Stories from RhyDin & The Rings

There was quiet in this place, and calm. She was sitting on the bed, cross-legged working on a picture with paints. The manor was full of ghosts so she did not go there, the Minx-cave was empty, this place was empty as well but somehow comforting. “No reason it should be comforting, after all, you left me too, didn’t you Gavin?”

Her mind was growing unstable in the absence of family. It was one of the differences in the elves from her home than many of the other elves she’d seen. Family was a part of her and without them her sanity was going fuzzy at the edges. One of the manifestations of this was she spoke to people that were far away and out of hearing, Gavin, Katt, Trist... Kel was kind of there and kind of not there. She had imbued an image of him with some of her essence and he had more weight than an illusion but it was still not truly him.

The wards that Gavin had put up in this place were strong and apparently disconcerting to others. The owner could not rent the place to anyone, no one would even enter. It felt warm to her, it gave her the same type of feeling she got when her brother used to wrap her in his arms for a big, rib-cracking hug. She did not allow the ghost of Kel to enter this place, it was set aside for time alone.

Adding a ring of forget-me-nots to encircle the heart she had already painted was fast work, it was not a masterpiece but anyone could tell what it was supposed to be at a glance. “Gavin, did you know that paintings have been used as holding spaces for a variety of things? The portrait of Dorian Gray held his aging, there have been tales that vampires have used paintings to gather the spirit of others examining portraits of themselves and now... now I will use one to hold my heart.”

Her brother had begun to whisper warnings to her for some months now. Telling her that David had enthralled her and was sucking her essence. At first she didn’t believe him but day after day he would speak and she would listen with an increasingly unstable soul. There was a straw, she was sure of it but in the end she had gone to a judge and asked for an annulment. After a great deal of arguing the man agreed, but warning she would not get another based off of 'evil vampire enthrallment’ again.

Odd how much like love that enthrallment had felt. “Can’t trust myself with this so I’m going to leave it in your care, Gavin. I know... I know, you abandoned me.” Her calm cracked a bit at the thought. He had to leave, part of her knew that, but that did not help soothe the hurt she felt at his absence.

“Anyway, I told Kel I didn’t think he was right about David. But he does know more about those things than I do. Him and Dad have been hunting them since before I was born.” The last part of the sentence was said in her best Kel-imitation voice. “Says that David will forget me within a few days and be onto his next victim within a week, two at the most.”

Fingertips traced the outside of the painting now. The heart was in the center, the forget-me-nots gently wrapped around it and the background was a soft yellow. “Maybe it will take him longer to forget me? How long did it take you to forget me?” Swallowing hard against the lump growing in her throat as she hung the painting on the wall above the bed.

Flopping down on the bed she buried her face in the blankets. It had been so long since Gavin had been here and yet she could almost swear that she could catch the faint scent that was uniquely him. “Surely at least a week... maybe even two.” With her face buried the words were muffled, and the tears? Well, if no one saw you cry it didn’t count.

The image of Kel showed up beside her as she made her way toward the Manor, it’d been a few days since she went there and she was still unsure about going there now. “He was with another woman last night, you know.”

Stopping mid stride she turned to stare at the image a mixture of disbelief, hurt and anger twisting her features. “No. I don’t believe it.” Stated flatly but her expression did not support the words. The fact that everything Kel said came from somewhere in her broken mind never registered. He was just a figment of her own making but always felt more real. She had no more information on what David was doing than he probably had of what she was doing. The words coming from ‘Kel’ were just her fears given voice.

“You can ask around. He was seen with a young lady. Took him a day longer than I thought but I was still right. You should learn to trust my instincts about vampires, Gwen.” He stood with his arms crossing over his chest.

“No.” There was that twisting in her gut again. “No.” Her lungs did not feel as though they wanted to allow her to draw in oxygen and she began to feel light-headed for the lack. “Kel... this enthrallment, when will it go away?”

“How does it make you feel to know he’s already found another?” His tone was far more reasonable than she wanted to hear just then. So matter-of-fact and self-assured in the strength of his argument.

“Not... not good.” She admitted. There had been a part of her that still held out hope that what her brother had told her was untrue, that somehow her situation was different. How much could he possibly have cared if he was already with someone else? Not much.

The part of her mind that was falling to pieces whispered to her... Just go home. Any vampires there won’t be able to harm you.

“That’s all well and fine to say but I can’t get home! If I could I would have a long time ago!” She screamed the words and some strangers passing by went wide around the elf that was yelling at the air. “I hate this place, I hate everything about it.” It was, truth be told, a spectacular hissy fit of epic proportions.

It hates you too.

That brought her up short and she glanced around for Kel, he was nowhere to be seen and she noted the people shying away from her and storm clouds drifted through her grey eyes. “I... he...” Her voice was soft, and confused, the rational part of her mind attempting to cut through the haze of growing insanity. “No. He is already with someone else, he could not have loved me.” A sharp shake of her head to ‘clear’ it of the thoughts that tried to speak of love, or missing him.

