Consequences

[Grayson Faleon]

When Meg glanced up at him, Gray saw the doubt in her eyes. He echoed the silent sentiment, knowing that the chances of her getting out to see him once Melechiah had him further than a handspan, were slim to none. But he curled her fingers over the small missive anyway, thumb stroking gently over her knuckles.

"I promise, I know just who to send. I do not know if he will allow me, but I will come all the same."

“Do not do anything foolish,” Gray said as she leaned into him, rousing the more protective feelings only she seemed able to wrap around him like a net. A cocoon as silken as the hair the tickled the underside of his chin as she pressed closer than her brother would have liked. Gray didn’t put distance between them, instead smoothing a hand over the pale waterfall of her hair and resting there a moment. She smelled like flowers even in winter.

“If you wish to come I will find a way to arrange it even if it requires less truths than I normally would allow of myself. I’ll come and get you myself if I have to. You can meet me halfway on a visit to a friend perhaps.” He talked almost to himself, his hand sliding beneath her hair to stroke along the ender skin at the nape of her neck that was softer than silk. He suppressed the desire to stroke down the length of that smooth pale skin that was likely as creamy everywhere else as it was on her shoulders.

Gray imagined her milk pale, long sleek limbs touched with silver in the moonlight as Meg arched towards him among the sheets…full lips parted like twin rose petals, as silky and sensual as they learned the planes of his body and he hers in turn…

His throat was cleared as he finally set the smallest but most necessary of differences between them. He was injured and in no position to commit folly and she was innocent still at least to some of the true faces of men.

“I will always come for you,” he said, his voice almost harsh as he looked down into her face. “Do you understand me?”

She nodded slowly.

“I need you to believe that if you believe nothing else when your mind is so filled with distrust that you know not where to turn. You can always turn to me Meg.”


"I love you," she breathed softly as she buried her face against his chest, causing the hard lines of Gray’s face to soften into a tenderness he rarely displayed in favor of stoic neutrality. He exhaled, sliding her hand beneath his cloak. He felt her stiffen but rather than giving in to the desires of his body, he gave into the softer emotion, settling her small palm over his chest so she could feel the steady thump of his heart against her palm.

“You have my heart Maegwen. It was yours the moment you smiled at me like an angel created from the snowflakes. You are the sunshine on my face, soothing and illuminating the dark when I forget that there are things in this world fighting for. “

His hand curled gently in her hair to tip her head up to look at him. “Don’t marry whoever he is planning for you…You’re mine, Meg. And one day he will know it as well and have no choice but to accept it.” His smile gentled at her wide eyes. “Go now and make the letter is delivered. Write me the moment you can without risk. Understood?”

[Melchiah Bryant Vasser]

Grayson wanted to treat this situation with politics. Talk of preventing inevitable wars and hiding behind the protection of his Father's social standing. And people thought Melchiah insane. This was coming to an end. Melchiah had a way of life. No man, especially one such as Grayson, was going to take it from him. Measures no matter how drastic, were measures.

The pistol had barely cooled before it gained a new purpose. Melchiah glanced over the fallen messenger near the door. A black puddle had already formed around the man. It seeped over the once yellow and blue flowers of the rug and was now spreading to the hardwood floor beyond. Melchiah made note to have that carpet replaced. He straightened his tie and walked around his desk. The door took extra effort to shove aside. The corpse that once blocked it now sprawled half way into the hall.

He readied his pistol, kissed the still warm barrel, then slipped it into the holster at his side. Confident strides began in the direction of where Grayson resided. There was a melody to behold. Harsh at first in its measures, then left to drift into its own unique silence. A death syndicate--and tonight it played for Grayson.

[Maegwen Isbeth Vasser]

“You have my heart Maegwen. It was yours the moment you smiled at me like an angel created from the snowflakes. You are the sunshine on my face, soothing and illuminating the dark when I forget that there are things in this world fighting for. “

Maegwen felt her heart fluttering at his words. One day they would be together and they would be happy. At his gentle insistence her head tilted back, her eyes lingering on his face, memorizing every line.

"Don’t marry whoever he is planning for you…You’re mine, Meg. And one day he will know it as well and have no choice but to accept it. Go now and make the letter is delivered. Write me the moment you can without risk. Understood?”

She gave a quick nod to his words, unable to keep the smile from forming on her lips. A light in the darkness. Clutching the note to her chest she extracted herself from his arms and begrudgingly turned towards the door. There were only two people in the world she trusted with the note and one of them had passed long ago. The other was elderly now but she would be able to get it to someone who in turn would get it to Grayson's sister.

