One Last

[FaerieOfDoom]

Hello,

I'm new at this, and so therefore a tiny bit nervous at posting this story, so, bear with me. Please and thanks.

Summary: When water has disappeared from the World, and destruction and the extinction of life seems imminent, who will rise from the depths of despair to save all those left? River, one girl striving in a world torn apart by hate and greed must overcome all that stands before her to bring life to all that has died. But, is all that is left worth fighting for?

Warnings: What I describe in this tale is really, simply said, vampirism. But I don't term it that way, it's really just a means of survival. And it's only mentioned because it's a central part of the society. But it's there. Also, there's a tiny bit of violence. Nothing too heavy, no blood drawn, nothing like that.

Rated: T. (I'd consider it borderline, really. Though I think it just scrapes into being tame enough for the rating.)

-This is the first of three parts. (There's more to the overall story, but I'll just post the three.)

Part I

River drank deeply from the well. It had taken her an unusually long amount of time to find the water, and she had worked up a thirst.

She sighed and lay back on the dry sand. Her thirst was abated, for now. River sunk into the feeling of having a belly full of water. It was a good feeling, one she had not had in a long while. Water was so scarce these days, and she relished every chance she had to have more than a few mouthfuls.

River smiled secretively to herself. She was alone in the middle of nowhere as far as she could tell, surrounded by nothing but vast, open, empty plains of endless sand and yet she felt contented and happy, almost. There were always those elusive feelings of unrest and negativity. But she could easily ignore those for a while.

River’s life was tough - somehow, though, she always found moments of peace that she could hold close to her and cherish in those darker, unhappy times. Times when she really needed them most, to help her remember.

A shadow fell over her, breaking through her thoughts. She opened an eye with a small amount of hope, perhaps it was a cloud?

There was a face peering down at her from behind a sharp-looking sword, which was pointed at her throat, and the face did not look happy. Her spirits fell. It had been so long since she had seen a cloud; she had gotten excited for a moment.

“Girl,” the soldier said, his eyes still fixed on her unrelentingly. “You are hereby arrested for trespass and the thievery of the water resources belonging to the owner of this land.”

River repressed the urge to sigh. But it was hardly a good idea to show any signs of rebellion, she thought absently, as two more soldiers took hold of her arms and hauled her to her feet.

“You are to be taken to the Mistress, where you shall be questioned and then executed for your crimes.”

“Great,” she whispered inaudibly, her sarcasm doing little to wear away her irritation.

Still holding River in their firm grip, the two soldiers marched her away from her small well, the one who had spoken walking only a few paces behind her.

So much for her peaceful feeling, River lamented. Something told her that it was going to be a long day indeed.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Water had not always been hard to find. There used to be great seas and oceans of it, it used to make up the larger part of the world. There had been rivers, lakes, ponds; it even fell from the sky! Things have a way of changing, however.

Legend tells us that the seas and oceans began to recede. That the rivers, lakes and swamps dried up. Rain no longer fell from the sky. The water continued to dry up, disappear until the only water left was that which resided deep underground.

When the water became scarce, so did the animals. Water had been an essential part of life for everything on the planet – something all needed to survive. And when water started to become harder and harder to find, the animals dehydrated and died. The plants, too, withered and turned to dust.

Without water, everything started to die and the world seemed on the brink of extinction.

However, this did not become so. Some species evolved to match the new climates. Some became adapted to the never-ending heat, and the loss of flora and fauna everywhere. These few species learnt to take food where they could get it, to spend their time in the shade and darkness, to find the water deep underground.

They developed a hunger, a thirst, for something else.

Blood.

Humans could no longer find water easily, so they turned to another source to quench their parched throats, to sustain them through the hard, dry climates. They drank each other’s blood. Yes, water was still important, and they needed that to survive as well, but blood now made up half of their diet. Food became inconsequential - they could still eat, but it was not needed, humans having evolved so that all they truly needed for survival was water and blood.

Food was hard to find in the new world. Blood, everyone had, blood was easier to gain. Blood became their new source of energy and was what sustained the people.

