Unwanted Beauty: Chapter Nine: In Which the Truth is Told

Horror crept into the Temple. Young apprentices sobbed while the old priestesses prayed fervently. The servants went about their work quietly and with great timidity. Even the animals tread carefully. The city itself was subdued, as if they had caught the dread that covered the temple district like a blanket of snow. All that lived in the city awaited the siege, waited for the war that was over something so trivial and all important as the possession of a woman.

In history women have always had little power, and also had all of the power. Women hold a great deal of men's power. The men may be the body and head of the country, but the women are the neck, controlling where it travels.

Helene watched the developments with horror. Or did she? In creating a war she had given herself a great deal of power. For the first time in her life she held the cards, she controlled the outcome, as long as she could continue to manipulate both men. The ball was finally in her court, she only had to keep it there. A cook caught her standing in the window, a secretive smile on her face as the eastern wind blew her doom and destiny towards her.

"Lady?" The cook asked carefully, all of the servants had learned that Lady Helene was not to be crossed these days. Oftentimes Helene would snap at the servants, cursing them for their idiocy, had no one ever told them that servants were not to be seen or heard?"

"What?" Spat Helene venomously. She despised the servants lately. Tolerating their ineptitude and stupidity was currently beyond the limits of her patience. Why they had to ask questions was so far past her understanding of humanity's lowlifes that she wasn't even going to try.

"I…ah…um…I…" The cook stammered, noticing that again, kindness was not going to be well received here.

"Spit it out! I do not wish to spend any more time than I have to speaking to a cook." Helene spat. The old woman's eyes clouded with tears and she quickly disappeared. If anyone else had seen, they would have said that Helene's character brightened, because power was enough to make anyone smile.

---:---

Gods, why does going back always seem to take longer? How could I have left her? Why was I so dense? For the past several weeks those same thoughts had collided in a whirlwind of hurt inside Thom's head. He strongly believed that his life had turned into a continual trek down a road of agony.

"Oh snap out of it already." Keladry finally said as they boarded a ship that would take them to Port Caynn. "It's not like someone died or anything. Your mother is fine, your father is having a great time with this Carthaki thing and your brothers and sisters are all happily flitting about causing chaos, nothing to worry about." Kel said cheerfully, making Neal laugh and Thom roll his eyes.

"I feel like an idiot." Admitting his feelings had always been hard for Thom, it meant that he was exposing himself, which was something he seldom did in front of anyone but Morgan, he wasn't sure why it was different with Morgan, but it was.

Thinking such thought always led him to ask himself why it was different with Morgan. What was special about that girl? What is it? His brain screamed at him. Because I love her. Was the logical answer, but was that it? How was it possible to love someone you had known for three weeks? Did I love her, or the idea of her? He asked himself. The beautiful girl who doesn't want that beauty, and has a brain, what isn't to love?

Thom spent his trip to Port Caynn asking himself such questions. Did he love her? Did he truly? The answer eluded him,

"Alright, what's the matter?" Neal asked as they sat in the pub nursing pints of beer. Thom sighed the sigh that men had been sighing for ages, the sigh of men who weren't in love but desperately wanted to be.

"I don't love her. Well, I do, but I'm not in love with her." He said quietly, and watched as Neal's eyes widened in horror.

"What?" Neal's voice was quiet and harsh. Thom felt threatened and alone.

"I don't love her. I never did, I loved the idea of her." Thom's voice was strained, he was in pain.

"Then why are we doing this?" Neal shrieked. "If you don't love her then why are you marching into a city full of Rasputin's assassins and a temple that is surrounded by his magic?'' The older man had a point, why was he doing it? Because you want to prove to yourself that you do love her, because you love the idea that much.

"Because it's the right thing to do." That cliché answer was all the answer he would ever give Neal. Reason being?- It was easier. There are times in life where giving the easy answer is the only real answer. Just like there are times when admitting the easy answer is the only honest answer you can give without breaking yourself in half, which is what Thom was doing, avoiding breaking himself in half. Which would only make it that much when it happened.

Okay so this lame bit was all the creative energy of the last few days. Sucks to be me! Oh and don't tell me that Kel and Neal are OCC, I know that they are, I like them that way. Contrary to what seems to be common opinion this piece is not about them, I'm using them because it's much easier to pull characters that already have back-story than it is to create new ones and create viable back-story for them, so there you go. The OCC-ness is due to my own laziness, deal with it or quit reading this. The lack of grammatical correctness is due to the fact that I have never taken an English course in which there was grammar involved. How did I get through high-school thus far? I take literature appreciation courses. So I don't know how to write properly, that's why, there is no way to fix it, again, deal with it. If you can't deal with it, copy the chapters, edit them and send them back to me. If you want them before I update them tell me and I'll send them before I upload them, but I won't wait longer than a day or two, so you would have to be fast. Thank you that is all.