Amythest dreams

Chapter Nine:

Iredesa was more than ready to stop by the time they made camp. Kallan had pushed them until the sun had set and the moon had risen. She kept telling herself that he pushed them because of the time restraint they were under, yet somehow she knew that he was in no hurry to repeat the conversation they had earlier and was stalling for time. It was just as well, she wasn't in the mood to talk either. All she wanted to do was to eat and crawl into her bedroll and sleep away the days conversation and how it left her feeling. He made her feel as if her feelings were just childish. Yet she couldn't help that she felt the way she did. He had taken her from her home, forced her to go with him so that she would be his wife, and she had already allowed him to have parts of her. Even if she thorougly enjoyed everything that happened, she couldn't help but feel guilty and filled with shame at her behavior.

He claimed that s*x was natural and nothing to be ashamed of. And she could handle that. It was the fact that she had so easily allowed him to have her when he had already taken her from everything she loved that had her so angry and hurt. She wasn't meant to act this way with him. She was meant to make him see that she was never going to be happy with him and that she didn't care about any part of their union. And yet her body cared. It cared a great deal about what he made her feel when he touched her.

Kallan said nothing to her as he started a fire and set out to grab dinner. By the time she had returned from using the restroom and bathing in the stream he had a small thing of fish and bread laid out onto plates. They ate in silence, him glancing at her every few minutes and her trying her hardest to ignore him. After they finished their dinner he once again walked off without speaking to wash the dishes and she curled up onto her bedroll, refusing to set foot into the tent that he had ready and waiting. She had just started to doze off when all of a sudden she felt strong arms wrap around her and lift her and her bedroll up. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" She yelled, slapping at him as he stepped into the tent and dumped her onto the floor.

"The temperature is going to be too low for you to sleep outside because you are angry with yourself. You need not worry that I will attempt to touch you. But I don't need you getting sick before we even make it to the border. Don't be childish just because you feel some kind of way about what we both consented to the other night." She looked at him, speechless at what he just said. "I'd rather risk the cold than stay inside here with you.. You pompous and arrogant asshole." She tried to stand back up but found herself unable to move.

"What are you doing to me?" She asked, looking at him with anger and fear. "Listen to me closely when I say this to you Iredesa. I am a patient man. I will tolerate many things. Your hatred for me is one of those things if that is how you truly feel. But I will not tolerate you purposefully trying to harm yourself just because you want to be petty. You will sleep in here even if I have to keep you magically stuck to the damn floor all night. Asshole I may be, but I will never knowingly allow you to fall sick or hurt if I can help it. As your husband, I will always see to your health before anything." With that he released the hold on her and waited to see what her next move would be.

Seething with anger she laid back down and rolled over facing away from him. She heard him crawl into his bedroll and only when she was sure he was asleep did she allow herself to cry. Tears spilled from her eyes and she quietly sobbed, biting her hand to keep from letting any noise escape from her. He had used magic to keep her in the tent. Hadn't even hesitated and most definitely didn't seem like it had fazed him or tired him at all. She had known that he was powerful from the first moment she laid eyes on him. Had felt the waves of power that radiated from his body. Yet somehow she had almost forgotten those things in the past few days. She would not make that mistake again. He may have put on a show of being kind and fair. But deep down she knew that he was a Fae. Something to be feared. If this didn't reawaken her resolve to only be as dutiful a wife as was necessary, she didn't know what would.

Finally she drifted off to sleep, reconfirming her resolve and committing herself to not getting too close to him lest he strip away everything she was. It was early when they awoke, the sun barely up in the sky. They once again ate in silence and headed on their way. All too soon they came upon the next Eternal Harvest tree, the peach. It was just as perfect as the last two. Iredesa was sure that she would have enjoyed it more if it wasn't for the fact that she was still fuming about him using his magic on her to hold her in place. The fruit was tender and sweet and frankly one of the best she had ever tasted, yet she would not show him her delight in having tried it. They didn't stay long at the tree before they once again started off on their journey. Every now and then Kallan looked back at her as if he was going to say something, but he stopped when he saw the look on her face.

By the time they finally stopped for the night they were already back on track of their course and both dropped their packs in exhaustion from having pushed themselves to catch back up. Truthfully, the only thing that had kept her going was her anger at him. Every time she felt as if she needed to stop she thought about how helpless he had made her feel when he immobilized her. How powerless and weak she had felt sitting on the floor as he towered over her. Those thoughts had kept her fueled enough to keep walking until well after the sun had fallen once again.

They didn't speak to each other over the next day either. The pomegranate tree came into view, letting her know that all too soon they would be at the border. She was almost through the first part of their journey and was about to say goodbye to the human lands forever. A wave of sorrow hit her, causing Kallan to look back at her. "Iredesa, I feel your sadness. I know that you are mad at me but you can talk to me if you would like. I would like to talk to you as well about what happened the other night.." She only looked at him, not knowing how to tell him to go to hell without making herself look like the child he had claimed her to be.

He sighed as he set his pack down at the base of the pomegranate tree. "Iredesa. I am sorry for the way I reacted and for

using my magic on you. I was out of line." "Out of line? Is that how you view it? Simply out of line? I am to be your wife! I am a human! And still you treated me like a child and used your magic on me and took away my freedom. Even if it was only briefly. I was still helpless and powerless to stop you from hurting me." She wiped a tear from her eye, not wanting him to see her cry.

"I would never hurt you Iredesa. Please know that. Never. I may not be the easiest man, nor will I claim to be the gentlest man, but never would I lay a single hand on you in anger." She only nodded, having nothing else to say. "Iredesa this conversation isn't over. We are going to be married in three weeks. You are going to have to learn to communicate with me. I try to stay out of your head and give you your privacy. But I can't abide by this silent war we have going on. Talk to me."