Maegwen hurried across the room, approaching the door with both trepidation and joy. In a week she could be with Grayson again without fear of loving one another. A week! All she had to do was keep under her brother's radar.

[Melchiah Bryant Vasser]

The door would open before Maegwen's hand even touched the handle. Melchiah's hand lay against the door pushing it open, the other gripped the pistol at his waist. He shoved past Maegwen no matter what objection she would surely offer. There was a task at hand. Nothing would have stood in his way. Nothing.

Grayson was the only reflection in Melchiah's black eyes. Fingers gripped the pistol until his knuckles were white. What would come of this? he wondered. Can I live with another man's death on my hands? A smirk. Of course. He drew his weapon and lifted it eye level with Grayson. His finger clenched the trigger.

Time stopped......then came crashing back in a flurry of movements. Blood decorated the wall behind Grayson in fans of crimson. The man crumpled to the floor. Melchiah smiled.

It was many heartbeats before Melchiah lowered the gun away, returning it to its place. His movements were leonine when he squared his shoulders and lifted his head. Lips curled back and he spat at the floor.

"Hospitality. Bah."

[Maegwen Isbeth Vasser]

A startled gasped escaped her lips when the door swung open before her hand even touched the handle. She wasn't really surprised to see Melchiah, she should have expected it truth be told. No doubt someone had seen them in the hallway, someone who'd run to tell Melchiah that more than just words were being exchanged between the two of them.

Before Maegwen had a chance to speak, however, her brother practically shoved her out of the way to approached Grayson instead. Every muscle in her body grew tense as out of the corner of her eye she saw the pistol in his hand. Everything after that happened in slow motion and there was nothing Meg could do to stop it.

For all intents and purposes, Melchiah might as well have shot her through the heart. She screamed when Grayson's lifeless body crumpled to the floor. The sound was ethereal, foreign to her ears and a part of her wasn't even certain the sound had come from her. A heavy, suffocating weight settled on her shoulders. Crushing down on her, relentless. Every happy notion she'd had about the freedom she'd find in Grayson's love lay broken on the floor, mingling with the blood that pooled beneath his cooling body.

"No, no, no, no," she whispered over and over as though if she said it enough it might make it true. She took a step towards him and stopped. She felt sick to her stomach and the world had taken on a dangerous tilt. Melchiah. Her brother had just murdered a man in cold blood. An injured, unarmed man. She fought the urge to throw up. She practically flew across the room in an attempt to reach Grayson. Maybe there was still hope, maybe not all was lost.

"Grayson? Please no!" Unless Melchiah stopped her, she'd find herself kneeling in the growing pool of blood, her fingers pulling and tugging in an attempt to roll the man over. "I hate you," she whispered as tears began to pour from her eyes. Her voice was strangled, soft and thick with emotion. "I'll never forgive you for this."

[Melchiah Bryant Vasser]

And it was done. One more blemish added to his already blackened soul. Too bad it had come to an end so quickly. Melchiah enjoyed more delicate means of murder. Guns were so impersonal afterall.

"I hate you," she whispered as tears began to pour from her eyes.

"Really now, must you be so dramatic?" Looking on in disgust at his sister struggling with the late Grayson. "The man became a corpse the moment he crossed me. You were foolish to leave your feelings with a dead man," he said with a crooked smile. The scent of blood was already dominating the room. Cloying metallic smells mixed with the remaining ambers in the hearth. He had to distract himself to keep from heaving.

"Never forgive me?" The words tasted sour in his mouth. He sighed, wrung his hands, and shut the door behind him.

Melchiah's shoulders tensed. Perhaps shooting that messenger boy had been hasty. Now he'd be foreced to find another to deliver the news of Grayson's unexpected accident. Oh well, there were plenty of footmen about to choose from.

There was a brief moment where he felt sorry for his sister. Very brief. She had attempted to betray him. Lied to him. And for what? The heap of skin that now layed broken before her? Melchiah stepped closer, head canted as he looked down.

"And what of love now, hmm?" His voice was sharp, emotionless. " Did his feelings save him? Are his promises intact even in death?" A slight shrug of his shoulders and he brought his head upright. " I am sorry you had to learn this harsh lesson from me. I thought fathers death might have been enough to make you realize." he shook his head. " But here we are my....Dear....Sister."

[Maegwen Isbeth Vasser]

"Really now, must you be so dramatic? The man became a corpse the moment he crossed me. You were foolish to leave your feelings with a dead man."

