The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Trials of the Heart

Prologue:

“Nothing! No pulse! She’s flat lined, doctor!”

Dr. Mike Ward gestured to the nurse on his right. “Twenty CC’s of epinephrine. Nurse Pruitt, prep the paddles. This kid’s been through too damn much for us to lose her now!”

The injection went in, and Dr. Ward held his breath slightly as he glanced up at the heart monitor. Nothing. A steady green line. “Damn. She should be kicking like a mule after that! Nurse Pruitt,” he turned, anger and frustration starting to show through the cracks of his professional manner, “where the HELL are those paddles?”

“Here, doctor!” Lily Pruitt managed, sliding the charged and ready defibriator towards the waiting physician. She stepped back, as Dr. Ward rubbed the charged plates together, her eyes focused on the slack, bluish lips of their patient, her coffee complexion gone waxy and pale. Come on, girl! she silently prayed. You can make it! Don’t give up on us yet! Live, Dammit, live!

“Clear!” Mike yelled, slapping the paddled against the woman’s bared chest, sending massive volts of electricity surging into her body. For a moment, the heart monitor went crazy, the once flat line arcing, racing about the screen, its speakers blaring loudly as their patient thrashed involuntarily. Then, abruptly, it resumed its linear path. “Again!” Dr. Ward shouted, cranking the voltage up even higher, and zapping his unmoving patient. Again, the monitor cycled madly, blaring its signal, before settling once more into a straight line. “Again!” he yelled, sending the charge once more into her body. This time, the monitor barely fluttered, before settling back into its familiar path.

Damn. I can’t believe it. After being shot up like a piece of Swiss cheese only a few weeks ago, to lose her like this.

Michael sighed deeply, turning away, the room now silent except for the monotone signal of the heart monitor. He glanced up briefly at the window, where the young girl’s friends stood anxiously watching. Sadly, he shook his head. “That’s it people. I’m going to call it. Time of death—”

“NO!” Mike glanced at his side, at Nurse Pruitt, who was clenching his wrist with a grip of steel. “Shock her again. One more time. Doctor, we owe it to them, to her friends and family. Just once more. Please!”

The doctor pulled away. “Nurse, its over. She’s gone.” He sighed, glancing over at the window again, locking eyes with the young blonde woman. “Hitting her again would only damage the body. Those people out there... they... they...d...deserve...” Those eyes.

Those eyes. Green. Clear, liquid pools of jade. Michael felt dizzy for a moment, as if the world beneath him had shifted slightly. Shaking his head to clear it, he glanced again at the woman’s eyes. Her face. Pleading for him not to give up. NEEDING him to save that young girl.

“Doctor?” Mike blinked, coming out of his reverie, turning to face the other physicians.

“I’m fine. Nurse, how long has it been?”

“Coming up on the five minute mark, doctor. Do you want me to call it?”

“N...no. Not yet. One last try. Nurse Wyatt, give her... two hundred CC’s of adrenaline. Nurse Pruitt, prepare the paddles.” Foolish. I’m losing it. All I’m doing is violating the poor girl’s remains. I’m surprised the other’s haven’t objected. “Alright, everyone, clear!” This is madness. This won’t work... it won’t... God, PLEASE WORK!

The machine discharged, sending the electricity through the girl’s body, again making her jump and writhe inches off the operating table. Again, the monitor blared its message as the readout arced and curved crazily. Then, settled into a well worn, very familiar—

BEEP.

BEEP.

BEEP.

“Doctor! My God, Doctor! We have a pulse! Faint, but steady. You did it!”

Mike glanced at the readout, the steady blip-blip-blip of the dot slowly relaxing the tension within him. “WE did it, ladies and gentlemen. But it’s not over yet. I want her condition stabilized. Edna, Nancy, you and Dr. Roberts prep her for movement to intensive care. Lily, handle clean up.” He slipped the mask from his face, wiping away the beads of sweat. “Good job everyone. I’m going to tell the family.”

