Eternal Beasts

Righting a Wrong

Jared twitched and suddenly he wasn't shoehorned into a cramped tub filled with hot water, his face covered with a sweet-smelling soap. Instead he was sitting on the edge of Sioned's luxurious bed, fully clothed.

"Okay, seriously, what the actual fuck?!" he muttered in dismay.

"Jared?" Sioned's voice came from behind him, sounding small, uncertain and a little afraid.

Twisting around, he saw her standing a step or two from the other side of the bed, now in a simple tunic and breeches, slippers on her feet. She was holding one arm with the other, her expression crestfallen and not a little disappointed.

"Sioned?" he said, immediately hopping off the bed to quickly step around its foot towards her. Seeing him move, she started to cry, great, heart-rending sobs that spoke of great loss. Then she ran towards him.

Catching her, he spun her around in a tight circle to absorb her momentum then gathered her tightly to him.

"They took you from me!" she managed between body-shaking sobs, holding on to him as tightly as she could. "So I let them take me, too!"

"What?? Who took me from you?? And who took you??"

"The Dawn Council from the Second War of Balance!" she sobbed. "The ones that cast the Ritual of Completion. They ... they said it was a spell to avoid moral dilemmas for you!"

All Jared could do was frown in confusion. Moral dilemmas? What would be a dilemma ...? Oh wait. Having to get two different women pregnant then leave them to magically raise their children while he went to war against the Harbingers. That moral dilemma!

"They remote controlled me, didn't they?" he quietly asked and grimaced when she nodded. "And, by what you're saying, you let them remote control you as well. Why?"

"Because," she sniffed. "If I couldn't have the memory of my first time being with you, instead of some spell looking like you, I didn't want to remember."

Jared let a slow breath go as he held her close. It made complete sense that she would feel that way. He thought he would've felt the same, if the roles were reversed. At least, he hoped he would.

"I'm so very sorry, Sioned," he said in a quiet, empathetic voice. "You didn't deserve to be treated that way by your own people!"

"Neither did you, Jared," she just as quietly pointed out, the tears, for the moment, dried up. "So many things have already happened to you. And then they do that. They steal you away from me. And me, from you."

"I know," Jared said, kissing the top of her head. "But like I said in that alleyway, I accepted my fate. You didn't get the chance. They just dropped it on you! Which is unfair."

Sioned's response was to make an unhappy sound and burrow deeper into him.

Jared sighed again then frowned.

"Tell me that at least our doppelgangers were successful," he said.

The beautiful mageborn woman gave him a tight squeeze, then nodded before she stepped away from him long enough to retrieve a heavy white cloth that was sitting on a small table beside her bed. A cloth that now had a heavy streak of blood on it.

"My maidenhead," she said in a hoarse whisper, holding it up long enough for him to see before putting it back on the table. "And with it now gone, and your seed planted deep inside me, you will vanish back into the ether, never to be seen again."

She thought he would now leave with the deed done?? No wonder she was scared! Empathy surging once again, now thoroughly wiping away any lasting anger and resentment he might've had over Sam's loss, he made three big steps and gathered her back up into his arms, crushing her to him with powerful emotion.