Dahlia awoke…was she in a dream? All around her was white. She could see nothing clearly, her vision was distorted but she could hear voices. Whisperings, and mutterings overwhelmed her senses until it was all she could feel.
I'm sorry I have no choice… a man's voice full of anguish and pain…there is always a choice…don't give up… her mother! Dahlia listened harder surrounded by murmuring voices in soft undertones.
You'll pay for that…in blood…
You're tainted! Unworthy… You as a person can never reach the full potential of a druid… you are physically unfit due to your blood.
Join your soul mate in the next world… we're soul mates… we were meant to have a link between each other… I won't let them separate us.
Salix is planning an attack…these people are becoming a threat… I'm sorry it didn't work out for you. I know how hard you worked…the masters adore you… I sent my most trusted student…you know I love you Dahlia…
They were phrases and memories of her past, jumbled up and confused. Dahlia spun around and around the voices getting louder and louder until she woke up drenched in sweat, lying in a soft bed. Dahlia blinked, disorientated for a moment before sitting bolt upright.
It was a mistake. The blood rushed from her head downwards causing dizziness. She groaned and fell back down onto the pillow cursing, 'What the hell…?'
'Shhh calm down, you're in a safe house. Nagini told me to take you here until you recovered. What do you remember of last week? You've been sleeping for an entire 7 days!'
Dahlia's head reeled as she absorbed this information slowly. She was silent but noticed his strong southern accent. Her mouth was dry and her limbs felt like lead weights. As the torrent of questions swam in her head she ignored it asking instead for water. Once she had drank her fill she tried to keep her mind calm and her thoughts organised. 'And you are?'
He replied, 'I'm a friend of Nagini's. Jim Raffia's the name. I owed him a favour and he figured it would be best if you were kept in the care of non-night world folk for a while, and you are in a cell made of strong lead, 10 inches thick through the entire perimeter.'
Dahlia asked, 'I would like you to tell me exactly what happened and why I was sent here.'
Jim sighed deeply then briefly told her the little information he had gained from Nagini.
'Well I don't know all of it, but all Nagini's told me is that you lost control of your powers for a moment there and you were a danger to yourself and others. He had to move you for safety's sake. That's all he told me. You see these dents in the walls here?' Jim gestured over to the gashes in the wall and chunks strewn across the floor,
'This here was done by you. Some of it was frozen off, some burnt, weathered by rain…indoor rain I tell you, never seen anything like it. It was like a storm hit inside here. But you was there thrashing in your bed oblivious. This…power just flooded out of your body and kind of bounced around in here. Anyway I'm sending you back now.'
Dahlia listened intently to what Jim was saying, but it didn't make any sense. Didn't Nagini say it wasn't supposed to hurt? He said it would be painless. Her body, which was throbbing like hundreds of tiny needles stabbing her, said otherwise.
Dahlia struggled to a sitting position again and this time she felt less woozy and was able to sit upright. Getting out of the bed she followed Jim out of the door still dressed in her robes. Dahlia sat down in a waiting chair while Jim went for the car. Her head was a mess and she couldn't even begin to think of reasons behind the questions, let alone answers. She just tried to block out everything in an attempt to shut her heated brain down. Jim came back and drover her to the centre dropping her outside with a wink and a smile, 'Tell Nagini I said hi!' he yelled as he drove off.
Dahlia dragged her aching legs toward the door and stepped inside. It was quiet. There was no hustle and bustle, no command calls, and no fighting scenes. Every room was deserted. Dahlia was confused. Where the hell were her friends and family?
A prickling sensation of fear crept up her spine as she approached the door to the great hall. Something like a premonition told her that what she was about to see would change her life. Placing her hand on the doorknob, she twisted it and stepped in.
At first all she could see were the many candles all over the room, the ground looked strangely lumpy where each candle was based but it was very pretty. It lit the darkness up and cast a beautiful glow around the room illuminating the space and staining everything red. Dahlia was startled then…red…blood. It was everywhere. There was blood everywhere. Dahlia looked down and gasped in horror. What she had taken for lumps, were bodies. There were bodies all over the room. Dahlia flicked the light on and she could suddenly see everything in explicit detail. She saw at her feet, blonde hair draped over her face obscuring her face, the girl she had seen next to Dain in practise. Isla lay motionless. Dahlia bent down to remove the hair and check her neck for a pulse but as she pulled away the hair she saw her neck had been slashed almost to the bone. Dahlia jerked away fast, seeing the girl's eyes staring unseeing into her own. Dahlia cast her view over the sea of bodies, checking each one of them for a pulse. Names streamed through her head as she recalled any encounters or moments she had with the dead. The toll rose as she moved toward the end of the hall. She had counted 45 dead bodies already. Dahlia could barely breathe, the rotting stench began to creep up her nostrils but she went doggedly on, determined to find some life in her broken world.
