14. The Essence Of Change
The Essence Of Change
Fiona could feel her power being drained away by the black soul gem.
She curled forward. Trembling. Her body fought to keep her strength deep inside of her even as the black soul gem wanted to siphon it off.
Her burned hands weren’t even healing as quickly as they should as the fight between the two forces–one outside and one inside of her–fought over her power.
Seeyr put a hand on her left shoulder, steadying her, and, shockingly, giving her some of Seeyr’s strength.
“No, you mustn’t!” Fiona cried when she realized what Seeyr was doing.
But Seeyr only smiled. And that smile seemed to say, “Remember, it is you who must leave here. Not me. This is my home for a very long time to come.”
The wrongness of this had anger and strength surging in Fiona. She straightened up and glared at the Kaly-slice between the bars.
“I know that you will regret everything you’ve done, Kaly,” she spat out.
“You will mourn every single wrong you’ve committed.
You will beg for forgiveness. You will say it is not enough to apologize for all of it.
And part of me agrees with that future you right now.
How can you do this? How can you do what you will do in the future? ”
“Again, this future you speak of that is definitely going to happen.” The Kaly-slice chuckled as she sideled nearer the bars. “The more you speak of it, the more certain I am that it is a pipe dream.”
“Coming back here and seeing us all–seeing this–and knowing that the bad things cannot be changed is agony. Knowing that you will not move from this course…” She shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. “Where have you put Tanis’ soul?
I know that you keep all the people’s souls whose forms you have stolen. ”
“Why waste a good soul?” The Kaly-slice chuckled. That was something Caemorn would say, but he would not relish the cruelty of it.
“How did this all go so wrong?” Fiona murmured.
“Well, you chose to trust me–”
“No, not this.” Fiona shook her head in disgust. “You. The War. All of it. How were we so blind to your illness? How could we be so in our own heads that we thought we didn’t need one another? That we shouldn’t care for one another?”
“That you see this, Fiona, gives me great hope,” Seeyr said.
“Hope? Why do you need hope, Seeyr? This is the future you have planned on,” the Kaly-slice taunted and sauntered ever closer.
The Kaly-slice seemed not to even consider Charlie the smallest of threats despite him being an Immortal.
She barely glanced Charlie’s way. And, for his part, Charlie cringed against the wall as if afraid of even brushing against the Kaly-slice’s robes.
Truly, he appeared overcome with terror and dismay.
But she knew Charlie too well to believe any of this.
We have always underestimated Mirryr. To our peril, Fiona thought. He has something planned. He will get us out of this. I know it.
Wanting to give Charlie as much time for whatever he was planning, Fiona continued speaking, “Let us say that you are right and that the future can be changed.”
“Yes, let’s.” The Kaly-slice gave her a sly smile.
“Why don’t you want this future I speak of if it sounds so good to you?” Fiona challenged.
“According to you, I am groveling for forgiveness so I’m not certain it is so good for me.” The Kaly-slice put a graceful hand against her chest.
Fiona remembered those hands well. How many times had they given her comfort?
How many times had she seen Tanis use them to strum an instrument or write a letter?
Every movement was graceful. Every movement was precise.
The Kaly-slice had similar economies, but it was all wrong. Like a discordant note.
Maybe Tanis is gone forever.
But she thrust that from her mind. Kaly did save souls.
She had said so herself. Tanis was somewhere and Caemorn could fix this.
He’d brought back the Harrows and even Heath.
Elena, Ridley and Heath weren’t in Nightvallen, but instead were helping Arcius on Earth with whatever secret mission he’d been given.
Timothy and Selene had not been brought back.
But Heath was so grateful for his Third Life that she was certain he would give everything he was for Daemon and the mission.
But she focused on this moment. The future was out there. She just had to get to it.
“You have been forgiven by Daemon, me, all of us. You have friends, family, and a Bloodline that respects you. Daemon is back and happy. We are on the verge of changing humanity forever,” she told the Kaly-slice.
“That you have to eat crow for a moment makes that future non-viable for you? That sounds rather shortsighted.”
And it really did. But these Kaly-slices were incredibly proud, arrogant really.
They wanted to bow their heads to no one.
Not even Daemon. Not even if they were wrong.
Or maybe especially if they were wrong. It was strange.