The weak were soon made into prey. The strong fed off of these weaker humans, and soon enslaved others like them when they were satiated.

Slavery became the new order of the day. The powerful were named people of status. The weak were given to them as their servants and slaves. They were less than cattle. They were food, and only fed enough to survive, forced to drink from one another, before being served to their Lord or Lady.

Greed was made abundant. Those in power soon became paranoid, and convinced other Lords were only out to steal their slaves, take from their water. Many built Castles to protect themselves and their wealth. These Castles, they were special in many ways. They had several walls, each impenetrable from the outside. They watched over the land for many miles, even that which was not within the walls. But the Castle, that was the heart of each establishment.

The Castle was a living entity of its own. It protected those within its stone walls, watched over them and kept them safe from the harsh sun and unforgiving winds. These Castles were made from the living earth, stone and sand, made for protection and safety.

When the Lords and Ladies became greedier and greedier, the Castles became darker and darker until they were enshrouded in feelings of bitterness and hate. With every bad feeling within their walls, the Castles were pushed further and further into despair and agony. They felt what their Lords felt, and they suffered for it. They could not break free from their special kind of enslavement, and as a consequence the Castles could not stop their masters from their bad deeds, nor fend off their poisonous emotions and attitudes.

The Lords did not know what they had made when they constructed the Castles. They did not know the damage they did when they built them from hate and paranoia, they did not know that with every passing moment of hate and anger they felt, the Castles were dying with their anguish.

This life where people feel no happiness, no joy and no love, it is a world that is dying. A world that lives in the shadow of darkness, knows no light but the little that’s natural still. Depression and sadness is all the remaining people know or comprehend.

What they need to understand, but never will, is that they will not survive the death of the planet.

*~*~*~*~*~*

River marched with the three soldiers who had apprehended her, knowing she was different, knowing that she was the cure for the world’s sickness, the world’s hate and the world’s bitterness. She was born to right the wrongs made by men thousands of years ago. But she did not fully comprehend her importance, her power and her humanity.

After all, who was she but a single recluse, living day by day for her next drink of water and blood?

*~*~*~*~*~*

[FaerieOfDoom]

Part II

The soldiers and River were quiet as they walked. The soldiers were quiet out of military discipline, River because she felt there was nothing to say.

River looked up at the millions of tiny eyes twinkling down at her from the Great Above. She gave a sigh, their demure stares relaxing her slightly. As long as the Great Above was there with its endless amount of eyes to watch over her, River knew she’d always have that small amount of comfort when she could no longer remember.

Out of the corner of her eye River saw the soldier who had accused her of thievery glance at her. When she looked at him, he glanced away, seemingly embarrassed. River felt a faint smile tug at her lips, but she kept it at bay, no matter how amusing she found this commanding, shy man who had taken her prisoner. The other two soldiers remained quiet, deaf and unaware of anything but their surroundings.

“So…” River said by way of starting conversation with the man. “Would you happen to know what Sector it is, Captain?”

River had used the name she had given him herself. She had a habit of giving people names in her mind if they did not immediately give her their name first. The other two soldiers she had named ‘Sombre’ and ‘Eagle-Eye’. She sniggered inwardly at herself.

Captain only raised an eyebrow at her, curious but wary of saying too much to his captive. “It’s Midweek.” He answered nonetheless.

River nodded. It made sense, and it was close to her estimation. Long had it been since she had last had the opportunity to know the precise Tick-Tock.

Captain was looking at her with his curious but wary expression once more.

“Yes?” she enquired mildly.

He started as if startled. Shaking himself visibly, he gathered his thoughts. River could almost hear the questions buzzing around his head.

“How did you find such water?” he asked, somewhat hesitantly, but with a touch of reluctant awe in his voice. “The quality of it is beyond what we can usually find – and yet you found it and dug it up yourself, no less! Why, the last well we found was many Cycles ago.”

River gave him one of her more mysterious smiles.

“Water is where it is and the only way most find it is by stumbling across it completely by mistake.” She answered. “But if you know where it is you need not search.”

