Temptation

[Glenn]

Elliot Brown sat upon his bed uncomfortably. It had been a frustrating night. Nova and he had an argument of sorts. Was it even that? He wasn't sure anymore. He wasn't sure about a number of things. He wasn't even sure about what he wasn't sure about. Usually, he finished his nocturnal thievery sessions with a warm heart and a spring in his step. Tonight, he had gone just far enough to decide he wanted to turn in. Far enough to get kicked by a horse due to his nasty attitude. Far enough to stumble to bed.

His life had fallen into a perfect pattern. In the morning he trained with Solena, showing Cat and even Nova what he knew how to do. In the afternoon he was with Niall, scowling along side her with a pack mentality but one that would allow him to brush his shoulder against her, to have a level of closeness, physical and otherwise, that occasionally surprised even him, but that also felt like the most natural thing in the world. It was unspoken, unnecessary to be said aloud. He and her. And nothing else mattered, not until it was time to go at least. Then came his time at the smithies, his training so that he could take his place at Darkenhold, that he could unlock all of its secrets. His evenings were often at the Dagger, lingering angst from Niall draping over him like a cozy blanket as he caused trouble and mayhem, and then it was off with Nova, brightening at the sight of her, traipsing through the Myrken night like some fairy-touched thiefling from a folktale, partaking in the ultimate act of freedom with the person he wished to be free with most of all.

If there were contradictions in his day, he did not notice them. Everything was perfect and he was not terribly astute even at his best, even when he had a reason to shake the boat, to doubt.

Everything was perfect until last night. Nova had been strange, hadn't wanted to go with him. And it sent his peaceful pool rippling in all directions.

Worst of all, there was no one to turn to. Solena was away and the people he'd usually talk about such dire things were Niall or Nova and neither would do. So he sat there in bed. "Galacia. Galacia. Galacia." His friend. She who had caught him in his trust fall. Summoned by saying her name three times.

And he fell asleep.

[Galacia Tarin]

"Elliot"

Her voice was soft and sweet. Close. When he opened his eyes, he would find himself exactly where he had been just moments before, safe in his bed. She sat on the edge of it, smiling down at him. Razor talons brushed hair back from his forehead with the gentleness of a mother, despite their wicked shape. Soft ringlets of raven black brushed his cheek as she leaned forward.

"Elliot, what is it? Something troubles you. Did you wish for my help, or just some company?"

There was a slight twist to her lips, such words were not in her true nature, and perhaps he knew that. She rose then from the bed and began to step away from it. Suddenly it was no longer Elliot's room, but her own. A cold and dark place, carved in the deep stone of a mountain. Water dripped in the distance, and oil lamps flickered on the walls. She seated herself as her desk, piled high with books and papers. Turning to look at him, he would find himself still in his own bed, he would need to rise and come forward to join her in her world.

[Glenn]

Relief.

Relief upon seeing Galacia Tarin. Just what had Myrken wrought with the boy Elliot Brown? He took a deep breath. The last time he saw her in dreams he was a mouthy thing, a wordy thing, one that was desperate and thought himself just a bit cunning. Now, though? Now he was a supplicant. Now everything had changed. Now he desired something and in that desire, he wished for reality to be something other than what it was.

And why not? Look at where his life had taken him. Look at what he brushed up against. Look at what he was making of himself, of what he had come to possess. If that, then why not this as well? Why couldn't his fairy godmother come and tell him all that he needed to know?

Because truly, for a crooked Myrken boy like himself, what other being was there but her?

"You're the oldest and wisest person I know." It was said earnestly. Somewhere along the line he had convinced himself of this new reality, just as he had with Solena. The elf had earned his trust, however. This was different. This was madness. Yet it was somehow so natural and right. And then he says this one thing to the dreamwitch, softly, completely and utterly oblivious to the twisted irony of saying these exact words to her: "So there's this girl..."

[Galacia Tarin]

She chuckled softly, a hand raising to cover her mouth, as a polite woman would do. She moved from her desk to her bed, patting it softly beside her for him to come and join her.

"Elliot, there will always be a girl. Or a boy, time will tell. The point is that this is nothing new. This is an age old trouble, it even predates me."

There is a wink for that, being the oldest, and wisest, person he knew. She was not a cruel creature, not without reason, not without benefit. She offered him a place in her home, and she hoped he would accept so they might chat like civilized people.

