AN: So I forgot to do a disclaimer, but here it is. I disclaim owning the story, characters and such. Enjoy, but don't sue me. ;)
Cadvan stood in Yelannie's wake for some time after she had walked away and out of sight. He was shocked by the old bard's words, but he knew that she was right. He could not to that to Maered. He would have to tell her.
He half wished that Dernhil had lived, for if he had, it would have been so much easier for Maered and him. She would have followed her heart and they would have been happy together. Cadvan could have gotten on with his life and that would have been it. He wanted her, there was no mistaking that, but he could not forgive himself for the past, and the Fire Lily of Annar certainly deserved better.
He arrived for dinner brooding, and went away to bed in a mood that matched the darkening sky. It would rain, he reflected. He opened his door, unlocked for the School was based on mutual trust, and stared at the sky for hours before drifting to sleep sometime in the early hours of the morning.
"Dernhil," Cadvan said, grinning, "Come now; I really think you are setting yourself up for failure. It's no secret I've more skill."
"Ho, we'll see who wins the lady, then," Dernhil returned with a small smile. "I have skills with a quill, not just a sword." The double entendre made the watching bards laugh, and Cadvan colored scarlet, but refused to back down.
"What are you waiting for then?" Cadvan said.
"She hasn't gotten here yet, has she?" Dernhil replied. "Ceredin needs to hear this."
"Fine then," Cadvan sighed. Just as he finished saying 'then,' a pretty girl with a tangle of dark hair trooped over to him, her dress adorned simply with dark green stitching and a thin, delicate necklace she always wore.
Her smiling face disappeared and was replaced by a look of horror. They were no longer in the sunny courtyard but in his rooms, where he sat hunched over his desk, collection of herbs and spell book open.
"I'm your friend," she said in a frightened voice, "please, don't do this, Cadvan. I could never live with myself if you did. If it's about your father, you know you can tell me. It was hard when he died, but still, you don't need to do this."
"You don't understand," he replied in an ecstatic, persuasive voice, "you've never felt power like this, by the Light, Ceredin, if you had, you'd understand. Sharma is our way out."
"Your way, perhaps," she said scoldingly, "but not ours. What's happened to you? Will you become a Hull and never die? Or will you become one of his minions"
"You don't understand!" Bellowed Cadvan, rising from his seat in a huff, "We will be rich and you'll be showered in all the gems you could want!"
"I don't want gems," she replied quietly, "All I want is you, my old Cadvan."
Her face dissolved and Cadvan was kneeling on the dark cobblestones of an obscure Lirhan alley, his eyes glossy with tears. He held Ceredin in his arms and whispered to her, though she was already dead.
"Weakness," A nearby Hull hissed, "Leave her, we must go."
Cadvan looked up and fury, hot and complete, swelled within him. He gently lowered his ex-lover to the ground and with the power he never knew he possessed, he shouted a curse, surprising the Hull. It countered the blow, and Cadvan was sent sprawling on the ground.
"You would do well not to insult your friends," the Hull said, enraged. It screamed another curse but Cadvan used its own spell against him. He fought the dark with dark, and when it began to falter, marshaled all his remaining strength and sent a spell of the light to finish it. It cried out and crumpled, dissolving into bone as it fell.
Cadvan moved back to Ceredin and took her back in his arms, crying her name like a man lost in the darkā¦
He awoke calling her name, soaking wet and gasping for air.
AN: Thoughts? Here's some of his history, a look at what happened (kind of) with him and Ceredin when he fell to the dark. R&R as always!
