What if you'd spent a long time adjusting to the fact that you'd lost something? You'd resent the people that still had it. What if your heart's desire was to have it back? You'd trust anyone to get it, no matter who they were or what they'd done. What if someone gave you that one thing, but it was torn away after only one day? It would destroy you.
Disclaimer: Recognise it? Good. Tainz doesn't own it.
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Remy looked around the main room of the tiny shack while he waited for his hostess to come back inside from collecting some kind of herb. It was dark and spooky on one side, with bunches of dried plants and strange bones hanging from the rafters. The other side was brighter, with beautiful bowls, vases and bottles lining the windowsill of the shack's single window. Remy himself was seated at an oak table in the centre of the room. A white candle stood in the middle of the table and the top of the table was decorated with a strange, flowing script that Remy couldn't read, along with some odd pictures.
Finally, his hostess, a young woman, came back inside and sat across from him, clutching a bundle of fresh lavender. Her long, dark hair flowed past her shoulders, nearly to her elbows, emphasising the low cut of her robe.
"The lavender cleanses. It will clean the air of lies and disguises so I may know your true intention." She looked at him with a piercing gaze that seemed to cut right through him. He was so disconcerted by her gaze that he wasn't sure of her eye colour.
"You know what Remy want." He refused to allow himself to show any weakness to her. He'd heard that it would destroy any respect she might have for him and that she wouldn't help someone she didn't respect.
"I know what you need," she corrected. "I haven't a clue what you want."
He paused for a moment, unsure of how to address her.
"My name is Audrina," she said.
"Audrina..." he repeated, listening to the way it rolled off his tongue. It suited her.
"I thought so too. That's why I chose it for myself."
He closed his eyes for a moment, remembering the rumours about how she'd try to confuse him and distract him from his quest.
"Remy know this girl. She trés belle and intelligent. She got a beautiful personality. She be the best girl Remy ever meet, no insult intended," he said politely.
She smiled softly. "None taken."
"Remy love her with all his heart, but he not tell her that. He can't show it 'cause she can't love him. So he follow her around, look out for her and stuff." Remy was telling Audrina, a perfect stranger, things he'd barely even admitted to himself, but he knew that Audrina would know in an instant if he lied.
"Let me guess, you want me to do a love spell on her."
Remy's eyes lit up and she shook her head sadly. Although she could read his mind, a person's mind could tell her things the person didn't consciously know yet, so Audrina ignored the little bit of negativity Remy held towards this option and continued.
"The heart is a fragile thing. I cannot force it in the direction of my choosing without destroying it. I could make her love you, true, but she would hate you for it someday."
Remy's head and heart dropped for a minute, then his eyes swung back to Audrina's face. "The reason she not love Remy be because she not able to touch without hurting people. Remy t'ink that she already love him, but she afraid to in case she hurt him. If she can touch, maybe she love Remy. And if she not love him, at least Remy get to see her happy."
Audrina stood, her long green robe seeming to flow over her body like water. She went to the window and stared at a pale blue bottle on the sill. "You speak of the rogue."
"The fille's name be Rogue, oui."
"She is a rogue. Magic is difficult to cast upon her, unlike so many others. She rebels against it."
"How you know?" Remy asked, startled by the way it sounded as though someone had been here before, on the same mission.
"There was someone here before, looking for a way to help the rogue. An elderly man. I sent him away with nothing. I could not help her." Audrina turned to him sadly, her eyes filled with tears.
As Remy watched, her face seemed to shift until she looked like Rogue. He started towards her and then her face shifted again. An old woman stood before him, hair turned white, face wrinkled and papery. She blinked away the tears.
"She is so very loved. She has so much to live for and so many ways to live, even with the hand life dealt her, but she does not understand that. She has been betrayed, but unlike most people, she refuses to trust again. She's more careful than almost anyone I have ever heard of."
Remy took the hand of the old woman in his. "Then help Remy figure out a way to let her trust again. Maybe we not use magic. Just... Remy need the fille."
Audrina looked at him again with the same gaze she'd held him with before and he knew it was still her.
"You truly love her?"
"She be the one thing Remy's heart desire that he not have."
At the words 'heart desire' Audrina's features smoothed out again so that the young woman Remy had first seen was standing before him.
"Then maybe I can help you. I can give you a spell that will last for one day, from the moment she wakes up until the moment sleep overcomes her. It will grant her her heart's desire. I cannot tell you if that will be touch or not, but I can give you that one day."
"And if it work, Remy come back and get the spell done again. He get it done every day if he have to. Money not matter. He find it somewhere." His voice rose with excitement.
She shook her head gently. "This can only be done for a person once in a lifetime. She will have her heart's desire for one day and one day only."
