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There was a suffocating quality to the darkness that folded in around them as crystal shattered and all else faded. It was the belly of the beast, the liar, the heart of the cavern, or so they assumed. But there was nothing here, nothing to see but the darkness, and the faint yellow glow cast by the priestess' right eye. They were alone in that pressing silence, and her hand, so small in his, tightened. "Where is it?" A whisper, but it seemed so loud to her ears as her senses strained in the darkness.

Movement then, but not the rustle of claws and scales against stone. No, this was the soft sound of something thin and fragile rolling over itself, reforming. The crystals that had shattered around them were coming together, closing in, and the mare moved in automatically against the guardian's side.

"It's a trap," she hissed, drawing her hand free of his so she could draw an arrow from the quiver, knocking it against the sting and drawing it back as the iridescent fragments shifted and swirled. As they drew closer she loosed her arrow, the tip bursting through a flat stretch crystal, only to have those scattered pieces gather again like water flowing towards a central point. It was closing in, surrounding them, and she turned to keep that spread of glass like sheen in sight.

That's when it came between them. Thin at first, barely noticed before it was too late. Nergui turned as it closed in to block the tall stallion from view, and she swung the bow, seeking to shatter the barrier that had formed between them, but it did not break. It shocked her, and that shock rose up, grew, morphing into panick as she smacked her palms against the crystal, then pounded at it with her fists. "Soren!" Was that rumbling her imagination? It did little to slow the frantic pounding of her heart. "SOREN!"

Him leaving her was one thing. At least then he would still be alive. She would be hurt, a broken thing, but he would be whole, happy. The thought filled her with sorrow, but that was nothing to the fear of losing him to death. That she would not survive.

Panic rolled over the mare in a suffocating wave. She pounded at the crystal until her hands ached with the effort, bruised and battered. She couldn't breath, couldn't think. There was nothing but that crippling fear, that dread, that she might lose him.

Lost him. Lost him, you have already lost him.

The voices stirred, laughing in the dark as Nergui tried desperately to find some crack or crevice in the wall that separated them. A cold breeze, a bitter reminder that she had not needed. This was different. This was not a parting of the ways, this was more, this was permanent and irreparable. They were creatures of Death, the ancient walked among them, but they could still Die. Not a temporary state, not the death that came in dreams, but real, and finite.

Snarls rose above the sounds of her struggle, and she froze, listening, the blood in her veins running with ice as she realized where that awful rumble was coming from.

Beyond the crystal.

Soren was trapped with it.

Crunch, crunch. Lunch!

"No!" Bow rising, the mare set another arrow, drawing it back as she fought to still her breathing and the hammering beat of her pulse. She aimed for the oil slick sheen of the wall before her, and just before dark fingers released the string, as she let her breath leave in a steadying exhale, the darkness swirled and changed.

Not the vast darkness of the crystal maze, but the golden glow of rage filled eyes. The granite pitch of discolored skin. A proud priestess, reduced to a creature of insanity and despair. It howled into the echoing quiet, and Nergui's screams echoed it as she fired at her own twisted reflection.

She would not become that. She would not!

Home, child. Come home.

No matter which way he turned Soren could not find the creature. The calls of the beast were started to work into his brain, affecting his mind as he tried in vain to reach it. Already his thoughts were racing, twisting down dangerous paths as he wondered if he was already too late, if the beast had already reached his priestess.

This was frustrating, and letting out a growl of his own Soren stalked about, trying to find even a clue that would lead him out of this confounded maze.

Twisted howls filled her ears. The broken remnants of her own voice, torn and bent by the insanity that threatened to consume her. She faced that living nightmare, eyes wide, and finally she was afraid. Afraid of losing herself, as much as losing the guardian. In wonderland she had thought that it would be simpler, less painful, to just give him.

She had been wrong.

Again she groped for an arrow from the quiver on her back, knocking it in place and drawing it back in shaking hands as she backed away from that awful image. "I don't want this!" It was worst than death, worst than anything else. She fired, at the sharpened point of the arrow drove into the crystal face of the wall, embedding itself in that hard stone and sending a spiderweb of cracks over the face of that twisted image.

Come child, come home.

"No!"


Dmg: 9/10

Pain was instantaneous and startling. One more she was screaming at her own twisted reflection, and the next the image had shattered around her and something had smashed into her face, sent her head back, blood flying in a soft arch that vanished as it hit the dark crystal around them. She blinked, stunned, before straightening again and reaching a hesitant hand up to the sharp ache and sting that throbbed along her left cheek. When her hand drew back her fingers were wet.

She seemed shocked, but when her chin lifted and those mismatched eyes snapped up to take in the tall figure before her expression softened. "You broke it." She said it quietly, and there was an obvious thread of gratitude to her voice as she looked up at him. Clearly she did not mean the skin on her cheek or any bone within that delicate face. Her nightmare, he had shattered it, he had snapped her out of that all consuming panic, and he had made his way back to her side.

"It was awful." Now the mare looked stricken, and her gaze slid from his conflicted eyes and out into the vast darkness they stood within. "I saw myself, eaten alive by the Insanity that rides within me. A twisted thing, broken and mindless." A shudder ran up her spine, made her eyes fall shut as she wrapped her arms around herself. "I don't eve want to become that, Soren." Emotion was squeezing her voice tight, fear, and every other horrible thing that had plagued her heart for months now.

When she opened her eyes there was the faint shine of tears glittering in the silver and gold glow. "I heard the beast. You were trapped, and I heard it with you, and I thought..." Her head shook, and she held herself tighter. "I could live with you not being mine." If I have to, was left unsaid, but heavy in the air between them. "But the thought of you dead." She had to swallow past the lump forming in her throat. "It hurts. I don't think I could bare that. I couldn't..."

She was shaking, a fine tremble that had started in her hands, but that spread up the arms and through the shoulders. She had so desperately wanted to hide how very deeply he had cut her, but how could she? How could she be anything but honest when him, when that was what she wanted in return. "I am miserable," she confessed, breath catching in her throat. "I wake up, and you are not there, and I feel my heart breaking all over again." Those mismatched eyes came up, searching familiar red. "I love you, doesn't that mean something to you?"

Each word, each hesitant sentence agonized him. He could see her swallowing, knew that these confessions were the most honest that she had probably ever been with him. He had known it had hurt her when he rejected her, but now, seeing it, knowing how deeply she hurt, he could not excuse himself. He reached out to her, words sticking in his throat. So instead he moved close, fingers tracing under the cut on her cheek, not looking away as her eyes met his. Whatever she could see there, he wanted her to know him.

"It means everything," he admitted, voice hoarse. It meant being vulnerable, opening up again, letting someone in deep enough to hurt him.

But it also meant good things too. Staying by her side, staying with her and protecting her, watching Neru in her radiance and being content just to be in her presence. It meant forming new memories. When she was happy, he was too, and seeing her suffer meant he suffered as well. She was already part of his life, and denying it was not working out. Ignoring her love was a foal's response, not when he felt it to. "I love you Nergui. I don't want to hurt you. I want to protect you. Guard you." He chose his words specifically, asking without so many words if she could accept him as her guardian when he had already acted like a foolish colt earlier.

And then they were back at the beginning, the horseman twisting into shadows.

When he opened his eyes he knew barely even registered the pebble before he was up and moving, long strides eating up the distance separating them. Every time she woke without him she said her heart broke, and he was determined to stop that as soon as possible.