I had an extremly busy week and this is the first day I was able to work on chapter two. I, however, was very comforted from my miserable days without writing by all of you who reviewed. Thirty-three (as of 7:31 PM, October 22) reviews for two chapters! "You spoil me." .
I just re-watched Spellbound and I'm going to watch "Wavelength" in about half an hour. Until then, I'll be writing chapter two and posting it up ASAP.
Thanks to all and enjoy this chapter!
Kree
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She had a hard time comprehending the reasoning behind the fact that the white hard covered book was in her hands again. The night produced a thick blanket of warmth around her body, a comforting security she was all to used to. However, the darkness was penetrated by small specks of fire, hovering on myriads of candles positioned in a circle. The tiny lights surrounded a large, marble book stand, a beautiful piece of stone engraved with the designs of the ancient Elven race. She hadn't used this magnificent stand since...
The massive book lay in her lap for a few minutes. Her precise movements had caused her to hesitantly lift the book out of the chest. The entire process seemed to last an hour.
She couldn't believe she was still going on with this. Sure, it had been astonishing to open his pages for the first time after a month. But after yesterday's episode... there were so many emotions inside of her bursting to escape into the open. He made her feel so miserable yesterday, to a point where even some of her friends sensed her distrubance. From Beast Boy teasing her about the "extra gloomy" look on her face to the "are you feeling okay"s from Cyborg, Starfire, and Robin, she knew they could sense something was up.
There was no other way. This was the truth: the only way she could eliminate him from her life forever was to continue with these painful talks until they did not hurt her any longer.
With a sigh, she slowly rose to her feet, a goddess of the night strolling through her kingdom. Her pace was a smooth glide across the floor, the book trapped close to her chest, the jail bars, her steady arms. She placed the lovely bound book on the dark stand with only the support of her fingertips. She decided she would stall no longer in thought and contemplation. There was no more time for hesitation: she neede to be rid of him as soon as possible. WIth a gentle sweep, her giners found Malchior's page with his never-changing black eyes.
"Y-you're back?" His tone, rising in surprise, was inflected with shock and even delight.
"I still need answers." Her manner was blunt and straightfoward. "Answers are more important to me than a few moments of irritation. Besides, none of this will matter or even be remembered when I burn you."
"Ah, so you're still intent on eradicating me. Well, I have little say in your actions," he paused, giving in too easily in Raven's eyes. "Now, I believe that during these conversing periods you have some sorts of questions to ask me?"
"Indeed," she nodded, setting herself down on the edge of her bed. She leaned back on two of her palms, her eyes locked on his. "I have read multiple accounts of your life... your beginning, middle," she stopped, biting her lip, "and your supposed end."
"Well, I must admit that I believe the most accurate account was one written by a man by the name of Partius Decimine. But even his-"
"Yes, I have read that one," she interrupted. "But I want you to tell me your story."
"Would you be able to listen to my tale? Or more importantly, would you be able to believe me?" He asked in a saddened sort of voice.
"I read that you were once a man," she said quietly.
"Is that so? What am I now?"
"I don't know," her eyes trailed the bottom of the book stand. "Because you've convinced me that you're more like a monster."
Malchior was silent, a response that was normally uncustomary. He ignored her previous comment and somehow, she sense a thin layer of his discomfort. "Yes, I was once a man, a boy at the very beginning. I was born in the winter of 905 AD to Sir Matthais Du-Vera and Lady Lavinia Jamie of Nole. I was the elder child to one brother, one year younger than I. His name was Corven." His voice seemed almost sad as he told the story of his past, a one more like a lost fairy tale. "I was the son of a knight, as you know, and a rather rich one at that. My father wanted me to become a great warrior and follw in his footsetps. My interest, however, was not in the sword. I spent hours in my palace library, reading and studying, developing a dream in the fantasy world and a desire for magic... for power. At the same time, my brother trained to become the son my parents always wanted. My brother was showered with praise, attention, and affection. I was left to myself."