"Tell me about her. Tell me what troubles you. I have never seen you look so sad, so lost. Even when you are lost, people do not see it, you do not show it. This must be something terrible indeed. Would you like a drink, something to eat perhaps?"

With that, a plate of bread and cheese, and one of spiced cakes, appeared on the bedside table nearest the spot she offered him. A bottle of wine, two glasses, and a pitcher of milk. The choice would be his.

She was dressed plainly in this dream, if it was a dream. A simple black gown, covering her in an almost matronly fashion. She was not trying to beguile him with feminine charms, she was no threat in this moment, and seemed genuinely interested in his trouble.

[Glenn]

Don't ever accept a gift. Never accept a hand. Never open the door willingly. There were rules about this, about dreams, about magical beings, but there he was. He entered her world. He sat upon her bed. He made a bit of a face when she mentioned having a fancy for a boy but then she was likely talking about herself. She winked even as he fell in beside her.

She offered him a place and there he was. She went halfway, not cruel. He went half way, able to put on a mask of civility. This was new, all of his stage training. Twice a week, maybe three times, at the Gilded Lily, learning. He knew his gaps and his failings, and was learning to surpass them. Stage manners, more proper speech, sleight of hand and sleight of tongue.

Had he truly been lost since Solena found him? Lately, everything seemed so natural, so obvious. He should have gone for the bread and cheese, shown his maturity, but in this setting, feeling as he did, there was a slight slump of his shoulders as he reached for one of the spiced cakes instead, reached for it and then consumed it, breaking yet another rule.

A spiced cake and wine. That was Elliot Brown, in between two things in so many ways. "Everything fit into place," and even there, torn as he was, he still didn't realize it. "Nova wanted to spend more time with me. We were going out every night. She told me that she WANTED to do it, that she wanted to go with me, to steal and sneak and..." A little embarrassed to outright say what he did. He looked down, cheeks red. In another situation he'd flaunt it, or hide it, or anything but this. Here, as he sipped of the wine, he was shy. "She just acted so strange the other night. Almost like she was guilty, like she was convincing me to do it for her, when I was doing it anyway and I want to do it with her. And she said we could do something else instead sometime but I don't know what people do." It might have dawned on him at some point that his life was no longer normal. A year and a half spent in the wilderness with a drugged and crazed Niall, surrounded by her magic, on endless adventures that were hallucinations at best and magical deviations at worse. He'd tried to come back to civilization after that, but part of him would never recover.

Now, finally, years later, he'd embraced it, only to be stymied by one of the girls he thought he was embracing it with, one that didn't know how to interface with those around her any better than he did. It was the blind leading the blind. Elliot. Nova. Niall.

And look at where all of it had led him, to the bed of Galacia Tarin.

[Galacia Tarin]

Comfort them, if comfort is what they seek. Feed their desires, feed their stomachs. Ply them with wine, and song, and seduction. Do what you must to find them that comfortable place.

"Oh Elliot. There is nothing to be ashamed of my dear boy. Love is...well...it's an awful thing really. It eats at your stomach, it brings the nightmares, it makes you worry all the time. But...sometimes it is worth it. Sometimes there is a lot of good that comes with the bad. Sometimes, it you are very lucky, more good than bad."

She drew a quilt across his lap, he seemed chilled in this place of wet stone. The wine glass touched, it too now warmed and slightly spiced. She turned on the bed, to face him, curling her legs up underneath her, her ivory brow furrowed in concern.

"So her name is Nova. And you like this girl very much. You were having a wonderful time, sneaking and stealing. Then suddenly her passion for this game changed, is that right? Well, I, Elliot Brown, know what normal people do. They do boring things. They sit around and eat stew and drink poor wine. They fight over each others belongings and spouses. Take a look around the Dagger, Elliot. That is what normal people do. They end another boring day, of an endlessly boring life, drinking away their sorrows at a tavern. Do you think that is what Nova wants? Of course not! Perhaps she just wants more of you, Elliot. Less sneaking, more...exploring."

Her lips curled into a dark and knowing grin at that. He was young, but certainly he knew what she meant.

"What about the other girl?"

He hadn't mentioned another, but it practically leaked from his pores. She could reach in and find the information, but this was not the time for that. She wanted to know what it was about the other girl that troubled him. What it was that he was so afraid of. He was young, and eager, and now, so crest fallen. She'd never seen this side of him, and it intrigued her.

