m: 'Beautiful' belongs to the Dreaming.

shadow0015: It's no easy decision. Here's what Nat chooses;

Chapter Fourteen

Nathyrra quietly crept towards the cabin. Her heart ached at her decision but she pushed down her feelings. Nothing would get in the way of her revenge. Nothing.

The assassin slowly unscrewed the screen on the kitchen window and crawled into the kitchen. She kept her hands on the hilts of her poisonous daggers, edging towards the door. A light suddenly appeared, lighting up the kitchen. Nathyrra spun around.

Seelomar looked at her quizzically. "Nathyrra?"

Nathyrra snarled and unsheathed her daggers. Seelomar's eyes widened with shock and he grabbed a knife off the kitchen counter. Nathyrra rushed towards him, daggers twirling.

"Why are you doing this?" Seelomar shouted as he desperately tried to block.

"It's just business!" Nathyrra yelled in reply.

"You're an assassin?"

Nathyrra knocked the knife out of his hand. "Correct." she plunged her dagger into his chest.

Seelomar started coughing up blood and sank to his knees.

"DAD!" A voice screamed.

Nathyrra turned around. Tialla stood in the doorway, her face ashen with pure shock. The assassin started walking towards the half-drow.

A fireball hurtled towards Nathyrra. She dodged it.

Tialla stared at her hands in shock. She then looked at Nathyrra, a smug smile of hope and triumph adorning her face. Nathyrra narrowed her eyes. "Your newfound magic won't save you." Nathyrra bellowed a lightning bolt spell and threw it at Tialla.

Tialla put up a magical shield. The shield was futile against the force of Nathyrra's magic and the lightning bolt pierced the barrier. Tialla fell back as the bolt struck her, trembling violently as she tried to sit up.

Nathyrra walked over to the girl. Tialla snarled and swiped at Nathyrra's face. To Nathyrra's surprise, a cut opened up on her cheek. Ignoring Tialla's poor attempts to fend her off and using her superior height and strength, she dragged Tialla to her feet and looked straight into her blue eyes as she leveled her dagger at the half-drow's chest.

Tialla managed a weak smile. "I thought you were cool."

"I'm not." Nathyrra responded.

Seelomar lay dying on the floor. His eyes were locked on his daughter and Nathyrra. He was helpless to do anything as Nathyrra stabbed Tialla in the chest. Tialla let out a scream. Seelomar tried to scream as well but couldn't find his voice. As Tialla's eyes rolled backwards in her head, an agony far more painful than the wound in his chest and the poison in his veins entered his heart. He had just witnessed the death of his only the daughter. Tialla, his hope for the future, taken away before his very eyes. He finally stopped struggling and succumbed to the darkness of death.

XXXXX

Leagues away, Ilivarra gazed into a portal. She watched as her student planted a dagger in the girl's chest. Ilivarra let out a sad sigh. "She has failed the test."

XXXXX

Nathyrra dropped Tialla's lifeless body. Tears threatened to fall, but Nathyrra refused to shed them. Assassins don't weep over their victims, She reminded herself. Nathyrra turned her head in Seelomar's direction. His grey eyes stared at her. They burned with rage, despair, sorrow, and shock.

Nathyrra tore herself away from those harsh eyes and started walking towards the door.

XXXXX

Nathyrra reached her home ten minutes later. A horribly lifeless feeling had overcome her. She stripped off her armor, allowing the crimson and black garments to litter the floor in an uncaring fashion. The drow could barely feel the cut on her cheek, the numb emotion was so strong. She tried to remind herself that her revenge would soon be at hand, but the feeling remained.

As Nathyrra walked down the hall, she paused for a moment to look in the wall mirror. Her appearance had not changed too much over the years. Her hair now hung just past her shoulders, pulled into a half-ponytail. Seven earrings adorned her left ear. The small cut on her cheek continued to bleed. Her drow features remained young and alluring, except for one difference. The anguished, poisonous eyes of a corpse stared back at her.

Cause you are beautiful but your soul is cold and dead
Angelic but a demon fills your head
The heaven that you promised life could be
Was a deadly blended hell and ecstasy

God, you are so beautiful
To diamonds in your eyes

I know you're so ugly
I know you're so ugly on the inside
I know you're so ugly
Beautiful but ugly on the inside (on the inside)

You are beautiful but ice runs through your veins
Slowly draining all my life away
Perfection in a shell devoid of life
Cause you leave a trail of broken dreams behind

Beautiful, you're so beautiful
But I know that's a lie