Yamara

"Let. Her. Go!"

James looked back over his shoulder to where Evart tried desperately to regain his feet. He had crawled over to where my shortsword lay and even in his near death was preparing to try and defend me. I used the distraction he provided to my benefit.

Lunging up far faster then humanly possible, I swung the now poisonous dagger around in an arc gathering inhuman speed and power. I pulled a very surprised James to me so that my chest touched his and speared the dagger deeply into his back. It knifed through his spine and pierced his heart from behind. James' head twisted around to face me, surprise and pain evident on it. He gasped a few times and then laughed.

"You stupid bitch," he said, trying to push me away. "You can't destroy me like that, this body has already been dead!"

My strength was greater then he expected though, and he was unable to push me away. More so as I had severed his spine and with every bit of force his arms exerted he realized that his legs were not supporting him as he teetered off balance. I rode him to the floor when he crashed there, making sure I kept maximum pressure on the dagger.

"What did you do to me!" He screamed at me. He reached down and tried to pry me off again. I ignored his fingers as they clawed and tore at my skin, trying to find a good purchase with which to rip me away from him.

James made a strangled noise then. The mixture of my blood and Brina's was pushing through his system. His heart, unnaturally beating after his death, continued to pump in spite of my steel sawing into it with each pulse. It pushed the poison into his limbs further and further with each moment, going up and into his brain as well. Unseen to me, who only had eyes for James, Brina turned away from the gruesome spectacle.

He lay there, paralyzed and frozen as it worked its way through him. His jaw moved and he struggled to talk, his eyes following me fearfully. "No," he managed to gasp out, "this cannot be! Master, help me!"

A great gust of ethereal wind blew through the room then. It chilled my already abused and ravaged body to the bone. Evart collapsed back to the ground with a grunt. Brina shuddered and fell to her knees. I rolled off of James' body and slowly stood up.

Upon the dais stood a new figure. He was covered in a hooded cloak not so different from Brina's, save that a gut clenching fear emanated from him. Had I not already faced my worst fears that very day, I would have been senselessly wallowing on the ground and wetting myself.

"Master!" James gasped again, reaching up towards him.

"No, James, you have failed me," The figure said, a powerful voice said out from beneath the hood. It reminded me of a great many things at once. It sounded like a snake hissing, yet at the same time it had the deep pitch of a giant of a barbarian. I heard the voice of a small girl in it and an elderly man. It was impossible to fully understand the voice, yet we could hear it clearly. The only thing that was truly unmistakable about it was that it belonged to a being of enormous power.

"I told you once to not grow so obsessed that you neglected your duties. You have disappointed me."

"Wait," James said, struggling desperately to speak. "I -"

James never finished his sentence. He burst into flames suddenly before my very eyes. The figure did not move at all, he simply stood there silently watching.

"You destroyed him as surely as I, Mistress Blackcloak, would you be the Baroness Palungol?" It asked me. I shivered at the thought of it.

"No, I will strike no deal with you. I will die soon, best to leave it as that, I have seen to much to go on," I said without hesitation. I knew of wizard and priests striking deals with demons and wanted no part of it, especially considering this being was far more powerful then any demon I had ever heard of.

"Very well, the seat shall be empty," he said. "You must leave this place, girl, I will accept your presence no longer."

I nodded. "Gladly, Dark One."

He chuckled, his odd voice reminding me of a nest of angry hornets buzzing about. "I admire your courage, girl, you have spirit. For that I will grant you this one and only boon."

Suddenly I felt weak. My legs collapsed under me and I crashed to the floor. I shook my head and realized that I felt like a child. Everything seemed muffled to me. I had trouble breathing, my heart hammered in my chest, and even my vision seemed to be dimming. Some boon, I thought.

"Your body is your own again," he said to me. "You will live your short human life."

I slowly picked myself back up, an ache or a pain in every bone as I did so. My body felt bloated, so full of blood was it once again. I looked to Brina, who was still kneeling on the ground too terrified to even shake. Evart was likewise paralyzed, but his was a paralysis of shock, he could not comprehend fully what was going on.

"The druid was right, you are unnatural and have no place here on this world. Leave it and never return."