"You spend so much time doing things for other people, Elliot. What is it that you do for you? What do you do that makes you happy?"

Had he not asked her a very similar question just a few weeks ago? A thin bone pipe between her lips now, already it glowed and smoked, though no match had touched it. It was not the poppy that Zilliah smoked, it was more similar to Tennant's blend. Simply a comfort, nothing more. She blew sweet scented smoke, almost like rose petals, out toward him, reaching a hand to gently touch his knee.

"What would make you happy, Elliot Brown?"

[Glenn]

Love. Exploration. The Other Girl.

This was a realm of symbolism and metaphor. It was a surreal plane where meaning meant more than fact. He reeled with each word, chin turning, as if a fist crashed into his jaw. Breath left him with the first, prefacing the small choking sound that came with the second. And the third? The third forced a downing of his wine, all too quick, without restraint. A young man drowning for air and searching for it in an imaginary wineglass.

He was sullen, frustrated, depressed when he called upon her. Despite her words, he had not been lost. Her final question? It would have been simplicity itself to answer. What did he want? Everything that he had.

Now, though? Now with three simple statements, he was lost. A hand, grasping for a cliff to hang on to, landed upon her thigh, gripping it a bit too tightly. His head, adrift in the sea of her words, gravitated towards her shoulder. It was as if the wind of dawning realization had toppled him over.

He had come for simple answers: to learn how to waltz, to learn to pack a picnic dinner and eat it under the stars, to find some part of normalcy that was missing from his life. Instead, she'd spun everything away from him in the most confusing of ways.

Finally, he found a sputtering of words. "It's not.." His head shook into her shoulder and he went quiet again, needing to find some port in this storm, a moment to pull it all back together, for his life to make sense again. "Everything was perfect. That's what I want." With Nova, it had been one thing. With her he had stopped growing. She did not age. She saw owners come and go. She saw the world move around her. With her he seemed to be getting younger, a fairy-touched boy dancing atop Myrken rooftops with the greatest of ease. With Niall it was the opposite. They were on a path together, once again, after years apart. They were growing together, growing into one another.

Somehow, he had been managing both things at once. What cost that schism to his spirit?

He did not want the truths she thrust upon him, truths that contradicted, truths that would keep him from everything he truly wanted.

[Galacia Tarin]

"I hope you understand that no one who has ever come here with me has been treated as you are, Elliot. This is because you have proclaimed us friends, and friends help each other, yes?"

These words as her hand covered the one which clung so desperately to her thigh, the pipe was gone and her other curled around the back of his head, drawing him closer and letting him take comfort upon her shoulder. Everything was perfect.

"Well then, if everything was perfect, we must endeavor to bring it back to the way it was. Have you spoken to Nova since this happened? Perhaps she was just in a mood, having a bad night. Women do that, you know, even girls. Maybe, if you brought her something. Something pretty, something special."

She stroked his hair gently, not like a lover, but for comfort, safety. Her voice was so smooth, warm, caring. Very different then their other meetings. She wanted to help him. Did he find it strange the her pipe was gone, his wine glass too? Likely not, he had experienced dreams before.

"Take these."

Removing her hand from the one which covered his, in her upturned palm were two pendants. One was a beautiful garnet drop on a simple sliver chain. The other much more masculine. A triangle of onyx, on a black leather cord.

"One is for your love. The other is for you. Hers is simply a pretty, one you purchased, not stole, for her. Something so that she may always feel close to you, even when you are parted. The other, you need only close your eyes and touch it, and I will hear you. I will come if you need me, and simply be council if that is what you require. Will you tell me about your other friend? Do you suppose that perhaps she is causing the distance between you and Nova? Women are inherently jealous creatures, Elliot. Or do you suppose that Nova fears losing you to time?"

He had not said much about the girls, but he had thought very hard. Some of those images leaked into the energy she was drawing from his emotions. If Nova was immortal, time would part them eventually, as Elliot would age and die. She knew well that trap of immortality.

"I can help you, Elliot, but to do that I need you to be as honest with me as you can. I am not some random person at the tavern. I am not a mark. I am your friend, and I can not help you if you do not tell me the truth of everything it is that troubles you."

Even with the pendants there between them, she did not let him go, did not remove her hand from his hair. She held him close and gently rocked back and forth, simply waiting.

