Unreliable Narrator
Chapter Six
)O(
Raven opened her eyes and stared into the darkness above her. At the end of her bed she could hear Malchior's ragged intake of breath, as if he were fighting some primal emotion tearing at the edges of his soul. A wave of unexpected relief swept through her. His human form was alive, it wasn't much, but it was something she could cling to.
What had she just witnessed? The death of Malchior, or of his dragon? Raven closed her eyes again, trying not to feel Malchior's emotions raking through her powers like hot knives. She needed to be rational, to understand what exactly happened. Transfiguration was an aspect of sorcery she barely knew about, let alone comprehended. It was an extremely complex series of spells and castings that morphed both the caster's DNA and soul. If the creature of the transfiguration was killed, but was done so on a separate plane… Raven held her head in her hands. She felt as if she was trying to compute quantum physics while reciting the Nibelungenlied in German, it was just too much to take in.
What exactly happened to Malchior and his dragon, and how had Rorek found them? Did he force Raven's own soul onto a plane so he could follow her? So he could gain access to Malchior's dragon? She stilled and listened to the world around her, waiting to hear some disturbance. Her throat felt tight and cold, as if she'd been gasping for air. The night was still around them, thick and soupy like a cool, summer fog. Not good. She threw off the covers and stared down at the end of her bed, looking for Malchior's shadowy outline. He sat there, staring at his right forearm. His tattoo was still against his skin, as if it were nothing more than ink. He moved and looked up at Raven, his expression blank.
"He killed my dragon."
The notes in his voice were so unlike Malchior, so forlorn and distraught, that Raven wasn't even sure it was him talking. She slid down the end of the bed and sat next to him on the floor. What could she say to him or do for him that would make things right again? It wasn't as if he'd lost a pet or a family member, he had lost a piece of himself. A piece of his soul that had become his one solace in during his millennium in solitude. Raven reached out and threaded her fingers through his, leaning against him.
"I'm sorry." And she was. A liar he might be, but no one deserved the punishment that he had endured.
He didn't respond, and Raven felt his body shift as he moved to stare at their hands. Silence enveloped them before he looked into her face, eyes dark with emotions that Raven didn't fully understand. "I have spent a thousand years with my dragon, he has been my companion in solitude, in darkness, and in light. And while he may have been reckless and uncontrollable, he was part of who and what I am."
It was Raven's turn to be speechless, and she couldn't do anything other than continue to hold his hand.
"I am…" He drifted off for a moment before letting go of Raven's hand and standing up. She could feel him bottling his emotions and pushing them to the side. Shock was sinking in, and he had no idea how to even begin to grieve for what he had lost, so he did the only thing that made sense to him. He moved forward, or at least he tried to. "I am… not sure as to what our next step should be in this process."
Raven sighed and looked up at him, frowning. "We take this one step at a time, which means that tomorrow we work on breaking our bonds to the book and to each other."
"Mm…" Malchior paced around her room a few times before looking down at her. "Will you leave me when this ordeal is over?"
Raven nearly choked on her breath as she stared at him. She tried to think rationally and see something logical in his words. He was upset over the loss of his dragon, angry with the way things had turned out for him. He was vulnerable, and in this cloud of vulnerability, he tried to cling to the only thing that he knew: Raven. At least, that was what she would pretend for the moment. "I'm sorry… leave you?"
"If you release me, will you leave me when this is over? When we no longer have a common force to fight?"
"I… I don't know."
He stared down at her, eyes darker than anything she'd ever seen. "Will you keep me?"
It was a request Raven knew she didn't fully comprehend, and she wasn't so sure he knew either. Would she keep him, like a pet? Locked up and waiting for a master? Or, would she… her mind darted back to the enigmatic conversation Malchior had with Robin and Cyborg. What exactly had they been talking about, and why did it seem to run along the same path that she and Malchior were walking now?
"You're not a dog." Raven stood up and looked at him, sighing. "I won't keep you if you don't want to be here… provided you don't give me a reason to lock you back in the book."
Malchior shook his head, a forlorn smile pulling at his lips. "I have no dragon to cause chaos, but now I only hope that I have the right tools to prove to you that I am worthy of your trust." He let the silence hang between them for a moment before turning away from Raven. "I wish to have a moment of solitude, if you do not mind."
Raven nodded in understanding and crawled back onto her bed, pulling the covers over her head and trying to ignore the violent push and pull of his emotions. He was worn to the point of being raw, and every nerve that could have been exposed was. Rorek had succeeded in dominating Malchior yet again. He had been sly and slimy, sneaking into Malchior's dragon's plane of solitude, knowing that he was at his weakest.
