Canadine clutched his face in his hands, surrounded by shadow. Tears flowed freely from his eyes like a gentle storm.

“Please no more…I beg you.”

He felt a cold but soft touch on his head, “I do not believe I could bare to put you through more. You have been through so much. You have disappointed the ones you loved. Failed to avenge your parents and friends. Now you are here, alone without a single person to lay your head on. I can’t help but pity you so.”

The soft and reassuring touch gently took Canadine’s hands. He was too weak to resist. Before him was a woman of unmatched beauty. Her pale skin was smooth and perfect with not a single blemish. Her eyes held a deep mystery but were wide and inviting. Her silky raven hair fell over her shoulder in a bundle of curls.

‘Her voice sang like a smooth bell, “You are utterly lost my child. Come into my embrace, and you will never despair again.”

***

The clinic shook with a deadly tremble. Tanthia nearly fell to the floor as she was bandaging the side of an old man's head.

Yelps and screams of terror rang out through the clinic walls. People clutched their loved ones and hid under their blankets, but the ones on death's door simply mouthed prayers.

Rendri stared wide eyed at his mother. Tanthia could see the sheer terror in her son's eyes as his hands slowly began to tremble.

Tanthia bit her lip and marched off. As she went, she turned to see Nalenco shake under the blanket of a bed, “Coward.” she muttered. He hoped that his masters would come to take him away sooner than later.

If they survive through the night.

Tanthia slapped herself. She couldn’t think such thoughts. She ran up the stairs and barreled through the door of the closet without so much as a knock. She didn’t care if the witch reproved her, and that was…

Tanthia gasped in horror at the sight she was greeted with. The witch was now down on all fours. Sweat dripped from her brow like rain.

Another shock shook the clinic, and the witch’s screams emphasized the impact.

She weakly gazed up at Tanthia, “Wake him up,” she said through panted breath.

“I don’t…I don’t know what you…”

“WAKE HIM UP!”

A sharp crash and another rumble and once again the witch let out another terrible scream.

Tanthia rushed to her side, but the witch seized her as if she was possessed, “Wake him up! I will not see him run away again…Wake him up!”

Tanthia averted the witch’s gaze. Her exhausted figure inspired nothing but dread, “But he has been…”

“Tell him Selari wants his ass out of that bed. NOW!” She pushed Tanthia away just as another shock was sent through the building. Tanthia left the witch. As she shut the door screams and sobs seemed to pierce the ceiling and the heavens above.

***

The woman clad in black held out her arms with a motherly smile, “Come. Come and forget about pain and sorrow. I am here now.”

Canadine shuffled gently forward with his knees. Her embrace seemed irresistible. He could forget about it all. Relieve the burden and guilt that he carried for so long. He shuffled forward.

“Yes. Forget it all. Let me worry about it all for you…”

“Mister! Mister!” A voice pierced through the darkness and Canadine found himself lying on the bed once again.

He gazed at the nurse in front of him with utter contempt and then turned back to the woman in black on the other side of the bed.

“Yes. yees, do not let her distract you from your salvation, take my hand and find peace.” She offered a hand out. It seemed so delicate that it might break at the smallest touch.

Canadine began to reach, licking his lips…

“Selari says to wake up!”

The darkness of the room seemed to creep away from him.

He turned back to the doctor, dumbstruck, “What?”

The doctor appeared as if she was throwing a tantrum, “Selari says to get your ass out of this bed!”

“Selari…” the name numbed his lips.

“Don’t look at her! Look at me!” The woman in black hissed.

Canadine turned in shock. She was far from the spectral beauty that she was. Her hair had grayed in places, and her eyes had sharpened to a deadly degree.

The woman threw her hand to the side, “Don’t you see! You have failed them once again!”

A heart wrenching scream came to Canadine’s ear through the wall, and the woman smiled.

“Don’t you see she struggled against an unseen enemy while you lay here helplessly! Men, woman, and children have been slaughtered all throughout the night and you have done absolutely nothing! You let them die! And now at the presipice of utter destruction you still sit here. Useless. A failure and utter disappointment.”

