Author's Note: And here, all the chapters get shorter. Reviews are still much appreciated! I experimented with a piece of mainly dialogue here. I hope it worked okay.
IV. Play To Lose, Because They Can't All Win
"You are not my wife, Selena. You are my servant, although a glorified one in your pearls and silk."
"I am not your possession, Morzan. I am a woman, a human. You couldn't say the same for yourself."
"True, I am not so weak. I could hear you. That man, he will wish for death; he will curse your name. We are bound together, but you cannot hurt me."
She waited. She wished she could hurt him.
He laughed in her face.
"I cannot tell you more, where I plan to go, Selena. It's as much for your own good as mine."
"You've trusted me with much more, some nights. And you've freed me, Brom. I'm free, and I will fight, and—"
"Does he know about...?"
"What does that have to do with—"
"Does he?"
"He—"
"Then stay out of it, Selena, if only for the sake of our child."
"...I will leave him in Carvahall."
"Your hometown."
"But with my brother, and his wife."
"You will not be there with him?"
"Come to the castle. I have some...unfinished business."
"I see."
Brom never forgot the feral look in his lover's eyes. He had never seen the Black Hand in all her terrifying glory until then. Had he not known who the father was, he would have pitied the child.
"Murtagh, stand up straight."
"Yes, lady Mother."
"And smile, or something. Why can't you be normal? You have no right being miserable, young and naïve as you are..."
"I am sorry, I don't know, lady Mother."
"Why are you talking to my son that way, Selena? You have no right to do so."
"You threw a damn sword at him—don't even start!"
"You also have no right to give your master orders, Selena, dear."
"You are the one who even got all this in the first—!"
"And I love him, invest in him—!"
Murtagh hobbled away as fast as he could, crutch ticking noisily on the stone floor as he escaped the scene...
His governess was mystified by the sight of his books and toys all smashed on the floor, beaten with the hardwood crutch. Nobody noted the little wreaker of such destruction convulsing noiselessly in the bathroom as his wounded back spasmed. It was much too commonplace for anyone to care much.
"You've been sleeping with the egg-thief all along, haven't you?"
"I'm not your wife. I am merely a servant, just like you said."
"I spoke in anger. I was...lost. Why did you prefer him, lowly Brom, whose dragon died?"
"He understood. You—"
"A pity that I even considered making you my wife in true vows when I return. We are both fools, it seems, and I was a fool to ever love you. Does Murtagh, do all those nights really mean nothing to you?"
"I—"
"Farewell, Selena."
Tears actually streamed down the woman's face as her lover mounted his mad red dragon. Morzan's own smile was grim. He would have laughed again, winning her with flowery clichés if none of them were true. Instead, he burned up inside once more.
In the days that followed, Selena disappeared.
Murtagh, however, waited in his father's castle alone, dreading Morzan's return; wishing for his mother to arrive again. He had grown a bit stronger, and although his steps were short and faltering, and he still felt great pain most of the time, he had gotten rid of his crutch. Maybe then his mother would love him after all.