Diablo 2 - Visions of You (Chapter 10)
By Amethyst Haze (amethyst_haze@hotmail.com)
***
Disclaimer: I do not own Diablo II, its concepts, its designs or anything else related to it. Those are the property of Blizzard Entertainment, this story is simply a non-profit tribute and parody. This story is Rated R for moments of sexual content, offensive language and violence.
Amethyst Haze's comments: If this story sounds EXTREMELY familiar to you.... then you've read the original fanfic as the NC-17 version when it was under my old pen name. I will not be writing like that anymore. Also, you might want to have read through "Longing to be with you" first since Visions of You is the second in that series. :P
Woohoo, last chapter!!!
IMPORTANT NOTE!!!! Please please PLEASE leave feedback (even e-mail me if you don't want to leave your name up.) Reason is because I'm not sure if I've properly ended this story and want to know people's reactions to it. Thank you so much.
***
The moon was now a perfect waning crescent in the dark navy cosmic silk that splayed across the heavens. Stars winked as the creatures of the night chirped, howled and cried out softly to the still night. Even in the perfection of this night, Rune was still uneasy. It had been one week since the fateful confrontation with the Enchantress; one week since Ferrum fell into a comatose, Alys fled and Krysta's disappearance.
Ferrum lay on a small pallet with his feet over the edge. Above his head, villagers had hung good luck charms for healing, or blessed relics as a thank you to the necromancer for saving their home. His hands were clasped together on his chest; If it weren't for the rise and fall of his chest, he was the very image of death.
Rune's eyes darted to Ferrum's tightly bandaged hand with a sigh. The last time he checked the dagger wound, the bleeding had stopped and the healing process was beginning. But, no doubt, the puckered red skin there indicated a scar to come. But like that would matter? If he had the choice between a scar or a permanently disabled hand, he would've signed up for a thousand scarrs. His thoughts then drifted to the dagger's other victim: Alys.
He sighed, his dirty nails raking over the thick and prickly growth on his chin from his laziness of shaving. Alys had recovered instantly. It astounded him, Ralehn, and even Varia, the experienced healer. She had never seen anything like it. But, as always, Deckard had the answer.
"It must be remnants of the Enchantress' powers within her," the old wise man had said, regarding Alys with a troubled look."
It was that phrase that had sent the girl fleeing like a terrified rabbit. Rune had been powerless to stop Alys--well, not entirely powerless. He could have tied her up and threw her into bed next to Ferrum to wait until he woke up, but Varia would never have allowed it.
"Let her go," the healer had reasoned with him. "She just needs time to think."
Brooding darkly as he rubbed his chin, Rune shook his head while muttering to himself, "I'll never understand women."
"Nor will I," Ralehn, the other druid, muttered from the entrance way, his forehead a glistening sheen of sweat in the pale candlelight. He sat down on the unbalanced stool close to where Rune stared out the window. "But, I don't think we're meant to."
"Damn straight you're not supposed to," a sharp feminine voice barked. The two men would've jumped out their seats, but by now they were used to Asheara's loud voice cutting in to their conversations at unexpected moments.
The Iron Wolves' leader slinked in to the hut with a feral feminine grace and arrogance. With a hand on her hip, she gave what was a cross between an innocent smile and a smirk. "You two still moping about Alys?" They didn't answer; they didn't need to because Asheara went on anyway. "She'll be back, don't you worry."
"What makes you so sure?" Rune asked as she turned towards the door.
Looking over her shoulder, her eyes went to the sleeping shape of Ferrum and then to Rune. "If I had a man that fine and that devoted... Not even Diablo himself would stop me from running back to him." Her voice trailed as she slipped out the door. "And if she doesn't, I have no doubt in my mind that Ferrum will run after her... all love sick fools run at each other... BAM! Like a drunkard into a wall."
Once she was safe out-of-ear distance, Ralehn muttered, "Well, she's back to normal, I guess."
