Shadow Song
Chapter 4 Bitter Truth
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If she betrays our secrets, are you prepared to destroy her? I think not.
Caius, New Moon, Chapter 21, p.478
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
A blur of movement treaded into the lowest depths of the castle, the footsteps touching stone untrodden since the last, event of this nature. Thick spider webs covered the walls and the once rich tapestries now lay in shreds generations of vermin having worked their charms long ago leaving naught but taters to the eye that swept them. Further down still in the very edge of the shadowed corners was the training room of Caius a place few immortals was brave enough to enter without invitation. Aro slowed his pace just before reaching the enternence, the acrid smell of burning charred wood and blood told him all he needed to know as he crossed the threshold.
"Tisk tis brother, what has gotten into you?"
His silky tone alerted the figure crouching in the shadows, ivory fangs retracting from view as Caius stepped forward, ivory shirt and flawless skin beneath stained crimson from his meal even his flowing golden hair was stained, a thing unheard of in the fastidious immortal. This rather unkempt picture drew from Aro a single raised brow. Never in the last thousand years had he witnessed his brother in such a state of... discomposure.
It was all most promising.
"forgive me for interrupting your meal brother, I merely wished to know what transpired so lately between yourself and Miss Swan”
A feral growl was for a long moment his only answer to the rather droll comment. As vampire and long buried humanity battled for dominance within the crimson depths of his brother’s eyes. Thus was the fate of all their kind, with the man at last giving way with the relentless march of time. Madness or apathy was the ultimate fate of the elders of their immortal kind. Time was the only constant and the lust for blood the only reality. Nothing hunted them here and boredom was their only foe, yet his brother bore all the hallmarks of one that had just survived a war. When at last he found utterance it was in the tone of chilled steel that foretold of a death most unpleasant.
“Isabella....Aro, I ran from Isabella.”
“Indeed I observed as much, 3000 years of war bloodshed and honor and a mortal girl proves to be your Achilles heel?”
The sound of the table striking the wall broke the heavy silence Caius uttering a roar that for a moment reminded Aro of an emotion he had only heard stories of, fear whispered through his still veins as he watched his brother throw his fists into the wall attacking it as if he was utterly overcome with such strong emotions that could only be stated with violence and revenge.
“I saw her personal hell Aro, the abyss she was thrown into by the recklessness of that boy! for a single moment, I felt alive again!”
His crimson eyes gleamed as he drew a breath staring daggers at the offending wall before he continued.
“Alive and buried in a world of agony the greatest muses of the age could not put a name to, he destroyed her Aro, the music in her was stripped to the bone torn from her in company with her heart! Were it naught for the fact you dear brother cast him as Raoul I would take pleasure in ending his existence without a moment's loss, She was never his to claim!”
“Very true Caius, but a little knowledge is a dangerous thing”
Marcus had chosen that moment to join them, stepping quietly over the remains of his meal without comment as he continued speaking. Meeting his brothers burning eyes without so much as a raised brow.
“You know who she is, what she is to you, yet she has not an inkling of the ancient bonds of our kind, the ramifications of her simplest movement or emotion. Would you burden her with such knowledge, fragile and broken as she is now?”
“She is a momentary distraction Marcus, nothing more, she cannot be whom I seek, else, else I am lost”
“Hmm perhaps brother, answer me this, what color is the rug you stand on now?”
Seeming annoyed at the trivial inquire Caius glanced at the mention floor covering before answering
“Blue brother, a bright vibrant blue which does not at all suit the...”
He stop mid complaint as truth struck him a blow that, had he been mortal would have caused his pulse to race and his knees to fail. As it was he stood still and silent for nearly 10 minutes as the impossibility of his own words rang in his ears. The rug was blue, he could see colors again! The world restored to all its shimmering brilliant hues to his eyes. Marcus had done the same when he found his soul mate, remarking for days about the beauty of the sky the flowers and all manner of other trivial things to which his brothers could pay no proper attention, sunk as they were in the unending black and white of their world.
His brother had approached in his way laying a gentle hand on his shoulder and nodded the golden bond in his milky gaze as bright and pure as any connection he’d ever seen.