Jonothan Darke made his way up the stairs to the hospital entrance, Shelley right behind him. As usual, the allure of pain and suffering called to his Healer’s blood, but he pushed it away. They are not why I came here. An Ancient lies dying in there, one that holds information I desperately need. I have to focus on that. Most of all, I need to be prepared for anything. Patting the slight bulge in his coat, and nodding to Shelley, he stepped inside.

“Excuse me, nurse,” he said to the woman at the front desk. “I’m looking for Yashmak Kepp’s room. I believe she’s been taken to the emergency ward.”

“And who might you be?” she asked suspiciously. “We only give out that kind of information to family—”

“I’m her doctor,” Darke interrupted, placing a hand atop her own. “I got the call that she was in cardiac arrest. I’ve been out of the country for the past few weeks, and this is the first I’ve heard about it.” He took the ID from his wallet, showing his U.S. identity as Jonothan D. Lumas, M.D. “I’m anxious to see my patient as soon as possible. Who’s the treating physician, and what’s her current condition?”

“Her... condition?” the nurse blinked, as if her attention had faltered, then regained her composure. “Well, doctor,” she replied, glancing at her chart, “she’s just been returned to the Intensive Care ward. We very nearly lost her. She should be resting comfortably upstairs with her family. She really shouldn’t see anyone else just now—”

Darke raised an eyebrow. “Her family?”

“Um, yes. Her father, her brother, her older sister, and her two aunts. The other are waiting in her assigned room, but her father and sister are with her now in the intensive care ward.”

Father? Most likely her familiar, Jack Kepp. But the rest? Hmm. I haven’t been keeping an eye on Tapestry, she’s hard to pin down at best, and historically not a fighter. Hmm. Could be anyone up there with her. After what’s happened, I would guess Kepp thought to protect her with more people. (SIGH) I guess I’d better expect a worse-case scenario going in on this one.

“Dr. Michael Ward, our senior doctor, was the treating physician. I assume you’ll need to speak with him now, Dr. Lumus?”

“No, no,” Darke shook his head. “Later. For now, I want to see my patient and let the family know I’m here.”

“Very well,” she said, walking to the elevator. “Follow me. I’m sure they’ll all be surprised to see you.”

Darke glanced to Shelley as they joined the nurse on the elevator. “Oh, yes,” he said with a smirk. “I’m quite sure they will be.”

Hellington Magnificat slumped wearily in her seat next to the bed. Her eyes never left Tapestry’s prone form. Her head throbbed like a ticking time bomb, and her vision was peppered at the edges with dark spots. The wave of whatever-it-was that hit both she and Tap had drained her, ravaged her brutally, and she knew she needed to rest, to sleep and recover her energy. Or, at least get rid of this thrice damned headache. But I’d rather my head explode than close my eyes and take the chance of anything else happening to her.

Jack handed her a glass of water, and tossed her a bottle of aspirin. “How are you holding up, Helly?” Jack asked, concern knotting his brow.

Hellington swallowed four of the tablets and sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. “I’ll live. And more importantly, so will Tapestry.” She sighed in relief. “For a moment there, I thought I was going to have to fight my way into the operating room and revive her myself.” She swallowed another gulp of water before continuing. “Damned doctor. Useless waste of space. I can’t believe he was the same doctor that worked on her the first time she was brought in.”

“Hey, he did the job,” Jack reminded her, rubbing his own temples. “Tap is alive, that’s all that matters.”

Hmmm, Hekate thought to herself. I wonder. Visions floated in her mind, familiar patterns she’d sensed many times before. Father Knife? I know he was here. Could HE have been the one that saved her and cleaned up all traces of his activity?

“All we have to do,” he continued, “is make sure nothing else happens to her. Speaking of which,” he said, turning to face Hekate, “just what DID happen to the both of you? One minute you’re walking with me down the corridor, the next, you’re lying face down on the floor, mumbling in a tongue I can’t understand, having a spasm.”

