Jessi: I think this is one of the saddest chapters I've written so far. Read on to see.

Waterdeep was bathed in a golden light as the sun headed for its resting place below the horizon. The sunlight that entered a plain wooden room turned Vale's skin into an imitation of its former colour. The dark lashes were spread across her cheeks as she slept on. A few stray hairs trailed across her face.

The blue eyes opened, immediently closing again in the bright light. She groaned, burying her head beneath the blankets. Pain gnawed inside her skull.

The bed creaked softly as a slight weight settled on it. Through the blanket she felt someone drape an arm around her waist, laying down next to her. The other arm slid underneath her head to act as a pillow.

Vale-uke... I was afraid for you. You've been asleep for so long.

"Chel?" she wriggled about, trying to turn around, only succeeding in tangling herself in the blankets. Chel sat up and freed her, watching for her reaction.

But she was not looking at him. Instead her gaze was fixed on the figure that was seated in the corner.

He wore a dream-like expression on his elven face. Little flickers of colour would appear randomly around him before being drawn into his body. The green eyes were watching her unblinkingly. The same eyes that looked down at her as he left her body. Tiamet, the being who had possessed her body, pushing it beyond the limits of her endurance.

She screamed.

Chel took the screaming elf in his arms. Even as he cast a sleep spell on her, his mind put two-and-two together and he sadly laid Vale back down on the bed.

His expression hardened and when he turned his face was contorted with rage. His hair writhed in the air and his claws were fully extended,

"You did this to her!" his words, though they were mutated into a viscous snarl, were understood perfectly by the deity. Tiamet stood,

"Chelevva, do not be so quick to anger. You are becoming irrational and-" he was cut off as magic flung his elven body through the wooden wall, leaving behind a gaping hole. The entire house shuddered in the aftermath of Chel's violent outburst.

The Dragon Deity got to his feet again, the fragile mammal bones healing instantly,

"I am a deity, Chelevva."

"And you know the power I possess," he stepped through the hole, "It easily matches a deity's strength."

"Even so," Tiamet brushed dust from his clothes and hair, "you would lose in the end."

One of the paladins poked his head into the corridor, took one glance at the angry Chel and wisely retreated. Neither dragon noticed his presence.

"I do not care whether I live or die."

"But I do, Chelevva," he stretched out his arms, trying to draw the other dragon closer.

"Like hell you do!" Chel snarled with rage and pushed away the deity by sheer rage alone, "You didn't care enough to even look for me when I was gone! Not once!"

"You left!" Tiamet's eyes narrowed dangerously, "By my own bloody blessed eyes, Chelevva, you've been gone for four thousand years! It's no way for a prince of dragons to act! It is no way for my son to act!"

"You didn't act like much of a father. What kind of-"

The deity moved faster than mortal eyes could have followed. In an instant Chel was on the floor, a handprint in darker silver forming on his cheek.

"I have given you everything Chelevva and you're repaying me by behaving like a spoiled child! By all rights I should... I should..."

"Destroy me? Do it then!" the dragon tore open his robe, exposing the vulnerable throat, "You know that I want you to! Finish her job!"

Time froze in the corridor, neither dragon broke eye contact or blinked. Slowly an expression of shock made its way onto the Lord of Dragon's face,

"You... you would have me destroy you? My only child?"

"If it was within my power I would do it myself."

There was another dreadful pause.

Tiamet knelt beside his son,

"Chelevva... I would never..."

"So you won't do it then?" the voice of the younger dragon was filled with sorrow. He lowered his head and his next words were so quiet that even the deity strained to hear them, "I hate you."

He faded out of sight and Tiamet was left alone in an empty corridor.