[Glenn]

He didn't understand. Often times, Elliot did not. He felt. He was a creature of impulse and this felt right. Logically, every part of him should be screaming out to get away from her, to wake up, to stop giving her his deepest secrets, his hopes and dreams, but it felt right. It felt natural. It felt like the only thing he could possibly do.

He wore Solena's ring. He carried her daggers, and yet this was the way of it. In order to use the pendant, he'd have to take off the ring. In order to have the mental protection of the ring, he could not have the strange comfort of the pendant. They were in direct opposition, much like Nova and Niall. Even he was coming to understand this.

"I've not spoken to her. She's not good with words. Neither of them are."

Still, he took the pendant. When he had first thought of the ring, it had appeared, glowing softly upon his finger, a sigil representing protection, safety, untouchability. As he took the pendant, it faded from the dream.

He was Elliot Brown. He would have his cake. He would eat it too. What else was a thiefling to do.

His sleeping form wore Solena's ring. In this dream, Galacia's pendant was around his neck. And when awake? If he could, he would wear both and damn the consequences. For now, with the ring's fading, any shielding around his dream, his thoughts or memories, would fade with it. Galacia would see whatever she wished.

What peculiar things trust and friendship when engendered only by stubbornness, desperation, and daring.

She needed to know everything to help him.

"Suede Roschen, the drow-swain." She asked of his love, and he began there? "Niall and I were friends. I'm not even sure how. We were just.. she was a little older than me, but we were close. But then she drank the drugged chocolate." His mind was more opened now. "She became hooked on it and it changed her. She was happy, easy going, friendly. She smiled and had energy, and I drank it, and.. " and he drank of her, her power, her energy, not that he knew it, "and we had adventures. Everyday." The images were starting to appear round them. The staunch mage-warrioress with her scars and tattoos fighting off giant animals, gnolls and gnomes and gnarly trees that walked like men, a fairy army and psychedelic flowers that burst through the air. Elliot was always beside her, his body different then, larger, more developed muscularly, despite the fact he was older now, huge sword hanging behind his shoulder.

The adventurous, surreal images faded away in rapid succession. "And then we woke up. She struck against the world." Another image, Niall destroying the Dagger's bar. "And.. then we just drifted away. I had been drawn to that smile and it had never been real. She changed back to what she had been before the chocolate, but more angry and with less and less hope everyday, and I could never be what I had been before. I couldn't go back to being a squire. So I drifted, away from her, just.. I don't know, anywhere. Until I found Solena." He felt lingering guilt about Niall's smile, about missing it, but far less than he once had. She lost all of her hope, but he had become more like her in many ways. He'd grown into angst and frustration, and they were in a similar place once again.

"Solena stopped my drifting." These were things he never vocalized, that he never told anyone, but she had wanted all of the truth and between the images, his words, and especially his thoughts, she had the lot of it. The dagger that Solena threw at him in annoyance. The brazen cheek of a boy with nothing to lose, something Galacia knew quite well, that led him to picking it up and making it his own. The offer to train him to use them. And the slow, steady creep as a young hedge squire learned more, far more than just using a dagger, until he was no longer a squire at all. The argument with Renea where she wouldn't trust him, the establishment pushing him further and further into dark places and the liberation of going where he wanted, of doing what he wanted.

And then Nova. "I hated her at first, another magical being, but all she wanted was kindness, all she wanted was freedom, and I could understand that." She was a magical creation bound to an amulet, and Elliot stole that amulet, one of the first things he truly did steal, and he went from person to person, Aleksei, others, trying to find a way to free her. "No one had an answer, no one would help." and that pushed him away from everyone all the more. He hadn't gone to Niall about it. He couldn't, though he had no idea why at the time.

"So she came to me and so I freed her, by destroying it. But it left her adrift." That led him to stealing more and more, in part to support her. He tried to hide it, but he felt responsible, knowing that he botched the act of freeing her due to his failings, that he left her ethereal and weak. There was no joy to be found there anymore so he lost himself more and more to Solena's teachings. He grew darker and grimmer in his view of the world.

Then, miraculously, everything began fell into place. "Niall and I were together in the Dagger, and the potion-maker, she said the wrong thing, uncaring, unaware, and it just... it clicked." His eyes met the scarred girls and there was murder shared between them. Elliot had finally fallen to her level, and it was them against the world, just like it ought to have been. He had begun to enjoy the brushes of his shoulder against hers, a mild embrace now and again, a natural thing.

