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Mischief vanished as his mind slipped to thoughts of An'Thaya. Although both he and the Amazon were moving forward in their lives and on separate paths, he still loved her very much. One didn't live off and on with another person, share that person's adventures, desires and hopes or father a child with that person and simply walk away -- especially after a millennia. One day Galain would come to terms with his feelings for An'Thaya in a final way maybe, but for right now he was content to simply acknowledge that he loved her, he feared for her safety, ached for a touch of the child's mind within his and gods help Tallin once that man was in target range.
Delightfully bloodthirsty thoughts filled his mind then. Oh yes, really bloodthirsty thoughts.
"Damn!" An'Thaya jumped and turned to look at Tallin, he was leaning on the sides of a scrying bowl, eyes taking in a visage she could not see. The rage on his face was apparent, although the reason for it was not. She had never seen him angry before...
"What is wrong?" Her voice was low, nearly timid, "Is there something I can do?" Black eyes snapped up to meet hers, he was actually trembling. He steadied somewhat as he took in her face, the expression changing to one of resolution. "Yes... yes my dear there is. Come see..."
He held his hand up to her, and taking it she went to his side. The dress she wore rustled softly, the green silk shimmering in the torchlight. Looking down she gasped... it was like an echo of her nightmares... the two men that haunted her come to life.
"Don't be afraid," Tallin whispered in her ear, "You can fight them... kill them, the way I showed you." Fear gripped her like an icy hand along her spine, "I can't... they scare me..." Strong hands gripped her arms, turning her so her eyes met his, "I will be right at your side my love, you can do this, kill them and they will never hurt our child. Won't you do that for the baby?"
The child was due soon, she could feel it... the thought of someone taking her new born from her terrified her. Her eyes flickered to the images in the scrying bowl again. "Yes...."
His laughter brushed by her ear, "Good... hold tightly to me... we must catch them by surprise." She nodded, gaze never leaving the scrying bowl as he wove his magic.
In the middle of a sunlit meadow they appeared, An'Thaya still clinging to Tallin as the blinked into existence out of nowhere. They were ahead of and slightly to the right of the group; several of them caught site of the pair immediately. Before they could react the Amazon had raised her hands, balefire crackling at her fingertips. With a cry she let it fly, aiming for Galain and Elyen all at once....
"NO!" Elyen cried out. He'd ducked and rolled as the balefire tried to fry him, and automatically reached for the bond between the Amazon and he. Not herself, she was not herself, and she was not hearing him through the bond. An oily blackness shielded her from him so that he couldn't contact her as he normally did.
'Thaya, don't do this. See me. I love you. 'Thaya... He sent doggedly even as he jumped up, avoiding another roll of flame that tried to take away his legs.
"No, don't touch her. The other guy. The other guy, you can kill..."
He had the flask, the flask that they had worked so hard to obtain. Oh gods, there must be something he could do!
There was little he could do now; he had interfered as much as the Fates would allow. A bolt of bale fire hit him head on, bringing a disgruntled blink as the Changeling moved on out of the way. He was getting slow in his old age... that shouldn't have hit him. He gave Tallin an amused grin as the Mage stared at him open mouthed. ~Oh yes... I could make your life miserable given the chance dark one...~
All right...the Amazon's gone nutso and what can I do? Attack other dude. Yeah. Marion yelled and sprinted towards the not-Amazon guy.
"Okay, I don't know who you are, but I'm gonna smack ya, okay?" So she wanted to make sure he knew what his place was in this conflict. While the others dealt with the light show...
With a grin Marion pulled her whip from her belt and cracked it in Tallin's general direction. So what if she didn't stand a chance? She'd had worse odds.
The human woman had stepped to close... An'Thaya didn't wish to kill her, she had no reason too. With a flick of her wrist she used the Aethyr to simply toss the thief aside. With the other hand she cast another ball of fire in Elyen's direction... damn he was quick on his feet. "They are too fast," she gasped to Tallin.
He grabbed her arm and swung her slightly to the right, "Fire again," she obeyed, the bolt hit the ground directly in front of Galain, sending the Elen sprawling onto the grass. He swung her to the left, "You have to really WANT to hit them my dear," he snarled, "Again!"
"Damn pansy," Marion bellowed, directing the insult at the guy hiding behind Thaya. Part of her couldn't believe that she'd been just blown aside by...whatever, but the rest of her really wanted to beat the snot out of that guy for hiding behind a pregnant woman. "Come out and fight me like a woman, ya nutless son of a hermaphroditic flat worm!"
Just for zest Marion punctuated her insults with threatening lashes of her whip. Attacking her friends was one thing. Letting someone else attack her friends whilst you hid behind a corrupted and somewhat pregnant friend was altogether different.
