Chapter IX: Victorina

The dreamweaver, detail
Copyright © Stephanie Pui-Mun Law 2000.
Used with permission.

Ileni came quite regularly and, even if she was still a child, all showed her respect, except perhaps Rusalkan, whose eyes always flared with anger when seeing this little traitor, but Ileni was afraid of this big taciturn man and she avoided him.
She was the first to notice the young strigoaïca moving graciously among the other strigoïs and dressed with black tight-fitting clothes with a resolute feminine cut, almost scandalous. Rusalkan swallowed hard and looked elsewhere. Ileni, not so prudish, watched the beautiful loajnice with a quite suspicious eye and knew she was right the very moment Damian saw her: his eyes were nearly popping out of his head, but he hadn't Rusalkan's fortitude and couldn't avert his gaze.
As she had felt it, the young strigoaïca turned on her heels and stared straight in his eyes. Slowly a smile crept on her lips, which curled up on bright fangs. She came to him with a swaying walk and Ileni, green with envy, understood almost at once that she had lost Damian: she was too young to stand comparison with the beautiful stranger. As she loved Damian dearly with all her heart of a little girl, tears came to her eyes and she fled weeping. Rusalkan saw her running out, but Damian didn't even notice it: he was far too mesmerised by the young loajnice.
"Hi, handsome," she said with a low voice.
Damian tried to recover some dignity.
"I'm the leader," he said almost severely.
"Oh! In this case... Hi, sugar."
And she smiled, a bewitching smile; Damian lost the last idea he could have had.
"My name's Damian," he blurted out.
"I'm Victorina. If you're nice, really very nice, you might call me Vicky."
"What do I have to do? What is to be nice for you?" Damian asked hungrily.
She stroked his cheek lightly with her finger.
"You'll have to find, dear..."
She smiled again and disappeared among the strigoïs. Damian, like a crazy man, looked for her everywhere, but nobody had seen her. Consumed by love, he forgot everything, even Venetia, and this very night, she wasn't hurt thanks to a beautiful strigoaïca.

Victorina popped up now and then, when nobody was expecting her and after she left, Damian was always behaving like a mad man for the four following hours. A smile of hers bewitched him and one of her laughs stole his last coherent thought from him. She was driving him utterly insane, knew it perfectly and seemed to enjoy it very much. Sometimes, quite rarely, she was sad and silent, and then Damian spent the whole night to her knees, begging her to explain to him why she was sad, with what looked very much like tears in his eyes. At the end, she usually gave him a sad smile, stroked gently his hair, thanked him for God only knew what and left silently. The following day, she was always joyful and smiling, her happiness wiping away the sorrow from Damian's face.
As time passed by, Victorina used to stay longer with Damian, driving him mad with joy, leading him to forget everything but her. Sometimes, when Ileni came back, she saw Damian in adoration before Victorina and this view hurt her more than anything else. She got used to shelter in Rusalkan's nearness, for the taciturn man never asked her for anything. The nazdravan, even if he somehow hated the little girl for having betrayed Venetia, found some comfort in her presence; he still didn't know how to free Venetia and, what's more, he was becoming obsessed by the young strigoaïca, by Damian's very love. And he knew perfectly well that Damian would kill him if he only guessed it.
On the other side, Victorina was behaving as if she was provoking him. Each time she passed him, she threw him a defying look. It was as if she was defying him to reprove her, to condemn her behaviour. But Rusalkan knew better: he never abandoned his silence and answered her defying gazes by a quiet look of his. He wondered if she wasn't trying to force him to depart from his façade. But he never talked to her, for she had become the strigoï society's idol and anybody who would have displeased her would have had to fear for his life, even if she never had threatened anybody.
Meran was there too sometimes and each time, he looked at Victorina with a scandalised look and Rusalkan saw him more than once refraining his urge to draw her away from Damian. He wondered what had happened to the young strigoï. According to the last news, Meran was deeply in love with Venetia and now he had eyes for nobody but Victorina. Then he found what he thought to be the solution: Victorina was the reason why Meran had left Venetia and her friends. Both seemed to act with something looking like complicity and Rusalkan guessed the aim was in relation with Damian. Perhaps they wanted Herrikhan's glove. In this case their future victim was Venetia...
