The House of Cards

Fate's Greatest Love

Fate's Greatest Love

Nothing existed.

The World is Darkness and the Darkness is cold. Lonely. Never ending.

I gasp for air, but find myself drowning in the dark.

Nothing exists.

Not even me.

Nothing exists and suddenly everything exists again all at once.

I inhale deeply as the light comes rushing back, as I surface from beneath the Darkness. I cough and sputter, hands scrabbling against the ground, against the dull metal plate I lay on. My head throbs, pain lancing through my skull.

Gone!

All gone!

The magic shall feast on our bones.

A set of hands grab me beneath my armpit hauling me up to my feet, dragging me out of the circle, away from the cold, from the dark.

But I cannot get away, because it lingers inside.

There is a hollow in my stomach, a place where the cold have nestled in to and made a home.

Cold and Dark and Empty and Gonegonegone

"Lady, Lady, it's alright," Daniel whispers, wrapping his arms around me. I shake against him, burying my face in his chest. "We have you now."

No. Something is wrong. Something is terribly wrong.

Cold.

Dark.

Empty.

Gone.

The world cracks in two.

I flinch at the sound, pressing myself into Daniel, whose grip on me suddenly tightens. I feel him shift, and hear the sound of the safety on his gun clicking off.

"Blessed Fates," he mutters. The crack rings out again, and a gust of magic screams over us, tearing me away from him, sending me sprawling onto the marble of the square.

I know that magic.

colddarkemptygone

I slide my hands down Daniel's body, pulling a dagger from the belt around his waist. The grip is comfortable in my hand, familiar, and when I bring it towards me, I find myself holding Jack's vorpal dagger, the one I took from the Neither Prison.

Daniel hardly notices as I push away from him, too focused on the sight before him. And when I turn, I see why he cannot look away.

The people that still remain in the square lie scattered about, a few still on their feet, from the blast of magic, but every face is turned towards the center of the square. The Lady Alyssa has fallen to her knees, her once sleek braid frizzy and disheveled, the haughty grin having slid from her features, replaced by one of awe. The Major Arcana around her stir, some on their knees, some still slumped forward, but those that are awake wear identical expressions of unmitigated fear.

For the little Human girl who once stood before them and cried is no longer Human at all.

She pulls the remains of the ropes used to secure her from her wrists, letting the pieces fall to the ground, where the arms of the statue of Lady Fate already lay. Jagged holes and bent metal show where they were rent from the statue in the girl's attempt to free herself, the source of the earlier world-shattering sound.