Chezlar simply stood to the side and stared wide-eyed at his wife, she had completely lost her mind. Sure Tallin was chicken, but if he really got mad he could do Marion some serious damage. ~Don't even think about it~ Tallin’s eyes had shifted to Marion... ~I wouldn't do that if I were you...~ Chezlar’s hands were tied in most respects, but when it came to his wife he tended to break the rules. One false move from the dark mage and he’d be looking for his teeth in the toilet...
Melda? Melda, I know you can hear me. Please, listen to yourself... 'Thaya, please... His messages were getting more and more desperate every fraction of a second as the elf felt his body tire down.
"'Thaya!" He called out, just as the latest bolt threatened to take off an ear. As it was, his hair got singed. Elyen glared at the barely smirking man hidden in the shadows behind the Amazon. Bad boy, hiding behind poor defenseless expectant mothers, playing with their minds. You ought to shrivel in hell for this. He used that anger and fuelled his determination to get to An'Thaya.
Maybe not one, but two, would help tilt the balance. Marion was doing all she could to distract and punish the nutcase behind, but the man seemed far too intent on destroying two very stubborn elves first.
Elyen managed to catch a glimpse of Galain. The other elf was as hard-pressed for time as he was. Gods, what was keeping 'Thaya like this? And was it harming the baby within? He swallowed with difficulty before deciding that a sudden run would be good. If they could get in together, with one of them punching Tallin in the nose to distract him, the other offering the flask to the Amazon, they'd end this madness all the sooner...
Galain hadn't had time for anything although he wanted to smek Kalisandra. Of course that was An'Thaya and if she tried skewering a heavily pregnant woman Galain would skewer her.
That was his last coherent thought as he pushed Carnil one direction and he flew another. Each time he got to his feet another bolt of balefire flew his way. At this particular moment he was sprawled on his back and cursing. He rolled to his left and caught sight of Elyen.
Sometimes friends don't need bonds any deeper than an old friendship and the love for the same woman to make unspoken messages crystal clear. The Elen prince scrambled to his feet and dodged and wove his way between bolts of fire and his companions.
On the count of three, Galain said silently, just giving Elyen a nod before he suddenly bolted forward.
The Amazon was becoming increasingly agitated; things were not progressing in the way Tallin had painted them. "He is trying to talk to me, he keeps calling me his beloved," her hand almost hesitated, as she prepared to toss a bolt of fire at Elyen, but Tallin shoved it forward again. "It’s a trick, keep at it, they are tiring, soon it will be all over."
The woman to the side seemed to be distracting the dark mage somewhat, her taunts drawing a snarl from him. Out of the corner of her eye Thaya saw his hand come up, lightning crackling as he let it loose in the thief’s direction.
While he was concentrating on Marion the blond elf came at the Amazon head on. Figments from her dreams flooded her mind, visions of sharp fangs and blood... "Nooooo!" Fear kept her from bringing her magic to bear, but she turned to run, terrified of the vampire from her dreams. His hand closed around her arm and she screamed, trying to shake loose, "No please! Don't!"
Oh @#%$, Marion thought, throwing herself to the ground. The lightening crackled over her head and she gulped back a yelp. If that stuff had hit her... A cursory glance in Thaya's direction revealed what was going on with that group, but she still had to keep the guy busy...
"Maybe you do have some testosterone in you," she snorted, standing up again. "So just what did you tell my friend, girlie?" Where was that dagger? Maybe she would be lucky and be able to chuck it at his jugular...
"I'm not going to hurt you!" Galain exclaimed, trying to keep hold of An'Thaya without hurting her. She was abnormally ungainly on her feet thanks to her pregnancy, but the fear that was driving her made the Amazon's movements unpredictable. Why was she looking at him like that?
An'Thaya struggled harder, nearly tossing them both to the ground, "Gods! Who are you! Why do you haunt my dreams?" Those eyes... sea green... it seemed she had looked into them forever... but the blood.... "Please don't hurt me..." Her hand flew to her neck, to the scar there... two perfect punctures.... "Not again..." She started to cry, near hysterical, she didn't understand what was going on, why her feelings were so conflicted.
Galain stumbled with the Amazon, ready to catch her in case she fell. It was when she made her plea and her hands went to her neck and to the scars he'd left there so long ago that he nearly lost it. He'd left those puncture marks on a number of people, An'Thaya and Elyen included. But that was past. Or was it?
Involuntarily Galain glanced toward Tallin, his heart in his mouth.
"An'Thaya. I'm not going to hurt you. Please."
Gods. What illusion would she see with Elyen then?