Helly sighed. “I can’t say for sure. We’d have to ask Tapestry to know for certain, but I believe what we felt was the River itself. We know the Dragon has been polluting the Great River, filing it with her madness, trying to raise the Beast into this world. I... I think what we felt was it stirring. Rising. And I’d be willing to bet we’re not the only ones to have felt its awakening.”

Jack nodded. “And the Serpent, Crane, and Ogre are all on their way to Hong Kong to face the Dragon. Things are really starting to heat up. Do you think any one of them can stop the Dragon before its too late?”

“I don’t know. She’s a crafty one, and she’s lived longer than most of the rest of us by being...” Helly’s voice trailed off as she glanced at the door. Sensing her shift in attention, Jack also glanced at the door, fingering the silencer-equipped Colt in his pocket.

“What is it, Helly?” Jack asked softly. “Trouble coming?”

“Don’t know yet,” she replied, softly, moving quietly to the door. “Someone’s coming. One of my kind, but not anyone familiar. Stay here. I’m going to check this out. The others are in the waiting room on watch, but if there’s trouble, I’m going to be needed.” She paused a moment. “If whoever’s coming manages to get past me... well, you do what you have to do to protect Tapestry.”

Jack huffed as she slipped out the door. As if you need to tell me that.

Moving across to the waiting room area, Hekate found her hounds both alert and on guard. Gallant, too, seemed on edge. “Anyone come this way?” she asked, glancing down the hallway.

Sheba shook her head. “Nada. Not a sign of anyone. Still, just a moment ago, I got a weird feeling, something that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, as if someone was watching me close by.”

Helly nodded. The same feeling I’m getting. But I don’t see of hear anyone. “Keep your eyes peeled. The last thing we want is to be caught off guard again.”

“I’m afraid you’ve been so caught.”

Whirling around, reacting instinctively, everyone turned to the sound of the voice, seeming to emanate from the shadows of the far wall. A shudder of motion, and the darkness parted, revealing a tall, handsome young man and woman, both wearing trench coats.

In an instant, three silencer-equipped guns were pointed at the pair.

Shelley tensed, fingering the control inside her trench coat, but Darke shook his head. Not yet. Let’s see how they react first. Remember, you are only a last resort, loveling. Taking a single step forward, he nodded to the redheaded Ancient.

“Greetings, Hekate,” he said in the Old Tongue. “It is an honor to be in the presence of one of the Magi, especially one so lovely as yourself.” Hekate started slightly, narrowing her eyes as she peered at him.

Good. I have her confused. She’s trying to remember who I am, wondering how I know her.

Helly thought to herself furiously. I’ve never seen him before... the way he appeared suddenly out of nowhere... haven’t seen that since I myself was a child. Who is he? WHAT is he?

Finding her voice, she replied, “You seem to have an advantage over me, stranger.”

“Oh, really?” he replied, glancing meaningfully at the three people covering him. “Not to be a bother,” Darke spoke, gesturing at the three guns leveled at his chest, “but would you tell your people to lower their weapons? I have no intention of harming anyone... unless they try to harm me first. I’m taking a big chance in even revealing myself at all, and having several guns pointed in my direction isn’t helping matters.”

Gallant cocked his weapon, but Helly frowned, shaking her head. Reluctantly, the man lowered the gun, but keeping it cocked ready in case it was needed. Sheba and Carol did the same. Satisfied no one would shoot until she gave the word, she turned her attention back to the mysterious Ancient.

“Who are you?” Helly demanded. “Why are you here? What do you want with us?”

Darke nodded to Shelley, who released the trigger from her hidden hands inside the coat. “I’m here to help. Just to help. I may be able to save your friend. In exchange, I would only ask a small boon of her. A private reading. That’s all.”

“Do you expect us to trust you?” Jack, hearing some of what was spoken, had slipped into the hallway. “A stranger, a person no one has ever seen or even heard of, a bloody legend even to your own people, yet here you are now, suddenly, out of the blue. I don’t buy it. How’d you even know she was here, or that she needed help? And just how would you help her? She’s barely clinging to life after an attack made on her weeks ago by one of Salamander’s agents. You could even be one of his agents, for all I know.”

