As the Fire Rises

Chapter Nine: Very.

Citrine looked herself over discovering new scars that were not there before, puncture marks on her neck, a thick jagged scar across her lower abdomen, long thin scars across her arms and legs, and bold round punctures on her ribs. She had been glittered in scars before but the ones she knew were no longer there. "Sceleritas Fel! You worthless little beast enough of the hiding, come to me now!" she demanded to the empty room. 

Liliana chuckled in the doorway. "Your butler is long dead." Citrine turned to face her her eyebrows knitted together. 

"That explains that." She walked to her black silk-lined bed, sitting upon it she patted next to her beckoning Liliana closer. "What else don't I know?" 

Liliana followed her lead sitting down. "Your father has reasons for you not remembering. I dare not go against his orders, we've told you too much as it is." 

Citrine scoffed agitation in her voice. "I will handle my father if I am to bring upon a new order I need to know what went wrong last time so that those mistakes don't happen again."  

Liliana pondered at her words, "The Illithid took your memories and you fell in love with a vampire spawn, made friends with others who carried the parasite, and denied your father's gifts all in the name of friendship and love. You became boring." Liliana bit her bottom lip her fang close to piercing through. "I did not know about you before the failed Ascension so I don't have much to offer in that way." 

"Ascension?" Citrine brushed Liliana's chestnut curls from her face. 

Liliana's scarlet eyes met the silk covers. "Cazador's, you and your merry band of do-gooders came to stop Cazador, or steal it for your darling Astarion." 

Citrine lifted Liliana's chin to meet her eyes. "Who is Cazador?" 

"The Vampire that your lover led me to, the man who held me captive for years on end." Citrine let out a cold laugh. 

"I'm starting to see why I liked him. How did you come to be a part of my father's glory?" 

"I followed you both, I watched in the shadows to plot my revenge on Astarion." Citrine's laugh fell. 

"How is that going for you?" 

"Well, he was without his children for the past decade so you tell me." Liliana could see the gears turning in Citrine's mind. "There are things worse than death, I watched you die you know. I watched you take your sister's blade and gut yourself open." 

"Hmm, interesting. You may leave now Liliana, I have no more questions for you for now." Citrine got up and walked herself back to the mirror. She listened as Liliana got up, "Was I happy? Was he?" 

"Very." 

Citrine waved her hand back at Liliana, her eyes glossed over her body. She touched the scars on her neck, her fingertips traced the distance between the marks. 

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Diana watched the others, how at every moment someone had their eyes on her. She watched how they interacted with each other, their bonds. Wyll had soon returned and had pulled her father away to speak, she watched as Lae'zel and Aelius went over different fighting movements. Her mind turned to when they were young and how their home always had at least one of them there fretting over her and Aelius. How her favorite mornings were those that they would head to their Poppy's. 

A soft touch broke her from her trance. "Diana," her father stood over her. 

"Oh, hello Papa." Astarion sat next to her in the grass, "I'm sorry about before." Diana knew those were the words needed to be said another sweet lie but for a flicker of a moment she wondered if she truly was sorry. 

"What did you mean by a part of your mother remembers?" Astarion's voice was cold she could tell the vampire had little trust for her. 

Diana grabbed at the grass mustering a tear to fall, "She, well she was just different that expected after you two left she refused to kill a young woman that was brought to her. Said that wasn't her that she had no wanting to spill blood. They turned on me next saying that because of Aelius' actions that grand-Bhaal's plan was ruined, that I would have to suffer the consequences of my brother." 

"Where was she when you left?" 

"Chained and held in a cell." Astarion nodded leaving, she watched as her father approached Gale, he had aged in the years his eyes held more sorrow. 

Karlach approached Diana, "Hey kiddo, what do you say we go for a walk?" Diana nodded reaching for the hand offered to her. They walked the beach silently for awhile, "I hope you're not fucking us over kid." Diana stopped shuffling the sand under her boots. "Not a day in the past decade has your father had true rest, each day searching, chasing leads trying to find you and Aelius. None of us have, you two brought us the most joy and we were fucking miserable without you both. Each of us dropped whatever we had going to find you both and it would be a shame if you were planning on stabbing us in the back. Lae'zel filled me in about your little meeting with your father." Karlach turned to Diana, "I've fought wars I had no heart in, I've killed out of desperation if you're planning anything just know I will wreck your fucking life." 

"I'm not, I mean I have no plans on hurting anyone, I'm free now." 

Karlach let out a hearty laugh. "Well good then kiddo, because I do mean it. But, now that that is out of the way. Tell me do you still have a heart for wayward animals?" 

Diana shook her head, "No, when I was I think seven maybe eight a kitten had made it's way into one of the hideouts they stored us in, I had tried to take it in help heal the poor thing, that was the first time I was forced to kill." She excluded the details of that was also the first time she was taught how to flail someone. 

"You should talk to Shadowheart about that, she can sympathize." Karlach looked over the ocean, the waves close to wetting her boots. "We should get back, we are going to save your mother. Take down whatever remaining fuckers that are hidden away there." 

Diana simply nodded as they walked back to their camp.