But Damian's behaviour wasn't appreciated by everybody; some strigoïs thought that Victorina was making a fool of him - which, by the way, was perfectly true - and they reproved that coming from their leader. Those strigoïs were the only ones to still show some respect toward Ileni, whom everybody had abandoned now that she wasn't anymore Damian's love. Once two young strigoïs were pestering her and she couldn't get rid of them; huge tears were invading her eyes as she thought that only two months ago, those two same strigoïs would have abjectly grovelled in front of her. One of them had just hit her when a seductive voice with steel accents stopped them dead.
Victorina was there, looking so much like an avenging angel - and Rusalkan wondered why he had applied this term to her when he used it generally for Venetia. One of the strigoïs had an uneasy laugh and, while explaining something to Victorina, he tried to slap Ileni again. Victorina's reaction was like lightning: she caught the strigoï's arm and twisted his wrist in the same movement. The young strigoï shouted in pain while Ileni was looking at Victorina in disbelief, tears now running freely down her cheeks.
"She is under my protection," said Victorina with a rather cold tone. "And anybody willing to pester her will have to deal with me first. Any volunteer?"
Nobody dared to move to answer Victorina's provocation. The young loajnice smiled nicely.
"My, nobody? So I assume that everybody was scared of showing some affection to this girl. I beg of you, dear friends, behave again toward her as you were used before. That's my whim... or let's say, my will."
Her beautiful eyes were as shining as steel.
"Come with me, young lady," she said to Ileni, putting her hand on the girl's shoulder.
Ileni nodded and followed her, wiping quickly the last tears on her cheeks.
Rusalkan sheltered in his favourite corner and thought lengthily of that incident. Victorina hadn't behaved as she was behaving usually. There were some little things that made him wonder about her: this pose of the avenging angel, the quickness of her moves and the steel glow in her eyes, all of this reminded him painfully of Venetia and he wondered if it wasn't the reason of his obsession for Victorina: except for her seductive way of being - way that Venetia would have refused to have - she was so much like Venetia! He bit thoughtfully his lower lip and concluded that nobody had ever tried to analyse Victorina's way of being; everybody was so mesmerised by her beauty and seduction that they couldn't even think further than that.
"Dreaming again, old friend?" said the voice of Damian.
Rusalkan looked up at the strigoï leader and nodded wordlessly.
"Did you see Vicky's intervention?" Damian asked with a blissful smile.
Rusalkan nodded again.
"She's an angel, a true angel!" declared Damian enthusiastic. "How she came to Ileni's rescue!"
"Sure, and one could wonder why she did it, when one knows about you and Ileni," said casually Rusalkan.
"She doesn't know, Draz," retorted Damian. "And she will never know. But Vicky loves everybody; I'm sure she would love Ileni even if she knew. You're the only one not getting along very well with Vicky."
Rusalkan raised up the head, blinked once or twice and said:
"Me? Oh, really?"
"Really. I'm practically sure you're the only one not having spoken a word to her."
"Oh, God, that's very rude indeed from me!" exclaimed Rusalkan, trying to sound worried. "She'll think I'm surly."
"But that's what you are, aren't you?" replied Damian, smiling.
Rusalkan nodded.
"Sure, that's what I am."
"That's why I trust you, Draz," said Damian. "So I'm sure you'll never try to seduce my Vicky."
Rusalkan blinked.
"Why the Hell would I do that?"
"You see, half of these strigoïs are dying with desire to be with Vicky and this very half would be ready to betray me for that. As for the other half, they are plotting against me all the time, so I don't bother too much. But you, you're always solitary, not talking to anyone, and I feel I can trust you."
"Thank you, Damian," replied Rusalkan calmly. "But you shouldn't; a leader shouldn't trust anybody."
Damian laughed and said:
"How do you want me to distrust you when yourself say to me not to trust you? I'm going back to my delightful Vicky. Will you join us?"
"No, thanks. I don't want to trouble your tête-à-tête."
"I will end by believing you fear my beautiful angel!"
Rusalkan smiled, as if the idea was truly funny, and sighed with relief when Damian went away at last.

One or two weeks later, Rusalkan was in the nearness of Damian and Victorina, hearing a quite interesting conversation.
"Please, Vicky, will you marry me?" asked Damian with a voice filled with love.
"Not so long ago, I would have said 'yes', dear," retorted calmly Victorina. "But today, I'll answer you by another word: Ileni."
"What, 'Ileni'?" said Damian, suddenly nervous.
"She was your little fiancée, Damian; there was between you something sweet and kind, something I should never have had the right to destroy. Why did you let me do, why didn't you tell me?"