"Then, Nova came to me. She said she knew what I did, how I supported us. And she wanted to do it too. She wanted an end to being adrift, just like I had found. She wanted a purpose and being with me.." Through voicing this story, through feeling it and thinking it, something was starting to crystallize. "She always liked shiny things and now she went with me through the night," halting his aging, halting his surliness with almost her will alone. "The smile." His voice was soft as he came to finally realize something important, a rare event for Elliot brown and a sobering one. "She smiled. And.. it was what I had been looking for ever since Niall had broken from the chocolate." That selfsame smile of magic and adventure.

He had changed, become darker to match Niall, but Niall did not approve of his ever-liberating thievery regardless of the pack-like closeness they were regaining. Nova had grown into her role by his side, letting him ply his trade, helping him, and providing an exotic sort of loveliness and fancy that Niall could not. Most of all, though, she offered him a taste of that wild, magical smile, the smile he had lost when Niall became herself once more.

And there, in his dreams, in the arms of one of the most dangerous creatures Myrken had ever seen, with her pendant around his neck, Elliot Brown came to realize just how truly weak a man could be.

[Galacia Tarin]

"You poor thing. Such a difficult thing to be trapped between two that you love. Neither possessing all of what it is you want."

She had absorbed everything. What was unspoken drifted into her mind like, well, like a dream. She held him close, still rocking him gently. Not like a baby, but like a friend would do when another was so troubled.

"Tell me, Elliot. How did you and Niall become friends? What was it about her before the chocolate, that made you friends? After the chocolate Solena found you. She gave you purpose, at least for a time. You find yourself growing weary of just that and find yourself trying to achieve more, and it feels as if she does not quite approve of your change in direction, in bettering yourself. Then there is Nova. She seems a sweet thing, and she gives you that smile you miss so much, but what else is there about her? What is it that makes you want to be around her so?"

Galacia, would reach down and tip up his chin so that those wide black eyes could look into his own.

"What is it, Elliot, that you truly desire? Is it one or the other? Is it both? Are they a replacement for something else entirely? Tell me, so that I might help you achieve your goals. Help you be the magnificent man I know you can be."

[Glenn]

Above all else, she had to understand that he was in unfamiliar territory. Who did he trust in this world? Niall. Nova. Solena. Of the three, none were the sort to discuss feelings. The Elf-woman would open up occasionally, but she was endlessly allowing. Encouraging. And unless something got in the way of his work he would not burden her with it. He would barely be aware that there was anything to burden her with. For male friends, what? Catch? Cherny? No, there was no one.

So even in the midst of this gentle, caring embrace, she was pushing him in directions he was not meant to go. Forcing his mind down dusty paths that were ill-traveled and far overgrown. Still, she was the light that made the shadow, the flame that flickered in strange hues that drew him towards it like a moth, or like a boy who would shy from the darkness. A fear of darkness? That was not Elliot save for now when it was the darkness within his own heart.

"Niall. The Ashfiend." There were the images, the battlefield; Elliot Brown burning the dead bodies of his knights, of his fellow squires, those who just fell: so that they could not rise up again as the Fiend's undead hoard. Elsewhere on the field was Niall, fighting as best she could. They'd met shortly before this but it was over this horror which they bonded. "She went with me back home when my Pa died, braved that storm with me. And then the chocolate came." What made them friends before that, though? "No one else would approach her. Her scars. Her power. Her attitude. But she was just a kid. Like me." Years ago. He had been so much younger even if she hadn't. "And she didn't know ANYTHING. She was so sad and alone and she was so angry all the time." Just like he was so much of his time now. "She needed a friend and she helped us even though she didn't have to." But she was a difficult friend, right up until the chocolate. And then she became both bitter and sweet, just like it.

Nova. "Nova is just.. she's so curious. She just wanted her freedom. She just wants to live, to experience things. She.." He couldn't find the words, not even in this dream, but the images showed so much. There she was, quick to FEEL, draped in her emotions as much as in that warm, bright, energetic light. "She has lots of reason to be sad, but she chooses not to be." As opposed to Niall, who was only not stingy with her positive emotions when she was overwhelmed with a drug. Both girls had been through so much but how they let it define them was completely different.

