What Price Freedom? part two
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The power of the Palace was a two-edged sword. If Rayek could use it, then so could Winnowill. His prior experience and greater knowledge would be a thin shield indeed, but it would have to be enough. Rayek could feel the others watching. He knew Winnowill could too. /Oh, High One,/ he thought /I pray it is not a mistake for you to be here./ He could almost see the support Ekuar was trying to send him. /No./ he thought, hoping that somehow Ekuar could hear him, /I must use -my- strength. This is my battle. I will not risk you too./ Regretfully, he turned the proffered strength back. /Oh High Ones,/ he prayed desperately, /Let me be worthy of the faith Ekuar has in me./ They stood facing each other upon the astral plane, he and Winnowill. The nearby Palace shed a spectral light over the bleak soul-scape. The centuries of Winnowill's imprisonment were coming to a turning point. She would either win her freedom, or Rayek would bind her even further to his soul. Winnowill attacked first, dazzling ropes of light flew from her outstretched hand and wrapped around Rayek, seeking to immobilize him. He shrugged them off easily, and countered with glittering balls that sought to entrap Winnowill within their iridescent shells. She dissolved them with half a thought. Suntop shuddered, the presence of so much potent magic nearly overwhelming his senses. Timmain laid a protective hand on his head, filtering the magic and easing the ache. "It looks so...odd." breathed Leetah. "I can't put my finger on it..." "It's like watching someone fight their reflection." said Suntop slowly. "Yes," whispered Timmain. "Yet they both look so much like Haken..." She trailed off, lost in thought. /Haken, are you here?/ Timmain wondered. /Are you watching as these children of your spirit destroy each other?/ Ekuar's gasp recalled her attention to the Scroll, and the fateful scene being played out in it's colors. Winnowill had trapped Rayek in a ring of spectral fire, and it was shrinking. The flames leapt so high that Rayek was completely obscured. Rayek was preparing his counter attack, fingers weaving frantically as the fire closed in. At the last instant, he leapt clear, and before Winnowill could react, he threw his magic net over her head. She panicked, and in her frantic effort to escape, only succeeded in entangling herself further. She calmed herself, and smiled at Rayek. **Well done, brother.** With a gesture, she disintegrated the net. **But not enough.** Grinning feraly, she lunged at him, her features twisting and melting into those of a large desert jackal. He -just- dodged her assault; taking advantage of her momentary confusion he changed himself, using the power of the Palace to assume the form of a great sand cat. They prowled around each other, each testing the other's defenses with brief attacks. Rayek took a glancing blow to the head, while Winnowill received a deep scratch down her flank. She re-assumed elf form, attempting to heal the damage, but the injuries from this battle of souls went far deeper than mere wounds of the flesh. **There is no need for this** said/sent Winnowill, velvetly. **Serve me and I will be yours forever.** **Serve you?** Rayek laughed incredulously as he resumed elf form as well. A gleaming sword appeared in his hand. **And you will be -mine-? Do not lie to -me- Winnowill, we both know who would belong to whom. What kind of freedom would that be?** **It would be -ours-. You would no longer need to expend all your strength restraining me. And I would no longer be captive. Is that not what you want?** Winnowill smiled seductively. **At the expense of this whole world? With the blood of the Wolfriders on my hands? That is too high a price Winnowill. I will not pay it!** And he launched another attack, sword slashing with furious urgency. **Freedom is worth any price!** Winnowill dodged his blade, and flung a fiery ball of magic at him. **Even half of your soul?** he asked as he caught the ball and neutralized it. He held out his hand, willing her to take it. Winnowill paused infinitesimally. **If that is the price, then so be it.** But there was just the tiniest bit of hesitance in her voice. **And if that is the price of this world's safety, then I will pay it if I must.** Rayek felt infinitely weary. High Ones knew he didn't want this battle, had never wanted it. He wanted to love Winnowill, but she was forcing his hand. "Oh, they're such stubborn fools!" cried Leetah, sobbing, torn by her friends pain. But in her heart she knew that Rayek's stubbornness was a very necessary thing. **They get it from me, I'm afraid.** an unfamiliar spirit sent resignedly. **It seems to be a family trait.** Timmain smiled slightly, but kept her attention on the battle. *It is good to see you, old friend.* she sent. "Who are you?" asked Suntop, curiously. **I am Haken.** There was the same sense of a strong, proud personality in Haken's send as could be sensed in Rayek's. **Oh, children.** he whispered, as Rayek and Winnowill caught each other in magical fire. They both cried out as their spirits began to burn. Hastily they refocused their energy to dampen the flames. **Well,** sent Rayek, **That got us nowhere.** **Indeed.** Winnowill agreed, then lashed out with a spirit talon whip. Rayek gasped as the ends of the whip scored his cheek, grimly he caught the whip and wrenched it from Winnowill's grasp. Rayek sketched a circle around Winnowill, creating an invisible barrier and trapping her inside. Winnowill regarded him from within her crystal cage, a small smile playing about the corners of her mouth. **Who are you seeking to protect, brother?** she chuckled. **The Wolfriders? They do not deserve your concern.** **They do not deserve your hatred** Rayek answered her levelly. **Pfah. They are vermin.** Winnowill dismissed them. **Perhaps you defend your dear, dear Sun Folk?** She laughed aloud. **Isn't so deliciously ironic, my love? Had you been a simple Sun Villager, and tended the garden as your father wished, you would now be flying from star to star in the Palace, as you always dreamed. But if you -had- been a quiet Sun Villager, the Palace would still be moldering in the Frozen Mountains.