Raven, herself, did not understand sibling rivalry to the extent he had experienced. But she knew this envy. She knew how it felt to be overlooked by the ones she cared about. She hated to admit it, but jealous of various people such as Starfire, Terra, and even Jinx, had distressed her greatly. Perhaps she was beginning to comprehend Malchior.
"My parents did not think too much of me when I began trying simple spells from the books in the library at the age of eight. They were too busy obsessing over Corven." There was much contempt in his manner. "I had friends and knew of companionship in my early youth, but one by one, I chased them away with my dark personality. Bit by bit, I lost my trust in people."
"Not many wizards have been able to teach themselves the art of magic," Raven commented, tilting her head.
"Not many wizards were as powerful as I, my dear," he mused conceitedly, his cockiness causing her to twitch her top lip. No, she would not smile.
"A great war began when I turned ten. My father went to fight in the west. Before long, war ravaged Nole and my mother, brother, and I were on the run. my mother was killed by a fiery arrow as we fled. We could not go back to help her. Corven and I barely escaped with our lives I was with a terrible fever, unable to run for very long or conjury magic to aid us. I collapsed in the middle of the dense, Macramanian Wood. My brother left to bring me assistance. He never came back for me."
"Many books say your brother could not find you again."
"He abandoned me," he said coldly, his statement, bold and straight. "I lay there, helpless, on that cold, forest floor for hours, waiting for someone to find me. I realize that throughout my entire life, I have been waiting for someone to find me. Only the darkness has found me," he hesitated. "That night, the darkness shielded me from the beasts of that dread forest. In the morning, a water sprite by the name of Cloielle discovered me. She and her family nursed me bcak to health and adopted me. They taught me magic on more powerful levels as I grew with them. But they knew of the darkness in my spirint and feared the monster I would become. As I have found myself happy with the sprites at times... they failed to understand me. I left when I was thirteen to study with shunned wizards and learn the art of dark magic. Surely, I would be understood by those of my own kind." He said these words sarcastically.
"But you left them a little more than a year later."
"I learned quickly. They taught me all I neede to know. I left because I soon discovered that I was not physically strong enough to wield this magic. The fever long ago broke my body more than I had imagined. the power I sought would drain me of my energey until I was an empty husk. I learned that the hard way," he grimaced. "I was devastated. Magic was everything to me but I could pursue it any longer. The elder wizards could not help me. To them, I was just a weak, little boy," he laughed weakly, a pathetic sort of laugh. She could tell that Malchior found his past a bit too pitiful for a person of his self-confidence and ambition.
"I wandered the country side for about half a year. I would not give up on my magic. I would find a way to harness my strength and control my powers. I had no one, Raven, nothing by the magic flowing through my veins. I was terribly lonely," he sighed. "And to have someone love me for who I was... what I was... still meant everything to me."
"If that was what you truly wanted, I could have done that," Raven thought miserably. This was not true anymore, she concluded. If it was, he wouldn't have betrayed her.
"One afternoon, I stumbled across a book in the bookstore in a Port Kafnah. I had little money and was in the worst economic states I had been in throughout my entire wandering. I was starving and tired, my clothes torn and filthy from travel. As I looked through the book, I knew that it must be mine. I paid for it and made camp in the nearby forest. In its pages, I found my salvation. This book held ancient spells that could not be performed by some of the most powerful wizards of my time, but I knew that I must try. It was my only chance to live the only dream I had ever had."
"You became the dragon." The words were barely whispers trickling from her lips.
"Yes, I took the form of a dragon. I succesfully performed the spell with the incantations while nearly killing myself. But I became stronger. There was a dragon inside of me, igniting a fire that kept me going. I had accomplished what no other wizard had accomplished for thousands of years. I had power but I wanted more. Power is a wonderful thing, but I wanted to be understood, respected and loved by people. I returned to my teachers to show them what I had done. I had expected approbation."
Her heart was beating wildly at the suspense of tale. She knew what had happened, she read it so many times. Why was she still so captivated by his story?
