was very helpful, thank you again, Emma," the Faun said, and tried to smile. Once more, that effort didn't last long.
"... Are you alright?"
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 5:59 pm
"Fine."
I'm not the right one, he shouldn't be with me, this baby shouldn't be mine...
The thoughts wouldn't go away.
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 9:16 pm
"Both of us have lied in that way so many times that I doubt it will work ever again." Kaok shook her head. "Something is wrong."
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 9:18 pm
"...do you know who you saw?" Emma asked quietly, hoping that the Empress did. Her oath would prevent her from saying much more and she hated that feeling of her throat closing up and her powers turning against her.
He'd said he would release her from the oath when the baby was born, but not before.
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 9:30 pm
"I think so." The Faun had a pretty good idea, she'd only known a little, but it was enough to understand. Emma had told her before that she wasn't the first Lady of Bainbridge, and that she didn't think she deserved it. "And I certainly hope you aren't thinking what I think you are."
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 9:35 pm
"And what do you think I'm thinking?" Emma asked with a hint of bitterness. The enchantress was staring off into the middle distance, still curled protectively around her swollen abdomen. Not too tightly, of course.
This was wrong. She'd offered her help to Kaok and now she was unloading her problems on her.
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 10:03 pm
"That you have no right to be married to your husband, and that's utterly incorrect. Hrothbert loves you - he's proved that well enough, he wouldn't do all he's done for you if he didn't - and you love him. If there's nothing keeping you apart, then by all rights you should be together - to deem yourself a criminal for being happily married would be to mock those that didn't have as much."
Kaok crossed her arms. "And Remus was married before - to a literal Goddess no less - do I not have the right to be with him?"
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Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 10:10 pm
"Remus' last marriage was one of convenience, not of love." Emma retorted, wishing she could show Kaok all the memories she had seen. Maybe then she'd understand.
"He loved her. He loves her. Not just boyish infatuation or the spark of a love long burned out, but true love."
It was with every fiber of her being that she prayed he loved her the same way. And yet...look what that love had done to him last time.
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