Canadine’s face went pale as the shadows seemed to creep over the room once more and the women’s beauty returned to what it once was.

***

Angelica’s lip quivered, “Tamer…what…what is that.”

The beast loomed over them, its eyes lifeless as it stared down upon them.

The tamer shook his head as he inched in front of her with his whip, “There is nothing like it in God’s Garden.”

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She turned back to Leren as he whispered a prayer over the Vindex, “Leren!”

“Do not interrupt!” He yelled back.

Her mouth tasted like chalk. All she could hope for was that his miracle wouldn’t take long. Well long enough for the monster in front of them to kill them all.

Angelica looked back up at the thing and gulped. She suspected that wouldn’t take too long.

Suddenly a low whistle came up from the creature's throat and Angelica’s head turned to mush.

All she could think about was what that monster was. What it offered, why it was there. How it got there. So many odd questions possessed her suddenly. She started to inch towards it like a moth to a flame.

“Are you insane!” The Jester called out, “Are you trying to talk to it! That! The thing that looked like it crawled out of the deepest reaches of hell!”

Angelica didn’t hear him all that mattered was…

The creature swung its huge tentacle and destruction followed. Buildings were ripped apart, sending bullets of brick and wood through the air. Angelica didn’t feel like anything. She simply blinked as things moved by around her as she flew through the air. She never imagined that she would feel so peaceful when she died. She gave a deep breath ready for her ascent into an angel's embrace.

Course hands seized the back of her neck as her body weight slammed into a person behind her. A powerful wind lashed at her face, threatening to suffocate her under its sheer force.

The wind ceased, and Angelica struggled to take a single breath in. The Rogue looked down on her with his black mask and jumped off of the wall he had shielded her from.

When they reached the ground Angelica attempted to push off of the Rogue, but he held onto her tight, “I can’t have you going and dying here. I have my scores to settle.”

Angelica was about to protest but bit her tongue as the world started to shake and turn around her.

She caught the beast in the corner of her eye its spirals of teeth and eyes should have made her want to run for her life, but something made her wantt go closer. The low whistle…

“Jester ring those bells!” Angelica might die tonight, but it wasn’t going to be as embarrassing as walking right into a blow.

***

Figures clothed in shadow gazed through the window patiently watching their mistress conduct her work.

The room was almost entirely filled with darkness. Canadine felt like he was under water. His vision was fuzzy and his body began to go numb.

The beautiful woman in black offered her hand once more, “Take my hand. You cannot go on living alone. You have abandoned everyone that you have ever cared for and now you lead them to the slaughter. If you abandon it all the witch will be spared. I am only here for you anyway.”

Canadine slowly moved his hand to hers. He could finally rest. How sweet that would be. He thought he heard a voice in his ear, but it all didn’t matter anymore.

Tanthia clung to his sheets, her body convulsed violently has her eyes began to water, “Please get up. There are people who need help. Injuryed and helpless. Even if you aren’t able to do anything, you’ll be able to give them hope.”

The woman in black smirked, “Hope is for fools and romantics. I offer them comfort and ease. Hope only inspires continued hardship.”

Canadine’s hand was almost to the woman’s. He felt tears of relief come to his eyes.

Tanthia clutched her face to the bed, “Please!” She begged, “They’ll all die! I can’t see it happen again. Rendri, Alesria…”

Canadine’s hand froze in the air, “What?” His mouth went bitter.

The woman in front of Canadine’s beauty never dimmed, but a dark feeling began to rise in his chest.

The woman glared at Tanthia in spite, “Yes! They will all die. All because of you. Because I came here for you and you continue to not accept my graciousness. The longer you resist the more this town suffers. Yet, instead of deciding you choose to waste away in this bed…”

Canadine slowly turned his head towards Tanthia. He could barely make her face out through the darkness, “What town am I in?”

Tanthia could barely get the word out through her sobs, “Rende.”

The women in black furrowed her brow, “You see your home town dies because…”

A green flame burst forth from Canadine, consuming the shadow. It rushed through the clinic like a wave, sending the shadows retreating with shrieks of terrible agony.

