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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1529497" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 136“Zenna, what’s wrong?”Zenna looked up to see Dannel standing in the doorway to the bedroom.  The elf was clad only in his breeches, his long hair hanging loosely down across his shoulders, a look of concern on his face.  As she wiped away her tears, her sadness was replaced by a burning anger that started as a flame in her gut, but rapidly built to a raging torrent as she pulled herself up, picking up the silver pin as she did so. “What’s wrong?  You bastard!”She hurled the pin at him, a bit disgruntled when his hand snapped out and caught it smoothly.  At the very least she’d hoped for maybe an eye.  Dannel looked down at the object in his hand.  “Zenna, please, I can explain...”“I don’t want to hear your explanation!” she screamed.  “What, are you going to try and tell me it was all just a coincidence?  That you just happened to be a Harper, that you just happened to be in Cauldron, that you just HAPPENED to ‘run into’ me on the road?  Do you think I’m an idiot?  No, what am I saying?  Of course I’m an idiot, I never suspected anything, just let you LIE to me, SPY on me!”“Zenna, listen to me!  Yes, I admit it, your parents asked me to look after you, but they didn’t send me to spy on you!  I was already here on my own business, and they send a request through Esbar...”“So they knew we were here all along,” she said, her words dripping venom.  “So I was just fooling myself, the whole time.”“Your parents care a great deal about you,” Dannel said.  “Your mother—“Zenna cut him off.  “My mother is dead,” she said.  “As for my father and his wife, if they’d truly cared, they would have actually been parents, rather than spending all their time running around the west!  They would have been there, and my mother might still be alive.”“Zenna,” Dannel said, his voice firm.  “Zenna, I don’t know the entire story, but I do know that your parents—" he emphasized the word, “they are responsible for a great deal of good.  With great power often comes a weighty duty to use it in the causes in which one believes.”“I don’t care about any of that,” Zenna said.  “I left because I wanted to live my own life.  And I will, without their interference—or anyone else’s.”The elf stepped closer to her, until less than a pace separated them.  “Zenna—I love you.”She looked up at him, and her eyes were cold.  “I may not know much about love, but I do know that it’s based on trust.  You lied to me, and that cannot be undone.”She spun away from him, and took up her breeches from the table, quickly sliding into them.  “Zenna, I’m sorry... I didn’t mean for things to happen this way, but I am not lying about my feelings for you...”She shoved her feet roughly into her boots, painfully jamming one of her left toes.  The feeling was almost welcome to her, nothing compared to the pain she was feeling inside.  She took up her scrollcases and a few other things, thrusting them into her pack beside the desk.  Dannel moved around to block her.  “Zenna, I’m not going to let you leave until we talk this through.  I didn’t fight to bring you back from Bhal-Hamatugn to lose you now.”She stood before him, and it was a long moment before she lifted her head to face him.  “I am not yours to be won or lost,” she said.  “I do not want to ever see you again.  And if you see my ‘parents’, be sure to tell them the same.”“Zenna—"She started toward the door.  Dannel moved to block her, but she suddenly issued a string of harsh syllables, and the elf abruptly froze, a look of startlement on his face.“Goodbye, Dannel,” she said.  She did not look at him again as she crossed to the door to the landing, pausing only to settle her magical hat upon her head before departing.  On the landing, as the door slammed shut behind her, she stood for a moment, the tears pouring down her face, fighting a wave of grief and regret that threatened to overwhelm her. But only for a moment.  Finally she regained control of herself, fighting back the dark emotions with the hard self-discipline that she’d schooled in herself since she’d been a child, alone and different.  Alone.  Finally, she walked down the stairs, without looking back.</blockquote>

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