The harsh words managed to penetrate the pain that had formed like a curtain over her mind. Grayson was dead and with it all her hopes for the future. Even now, with his cooling, lifeless body unmoving beneath her she could still remember the way his lips had felt against her skin, the way his arms had felt when he held her, the tender way he'd examined the mark Melchiah had left in retribution for her show of defiance. Grayson had loved her and Melchiah in his greed and pettiness had taken it all away from her.

"And what of love now, hmm?"

The sharp tone of his voice cut into her like a knife but she was not surprised. What did a man like him know of love? She had given him as much love as any sister could, her devotion and her faith that inside he was a better person.

"Did his feelings save him? Are his promises intact even in death?"

If the promises Grayson had made now lay shattered amongst the rubble of a broken heart it was no fault of the maker but that of her brother, the murderer.

"I am sorry you had to learn this harsh lesson from me. I thought fathers death might have been enough to make you realize. But here we are my....Dear....Sister."

Here they were indeed. With each passing moment she felt her grief and anguish shifting into something more, something that hid deep inside of her, a fierce anger screaming to be unleashed. A sob escaped her lips. "No, brother," she said at last, her voice trembling though not with fear but pent up anger at this injustice. "I'm sorry. Sorry that you will never experience love as I had. That you have lowered yourself to murder an unarmed and injured man. You're pathetic! Why don't you just shoot me too?"

She swung unsteadily to her feet, skirts streak with blood. She seemed to be borderline hysterical now. "Reload the pistol, aim it at my heart and pull the trigger! You're man enough, aren't you? Perhaps I should turn around first so you can shoot me in the back?" A small part of her was appalled by what she was saying but she couldn't stop it. "Would that make it easier for you, brother?"

In that moment she made a decision. She was going to escape this place or she was going to die trying.

[Melchiah Bryant Vasser]

"Just look at yourself." Arm held outward, his palm splayed. " You pity me? Love, fleeting emotion. A delusional display harbored by the weak and hopeless. Keep your love. Your weakness. I want no part of it...no part of you." Maegwen's outburst struck him deeper than he would have anticipated. Was he hurt? Yes, but not enough to discard the barbed wire that lined his heart. Years of protecting her and it had come to this. He'd excepted the terms the moment he pulled the trigger.

"Reload the pistol, aim it at my heart and pull the trigger! You're man enough, aren't you? Perhaps I should turn around first so you can shoot me in the back?" A small part of her was appalled by what she was saying but she couldn't stop it. "Would that make it easier for you, brother?"

The used pistol was discarded, tossed to the floor where it skidded under a chair. Brow furrowed, he reached behind his back. His hand returned holding something. Metal glinted in the faint light. Polished wood snaked into a handle. Another pistol. It rose to his chest, the barrel tapping his collar bone.

" Turn around."

[Maegwen Isbeth Vasser]

At this point in time, Maegwen would have laughed to learn that her words had struck Melchiah in any way that inflicted pain. You had to care first to feel the sort of pain she had aimed to inflict. There was no forgiveness for what he had done. Nothing he could do to make up for the loss that overcame her.

She was not surprised when he produced a second pistol. Why not? He'd need another shot if the one meant to kill Grayson had not succeeded in accomplishing the job. He needed to make sure he had a back up plan.

What did surprise her? Was his command.

"Turn around."

A flicker of fear flashed through her eyes before she steeled herself. What was death but a release? She was certain he'd come up with some explanation as to her death. Perhaps he'd blame it on Grayson and then claim that he'd kill Grayson as retribution. Too bad it had been too late to save his sister.

Without a word she did just as he asked, pivoting slowly on her heel until she had her back to him. Perhaps it was better this way. She would not have to find peace in the world without Grayson at her side. The hurt would all go away. "Go on then," she whispered. "Pull the trigger."

[Melchiah Bryant Vasser]

The expression on his face could only be described as satisfaction. Now there was the Maegwen he knew. Compliant. Submissive. As she should be. The pistol left his chest but lingered in his hand. He took a step closer, leaving the gap between them less than a few feet. A single shot fired. The bulled twanged off a lamp, then landed in the wall with a heavy thud. Melchiah had taken aim along side her head with little to no intent of actually hitting her.

He closed the space between them, pressing his chest to her back. An arm reached around Maegwen's upper torso and hugged her closer, forearm wrapping her chest. His head now sat parallel to her own. The empty pistol in his other hand was used to direct her stare downward . " Just look at what you've done. Look at him." Melchiah glanced to Grayson, there was a fake sincerity in his voice. " You could have saved him. If it wasn't for your so called love he would be alive right this very moment. " The arm at her shoulder slid away, and with it Melchiah.

