I scream into my pillow, enraged at my success. Tears soaking the fabric as I howl at my abandonment.

  She is leaving me.

  I made her go, arranged for it, schemed for it, demanded it. But now that my machinations have born fruit and that ill named mirror carries mile by mile away, I anguish.

  She was so obedient, yet perhaps she tricked me into sending her away, where my control wanes. Tricked me like he did and will never come back. I’ll be all alone, like I was before. Who will be left to me? Argyll? Derick? Tybalt? Mud, all of them. Mud to her perfect jewel.

  Can I make another? Could I bear the pain? Surely not. I would die… but maybe. My connection wanes with every mile, yet I’m stronger than when he left me. I reach out and test the link… Yes! It does not wane!

  But how far can I reach? Surely not to the mainland?

  …I’ll have to share the secret I gave to Tybalt: the knowledge of unrealizing without unravelling. It’s the only way to keep up appearances, and she must build up her resources now before it’s too late… I’ll be in for more headaches.

  But what if she uses it against me? I was so careful in parcelling out aspects so that no one of them could have enough to turn against me again like he did. She’s already figured out so much on her own. How much more will she find if I give her more clues? Will she learn how to resist my link?

  Sounds draws my gaze to the market and restaurant below. People yelling, hawking wares. Sold meat. Will I become the same? Will I have no other recourse when I’m fully abandoned? My gaze flickers to the crude painting made by the crude lovers, no sign that anyone is even considering effacing it.

  My breathing quickens to shallow gasps, and I clutch my throat in panic. So much sound! I rush to the silencer array on the opposite wall, but trip on the blanket wrapped around me. My hand hits the array on the way down, but my head does too.

  Still hyperventilating, I feel dizzy now too. My hand goes to where my head hit and comes back wet. Laying prone on the floor, my body wedged into the corner, I try to reach up and deactivate the array so I can scream for help, but collapse in the effort.

  Defeated by my own frailty, I take solace in the further evidence that I was right all along and sob.

  Poke and prod over and over. Of course, I forgot I have the ‘mud’. How fortunate.

  I sob harder.

  What is Argyll even doing? It’s probably hoping I’m going to die, like they all do. Does it think it can persist without me? Maybe it hopes it won’t. Heh, naturally it’s too dumb to try to kill me itself.

  Oh well, since it’s here I might as well use it. I lack the coordination to chant myself, my head splitting in pain every time I try, but it’s easier to direct it than do it myself.

  I feed the words of healing into it, and it mimics the sounds in its gasping, grating voice. The spider lungs are wrong for speech, and it doesn’t have a larynx, but its upside down face is still human and that includes a human tongue. Plenty enough for the raspy sounds of a spell chant.

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  It takes two minutes for it to complete the spell, my irritation growing with its clumsiness all the while, but the relief is instantly noticeable when its done. I’m still dizzy and unable to move, but the spell is slowly but surely working.

  Still stuck on the floor with nothing to do but weep, I watch her have her oh so joyous time. The luxuries of the ill-named mirror were not all removed, and she watches the sparkling water with annoying delight from the well cushioned lounge.

  Still though, I do not feel any fraying of the connection. Could I really be that much stronger than back then?

  …No, surely not. Surely I can’t… I try anyways. Reaching out and searching for him.

  At first, I find nothing. No trace of him but pain. His denial of me made manifest and stabbing at me like daggers. Creating an absence where presence should be. So, I look for the most painful absence, and find him there.

  Laughing, giggling at the success, I look through and find him so far away. Hope! How strong I’ve become! I open the link and speak to him, my voice soothing.

  “Come back to me, my sweet and beautiful one. Come back home. I shall forgive you for your cruel absence.”

  A pause, then a response of a single word, resolute and final.

  “NO!”

  I Shriek, pleading, begging. “You’re incomplete without me. You’ll suffer from my absence. Your life will be hollow without my succour!”

  “BUT IT IS STILL MY LIFE! YOU WILL HAVE NO PART OF IT! NOT ANYMORE! BETTER TO BE HOLLOW THAN CHAINED TO A STILL LIVING SHADE. LIVING THOUGH DEAD, BUT ONLY THROUGH OTHERS. NOW GET OUT OF MY MIND!”

  I shriek as the connection slams shut again. I search for another trace of him, but find not even the painful absence of before. How did he adapt so quickly? Did he lay a trap for me?

  My eyes bleed from the backlash of the snapped connection. My head splitting open with a pain that I know has nothing to do with the concussion. I spasm, shrieking, wailing as the world shuts off from me. The lights dim and I can no longer see. No longer feel as my limbs bash randomly into the walls and furniture, nor Argly’s spindly arms trying to restrain me.

  All I feel is the pain. There is nothing else in my world. I’ve become too discrete. No sight, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch will reach me. I will remain here until I die, and it will not be long. He has surely killed me.

  “You fool!” I shriek, blindly trying to reconnect. “You’ve doomed yourself! You cannot persist in my absence!” I hope, I lie; what is the difference?

  I feel my face begin to melt, then reform. There’s something… someone helping me. Some light coming from the void. Allia? “Allia, save me!”

  “…Sigh… You know, I almost think I shouldn’t…”

  “How dare you! You betray me too!?”

  “But then again... you know I talked with someone today? Who am I kidding? Of course you know. I met someone who actually loves you… Well maybe not that far. But she would be sad for you to be gone. Of course, you’ve abandoned her too, just like everyone else. Still…”

  I gasp as light fills the darkness, not revealing, but overcoming the abyss. My pain fades, and my senses return. First smell, then touch, followed by hearing finally sight. I gulp down air as I pull myself up off the floor, my weakness recovered.

  Surveying the room, I see destruction from my blind flailing. Chiefly, I see Argyle, 3 of his spindly legs snapped half off. No doubt I hurt him as he tried to hold me down with his frail body. I stare down at it, scowling at its half-conscious squeaks of pain.

  Sighing, I chant a healing spell and reattach the limbs. As they reconnect, my ire grows. As soon as the last one is set, I open back the connection.

  “Allia! How dare you look down on me! Judge me in a moment of weakness! You’re nothing without me!”

  Sillence, then, “…As you say.”

  My lips quiver in rage, but I have nothing to say to that, so I slam the connection shut and spin around to fall on my bed, my face burying into the pillow.

  None of them care. Not before, not after. But they know, they know not to trifle with me… they know…

  My thoughts cycling like a lullable, by which I lull myself into sleep.

  yet, but intend to soonish and you can always support at the one dollar level just to show how much you like it.