"Who told you about Ileni and me?"
"Not Ileni, you can believe me, even if she wanted so much to tell me about it. But she loves you too much to only risk your displeasure."
"They had the order to..."
"To keep it under silence," completed Victorina. "Well, I can be very convincing when I really want to and a strigoï named Meran told me everything I needed to know."
"Meran? I will..."
"You will do nothing. I already did it for you. I killed him when I heard that. I'm afraid I lost my temper."
"You don't have the right to kill another strigoï!" exclaimed Damian, horrified. "That's the first forbidden commandment!"
"I know, dear. Anything else?"
Then Rusalkan saw Meran coming from downstairs. In an instant, he was near the young strigoï and caught him by the wrist.
"Sorry, boy, but you better return downstairs. Victorina just told Damian she had killed you."
Meran looked so surprised that Rusalkan almost felt his hurt.
"Victorina? Killed me? But... why would she have said such a thing?"
"Dunno, boy, but methinks you better go downstairs. She probably has her reasons and it wouldn't help her to show Damian she's lying to him, would it?"
"No, of course... but... I don't understand..."
"I don't either, boy, but now, you'll go down this stair, alright?"
Rusalkan's tone was eloquent enough and Meran obeyed, acting like a man who had lost his soul. Then Rusalkan came back in the main room and managed to catch Victorina.
"We need to talk, dear Vic," he said with an ironic tone, using the common nickname the others used toward her.
"Draz, at last!" she exclaimed. "I thought you'd never recognise me!"
Her voice was somewhat different from her usual voice, but very familiar, and suddenly, Rusalkan understood everything.
"Vic?" he said, but with a very different tone. "Is it really you?"
Her smile disappeared.
"So you hadn't recognised me," she said sadly.
Rusalkan heard the veiled reproach and felt unworthy of her childlike trust toward him. In the same time, he trembled at the thought that she trusted him so much that she had actually dared to reveal her identity to him, without really knowing if he was here for her or if he had betrayed her, like Meran had done. And in her eyes now sad, he read that the thought of him betraying her had never occurred to her.
"I'm sorry, Vic, truly sorry," he began, trying to control the shivering due to this revelation.
"I hope you're sorry! You better be!"
She remained silent a moment, looking at him with a sort of despair, and then, she said:
"Do you know where is Gerkelan?"
"No, I don't. I thought he was with the others."
"I know where he is and I can lead you to him," said a new voice.
"Ileni?"
The little girl was there, eyes rimmed with red, and she had a resolved look on her face.
"Why would you help us to free Gerkelan?" asked Victorina. "You don't know Draz and almost every strigoï will tell you I tried to steal Damian from you."
"You didn't know. And when you knew, you refused his love! I heard you! And, what's more, I don't want Gerkelan to remain Damian's prisoner. You see, Gerkelan is my father."
"Alright. So you show us where is Gerkelan, we free him and everything's alright?" asked Victorina.
"Not so!" protested Rusalkan. "We have to free Venetia too."
"No, Venetia is my problem," said Ileni, shaking the head. "I betrayed her and I want her to forgive me."
"Let's begin with Gerkelan!" proposed Victorina.
Ileni looked at her and sighed:
"You remind me of my older sister."
"Is it so terrible that you have to sigh?"
"No, but my sister is Venetia and you know what I did to her."
"Yes, but why do you say I make you think of her?"
"You behave somehow like her and if you were her, I wouldn't be so worried about what Damian probably did to her."
"What is done is done. Now we have to find a way to repair it."
"To set my father free will it be enough so that he'll forgive me?" asked Ileni sceptically.
"If he loves you, yes, it'll be enough, for nothing is more valuable than freedom. Let's go!" added Victorina.
Ileni nodded and took the lead.

Gerkelan was in a cell, as Venetia was too, but he wasn't chained to the wall as she had been till Meran released her. Without a doubt, Ileni had tried her best to soften her father's captivity and Rusalkan took a mental note in her advantage.
"Ileni?" Gerkelan said, surprised, raising up the head. "Who are those people?"
"We're here to save you," answered Rusalkan.
Gerkelan shook the head.
"I told you I wouldn't leave without your sister - or her dead body," he concluded softly, speaking to Ileni.
"Venetia's turn will come later," intervened Victorina's low voice. "But I swear to you we'll save her too."
