It is Not in the Stars to Hold Our Destiny, but in Ourselves

At the sound of her threat, Durai's eyes narrowed to furious slits. The mere thought that the tables could possibly be turned on him, and to this extent, was the most unacceptable possibility.

He stood there and looked at her impressive stature up and down. Before this moment he had wanted to break her spirit so completely that she would barely have the will to live much less fight him on anything. He had hopes of her being ultimate trophy, a beauteous gem who depended upon him so completely that she would be his to do with as he pleased. The most gorgeous woman, the most powerful Healer, and then the strongest fighter against him to become an ornament on his arm had given him such erotic excitement that he could barely contain himself. Now, however, he looked upon just how strong and resilient she stood before him. Now the option of toying with her was too risky; he stood a good chance now to lose it all.

No, he thought with regret and apprehension, he would have to destroy her.

Althea seemed to sense the change in his resolve, but she didn't let it concern her. She let all worry and trepidation wash through her as if it were the wind dancing off her skin. The cold could not touch her; she would no longer allow it. The darkness would not fill her; she forbade it. She became the warrior embodiment of the righteous good.

And she would not stop.

Durai bent down and put his hands against the floor. The room darkened even more completely. The only light in the room was the light around Althea, and even she couldn't see Durai's figure though he stood only a few meters from her. She increased the flames around her, and still she could not see. Shadows began to creep into her light in the forms of the familiar hands reaching out to her. She was able to deter and destroy some of them as they grabbed at her, but still others persisted and pulled at her dress and hair.

She did not panic; she did not distress or cry out. She methodically went after the most aggressive force and blasted it with fire one right after the other with an almost eerie calm. They gave pathetic screeches in their death thralls. Though Durai remained hidden in the darkness, he was beginning to note that the fire which had merely been warm before was becoming more intense; he could feel the heat even from his position. He could tell then that his shadow creatures wouldn't work. He had to change tactics.

Althea blasted one last shade reaching for her before she noticed all movement in the darkness cease suddenly. She stood alert and poised for the next tactic of attack that she knew was coming. The darkness was so black and dense that it was enough to drive one mad. From the black she began to sense a presence. Indiscernible whispers began to swirl about the air giving the atmosphere an ominously portentous feeling. The sounds became louder; specific words could be distinguished. Then the whispers became familiar voices calling out to her.

She could hear Baldrik's voice full of accusation and enmity. "You left me. You left me alone to suffer and die. This is your fault."

She could hear Mireya's voice in the dark. "You left me like I was nothing. You don't love me. You never did. You played me."

She heard nameless voices of countless others, "This is your fault. You did this. We suffer because of you!"

The voices began to blend together in such an overwhelming heaviness and the animosity became so strong that Althea could almost touch it. She closed her eyes at the barrage of painful accusations, and the light within her dimmed. The flames died down, and the light faded into the darkness before there was nothing left of her to see. It had swallowed her completely.

Durai lowered his hand as he saw his ploy work at shrinking her away and wearing her down to nothing. He smiled to himself feeling victorious and clever. He took a step towards where he last saw her. He was ready to scoop her up from the floor expecting to see her in a pile as she had made him earlier.

But he could not find her.

Now he was in the darkness at a disadvantage. He tried to seek her out, feel her within the darkness in some way, but he couldn't feel anything in the darkness. He felt trapped in a void, and he had made it so. He tried not to let the panic he felt rising overtake him, but for the first time since he was a small child, he felt vulnerable. He was even admittedly afraid.

Before he could fully register the warm breath on his neck, he became surrounded by red flames. Durai felt her presence behind him, and the aura she emitted was overwhelming and full of strength. She wrapped her arms tight around him from behind and held him tight. The flames billowed high around the both of them and at that moment locked them together.

He turned to her then. He was only able to see her face and the flames. He felt angry, but mostly he felt afraid. In his fear he locked onto her eyes. Her eyes were unwavering in the midst of his anger and the warmth of the flames. She was not backing down, she had come so far, and she was taking him with her. She would not settle for less than the end of this.

He tried so hard to keep up his hatred and anger towards her, but she would not be swayed from her persistent looks of kindness and gentle helpfulness. He sneered at her in order to push her into her previous passions, but she refused to reflect the monster facing her. She was the guardian of light, and if he was going to accept that light within himself, she would do so her way.

Seeing her unmoved and completely in control began to have an effect on Durai. But to his surprise, the effect was not what he was expecting. He thought that her continued defiance would infuriate him to become more physically violently. Instead, the blood that boiled up inside of him began to cool. The pressure he was building up in his own fervor started to release and diminish. The negative turmoil behind his eyes began to fade and soften, and he saw her clearly then – maybe for the first time in a very long time. She was no longer a decorative prize for his inflated pride and ego. He saw clearly a woman pure and beautiful – not just in a physical sense, but in every sense – that stood before him.

