eachdraidh | Video Unseelie Locked

[Vanessa turns on her locket, placing it on the table. She looks...much better than she had before. In fact, people can catch glimpses of a wedding dress.

She looks resigned, tension in her face, her chin held high. And yet...well.]

As of this morning, I am no longer Lady Vanessa Ives.

[She looks down at her hands for a moment, then back at the screen. She taps into her ability to remain stoic in the face of horrible things. The public does not need to know how much this angers her, or how helpless she feels.]

To better Arachne's Eye, Queen Morla has decided that it would be best for me to marry.

I agreed.

[As she was given no real choice.]

Henceforth, you would do well to refer to me by my husband Balem's last name, Abrasax.

[Yep. Lady Vanessa Abrasax. Wife to Balem. Lovely. She knows very well who is getting the most out of this deal. And it is not her.]

We have worked out the logistics, and while we are married, I will still spend a great deal of my time at my Spire, and will continue to be open to any of those who need to speak with me.

My plans...to make sure the Seelie pay, are unchanged. Just delayed.

[Her goal is still a fixed point.]

...apologies who anyone who wished to attend the wedding.

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[He won't say "it's alright" to her, it's not, but he can't really blame her for it, he never wanted to, just wanted some answers. And the one he gets isn't really what he was expecting, he thought it'd be something unknown to him, not Satan, not something he remembered being brought up when someone had asked a question during one of the few times he actually attended his religion class in secondary school.

Finally, though, he manages:] Then it wasn't your fault. [A beat.] And this thing-- it, she, lives inside you, is always there, trying to get out?

It is my fault, in different ways.

Do not absolve me of all blame, Simon.

[Blame her, if you need to.]

And yes, she is there. Always waiting. When I am too weak, she gets out.

Yeah, guess I shouldn't. But you didn't choose it-- [Unless... There's an undercurrent of accusation in his tone now:] Did you? Did you let it happen?

[It's easy to fall back to cynicism, his usual standby, and really his default until he'd come here and begun to be effected by how he had to fight a war with these people, and how mostly none of them had been judgmental of him. He'd been too quick to assume she was blameless.

Though whether or not that meant she should be forced to marry Balem was another matter entirely.]

It is complicated. But I did not want this. I have never wanted it--I have never wanted her.

I simply tried to act in a way that I wished. But it had consequences.

Yeah. It did. [There's a coldness in his tone now, because that's not really good enough for him. She'd been nice before, once, but now his life had been turned on its head, he'd committed murder--twice--without wanting to. He might've asked who those people at her Spire were that he'd killed, if they had families, but he can't risk any potential consequences of her knowing, if she didn't already. There were surely rules here, laws about such things, and he could do more to make up for what he'd done as a free man rather than a prisoner, or dead.

That said, there was one thing he did want to ask, though more distantly than before:] I left something behind, at your spire, when I ran from her. A rucksack. Do you still have it?

[And she matches his tone.]

We all have our sins. Do not just me on mine, without seeing to yours.

[It hurts, to see someone turn from her.]

And yes, I do. The guards have it.

[In response he can't really match her tone, though he is still angry with her, what she says deflates him quicker than he would've liked.] I have been, since it happened, believe me, I have... [Both about his mother and those villagers. Most of all he'd been thinking of how he might've prevented it, how Jason was right, how if only he'd gotten a different boon when he had the chance.

It hurts him, too, a little, he'd sought her out in the first place, gone to her spire looking for a quest, because he'd thought maybe they might be friends, or have some sort of mutual respect, whether she was living or not. He seemed to making a habit of not caring so much about that anymore.]

Could you have it sent to Caer Scima? Please.

I am sorry she did that to you.

But it wasn't me.

[She is so tired. So tired of everything.]

Of course.

I would not keep your things from you.

I know, but if you did something you could've prevented, that let her out, and you knew what would happen... [Rather like one of the undead purposefully missing their dose, or taking blue oblivion, or not asking Morla to remove his dependence on Neurotriptyline when he should have. Yeah, all right, he could relate. But that didn't mean he wasn't still angry, perhaps more of himself than he was at her.

At least she was going to return the rucksack, that was something.] Thank you.

Are we not allowed to have weaknesses? Are we not allowed to reach out for human comfort? Or because of what we are, must we always stay locked from the world?

[She sounds almost defeated but, whatever he thinks she isn't going to change it.

She will give him his things.]

[Oh. In some ways, he understands, but in others it just makes him angry. There can't be any excuse for this, any reason. He doesn't have the same problem she does, he only has to take a drug, not forsake intimate contact (to the small degree he can engage in it anyway), but when the stakes and the dangers of doing something are that high... No. It was no excuse. He doesn't even really think about how hard it would be for him if he were in her position, not now, maybe he will later. There's a hard edge in his voice when he answers:] You think that's worth it, that--

[He stops, this has become too difficult. He still can't quite close his eyes without seeing what she--no, what the demon--had ripped from somewhere in his mind. His hand isn't entirely steady when he picks up the locket.] I can't. I have to go. [There's no 'sorry', he isn't sorry, not when he hits the button to end the call.

He is sorry that he's lost a potential friend, though, but not that he's angry with her.]

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