She saw countless people she knew, Master Vadim, Codi, a boy she had coached in an expert high kick once, Jessie the cook, Dahlia couldn't believe her eyes. She walked as if in a daze not able to take it in. This must be a dream, they can't all be dead they just…it isn't possible. Then Dahlia spotted a familiar dark skinned face…Nagini! Dahlia rushed forwards towards him.
'No it can't be…' Nagini's eyes fluttered open, he was alive, but Dahlia knew he wouldn't be for long. Not with the sword imbedded deep into his stomach, it wouldn't be long before he…
'What happened?' she questioned him urgently.
Nagini groaned and tried to speak but there was blood seeping from his mouth. Dahlia took her robes and tried to soak it up so he could talk. Nagini spluttered then spoke quickly, as if oblivious of the pain he must have been in.
'Listen to me Dahlia, you must find my room and take the ancient scripts that are…in the floor, feel with your mind for the gap in the floor and it will be there. I-I don't have many of them, but you must study them. You must learn and grow. You will become very powerful but you must learn to harness t-the powers you gain..' He descended into a short coughing fit before continuing. Dahlia wanted to question him on how this had happened but did not want him to be distressed in his last moments.
'Dahlia I don't want you to look for revenge…she didn't know, it wasn't her fault. It was Salix he poisoned her mind. S-She didn't stand a chance. I want you to perfect yourself without me to guide you. Fight them…always fight them. Promise…' Dahlia swallowed, 'I promise.'
Nagini gave a final gasp and finally the battle for his life was over, and he had lost. Dahlia was unconsciously grasping the lifeless hand in her own. Looking down she dropped it quickly, and closed his open eyes with her fingertips. She saw his emblem, the image of a snake as a pendant hanging from his necklace. Dahlia grasped it and took it from Nagini, placing it in her pocket. She slowly stood again surveying the damage. Why aren't I more upset? Why am I not grieving or crying? She looked around once more and stopped checking the bodies, 'I'm forgetting something,' she whispered out loud. Her lone voice echoed eerily in the hall. What am I missing?
Suddenly it came to her, Dain! Dahlia's heart stopped beating while she frantically scanned the room for his presence. He can't be dead he just can't be. So she did what she had been told never to do. She opened her mind to him.
Dain! Dain where are you??
There was no reply. Recklessly she kept trying as she saw the body of Khalil on the floor,
Dain! Answer me! Faintly in the distance she heard a muted voice
Dahlia____dying__I__don't know_____Salix___I'm sorry____love you.
Dain! Don't you dare leave me! Dain! She heard no more he was gone. She felt him go. He had died. He had left her.
Dahlia felt a cold rush of clarity sweep over her. Soon she wasn't thinking about her grief or her pain or her loss. Purpose flooded her being and she ran towards Nagini's door and projected her senses, searching for a gap in the floor. She found it and ripped up the floorboards. Her hands started to bleed as splinters went flying. A hard metal box contained the scriptures and Dahlia pried it up. IT was heavy so she focussed and transformed it into a small bauble, and she felt its weight disappear. She placed it into her pocket.
Returning to the hall she saw Takeno's dead body, his head was severed next to it. Dahlia felt nothing. She knew what had to be done. The night world had left this place but they would come back. They want to learn their secrets…well she wouldn't let it happen. She would not let her heritage be used for their evil purposes.
Dahlia seized a candle and set fire to the curtains, then the wooden floor and the mats. The smell of burning rubber filled the room. The bodies were burning anew and the candles that marked each body were toppling. The room was ablaze before her eyes and still Dahlia felt nothing. She turned and ran to the library, grabbing all she could on their history and teaching she shoved them all into a woven basket she had found. Moving swiftly to her room she grabbed some clothing and personal possessions. At last she ran to Dain's room. There were photographs of Dain and his family and only one of him and Dahlia together, taken at the ceremony. They were displayed on his wall. Dahlia grabbed these photographs and his robes. Pausing for an instant she buried her face in his clothes, imagining that this was all a dream.
Smoke began to creep into the room and Dahlia shook herself away from her daze. Throwing her pictures of Dain into the basket she went to the weapons room. Transfiguring several swords, staffs and other training weapons into small different coloured cubes for identification she swept out of the room.
The fire had spread to the library and the upper levels of the centre. Dahlia ran down the corridor leading to the back room. A large Bang signalled the explosion of the kitchen. Dahlia rushed out into the cold night air. People were gathering to watch the fire. She slipped into the undergrowth and began to run.
She didn't know how far she had run, but she stopped exhausted and alone in a small alleyway. She slid to a sitting position, her back against the grimy wall, staining her filthy robes. Dahlia looked down at her hands and she saw blood.
She closed her eyes and say Nagini's face staring at her. She heard Dain's voice saying love you. Something came loose and finally she wept. Tears flooded down her cheeks as if they would never cease. Dahlia buried her face in her hands, the basket of her life next to her and cried like a baby.
The heavens opened and rain came down in a torrent. Far away a man in a dark coat watched the fire dying and smiled. The last few flames illuminated his face and he turned away, slipping back into the night.