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“Cobwebs are mighty thick around here,” An’Thaya commented to Ghetsuhm as she pushed open the doors to an abandoned Tavern. Or at least, what had passed for one in this place. They had arrived at the Outpost several hours before, tired, worn, but wary. The others were close by, driving out bats and spiders as they came across them, reclaiming the place for temporary habitation.
Drawing a dagger the Amazon cut through the thick webbing that blocked the door and pushed her way inside, then paused to let her eyes adjust. “The people here certainly left in a hurry,” she commented, eyeing strewn belongings, cutlery and bowls still on the tables, dust-coated bottles and cobweb-laced glasses. Her emerging memory told her that this had been the last of the Elven outposts, that her brother had come back some time ago to take them home. It revealed nothing more, however. There seemed to be a lock on her mind when it came to her location and activities at the time he was here.
Something did click however, and she turned her head to look at Ghet. “You… you are my brother’s lover? Why would he let you come here without him?”
Ghet hung back uneasily. "But the cobwebs are old, right? Really really old? All the turkey-sized spiders got bored and left? Why don't we ever run across spider-sized turkeys, that's what I'd like to know." Okay, she was nervous and babbling and it seemed they'd got to that point. She sighed, and took An'Thaya's hand. She might have been exasperated, confused, sometimes more, with the other redhead over the last few years, but she still loved her. "We need to have a talk. We should probably sit down. Oh, gods, it's filthy, let's stand."
She drew a deep breath. "I used to be your brother's lover. We broke up about... thirty years ago? But we have a five-year-old son. You'll probably remember why later. Samara has our son, that's what matters. But I have to tell you... An'Thaya, one of the reasons Ro left me is... I'm married to Galain. We're both married to Galain."
Adarin kept to himself, helping dispel the cobwebs and unnaturally large and disgusting creatures that inhabited the building. He had chuckled at Ghetsuhm's words and then moved directly away when he realized she was going to try and explain a few things to Tay.
Emerald gems narrowed… Tay had never taken well to being touched by strangers, and despite what evidence said otherwise, the Amazon didn’t know this woman. She tensed, and then the words filtered through the haze. The shape of her face altered slightly as the jaw clenched and sheer rage turned verdant irises so deep a green they were nearly black. The one fortunate thing in the entire situation was that it was Tay’s fist that connected with Ghetsuhm’s face, not the dagger she had been using to cut through the spider webs.
“LIAR,” she hissed, “Why the hell would Galain do that to me?” Yet a lot of things that made absolutely no sense at all were beginning to take on an entire new light. Her relationship with Adarin, for instance, and the hurtful fact that Galain had never been faithful anyway. The better question was… why would An’Thaya tolerate it? Not to mention, why was Ghetsuhm still alive? Given one word to describe the Amazon Queen, more than a few would chose deadly.
The darkness seemed to hem in and swallow her, the uncontrollable shaking no longer completely attributed to the bone numbing cold. Her head started to pound and memories she wanted nothing to do with started pressing in on her conscious mind.
Adarin reacted rapidly the instant Tay punched Ghetsuhm. He moved quickly toward the Amazon and then he stopped. He was absolutely at a loss and moved quickly to check on Ghet, simultaneously reaching out toward Tay both physically and along their bond. If she decked him too he'd quite understand.
Ghet reached out a hand to stay Adarin, grateful for the impulse but also needing to stand-alone now. The pain in her face, the little clicking noise when she moved her jaw, the passion in those green eyes... yeah, she was just going to need a minute. So many of her own memories rushed at her, old pains she had buried deep. Yelled conversations with Shadow, and Anelain, that refrain: how could you?
She stepped back, staring at An'Thaya, her mind racing. This was not, she was coming to realize, the same woman she knew. Well, it was and it wasn't. She should be careful. But she was also angry, grieving, stretched more than she thought she could bear. "Because you were dead! He thought you were dead. We all believed you were dead. He and I bonded. I still believe that was the only thing that kept him alive." She sucked in a deep breath, trying to banish the memory of Galain's pain and despair. She didn't want to explain this. It wouldn't be fair, because it would inevitably be colored by her own perspective. She wanted An'Thaya to remember on her own. Ghet didn't know what words had been spoken between the other two when An'Thaya had returned. "We were friends, Thaya. We are friends. I wish you could remember."
Breathing was near impossible, emotional agony constricted Tay’s chest and twisted her guts. Friends? The Amazon’s features contorted, her eyes betraying nothing but naked hatred for the space of a heartbeat. If Adarin had not been between them she might very well have buried the dagger that was imprinting the shape of its hilt onto her palm into Ghetsuhm’s heart. Friends?
“You stay away from me,” she spat out through lips pulled tight with reined in homicidal urges. With some effort she sheathed the dagger, meeting both sets of eyes on her with a cold stare, then turning on a boot heel and forcing herself to walk back out the door. A few minutes alone… she desperately needed it before she carved up whoever got into her path. All at once she ached for Galain’s touch, yet wanted to rip his heart out. Even so, he was the only one that had ever dared approach her at times like these… and for good reason.
Gods Sy’Rish… what have we done to each other? Where are you?
Waved off by Ghetsuhm and having stared back into a set of emerald eyes so alien in their expression Adarin retreated, almost folding in on himself. He felt sick inside and a gnawing anxiety began to grow at his heart and mind. He looked at Ghetsuhm, looking uncharacteristically old.
"Who was that owner of that flaming fist of death?" he joked weakly, his voice sounding flat. Unlike his nephew the Elen King would not dare go after Tay. He turned away from Ghetsuhm, something inside him crumbling.
Ghet watched after Thaya, tears standing out in her eyes. "Why does nobody ever listen when I say that?" she muttered darkly. She raised her face to Adarin and tried to produce a smile. "Taking everything into account, I think that went quite well, don't you?" She was worried about everyone here, but she was particularly fond of the Elen king, and she didn't like what An'Thaya's behavior was doing to him. She hugged him briefly, and then winced. "I don't think Thaya's ever hit me before," she said, probing her facial bones gently. "That's going to leave a mark."
Adarin could only smile and returned Ghetsuhm's hug very gently.
"Well it's going to bruise up very nicely," he said softly.
Shadow watched the scene with a cold dispassionate gaze. That was the An’Thaya she remembered, the one she had met long ago outside of a temple from hell, fought beside when trying to save a mutual friend from his own stupidity in trusting a false heart. That was her Ad’Vere.
“You’re lucky she didn’t rip your heart out and feed it to you,” the forest elf observed as she moved on around the room, pausing to look up the stairs. “It would have been her right by the laws she was raised by, if I’m not mistaken.”
Shadow turned to tilt her head at Ghet, “To some that was less than what you deserve,” she shook her head, “I will never understand the minds of humans, you should have waited for her memory to come back on its own, it would have been far less painful for you.”
The look Ghet gave Shadow was as close to cold as she could come. "And if it didn't come back until we found Galain? How much worse for her would that have been? I'm trying to do the best I can under somewhat trying circumstances."
The forest elf shrugged ignoring the cold look, “Her memory usually comes back in Galain’s presence, it has done so at least twice before under as pressing conditions as this. You just have to remember that she reverted to an age when none of us existed, she has already come through several millennia,” Shadow sighed, “she has had more years with him and there are probably more painful memories, she doesn’t need to have the most painful brought so sharply to the front. Doing so could only cause more damage.”
The passive expression on her face softened, she knew precisely what it was like to have something from her past that she didn’t remember, come out of no where and blind side her. She had a feeling that Ghet did as well.
“I think, I’ll go see what Aya is up to.”
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