"I terrifed them, Raven. They were mortified. They attacked me and cast me out. I was confused. Didn't these people understand the darkness? Didn't these people understand me? It was then I knew that I could never be loved. I could never be understood. But I still had power, sweet Raven, I still had my magic."
He was fascinating. Brilliant, evil, ambitious, and fascinating. No, she her head turned to the side violently. How could she think such things? This man was evil. This man betrayed her. She felt nothing for him but hatred.
"I was a threat to everyone. Everyone was my enemy. I began my conquest, burning cities one by one. Yes... I liked to watch them burn..." his voice trailed off in reminisince. "I loved the lick of the flames and the sight of its continuous swaying. The smoke was as sweet as the perfume of rose petals to me and its ashes as soft as silk. I watched cities burn, I watched people burn, and I loved instilling fear. I had nothing before. Now, this world would be mine."
Raven bit her tongue to keep her from yelling out at him. No, she couldn't let what happened last night happen again. She needed him to keep talking.
"I went back and forth between dragon form and human form. No one suspected that I, a young man of fourteen or fifteen, would be the terrifying dragon torturing the land. I did this for two to three years, the entire world almost in ashes. They would soon surrender to my will and my leadership. Here and there, a few men tried their luck in slaying me, but I was too powerful. I reduced them to nothing in seconds, most of the time. One day," he laughed pathetically again, "Corven came to slay me. For the first time in years, I could not smite my opponenet. I let him attack me again and again but I could not fight back." His laugh became frigtening, chilling the nerves on Raven's skin. "I transformed back to reveal myself but even when he recognized me, he would not stop. I, on the verge of death, did what any beast at bay would do: I transformed back and killed him."
She trembled, shifting her eyes towards the wall to the right. There was not much left, she knew. There was not much left of his life.
"Rorek, one the remaining wizards of his time, came to kill me. As you know, he could not, but he trapped me in that damn book."
"Rorek... Rorek is dead, right?"
"Rorek is dead. He was human, not immortal. It's been over a thousand years. Unless he has an abnormal life span, I doubt he live to this day," he stopped. "And well, I've been here ever since, reading, waiting for you to free me, and you know the rest. And that, Raven, is the tragic story of my life," he declared bitterly.
"So I really was supposed to set you free?" She questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, you were. What I didn't know was that I wouldn't be free for very long."
Raven chose her words carefully before she spoke. "I..." she moved a strand of her orchid colored her hair behind her ear. "I didn't think that you would be so human."
He snorted. "Yes, I'm still human even if I have a dragon in me."
"No, it's just that... everything about you..." she frowned. "It's all so justifiable," she suddenly changed her mind. "No, you've still done terrible things and I still think you're evil. I still think you could have overcome all of that and been-"
"Good? Raven I'd be surprised if there's an ounce of good still in me. Perhaps I've never even had any. Now," he started. "May I pose a question?"
"Depends on what it is," she eyed him suspciously. "I don't even answer my friends's questions too
often."
"Well, I've told you the story of my past. What of yours?"
"Haven't I told you this before?"
"You were about to, but you were called away on a mission just as you started. We never went back to it again."
"All right," she began, pausing between words. "I think I remember that. Okay," she stopped again. She couldn't believe that she was going to tell him all of this; her enemy. Then again, it didn't matter what she told him. He wouldn't be here long to remember it, if everything went as planned. "My mother, Arella, offered herself as the bride of Satan in some occult. She was raped by what she thought was a man, but was in actuality, a demon. Only when she saw the demonic appearance of Trigon," she hissed these words, "my father, was when she opposed to the entire ideal. On the brink of suicide, a pacifist occult saved her and brought her to Azareth, another dimension."
"I remember a little of that."
"I remember telling that to you as well. And so I was born, a daughter of a human and a demon," she scowled. "I was raised by a woman named Azar and her followers, taught pacifism, and taught to control my emotions so the demon in me could not be awakened. I had to control my emotions to stabilize my powers as well. I learned the art of healing and how to properly meditate for hours at a time," she yawned. The night was certainly getting to her.