She winked at him, making him frown in confusion.

He had opened his mouth to ask her what she meant when Eagle-Eye called out to him from his lookout ahead.

“Sir, we have reached the Outer Wall of the Castle.”

Captain nodded, silence settling over the small group like days-old dust as before. River composed her face and didn’t let the change of atmosphere affect her calm façade.

The presence of the Castle began to creep into River’s consciousness. She repressed a shudder as the Castle loomed over her diminutive figure. The darkness there was overwhelming, and she did not look forwards to being trapped within those hostile walls.

It had been so long since she had felt such oppression.

With every step the four came closer and closer to the Outer Wall. Soon, River could feel the physical wall, and she closed her eyes. She could not see here, not in the way she needed to see, with her eyes open.

The group halted. River forced herself to stay calm; nothing ever came of panicking, she reminded herself. Sounds reached her ears, and River listened as the soldiers walked ahead and opened a secret entrance before coming back and checking that she could not see. They were surprised that she had closed her eyes herself, but tied a scarf around her head for security regardless.

“You understand we cannot risk our secrets reaching the Outside. We must think to the defence of our home.” Captain said, almost apologetically. River simply nodded, though she wondered why they bothered when she was to die soon, anyway.

Once they had led River through the secret entrance they continued towards the Inner Wall of the Castle, and the Castle itself. They left the scarf around River’s eyes, though she did not mind. It made it easier to keep her eyes closed.

The ground had leveled out River noticed as they walked, Solemn leading River - Eagle-Eye once more walking in front, keeping an eye out. Captain was quiet, assuming his role of leader of this small group, no longer curious and asking questions. They were among people now.

River was trying to ignore the insistant feelings that surrounded her. The four of them were walking through the grounds that held the slaves, and their emotions, as weak as they were from their dispirited state, seeped into her skin, fogging her mind.

Despair, sorrow, loneliness and hunger. These people, less than animals now, they knew little beyond these faint tremors of feeling. They were trained to do as they were told, their lessons of obedience beaten into them at a young age.

River sensed the cages, the small rooms that these slaves were born into and grew up in, and silently wept. These pitiful creatures that she could not see, but knew were there, they had been people once. They were made into these things by their own kind. And now they’re regarded as nothing more than animals – when the real animals are the ones who made them into this. Who made these poor, weak creatures into nothing more than beings with basic instincts.

“Monsters,” River cursed, so softly that none heard her but herself.

The soldiers and River continued on through the Outer Wall’s enclosure, and River felt anger rise in her at her inability to do anything for these people. They could never be saved, it was too late.

All River could do was punish those who did this to them.

In what seemed an age they reached the Inner Wall of the Castle. River gritted her teeth. As the two soldiers and Captain once more went about opening a secret entrance, River stood still, listening.

Something was…calling to her.

She was confused by this silent voice, this voice that screamed out to her. She hadn’t heard anything like it before. It was sad and happy and in pain all at once.

River’s brows furrowed as she entered the Inner Walls. She almost staggered as the voice increased in pitch, ringing through her head like a siren. She had to help it! She was the only one who could! But, how?

The Castle was before her now; River knew this though she was still blindfolded. It stood there, proud in its duty and all that it had accomplished. But, it was dying. The voices she had heard had been this Castle. It was asking her to help it, to make the pain go away. It had done its job…but there was nothing left for it. The land around it had died and the water had all been dug up, except for the last that River had unearthed earlier – but that was hardly enough to last with all the people who lived within its walls.

The Castle could protect life, but not sustain it.

River understood.

She and the soldiers as well as Captain had started up the stairs to the Castle. She felt the stone beneath her bare feet; dry and lifeless. There was little here now, nothing left of what was once a thriving place, a city where people enjoyed life and lived happily. River could almost taste the lingering loss and sadness in the stale air.

There were guards standing either side of the huge doors to the Castle, River heard them call out once the four reached the top stair.

“State your name and business with the Mistress.”

“We bring she who stole into our lands and took from our water. I am here to present her to the Mistress.” Captain spoke firmly, in an authoritive tone of voice.

