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Episode 13: Becoming Whole.


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#1 Guest_Dashael_*

Posted 15 November 2002 - 08:49 PM

"Talona," August repeated meekly for the dozenth time. "My mother is Talona... This has got to be a lie..."
"Get a hold of yourself." Talon told him, still leaning weakly against the wall, his transparent form ebbing as if his life-force waned. "Denying the truth is what got us here in the first place."
"Talon's right." Little Gus added, "Dad lied to us, and even though we felt the truth, we lied to ourselves," Little Gus walked over to the figure of The Beast and kicked at it's shin. "And this hideous thing is the result."
"Thou must submit to our Mother's will. Surrender thyself and join with me." The Beast demanded, ignoring their conversations and petty gestures."Thy putrescent matriarch commands it."

"I don't think so." Came a clear and strong voice, a clarion call compared to the desperation, fear and loathing of the other voices in the alley.

The Beast's jaundiced bloodshot eyes shot wide as it heard the voice. It beheld not the shattered remnants of August Rencour, or the ebbing spirit of Talon the Assassin, nor even the efervescent but sensitive youth of Little Gus. The man that stood there, in the presence of the Beast was almost whole, and as such, would submit to no-one.

"I have killed many," The Man said in a firm and even tone, as he approached The Beast. "though all are remembered."
The Beast roared like some infernal lion, eyes emblazened with green fire.
"I have destroyed countless lives," The Man stepped closer still, seeming to grow taller, "though even the least of them stays with me."
The Beast backed up, somehow fearsome and fearful at once.
"I have done all of this, and deny it not." The Man spat the words like crossbow bolts. "All of this I have done," He clutched The Beast's horns, pulling it's face within an inch of his own, "And NONE of it my Mother's name."
"Thou darest defy Her!?" The Beast snorted, twisting free of His grip. "Thou shalt perish in horrible pestilience."
"I remember Beast, I remember the terror and grief and regret and dispair. I remember all the emotions my victims felt as I tore, not just their lives, but thier will to live from them." There was pain and sadness in The Man's voice and yet somehow it wavered not. "I felt them all, and that's what devides us, My Beast. I felt them," He placed a hand on The Beast's forehead, "And now you will too."

Images bombarded The Beast's vision, images of happy times in happy places. The faces of everyone His life had touched, and whom their lives had touched, through a thousand degrees of seperation. Then as The Beast's heart filled to bursting with the joy of these happy moments, there came the blood. Each happy moment was marred by His dark and bloodied hands, each moment of death not only felt directly, but felt through the hearts of those that wept for each victim. Death upon death, sorrow upon sorrow, a thousand thousand grieving souls crying out at once.

******

The alley shook with an unholy bellow, and as she ran towards it, holding her hood close to promote the illusion of her death, Madelaine Marquise feared the worst. If he had given in all would be lost, she would be forced to try to kill him, and even if she could succeed she'd rather fail.
******

"Halt!" Danian Aegisfield demanded of the figure in the Alley.

He wasn't sure what had drawn him back to this Alley. Maybe it had been his nightmares of that that night, the cold dead eyes of his quarry that burned into his heart as he saw his daughter's heartblood drip from his daggers, and lips. He had been unable to move, much less aprehend the fiend, that night, and although in all reason he knew he couldn't have saved her, in his heart he believed his inaction had killed his daughter.

Tonight was different, tonight he had tracked the monster from the courtyard where he savagely slew the young noblewoman. Running through the night, like a hunter's hound, gripping his rapier tightly, images of plunging it into the villians heart filled his mind. Tonight he would avenge his daughter. Tonight he would slay the beast and finally sleep.

"I say again, in the name of Council, halt!" He commanded again as the man stood upright.

"Inspector Aegisfield I presume," There was a lyrical grace to the voice, though still deeply masculine. "I've been expecting you."

"You are not Talon! Come into the light that I may get a clear look at you."

The figure, dressed in torn and soiled rags, stepped slowly into the circle of light from the lamppost across the street.

"I was Talon, and I can be again if need be," The man said solemnly, "but for now all you need to know is that I didn't kill Madelaine Marquise."

"I don't care." Aegisfield's face twisted into a snarl. "You killed my daughter."

The man called Rencour's gaze shot back to the dark end of the alley as the last piece of the proverbial puzzle came together.

"I have wronged you beyond measure," He bowed his head sadly and knelt before the enraged Inspector placing Tooth and Claw at his feet, he tore the tatters of his shirt asunder to expose his chest. "I ask only that you strike true and fast."

Danian Aegisfield, devoted father and husband, loyal Inspector of the Amnish Guard, and consumate human, paused. In that moment, as time expanded, he looked his foe in the eye. There was no malice, no hatred, no anger, not even fear. What he saw in the eyes of this man was deep, uninhibited, sorrow, absolute regret and something else, something he'd yearned to see since he was last in this alley, he saw his daughters love in this man's eyes.

Danian Aegisfield sheathed his rapier as he bound Rencour's hands. "August Talon Rencour, I formally charge you with murder, by the power invested in me by the Council I hereby hold you for trial. Do you have anything to say on the record."

"Thankyou."

******

"Please milady, Let me go to him." Madelaine Marquise pleaded.
"I cannot my sweet one." Lady Firehair sad regretfully, "He needs this."
"But what of those that did this? The killer in the square?"
"They will be dealt with in time."
"Will he..." she paused, her next thought distressed her," ...be executed."
"Only if he permits it. The only judgement on him that matters now is his own."




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