"You've told me of your powers before... how you're forbidden to feel emotions in fear of your powers going haywire. It's still a concept that intrigues me."
She nodded. "They told me not to leave Azareth. In Azareth, I would have complete control over myself and never unleash the evil within me. If I remained out of social contact with other people, I wouldn't have to worry about... losing myself. This may have been true, but I always felt like I was missing something. Even though I knew that this was as whole as I could possibly get without being dangerous, I decided it was worth finding something else. I left Azareth when I was thirteen and arrived in Jump City. The first day I got there, I passed by a bank when two masked men with bags and bags of money burst out of the front doors. They jumped into a car and sped away. I saw Robin and Cyborg chase after them so I grabbed the car with my powers. The robbers were captured and Robin and Cyborg invited me to the Titans Tower. So I became friends with those two boys and got rather attached to Robin. I admired him for his charisma and his confidence," she yawned again. "So when Starfire came along, I felt a little uneasy, perhaps even a bit jealous. This passed fairly quickly, however. We found Beast Boy fighting the Amazing. Mumbo by himself and invited him to the team."
"Thus begins the Teen Titans..." Malchior mused.
"Yes. We became the Teen Titans. We protected Jump City from evil villains and that whole ordeal. We protected each other from ourselves. From Slade to Brother Blood, from Trigon to my own fears, from Robin to Terra..."
"The rock girl?"
"Yeah, Beast Boy's ex-girlfriend."
"You were not particularly fond of her from what I remember."
"You're remembering right. I respect her for her ultimate sacrifice in the end, despite her betrayel, but I never liked her much." Raven knew that she had been jealous of Terra, a major factor of her dislike for the blonde haired girl. She quickly began speaking to rid of herself of certain memories at this moment. "Then I met you, and well, we really don't have to go into that," she said through her yawning.
"It looks to me that you're going to drop dead asleep in just a matter of time," he observed, mid through her yawn.
"Yeah, well I think you're right," she held her arms up in the air, stretching in her weariness. She slipped off the side of her bed and brought her hand to the cover of the pale colored book. Malchior would not watch her sleep. As she began to close it, she heard him speak one last time.
"Good night, Raven," he said to her kindly, and she inhaled deeply as she slammed the book.
Malchior would not charm her. He could not fool her like he had done before. Raven would not fall for his kindness and his amicabillity. Malchior was evil. Yes, he was evil, she thought to herself as she lay her head on her pillow. Malchior was evil. She pulled up her blankets and wrapped it around her slender body, yearning for the soft comfort of the fabric. Malchior was evil. She closed her eyes and drifted into slumber.
Malchior was evil.
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"Raven, have you been talking to him?"
The question obviously thre her aback as she sipped her herbal tea. She almost choked as the hot liquid gushed down her throat, its overwhelming scent soothering her nerves simultaneously. Its strong concotion filled the room with the bittersweet perfume of Azerthian flowers and tea leaves. As she sat at the kitchen table in the central room of the Titans Tower, she felt all the eyes of her friends on her, waiting patiently for an answer. She knew they were trying to interrogate her in a friendly way about an issue that was serious and extremely hazardous. She wished that her actions had as good intentions as theirs.
Their concern was well justified; she should not be talking to Malchior. She should not endagner the lives of her friends and the people of Earth by conversing with this evil wizard. Yes, she was being horribly reckless but she would not fall for his tricks again. Of course, her friends would never believe this. The only thing she could possibly do was lie.
"Talking to him?" Raven asked with feigned confusion. "By any chance, you can't possibly mean Malchior!"There; by turning the accusation on Robin, she had been able to sound more believable. The art of deception was one she had mastered very well.
"Well, we've all heard you talking in hte middle of the night," Robin explained.
"Dude, I haven't been able to get a decent night's sleep with you yapping all night long!" Beast Boy tugged at the sides of his hair.