He thought then that she looked like such an angel. How had he not seen this before?

Althea raised one hand and laid it on the side of his face. He felt her touch; it was soft, it was tender. "Durai," she said in her normal voice, her bird-song voice, "it's time to turn away from the shadows. It's time to turn from what you became."

Durai placed a hand upon her hand that caressed the side of his face. This tenderness was once his, and he cut it up mercilessly and carved it to his will. He had rendered the most exquisite flower to a wilted death husk with his selfish manipulation and cruelty. Not even a saint could forgive what he had done.

And that thought then turned him away from the salvation of the light.

Durai took the hand within his own and squeezed it hard with his own anger rising once again. "You mean it's time to go and be punished. You think you can fool me? No one can forgive what you promise to resolve. Nothing will be back to serenity and peace after this. I've gone too far. Now I must go the rest of the way."

"No, Durai. You're so close!"

"Little witch, you can't trap me! No one can go back after what I've done. No one! No light forgives that much dark!"

In his rage, he raised his hand and reeled it back to strike her with the most force that he had ever used on her. But she didn't flinch at his actions. She saw his motions as if he were moving in half time, or maybe she had just known deep down that it would come to this.

She moved with the grace of a smooth river, of a breeze in spring, of the gentle brilliance of a rising sun; she had become an elemental force of the earth, and she laid both of her hands against his face. As she closed her eyes, the light from her body spilled into every corner of the room. Durai fought against the light, and the harder he fought against it, the harder he tried to keep it out, the fiercer the light became. He fought against it so hard that the brilliance of the light began to sting and singe.

Fire emerged from her hands then, and the warmth of flames came with it. While her hands were unfeeling with accepting the light, creating it, Durai's body that was resisting it felt the heat of the blaze was all too real. He began to steel himself against the pain, but he would not let the light that shone from her into his heart. The heat surged and began to singe his skin. He cried out in pain, but she wouldn't let go. His eyes were held shut so tightly that it seemed his eyebrows would meet his cheeks.

"Don't fight it, Durai. The light is a part of you. Let it!" Althea screamed at him as the intensity of the flames seemed to drown out all sound.

"Althea! There's smoke! Althea! Please! Are you alright?!" Althea then heard the voices on the other side of the door calling out for her in terrified concern. They banged hard against the wood terrified of the smoke coming from beneath the door. That's when she started to feel the anxiety rise within herself. She struggled to keep control and the command of the light. She was so close!

"Durai, please!" she shouted with one final push of everything she had within herself. She felt as if she had pushed her insides to the outside. An explosion went off at her core, and the flames blasted with her effort. The light from the surging flames seemed to cascade down in radiant, twinkling orbs from the ceiling.

The light from her final, exhaustive push pierced through Durai's heart like a flying arrow. His eyes flew open then, and they were filled with the same white light that Althea had held within hers. His body went rigid. She had given everything she had to get the goodness and truth into him, and it now began to take hold. They shared each other's joys and pains, a lifetime's worth. The complexities of their intertwining destinies coursed through them both. The sensation was so intense that it began to hurt them. It filled every cell within their bodies, the agony of giving and receiving. And for a moment, the whole world's orbit spun around them.

Slam!

With Durai's body held trapped within Althea's hold, the hold of the light, the Magic he used to keep the room sealed and dark fell away. Galen finally forced the door open with Jian's help, and with the room breached, the torches and night candles of the room lit themselves. The three ran up the carpeted walk just in time to see the last seconds of the red flames that encompassed two figures locked within them. Both were a vision of purely powerful Magic with their hair blowing in a wind only around them and their eyes alight purely white. The three stood and stared. The sight was breathtaking. The sight was terrifying.

The moment faded almost as soon as the trio came upon it, and both Durai and Althea collapsed upon the ground. They were unmoving; they did not even show the motion of breath. Galen ran to Althea's body almost choking on his fear. He didn't know what he had just witness, but he prayed that whatever it was didn't take her life with it. He dropped to his knees besides her and cradled her within his arms. Jian and Mireya watched on holding their breaths praying along with him that life was still within her.

"Althea?" Galen brushed back her hair. Her body was cold and unmoving against his warm, gentle touch. Her limbs were stiff and unreceptive. "Althea? Please?"

With his angel fallen and lying within his arms upon the ground, tears escaped his eyes as he rocked back and forth still holding tight to the woman he had loved so much.