anyone wonder just what the nightmare was about? the plot bunny attacked me with nasty razor sharp vicious teeth. i was trying to get chapter 16 fixed and finished, but... have a bonus chapter, however unpretty.
"So you still live? How fascinating…" A voice whispered from somewhere out of sight. Dark. It was so dark, though she could feel the uncertain springiness to the ground that marked her trips to the fade. She tried to go forward, to find the way out, and smacked into something unyielding. A short step back brought her into contact with another wall. To the sides, she extended her arms and felt her fingers brush surfaces much like the other two. They hadn't been there a moment ago, had they? No, nonono… there had to be a way out. Somehow.
The dark seemed to thicken around her, and the air with it. Long moments passed, her heart hammering in her chest as she gasped for breath. She could feel the wall behind her pressing closer, and the surfaces to either side were closer, she could press her palms flat against them without straightening her arms. She could feel the walls closing in, could reach up and feel the ceiling of her cage slowly inevietably falling, as the air grew stale and her lungs burned. She knelt on the floor, the walls and ceiling pressing against her skin and screamed. She lunged at the confining walls, lashing out blindly, and clawed fingers settled around her arms. The barriers vanished, even as she was pulled harshly back against a lean form. "Pretty little mongrel, where would you go, even if I let you? You're in my realm now," the voice, all growling silk, hissed into her neck.
"Leave me alone. You said you wouldn't…" She snarled, fighting to get free even as his grip tightened like iron around her forearm.
"I said not except for special occasions. And, well, every new day you live is special, isn't it?" She could feel him laughing as his fangs brushed over her skin. She kicked back desperately, only to find nothing tangible under the blow. Off balance, she wavered, and he almost casually backhanded her before his claws swiped across her chest. She recoiled from him as welts rose, and he let her fall back to the soft ground before stalking towards her, the footsteps he took leaving glowing marks. She heard his fingers snap, and the brand on her palm lit. It hurt like he had set her skin on fire, but it drove back the darkness, and she was almost grateful…
The trickster smirked at her. "How… uncivil of me. You don't like the dark and tight spaces, do you? Not since you were under the rubble of your Gran's house, trapped in the dark with a burned, rotting corpse, the ashes of everything you really called home, and the templar's seed still drying between your aching thighs. How long did it take you to dig your way out? Two days or so wasn't it?" The brand's light dimmed, then, and she whimpered as the dark crept closer. "A long time when you're twelve. " The light dimmed further, even as she felt him press behind her. The bone beads in his hair gleamed, and she leaned back into the light without thinking. A brief chuckle, and claws roughly ran through her hair, even as her hand burned again. "And now you're trapped here with me, with only as much light as I choose to provide." With a pained flicker, her mark dimmed again, and fangs grazed over her shoulder. "You'll wake with the dawn, remembering everything I can do to you in the dark," He whispered, clawed fingers raking over her skin. "Knowing that when you sleep again, you'll find yourself right back under my claws." He emphasized with a sharper dig that left bloody furrows along her hip.
She curled in on herself, whimpering again, and felt a hard fist graze her cheek. "Please…" she begged, trying to ignore the fingers smearing her own blood over her skin. "Please don't…" He hit her again, this time with an open hand and extended claws. "Pretty little mage, this is not the time to try my patience." The last traces of light faded from her mark and his beads, and the darkness pressed in. She stared blankly at her hand, trying to focus on anything but the darkness or the sharp points exploring her skin. Canine fangs nipped at her neck, and she shuddered, even as a flicker of blue light slid through the ground under her. She froze, and it shifted, brightening and rippling in a familiar pattern. She fixed her gaze on it, pressed a palm against it, and she could smell lyrium.
"Fenris?" She whispered, and the light swirled around her as claws retreated from her skin with an annoyed snarl. The lyrium tang in the air grew stronger, mixed with tar and a salty sea breeze. She inhaled, and coughed.