Remy blinked in shock. "One day? But..."
"It is the best that I can do. Even accomplishing that will tire me out for some time. You will have to help me."
"How? Remy not a wizard or nothin'." He looked at his hands carefully. "Remy not got no magic powers."
"You won't be involved in the enchantment itself. You will have to get her to hope. It will be up to you to deliver the spell to her and tell her what to expect. Her heart holds no trust because it holds no hope. If you can get her to hope for that one day, then it may open her heart to the spell."
"How Remy deliver it? Can you do it now?"
She held up her hand to halt his barrage of questions. "Do you understand that there will be consequences?"
"What kind?" Remy asked, suspicious.
"You are giving her that which she wants most, only for her to have it taken away a short while later. It will hurt her. She may resent you for it. She may never be able to trust you again. It will make it harder for her to go back to her normal life. She is barely adjusted to that now, do you wish to undo all of the healing which has been done by time?"
"Would the fille smile on that one day? Would she enjoy it when it were happening?"
"Most likely," Audrina replied, dreading what she knew Remy would say next, yet somehow knowing that it was right.
"Then it worth it. Remy give anythin' to see Rogue happy."
Audrina had no other choice than to perform the spell. She had sworn, many years ago, to help the heart and she was bound to that oath by magic and choice.
She went over to a cabinet in the corner of the brighter side of the room and pulled out a small jewellery box. She brought it to the table and opened it.
"Pick the ring that most reminds you of her."
Remy resisted the temptation to pocket a couple of the beautiful silver rings for later and pulled out a thin band with a single emerald in it. He placed it in Audrina's outstretched hand and she examined it.
"Emerald for the eyes, correct?"
"Oui. Those eyes be like the deepest forest pool, pullin' Remy in." He took one last longing look at the other rings before she put them away. "Now what?"
In answer, she went to the windowsill and picked the pale blue bottle she'd stared at before. She dropped the ring in and the clear liquid inside bubbled angrily and turned dark. She put it on the table in front of him, then headed to the dark side of the room. She found a dark stone and a deep red candle. She got a small stone bowl and melted the stone in it, using the heat from the candle, which had sprang alight of its own accord when she set it on the table. She poured half of the melted stone into the bottle and the stone seemed to go straight to the ring, encasing it and turning the liquid light again. She chanted a few words over the bottle and the liquid stopped bubbling.
A dagger appeared from the folds of her robes. "I need a few drops of your blood to put with the dragon's blood in the bowl. The blood has been through your heart and this spell is to bring your heart's desire about, as well as hers."
Remy closed his eyes and extended his left hand. He felt a sharp prick on the tip of his ring finger and cool hands squeezed it. He opened his eyes again in time to see a drop of bright red blood fall into the bowl. A moment later, Audrina brought his finger to her lips and blew on it. The tiny wound closed and healed before his eyes.
She stirred his blood and the dragon's blood over the candle for a moment then poured it into the bottle. It too covered the ring. She chanted softly for a few minutes and Remy sat in silence.
Finally, she handed him the bottle. "Pour this out in my garden on the first plant you see that makes you think of her."
With her on his heels, he went outside. Just outside the door was a beautiful rose bush, blooming out of season with beautiful crimson blossoms. With Audrina chanting at his elbow, he poured the liquid out, watching as it splattered the lowest leaves of the plant. Finally, the stone containing the ring fell out onto the ground.
"Pick a rose," she commanded softly.
He did, then he followed her next instructions, which were to pick up the stone and place it in the blossom of the flower. The rose closed around the stone, becoming a bud again.
Her voice unsteady, Audrina said, "Take it home and put it in water. When the blossom opens again, take out the stone and strike it against a large rock. It will open and the ring will fall out. Wrap the ring in cloth for one week and don't touch it. Then, give it to her, still wrapped in the cloth, and tell the rogue to put it on at night and think about what she wants most until she falls asleep. Tell her that when she wakes up, she will have it, but only for one day."
"That be all?" Remy asked.
"Yes. That is all. Now leave me, please."
"But what Remy owe you?"
"Nothing. Just go and leave me in peace."
Remy did as she asked, not daring to argue with the sorceress. Just as he was out of sight, Audrina dropped to the ground unconscious and exhausted.
***
Kitty bounced into the room she shared with Rogue and Rogue, curled up on her bed with a book, groaned. Kitty's energy seemed to know no end, especially when Lance was involved. And Rogue was sure that Lance was involved. He usually was when Kitty was this bouncy.
"What are you so happy about?" Rogue put her book down and watched Kitty dance around the room.
"Lance asked me to go to Return of the King with him this afternoon and the Professor said yes. The movie's, like, three hours and there's no way Lance is going to be able to watch it the whole time." Kitty giggled. "You know what that means, don't you?" Kitty looked in the mirror, playing with her bangs giddily.