Rune nodded grimly, remember the rabid Asheara he met a week ago. And on some level, he wished the rabid Asheara was back. At every restful moment he had, she'd show up, bark out an order or talk about something useless in the commanding voice she had then walk away like Queen of the Jungle. "Hmph" was all Rune said before the small one-room hut turned silent. His eyes turned down to the slowly rebuilding Kurast. The villagers were bustling about with wooden planks, poles, twine, long dry reeds and animal hides to restore their waterfront home.
His thoughts turned to Krysta and his brow furrowed. Where are you? he thought with a grimace. The instant they had returned to camp with Alys and Ferrum injured, they had found a whining Asheara, demanding that she be released. Beside the Iron Wolves' leader were broken ropes, looking as though they had been chewed through.
Wherever you are, you'll be alright... you better be, he thought as a feeble prayer as his thoughts were disturbed by a groan.
"Ow..." the groggy voice muttered, sounding thick and confused.
Rune whirled around as Ralehn stood up from his chair. Ferrum was awakening, blinking rapidly like a newborn babe spying the sun for the first time. The necromancer however was squinting from the candlelight's soft glow.
Ferrum's blue eyes turned to the two druids. His face looked as though he was still lost in a dream. "Alys...?"
Rune and Ralehn exchanged glances. Ralehn grunted softly and nodded towards Rune as Varia arrived into the room. The healer regarded the half-awake Ferrum with a shocked but relieved look.
"Oh, you're awake!" she exlaimed, rushing to his side and kneeling on the floor. A concerned look crossed her face. "How do you feel.
Ferrum stared blankly at the young healer's face, "Alys, where is she?"
Saddened, Varia looked crestfallen as she glanced over her shoulder Ralehn who gave another non-commital grunt. "She's gone, Ferrum..."
Ferrum's blood chilled all of a sudden. The blood drained out of his face; his lips felt numb. "Gone...?" An image of Alys lying dead on the floor in a delicate heap was brought forth in his mind. Instantly, he could feel the bile churning in his stomach in cruelty
Reading his expression, Ralehn shook his head and threw Ferrum an odd regard, "No, not dead, you idiot. She left."
"What? Where?"
"We don't know..."
"Why didn't you stop her?!" Ferrum demanded, slowly rising to his feet.
"We couldn't..." the three of them looked at the necromancer feebly.
"What the hell do you mean you couldn't??! Two grown men and seasoned warriors couldn't stop that woman??"
Rune looks hesitant... "I don't know how to say this, but... Something happened to Alys..."
"What do you mean?" he bit out, eyeing them skeptically. A lock of of blonde hair fell across his forehead as he narrowed his gaze upon the druids.
A shadow from the doorway caught the necromancer's attention however. A thin frail form slowly was slowly hobbling to the middle of the room with his face blurred in shadows. Deckard Cain's thick grey eyebrow rose as he looked the necromancer up and down inspectingly as though expecting the man to keel over suddenly. He paused thoughtfully and sighed deeply.
"Perhaps this would explain it best." From a pocket in the deep folds of his weather-worn grey cloak, Deckard Cain produced the cruel and primitive dagger: The Gidbinn.
Its presence however did nothing to Ferrum's senses.
Strange.
No evil bone-chilling sensations radiated from the dagger to permeate into his skin... no shiver up his spine and damp palms at the feeling of a forsaken power calling. Hard to believe it was just gone. It's glorious presence was reduced to nothing... like gold fading to the brassy antique sepia tone it carried.
No, he thought. Impossible.
He picked up the dagger, free of its evil weight. It weighed no more than a stone... hardly any use as a throwing knife, and looking more fragile than a dry twig. Perhaps it already was a dry twig. With a simple cursory glance, Ferrum noticed at least three inches of the point had literally snapped off. Snapped off like a branch, a dry plant... splintered even. How strange. Metal. Splintered? Upon deeper inspection and a tighter grip, the handle and protruding blade crumbled in his hands, not even nicking his skin once.
He stared in silent shock and confusion as the dust and fragments of the blade poured from his hands to the earth. The sweeping wind twirled lightly into the room, twisting the falling pieces until they were blended with the dirt floor of the hut.
