I'm so sorry… all those sad reviews. I didn't mean to do this to them, but I guess it had to happen. Don't worry, have faith in their love and I promise it will work out fine. Hold on to your hearts, because here comes Chapter 11.
Sorielle had spent most of the rest of the night with angry tears spilling down her cheeks. Never again am I going to cry over him. She decided upon her awakening. Her eyes snapped open and she sat up, her back aching since she had fallen asleep on the hard, rocky stone floor.
Being in the armory chamber, she had used a Charter mark to assemble and put on her Charter-spelled sword and bells. Upon completing this, she exited and went to find Jasaad. She found him lying on his back with reddened eyes atop the pile of furs.
"Jasaad." She whispered. He didn't move, except for the tightening of his mouth into a grimace. "Hey!"
She kicked him in the side and, ever so slightly, he turned his face towards her. There were dark circles beneath his red-rimmed eyes, eyes which contained a tragically mournful expression.
"Don't go."
"No. I have to. I just wanted to tell you that I love you…and hate you. I cannot continue to live this way." She started to choke up, and the tears started to well up in her eyes. Jasaad stood up abruptly, and crushed her to him. She sobbed into his chest and held her for what seemed like an eternity. "No…" she sobbed. " I have to tell you that I'm the Abhorsen and you're a necromancer and this is forbidden."
She burst into deep, body-wracking sobs and he squeezed her tighter to him.
"Sorielle, I am so sorry. You have no idea how sorry I truly am. I want you to know that you're right about me."
She hugged him back now, and he winced. But I thought he said…
"Bells." He groaned in pain as if reading her mind. She noticed that something was pressing against his groin. She jumped back.
"Oh, I'm sorry!"
"It's fine." He raised his eyebrows at her, touched by her genuine worry.
"I'm…" she wiped off her tears with the back of her hand. "I'm going to stay a while yet. I think I'll put this," She gestured to her sword and bells, "back."
She fairly skipped out of the room, leaving Jasaad smiling at her back. As she left, he tucked his navy-hued tunic into his dark brown breeches, which were in turn tucked into black kidskin boots. Maybe she will stay, if she doesn't remember her duties. Maybe forever.
Using a Free Magic spell, he conjured up a dark rip in the air that functioned as a mirror. Damn, I really do look terrible. Only for her… he grumbled and snapped his fingers, causing the mirror to vanish. Suddenly a scream echoed from the dark recesses of the cave.
A greasy-looking necromancer with long, tangled gray hair had come out of nowhere; somehow he had discovered a way into the caves. Accompanying him was a ragtag band of Hands and two Shadow Hands, who were visibly itching to get their hands on her life.
Quickly, her hands reached for Ranna, plucking it swiftly out of its pillbox-sized case. As she rang the bell, she sang the note; this imbuing it with more strength than the bell alone. The Hands collapsed, their black spirit forms disembodied and writhing on the ground. Sorielle rang the bell again, and the spirits vanished into Death, leaving behind the rotting, putrid corpses and their stench. The Shadow hands moved towards her, drifting by the walls of the cavern. Before they could reach her and claim her life, she rang Saraneth, stopping them in their tracks; paralyzed.
Her face was cold, devoid of emotion, utterly expressionless, as she rang Kibeth and Ranna in perfect unison. The Shadow Hands dissipated. She faced the necromancer, holding her sword up in challenge.
"Necromancer, I know not who you are, or your purpose, but I tell you know, be warned."
"What manner of necromancer are you?" he inquired, looking at her curiously.
"I am the Abhorsen, you bloody fool." She muttered. His eyes, dark with the flames of Free Magic, flicked to her sword. Upon seeing the Charter-ensorcelled blade, his eyes opened wide in recognition. Without warning, he flew at her, his sword raised high.
Jasaad was running down the tunnels, breathing heavily, sword in hand. Sorielle had never screamed like that in all the time that he'd known her, nothing he'd done to her had made her scream (A/N: well, not in that context anyway), he'd thought that she was fearless until this. He rounded the corner, encountering Sorielle as the necromancer raised his blade and struck down with impossible force. The blow had struck her blade at an odd angle, sending a jarring sensation up her arms. She gasped, thankful that the blow had been parried. The necromancer hacked at her again, this time forcing her to her knees. A third blow, and she fell to the ground, her sword clattered out of her hand and skidded across the rocky floor.
The necromancer's steel blade was at her throat, she could feel its heat on her neck, as it was imbued with Free Magic. A shuddery breath escaped from her lips, but she gazed up in defiance. Fear. Oh, Charter. I'm going to die by the hand of a petty necromancer. Oh shit! The necromancer raised his blade high above her head and she looked up in fearful resignation. If only I'd left Jasaad. I love him; I do, but is it worth dying over? It is, but I would've survived if I had been active in my duties…instead of rolling about under the covers. Love and Death. So be it, I'll die for him. For love. There's not much choice now.
As the necromancer began to bring the blade down, Sorielle closed her eyes. She cringed as she heard a loud thwack, afraid that it was the sound of her own head being lopped off. However, it was the sound of steel meeting steel, not flesh.
Jasaad had leaped forward at the last moment, blocking the blow with his own sword, violet flames rolling down its blade.
"Don't touch my woman!"