The guard who had spoken said nothing more, but River assumed that he nodded, because a moment later she heard the unmistakable sounds of large doors opening, and soon Sombre was leading her through the door.

Once River had stepped over the boundary the door closed behind her. She felt an unforgiving dark omen drape over her shoulders like a cloak of deadly silk as the last echoes of the door closing rang in her ears.

This Castle had once been something powerful – River could feel the imprint of the old energy and immense force of the Castle within the walls and beneath her feet. But that old power is gone, washed away by years of hatred and anger, decades of greed and envy. Ten lifetimes of jealousy and bitterness.

River wanted to fall to her knees and comfort the Castle, wanted to wrench herself away from Sombre and Captain and beg the Great Ones to help the Castle. To heal the Castle, make its pain disappear. But she knew that these things were impossible, she would just be pleading for something that could never happen. The Castle was dying. All she could do was make its death a little less painless.

The group had halted their movement once more. River turned her head towards Captain, as though she could see him through the scarf and her own eyelids.

There was a short silence. Then Captain broke it, his voice nervous but still holding his authoritive note from moments earlier.

“Please, do not say anything to anger the Mistress.” He warned her. “Best not to say anything more than ‘Yes, ma’am’ or ‘No, ma’am’ to be on the safe side.”

River allowed herself the small smile that graced her lips. She nodded to placate him.

“Good, I do not want to see you suffer unduly…” He faltered. “It was nice meeting you, and for what it’s worth, I’m sorry it had to be this way.”

“As am I, Captain…” River murmured mournfully. “As am I.”

The scarf was taken away from her eyes as a door opened. River allowed herself the use of her sight once more. She had seen enough without it.

*~*~*~*~*~*

[FaerieOfDoom]

Part III

River’s eyes swam. This room, it was the central part of the Castle. It was the heart, the place where everything should have been tinted with a healthy aura of white, happy joy – uncorrupted by the negative feelings of man.

But it was dead and decaying, black with the hatred and dissatisfaction of greed that men had poisoned the Castle with.

Under the cries of the Castle, magnified now that she was within its heart, River stumbled. Captain looked at her concernedly, but she continued on, blocking out everything but where she was going; the current source of all the pain and misery in this horrible place.

She was unheeding of the room’s magnificence of taste and structure, the way it looked; she was unheeding of the court that stood either side of the path she walked down, all she knew was the Castle’s pain and the reason for it.

River locked her eyes with the woman at the other end of the room, sitting atop her self-appointed throne. Those clear grey eyes were cold. They glittered, not with wisdom and compassion, but contempt and cruelty. They bore into River’s eyes, searching excitedly.

Captain stopped River three paces from the throne’s dais. Obediently, she halted. River stood, silent, waiting, staring into the eyes of the Mistress. The Mistress’s expression remained unfathomable, except for her eyes.

“Mistress,” Captain bowed to her, forcing River to do the same. “I have brought forth the girl whom you seek.”

The Mistress inclined her head, her braided hair shifting with the movement. A smirk blossomed on her scarlet - red painted lips.

“My, my.” She said softly, her voice slithering through River’s ears like a hiss. “What have we here?”

River looked at her defiantly. The malice was dripping from this woman like syrup, coating her words and tongue with it. It was like poison, finding River’s very pores, sending its toxins into her skin, trying to break her as it has the Castle, the slaves.

The Mistress stood up and walked over to stand before River.

“Oh, yes,” she said wonderingly to herself. “This is the girl.” She studied River, her eyes wide and excited, as if she could see more than a dirt-covered, shoeless, messy girl standing in her immaculate chamber.

River only stared at her, her eyes flat and unreadable.

“You stole from my land and its resources.” The Mistress accused. “How did you accomplish such a feat, girl?”

Saying nothing, River just stared. She had nothing to say to this woman.

The Mistress scowled, unhappy at being purposefully ignored. She turned to Captain, her eyes demanding answers and obedience.