Solena. What had she said about her? "She.. it's true she didn't want me to go after Audmathus, and she did go to Darkenhold herself, but she was just trying to protect me. She lets me do whatever I want, really, so long as I'm not a complete fool about it." Galacia's words had him turned around, though. "She wants me to branch off on my own, I think." He'd given her the right to refuse him jobs, to have the relationship between an apprentice and a master, but she seemed to balk at that structure, to want him to be free. She encouraged it and in encouraging it, tied him to her all the more. Just as she didn't want him to be a fool, Solena was no fool either.

Her questions were overwhelming him. "I didn't even know.." He didn't know that there was a choice. He hadn't admitted it to himself. Love. Exploration. Niall. Such things she had said so lightly and in doing so she forced him to realize such weighty truths, all without him opening even one of those dream doors. He stared down at his empty glass, his voice soft. "I'd like more wine please, Galacia."

[Galacia Tarin]

Oh she was well aware he had no idea what to make of any of this. It was the inability, or the want to not, face it that made this all so interesting. He knew, deep within himself what he wanted. He had just spent so long pushing it all away, denying the need or purpose of any of it, that he had no idea anymore what it was he wanted or needed. He had learned to live in the moment, and in some cases that was a very good thing. Galacia knew that forgetting the past, not facing it, could be the thing that kills you.

"I knew the Ashfiend, though he was Gorefiend when I knew him. You were both very brave to try and face such an enemy. He is wicked and evil like few others. He killed me once. I killed him too. Seems we are even on that. You were a good man to befriend her when no one else would. That is a rare thing. You shared much. More than most would share in a lifetime. I can understand why you would miss your adventures that you had with the chocolate. Though surely you have some common ground still."

"In Nova you see not only what you once shared with Niall, but the ability she possesses to be happy in spite of all her reasons to be sad. That is rare. But is it enough? Is she someone who keeps you happy when she is around, or is she someone that you will be happy with always? If she is, then why do you still crave such closeness with Niall?"

And he moved on to Solena. She'd had some interactions with the drow but had no real knowledge of the woman, and frankly did not care to. Solena possessed nothing Galacia had interest in. She had no real power in Myrken. She had nothing that interested Galacia, until now. She had Elliot Brown. And then he spoke a name that perked her interest. As he asked her for more wine, she touched his glass and it was full and warm again. Another gentle touch of his hair, before she spoke again.

"Tell me about Solena and why she did not wish you to go after this Audmathus? Why did you need to? Who was he? I have heard the name, but I wish to know more."

[Glenn]

"There was an army." Elliot mumbled, leaning into her once more. He didn't want to take credit for something he didn't do, not when it came to this. All he accomplished that day was watch his friends die and burn the corpses of his mentors while blood and gore flew around him. He didn't run. He didn't hesitate and thereby watch the Ashfiend's army increase with the numbers of the dead. As for befriending her, it was really just something that happened. He didn't know how to explain it. It was just natural, even and especially before the chocolate.

Finally, though, he had to interject. "The chocolate wasn't a good thing. Nothing good came of it." He had to believe that. he had to believe that he didn't miss that pleasant, happy Niall, that false Niall, that violation of who she was and what she cared about. He wanted to believe that so badly. It was too late, though. They were already past that point. He'd already said too much, things he'd never have admitted to himself otherwise. "I'm not brave or good." Not with thoughts like that. They were the wrongest thoughts he could have. There was something surly in his tone when he continued. "We have plenty in common now." Like attempted murder and a dark glare at the world. He'd caught up with the scarred girl, to the gnarled places she had reached long before him.

But it was real and primal in a way that it wasn't with Nova. Nova was light and flighty, but there lacked substance. In its place, however, was the shared experience, the adventures he once had with Niall, now aimed towards HIS passion, towards thievery. Before he'd been an accessory to Niall's adventures, someone to aid her but to be protected by her. Now he was the one in front and Nova, despite her magic, was a half step behind. It was about him now, his story. How could that not be appealing?

"Jirai offered me a contract to burn Audmathus, to kill him, though he's already dead." He sipped the wine and as she saw to his hair; he didn't want to deny her answers. It was easier to answer her about this than to think about what else was on his mind. "He tried to destroy Myrken years ago. With.. big pillars. I was too young to really know what was going on." He shook his head. "He's a drow. She said it'd be worth my while, and I kind of wanted to do it." His first contract to kill someone. There was no better choice for it, no better person to cross that line with. "Solena said it was too dangerous and she went into Underdark after him for some other reason. I'm not an idiot though. It was probably too dangerous for me." It's like he told Cherny: Elliot was trained to do things Cherny wasn't. Well, Solena was trained to do things he wasn't.