He attacked the necromancer viciously, hacking away at him like a woodcutter hacks at a tree. He was moving so fast that it was hardly believable, and Sorielle backed away from the fight.
"Ah, Jasaad, the very man that I was looking for. Do you very often keep Abhorsens in your caves?"
Jasaad ignored him, but continued to fight with renewed vigor.
"Especially a weak one like her. I thought that you favored conquering strong woman, and enslaving them as Hands. Although, her reputation was a bit extensive…"
"I was out of practice!" Sorielle snapped, hopping to her feet.
"Quiet, you!" the necromancer staved off Jasaad while he cast a restrictive spell on Sorielle. Bands of a shadowy substance appeared around her ankles and wrists, and a gag of the dark substance appeared in her mouth. It tasted like bile and she choked as the restrictive spell forced her to lay stricken on the floor. "Now, Jasaad, we really must attend to the purpose that I was sent here for by-"
As the spell was lain and before the last word was said, Jasaad struck the sword out the necromancer's hand, and plunged his sword through the necromancer's abdomen. The dark blood seeped through his shirt as Jasaad pulled his sword out.
"Rot in your own filth."
The necromancer looked at him in shock and anger as he sank to the floor. Blood filled the necromancer's mouth and a stream of it dripped out of the corner of his mouth as his eyes glazed over and the couple felt his soul sink into the First Precinct. Jasaad went over to where Sorielle had fallen to the ground. He helped her to sit up, then waved his hand and spoke the counter spell, releasing her from the bonds.
She rubbed her wrists, and then leaned into Jasaad's chest as he wrapped his arms around her, kissing the top of her head. After a moment, she leaned back and stood up. Jasaad looked at her imploringly, but she brushed past him towards the corpse. She removed the bandolier of bells, strange and biting to the touch, and prepared the body. Standing in a spell-casting stance, she spoke and signed the Charter marks to cremate the body. Random parts of the body spontaneously caught fire, burning slowly during the immolation due to the saturation of Free Magic. At long last, it was nothing but ashes. Sorielle lay the final blessing upon them and turned to Jasaad. He cast her a rueful smile.
"I could've used that, you know." He jested. She didn't laugh, but a somber, mournful expression appeared on her face. His face fell as it he realized it. "Darling, what's wrong?"
"Before I met you, Jasaad, I could've vanquished that necromancer with no effort at all. I was so strong, and then you had to save me…"
"And I'll save you anytime that you need, love."
"That's just it. That's the point. I'm not supposed to need saving. I'm the Abhorsen. All this time I've forsaken my duties and it's gotten my heart broken…"
"-and put back together." He interrupted.
"…my life nearly taken away and my people's lives endangered. My cousins and the kingdom have got to be worried to death about me. Poor cousin Myrael, the Abhorsen-in-Waiting and I haven't taught her what she needs to know in order to fulfill my duties. I cannot be here any longer."
"Don't forget that I saved you from Death…and quite a few times over if I recall correctly." Jasaad's voice had grown cold. "And you said that none of that mattered."
"I could've gotten you killed! That necromancer would've found you and killed you. You would've been a bystander, a tragic death from the fray of my line of duty."
"First, Sorielle, love, you forget that I can take care of myself. And two, that necromancer was one of my enemies. You would've been the bystander caught in my fray." He retorted angrily, his voice growing steadily louder.
"As if that makes me feel any better!" she spat out. "Jasaad, I have to go. There is nothing you can say that will persuade me otherwise. I must fulfill my duties to the kingdom and as…"
"I love you."
She froze, unsure of how to respond. Blinking back tears, she stared at him and took a deep breath.
"I love you, too, but I must go, unless you want to come with me…but I cannot stay in this cave and forsake what I was meant to do."
"And I, my dear, cannot do that. As much as you mean to me, I cannot give up my ways. I cannot follow you around like a consort or a sidekick while you thwart the ambitions of evil. If you love me, then you will stay."
"How dare you manipulate me like that! I will not stay as you lover while you are creating armies of the Dead and unleashing them upon innocents, and you, obviously, do not love me enough to stay by my said as I fulfill my duties to the kingdom."
"Yes, I suppose that we are at an impasse, then. What do you propose, sweetheart?" he mocked her cruelly.
"I'm leaving. And I'm not changing my mind this time. Now let me go." She fairly screamed at him.
"I'll lead the way." He snapped, turned on his heel, and began to storm briskly through the darkness. Sorielle ran to catch up, walking quickly behind him. For nearly an hour, he led her through the maze of tunnels, until; at last, Sorielle could see light streaming from a stone doorway. As they neared the doorway, Jasaad turned to her.
"Goodbye, Sorielle. I will miss you. But this evidently cannot be."
"I love you, Jasaad. Don't come across my path ever again. Goodbye…forever."
She turned and headed through the doorway, emerging into the glaring afternoon sunlight. She gasped and used her arm to shield her eyes from the brightness. It had been about two weeks since she'd last seen the sun.
She'd had love, loss, joy, and sadness in so many ways since then, but now it was time to go back to the life she knew before him. Before Jasaad.
They are separated...damn, that makes me so sad. I know that you're praying that it isn't the end. I promise life will go on for our favorite characters, no matter how bad life may seem. So here's to Chapter 11, my Holiday Present to you, and the last chapter of 2005.