"What does this mean?" Ferrum started slowly, his blue inquisitive eyes locking with Deckard's own sagely eyes. "I don't understand."
***
The brook typically babbled back to her as her feet padded along the bankside and the long tattered pieces of her skirt skimmed the waterline. Alys walked along with the cross look upon her face she had carried for many nights.
She had been walking for days, feels cranky and hungry despite the nourishing fruits she devoured awhile ago. Her surroundings were not the least bit familiar to her. Why should they be? She had never left her village's region. The area was turning less and less tropical with every night. The loneliness sunk in after the very first, and very long, night.
Her back ached from the weight of the back while her shoulders burned from the digging pain of the rough burlap straps. Although her load was light, probably a mere twelve pounds, the long travel multipled the burden upon her body. Her packing was very simple and consisted of food, a gourd of water, a blanket and, for sentimental reasons, Ferrum's journal. Even though her leave was hasty, taking his journal with her was at the top of her list.
In her head, the entry she had fallen asleep to from reading over and over repeated itself... It was the words she remembered him trying to recite to her... but failed.
"Hold me now and love me well
for this life and its experiences may be but only a dream.
Though I wish not for our encounter to be gone after a simple blink,
I now find myself heavily believing in hope;
Pulling the strings of fate is not at all like pulling you closer to my heart.
So in the end,
all I have is hope,
all I need is you,
and all I'll want is this moment stretched out to forever cherish.
My body is weak when you are not near
yet my heart pounds fiercely even then,
as though it's raw rhythm would summon you now.
Life is but something so fragile and can shatter in the next breath,
and that is why whenever I see your face...
My breath freezes."
The words tumbled off her lips in small mumbles to the rhythm of her pained footsteps. During the last stanza, she sat down at the edge of the bank, surprised that when she did, a hand came down onto her shoulder of of a gentle weight she recognized too easily.
Her breath froze in her throat as she remained still, taking in the heat radiatng from the hand on her shoulder. She could feel its warmth through her blouse... Time froze for that instant. She could hear nothing but the roaring of her blood in her ears and the soft lapping of the water flowing; she could feel only her pulse and the touch of his hand through the cloth... her breath returned and she inhaled a shallow breath of longing.
"Where are you going, Alys?"
"It doesn't matter." she murmured, her slim fingers tugging and toying on the thick blades of grass beneath her.
"It does to me, Alys..." He quietly sat down next to her, eyes intently fixed on her down cast eyes.
Her heart ached everytime he said her name. Didn't he realize how much torture it was to have him near her? She was fighting the urge to give up her fight, hold him close and go wherever he asked, but only if it meant she stayed by his side..... NO! I can't do that! she told herself, her fingers digging into the earth even more and wedging bits of dirt and chips of rocks under her short nails. She turned to him slowly then, her eyes scanning briefly over Ferrum's serious face. His eyes though suddenly brightened, feeling refreshed as though to have her finally look upon him.
"It shouldn't matter at all anymore," she said, desperately avoiding saying his name even though it was on the tip of her tongue from chanting it over and over during her travel.
He knelt down and Alys felt his arms go around her. Ah! There it was. That security she missed... the warmth, the strength... her place. NO... she still fought it. She knew she was slowly losing, but still she must. She felt his warm breath tickle her neck as he spoke, "But it does... I love you... Alys..."
The way he said her name, like a soft prayer, a desperate cry to her. She could feel it even though a part of her didn't want to while the remainder of her rejoiced in its sound. "You shouldn't," she croaked back, not convinced herself.
"I can't really stop myself, Alys." His arms locked around her tighter as he pressed into her soft hair, deeply breathing in the scent of her. A shudder ran through him. Gods, how he missed her presence.
She sighed softly, her shoulders slouching beneath the weight of his encircling arms. She leaned back into him, fighting the tears welling in her eyes. "Ferrum... please, you're not making this any easier."
"I don't intend to make it easy, Alys. If you go, I'll follow you," he replied immediately.