Chez winced when Marion got back to her feet, he still hesitated to interfere, even though that bolt had come damn close to her. Did she say dagger? Well that he could do... alittle translocation, maybe the fates wouldn't notice? Regardless Marion found the blade in her hand.
Ok... so he doubted it would get through Tallin’s shields, but it would keep the mage distracted from the goings on behind him. Galain almost had a grip on the Amazon and Elyen was closing in with the flask...
Elyen ran a step behind Galain, grateful for the elf's distraction. He brought up the flask, knowing that it's now or never that the magic work. Drawing up close beside the blonde elf, he knelt on the ground beside An'Thaya.
'Thaya, please... Doggedly, he continued his litany of pleas even as he reached over the Amazon and, praying to all the Gods above, held the flask out just over her heaving chest.
Gods, let this be right. Glancing briefly at the agonized Galain, Elyen reached out to unstopper the flask.
Marion swallowed hard as she brought the dagger back by her ear. She was decent at throwing knives...decent. As in better than some. Still, it was a shot and now that Elyen and Galain were so close to Thaya it had to be done.
Please don't hit anyone else, she whimpered silently, grinding her teeth together. Before her thoughts could convince her of just how bad an idea this was the thief threw the dagger. Now was definitely one of those times...
An'Thaya had tumbled down t0 the ground with Galain, struggling still to loosen his grip on her. The stripe haired elf appeared beside them, something held in his hands. The Amazon's eyes did not see a flask; they saw a light saber poised to kill her. "Tallin!!!" She screamed, an unending scream that threatened to send her plummeting back into insanity...
The stopper came off the flask then, and a mist flowed out, cloying and thick as it wrapped itself around the three huddled on the ground. An'Thaya felt as if she were choking to death as the stuff was inhaled into her lungs. "What have you done?" She sputtered and weakly pushed at Galain again, a heavy feeling taking over her body.
For a few moments the world seemed to come to a stop, the darker fog that Tallin had placed in her mind starting to lift. Her eyes stared up into clear blue ones as her memory started to clear.... "Elyen?" The fear started to ebb, her stricken mind beginning to realize whose arms held her tightly, and whose eyes stared desperately down into her own....
"Hopefully we've helped you?" Came a weak reply from Galain. He was afraid to loosen his grip on the Amazon and looked up uncertainly at Elyen.
"You might try wanting to move her," the elf said quietly, all too aware of Tallin and Marion's own dilemma. Elyen looked down upon An'Thaya's glazed eyes, confusion still warring within her. "We need to get her someplace safer. Gods only know what Tallin did..."
His voice choked off and he reached out to smooth back the Amazon's hair and touch her cheek. "Be well," he said, then turned to Galain. "You think you can pull a mini-portal? Say, to that tree over there?" He nodded towards a tree about a hundred meters away, far enough from Tallin to be sure that An'Thaya was all right, and still keep close to the company.
The name struck a cord in her... ~Tallin~ A name she had hated since she was a small child. It brought fear to her heart, and An'Thaya hated to be afraid. Her eyes flickered up to where the dark mage stood, horror dawning in her eyes.
With strength neither of the elves new she had she shoved them aside, struggling to her feet as she gathered the Aethyr. "I hate you!" the first bolt caught Tallin in his back, sending him sprawling face first in the grass. "Why won't you let me be!" the second just missed him as he rolled out of the way, "Let me live my life in peace!"
A volley of bale fire kept the mage on the run, but it sapped the Amazons strength, quickly sending her to her knees. Her eyes told a different story, hell bent on killing the man that had destroyed her entire life the moment she was born. "Die damn you!"
Tallin dived out the way of yet another barrage from his niece, in desperation he grabbed the thief, wresting the dagger from her grip and forcing it up against her throat. He saw An'Thaya falter.. she wouldn't harm a friend. "Back off or I kill her," he snarled, unaware that the Changeling had gone into motion behind him....
As her hand snapped back An'Thaya doubled over in pain, the first stages of labor hitting her like a wall. "Oh Goddess..."
Galain had been in the middle of nodding an affirmative to Elyen and gathering himself together to create a portal when all hell broke loose yet again and An'Thaya pushed them both away and attacked Tallin mercilessly.
The Elen prince froze, his mouth wide open in surprise as various things fell together -- Marion taken hostage, Chez moving behind Tallin and An'Thaya...
"Oh gods," he breathed, grasping Elyen's arm and propelling him toward the Amazon. "She's going into labor. Hold her."
In an instant he had the three of them portalled away from Tallin's range. Kalisandra, Carnil, Chez and Marion would have to keep the Amazon's uncle at bay somehow.
Two elves knelt beside the mother of their child and stared stupidly at each other for a moment.
Now what?
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