" Live with your guilt my sister. Death is a release, not a punishment."

[Maegwen Isbeth Vasser]

Each second that passed without a sound was another second Maegwen stood resolving herself. There was no more hiding from the truth, no more turning a blind eye, pretending her brother wasn't what he was. A monster. Funny how these realizations came on the brink of death. At the end of one's life when the lessons learned no longer hold any weight.

The sound of the pistol firing caused her to flinch and she waited for what seemed like an eternity for the pain to blossom. For some indication that the bullet had met it's mark. For the sweet release that would allow her to part this world and escape the deep pain of betrayal, of love lost.

Instead she felt Melchiah press close, his arm circling around her as his head settled just over her shoulder. Her head moved with his insistence, landing on the fallen Grayson. The love of her life snuffed out like a candle left in an open window. She had not done enough to protect him.

" Just look at what you've done. Look at him. You could have saved him. If it wasn't for your so called love he would be alive right this very moment. "

Maegwen felt her heart seize in her chest and a sob rose in her throat. Was he right? Would he have left Grayson alone if she had just turned her back on him? If she had refused to acknowledge his love in return? The pain might have been just as intense but Grayson would be alive.

Or would he? Would Melchiah have still found an excuse to remove Grayson from the picture? Her mind was reeling and she nearly crumpled to the floor when Melchiah released her and took a step back. She thankfully managed to maintain her composure -- for now.

"Live with your guilt my sister. Death is a release, not a punishment."

Maegwen was running before she realized her feet were even moving. She shoved past Melchiah and right out the doors into the hallway. She had no destination in particular, she just ran as fast as her feet would allow. Tears flowed freely now, hot and damning down her cheeks. She flew past bewildered servants, stable boys and other castle staff who hadn't a clue what had just occurred. No idea of the loss that had been endured.

She felt as though she were going to split in two. She was not strong enough for this.

Death is a release, not a punishment.

A release.

Minutes later she burst through one of many side entrances into the keep used for delivering goods to the kitchen and as a means for staff to come and go without cluttering up the main foyer. The night was cold and snow fell gently around her, clinging to hair and clothing the moment they met. It was a night where one could easily lose themselves in a flurry if they weren't careful. She didn't care, she didn't let it slow her. The medium weight fabric of her dress was hardly protection against the bitter cold or the wind that twisted around her, but Maegwen didn't even seem to notice.

She was dead on the inside.

She had killed Grayson. Her love had killed him. An instrument of death and destruction. Sob after sob shook her slender frame as she went from a run to a slow drift through the snow. It wouldn't be much longer now before she got tired and then she'd sleep. Sleep and if she were lucky, she'd never wake again.

[Melchiah Bryant Vasser]

Maegwen's abrupt exit had Melchiah wheeling around,he blinked rapidly, only to watch her rush further away.His face was stone. Brows furrowed and lips pursed together.

"You brought this on yourself!,"the raise in his voice stung his throat,"Go then! Run! It will do you no good!"And then he was alone. Well, somewhat. He glowered at Grayson's draining body.

"Why did you have to come here? Couldn't you leave well enough alone?" The corpse remained silent.Melchiah clenched his fists.It was easier to blame a dead man. As had it always been."You turned her against me." A running upsweep of his leg hand his foot slamming into the side of Grayson's ribcage. Bone snapped, but Grayson still offered no rebuttle."You mock me even in death!!" Another pointless kick.Melchiah found himself breathing in bellows.A final cry of frustration the room fell quiet.


The shouting had brought the peering eyes of the head butler.

[COLOR=green]"Sir, are you all right?" The white fluff that made up the old man's brow lifted. "I just saw your sister pass-" Horror silenced the man, leaving his face pale.A hand lifted to his gaping mouth." Not again Sir...twice in one night?"[COLOR=green]

Anger had stolen his voice. Blood thumped past his ears and boiled his veins. He managed a nod, but didn't turn to face the man.

[COLOR=green]The elderly butler nodded slowly, the fear on his face replaced by the blank stare of duty. " I'll have the mess taken care of."His adopted stoic tone of voice suggested that he'd cleaned up after Melchiah before.[COLOR=green]

That said the old man bowed out of habit and fled the room.Melchiah exhaled slowly and let his tensed muscles relax.Not all was lost he realized.

"This could turn out quite remunerative." He smirked.