** She giggled. **It is simply -too- delicious.** She paused as though suddenly struck by an idea. **--Wait! Are you actually trying to protect the -humans-? Like that little playmate of yours? Oh, what -was- her name...? Shuna? No, wrong century. Sherna? Shasta?** Winnowill laughed, enjoying this game immensely. Rayek regarded her stonily, refusing to be drawn in this manner, though he flinched at the mention of Sherla. **Why are you suddenly so desperate to be free of me?** he asked when she was done. **I thought I was your other half. Is familiarity breeding contempt, my dear?** **You, who have fought all your life to be free of this thrice cursed world, must ask why I wish to be free? Dear soul of mine, I thought you, of all people, would understand!** Winnowill seemed genuinely surprised. **I love you.** Rayek sent simply, hoping against hope that maybe -this- time she would listen. **Will you stop saying that?!** Winnowill snapped. **You unbelievable idiot, have you not learned by now that love is -pain-? What will it take to make you see?!** She smashed her way out of Rayek's invisible fence, her features melting in shape-change once again. Now she was the Black Snake in truth. Rayek leaped clear of her strike with practiced ease. Moving quickly, he snatched the end of her tail and snapped her whole body like a living whip, leaving her stunned. She cursed herself for choosing this form. He grew up in the desert, of -course- he knew how to handle a dangerous snake! Rayek began to take them both back into his empty body, but Winnowill recovered too soon. She lashed her head up and sank her venomous fangs deep into his hand. Rayek hissed and dropped her from suddenly numb fingers. She reformed as she fell, and stood to her full elven height, laughing. **Tsk, tsk. Such a nasty bite. Let me take care of it for you.** she fussed, smiling, and reached for his hand. Rayek pulled away. Winnowill put a hand to her heart as though injured. **Ah, you wound me with your distrust.** she said, then laughed. **I have lived with one arm before. And High Ones help me, I can do it again.** said Rayek grimly. **Then, en garde!** trilled Winnowill, cheerfully borrowing a human term as she lashed out again. And so the battle continued, each gaining-- then loosing-- ground. Neither gained the upper hand for long. They were too evenly matched, and they knew each other's tactics too well. The magics they used now were much less refined than those they had begun with. The battle had already lasted several hours, and they were feeling drained, even with the Palace's power to draw on. **This charade has gone on long enough, brother.** Winnowill finally snarled. **Goodbye!** Reaching deep within herself, and calling on the impartial power of the Palace, she hurled a blazing ball of soulfire at him. Rayek threw up a desperate shield, but he didn't even have time to scream as Winnowill's soulfire blasted through it and ripped into him. For a moment, all was fiery, incandescent pain. Then mercifully it was cool blackness- and then, blessedly, nothing at all. Leetah gasped as Rayek fell. He had to get up! She watched helplessly as his spirit form flickered and disappeared. No. He couldn't be gone! Tears streamed down her face as she stared in shock at the scene of Winnowill's triumph. Timmain and Suntop could only stare, horrified. Ekuar sent desperately, searching for any trace of his soul-son. **I am free!** Winnowill exulted. **Free!** But her victory felt hollow. She shivered, remembering a quiet question. 'Even half of your soul?' Unbidden, she recalled Rayek as he had stood there, eyes pleading as he offered her his head, hand, and heart. His -soul-. **I am free.** she whispered fiercely. **Freedom is worth any price.** But deep within, she wasn't so sure. **It did not have to be this way!** she sent to whatever shreds of Rayek might still remain. **Your love was your weakness.** **Love is never a weakness.** Impossibly, it was Rayek. Winnowill whirled. **Where are you?** she asked, uncertain whether to be pleased or furious over his return. **Right here.** She could sense movement, but she couldn't see anything. She spun, searching for signs of him. **So soon you forget me?** Rayek laughed. **I am here.** Now she saw. It wasn't so much a darkness as an un-light. **I see only a shadow.** she said, confused. **That is all you need to see.** Leetah nearly wept for joy when Rayek sent again. She saw the shadow form flickering around Winnowill and knew that it was Rayek. For so many years, his love had been the shadow-- the darkness that overwhelms the light-- she had feared, but in time she had learned that there was no need for that fear. And here he was again, her dear friend somehow unharmed. She smiled triumphantly through her tears. Ekuar breathed a silent prayer of thanks to the spirits of the Palace, gratitude for his soul-son's return shining from him like a beacon. Then, in a sudden, convulsive movement, the Shadow/Rayek sprang at Winnowill. Winnowill hurled soulfire, but he did not let go of her. **Sister** he sent, in the split second before the soulfire blazed through him again, **We have both been too wrapped up in ourselves. We have both forgotten that we are one, and what you do to one, you do to the other.** He did not try to avoid her blast. Indeed, he seemed to welcome it. Winnowill shrieked as it hit him, for she felt it too, as though her soul was the one burning. They screamed in shared agony until the Palace itself cried with them. When the soulfire struck Rayek for the second time, Leetah thought that she could not bear it. But instead of weakening, Rayek seemed to find a strange strength. The magic aura around the two combatants brightened until neither could be seen and the light was painful. It remained that way for some while. When the light surrounding Winnowill and Rayek finally faded, all that was left was two dark and nearly lifeless spirits, laying where they had fallen.
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