AndInTheDarkness
From IMiA
With neither a bang nor a whimper, everything is gone. All that remains are Cassandra and O'Donovan. Both are tangible.
She'll turn around and just grab him by the elbows in a clench, staring at his face. "Are you okay, Sean?"
"Except for the obvious," he replies, scanning the area with both "eyes" open, the left socket sickeningly empty. "You?"
She takes a long shuddering breath and says, "I think so." She doesn't seem to want to let go, and her eyes don't leave his face. She lets him reconnoiter. "I..." she swallows. "I'm a little afraid."
"I don't sense the presence any more. And we're obviously not in Reggie's dream anymore. So all we need to do is figure the way home." He says it rather bravely, as if that wasn't 99% of the problem in the first place.
Still gripping his elbow with her left hand, she looks around, forcing herself to take deep, calm breaths. She turns back at O'Donovan. "Lady's Grace..." she says, wrapping her arms around him in a great hug, her face pressed against the side of his.
He returns the hug heartily, relieved to be apparently out of immediate soul-threatening danger for the moment.
After a moment, she steps back, "Thank you for being such a good friend, Sean. I'm sorry I haven't been. That's going to change." She looks around again. "I... Maybe we need to get _you_ home," her brow is furrowed in thought.
"We need to get us both home," Sean replies. "Unless this is what the inside of your head is usually like?" His normal lilting voice has a amused edge to it.
"Heh," she snorts. A deep breath later she replies, "No. It's usually much noisier. You?" She's fighting an impulse toward hysterical laughter. "I think Reggie got out alright. He's stronger than he lets on, the fink. Pulling us all in like that." She falls silent, thinking on it.
O'Donovan looks almost embarrassed. "Actually, I just walked in on my own. I think. More or less. No help from Reggie, anyway, as far as I know."
Cass looks more thoughtful. "It was Reggie's dream, or his challenge," she looks Sean in the eye, "I'm not sure which." She rubs her right hand along her thigh, and absent minded habit, scratching a scar that no longer itches... "Have you...?" the question hangs, unasked, her face uncertain...
Sean studies her for a second, trying to follow her thoughts. Finally, he says, "Did I have my own dream? Aye, a dark one."
Cass's head comes up and she meets his eye, "And in the end, did you see the Lady's light?"
He meets her gaze. "The Unicorn came to me, and touched me with her horn. Whether she was blessing me, knighting me, or trying to purge the darkness from me, I know not."
"Yes," she whispers, barely audible. "Yes," and she holds out her hand, palm up, for him to see the scar that winds there, for all the world looking like a twist of rope, or a unicorn's horn. "Me, too." She just stands there, biting her lip, watching Sean. She's breathing like she's been running. It might be fear. "Did she..." the question trails off, again unspoken...
Sean points quizzically at his empty eyesocket, to see if that's what she means.
She shakes her head. "I... " her breathing has become very slow, "I think it's going to be a hard battle, coming. I'm..." she shakes her head, unable to express what she wants to say. Finally she blurts out, "I will act for the Lady." She waits, watching his reaction.
"I made her no promises," Sean says. "I did not think myself worthy. But I will fight for her."
She smiles at him, and half in jest she says, "How are you not worthy? You always give your all to any worthy cause..." Her hand comes up to clasp his shoulder, the salute of a comrade in arms.
"My hands are not clean," he says simply.
Her face goes absolutely still. "Nor mine," she says, "Nonetheless, Her smile fades a bit and she says softly,"I have given my word. 'What needs be done, I will but do.' I will not be foresworn. I only hope I will be worthy of her trust." She swallows hard again, and looks about the darkness, leaning into her friend's warmth. "We will have to watch each other's backs, eh?" she jokes.
He makes a theatrical gesture around empty space. "No one else is going to."
She just grins again and leans against his bulk, looking out at the darkness...
He stands there, treasuring the moment -- but only for a moment. "Let's start walking." He wishes he could feel the roll of the sea under his feet...
She nods, threads her arm through his, and lets him pick a direction.
-- Main.GingerStampley - 11 Jan 2005