She saw Ileni's sudden smile as she said those words and she had a smile of her own. A new voice, filled with sadness, said softly:
"I'm afraid you won't save anybody, nor even you."
Damian came out from the shadows and his face was twisted by a deep sorrow.
"Vicky..." he pleaded softly, as if he was refusing to believe what his eyes saw and his ears heard.
Ileni went red with rage.
"Stop with your 'Vicky'!" she yelled. "She intended to betray you, you saw it! I never betrayed you; I even betrayed my own sister for you!"
"More than you think," said Victorina with a voice that wasn't hers.
She smiled gently and added:
"Poor things! You really thought you'd surprise me? You should have known better."
She raised her hand to her hair sophistically done and took off the pins holding it. Her long jet-black curls fell on her shoulders instantly. She undid the large necklace circling his neck and let it fall to the ground, revealing hideous scars on her throat. She passed her hand on her face and her strigoï features disappeared under her fingers.
"Here I am," she said with a familiar voice ringing triumphantly. "Well, Damian darling, do you still want to marry your Vicky?"
"Viny!" cried Ileni. "Oh no! No! It's impossible!"
"Impossible? Oh yes..."
Venetia, calmly, took off her long gloves of black silk, showing all the ugly scars on her arms, mostly on her left. Ileni moaned, assailed with guilt.
"Do you worry less, dear Ileni, now that you know Venetia and Victorina are only one? You want to know what your beloved Damian did to me? Well, it's so little! He just tried to cut my wrist once or twice per day and, then, when he understood it wasn't working, he simply tried to kill me. You want to know why I became Victorina? Because, that way, he left me quiet in my cell, he forgot me and I wasn't anymore crying more tears than you have shed in your whole life!"
Ileni would have liked to cover her ears with her hands but she couldn't and her eyes showed the same horror as Gerkelan and Rusalkan's.
"And now, Damian?" continued Venetia.
"Take them away!" ordered Damian, suddenly deathly pale. "I want to speak with her alone."
As strigoïs dragged her friends away, Venetia heard Ileni cry:
"Viny! Viny, I'm sorry, I didn't know!"
Then Gerkelan's harsh voice said:
"Ileni, I'm terribly disappointed with you. I don't want to see you again for the rest of my life!"
"But, daddy..."
"And I don't want to hear you either. Do you realise what you've just done? Even if she hadn't been your sister, you just betrayed someone risking her life to save me! No love could be more hideous than yours for Damian."

Venetia stared at Damian.
"Well, Damian dear?" she said with Victorina's voice.
"I... I can't believe it! You have never been the one I thought you were!"
"No, never. What does that change? You said you loved Vicky and I am Vicky. Don't you love me anymore?"
"I should have known it. I once told you I'd have chosen you instead of Ileni if I'd had the choice. Isn't that what I just did?"
"You're nothing anymore, Damian!" said Venetia with a disgusted tone. "You're just my puppet, a mere toy in my hands!"
"Well, let me be your puppet, your toy, but don't drive me away! You're still my Vicky, strigoaïca or not!" exclaimed Damian, mad with love. "You denied me your kisses, you can't deny me your love!"
"My kisses?" she repeated. "If you want a kiss of mine, the kiss of a living, warm person, come to take it!"
"You serious?" asked Damian incredulously. "You denied me your kisses when you were Vicky and now, under your real identity, you would accept that I kiss you?"
Venetia looked lengthily at him, as if she was wondering if he really didn't understand why she had denied him any contact, and then, sighed sadly.
"I could have loved you, Damian, truly loved you... if you hadn't killed those I love, you or your brother."
"I had to: you have Herrikhan's glove."
"And now, what will you do, now that you know that Herrikhan's glove's bearer is the love of your life? Kill me and mourn for me until someone gives you eternal rest?"
"I'll come to take the kiss you just promised me," replied Damian.
Venetia held her breath, watching Damian coming toward her. He wrapped cautiously his arms around her and bent down to her. She had known Duncan and Meran's kiss, but, despite all the love she felt for Duncan and the tenderness she had for Meran, it was Damian's kiss which moved her most. She didn't move and let him kiss her. Gently, slowly, Damian's lips went down, till her neck, and then he whispered:
"I'm sorry, Vicky, my eternal love..."
Venetia knew she had to react, but suddenly, she hadn't any strength left. She felt weak in Damian's embrace and she half-closed her eyes when his fangs pierced her skin. She leaned heavily against Damian who held her more tightly against him. His bite felt like a lover kiss but even through her dizziness, Venetia knew she was losing her strength - and life. She uttered a small moan:
"Damian..."
