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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 6978465" data-attributes="member: 9546">INTERLUDEDakota’s memory  Dakota sat in silence, her head bowed in prayer, reflecting on how she'd gotten to this point.  The singular memory that kept returning her thoughts was of her father on his deathbed...She had been15 years old and sitting beside her father, just the two of them, as it had been all night long.  She had been praying to Asmodeus through the night while holding her father’s hand. Dakota had been almost lulled to sleep listening to her father’s breathing, which had become more of a labored rattle.  He had been stabbed the previous night, the target of an assassination attempt by the Eddarly family because they thought that his “product” did not live up to their expectations.  He had not gone down without a fight though. He had left his attacker with a permanently disfigured face, but that hadn't saved him from being gut-stabbed and mortally wounded.  It was around midnight when her father abruptly sat up and began to speak softly, “Where is Kat?” he asked softly.Dakota had been startled to hear his voice.“She has gone to the bar to ease her stress.  She couldn’t stand to sit here and watch you die.  You know you are the center of her world.”  “ Of course. She was the baby and precious to me," Parallax Dannister whispered. "That is why I need to speak to her.”  He paused, trying his best to catch is breath. “I need to tell her the truth," he continued after a moment.“What are you talking about?" Dakota asked."The truth about what?”“I did it,” he said, after coughing up more blood and then lying back to close his eyes once more.“Did what?” Dakota whispered.Her mind jumped to a hundred different possibilities. She had to know, but she couldn’t push her dying father as if he were one of her prisoners. She wanted...no... needed to know!  She had been trained in the art of torture and could wring the truth from a stone, but this was different. She couldn’t poke and prod her own father as he lay on his death bed, his eyes closed so that he could slip into Asmodeus's eternal land of Nessus.She bent down to give her father a slight kiss on his forehead and whispered, "Dad…”His eyes opened, and Dakota said, “Tell me the truth.”“When you were only two years old," he spoke hoarsely, "I found out something about Solunia, your mother....” Coughing again.  “She betrayed the family and I couldn’t let that stand.  You know I have always taught you children to put our family first so that we would be stronger as a whole.  We all have skills that will help our family prosper if we act as one.” He srtained to continue. Dakota held his hand and said, “Continue father”.“Your sister Kat is not of my blood," he whispered. "However, lest you ever forget, she is still a Dannister and that is how I raised her.  But your mother could not be forgiven. I had to end the blight that had infected our family.  I killed your mother. I did it.”Dakota sat there in silence, not believing what she was hearing.He continued. “I became suspicious of your mother after Kat was born. I had her followed for weeks. I found out she had been seeing a thrice-damned worshipper of Iomedae who was tainted by celestial blood! She was sneaking off during the day to see this creature.  I could not let this happen, so I poisoned her and told you children that it was sickness. I did it to protect the family and cleanse it of impurities." Choking on his own blood, he said finally, “Tell Kat the truth. I never could.”It was the last thing he said and it had changed Dakota’s view of the world. She could never say anything to her sister.  It would destroy Kat and it would tear the family apart.  She would have to live with this knowledge alone.  As her father before her, she knew that she would have to root out heretics wherever they hid, because they destroyed families and religions from within.  She realized that knowledge was power and that some knowledge was meant to be kept for yourself.</blockquote>

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