[Galacia Tarin]

"Never mind, the drow. He is not important, Elliot, you are."

She considered all that he had said, and much of what he hadn't. His connection with Niall was quite deep, and he was willing to drive himself to darkness...no he was willing to change his very perception of happiness, to keep it. Still, he missed the happier times they had shared. She herself had spoken with Niall a few weeks previous, and the girl had gotten quite flustered with their game when she had asked what made Niall happy. She did not know if it was a lack of ability to be happy, or a fear, or perhaps she simply did not know how. It was something she would task herself to find out more about.

When he thought of Nova, she felt the superficial nature of his desire to be with her. Were she one who spoke to human's about there troubles, she would tell him that he was compensating. Making up for what he knew was lacking between he and Niall, with Nova. That simply would not end well.

The question became, what to do with that information. She could cause him to sabotage both relationships, driving him closer to her. Making him need her more in his despair. She could help him find out how to have all the things he desired in one girl or the other, and perhaps place him in her debt. Still, there was the wild card of Solena. It was an even bet at this point which woman he would turn to in either outcome. Would he chose to share his happiness or sorrow or rage with his mentor, or his secret companion?

"You are brave, Elliot. Not many full grown men would have survived what you have, let alone at the young age that you have faced all of it. Good, well, good is a relative thing. You ask any ten people what good means and you will get ten different answers. More than that, you are strong, and that is the real test, at least as I see it. Look at all you have done. All you have survived. All you have mastered. And still you seek more. You want to be more. You find the shadowed part of yourself with Solena and Niall. You can embrace the things that others view as wrong or bad. With Nova you have the light and happiness that everyone says is what you should want. And do not mistake me, there is a time and a place for happiness and fun and light, but it is not everything there is."

She placed her arm around him, and pulled him close, a kiss for the top of his head. She smelled of smoke and roses, sweet and cloying.

"You can have everything, Elliot. What you need to find within yourself is what is it that you want now. One goal at a time and I can help you achieve them. If you could have anything in the world, right now, what would it be?"

[Glenn]

Elliot consciously held things back. Secrets that he kept for others: the idea that Nova had done horrible things for other people, that whoever held her amulet had been able to control her, that she was just trying to figure out what it meant to be free and even 'human' now. With Niall, though, it was much more. Unfortunately, he was well past the point of being able to hide such things from Galacia.

She could see rather easily what he knew of Niall's world, the constant warfare against dark, dangerous things. In Myrken, people were preyed upon quite frequently, but where she was from, it was a never-ending war. There was no comfort, no succor, no peace. You became strong and hard and impenetrable or you died. And even if you did become strong, you probably died anyway.There were no luxuries. There was no rest. There was no joy. Imagine a child growing up with that, the sacrifices one would make for power just to survive, not for any actual gain. It was a state of nature, but the most unnatural, horrific sort: a world where there simply was not a concept of happiness.

And then there was Elliot. In Razasan, in some other, more peaceful, more contented place, he might have grown up with more happiness, more satisfaction and safety. Luxury time would have allowed him to expand his mind with art and culture. He was a Myrken Boy though, and that meant he could make hard choices. Was he strong? He was a survivor, just like Niall, just like Nova in her own way, but the scale and the scope of the three were entirely different. "We do what we got to do here, Galacia. You know that." Hell, she'd caused some of it. Still, he was a bit ablush over her words.

The things she knew, his fairy godmother. The way she spoke about what was good and right. It was not far off of Solena's lessons, relativism. Don't ever let THEM judge you. It was the sort of language he'd eat up, and when he looked to Galacia, her old slights and crimes seemed to melt away. There was no absolute good after all. And even if there was, it wasn't for him, was it? He hadn't gone to Cherny or Gloria or Cinnabar. He hadn't gone to Kyra or Rhaena or any of the others who had some vested interest in his moral well being. No, he'd gone to her, and now, his answer would be a reflection of that, would be a reflection of the woman whose shadow he was currently under.

Elliot Brown bit his lip, looking like a perfect young rogue,a little dashing, extremely brazen, with a dangerous little sparkle in his eyes, an impressionist portrait of mischief and mayhem. When he spoke, it was in a dark, conspiratorial tone, the tone of a Myrken Boy who was forged in the fires of this thrice-damned land, who sipped openly and deeply from the cup of Galacia Tarin-Vraal.

"I want them both."