Because a moment of self-reflection could work wonders.
Caemorn was constantly thinking about things, maybe too much so, and trying to unpick where he had gone wrong.
“How do you know the future I have in mind isn’t better than the one you lived in?” The Kaly-slice asked.
“Because it’s you who is trying to make it happen,” Fiona scoffed. She didn’t even have to think before that comment.
Indeed, her mind was on her companion. Was Charlie shifting his feet?
Getting ready to lunge? Could he physically overcome this Kaly-slice?
Tanis had always been quite athletic and nimble even for a Vampire, but that had as much to do with her keen awareness of her surroundings at all times.
Unfortunately, like many women, she knew what it was to be prey.
But an Immortal like Kaly wouldn’t know that, wouldn’t have that awareness of risk.
She would be completely unmoved by it really.
The Kaly-slice’s eyes narrowed. “I have more imagination than you give me credit for, Wyvern. I made this happen.”
“Ah, yes, this funhouse mirror version of our world. So wonderful!” Fiona actually laughed.
How can she not see how tainted and wrong this reality is?
“This future you come from is simply to ensure that Daemon is happy. Not the rest of us. Tell me that we aren’t all suffering in some way,” the Kaly-slice insisted.
“We aren’t. I mean, of course, we have regrets.
There’s been hard times to get where we are now.
But we’ve learned from it. Our better from it.
And besides, you love Daemon. You want him to be happy, don’t you?
” Fiona lifted an eyebrow, surprised that the Kaly-slice would know that she was choosing herself over Daemon.
That had always been the case with all of this, but that was surprising self-awareness.
“I want him to be happy, yes. But happy for the right reasons. Why should some former mortal delight him more than us?” Again, the Kaly-slice pressed a hand to her chest. “We should be what gives him happiness. Not some boy that has lived a little over a quarter of a century!”
“You don’t understand. Or you’re refusing to. Like some record on repeat,” Fiona muttered.
“My thoughts are my own and they are well-considered!” The Kaly-slice lifted her chin defiantly.
What Fiona had said had been more of a throw-away statement of frustration than a real criticism, but it had hit home. Fiona considered this. Maybe there was a way to get this Kaly-slice more off-balance. That might give Charlie a better opportunity to attack.
If Charlie lunged at the Kaly-slice would she attempt to teleport?
A natural reaction by a Wyvern Vampire to being attacked.
Move. Constantly move. One couldn’t be hit if one wasn’t where the punch or kick landed.
But the black soul gem must affect her, too.
And she was Kaly. Soul gems and her own gifts would be what she reached for first. Could the Kaly-slice use any of that gift in her current body?
One would think she could since her powers, in part, had passed down to Balthazar and through him to Christian.
So really it was the Kaly gift that Charlie would have to be wary of.
She really had to get the Kaly-slice distracted. So back to her plan.
“I have been assuming that you are consciously choosing not to adapt to the new information that we are telling you,” Fiona mused. “But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m not understanding you at all. Maybe you can’t adapt to it.”
The Kaly-slice lifted an elegant eyebrow.
It was a movement that was similar–but not at all the same–to something Tanis would do when Fiona would challenge her on something.
But her eyebrow lift would have been accompanied by a small smile as if she expected nothing less from Fiona and welcomed her arguments being pressure-checked.
She doubted that the Kaly-slice would feel the same.
“Your new information is of no use to me–”
“No, no, that’s not it.” Fiona’s brow furrowed. “You’re… limited.”
“I am not!” The Kaly-slice hissed and surged forward slightly.
Fiona forced herself not to look at Charlie. She couldn’t draw attention to him if this was going to work.
“You understand, my dear,” Seeyr said suddenly. “All these slices sense that something is wrong with them. They are missing something. Perhaps many things. For some of them it is worse than for others. But they all have this lack.”
“You say that from the inside of a cell! Both of you are my prisoners and you call me lacking?” The Kaly-slice let out a wild laugh. “Well, what does that mean about the two of you if I can outwit you and yet not be complete?”
“Seeyr is here because she wishes to be,” Fiona reminded her. “I am here because I need to be too.”
“You need to speak to Seeyr yet you are wasting our time talking to me!” The Kaly-slice chuckled. “Go on. Ask her whatever you want. I’ll not interrupt.”