"What is there to say Kallan? I am just a human woman who has no true say over anything. I am on my way to marry you. I have shown that my body is clearly attracted to you. You have proven that no matter how I may feel about being next to you that you will not hesitate to force me to be. You have shown me that my feelings matter little to you. And there is nothing I can really do to stop it seeing as I don't possess any of the power you do. So I must resign myself to living in this relationship as the weak woman who truly has nothing to give in this relationship other than my body. I will never be viewed as anything more to you. So if you don't mind. Please at least let me have my dignity left and allow me to not be forced to make conversation about how I feel about this whole situation."

"Is that truly how you feel?" he asked, clearly upset. "Little raven. I don't think you see just how strong you are. Yes, I am Fae. And yes, as a result of that I am physically and even psychically stronger than you. But mentally? You are an iron force. I have never met someone who was able to throw me out of their mind like you. You are strong and resilient when it comes to handling things. I am certain that if I had chosen any other human as my bride that they would be a blubbering mess walking through these woods. Yet you do it as if you were made to do it. As if it is second nature for you. You don't complain about the heat or the rain. You don't complain even when I have clearly pushed your human body past its limits of walking. You simply keep going. If that isn't strong I don't know what is. I am more than pleased with my decision to marry you. Even if you aren't happy with being stuck with me. "

She didn't really know what to say to that so she allowed him to keep going. "I promise that I will never again use my power on you unless I absolutely have to. Other than talking to you through our mind link. But you must understand that I can't guarantee that others won't look to see what they can get by with on you. I will do my best to protect you. And most wouldn't dare try anything simply because they would not wish to encure my wrath. But there are those that will not care about what I think of the matter. It has been too long since a human has been in our realm and I am sure that boundaries are going to be tested."

She was glad that he had promised that he would never again take control of her. But it scared her to think that others may do it to her. Once again she was reminded of her mortality and just how out of her league she truly was. "Thank you. And I suppose that I am sorry for the things I said to you. I'm just.. This whole thing is.." She trailed off, unable to put in words how crazy and terrifying the whole thing was. "I know Iredesa. I know. Just know that you need not worry that I will hurt you." She plucked a pomegranate from the tree, muling over what he had said. She wanted so bad to just pretend that everything that had happened was all jsut a dream. Yet she knew that the reality of it was that she wasn't dreaming. She was here, in the middle of the woods, just two days away from the border, with Kallan. She had already given parts of her body to him and would soon have to give more to him once they were married. The thought of it was terrifying, simply because it was not truly that terrifying. The fact of the matter was, giving her body to him would be easy. Which was why she was so mad in the first place.

They cut open the pomegranate and ate a light dinner of bread, cheese, and the seeds of the fruit. They wasted no time in getting ready for bed, Iredesa exhausted from pushing herself so hard. She quietly made her way into the tent, telling herself that it was much more convenient than sleeping outside where dew could settle upon her and leave her wet for part of the day. He said nothing to her as she spread her bed roll out and curled up. It wasn't long before she broke the silence, asking the question that had been on her mind for the last couple of days.

"Kallan? How will we get through the border?" She rolled over, looking at him as he thought about her question. "There are little holes in the border that allow people to slip through. Pockets of dead energy. We haven't been able to figure out why. But the border is failing. We will use one of those pockets to slip through, as will your dad if he chooses to make the journey."

"What do you mean the border is failing?" She sat up, suddenly very concerned. If the border went down then the human world would once again fall victim to the Fae. The Gathering of the Hunt would start again. He sighed, clearly hesitant in saying anything. "I suppose I might as well tell you what I know. It's better that you learn it now instead of later. The border has been steadily getting weaker. Dead spots showing up sporadically all around the border. There is no real pattern as to when the spots open up on the border. Sometimes it will be only a year or two before my people report a new dead spot. Sometimes there will be ten to twenty years in between.The longest reported was forty years. But I'm worried that one more dead spot in the border will be enough that any Fae will be able to get through. It's perilously close to falling and we can't figure out why. Desarie and other Fae put in a lot of magic to see the border erected and it should have stayed up. We are doing everything we can to keep the knowledge of it failing a secret, all the while looking to see what we can do to repair the dead zones and restore the border before it goes down."

"Can't you just perform another spell to fix it? You put it up once, can't you just redo whatever you did to put it up in the first place?" She asked, her heart pounding with worry. He shook his head sadly, "It isn't as simple as that. Desarie put her very being into the border. She was a part of both the human and the Fae realm in her heart. The border requires someone who has a connection to both worlds to be able to do the spell. Desarie is gone. We haven't seen her since the border went up. I personally fear that she is dead and that is why the border is failing. Without her it has nothing to bind to and hold.

She snuggled back down into her blanket, unsure of what to make of this new development. She felt as if there was more to what he was saying, but was unsure of what it could be. The border was failing and even the Fae couldn't do anything to stop it. With no ties to the human world they had made it to where nobody could stop the falling of the border. It seemed that humans had always just been living on borrowed time. She thought back to Border Hollow and her heart grew heavy. They had still not recovered from the last time the Fae were free to run rampant through human lands. They wouldn't survive a second round.

"We need to get some sleep, little raven. This isn't something we can help just yet." Kallan said as he settled down into his bedroll. She tried and tried to go to sleep, worrying about what she had learned. Once sleep finally took its hold on her she dreamt of horrible creatures chasing down her father and destroying her home as they laughed and laughed and laughed.