It was almost like a plea and Damian heard Victorina's voice instead of Venetia's. He released a bit his embrace, his eyes full of sorrow. Venetia was still alive, but Damian knew it was already too late.
"Vicky, my love, my darling..."
Venetia opened her eyes already glassy.
"Damian... I'm yours for all eternity..." she breathed.
She lowered her eyelids and her body became limp in Damian's arms.
"Vicky!" moaned Damian.
He rocked her in his arms, looking at the ceiling with his eyes full of deep sorrow, unable to weep for he didn't know how anymore and would he have known, strigoïs weren't allowed to weep.
He heard voices and among them, Ileni's. His eyes blazed with fury; he laid carefully Venetia's body on the ground and waited for Ileni. The little girl was the first to arrive.
"Damian! Where is..."
The words died on her lips as she saw Venetia's lifeless body at her feet. Damian moved toward her, slowly, resolutely.
"I killed her. I love her more than I love this seeming of life, but I killed her. And I killed her because of you."
"And now you will kill me for that," whispered Ileni.
Damian pretended to think to it.
"Seems right to me," he said. "Seems I'm doomed to kill or lose those I love. Julian, Vivian, Vicky... you."
Ileni hadn't the time to reply: Damian caught her by the throat and grinded:
"But I won't give you sweet death as I gave to her..."
Then, disgusted, he let Ileni's body fall on the floor. He listened to the voices and knew they were already too near for him to flee with Venetia's body. So, after a long glance for Venetia, he left quickly.

Gerkelan, Lucy, Angelan, Sane, Vladan and Beth-Lynn entered the room. Gerkelan hadn't a single look for Ileni and knelt beside Venetia's body.
"Look!" exclaimed Sane. "Herrikhan's glove is loosen!"
The day before, the glove was tight-fitting Venetia's left hand. Now it was loosen and anybody could have taken it away. Vladan made as if to take it, but Gerkelan stopped him.
"No," he said. "You won't do that, this glove is hers."
"But she's dead!" protested Vladan.
"How could it be?" reacted Lucy. "The glove protects her all the time!"
"Because they killed her by the only possible way: they drank her blood and left her soulless," retorted Gerkelan. "But maybe I can save her..."
He looked at them and his eyes took a hard glow when seeing Beth-Lynn holding Ileni in her arms.
"Let me alone with her!" he ordered. "I don't need you."
Lucy tried to protest, but Angelan understood and dragged her away. The others followed him without a word. Gerkelan, now alone with the lifeless body of his favourite daughter, bent down toward her.
"I didn't want them to see my end..." he whispered. "Please, Viny, do it for me now..."
He took her left hand and forced it to grasp his throat, circling her wrist with his fingers, so that Herrikhan's glove couldn't move.
"Go on!" he coaxed softly. "Go on, old chap, I know you hate strigoïs, even if I'm your creator..."
Suddenly the black leather glove glowed of a purple colour and Gerkelan felt that Venetia's fingers were tightening around his throat. He half-closed his eyes, waiting the moment of his second - and definitive - death.
Despite the life pulsing through her veins, Venetia still wasn't moving. Gerkelan was weakening quickly and despair was growing in him as his second life was leaving him. Then he collapsed on the ground with a light cry of despair. Silence and quietness fell on the room. The next movement was Rusalkan's entry. He looked even more serious than usual and frowned when seeing the two motionless bodies on the floor. He noticed that, even in death, Gerkelan was still maintaining Venetia's fingers around his throat and he understood the desperate gesture of the strigoï. He knelt between them and opened gently Venetia's fingers to free Gerkelan. Knowing fully it was already too late for the strigoï, he examined Venetia and sighed with relief: Gerkelan's sacrifice hadn't been useless. Venetia was breathing softly, quite slowly, but she was breathing and only that mattered.
"Hold on, Vic," whispered Rusalkan. "Hold on, we need you..."
He lifted her in his arms, trying to give her some of his warmth, for she was beginning to shiver uncontrollably. She opened her eyes with difficulty and asked:
"Draz?"
"You're safe, Vic."
"What happened? I... I should be dead by now, shouldn't I?"
"But you're not," replied Rusalkan, wondering how he could do to hide to her the news of Gerkelan's ultimate sacrifice.
She tried to straighten up and he helped her with kindness.
