This man was going to be the death of her, Kaylin thought as she stared at him in open astonishment. They had just gotten back from the river that fed the pool by Semsen's cave and while they were now clean, they were also freezing. Well, Kaylin was at least. She was shivering but Nightshade appeared unaffected. She'd offered to light a fire with the last of their wood but Nightshade stopped her before she could.
"What do you mean I accidentally summoned the elemental fire and why would you not tell me this earlier?"
"I mean exactly that. Our first night in this world, you attempted to light a small fire and instead summoned the Elemental. It did not come up before this."
"I don't remember doing that." She replied, doubtfully.
"I am not surprised. You were still exceptionally intoxicated from the pollen and the waters of the lagoon." He paused. "I will admit that it was a bit of a shock to enter the cabin after securing it and find you telling the Eldest a bedtime story."
Kaylin let slip one of the more useful Barrani words in her repertoire out of sheer embarrassment.
"Dare I ask where you learned such a word?" Nightshade asked while raising a tired hand to his brow.
"Yeah, I got that one from you."
"I imagine I did not intend for you to actually hear it at the time." He had the grace to look mildly chagrined.
"Probably not but it has its uses." Kaylin grinned at him and motioned for him to light the fire. She didn't want a repeat of her drunken mishap. After the fire was lit, she breathed a sigh of relief and moved as close as she dared to dry out her tunic.
"Are you sure you got all the... bits out of my hair?" Kaylin grimaced at the memory of running her fingers through Nightshade's hair, trying to dislodge stray pieces of guts and gore. He had returned the favor but she couldn't help but feel like some pieces had been left behind.
"I am quite sure, Kaylin." He said while moving to stand closer to her, holding his hands out to the flame.
"Did you have to gut it so forcefully? That packed a little bit more of a punch than a normal sword would've."
"Meliannos is not a normal sword." Nightshade replied, firmly. Kaylin snorted a little. Men and their weapons... No matter the species, it was always the same unwavering point of pride. He gave her a look before continuing. "I would rather deal with stray viscera than risk our safety. I am not familiar with the local wildlife. The Elantran phrasing is, better safe than sorry, yes?"
"Yeah, that's the saying. You know, you didn't have to carry me the whole way. You could've put me down."
"It was dark and you were not wearing your boots. Would you have wanted to slice your foot open again?" Nightshade replied.
"No..." Kaylin frowned. "But I don't need to be hauled around like a toddler all the time. Your arms are going to get tired eventually."
Nightshade's silence was one of long-suffering, which was not an emotion she commonly attributed to the fieflord. Kaylin was getting the distinct impression he was struggling with his irritation at the suggestion that she was too heavy for him. Pick your battles, she told herself, At least he doesn't throw you over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Several minutes passed in silence before Kaylin's eyes began drooping even as she stood before the fire. She tried shaking her head in an attempt to clear it but she only succeeded in making the cabin spin around her.
"Nightshade, something is wrong." Kaylin slurred before pitching forward towards the hearth. The world went dark before she could even hit the ground.
Kaylin turned in a slow circle around her old apartment. It was dimly lit by the dying twilight sun and she could just barely make out the shape of a man sitting in her only chair.
"Severn, is that you?" She asked, squinting at the obscured form. Placing a hand on the hilt of her knife, she hoped she wouldn't need to use it. Her heart practically leaped into her throat and lodged itself there when the intruder summoned a small flame in the palm of his hand.
"Would it make things easier between us if I looked like your Severn?" Semsen purred as he unfolded himself from the chair and walked towards her. Kaylin tried to pull her knife but found she was frozen on the spot.
"Perhaps I have been going about this the wrong way, my little Chosen." Semsen's face morphed into that of Severn's, wearing a vicious smirk that was foreign to her partner's face. He grasped Kaylin's chin with a bruising grip, forcing her to look up at him.
"Will you listen to me while I wear this face? Would you resurrect my people if it was this face asking? "
"No." Kaylin spat on the face Semsen stole and watched his features contort in visceral rage. He released her chin only to backhand her, knocking her to the floor. No, she was falling through the floor like it wasn't even there.
She was falling.
Falling for hours and days and infinite years.
"Kaylin. Kaylin."
Kaylin could feel a hand press against her cheek as she jolted awake, arching her back in an uncontrollable spasm. Nightshade's arms tightened around her like bands of steel. She wanted to respond to him but her mouth wouldn't work. All she could manage was a noise halfway between a whimper and a sob before she was dragged back into the dream.
Kaylin was laying on the well-worn floor. She tried to pry herself up with shaking limbs but couldn't lift herself more than a few inches before her arms gave out. She lay there gasping from the effort when she spied Severn crouching beside her. No, not Severn. Semsen, still wearing Severn's face, watched her struggle with malicious amusement. He reached a hand out and stroked her cheek. Nightshade's mark turn to ice as he traced the delicate swirls, leaving her paralyzed once again.
"I may have chosen the wrong face. I should have known the man who killed me is the one who claimed you in such a way as this. I would not brand you like cattle, Chosen. I would make you a goddess."
"Do you normally hit your goddesses or do you reserve that honor for me?"
"Such spirit!" Semsen laughed while he shifted into the spitting image of Nightshade. "You are no goddess yet. Did I not say I would break you down and remake you? You will be reborn as deity and consort. I will revere you. I will worship you."
"You're insane." Kaylin hissed.