"How?" I asked, sensing my interview with the supreme evil being was about to be concluded.

A glowing nimbus of light appeared next to him on the dais. "One person only may enter, if it is not you, I will see to it that you are imprisoned and tortured for a thousand years."

The warmth returned to the room then suddenly. It was gone.

I looked at the waning color in Evart's face and saw that Brina was still kneeling on the floor, too horrified to move yet. I rushed over to Evart and pulled out my S.E.T. badge. I pressed it into his hand and said, "Use this, my friend, or you will not survive to make it out of this room, let alone these lands."

Evart looked at me thoughtfully. His fingers fumbled with it for a minute and then he performed the same procedure he had down what seemed like a lifetime ago in the swamp. He sighed as the healing magic coursed through him, restoring his lungs, shoulder, and ribs to their proper condition. He rose shakily to his feet and stretched a little, smiling.

I turned from him and walked up to Brina. I knelt next to her and lifted her face to look at mine. Dark streaks showed the tears that fell from her face. I pulled her to me and hugged her against my chest. My leathers still lay open but my wounds had been healed. Brina sobbed against me for several long minutes.

When last she could speak she said to me, "I am sorry, Yamara. Sorry to have ever doubted you!"

I hushed her before responding. "You did as any would, Brina, and you were not wrong in doing so. I used you poorly at the time and handled the situation so very wrongly. The fault is mine. Wholly mine."

"I did not know truly what to do with you when you were on the floor at James' feet. I did not know what to think. I had to be sure, or I would have tried to do something sooner!" She said in a rush.

"I had to know what went through your head and your heart, no words could tell me and we had not the time," she continued. "I had to take your blood in me, had to know what you knew."

I nodded, that made sense. It worked both ways, by giving me her blood she had given me visions of what she had experienced, and by doing to opposite she had been able to see what she needed to.

"I saw what you did and how you felt, before during and after. I know what you went through and I understand better then you do what it is that you have done to yourself." Brina paused and looked up at me, the most tender expression on her face I had ever seen. Long ago had the mischievous little girl I had met on Acathia disappeared. In its place had grown a beautiful woman. Even if she did have the occasional desire to rip the heart from a newborn and feast upon it, we all had our faults.

"Feel no grief anymore for me, Yamara, I should have never left Acathia. You are the one meant to travel and do more deeds. I was a simple moth who tried to live to close to a flame."

I did not like the way her words coming out. "Hush Brina, we will get you out of here. There must be some way for you to come with me and we can put all this behind us. So your eyes glow in the dark and you prefer to feast on the raw flesh of innocents, we can always find a way to get by."

She smiled at me and shook her head. "No, Yamara, I am done here. With James gone I can pick my own fate now, and I pick the fate that you and he once gave me."

"Brina, No, I forbid it!" I said, my voice thickening and my eyes starting to tear again. "We've been through to much now for you to give up!"

"You heard him, Yamara, only you may leave this world and you must do it. I have done to many horrible things to continue to live. Even knowing what I have done makes it impossible for me to live with myself now that I am free of James' control." Brina looked sad but resolute, and I finally accepted what must be. "I can never be normal again. I can never go among people like this. I will always have the overpowering urges the demoness gave to me. I must be destroyed, and you must do it."

"No," I breathed, shaking my head. I could not do it. I had killed her once, to do it again would destroy me forever. "I can't, Brina. Not again. Not ever again!"

"You must, Yamara," she said. "I will have no one else show me this most desperate act of love, sacrifice, and mercy."

Tears fell freely, obscuring my vision. I pulled Brina to me and hugged her desperately, trying to come up with any other way of making things work. I felt her cold tears against my chest, leaving bloody tracks dripping down my chest. Finally she pushed me away.

"Do it now, before we lose the heart to do so. Already I feel the urges in me to rise up and lash out."

I nodded, moving slowly to my feet. "How?" I asked, managing to choke it out between deep breaths.

"Grab James' sword and sever my head in a single blow. Quick and painless and it will be over. I will be gone but know that you will forever carry my memory and my love with you."

