from Fragments

The shadows behind Saliyah moved, or perhaps they didn't. Y'roden stepped from them as if nothing untoward had happened, silent as death when he slipped past her, the shadow of the black dove flickering over his shoulder as it winged its way across the clearing.

The half-elf's eyes were averted but his steps sure and steady as he bore down on Ghetsuhm, the glint of the blade barely visible in the darkness. The speed in which he moved might have ended her life had he chosen to, but at the last possible second the dagger deflected and his arms wrapped around her waist. The barest flicker of emerald stole into his eyes as they met hers. Yanking Ghet up against his chest Y'roden claimed her lips in a hungry, desperate kiss.

She found the hilt of his dagger pressed into her palm, his fingers closing hers around it. Cut off her link to this world, its your only hope. His lips never left hers, but his hand guided the blade to his rib cage, poising it to pierce his heart. I love you Ghet.

She'd known, she'd known really, she just hadn't want to. Her soul screamed as she saw his eyes, knew what she had to do, and still fought. "There's got to be another way. Please..." she whispered, her hand curling around the hilt of his dagger. "Please, please don't make me, I love you, I love you so much." Her hand shook as she wept. She wouldn't have cried if she hadn't known this was how it had to be. If she could have, she would have flatly refused.

Then she heard Samara, and she knew, she didn't have the time to come to terms with this. Her agony echoed out around her, tore through her bond as she reached indiscriminately for the strength to do it. She raised her mouth to kiss him, her head moving just briefly in assent. Perhaps she'd always known it might come to this between them. She hurt him all the time anyway, loving her was agony. In this moment she could have the strength to make it stop. She shut her eyes as tears poured freely down her face. "Be free, my love."

In the end it was almost too easy. He wanted her to. The blade slid in so easily between his ribs, and she felt his heart's blood run over her fingers. It was done, she could let go. An agonised scream broke from her as their bodies hit the ground together. She pressed her mouth to the wound she had given him, his blood, his death filling her. The entire world had contracted to this one point, that she had murdered the man she loved.

Perhaps there were things he should have said, at least formally decreed Valin his legal heir before his life left him. But there was no time....

His last thoughts, the last thing to penetrate his senses was Ghetsuhm, and he wouldn't have had it any other way. He was sorry for her agony, for what he had done to her... he had never wanted to give her anything but joy.

It was easy letting go, there was no pain.. for once in his life.
He embraced it...
The light he had fought to reach for so long faded....
He breathed Ghetsuhm in and there she remained, for the breath was never expelled.

The blood flowing across Ghet's lips slowly limped to a halt, and she forced herself to raise her head. His eyes were dark. There was a horrible, wrenching pain, a dawning loneliness as the fragment within her stilled, but by glory, it was still there. She would never lose him entirely.

She was peripherally aware of a sudden silence, the ceasing of the turmoil that had beaten against them, but it was nothing to her. She wept, and knew that she wept for herself, and not for him. He was at peace, finally. Finally, for him, the battle was over.

She knew he was dead, and she could not let go of him. She was drenched with his blood, inside and out. She knew he was dead, and she kissed his face over and over, stroked his body, whispered to him how she would never stop loving him, how she knew everything he would have told her. She would not close his eyes, she loved his eyes, because they were green, they were wholly him.

She would get up, she would move again. But not yet, she wasn't ready yet. Just a little longer. She would be his just a little longer...