He hates you too. A tool is not something to love, just use.

A hiss escaped her as she turned and ran toward the treeline that would take her toward the glen. Perhaps she could outrun the thoughts, she had to or else the fog that was creeping through her might just swallow her completely.

~%Only a moment ago we had nothing but time...everything lasted forever and you were all mine. Only a dream I know, thinking you'd never go... %~

That was as far as she got in the song. It was the seventh time she tried. It was only a memory, or she thought it was a memory. It was getting harder to tell as the days slipped by. The forest around her didn’t look familiar, but she didn’t care. Didn’t care if she knew where she was because none of it was real anyway, it was all in her mind.

This attitude had spread from one thing in her life to the next, it had been days since she ate or drank. Being an elf this wasn’t an immediate danger, eventually it would be but why bother eating when everything was an illusion?

She hadn’t yet sorted out why her mind decided to be so very cruel to her, making her believe that David was real, or that he loved her. It was true her mind also gave her some good illusions like Harris, Mur HG and Erik and she adored them but... how could your heart break when it was just a story ending?

The bard in her said she should be proud of the epic her mind had spun, it had everything a good tale could want. Fighting, rivalry, love and betrayal. Now it just needed a good ending and it would surely be a tale told by bards for years to come.

As she lie on the ground, the grass still wet from an afternoon shower, she pondered when the ending would come. She felt hollow, empty and alone. She missed her family, missed the comfort they gave. Missed Gavin, although she had doubts now if he was real or just another character in the story. Would things have gone differently if he had stayed? There was a thread that she didn’t dare tug on.

She couldn’t bring herself to regret her time with David. Maybe when the enthrallment was well and truly broken? Staying away from town was the only way she could keep herself from searching for him... so out of town she stayed. Would the other illusions come look for her? Her week was usually filled with doing charity work with Erik. Was it odd she worried for the people she would be helping?

They weren’t real, they didn’t really need her to help them shop, put away the groceries or teach some self-defense techniques... she’d come up with a good variety of things that could be done with a cane for the elderly folk she visited. They always seemed more alive when swinging a cane around and striking Erik with all the gusto they had left, he always volunteered to be the attacker dummy. Well maybe he didn’t volunteer so much as Gwen directed her pupils to start wailing on him.

Kept company by the ghosts of memories and a growing sense of apathy she began the song again...

~%Only a moment ago we had nothing but time...everything lasted forever and you were all mine%~

The watching of it was difficult. The woman that had met him the day he was thrown into this place, a vivacious, happy, lovely young elf had been disappearing before his eyes. For the first week after she evicted David from the manor she was nowhere to be found. When she was at the Manor she walked the halls like a ghost, singing haunting tunes that had, on more than one occasion, made the domestic staff break down into tears.

He had followed her to the abandoned house, found her there in a state of disarray and despair. Entering without permission he searched the place until he found her laying on the bed, she looked so small and so still he thought perhaps he had waited too long. Quick strides took him to the bedside, kneeling beside it so he could turn her body so that her tear-stained face was visible, her grey eyes clouded by lack of sustenance and hope nearly broke his heart.

"Gwen, this is not a good look for you. Miss Atterbury won't allow anyone else to assist her, she says that only you can do things correctly so we are going there today. If you don't want to be spit shined by her then I suggest you bathe. I will wait here." His voice was soft, but insistent. She did not allow him to just slip away when he wanted, the loss of his life before had been a terrible blow, one that nearly shattered him. It was this woman, this slip of a girl that had patiently put those pieces back together.

She seemed to look through him when she focused on his face. "Doesn't matter. You're all just figments. Will be going home soon." Her voice was so very weak sounding, none of the lovely tones that usually danced through her words. "I liked your figment, Miss Atterbury too, has she been working on her left hook?"

Figment? This was going to be more difficult than he thought, but he owed her his life and he would stay the course. "Figments, yes. But you don't have anything better to do just now, do you? Might as well spend it with the figments you like. But first a bath, and then Miss Atterbury. She's made some of her dragon stew, you like that right?"

"Dragons walk around nekid you know. I tried to clothe them but they didn't like my dresses. I don't understand why my mind populated this dream with so many nekid dragons." Her tone remained in that dreamy state as she spoke. "But I suppose you're right, Erik. Nothing better to do. Thought maybe if I stayed here that the Gavin figment would reappear." Her features twisted into something so sorrowful that Alaric felt as though someone punched him in the gut.

Gently he brushed her fine, blond hair away from her face. "My true name is Alaric, but that must remain between us. True names for figments hold great power." It was the first time he'd spoken his true name since he arrived in Rhy'din, it sounded odd to his ears.

"Alaric. My mind comes up with some strange twists, but ok." She was pushing herself up to get out of the bed. "Bath then stew then work on left hooks. She's right, you know, your left hook is pitiful."

It wasn't much, he thought, but it was a start and he would take it.