________________
Title Fear
author Stana
date 1/22/00



"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" Stana mumbled sarcastically, looking at the statue one last time before following Kal out of the room and up the winding stairway. Her heart was beating painfully loud in the encroaching dark, but although it crashed against her own ears, she had little faith that anyone else heard. 

Fear. After the days of complete emotional apathy, she had almost welcomed the emotion when it first touched her. At the gates of Skae, fleeing the enemy. For a moment, the gray of her world had cracked into a brilliant palette of bright horror.

But the fear hadn't gone away.

Stana's hand tightened against the wood of her bow as she continued onward, Clip pacing silently behind.

She had felt a near wild terror when the Army had attacked them at the inn, when she had come face to face with a blue icy eyed commander. It had been as much terror as loathing that had made her fire, pulling at the last moment to miss those eyes.

But as they escaped again, there had been no wash of relief, no release of tension. Just a small slowing of her heart, and a lessening of the trauma. 

Had her life been reduced to a state where all she could feel was terror? The siblant sussuration of whispers in the back of the mind, generating paranoia...encouraging panic?

"Clip." she murmurred. "What did you do to me?" 

*That backwards mule doesn't even understand what's he doing to himself, playing with mortality like a broken toy* a voice told her cheerfully. *As for what HE did to you...nothing of mention. It's what you are* 

Stana had found she had planted her feet to the ground, a cold snarl twisting her mouth at the intrusion into her thoughts. 

::Who-how dare you-!::

If she had been aware, she would have realized that everyone had halted at about the same time she did, but for a different reason. 

"There be concentrated magic ahead." Clip warned. 

"Agreed." Elainas said easily "I believe we may have arrived. Prepare yourselves, all."