Editing Tears of a Fallen Crown:Characters:Mirage:History (section)

==Chapter 10:  Enemies and Nightmares==


Samira was out of bed, blood covering her gown from the wound on her now glowing forehead and various other gashes on her body.  Her hair was wild, her expression even wilder, and she was brandishing her family’s great-sword against what appeared to be a living statue, her other hand was on the cord, now ringing the bell above her bed.


It looked as though one of the angel statues had actually broken away from the side of the wall, walked to the bed, and was about to impale her with a golden sword, when she must’ve awoken and fought it off.  Though the statue was still intact there were several places where it was chipped and damaged, making it clear that had it been a living creature Samira would’ve been the winner.


Caleb knew there had to be a ghost possessing it, but before he could even act, Walker in Darkness burst into the room and acted for him.  With lightning speed the deathlord struck the statue hard on its side with a giant glowing axe.  There was a flash of light, an inhuman screech, and the statue slid apart in two even pieces – the ghost possessing it was nowhere to be found, but the axe seemed to glow with ectoplasmic energy.  The Green Lady was behind him pretending to beg for mercy, but in reality was looking in to see if her plan had worked.  Judging by the expression on her face she was quite disappointed it had not.


Walker in Darkness sheathed his axe behind him and, to Samira’s surprise, bowed low in front of her.  


He looked directly in her eyes, and she saw real sorrow behind the expression, saying, “My Lady, a thousand pardons for the temperament of my advisor.  I hope you aren’t injured badly.”


She shook her head, “No need.  Only a few scratches.”


“Still,” He said, calmly, “It would be best if you’d let me attend to you.”  He ran his hands along the wounds on her body and to her shock they began to mend themselves closed.  A look of jealousy was creeping up on both the Green Lady’s and Caleb’s faces, but both said nothing.  By the sly expression that came over Walker in Darkness’ face, it seemed he was taking his time to toy with them anyway.


After he finished, Walker in Darkness turned to the lady in green and yelled, “APOLOGIZE, NOW!”


She looked defiantly into Samira’s eyes and murmured, “Sorry.”


Walker in Darkness frowned and sighed, “I’m very disappointed in you, Green Lady.”  Oddly enough, he did indeed look disappointed more than angry.  He continued, “She wasn’t your replacement, but rest assured if you betray me again, she will be.”  With that, he walked off and the Green Lady exited the hall without another word.


Jauffrey the ghost who had probed the Green Lady’s mind stuck his head in, “You two okay?”


They nodded.


He shook his head, groaning, “I hate her so damn much!  Isn’t she the biggest bitch you’ve ever seen?”


Even with her horrific experience, Samira had to smile and nod.  She liked this ghost already.


Jauffrey laughed awkwardly, seeing the angry expression she was giving Caleb, saying, “I’ll just leave you two alone.”  And, he quickly closed the door behind him.


After she was sure everyone was gone, Samira glared at Caleb then growled, “If you’re going to be my bodyguard, Raiton, then I suggest next time you – GUARD MY BODY!”


Caleb stammered, “Wait…Mira…I –”


“That thing almost killed me.”  She said, flatly, and turned away from him.


He growled, “Mirage, I’ve given up a lot just to be with you.  I’m so sorry I wasn’t here, but I was risking my life in there to find out what kind of man our host is.  I was doing it to protect you!”  He was about to storm off, not knowing where he would go, when Samira said gently, “Stop.  Don’t go.”


She was drinking from the flask of fey blood, her liquid courage.  She continued in a logical voice, “I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have been so hard on you.  You were trying to protect me and it wasn’t your fault.  To tell you the truth, I’m more upset about something else that happened before the attack and I guess I took it out on you.”


He nodded and sat on the opposite side of the bed.  He could see a strange expression starting to form on her face – a very worried and sad expression.


He edged closer to her, becoming worried himself, “Mira, what happened?”


She turned away, feeling tears forming in her eyes, then sighed, “This is going to sound stupid, but I had a very bad dream.  I’ve felt strange ever since I became a deathknight, but now I’m starting to have odd and very vivid dreams.  I haven’t had dreams like this since I was a child, but those dreams were of the future, and these seem to be from the past.”


“Go on.”  He said gently.  He remembered hearing rumors that occasionally, but very rarely, Samira would have a dream that would actually become reality.  It was her, in fact, that had first warned her father that the fey would attack the village – but at that time he had thought it was just a dream.  He got a chill, suddenly wondering if all those nightmares about zombies and ghosts she used to have could’ve just been visions of what she would become later.   


She put her hand on her forehead and sighed, “I hope I’m not losing my mind, but I think what I was dreaming wasn’t a dream at all.  I think it was a memory.  I think whatever that ball of energy was that made me what I am had an imprint of its last owner still on it.”


She sighed and took another drink from the flask of fey blood.  She clearly didn’t want to recount the details of the dream, but she knew she had to get if off of her chest.  She continued in a shaky voice, “In the dream I saw Walker in Darkness’ palace; only the cloud of miasma was no longer around it.  There were many people there – well, mostly ghosts, but also some deathknights and a few people that looked mostly normal.  And the owner of the castle was throwing a masquerade ball for all of them.  She was a beautiful woman with a cloak of black feathers.”  


She shook her head around and took another drink from the flask.  It was becoming hard to remember the dream.  Still, she closed her eyes and tried harder to remember, “I’ve lost most of it, but I do remember something bad had happened to the woman with the black feathered cloak.  They were mad at her – the creatures that live in the abyss – and she was very very bitter.  She said, ‘If I can’t have my palace then no one will’ and she had a terrible curse put on it before they came to get her.  Then, I felt like I was running for my life, something hit me in my back, and I died – only I didn’t just die.  The part of me that makes me a deathknight ripped itself out of me and the rest of my soul fell into nothingness…I’m damned, Cal – Raiton.  I know it.”


He sighed.  It did sound pretty bad.  And, even though he didn’t want to admit it, when Samira had a vision it was very rarely wrong.  Past or not, he could easily believe that the vision could’ve been a memory from the power’s previous owner.  Still, he shook his head and tried to smile saying, gently, “No.  It was probably just a dream.  And, even if it wasn’t, that might not be your fate.  We’ll face whatever it is together.  For now, though, you should wash up and get some rest, and this time I’ll watch you the entire night.”


That night Samira had the same dream, only this time she could see it wasn’t her running away, but a man with cold blue eyes.  But, this time, as he screamed and fell towards oblivion, she saw him make a hole in reality with his sword just before the dark essence ripped itself from his body, and the rest of his soul grabbed the hole and pulled himself into it.  


As she awoke she muttered, dreamily, “He escaped.”


Caleb looked down at her with a smile, “Who escaped?”


She started, suddenly remembering where she was, “Nothing…sorry.  Is it morning?”


He shrugged, “So I’ve been told.  Jauffrey brought you some breakfast.  It actually looks pretty good.  I halfway expected it to be raw meat in a place like this.”  He laughed, and she was indeed forced to smile, but he could tell the dream was still on her mind.