driftfleet | one ♘ video

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one ♘ video

Who: Lila Zacharov
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Marsiva
When: Friday, May 22

[It would be an understatement to say that Lila isn't happy to be here. No, actually, she's furious. She was in the middle of a job back home, and now - well, she couldn't begin to say whether people will notice her gone. Hell, time might have stopped back home for all she knows. But she can't afford to waste any time. She has to get back now.]

[When she turns on the video, she's wearing a low-slung black and white top that clearly reveals the gnarled, dark scar that slashes across her neck, her second smile. She's showing it off, proving that she's not someone to mess with. That she isn't afraid.]

I need to talk to Atroma. Now.

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[Idiotic. Lila watches Elena for another moment, then nods. She wouldn't die to protect anyone who wasn't family.]

It's a story you don't want to tell?

[At least Lila can respect that.]

[Elena tips her head side-to-side a little. Yes and no.]

When I said it was a long story, I meant it. It's something that started two thousand years ago and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't believe any of it even if I told you.

[Elena's silent a moment as she purses her lips a little.]

It probably doesn't matter much here to begin with anyway.

[She shakes her head.]

History matters.

[No matter how long and complicated it is, it shapes what people are today.]

[Elena doesn't know for sure if it always does matter. Or maybe it's just very wishful thinking on her part born out of history always finding a way to screw up something in her present.]

[She decides to at least test the water with Lila some though, on how much she's willing to believe. She's not here to lay out the whole story or even her own personal story, but Bonnie's is one that people should know, she thinks. People shouldn't forget how selfless Bonnie has been her whole life, how much she's been willing to give up and set aside for the sake of the people she loves.]

There were these witches named Silas and Qetsiyah. They created an immortality spell so they could spend eternity together. But Silas didn't love Qetsiyah, he loved one of her handmaidens, Amara. He stole the potions and drank them with Amara. Qetsiyah found out and faked Amara's death before sealing Silas away in a tomb with the cure to his immortality.

Qetsiyah used her magic to create the Other Side. It's a dimension where all supernatural creatures went after they died, but to get there, they had to pass through the anchor. She made Amara the anchor and for two thousand years, Amara felt the death of every supernatural being in the entire world.

She hoped that if Silas ever woke up, he'd take the cure thinking he could die and be with Amara, but be on the Other Side with Qetsiyah for eternity instead.

[It sounds like a story, a fairy tale. Lila isn't supposed to believe in those anymore. But when Elena speaks, there's a note of truth in it that Lila can't ignore. She knows how to read people, and Elena isn't lying.]

Did it work? Her plan.

No. My friend became the anchor instead.

[And that's simplifying it by a lot. But those details don't seem all that necessary.]

So your friend felt all those deaths?

[Elena nods.]

As long as she was the anchor, she felt every death. But Bonnie was on borrowed time. [Bonnie once again putting her life on the line for the sake of other people. Elena leaves out the part that Bonnie gave her life once already to bring back her little brother, to set things right again. It's not that it's irrelevant or unimportant, it just doesn't seem pertinent to share. Not right now.] Becoming the anchor was the only way she could live, but it made the Other Side unstable.

And with no Other Side, there's no anchor, no Bonnie.

And it all just . . . came apart?

[She's trying hard to understand, but this super isn't how magic works where she comes from.]

It collapsed. With her trapped there.

[And Damon. But he's not worth mentioning or remembering beyond how much it's hurt Stefan to lose his brother. But Stefan isn't here, so...]

[A moment of silence, here. Then:]

I'm sorry.

[It comes out flat, but she really means it. She had a best friend, once. She doesn't know if she's ever going to see her again.]

Me, too.

[Elena falls silent for a moment, looking at her hands in her lap. There's no getting Bonnie back anymore with the Other Side gone. It would have been difficult to bring her back with it still there, but there was still at least a way then. Now? Now there's nothing.]

[The most she can hope is that Bonnie made peace and wasn't sucked into whatever the hell was pulling those who couldn't move on.]

She gave up too much for everyone else.

Yeah. Some people do that.

[It reminds her effortlessly of Daneca. Not at the same level, of course, but Daneca was always giving pieces of herself to other people. Too trusting, too kind. It's dangerous to be like that.]

[Still, Lila misses it. She falls silent in the wake of Elena's story, looking out over Marsiva at the ships in the distance.]

[Elena would have to be blind or an idiot to not figure out that she's struck a chord with Lila. Her silence is deeper and heavier than just simple respectful silence after being told some heavy things. Out of respect for that, Elena's quiet and debates about whether or not she should apologize for bringing it up in the first place.]

[It seems better not to say anything about it though and to simply brush past it. So, she shifts in her seat, sitting a little straighter and further forward in her seat.]

So is magic not like that where you come from at all?

[Just change the topic as carefully as possible instead of dwelling.]

[She glances sideways, silently grateful. Will never bring it up or mention it to Elena, because that's weakness, too. But she knows she's been read.]

No. There are only seven kinds of magic. None of them are so . . . versatile.

Dream work, physical work, memory work, luck work, death work, emotion work, and transformation work.

[Most of those sound fairly straight forward, at least in their most basic concepts. But physical work doesn't make a whole lot of sense and death work could possibly go one or two ways.]

And you can do dream work. [Given the offer to take away any nightmares.] Can you do any of the others?

Just that one.

[But she does it very well.]

Nobody can do more than one. That's just not how it works. Not that I've ever heard of, anyway.

Would you want to be able to do more than one?

[Her mismatched gaze is sharp when she looks back to Elena.]

I would want them all.

[Somehow, that answer doesn't surprise Elena at all. From what very little time she's spent with Lila, her demeanor says a lot. Very likely it's only things that Lila wants Elena to think and know, but that doesn't make it necessarily any less true even if it's not always an absolute or hard and fast facts.]

[She just nods a little before asking her next question.]

So you just touch someone and that does the magic, right? How long does that last?

As long as I want it to.

[She doesn't tell Elena about blowback, though. That's for her to know and nobody else to ever find out, hopefully.]

Dreams are dreams. They're naturally compartmentalized. But I can keep them recurring, or have them only happen once.

Did it take you a long time to learn how to do that?

[It took Bonnie a long while to really get full control over her abilities even though magic was something she was born with and had from the very beginning.]

A few years. I keep getting better.

[This is not actually bragging. Just cold, hard fact. She's the best dream worker she knows, and she improves every time she works.]

[She doesn't get the sense it's bragging. Lila doesn't seem like the type to brag to Elena. Her earlier cool air of indifference didn't give her that impression, anyway.]

Did you always have the power or was it something that showed up eventually?

It showed up when I was little. It hasn't been around forever, but I don't really remember a time without it.

It's part of me.

[This is also a simple truth. If anyone took her dream work away from her, she would be out for blood.]

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forgetyourusedtobe - 2015-06-07 19:46 (UTC) - Expand

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