Darke spat, muttering something in an obscure language. “Me? Work for him? Not likely. Look, let me spell it out for you. My name... my true name, is Yanous. I am called ShadowDarke, for my power exists in the nexus between the dark and the light.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “I am the last of the Healing Clans, once thought to be long dead. I can Heal Tapestry, completely. I can save her life. No matter how stable her condition seems to be at the moment, we both know she is dying.” There. Put the facts before her and let her make the only choice she can.

Meanwhile, Hekate’s mind was racing. She knew only too well how tainted the Great River had become, and that Tapestry’s condition would only decline without outside help. His story, remarkable as it was, checked out in her mind; the last time she’d seen anyone able to slip into and out of shadows had been more than two thousand years ago, a member of one of the near extinct Healing Clans. And the accepted and acknowledged the fact that anyone with such a power could come and go as they pleased. If he’d meant to harm any of them, he could have done so and slipped away before any of them would have known. A glance into his face confirmed it, and he nodded once.

“I believe him, Jack,” she said softly. “He’s right. Tapestry is dying. Nothing the doctors here can do will prevent it. We don’t really have any choice.”

“There is not much time,” Darke continued. “The Salamander is a vicious and calculating foe. Believe me, I know that firsthand. It’s a miracle that she’s endured this long as it is. The Great River grows more and more polluted by the moment, further poisoning your friend. It may already be too late.”

Jack turned away, not wanting to show his frustration at being to helpless to help. Finally he turned to them. “Alright. Fine. You can see her. Do whatever it is you do to make her better. But if you harm one hair on her head... Ancient monster or no, I swear I’ll rip off your balls and feed them to you.”

Darke smiled wickedly. “You know, Mr. Kepp, I think we’ll get along just fine after all.”

Tapestry lay resting in her bed, a mass of tubes and wires sticking out from her beleaguered body. Darke took a moment to look at her, taking in the sight of her, yet seeing another girl long ago, battered, beaten, weak and starving, clinging to life by a thread. The vision swam before his eyes for a moment, as if time had shifted, and it was Jeanette D’Amber, not Tapestry, that lay before him. Then, the moment passed, and the present reasserted itself.

Darke closed his eyes. Ah, Jeanette. She looks so unlike it. Her skin dark to your paleness, her hair long and black, with highlights of gold, to your angry, fiery mane. Her face, her body, even bandaged and blood soaked, possesses a poignant beauty, a soft, roundness, completely at odds with your plainer, sharp, angular features. So... why does seeing her like this make my heart ache even more? Why do I still see your face, feel your touch, smell your sweet breath, now, despite the many years apart?

A sound behind him broke him from his reverie, the door being opened. Without turning, he spoke. “No. Stay. Neither of you have to leave. Indeed, for what I intend to do, I will likely need your help and support. Particularly yours, Hekate.”

The witch stepped forward. “What do you need me to do?” she asked simply.

“The Great River’s taint runs deep. Anyone touched by it can feel its poison. To Heal your friend, I must open myself to the River’s flow. I must bathe in its power, and send its undefiled essence into the Seer to restore her. I will need you to keep me balanced, to anchor me from succumbing to the Beast within.” He reached out a hand. “Grasp my hand, and open yourself up to me. Let your energy flow into me as I send mine into her.”

Helly hesitated a moment, knowing something of how the Healer Clan’s talents worked. “Just how... open, do you need me to be?”

Darke considered. “I won’t touch your mind. It’s your energy, your life force, that I need. And to ease any fears you might have to the contrary, I want your friend Jack to keep his gun trained on me. You sense me trying to burrow my way into your mind, let your friend know and he’ll promptly burrow a few slugs into mine. Fair enough?”

Jack nodded solemnly, taking out his gun. “Sounds fair enough to me. Do just what you’re supposed to, and we’ll all get along just fine.”