The woman in black stumbled back, tripping over herself, “No, no…that’s impossible. This wasn’t supposed to happen!”

Canadine got out of bed in an instant. He seized her throat, flames wisped off his body and his eyes took on an animilistic glare.

The woman in black’s perfect skin was now wrinkled and deeply scared, “You were supposed to be mine! He wouldn’t laugh at me then! I wouldn’t have to run away then! This wasn’t supposed to happen,” her face contorted and snot began to cascade from her nose.

Canadine snarled, “You come to my home, and massacre the people I knew in my youth. And you thought I would be yours!” The green flames shot forth from his shoulders in a violent intensity.

The woman shook her head violently, “No, no, no, I didn’t have a choice! I didn’t have a choice! I had to!”

Canadine’s eyes widened and he threw the old woman across the room. He stomped over to her, his hand raised in the air, the green flame spiraling around it like a violent cyclone

She cowered to the corner and covered her face in trepidation, “Please Mahveki, spare me!”

Canadine gritted his teeth at the name. That wasn’t him. He pushed down the dark feeling in his chest that now spread to every inch of his body. He would not be that monster. The cyclone of fire faltered.

The woman saw this and hissed as she disappeared into the shadow of the room

The flames dissipated from Canadine’s body. He knew he was going to regret that later, but what could he do about it?

A murmur from the other side of the room drew his attention. It was the doctor that had…the doctor of Rende. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t recognized her

Canadine’s eyes widened and warmed as he walked to her. She sat on the floors of the room looking up at him. Her eyes filled with apprehension.

“The clinic…it isn’t shaking anymore…”

Canadine got down on one knee so he was eye to eye with her, “Hey, Mrs. Volen. How have you been?”

Tanthia’s lips began to quiver, “Who…”

Canadine shook his head, placing a hand on his heart, “It makes since that you wouldn’t recognize me. I wasn’t that big when I left. It’s Canadine. I was friends with Dari and Gralt.”

Tanthia froze as she considered them for a moment, her hand began to shake as she touched it to his face, “Canadine…it is you.”

She gently took her hand away from his cheek then slapped him hard across the face, “Don’t you ever do that again! Do you hear me! I see you haven’t learned sense since you left! I mean trying to sleep when people need you! I hope Dari and Gra…My boys! Are they with you! Are they nearby! What happen to them!”

Canadine held her hands with his. His cheek was red from the slap, but the smile on his face was undeterred by it, “All in due time. Let’s just focus on getting through tonight.”

He reached his hand out. A small strand of a root appeared to wrap around it, then in a flash the axe leaning against the wall came hurtling towards his hand. The wood ached and creaked as it shifted in his hand.

Tanthia gasped at the spectacle, the handle seemed to be…alive.

Canadine’s face hardened as he considered the axe then looked to Tanthia, “Where is she?”

The closet was in shambles. The trinkets and books littered the ground. At the center of it all, Selari laid on the ground taking deep breaths.

Canadine drew near her, propping her up in his arms. Her eyes slowly opened to see his face, and a wry smile possessed her face, “Well it seems like we were able to keep one promise to each other.”

Canadine gave a chuckle, “Is it bad that I had forgotten about it. I honestly didn’t think I would be coming anywhere near here.”

“Can’t say I’m surprised, but all that matters is that you made it, and I was here to greet you.”

Canadine furrowed his brow. How could he tell her what he wanted to? What words could possibly explain everything? Why he did what he did, “Selari…”

She put a finger to his mouth, “Shhhh, there’s a Charastro that needs your help. Near the sea wall at the west end of town. I fear you can’t afford to keep her waiting that long. Let’s hope that new axe of yours can get the job done.”

Canadine gave a nod, “I’ll be back soon then.”

“If you hurry you should be able to…”

With the rush of air and the splintering of wood, he was gone. Selari stared in shock at the hole in the wall, letting the cool breeze of the night air inside, “It seems that I’m not the only one that has changed.”