"No, Malchior is securely locked in the chest in my room," she lied. "Perhaps... I've been sleeptalking? I remember telling this to Beast Boy a week ago. That would be the only explanation I could think of."
The others were still not convinced. "Ray, it's been more than a month since that whole Malchior business," Cyborg began, his voice gentle and reassuring. Cyborg was like a brother to her and she hated lying to him about all of this. She swallowed hard as he started to speak again. "We understand if it's still hurting you. The guy hurt you real bad. We just don't think you should be talking to him again."
"Cyborg," she said calmly, looking him in the eye. "I haven't talked to him. I may have been tempted to in the first week, I must admit, but not anymore. Yes, he still haunts my dreams, especially in the last week," she pretended to shudder. "But I would not bring myself to speak with him again. Not with all the consequences."
"Friend Raven, I weep for your broken heart!" Starfire threw her arms around her, causing the violet haired girl to flinch towards the back of her chair.
"So, you're not talking to Malchior anymore?" Robin questioned again. Raven wondered what was going on in those eyes of his, always hidden behind his black mask.
"No," Raven said confidently. "I am not talking to Malchior. Now," she rose from the table, pushing the gray chair a few inches back. "I must head to the roof for my morning meditation session."
"All right, we'll see ya later then," Cyborg gave half a wave while stuffing his face with pancakes.
She hurried to the double doors leading out of the main room and opened them with a wave of her hand. With that, she let the two doors close and swing aimlessly for a few seconds; she did not go through them. Instead, she stayed by the side of a wall where she was not visible to her friends sitting at the kitchen table. Yes, she was spying on them, but she had no choice. She needed to know what they were up to.
"Beast Boy, turn into a fly an go into Raven's room in the middle of the night," Robin ordered, his words very hushed and cautious. "I'd hate to invade her privacy and spy on her like this, but we've got to check up on her. We can't let her get hurt again."
Raven almost last at the irony as she teleported to the top of the roof. So she would have extra company in the dark of night? Well, she would be ready..."
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"So your green skinned friend will be spying on you tonight?"
"Yes," Raven made a nodding movement as she lay in her bed. "He'll be coming in as a fly, so you'll have to shut up so I can listen for his entrance. I have to convince them that I've been sleeptalking rather than talking to you for a week."
"Well it's not very comfortable lying under your pillow," his muffled voice protested.
"That's too bad. I'm not all for your welfare."
"Raven, I'm suffocating," he whined.
"Books don't breathe, dear Malchior," she scorned.
"Well, if they could, I would be dead by now. Besides, your head is smashing me."
Raven chuckled but she suddenly heard a low buzzing outside her door. She instantly fell silent and closed her eyes. He positioned her hand on one of her three pillows and waited for the fly to slip beneath the cracks in her door and fly towards her. Malchior had probably noticed her abrupt silence as well and decided to shut up for the few required minutes.
She began to toss and turn, going from one side to the other, groaning silently as she continued to show discomfort. "How could you do this to me?" she moaned softly. "Why did you lie to me, Malchior? Why are you doing this to me?" she cried, kicking her blankets from side to side as she turned. Her bed began a tornado of sheets and blankets, going every which way and that. She was about to say something else but she felt her blanket creeping back to a standard position.
There was someone standing above her; no doubt it was Beast Boy, but why was he bringing the covers back around her shoulders. He heard him sigh and then to her surprise, she felt his fingertips carress against the side of her face. His hands were warm, and soft to the touch, and he moved a strand of her hair away from her cheek.
"Raven," she heard him whisper. "I hope your heart will heal soon from the wounds he has given you."
All of a sudden, she wished she really was asleep.
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All right, so this is a longer sort of chapter. It's still pretty short by my standards, but I've got that whole long conversation with Raven and Malchior in the beginning and I couldn't exactly start the whole plot in this chapter. Well, I had to at least get Malchior's history out so you could understand everything else.
Once again, if you guys have any stories that are Raven/Malchior and want to submit them to my C2,
"Of the Darkness", please email me at
Plz review!
Kree