“Fine,” Darke replied, taking Hekate’s hand, placing the other onto Tapestry’s ample chest. “Just so you know, there may be a few... adverse effects of the Healing. Nothing bad, but... well just keep an open mind.” Hekate was about to ask just what that meant, when a small pulse began to throb inside her, traveling from the soles of her feet, centering between her thighs, and up to the crown of her head. Seconds later, it began again, this time starting at her head, moving downward. Each time it passed through her womanhood, she gasped, clenching her thighs.

Darke risked a smile at Hekate’s expression before closing her eyes and focusing. He opened himself up to the River, clenching his teeth slightly at the rush of power, and something... more. The bottomless abyss inside him ached deliciously, but he fought it, concentrating on focusing and refining that energy, and pushing it gently into Tapestry. Myriad lines of energy sprang from his touch, slowly seeping into her being, connecting with and traveling along each strand of her being, seeking out the weak faltering flame of her life force. Grasping it gently, he began to stoke it, adding to it from his own, feeling it respond and grow stronger.

Tapestry stirred slightly on the bed, lolling her head to the left, towards him, her eyes still closed. Her mind stirred as well, and he could feel her essence, her very being, probing back, stretching as if awakening from a long deep sleep.

Wh... what? Who?

-Shhh. A friend,— Darke replied in kind. -Just a friend.—

The Healer poured more of his essence into his Touch, guiding his power to every one of her injuries, supercharging the cells, and aiding them as they rapidly knitted closed, becoming whole again. His hand traveled around the patient’s body, caressing smooth newly healed flesh, stroking nerve endings alive and crackling with his energy.

Slowly, senuously, Tapestry felt her strength returning. Sleeping still, she felt the tender caress of a hand on her body, filling her with pleasure as well as vitality. The tendrils of power running through her body had become a pulse, with ran rhythmically from her head to her toes, tingling and exciting every nerve ending in between. A soft moan escaped her lips, and her thighs slickened, betraying her arousal.

Likewise, Hekate was hard pressed to keep her composure. The pulses were coming in stronger waves now, each pass hitting her womanhood like a pile driver, until both she and Tapestry were moaning in tandem, feeling as if the River itself was flowing straight through her open snatch.

Hardest hit was the Healer himself. Darke struggled to keep his balance, receiving Hekate’s passionate energy, as well as the poisoned River, and focusing his life essence into the Seer, and feeling her arousal as well. They were both linked through him, in body if not mind, and the darkness inside him.... the darkness—

The darkness inside him... fed by the tainted River, spoke in the back of his mind, flashing images of Tapestry, her mind broken, kneeling at his feet, or Hekate naked and bound, servicing his manhood, of brutally taking both her ‘pets’ waiting outside, crushing their wills, until they existed only to serve him, only him—

—was pushed back into subservience by his will, and the tender reminder of the chromed steel barrel at his temple. Darke broke contact, gasping, temporarily drained. He slipped to his knees, panting, struggling to keep conscious. Recovering first, Hekate helped him to his feet.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

Darke nodded. “I’m... fine. Just drained. Took... a lot out of me... haven’t Healed an Ancient that close to death... in a long time.” Images of Jeanette swam before his eyes again. Turning towards the bed, he smiled. “Still, it seems I haven’t lost my touch. She’s awake.”

Jack and Hekate moved quickly to the bed. Sure enough, Tapestry’s eyes were open and she was sitting up. Glancing about the room, she stretched, yawning a bit.

“Hi. Sorry to worry you all like that. I’m fine now... it seems.” Her gaze turned to rest on the stranger in their midst. “I assume my miraculous recover was due to you?”

Darke nodded. “Aye. But you can thank your friends here as well. Without their help, you wouldn’t be here now.”

“Then it seems I am in your debt.”

The Healer smiled. “A debt you can quite easily repay. I imagine you’re still a bit worn out from the ordeal. I know I certainly am. Still, when you are able, I’d like a personal reading. I have questions, and only you might be able to provide me with some answers.”

