Cruel Fates
Chapter 9
By: Kiana Darkk

Disclaimer: Usuals apply here.




~~~Terreille, Realm of Light~~~ *Sarai's POV*

"WHERE'RE MY NUTS?!?!?!?!" The screamed phrase echoed down the hallway and into the room where Silvie, Jady, and I were all taking turns playing chess. Jade immediately burst out laughing, which was rather inappropriate I must say, and Silvie turned red and clapped her hands over her mouth. I, however, recognized that distressed voice and left the room.

After walking a ways down the hallway, I found Alex running about frantically. He seized me by the shoulders and shook me violently. "Where...are...my nuts?" He asked in a very carefully controlled voice. I tipped my head up to look him in the eyes. "Honey, your nuts should be in your pants. You know, near your penis. I thought they explained all this to you when you were younger...?"

"Not those nuts!" He cried and cursed vehemently, releasing me. He then ran down the hallway and into the room where I'd left Jade and Silvara. "Which nuts then?" I called after him, jogging to catch up.

When I got in the room he was choking Jade. She was turning a nice tomato red by now, which would've been good had she been a tomato. Would've made a nice pasta sauce...Stop thinking about food, self! Silvara jumped on his back and attempted to make him release Jade. It wasn't working if you hadn't guessed that by now.

So I decided that if my boyfriend was going to beat up one of my closest friends, I'd have to help kick his ass. A pity. I must've sighed out loud, alerting Silvara to my presence, because the next thing I knew, she was shouting at me, "What are you waiting for?! Help us, dammit!" I jumped in and grabbed Alex's hair, yanking his head back.

"Alex, honey, sweetie-pie," I began in a coaxing voice, "Let go of Jade. She can't tell you where your nuts are if she can't speak." His grip loosened a bit. He was understanding my logic. Good. Jade's bluish pallor returned to red as she tried to pull oxygen into her lungs.

"Where are...my nuts?" Alex ground out behind clenched teeth.

Jade, who had gone back to looking normal...for her, smiled sweetly, and said, "Just a minute. Let me go get them." He released her suddenly, and she stumbled back a step, then turned on her heel and walked to the other side of the room. She flung the contents of a table clear across the room, grabbed a desk chair and stood it on top of the table, then climbed up, balancing precariously. Jade knocked her hand against a piece of the wood trim on the ceiling, and it popped open. She reached in, grabbed something, and at that moment the chair tumbled off the table.

"Whoa!" Jady cried out, but caught her balance mid-air and floated the rest of the way down with Craft. She walked over to Alex, hand held out. In it sat a small burlap bag, filled with what I assumed to be, nuts.

"Payback. For the slugs," she said simply. An explanation, and an apology. At least the highest extent of one you were going to get out of Jade. Alex nodded, grabbed his nuts, and walked away. At my odd look at Jade, she explained.

"Alex is allergic to all nuts except for Amborious Nuts, from the island of Scelt. Therefore he has quite an addiction to them."

I nodded in understanding, and Jade left the room silently, like a shadow.

Silvara sat down in one plush armchair, which was next to the chess board, still set up on our last move. "Well, shall we continue?" She asked easily. "I guess so," I mumbled in reply, and set about finding a way to capture her Queen.

*Jade's POV*

I felt kind of bad for pulling that prank, but something in me just wouldn't let me come out and say I was sorry. I kept trying to justify it. He put slugs in my bed, I told myself. Everywhere, all over my room. They were in my hair and on my clothes, and I had nightmares about slugs for weeks after that, not that I told anyone. He did deserve it. Right?

Not to mention he made Sarai pregnant. Poor girl. She still had no idea. Was clueless. But I could tell. The change in her psychic scent was already happening, early as it was. She smelled differently too, physically. What an unfixable ailment. So sad. I felt so sorry for her. I told her to use a contraceptive. But does anyone listen to me? NO!

If only Nathaniel were here...He'd joke about it with me, and tell me that Sarai was stupid and blind in her love for Alex. But he wasn't, and the reality was, he probably never would be. Sigh. I really needed to stop thinking about him. It was bad for my mental health. He had his life, I had mine, and occasionally our paths crossed. That was the most it would ever be.

Oh well, I thought to myself. You've been alone your entire life, now isn't any different.

I was standing outside of the door to my room when it started. That rippling pain which started in my stomach and went outwards, dancing along my spine. I gritted my teeth as I fell back against the door, clutching my stomach. I wrenched one hand free and found the doorknob. Tumbling inside my small room, I slammed the door shut with Craft and put up an aural shield, despite the fact that it hurt.

Low, piteous animal sounds came from my throat and escaped out into the dark room. On a particularly bad spasm of pain, I yelled wordlessly. When it passed I dug my nails into the floorboards and used them to crawl onto my bed. Eventually, I just passed out, relieving myself from noticing anything more.

*Silvara's POV*

'Ri and I finished our game, and went our separate ways. She had to cook dinner. I had to plan. Plan what, you ask? Going home. It was coming soon, I knew, and every day it was the first and last thing I thought of.

What date should I show up? Where should I show up first? How would I know when it was right? Things like that bothered me day and night. Finally I just prayed to the Darkness to send me a sign, and gave up.

Lying in bed, I dreamt of different scenes of welcome. My mother, sobbing and smiling, embracing me, murmuring broken words of apology, telling me how wrong she was. My father smiled happily at me and hugged me, and asked to know everything about where I'd been, making promises of starting over and having the kind of relationship parents and a child should.

Or my mother was as cold and hateful as ever, bidding me to be gone before I even walked through the door. Finding out that my mother was just fine and had moved on, and had even had another child, one to replace me. A good child, a perfect child. The kind of child she'd always wanted. My father was still solemn, showing no emotion, and still bending over backwards to please his stupid gutter whore of a wife. Males... I thought discontentedly.

So with a troubled sleep I slept that night, and the night after that, and the night after that, and every night until I finally left for home.




AN: Okay, this is the last chapter in Book II! Now we move on to Book III, three years later. The last book in this story. I hope you enjoy it. Everything will come together and you'll finally understand my vision. Sorry it was so short.