“Exactly Caius, your world is whole at last, that is why my brother you flew down here in a rage, you felt everything she had and still does and sought to dispel such bitter emotions you haven't tasted in millennia. Isabella Swan is your tie to the light and the salvation of your humanity, as my beloved once was to me, think long and hard on how you proceed from here for, now that you have learned the truth. You can't ever let her go”
“What of the Cullen boy, Marcus, am I to pardon his crimes? I tell you plainly brother I don't mean to; even if she asked me I could not let such a crime stand. Whether knowingly or not Edward Cullen has written his own fate when he choose to leave my Angel in those woods.”
The tone of his own voice surprised him, laced at it was with the deadly quiet rage that seemed to come from the depths of his being in the endless tirade, yet as he thought of Isabella, fragile and so helpless in his world something in him quieted leveling out his temper and sufficing his being with the most unfathomably feeling.
“Ah, already it has begun quite a remarkable emotion is it not? I had to go to Elazar for guidance least I think I had finally run mad when it first swept me.”
“What is it?”
“He called it, tenderness, with a strong sense of possession; you desire to guard her yes? Sweep her into your arms and away from the hurts that flood her?”
“Yes, and to strike out at anyone foolish enough to think of harming her again, is that why I acted as I did when Felix restrained her in the hall?”
Such a baffling question on his own behavior that day had haunted his hours, he who had in everything the utmost control and honor of action. Had done something without thinking, attacked one of the higher guard when his grip had tightened just a hair too strongly around the throat of a single mortal girl. All this had now been laid bare and it was a bitter truth to his ears.
“Indeed Aro and I both had our suspicions at that time brother, it only increased when she began to sing, her voice that perfect instrument of pitch seemed to wrap itself around your very soul, and well we had little doubt. She is your Christine Daae, the songbird who wants only your protection and guidance until the play is finished. Edward is young and foolish, and may harbor some idea of affection and must be watched lest he act of them and bring less than honor onto the Cullen family. Miss Cullen is an affectionate friend and should I think be released from the prison she resides in. And...It would please Miss Swan if nothing else”
It was soon done her chains where stuck from her wrists and after al bath and a quick change of clothes Bella was delighted to see her friend enter her chambers looking the picture of beauty and eager energy she had ever been her ire of the days before quite forgotten.
“Oh Bella, how well you look!”
Was the first sentence she uttered all too well aware of the ears listening outside the door, left cracked for convenience sake more than an error. Bella rose from the bed and run to her throwing her arms around the hard familiar form as she uttered a soft cry of joy.
“Oh Alice, I am sorry I was so cross with you a few days ago, It was petty of me and I apologize. Edward is to blame for my pain not you”
The immortal seemed struck dumb with her emotions at such a warm welcome, the woman she had seen in the throne room had not been the sweet klutzy endearing friend she had been so fond of. So this reappearance of the woman she recognized was most reassuring.
“Oh Bella, you have too great a heart to forgive us all, in whatever small way I dragged you into this mess I am sorry, my brother is a fool you may rest assured of that, but come, let us get tea and you must tell me everything that has happened since we arrived!
3 hours, 2 pots of tea and a break for a demonstration of her singing talents had brought her friend up to date on all that had occurred and Alice marveled at the tale as they lay on the large bed together she with a thick blanket on her lap supporting Bella's head as she quietly dozed and at the same time spoke her thoughts in the fashion of every girl at a wonderful sleepover who refuses to fall asleep and yet is losing the battle.
“Caius is a puzzle Alice, I cannot fathom his motivation, and I swear we were almost in the middle of an Aria when he vanished.”
Indulgently running her fingers through her companion’s hair Alice smiled in tone as much as expression as she spoke a light of gleeful suspicious glowing in her amber eyes.
“Indeed that is odd Bella, but I think you may be falling asleep, I promise I won't leave you until you are awake enough to shoo me from the room come morning.”
“Mmmk”
Almost as if she was waiting for it Bella struggled to stay awake, until at last, the soft cords of a violin wafted through the air, sending her to sleep almost the moment it began, accompanied with a soft whisper in her mind, a voice she would have recognized anywhere. Caius, Picking up where they had left the rehearsal mere hours ago. Yet now even in dreams it had softened a hair, making Bella feel safe for the first time since coming to the castle.