“In that case, I’ll do your reading now,” she said, nodding to Jack. “Time is of the essence, and its flowing like quicksilver.” Jack handed her the stack of cards, and moved a tray table to her bed.

“You’ll be okay... alone?” he asked, glancing meaningfully at her visitor.

“Yes, I’ll be fine. You and Helly both look as if you could use a rest yourselves. Trust me. I’ll be okay.”

Nodding once, Jack turned and left, Hekate right behind him. She stopped at the doorway and gave a smile. “It’s good to have you back, Tap,” she said, closing the door behind her.

The Seer and the Healer sat across from each other, silent for a moment or two. Then, finally, the Seer spoke. “Well, I’ve learned very recently the hard way that no one can See everything. You are a surprise. I’d foreseen that I would survive these upcoming trials but not how. I will see if I can provide answers to your questions... but there are many questions I would like to ask in return.”

Darke nodded. “Fair enough. I assume you are as concerned about events going on in China right now as I am. I’ve once had a pretty extensive information network working for me. I’d be willing to tell you anything you wish to know. All I need is this one thing, this reading.” Taking a deep breath, he asked the question he most needed to know, the question he most feared hearing answered.

“Will I ever meet up with the True Serpent again?”

Tapestry studied him. “True Serpent?” She took her cards from the silk-wrapped case. Her sensitive dark fingers let the deck breathe a bit by shuffling them in very loose fashion. She watched him, this Healer that had lived in the Shadows of myth for so long, and let the cards dance between her hands.

He sat in the prolonged silence. “Understand, that I don’t—”

She held up a hand. “No. You don’t need to tell me. What you think is going on will only bias what the cards can show me. You don’t want me to frame my answers to your need, so just let your question intrigue me, as you do yourself.”

He inclined his head at that remark, but held in his thoughts.

Tapestry cut the deck three times then set it on the table. She smiled at him. “We begin. Relax.” She turned over the first card.

The card showed a man in armor walking with his sword dragging the ground. Chains wrapped his chest and broken chains trailed from his legs. His expression was tenacious and sad.

“The one you ask about is in great danger. Battles have been lost. The fight is not over. Weariness and lack of preparation.” She looked up. “Hong Kong. The Serpent must battle the Horror before another moon sets.”

Damn! Shit! SKETI!! So soon? I won’t be able to get there in time! Darke nodded once, his expression tight but impassive. “Okay. She’s about to face her right now. Very well. Will she win? Will she survive this without help? Will she be victorious?”

Tapestry licked her lip and turned over another card. It was a white devil figure with a goat’s head. Gold flames danced around several kneeling figures in front of the devil.

“The Horror knows she comes. Powers are prepared. The Serpent cannot win.”

Darke almost felt his heart shudder.

She turned over another card.

Tapestry held up a finger. “But I do not think she loses, either.”

The figure in armor was on a fast horse with a golden chalice held before it like a gleaming lantern. A small group of armed horsemen strained to keep up with the knight. Tapestry nodded. “The Serpent’s Champion is there. Help in numbers. Death hovers over any who try to aid the Serpent. There is death and blood, mortal and Ancient.”

Darke stiffened. Mortal and Ancient blood? Someone will die. But... the Serpent? Or one of the others going to help her fight against the Dragon?

Tapestry sighed. She turned over the next card. “I see now. One of them will die. Either the Horror or the Serpent do not survive this confrontation. I cannot tell which.”

Darke looked at the fourth card. A golden hawk was skewered by three arrows, but was flying into the sky. Tapestry laid a hand on the next card. “For such a specific question, I only need five cards. But I sense that there is something you should have asked. It trembles unspoken on your lips.” She turned the card and laid it down. “Disaster. You may never meet again. That was how you framed your question.”

He stared at the large crimson heart with the sword plunged down through the center. The sky and horizon beyond the floating heart were blue as the Mediterranean. How appropriate, a heart torn by war and strife. I didn’t need Tapestry to interpret that card. Even if she survives this encounter, I still may not get to her in time.