“Well, what happened?” She burst out angrily. “What did you see when you found her? What did she say while you made your way to me?”

Captain shifted, somewhat nervously. “We found her laying beside the well she had dug herself.” He started, trying not to glance at River. “We apprehended her and marked the well for further use. She said nothing on the journey to My Lady.”

He ended his little speech with a bow to the Mistress. She smiled, as if pleased and nodded at him. Her attention was once more focused on River.

River had been surprised that Captain had lied to the Mistress for her, and touched, but showed no sign of it outwardly, and Sombre and Eagle-Eye said nothing, standing two paces behind Captain, whom they seemed to follow with unquestioning loyalty. River knew she could show no weakness to this woman, lest she pounce on it and take advantage.

As the Mistress gazed into her eyes, River began to feel as though she were being submerged, pushed under the ground and suffocated. What was the Mistress doing to her? River felt herself on the verge of panic. She struggled for the sensation to stop, feeling herself gulping for air, though she wasn’t in reality desperate for breath. Then it stopped, and the Mistress held a smug, satisfied smile.

“Mm,” the Mistress purred happily. “She’s the one.”

There was a faint murmur that rose from the watching courtiers. They had not understood what their Mistress meant, but they knew it would prove entertaining.

River ignored this and stayed resolutely silent, feeling the Castle’s pain, its hostility towards the one who should love the Castle as the Castle loves her.

But the Mistress had stepped sideways, her dainty feet, clad in silk slippers whispering on the stone floor, her light robe whirling about her gracefully as she moved to stand directly behind River.

“So pretty a girl,” she said softly, almost too softly for River to hear. A hand raised itself from her side and a sharp nail ran down River’s cheek, a claw marking its victim.

“It is a shame, really,” she said, almost affectionately. “To have such beauty as yours taken from the World.” The nails began to dig into River’s dirt-smeared skin painfully.

“Stop,” River spoke harshly, finally breaking her silence.

The Mistress raised a perfect eyebrow in surprise, and her fingers stilled momentarily.

“Stop?” The Mistress repeated, sneering. “Stop what, my dear? You have no say in what happens now.”

River’s eyes narrowed in anger.

“Do not touch me,” she said forcefully.

“Oh?” the Mistress enquired. “Whatever for, you foolish girl? Your life belongs to me, it is mine and you have no right to demand such frivolous things of me. Stay silent, dear, and I shall attempt to make this painless.”

River sent her a dirty look, outraged. “I do not think so. My life is no one’s but my own. No other ever will or ever can possess it but myself.”

The Mistress put on a show of seeming taken aback at River’s provoking words. She withdrew her fingers from River’s neck and laughed amusedly.

“You have spirit, girl.” She said, a small, mocking smile dancing about her cruel lips. “Such refreshing innocence and naïveté. Foolishness. You shall die, by my hand and by my wish. You have no choice any longer, if you ever had one.

“Your blood shall sustain me, and your death will further my life. Know this, and die content in the knowledge that you will have done something notable, however infinitesimal, in your brief, unimportant life.”

“Is that so?” River scoffed, rolling her eyes rebelliously.

But it seemed that, with that remark, River had finally said one thing too many. The Mistress’s eyes had darkened in anger, and her hand was once more digging its nails into the soft skin of River’s neck.

“You presume to say too much, girl.” The Mistress whispered in a low, dangerous voice that carried throughout the room and frightened more than one man who had heard it.

“Bite your tongue. You forget with whom you are speaking. I am above you, and you should treat your betters with the respect they deserve!”

“Oh, I’m ever so sorry,” River said sarcastically. “I hadn’t realised.”

The Mistress’s top lip curled back in a ferocious snarl, revealing her sharp, pointed teeth. River faught not to show her revulsion at such a vision, the snarl marred the otherwise sharp beauty of the woman.

“You will regret your cheek, girl,” the Mistress threatened. “Long before I am even through with torturing you.”

“I’d like to see you try such a thing,” River challenged defiantly.

The Mistress swelled with indignation at this continued slight on her authority and rule. She bore down on River, who held firm in her resolution – she would not back down before this woman, who dared use her power for greed and spite – who would wound an innocent, the Castle, so severely.

