Blind Eye

As darkness fell, the small pixie was twisting herself into a knot, ready to meditate and restore her magical strength, when a familiar cloud of smoke materialized, and out stepped her betrothed, Seluctruh. He always visited like this, unexpectedly, when she was in the midst of some mundane activity. Pleased, as always, she embraced him warmly and together they sat to discuss recent happenings, and the coming future. Talk turned, inevitably, to the thirteen days of evil.

They'd discussed the evil times 2 days ago, when she's been distraught over the killing of Stych. Seluctruh had scolded her, gently of course, for violating their agreement to keep their relationship separate from his responsibilities of evil. She'd countered that she was violating nothing--she was expressing her grief for a friend.

But today, the Dark Lord was restless, fueled by evil currents that flowed through the realms. When he asked for a knife, she rooted around and found him one. Send him off, let him commit his evil acts, he'd come back all the happier. The pixie meditated in the quiet left by his departure.

There was a time, when she was new to the realms, but experienced enough to be of interest to deities, that he'd requested her devotion. And, smitten, she'd longed to devote to him. She'd entertained dreams of being a dark pixie, committing daring but evil acts. Yet, her sense of honour and self conspired to prevent her from committing her soul to Seluctruh. Earlier, the goddess Tatianna, having compassion on a tiny and lost pixie's struggles, had put her under White Tiger protection. Jae felt a sense of obligation to the Tigers and the goddess, and knew that committing to the Dark Lord would be a betrayal of these kindnesses. As she grew in strength and self, it became clear to her that she could never become that evil pixie, and would always just be herself: Jae, the pixie of the forests. Even without her devotion, Seluctruh had continued to visit, continued their forest walks, continued to woo her, and though he'd never managed to take command of her soul with his dark ways, he'd long ago taken command of her heart. And she'd learned, along the way, to keep them separate, somehow: on one hand her heart with its burning need of the man who was also the Dark Lord of Evil, and on the other her soul, committed to a balance between light and dark, just like the forests from which she drew her magic. It required a blind eye at times, but she knew that her beloved was an important part of the balance and stability of Darkstone.

She had been verbally challenged many times since the betrothal was announced. Few approved of the match. Usually she matched their arguments with her laughter. For how could she put into mere words the rhythms and songs that beat strong in her heart? The Dawnbringers didn't care that she'd known, since the first time she'd met him, that her destiny was irrevocably entwined with his. The White Tigers merely scoffed at the notion that such a man could have earned her unswerving love. The differences which made the attraction all the more compelling were the differences that inspired even friends to mockery. Soft and hard, tiny and large, purple and black, treetops and cave bottoms, warm gusting air and dark dank earth.

But Jae's blind eye proved not blind enough. Her own beloved's voice disrupted her meditation, proclaiming to all the realm that he had cut out Stych's tongue for his devotion to Tarin. Stych. who had saved her life more times than she could count, who had guided her through countless dangers, and taught her how to survive countless more. And when Seluctruh returned to her, he greeted her fondly, "Accomplice." For she had provided the knife that had cut out her friend's tongue!

Seluctruh lingered only another moment, and then was gone in pursuit of other evil. Gohat made her a portal that returned her to Windy with swiftness, and to her relief, Stych was in Tarin's temple. Stych could track her down anywhere, but she had no such reciprocal abilities.

Jae pleaded with the minotaur. "He didn't, did he?" but Stych's open mouth showed her what she had known all along--he had. Jae had healed all sorts of afflictions, but regeneration was far beyond her skills. She made a spring to replenish Stych's vital fluids, and sobbed as she watched him grimace in pain as he drank. She begged him to tell her what else she could do--but only served to frustrate the Fighter who could no longer speak.

The same familiar cloud, and Seluctruh was back. Not only had she assisted by providing the knife, but now, only by being near Stych, she had brought the Dark Lord back to him. Out of habit, it seemed, Seluctruh killed Tarin's priest, and Jae could only stare in amazement as Stych sacrificed the priest, wordlessly, but still with the rituals that made it clear he sacrificed the corpse in Tarin's name. A ferocious act of defiance before the Dark Lord!

Stych the Belligerent, he was called, and he truly earned his title, standing tall and defiant before the Dark Lord of Evil. When Seluctruh produced another knife, Stych did not flinch at all. Jae, on the other hand, was not so strong. Tears were only the beginning, as she crumpled into a heap, wailing and pleading for it to end.

Though she was not to interfere with the Dark Lord's works of evil, Jae's hysteria was too deeply felt to be controlled for a simple agreement. No agreement would allow her to calmly witness her betrothed torturing her good friend. Her hysteric pleas, by some miracle, were heard, and gamely the Dark Lord put away his knife.

"Please, My Lord," Jae begged. "He has always been a good friend to me. He has saved me many times, and taught me much." After a pause for snuffling, she continued, sly even through her tears, "And he cannot teach me more, without a tongue."

"Very well," agreed Seluctruh, and seemingly effortlessly, he conjured a. a donkey? Yes, he conjured up a donkey, there in Tarin's temple, and promptly slaughtered it.

She didn't hear much of his speech speech through her snuffling and tears. Something about avoiding talking like a jackass, and when done, the Dark Lord gave the beast's tongue to the Fighter.

After Seluctruh departed with an evil hiss, Jae turned her healing energies to Stych, performing the strangest heal she had yet and would ever perform--attaching a donkey's tongue to the partially healed wound that was all that remained of the minotaur's tongue. Another miracle, it worked. Stych now had the tongue of a jackass.

Jae left soon after that, fled, really, while Stych stumbled over his words and tried to adjust to a new tongue. Busy, very busy, she went to brew potions for Arcum. Then to heal an injured gypsy. From there, to help a friend retrieve something lost. But truthfully, she was trying to keep herself busy to block out the thoughts. Eventually, her mortal frame could take no more and she was forced to rest, and when she did, the tears flowed anew.

She had never been deceived about his evil nature. Her love for him had always been so strong, that it mattered not what acts he committed when not by her side. Her heart ached for him, even now when the hot tears were all his, she longed to lose herself in his strong arms, forget her pain in his comforting embrace. The wedding, scheduled for near the end of the thirteen days of evil, was fast approaching. Through the cold night, Jae lay awake, contemplating the reality that she was soon to be wed to a man who could cut out the tongue of her dear friend. It was a long night, and there was no sleep for the pixie druid.

In the morning, she took up her needle, and resumed work on her wedding gown. Because it was made in the style of the faeries, woven from flower petals instead of fragile silk, her tears did not stain it.

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