“Close your eyes and surrender to your darkest dreams, purge your thoughts of the life you knew before, close your eyes let your spirit start to soar,
And you'll live as you never lived before”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
If she betrays our secrets, are you prepared to destroy her? I think not.
Caius, New Moon, Chapter 21, p.478
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
A blur of movement treaded into the lowest depths of the castle, the footsteps touching stone untrodden since the last, event of this nature. Thick spider webs covered the walls and the once rich tapestries now lay in shreds generations of vermin having worked their charms long ago leaving naught but taters to the eye that swept them. Further down still in the very edge of the shadowed corners was the training room of Caius a place few immortals was brave enough to enter without invitation. Aro slowed his pace just before reaching the enternence, the acrid smell of burning charred wood and blood told him all he needed to know as he crossed the threshold.
"Tisk tis brother, what has gotten into you?"
His silky tone alerted the figure crouching in the shadows, ivory fangs retracting from view as Caius stepped forward, ivory shirt and flawless skin beneath stained crimson from his meal even his flowing golden hair was stained, a thing unheard of in the fastidious immortal. This rather unkempt picture drew from Aro a single raised brow. Never in the last thousand years had he witnessed his brother in such a state of... discomposure.
It was all most promising.
"forgive me for interrupting your meal brother, I merely wished to know what transpired so lately between yourself and Miss Swan”
A feral growl was for a long moment his only answer to the rather droll comment. As vampire and long buried humanity battled for dominance within the crimson depths of his brother’s eyes. Thus was the fate of all their kind, with the man at last giving way with the relentless march of time. Madness or apathy was the ultimate fate of the elders of their immortal kind. Time was the only constant and the lust for blood the only reality. Nothing hunted them here and boredom was their only foe, yet his brother bore all the hallmarks of one that had just survived a war. When at last he found utterance it was in the tone of chilled steel that foretold of a death most unpleasant.
“Isabella....Aro, I ran from Isabella.”
“Indeed I observed as much, 3000 years of war bloodshed and honor and a mortal girl proves to be your Achilles heel?”
The sound of the table striking the wall broke the heavy silence Caius uttering a roar that for a moment reminded Aro of an emotion he had only heard stories of, fear whispered through his still veins as he watched his brother throw his fists into the wall attacking it as if he was utterly overcome with such strong emotions that could only be stated with violence and revenge.
“I saw her personal hell Aro, the abyss she was thrown into by the recklessness of that boy! for a single moment, I felt alive again!”
His crimson eyes gleamed as he drew a breath staring daggers at the offending wall before he continued.
“Alive and buried in a world of agony the greatest muses of the age could not put a name to, he destroyed her Aro, the music in her was stripped to the bone torn from her in company with her heart! Were it naught for the fact you dear brother cast him as Raoul I would take pleasure in ending his existence without a moment's loss, She was never his to claim!”
“Very true Caius, but a little knowledge is a dangerous thing”
Marcus had chosen that moment to join them, stepping quietly over the remains of his meal without comment as he continued speaking. Meeting his brothers burning eyes without so much as a raised brow.
“You know who she is, what she is to you, yet she has not an inkling of the ancient bonds of our kind, the ramifications of her simplest movement or emotion. Would you burden her with such knowledge, fragile and broken as she is now?”
“She is a momentary distraction Marcus, nothing more, she cannot be whom I seek, else, else I am lost”
“Hmm perhaps brother, answer me this, what color is the rug you stand on now?”
Seeming annoyed at the trivial inquire Caius glanced at the mention floor covering before answering
“Blue brother, a bright vibrant blue which does not at all suit the...”
He stop mid complaint as truth struck him a blow that, had he been mortal would have caused his pulse to race and his knees to fail. As it was he stood still and silent for nearly 10 minutes as the impossibility of his own words rang in his ears. The rug was blue, he could see colors again! The world restored to all its shimmering brilliant hues to his eyes. Marcus had done the same when he found his soul mate, remarking for days about the beauty of the sky the flowers and all manner of other trivial things to which his brothers could pay no proper attention, sunk as they were in the unending black and white of their world.
His brother had approached in his way laying a gentle hand on his shoulder and nodded the golden bond in his milky gaze as bright and pure as any connection he’d ever seen.