"Am I a loajnice?"
"No, you're not. You're still a dhampyr, half-human, half-strigoaïca."
"Where were you?"
"During your... explanation with Damian, Meran and I tried to control the strigoïs."
"And?"
"Meran died in the fight. I'm sorry, Vic."
"He's with Duncan now. They're waiting for me and I didn't find the right door..."
"Yes, you found it, but someone dragged out outside before the door closed."
"Whose someone? You?"
"No, I'd have liked it, but I didn't. Gerkelan did," explained Rusalkan, reassured by Venetia's calm.
Seeing the girl's surprised look, he explained her everything and she understood what Gerkelan did to save her. She broke free from Rusalkan's embrace and knelt beside her father.

Despite her own weakness, she half-lifted him in her arms and, with one of her pins, opened again the bite at her throat. Blood flew and she pressed Gerkelan's mouth against her neck, so that he would drink her blood. Rusalkan made as if to react, but softly, she denied him the right to.
"No. Gerkelan gave his life and soul for me; if I let him in this state, he will become again the strigoï he was at the very beginning. He needs a part of my soul, that is, he needs to drink my blood. Which soul is best for a father than the one of his daughter?"
"You're too weak for that, Vic. This will kill you."
"Again?" smiled Venetia.
"Let me help you."
"No, I need you for something else."
Suddenly, she winced as she felt hungry fangs piercing her throat.
"Be ready," she implored Rusalkan.
She hadn't to add anything else: the nazdravan understood.
"Now, Draz!"
Rusalkan reacted at once and freed Venetia from the strigoï's grip. Gerkelan rolled on the floor and didn't move anymore.
"How is it possible?" asked Rusalkan. "He should be dead."
"As I should be," Venetia reminded him. "We are not a very normal family. Gerkelan was, before becoming a strigoï, a dhampyr and a nazdravan. That's why he had been able to survive the lost of his soul."
A moan escaped Gerkelan's bloody lips as his face lost his strigoï features. Venetia, stumbling painfully, was instantly beside him.
"Gerkelan?... Dad?" she added after a pause.
"Viny darling..." whispered the strigoï. "I'm so happy you're alive. And now I'll die, but I'll die happy."
"No, you won't. I forbid it to you! You'll live!"
"That's strange," said Gerkelan with a dreamy voice. "The glove drained almost my strength and gave you my soul, but I feel as if I had still one..."
"That's the case," Venetia assured him. "I forced you to drink some of my blood. You should remain the kind strigoï you were."
She tried to stand up and failed miserably. Silently, Rusalkan helped her and she clenched her teeth tight to remain on her feet by her own, so that Rusalkan could help Gerkelan. Venetia bent down slowly to pick up her silk gloves that she put on.
"Where's Ileni?" asked suddenly the nazdravan. "She told me she would come to help you."
Gerkelan turned the head away.
"She's dead. Damian killed her. I don't know why."
"I know. That's his way to avenge me," said Venetia. "Let's go, I can't stand to remain here any longer."
Rusalkan agreed and lifted her swiftly in his arms.
"What the Hell are you doing?" Venetia exclaimed.
"I'm carrying you home, Vic. You're not able to walk by yourself," replied calmly the nazdravan.
"But..."
"Wanna try to walk without my help?" he asked, cocking an inquisitive eyebrow at her.
She shook the head and lay it trustingly against his shoulder, circling his neck with her arms. Rusalkan half-closed his eyes, trying desperately to remain calm, and, during all the way back home, he concentrated on thinking of something else than the beautiful woman he was holding in his arms. Strangely, with a tacit agreement, Rusalkan and Gerkelan let Venetia alone when they reached her house. She let her hand on Rusalkan's arm a bit longer than necessary and said softly:
"Return Ileni to Damian. She belongs to him, not to us."
Rusalkan nodded and tried to break free, but her hand on his arm held him more tightly than the heavy fetters had held her to her wall.
"Thanks, Draz, thanks so much for what you did," she whispered and her eyes were shining with a strange glow that he forbade himself to attempt to analyse.
"I'm your friend, Vic, and that's what friends are for," he replied, trying to control his voice.
She smiled to Gerkelan and him, and opened the door.

Text © Azrael 2000 - 2001.
The dreamweaver, detail. Copyright © Stephanie Pui-Mun Law 2000. Used with permission.
Set Gothiquesque, from Moyra/Mystic PC 1998.