Whispers in the Dark Pt. 4

“He cannot be host to Alexandros Mograine’s spirit. Blasphemy!”

“You are still here even though dead are you not Faylian?”

Andreyn straightened, turning to face the newcomer. "So we come to the end, eh? Will you answer the call of the Flame, and the Son, or will you continue to hide here inside this prison of your own making?

"I hide from nothing!" Faylian shouted.

Yet another Faylian emerged from the mists, this one dressed in a fine icy-blue dress, though still with the physical look of a death knight. The newcomer arched a brow and commented: "She hides from me."

The Faylian-in-saronite glared with hatred at the newest arrival.

Andreyn rumbled quietly to himself... subsiding a bit. "So. We come to the truth of the matter."

From the skies above the cry of a bird of prey sounded, and an owl black as midnight landed on Faylian's saronite-clad shoulder, it's talons clutched her possessively. "I repeat, I hide from nothing," she said more calmly.

"I suggest you both leave now," the death knight continued sternly. "While you still can."

Myrandriel narrowed her eyes slightly as the owl appeared, eyeing the creature. "No, I don't think we will. My Lord and I came for your help, and we've no intention of leaving without it."

“Kill her and his strength will be gone.”

In the real world Faylian’s hand suddenly grasped Myrandriel’s throat tightly and began to squeeze.

Back within the dream Faylian hissed warningly: “Leave!!”

The Scarlet paladin watched the armored death knight evenly. With a thin smile, he rumbled, "Light's will be done..."

Raising a hand a blast of blinding red-laced Light arcs across the space between them, straight for the owl. "You took the oath of the Flame, Crusader. To walk always in the Light."

The Owl glared with hatred at Andreyn before vanishing in a burst of light. The saronite-clad Faylian growled: "The Light has done NOTHING for me! I owe it NOTHING!"

Back at the ruined church outside of the dream Faylian’s grip tightened on Myrandriel’s throat beginning to strangle the life out of her now.

Andreyn stepped in front of the armored death knight seeming to loom over her small frame. "And WHAT have you done to GIVE IT CAUSE?" he thundered. "How long have you wallowed in your self pity, never looking beyond your own misery? Do you think others have not suffered as greatly as you?"

"I have lost my -home-, my -Order-, and my -life- to the Scourge," he growled. "It is only through the Light that I -have- this life... and the hope to start the Crusade anew. As it SHOULD have been."

The Faylian clad in the icy-blue dress walked over to Myrandriel in the dream. "She did find love once after her death you know..." she trailed off with a sad smile. "We did almost feel alive for a time."

Faylian glared at her twin* "Silence! Or I'll squeeze the life out of her!"

Myrandriel’s physical form in the real world begins to gasp as she desperately tries to breathe.

"She sees me as a weakness... wants to deny I ever existed," the Faylian in the icy-blue dress continued. "She's been fighting against me for months.”

Myrandriel’s mental form flickered, but she still smiled to the Faylian in the icy-blue dress. "So it often is. I don't doubt even I had fought myself, once. Tell me about this love of yours?"

"He was my mentor... the one who taught me how to survive as a death knight. His name was Alanus and even under the Lich King he was free... worked against him. Always he was a paladin at heart. The Lich King could not break him. He was so much stronger than I ever could be."

The saronite-clad Faylian laughed bitterly: "He was too weak to do what was necessary to win, and he could not stand to look at us anytime he suspected the truth!"

Myrandriel tilted her head. "I wouldn't say that. You're here, aren't you?" She smiles softly, reaching over to place a hand on Fay-in-a-dress's shoulder. "All of you are here...all of you can be one, and whole."

The other Faylian smiled sadly: "He made us feel human and alive, and he would not allow us to get away with being anything less. No matter how hard we tried."

The saronite-clad Faylian sneered: "Survining is not victory. Would there be death knights in the Retribution without MY efforts? Would Rhune have been eliminated as a threat or Dominika cowed? Ha! -I- dealt with them! Not Alanus. Not YOU. My methods. Nothing else!"

Andreyn snorts, "Dominika has hardly been cowed. If anything, she's become more of a threat than before.”

"She did not interfere with the Highlord's intentions for the Retribution. That is all I need concern myself with." The saronite-clad Faylian answered back.

"She knows Alanus would have left us if he found out what we did. That is why she hates me... because I care that he would have," the Faylian in the icy blue dress responded.

"As I said... weakness," the saronite-clad Faylian whispered.

"I wouldn't call love weakness." Myrandriel shook her head. "It is my love for my Andreyn that gives me strength, my love for my land that gives me my power...no, love is not a weakness."

"It only creates pain and sorrow!" the saronite-clad Faylian screamed with rage.

Andreyn graveled softly, "At its heart...was it not the love of a son for his father that freed the Blade? Not the rantings of that fool Fordring; he would have –died- without Darion's sacrifice."

"It's too much... I can't go through what I have twice already yet again... I just can't..." the saronite-clad Faylian whispered desperately. "I don't want to rejoin with her. Please... don't make me... I can't do what I need to with her in here with me."

Myrandriel’s face in the phyisical world begins to turn blue as Faylian’s seemingly iron grip remains in place.

Myrandriel’s form flickered again, even seeming to fade slightly. "Faylian, dearling...it hurts. I know it hurts. But would Alanus truly want you to be so miserable on his behalf?"

"He'd be disappointed in me... he was always disappointed in me when he knew... whenever he found out... how can I hope? What is left for me now? Just vengeance and oblivion,” the saronite-clad Faylian said in a small, hopeless voice.

"Without heart," the red-clad paladin rumbled, "You cannot appreciate what you have to gain as much as you feel the pain of what you have lost. You become a machine... and whether Ebon Blade or Crusader, you would be wasting the Son's gift to ignore it.”

He regarded her critically, "There is much to gain here, Lady Lanstryde. But you will never see the potential of it if you deny hope."

“I should have died that day in Capital City... I don't have the right to anything more than my simple goals." Faylian said all emotion drained from her.

"On the contrary. It is because you lived that you deserve far more than this." The slowly fading Myrandriel placed both hands on Fay-in-a-dress's shoulders, turning her to the saronite-Fay. "You were happy. You must remember that happiness, and strive to reclaim as much of it as you can."

Andreyn rumbled quietly. "All things happen for a reason, whether we as mortals can see them. I served the naaru for nearly two years... if there is one thing I know, it is that. You were raised in Faith, you fought beneath the colors of Faith. How can you turn away from Faith now, when at last you need its comfort?"

The Faylian in the icy-blue dress stepped forward holding out her hands: "Reclaim me... you may even find me useful in your mission. We still want the same things my twin."

The Faylian in the saronite armor stepped forward slowly, glancing at the others uncertainly and seeming very vulnerable for someone clad in the armor of a death knight. Very slowly she clasps the other Faylian's hands in hers.

"Th... they wouldn't help us if they knew what we had done." she whispered.

Andreyn stepped back slightly, watching. His outline seemed to have stopped blurring, though he did look subtly different somehow. "We all have pasts. What is important is that we learn from them in order to move forward."

Faylian’s grip began to ease on Myrandriel’s throat and the druidess managed to suck in a breath of glorious air.

"It does not matter. We have all...done something we regret. The past is there to learn from, but not to rule us." Myrandriel smiled softly, her form starting to solidify. "Become one again, Faylian. Be yourself from now on."

Faylian’s hand released Myrandriel’s throat and fell to the floor at her side.

The Faylian in the icy-blue dress smiled encouragingly and the saronite-clad Faylian took a deep breath and released it.

Then in a flash the dream world was gone.