Raven felt something in her own heart twist as images from the brutal, bloodied scene replayed in her mind. Fear aside, there was something inside her that mourned the loss of his dragon with him. She tried to hold onto the brief, fleeting memory of the smooth feeling of his scales under her touch and realized that she would never again have the opportunity to witness the frightening magnificence of his dragon. She would never again be able to reach out and touch that part of him, and it was gone forever. Something cold and black blossomed over her heart, and she shivered in the silence of the room. No one should have the right to do what Rorek did to Malchior.
She listened to Malchior's soft breathing, hearing infinitesimal sobs escape from between his lips. Steeling herself against his emotions, she dug her fingers into the softness of her pillow and let sleep sink deep into her bones, taking her away as far from the truth as she sleep could.
)O(
The next day, Raven found herself sitting cross-legged on her bed, paging through the piles of books surrounding her, and trying to ignore the feeling of the steel cable tugging violently at her ribs. In a moment of compassion, she had let Malchior have possession of the book and offered him solitude as he wandered the halls of Titan Tower. The pain that now wracked her body seemed a small price to pay to offer him some amount of mental relief. It was by no means a path to true mourning and healing, but it was a start, and it was something he needed. He had not slept after Rorek's intrusion into his dream, and he was still fighting with the distraught feelings that raced through his consciousness.
Raven leaned back against the pillows stacked on her headboard and let her mind wander for a moment, trying to piece together exactly what happened last night. How in the world had she ended up in that plane of existence? She certainly had no intentions to dreamwalk, and even still, she didn't know if she could transfer planes when she was dreamwalking. She sighed and rubbed her sternum, feeling the heat from the spellcraft of the bond explode under her fingertips. It didn't seem right. Could the bond between them be so strong that she was immediately drawn to him through his dreams? Or, was she forced into that existence simply so Rorek could follow her? She didn't have an answer and none of it made any sense to her. Raven was well-versed on a multitude of magicks, but even this was out of her range of expertise.
One thing she did know was that she was going to need a drink after all this was over.
Mumbling a curse, Raven rubbed her temples and shifted as Malchior tugged on the book again, creating the feeling of someone yanking on her ribs inside her chest. She rolled onto her stomach and shuffled through a few loose pages of notes and writings from a sorcerer that had died even before Malchior's birth. The language was archaic and she could barely read through some of the sorcerer's writings on transfiguration.
Raven rubbed her forearm, feeling the stillness of her own dragon-shaped mark under her skin, as she searched for any information on bonded familiars or transfiguration between those who had been bounded. But inspite of the extensive knowledge this archaic book possessed, there wasn't any research on the topic. In fact, her and Malchior's case might have been the first in magical history, which would make figuring all of this out that much more difficult. Her head started to swim as the words floated across the pages like little ships on parchment.
"That's enough for today."
She looked up into Malchior's face, the book of Nol wrapped tightly in his arms. She hadn't even heard him come in she was so wrapped up in trying to decipher the text on the page. She sat up and pushed her hair out of her face, frowning. "I was just trying to help. Besides, I thought you wanted to be released from this bond."
"I do." He picked up the book she had been reading and closed it, examining the cover. "But you're reading about transfiguration..." His voice softened and he moved a few books aside to sit next to her on her bed, laying his hand over hers. Heat raced between their touch, and Raven felt her face grow unusually warm, but she managed to resist the urge to pull away.
"I understand and appreciate what you are doing, Raven, but no amount of study is going to get my dragon back. What Rorek did cannot be undone, and I will have to live with the damage of his actions for the rest of my life. Straining yourself is not doing either of us any good." He paused and handed her the book of Nol, a symbolic move of returning control to her. "And, I wish to go out this afternoon."
Raven reeled back, raising an eyebrow. "Go out where?"
He shrugged, a movement completely uncharacteristic of him. "I do not have a preference, but I do not wish to be in the tower anymore." He paused for a moment, thinking. "And I am inclined to try one of those pizzas that you and your friends talk about so often."
"I... I guess we can go out and grab a late lunch. I need a few supplies for the spell anyway, my store is low." Raven pushed her hair out of her eyes and stood up, staring at him. She took in his appearance and shook her head. "You're going to have to shower and change... and we might as well get you some clothes that actually fit while we're out."