“Enough! Enough of this useless talk!” the Mistress barked in outrage. “Your blood is not yours to do with as you will any longer! Your life and your blood belongs to me – your freedom, too, was mine the minute you set foot on my land.”

Then, bending to breathe the words in River’s ear so that no other could hear, she said, “Your blood will be spilt, girl, and there’s nothing you or anyone else can or will do about it.”

Stepping back slightly, the Mistress motioned to a guard standing to the left of the dais, and he stepped forwards, drawing his sword from its scabbard as he did so.

The Mistress took his sword from him, and gripping the pommel with accustomed hands she raised the point to River’s red throat.

“You will beg for mercy, girl. And you had better hope that there is a part of me that will take pity on you.”

River merely gazed at the Mistress placidly. She held those cruel eyes calmly and nonchalantly with her own. The Mistress’s eyes flashed in anger at River’s silence, her refusal so blatant and scorching, it was as if she had bellowed it out for all to hear.

Reaching her capacity for the offence against her, the Mistress lunged forward, sweeping the sword expertly through the air in an arc, aiming for where River stood, unarmed and vulnerable.

But River had already leaped out of harm’s way, directly over the Mistress’s head. River stood directly behind her, her stance and attitude oozing power and confidence, as if doing such a feat were a usual occurrence.

Breathing heavily in rage and humiliation, the Mistress whirled around and snarled into River’s face. She was no longer beautiful, no longer the intimidating figure she had once been. River felt almost sorry for this woman, who had let her hate burn and eat at her soul until she was nothing but the shadow of all things men had failed in. She was cruel and selfish, and River knew that the Mistress had already lost.

The sword swung around once more, targeting River’s exposed neck – but River was too fast, too powerful, to be killed in such a simple, weak way. The Mistress’s nostrils flared at this second failed attempt at River’s demise. The air became clogged with the smell and feel of the Mistress’s despair, humiliation and overwhelming hate. She hated River, more than she had ever hated anything.

One last time, the Mistress’s face was set in determination, she had to kill this girl, this mere girl who dare, dare defy her as none had done in the past. This girl had to be stopped, before too much was done, before events were cast in stone and the world changed forever.

The air parted as the steel of the sword sliced through it, faster and faster, with deadly intent towards River. But just as the Mistress began to think she had succeeded, there was a movement so quick none caught it, and the sword fell from the Mistress’s grip.

River had drawn the sword of the guard to the right of the dais, and deflected the blow.

The tip of the sword positioned above her heart, the Mistress smirked. “So, what do you plan to do now, girl? You hold my life in the palm of your hand.”

River did not reply, but kept her arm steady.

“But, do you really think it wise to threaten my life? I am Mistress of this Castle, it obeys me, and it protects me. You shall not breathe another breath if you so much as shed a single drop of my blood.”

The chamber began to hum, vibrate as the Mistress spoke her words. They echoed through River’s mind, arrogant and superior.

Distantly, through the haze that began to crowd River’s mind once more, she heard marching feet pound against the stone floor of the chamber. She heard the Mistress address the men who entered, and she vaguely registered that they surrounded her, each armed and ready to fight – and to kill.

But River did not worry herself with these petty facts – they were nothing to the Castle and the Castle’s needs.

Everything came into sharp focus, suddenly - the sounds of hundreds of people breathing, their hearts beating erratically, and the suppressed gasping breaths of the Mistress. River felt the World slow down, felt perspective fall into place.

“You fool,” River breathed, and her voice was distant to her own ears. “You have no idea what you’ve done, or what the consequences will be.”

River did not hear the Mistress’s scathing reply; she was already in motion, moving at a pace too fast for eyes to follow. She had launched herself at the Mistress, and her weight overbalanced the Mistress, causing them both to fall to the ground.

The soldier’s reacted instinctively, and charged forwards to aid their Mistress, but they could not reach her. There was something obstructing their way, impeding their charge – River had somehow erected a magical barrier between them.