Numbly I walked over and picked up the longsword that James had used against me. It was warm to the touch and hummed with an inner energy. I walked back over to where Brina knelt and moved behind her. Not thinking clearly, I positioned the sword and drew it back for a single swift cut.

"Are you ready?" I asked her, my voice subdued so as to not crack.

"Wait," she whispered. Her hand came around in front of her and, unseen to me but witnessed by Evart, she parted her cloak to reveal that she wore nothing underneath of it. Her hand, sporting those cruel edged fingernails, rested for a moment just underneath her rib cage. "Take this and carry it with you forever."

I saw her arm suddenly jerk inward. Evart watched her hand plunge into her chest and behind her sternum. She latched onto that which she sought and with a single spastic pull wrenched her heart free of her chest. I saw her pull the organ and hold it in mid air and nearly fainted at the sight of it. It was still beating. Her thick and dark blood ran down her arm and dripped to the floor. She squeezed it in her hand, her movements becoming jerkier by the second, and then she opened her hand to display a small tear shaped ruby resting in her palm.

I grabbed it up, knowing I had to move quickly now. I had a job to do and if I had failed her time and again before, this last time I was not about to do so. I resumed my prior position and swung the sword as hard as I could. It connected with her neck and in less then a second it was over. There was a powerful flash and I was thrown from my feet to the ground. When I came to my senses a few minutes later all that remained of Brina was her empty cloak on the floor and the ruby in my hand.

I crawled over to the cloak and held it in my hands, trying to catch a last smell of her scent. There was nothing to it. I clutched it in both hands and let the tears flow freely a final time. I did not know how long I lay there grieving, nor did I care. Only that at the time nothing had any meaning for me in the world.

Epilogue

"Yamara."

Evart was sitting there, looking at me. He might have called my name out several times, I was not sure. All I know is that finally I was aware of him again. I stood up and walked towards him. He rose to meet me. Wordlessly he wrapped his arms around me and hugged me. He held me for another indeterminate amount of time and I let him. I was exhausted in every possible way. I needed any support I could get, and he was there to give it to me.

"Thank you, Evart," I whispered to him at one point. "Thank you for being my friend. One of the two only true friends I have ever known."

He just gave me a little squeeze in acknowledgement. It was enough at the time.

But, as all good things must end, so must all bad things. And that was a bittersweet mix of the two extreme. I broke away from him before speaking. "I have to go, Evart. Whatever God's-forsaken world Dagrazt is going to send me too, I have to leave. For your protection as much as my own."

I wandered around the room and picked up my discarded short sword and thrown dagger, resheathing all of them then looking at Evart, who was watching me carefully.

Evart smiled sadly. "I look forward to the time when the Gods shall favor us with a meeting again."

I returned his smile. "I share that hope, Evart. I large part of me died here today, a part that I think I am glad to bury. I am a new person, born again and soon to be in a different place. A place that, if it was to happen, you could and you would be able to have me, I think."

Evart chuckled. "I shall look for that place then! And until then, go with my blessings and know that no matter how trying times are, You have a friend to the death and beyond in me."

Another one of those damned tears got away from me. I grabbed him and pulled him to me, hugging him again in a death grip that lasted roughly a thousand years to short. Then, before either of us could say or do anything else, I turned and walked up the stairs of the dais. I glanced back at him and studied him for a second, noting he was doing the same for me. My next step into the nimbus of light made everything around me fade away.

*****

Evart grabbed up James' longsword and put it into his empty scabbard. It fit loosely, but it fit and that was enough. He had to get out of the castle as quick as he could. Being a Havrin he had a far better chance of escape alone then he had if Yamara had been permitted to come with him though.

Yamara. Now there was a story. A women the likes of which he had never met. Stronger then anyone he had ever met, in spite of what she considered to be constant moments of weakness near the end. He thought she might have been learning better though. He shook his head and made himself move on. If he played his cards right there would be plenty of time later for him to remember her fondly over a mug of ale.

But for now, he had to get back to Elendar and report on all that had happened. More importantly he had a little business to take care of first. Paul, formerly James' squire, was still at large. It just would not do to have him able to follow up in James' footsteps, now would it?