"Even so," the false Nightshade whispered as he threaded his fingers through her hair. Gathering her in his arms, he started walking towards her bed. Nameless terror welled in her stomach and sent ice through her veins. As if she knew Semsen's name, she could sense the whole of his intent. Her fear shattered her paralysis and she threw herself out of his arms onto the floor. She leapt to her feet and turned to run away but he grabbed her by the hair and jerked her to a stop. Kaylin yanked her daggers from their sheaths and twisted to face Semsen. He raised his other hand to strike her again but before he could, she uttered a True Word.
He froze, paralyzed in the face of the command to be still. She drove one dagger in his stomach and dragged the other across his throat, flinching as his blood sprayed across her face. His hand still clutching her hair, he dragged her to the ground as he collapsed. He held her head against his chest as he labored for breath.
"Why?" He gurgled, blood leaking out of the corners of his mouth. "Why?"
Kaylin closed her eyes, unable to watch Semsen die while he was wearing Nightshade's face. She cried into his tunic, listening to his heart slow until it stopped completely.
Kaylin slammed back into her body, unsure what was now dream or reality. She jerked out of Nightshade's arms where he held her on the dirt floor and scrabbled for her one of her daggers. She whirled around, still on her knees, and held the dagger in front of her.
"Don't touch me! Stay where you are." She said, hating how her voice was shaking. She stood up carefully, never taking her eyes off of him.
"Kaylin, what was happened?" He asked while also standing up and taking a step towards her. Kaylin's hand shook as he slowly approached her until the point of her knife was at his heart. He wrapped his hand around hers to steady it.
Would you kill me now if you could? He asked her in the quiet between them. His words hit her like a slap in the face. Perhaps she wasn't dreaming anymore and this wasn't Semsen. Even if it was, she didn't think she could kill him again while he wore Nightshade's face.
"Please tell me you're really you." She asked, her throat tight with emotion.
"It is really me. I am here, Kaylin. I will not harm you." Nightshade replied quietly. His voice was calming and at odds with his internal struggle. It was the voice one would use when approaching a wild or hurt animal and it was working. The shaking and residual terror faded away, leaving her feeling exhausted and cold. The fieflord released her and she let her hand drop.
"I'm sorry," she whispered before turning and running outside. She needed space to breath, to collect herself. She shut the door behind her, leaned against it, and slowly slid down until she was sitting on the ground. Looking at the dagger still in her hand, she thought about how close she'd come to hurting Nightshade. She cursed Semsen in every language she knew. She didn't think it was a coincidence the nightmares started after they encountered the blood magic in Semsen's cave. Perhaps haunting her was his backup plan in case he was killed; his last hope if all else failed. She didn't think it was a haunting in the traditional sense but a remnant of him that he bound in blood on the wall of that cave; a remnant that she activated by reading the words he'd written.
Your reasoning is sound, Kaylin. I think you are correct. I do not know what occurred in your dreams; only that it has left you upset and unsettled. It is concerning that it has affected you physically as well.
Kaylin sighed and tilted her head back until it thudded against the door. I killed him in the last one. I'm hoping that's the end of it but maybe I should stay out here. I don't want to attack you again.
The door opened so quickly that Kaylin couldn't catch herself from falling backwards. Nightshade stood above her, frowning.
"You are not sleeping outside."
"You could have warned me before opening the door!" Kaylin exclaimed while picking herself off the ground. Carefully crossing her arms since she still held the knife, she stood in the doorway. "I held a blade to you, Nightshade. Don't act like that didn't happen."
"And so you did. You are still not sleeping outside." He pointed to the sky. Kaylin turned and saw lightening in the distance. "Even if I was inclined to let you, it is going to storm."
"You are infuriating. Are you planning on making me come inside? I'm not scared of a little rain." Kaylin regretted her words as soon as they left her mouth. Nightshade raised a brow at her before scooping her up off her feet before she could stop him. He kicked the door closed and spoke an unfamiliar word that made Kaylin's skin ache and the doorframe glow. Turning to the bed, he set her down so she was sitting on the edge before he knelt down in front of her. He took the knife from her hand and set it aside.
"You are upset and overwrought. I would ask that you stop the verbal flailing and instead tell me what is wrong." He caught her gaze and held it. She didn't want to be vulnerable, not right then. She turned away and crawled into the bed, pulling the covers over her head. She felt the covers shift and the bed dip as he climbed in beside her. Resigning herself to the fact that he wasn't going to leave her alone until she talked about it, she sat up, letting the blankets fall from her face. She turned so she was facing him. He was laying on his back with his head resting on his hands.
"I watched you die. In my last dream, Semsen stole your face. He paralyzed me somehow and started taking me into my room in my old apartment. He was going to hurt me while looking like you so I slit his throat but it was like I was slitting yours. I laid there and listened to your heart until it stopped and I hated every second of it." Kaylin said, tears streaming down her face. Nightshade sat up, facing her but didn't interrupt. And then I tried to hurt you when I woke up. I wouldn't blame you if you hated me.
"Little one, I think you will find it unlikely that I would ever hate you." Nightshade replied, wrapping his arms around her and drawing her close. He laid back down, holding her to his chest and pulled the blankets back over them. Being held by the fieflord while she was sober was a whole other thing than when she was drunk. In another time and place, she had been scared of him. Now he was the one keeping the nightmares at bay.
"This world, Nightshade... it's just one thing after another. It keeps chewing me up and spitting me back out." Kaylin whispered into his chest. "It's going to kill me."
Nightshade tightened his hold on her before responding.
"I will not surrender you to this world."