Tapestry pursed her lips, speaking slowly as if choosing her words carefully. “Disaster in more senses than one. She fights against something that cannot be beaten.” She paused; frowned. She put her fingers to the last card. “But I’ve seen this recently. It spoke of my own death not so long ago. So it also means sacrifice and the unexpected. Perhaps there are things moving that neither you nor I, nor the Horror can account for.”

Darke fervently hoped that could be true. “She might live? There is help for her near?”

Tapestry nodded. “Very near. Yet the Horror seems to have succeeded in her goal of corrupting the River into the Beast. I felt it.” Tapestry returned her fingers to the third card—the company of riders. She glanced at the pierced hawk, then back at the riders.

“What?” Darke leaned closer. “Something else? You said she would survive.”

“Perhaps.” Tapestry frowned.

Darke noticed she was sweating now. Fine drops ran down her neck and into the shadows of her breasts. Her eyes went back and forth between the company of riders and the pierced hawk. She reached to the impaled heart that he was afraid might be his own fate. She touched it gently.

“What? Please—.” He whispered.

She did not seem to hear him. “Much blood. Terrible rage and blood and many tears salting the stones. Great loss. Treasures that will never be replaced. A great fear, but strong mortal courage, and the most terrible weapon will fail for good as well as for evil.”

The pierced heart. My card. My fate. Is she speaking of me? Is it MY destiny that she’s glancing?

Tapestry started to crumple and his sharp attention and the thrust of darkness still held tightly inside warned him a moment before she had strained herself too far. He grabbed her, standing smoothly and helped her to a nearby seat. A small vibration of healing vigor steadied her pulse, strengthening her once more.

She blinked, and then smiled up at him. “Doesn’t sound good. Sorry. Not as bad as it seems perhaps, since I didn’t feel as if they were all going to die. That means we might find out what happened from the ones who escape.”

He wasn’t fooled. She was exhausted and the vision had taken some of her composure, but he appreciated her words nonetheless. “I’m sorry. I can’t sit around and wait to see. I have to go there, to Hong Kong. From what you’ve seen, I’ll arrive too late to be of any help, but at least I can try and help... pick up the pieces. Besides... this is something I need to see myself, with my own eyes.”

Tapestry nodded once. “I understand. This reading probably hasn’t helped you as much as you’d liked.”

“No, on the contrary,” Darke said, rising for the door. “If anything, it gives me hope. Fleeting, perhaps, but hope nonetheless. I believe she’ll win, that somehow, someway, she’ll come out of this alive and victorious. And this ‘inner battle’ she fights, the battle she cannot win of herself... perhaps I can still aid her.” Aye, help her, make her whole again, a final noble deed before I face my own fate.

“Thank you, Tapestry. I was glad for the chance to meet you in person, if not the circumstances. I... I hope to see you again someday.”

“A moment before you leave,” she spoke, just as Darke prepared to depart. “I know something of your fate, of what awaits you. I, too faced a destiny that seem unavoidable. When my time came, I surrendered to it fully, expecting to perish. Yet, the unexpected happened.” She glanced away, as images of Scorpion and Orchid fluttered before her eyes.

“I’m here now, through the unexpected intervention of others. Their noble sacrifices changed my destiny. The singular path you follow need not end in your death. Perhaps there are other paths, hidden over the horizon, paths that will become clearer as you move closer to your fate. Take heart, Healer. Even to those such as myself, the future is a mysterious and uncanny thing.”

‘Darke and Shelley arrived back at the hotel some time later. Throughout the trip, Shelley noticed her Master being very quiet and introspective. Something weighed heavily on his mind, something that her love and attention couldn’t dissolve. Returning to their room, he spoke for the first time since leaving the hospital.

“Shelley, wake Mary, and get packed while I charter us a flight. We’re leaving for Hong Kong within the hour.”

Shelley shuddered slightly as she rushed to obey. Hong Kong. She knew well what this meant. Her Master was about to face his biggest trial to date. She only hoped that he survived the aftermath.

{{{The End}}}