"There's gonna be a huge earthquake and the theatre's gonna drop into a hole in the ground?" Rogue rolled her eyes, nauseated at Kitty's vanity and sense of "romance."
"No, silly. That means we'll have plenty of time to ourselves. Plenty of time to ourselves in the back row, because that's the only place the other patrons will let mutants sit." Kitty pulled a clean shirt out of their shared closet and held it up against herself, shoook her head and threw it in the general direction of her bed before pulling out another one. As far as Rogue could tell, the two shirts were identical, but Kitty seemed to decide that the second one was acceptable and changed into it.
"So you're gonna whip popcorn and gummi bears at everyone else's head? Sounds like a real blast." Rogue wondered why she even bothered messing with Kitty anymore. It was too easy and it was getting kind of boring, since Kitty tended to take things at face value. Rogue knew full well that Kitty and Lance were going to spend their time making out in the back.
"No! That's, like, rude. Don't you ever go to the movies? You'd totally get kicked out." Kitty picked her hairbrush out of a pile of clothes, took out her hair elastic and brushed her hair down. "What do you think?"
Rogue shook her head and Kitty put the elastic back in.
Choosing to ignore Kitty's fashion crisis interruption, she continued messing with Kitty's head. "Some of us don't have the option of going inta crowded movie theatres with lots o' people slidin' across our laps to go get more popcorn and go to the bathroom. People who might slip and touch our skin. Some of us might cause mass hysteria if we did that."
Kitty's face fell. "Oh yeah. I forgot. Sorry Rogue." She continued to get ready for her date, but she turned away from Rogue.
Rogue ignored her and rolled over so she was facing the wall. She picked her book back up and buried herself in Interview With a Vampire. She could relate to Louis and how he felt as though he didn't fit into the vampire world because he hated killing. She didn't fit into the teenage world of makeout sessions and mosh pits because she couldn't touch.
A couple of hours passed. Kitty had long since left to go to her movie and it was fast approaching evening from afternoon. A knock sounded on her door.
"What?" Rogue called harshly, annoyed at having been disturbed.
"It's dinner time," Kurt's voice came, timidly.
"Ah'll be down in a minute," she replied with a loud sigh.
She got up and pulled her gloves back on. She'd taken them off to read because they made it harder to turn the pages. She hated gloves. Once, she'd thought they were really cool, back when she'd started wearing them in the eighth grade. She'd thought they were a great way to make a statement about the barriers in the world and all that, right up until the day they'd become necessary. At that moment, though, where she realised she'd never feel another person's touch as long as she lived, they'd become manacles, forever encasing her and restraining her.
She went downstairs to where everyone was already there for dinner. It was a hot day in early August and pretty much everyone was dressed in T-shirts or tank tops and shorts. She sat at her corner of the thinking about how she stuck out like a sore thumb with her long sleeves and pants. Even the Professor had put on a short-sleeved shirt to try to combat the heat. Normally the air conditioner would have taken care of things, but Logan had been sure he smelled mould and had shut down the system to clean the filters and stuff. Rogue figured it was just an excuse to do something away from the kids. Logan had been pretty edgy all summer and he was starting to get really irritable whenever they were around him.
She watched enviously as Sam casually touched Rahne's arm while he reached for the butter. Rahne blushed furiously and pulled her arm away. Rogue knew that it was only a matter of time until those two got together and she wished they'd just get it over with already.
Rogue caught the glance that Jean sent her way and knew she had to be projecting somewhat. Jean pulled her hand free from Scott's under the edge of the table and rested it next to her plate. Scott looked hurt for a second, then Jean leaned over and whispered something in his ear. It didn't surprise Rogue that Jean didn't use her powers, since power use was against the rules at the table, mostly to keep Kurt from getting all the food. Even through his sunglasses, Rogue saw Scott look at her and felt his pity. She couldn't even have envy to herself. It was too much for her to deal with.
She shoved her chair back from the table and stood up. She started out the dining room door, but the Professor called after her.
"If you're finished, Rogue, you may clear your plate." He was polite, as always.
Rogue kept walking.
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There you have it, the first chapter of something new and exciting.... and redundant as it's probably already been done a billion times before. Just so you know, Audrina was a necessary OC who will not make a reappearance. And to make a careful distinction, she was a sorceress, not a witch or a wiccan. She was purely fictional and her powers and spells were not drawn from any historical or religious source.
Also, since I am the evil authoress and control the universe (at least on paper/word processor) Return of the King wasn't released until summertime in the Marvelverse, in this story. So there.
R&R!
Love always,
Tainz