Chapter 13

Cael enters the room and is hit by a sudden renewed wave of paranoia when he doesn't immediately see Falling Leaf. This is Kvelti's junk room, cluttered with old souveniers of her adventuring days, battered shields, half suits of armor that fit a younger, more slender figure...and most of it is covered in a substanitial layer of dust.

It's the trail in the dust and through disturbed knicknacks that leads his eyes to the elf, who is kneeling on the floor, her hands resting on her thighs. Her head turns to look at Cael, but he isn't really sure if she is seeing him with her eyes.

She's breathing a bit hard and says, with a slight tremor in her voice, "Shut the door, if you value them... It was my doing, not hers..." before her eyes close and her body relaxes. The breathing becomes regular and the left eye stops twitching.

She sits like this for several minutes and Cael is starting to wonder exactly how talking enters into all this when her stonelike stillness is broken by a tear running down her cheek. Then another, and another...

She opens her eyes. Far from being flat or expressionless, they are full of pain. Her face, too, is no longer a blank mask, but an animated, emotional elven girl's face.

She reaches out one hand towards Cael. "It really is you..." The hand drops. "But you must hate me now," she sobs. "She said you would. I didn't know... I didn't mean..." She starts to hyperventillate a little and has to calm down to speak. "Will you let me explain?"

Cael closes the door behind him, then turns and stares, wide eyed, at the change that comes over Falling Leaf. "What witchery is this?" he whispers. He realises, for all the retoric spewed against the elves, the Ehosian priests have never taught anything about the elves. Could they seperate their emotions away from the rest of themselves, to do distastful things that must be done?

Suddenly, something about Falling Leaf's abrupt change clicks. Cael had seen similar changes twice before. Once, when he and some other Ehosian priests had to destroy a citizen, possessed by demons. The other, when he met his first True priest of Eho. Eho himself spoke to Cael through that one. ::By Eho, what have I gotten myself into?:: He'd never thought of it before, but the elves, they must have gods, too, right? What if she's like me? An instrument of her Elven gods?

'Leaf shakes her head. "Not..not witchery. I was never any good at spells...oh no, it's not a trick...but... but Prime could make you think... oh..." She takes a deep breath and wipes away some tears, taking heart in the fact that he hasn't left yet. "I'll start at the beginning."

"A long time ago, something bad happened to me. I don't know what it is, because Prime won't tell me...she says she's protecting me. Whatever it was, I guess it made me really mad. There's a way of training... I guess assassins is a good word. Know how elven bladesingers 'walk in the light to fight the darkness'? Maybe you don't know. Well, that's their little saying." Her voice is surprisingly bitter. "Avengers run straight into the darkness to stab it to death. You've met Prime. I made her, during the training. I think...I think she's an evil person. But she is me, sort of...that's why she's a Falling Leaf, too."

"So I...or almost I, since I don't remember any of this, just what Prime's told me...separated into me...I'm the secondary...and Prime. She really runs the show, because she remembers all the training. But," her voice swells with some pride, "I've learned a few tricks. "I made her let me talk to you. I couldn't stop her last time and I'm so sorry. When I figured out what she was going to do, I tried, I really did, and she had to crush me pretty hard." She pauses. "That messed us both up for a while. But she did it to finish her job. That's all she cares about. She'd cut her own arm off if it'd help."

She pauses again. "She doesn't want me out much longer and I can't push my luck again. But I should warn you about two things. First, don't let her fool you, Prime's a great actress. I think she's a cold-hearted bitch, but she can put on a great show. Don't let her mess with your head, Cael. Second..." she pauses again. "There's more of us. I only ever speak to Prime and Shareese, but there could be some others. I don't know. One of us only gets brought out, though, if there's a good reason...if she needs an unbreakable cover. We can't give her away by responding with an assassin's reflexes...we don't have them." She pulls two thin, metal sticks from behind her head, releasing the knot of hair there to roll down her back. "I mean, to me, these are just hair sticks. I guess I could try and hurt someone with them. But Prime, if she wasn't careful, would hold them like deadly weapons...because to her, they are."

"So that's the whole story, I think..." She sniffles and manages to look Cael in the eye for the first time. "I never wanted you to get hurt."

Cael just stares, wide eyed, at the revelation that seemed to shatter the emotional barriers he placed around himself. It sounds like possesion, but how in the thirteen flaming hells did someone possess themself? And for the 'real' Falling Leaf to be a secondary partner with that... that murderer? It's almost too much to bear.

Cael closes his eyes and tries to calm himself. That is her, the one who stole my heart. Trapped within herself. Suddenly, his eyes snap open as the realisation sinks in that this could be the last time he sees her.

"I will free you, my love," he whispers, "somehow."

'Leaf's eyes light up as Cael calls her "my love" and she jumps up to give him a rib-crushing hug. "Oh, you don't hate me! Thank you! I am so, so sorry..." her voice drifts off and she pulls back a little.

"Free me? I... what? From Prime? Oh my... I've never thought of that. I always figured I had a good reason for creating her and letting her, well, be. But like I said," she shrugs and gestures meaninglessly with her hands, "she won't tell me. I guess if she did, there might not be so much difference between us..." She shivers at the thought of that. "Maybe she'll tell you?"

Her eyes unfocus for a moment and she leans back into the embrace. "I've got to go... I don't think she likes the way the conversation's going. Paranoid little snoop... Good-bye for now, Cael. Maybe I can get her to let me out again..."

"Fight it, please." Cael pleads as he returns the embrace. "I've finally found you only to lose you again!" He can see in her eyes, however, that it would be impossible. He has a hard time identifing the myriad emotions Falling Leaf is unconsiously displaying, but one thing he can see; for now, she still needs the emotional safety this 'Prime' gives her.

He sighs. "Then it's goodbye, for now, my love." He leans down to kiss her, and is startled when her lips harden into a frown beneath his. He releases her as if burned, and steps back. "So, 'Prime'," he makes the name sound like a curse, "you would not even let us share this small pleasure?"

"My name is Falling Leaf," she says cooly, "and I am obviously out of practice in timing." She takes several steps back from Cael and begins to wind her hair back up into a knot.

He knows far too much and has too much influence over her, she ponders as she pokes one metal rod into the mass of dark hair. A flick of her wrist would send it into his eye. But eliminating him would alienate the others, lose this opportunity, and cause more internal problems, which I do not have the time to correct... She stabs the bun with the other stick, securing it.

She takes a small metal mirror from her pouch and critically examines her face. Another small sack produces some powder, which she dabs on over the trails left by the other's tears.

She seems to have nothing to say to Cael at the moment.

Cael glares at Falling Leaf for a few moments as she fixes her hair, then he abruptly turns, opens the door, and heads back to the main room.

She considers explaining. But, she reflects, that might even cause the human more turmoil. And give him more information. Never give out information unnecessarily. Rule #23. If it causes significant trouble to unit cohesion, then it may become necessary.

Falling Leaf finishes powdering her face and then applies some eye drops to clear the red from her eyes. Looking much as she did when she left, she exits Kvelti's junk room and closes the door behind her. She hears Cael's footsteps thumping downstairs as she re-enters the room she'd left before.