He looked down at the too-tight tee-shirt Robin had lent him, and the jeans that were two inches too short. "I suppose you are right..." He cocked his head to the side and watched her, and Raven could feel the emotions swirling around him like a storm. He opened his mouth several times, as if he were going to say something else, but decided against it. Color filled his face and he looked away, staring intently at the books on her bed. "I will shower in Robin's room, and you may prepare yourself here."
Raven raised an eyebrow, suddenly thinking that this planning of something as simple as changing clothes seemed out of character for him. "I showered already this morning. You can have my shower if you want. There should be clean towels in the cupboard underneath the sink."
He looked down at her, expression indecipherable. "And you wish to remain in your uniform?"
"No... I'll change." She leaned back on her heels and stared at him, trying to understand exactly what he was trying to get out of her. "What is this about?"
He straightened his posture and moved away from her, as if he was trying to keep space between the two of them. After a shocked silence, he cleared his throat and looked away. "I am simply curious about the customs of this era and getting ready for an outing."
Raven crossed her arms over her chest. "You weren't this curious yesterday when we went out. In fact I distinctly remember you being perturbed while I was getting ready."
He gave another shrug. "I was in a different mood at the time."
"And that's justification?" She continued to stare at him, but decided that trying to figure him out at this point wasn't entirely worth the trouble. Rolling her eyes, she motioned toward the attached bathroom in her bedroom. "Never mind, just go shower and we'll pick up what we need to while we're out."
"Mm." He turned and started toward the door, pausing as his hands wrapped around the frame. There was a long pause between them, and finally he turned back around, meeting her eyes with his intense green ones. He stumbled over his words for a moment before managing to find his voice. "I want you to know, Raven, that I am grateful for what you are doing for me. I know that I have not fully regained your trust, and I also know that sometimes I am - or rather I was - more dragon than man, so I understand your need for caution and distance between us... but, please understand that I am trying. And, I know you are also trying to learn to forgive me, which is not always an easy task. What I have done in my past is irrevocable, I know that now, but I do not want all your memories of me to be bad."
Raven swallowed hard and stared at him, shocked by his words. She let the silence hang between them for a moment before she found the strength to respond. "I... thank you."
"That is all." With that he disappeared into the bathroom, and Raven was left with his words echoing in the silence of the room. She stood there and stared at the door, her reverie only broken by the sound of the shower turning on. Shaking her head of fog, she moved to her bed and began to organize the books into things she thought were going to be useful, and things that were nonsense. While she was shifting things around, the book that Kristoff had given her on Rorek fell out between two older tomes. She picked it up and paged through the text that did nothing but glorify Rorek's greatness.
Malchior was only once a man, and since giving himself over to the twisted soul of the dragon, he is as far from human as can be expected. He feels no remorse, he feels no pain, he is nothing more than the blackest, purest evil that exists on this planet. Rorek's battle with him is what saved the world, he is to be honored and venerated. Malchior is nothing more than cursed blood spattered over his glorious sword.
Raven snapped the book shut, and somehow resisted the urge to throw the book at the nearest wall with a curse. Anger flooded her veins and her limbs shook with rage. She knew what those words must have meant to Malchior, especially since he was surrounded by them for a millenium. He was forced to be exposed to the ridicule and the damnation of people who didn't fully understand who or what he was. It wasn't that he was inherently evil or bad, but more that he had been created that way by the words that he was forced to hear over the years.
Raven knew that feeling all too well.
She shoved the book under her bed and continued taking care of of the rest of the things on her bed. When she had finished with that, she quickly changed out of her uniform into a pair of jeans and a black tee-shirt. By the time she was finished, Malchior had stepped out of the bathroom, still dressed in the clothes that were clearly too small for him. He shifted his weight for a moment before moving towards the bed where the book of Nol lay. His fingers moved over the worn, frayed cover for a moment before looking back at her.
Raven sighed and shoved her hand through her hair, trying to figure out something to say to him that would ease his mind, but nothing came to her thoughts. Frustrated more with herself than her situation, she started for the door, shoving the book of Nol into her messenger bag and feeling Malchior follow her. Minutes passed in silence as they walked through the halls of Titan Tower, until Malchior broke it with an unusual question.
"May I..." He stopped walking, which forced Raven to stop as well.
She looked up at him, curious. "What?"
He seemed to steel himself against an invisible attack, and finally finished his question. "May I hold your hand?"
)O(
I realize that this is not enough to make up for the fact that this has not been updated in years, but please understand that I always enjoy working on this. I will (hopefully) have the new chapter up soon. It's a date/not-date? We'll see. They'll be some fighting and magic and things.
Anyway, if you are not utterly furious with me, I would appreciate a review.