A vision of Ferrum's blood staining the ground speared her mind with a jolt. She shook her head rapidly, "No. I have the Enchantress' powers now.... Don't you see?" She clenched her fists tightly and closer her eyes tightly, disgusted with herself. "Any minute, I could become her, be possessed by her and kill people..... I have to get as faraway from people as I can." Deep down, what she really mean was "I have to get away from you." Her heart could never handle the thought of killing him.
Ferrum shook his head. "That's where you're wrong. Power isn't evil nor good... it's up to the person who has it...and the Enchantress herself was evil, not her abilities. You still don't know the full story of the Enchantress... Maybe I'm to blame since I didn't tell you it."
The story came pouring. The Enchantress... originally human, a peasant girl from the village of Kiltorren deep in the Zann Esu forests. "She was specifically a lightning sorceress, one of the best until she became second place..." Ferrum's hands became animated as he further explained the reality of the demonic sorceress to Alys. "She was so bent on competition, she travelled, wanting to expand her knowledge of magicks and maybe even learn how to fuse all the elements together... She ended up in Ageion--"
"--THE Ageion??" Alys interrupted him in astonishment. "Impossible... Ageion's only a legend."
Ferrum's brow furrowed, "Well, the Enchantress was once considered a legend... we know better than that now."
She nodded mutely, allowing him to continue on.
"Anyhow, she came to the hidden city of the healers for one reason: wanting to learn about healing herbs. Remember, they were very advanced in healing techniques and such. Well, they nearly killed her and tossed her out for trying to learn the secret of their clan. It was then that she turned demonic then... by the Countess who was making her way towards the Black Forest."
Alys paused thoughtfully. She then looked irritated, "That story does little to help me. I still have demonic powers."
"Doesn't mean you're demonic yourself. All I'm saying is that, yes, she has powers. But she herself used it with ill reasonf. You are not like that, Alys."
She sighed, "You're not gonna let me go, are you?"
"You can go... but I'll keep following you, love." His voice was fulled with pure determination. As he spoke, not once did his eyes leave her.
"Ferrum... " she sighed wearily. "Go home."
"But this is home..." He quickly approached and hugged her tightly. His arms shook as he did as did his voice when he spoke. "Wherever you are, that is my home, Alys."
"Don't..." she barely whispered.
"Why not? What are you afraid of? I will protect you, Alys. I won't let anything happen to you. I swear it." He hugs her tightly, "I'd never let anything, anyone, any force, cause you any harm. I won't allow it, not while I still live and breathe."
Her throat tightened. She could feel her eyes welling with tears ready to run free. "Ferrum..."
"I love you..."
She shook her head, biting down on her bottom lip as she fought against her tears. "What if you're wrong?" Her voice was What if I turn out just like the Enchantress? I try to kill you, then what? You'll kill me? I won't put you in that kind of position! I don't ever want you to be hurt... or worse, dead"
He hugs her.. "There are things worse than death.. Alys. But, if it's death you're scared most of... then we should make the most of the time we have alive then, shouldn't we?"
He kisses her forehead, "Any moment alive not spent with you is a wasted moment..." he sighs, nuzzling her hair. "When I woke up and Ralehn told me you were gone... I thought I was going to lose my mind. Why would you run from me when I've been fighting so hard to keep you?"
"I'm sorry... I just... you don't understand...."
"Don't apologize... I don't understand entirely what you're going through, but... I want to be here for you. Come back with me...I need you so much, Alys... "
"Ferrum... if I killed you... I'd never forgive myself."
"Then it's simple," he said with a smile. "Don't kill me."
Her face twisted into a scowl. "You make it sound like I want to kill you. Haven't you been listening to a word I've said??"
"Yes, but have you listened to what you feel? What you really feel..." With that, he pressed his broad palm over her chest, shocking her. She quickly realized he was not trying to fondle her breast, but indicate he meant what was deep beneath where his hand lay: her heart.
A look of sheer pain crossed her face. "Ferrum, please... don't you see? I love you, that's why I can't be with you."