They could not intervene – could not help their Mistress. They were helpless.

Within her protective shield, River held the struggling Mistress down. She could not get away – she was not allowed to free herself of the penalty she had wrought herself.

Gently, River pressed two fingers to the Mistress’s forehead.

The World exploded in feeling around her – the Castle was still screaming, pleading in River’s ears, and she let this sound travel through her body and into the Mistress. The dying World beneath the stones of the Castle, still humming its song through her body, was infinitely sad and lost, and River let this flow into the Mistress. River let all the suffering travel through her and into the Mistress, though River did not lose the sounds or feelings herself – she could only share, not give away.

More and more did River pour into the Mistress and the longer and louder she did, the more the Mistress screamed. She screamed with the pain, with the unrelenting agony and torture that River had known every day of her life. She writhed and cried, but it did not stop, River could not let it stop. The Mistress had to know.

River’s fingers were steadfast, pressing into the pale skin. She was unforgiving in her repayment for what the Mistress had done.

“Do you see,” River whispered, and her voice was a hiss, filled with the anguish she truly felt.

“Do you see what you have done? You were given power, a chance to do something right, something wonderful and kind – but your greed overcame you and you lost to the falling of men.”

River felt the tears well in her eyes, felt the helplessness and desperation of the moment sink into her already shadowed heart.

“You’ve failed. Failed, and there’s nothing to be done to fix this mistake. You and your people will suffer now, without your Castle. And it is your fault, you are to blame. You could’ve kept the Castle happy, and healthy. But you didn’t, you didn’t and now you’re doomed. Destined for nothing but further pain, and there’s nothing I nor anyone else can do to change that.”

Tears fell from River’s eyes, tinted red in the faint light of the dark chamber. They landed on the Mistress’s distressed face, twisted with pain, nothing less than she deserved.

The Mistress cried out, whether from the continued pain of all that River pushed within her being, or with the implications of what she had just said, River did not know. But she knew that the Mistress was powerless, now. A shell, less than she ever was or ever could have been.

“No,” the Mistress whispered weakly. “No!”

River watched her sadly, knowing what she felt, feeling what she felt, and understanding what this had done to her. But still she felt no compassion for such a broken woman.

“You cannot atone for your sins, Mistress.” River said sadly. “You cannot. You are no longer Mistress of this Castle, and I hereby revoke you of your status and your power. You and your people are no longer welcome on this land.”

River took her two fingers from the former Mistress’s forehead. A mark was left behind, a scar to remind this woman, and all who looked upon her, of what she had done and who she had been. A blemish that would never fade, and could never be removed.

“Leave, and never come back.”

As River stood up, the former ruler of the Castle, Mistress of so many, fell back to the ground in an exhausted heap. River stepped away from the pitiful creature, ignoring the sobbing, and the gasping breaths. That woman was now less than the poor people outside in the cages. She was less than an animal, her bond with the Castle severed, and that constant tether she had known all her life suddenly disappearing rendered her incapable of proper thought or speech.

River turned her back on the people in the room. Her barrier dropped as she passed through it, and she walked, unhindered, across the room, away from the soldiers who did not move, shocked and scared as they were by what she had done to their Mistress. She did not look back at the havoc, however necessary, she had wreaked upon these people. She did not wonder what would happen to the woman she left helpless and besmirched upon the dusty floor, what would happen if none took pity upon her. Or what would happen to these people, who had lived there lives within these walls, who did not know a life beyond them. She did not even halt to think about the poor, weak creatures who had been kept as cattle, food.

No, River walked out of the Castle without a thought, without a last glance back at Captain or any other. She had done what she had to, and she would never regret that.

Whatever hardships she had created, whatever sufferings she did not intend or wish to happen, she had done her job, her duty.

She was numb to everything.

Later, she would feel the true onslaught of her feelings, feel the remorse and guilt, ponder the fates of those she had condemned, but now, now she couldn’t.

All she could process at that point, as she walked away from the Castle, was that she was glad to leave it behind her forever.

*~*~*~*~*~*