"Bullshit," he bit back, his jaw tightening. "I'll admit, that yes, at first it seems brave that you want to try and protect me from yourself. But what's the point? You're hurting me and yourself in the process. I don't care if the 'Enchantress' hurts me, I don't care about it at all. The Enchantress doesn't matter at all." Alys opened her mouth to argue and Ferrum quickly silenced her with the pressing of his fingers over her lips. "The question is would you, Alys, not the Enchantress, only you, Alys, hurt me? Answer me honestly." A tear spilled down Alys' cheek as he slowly pulled his fingers away, feeling as though the world now depended on her answer. And instantly... he was scared.
"No... I can't hurt you.... I don't want to, that's why I can't stay."
"Didn't you just hear what you said?" he replied, holding her tightly against him and looking down at her with raw emotion. "You can't hurt me. I do believe you're strong, Alys. I don't believe the Enchantress can come back through these 'demonic powers.' I believe you can control them." He sighed inwardly, looking her up and down briefly as though it was his last chance to memorize her. "Please... I love you Alys. I know you don't want to leave. And I know you can't hurt me... So just stay." He reached into his belt pocket and pulled out a small curled paper with a blue ribbon tied snugly around it.
She knew what it was. A portal scroll.
Her eyes darted back and forth between the blue ribbon and the blue of Ferrum's eyes. Traces of uncertainty still lingered in her, stirring dark thoughts in her head. 'What ifs' and 'buts' that she knew she shouldn't be thinking but still did. Oh, if only things could be so easy...
"I just don't know..." she whispered back softly
"Are we ever certain of anything in this life though?" He replied, trying to control his emotions. "But sometimes... we just have to take a leap of faith, and fight to the end."
"Faith..." she echoed. "Fight..." The shared vision flashed before her. The blood spilled, the Gidbinn... cradling Ferrum close... She fought for him.... She'd fight to eventually leave him? ... Did it have to be that way though?
Her breath froze in her throat the instant she felt her hand touch the scroll portal and her fingers brush against his broad, callused palm.
***
On that very night, Ferrum's dreams were no longer saturated with unsettling images. All that lingered was a sweet promise of serenity that the visions of blood would be gone, just as the visions of Alys he had when he wasn't at her side. However, their shared vision--the moment that Alys finally found it within herself to fight back--would remain. Instead of hiding behind him, Alys finally found her own strength because of him.
Waking up next to her from that day on could outshine every dream that Ferrum's vivid mind could throw at him. Did it bother him? Not one bit. Lost in his slumber, he felt as though after every morning waking, he would be rewarded with Alys' cheerful smile, her bright eyes and loving gaze as she looked upon him with a timid blush, remembered their love making from the night before. All of it was perfect to Ferrum and this is the vision he so badly wanted as a reality.
In the morning, Alys wasn't really as he imagined her to be in his perfect vision spawned from his mind; Her hair was a tangled mess, her eyes were slits from the remaining after effects of a deep sleep and a thorough love-making session with him, and she was rubbing her eyes like a grumpy child and frowning as though the beams of light that graced her skin would cause her to burst into flames. But even with the vision of what he wanted shattered, Ferrum was not the least bit disappointed.
This was a million times better than any vision his mind could conjure up; it was real.
The End.
___________________________________
Oh! And as a side note... that poem that Alys read off from Ferrum's journal is written by me. It's called "Cherish" and can be found under my penname fictionpress.net. Thank you to everyone who supported me, especially Graceless Angel and my sweet Hazel Eyes. Till my next story, be well. Oh, and you know what? Go listen to "Melody of Lute," FF4 Edward's theme on the Celtic Moon CD... so beautiful. Was listening to that the whole time I've been writing this. ::chuckle:: Makes me all weepy-eyed.
Also, the next story's introduction chapter will be out soon, if not already. Look for it, it's called Diablo 2: Fallen, and it features what I refer to as the 'third demon sister.' (The First demon sister is the Countess, the second is the Enchantress.)
- Amethyst Haze