“Exactly Caius, your world is whole at last, that is why my brother you flew down here in a rage, you felt everything she had and still does and sought to dispel such bitter emotions you haven't tasted in millennia. Isabella Swan is your tie to the light and the salvation of your humanity, as my beloved once was to me, think long and hard on how you proceed from here for, now that you have learned the truth. You can't ever let her go”
“What of the Cullen boy, Marcus, am I to pardon his crimes? I tell you plainly brother I don't mean to; even if she asked me I could not let such a crime stand. Whether knowingly or not Edward Cullen has written his own fate when he choose to leave my Angel in those woods.”
The tone of his own voice surprised him, laced at it was with the deadly quiet rage that seemed to come from the depths of his being in the endless tirade, yet as he thought of Isabella, fragile and so helpless in his world something in him quieted leveling out his temper and sufficing his being with the most unfathomably feeling.
“Ah, already it has begun quite a remarkable emotion is it not? I had to go to Elazar for guidance least I think I had finally run mad when it first swept me.”
“What is it?”
“He called it, tenderness, with a strong sense of possession; you desire to guard her yes? Sweep her into your arms and away from the hurts that flood her?”
“Yes, and to strike out at anyone foolish enough to think of harming her again, is that why I acted as I did when Felix restrained her in the hall?”
Such a baffling question on his own behavior that day had haunted his hours, he who had in everything the utmost control and honor of action. Had done something without thinking, attacked one of the higher guard when his grip had tightened just a hair too strongly around the throat of a single mortal girl. All this had now been laid bare and it was a bitter truth to his ears.
“Indeed Aro and I both had our suspicions at that time brother, it only increased when she began to sing, her voice that perfect instrument of pitch seemed to wrap itself around your very soul, and well we had little doubt. She is your Christine Daae, the songbird who wants only your protection and guidance until the play is finished. Edward is young and foolish, and may harbor some idea of affection and must be watched lest he act of them and bring less than honor onto the Cullen family. Miss Cullen is an affectionate friend and should I think be released from the prison she resides in. And...It would please Miss Swan if nothing else”
It was soon done her chains where stuck from her wrists and after al bath and a quick change of clothes Bella was delighted to see her friend enter her chambers looking the picture of beauty and eager energy she had ever been her ire of the days before quite forgotten.
“Oh Bella, how well you look!”
Was the first sentence she uttered all too well aware of the ears listening outside the door, left cracked for convenience sake more than an error. Bella rose from the bed and run to her throwing her arms around the hard familiar form as she uttered a soft cry of joy.
“Oh Alice, I am sorry I was so cross with you a few days ago, It was petty of me and I apologize. Edward is to blame for my pain not you”
The immortal seemed struck dumb with her emotions at such a warm welcome, the woman she had seen in the throne room had not been the sweet klutzy endearing friend she had been so fond of. So this reappearance of the woman she recognized was most reassuring.
“Oh Bella, you have too great a heart to forgive us all, in whatever small way I dragged you into this mess I am sorry, my brother is a fool you may rest assured of that, but come, let us get tea and you must tell me everything that has happened since we arrived!
3 hours, 2 pots of tea and a break for a demonstration of her singing talents had brought her friend up to date on all that had occurred and Alice marveled at the tale as they lay on the large bed together she with a thick blanket on her lap supporting Bella's head as she quietly dozed and at the same time spoke her thoughts in the fashion of every girl at a wonderful sleepover who refuses to fall asleep and yet is losing the battle.
“Caius is a puzzle Alice, I cannot fathom his motivation, and I swear we were almost in the middle of an Aria when he vanished.”
Indulgently running her fingers through her companion’s hair Alice smiled in tone as much as expression as she spoke a light of gleeful suspicious glowing in her amber eyes.
“Indeed that is odd Bella, but I think you may be falling asleep, I promise I won't leave you until you are awake enough to shoo me from the room come morning.”
“Mmmk”
Almost as if she was waiting for it Bella struggled to stay awake, until at last, the soft cords of a violin wafted through the air, sending her to sleep almost the moment it began, accompanied with a soft whisper in her mind, a voice she would have recognized anywhere. Caius, Picking up where they had left the rehearsal mere hours ago. Yet now even in dreams it had softened a hair, making Bella feel safe for the first time since coming to the castle.
“Close your eyes and surrender to your darkest dreams, purge your thoughts of the life you knew before, close your eyes let your spirit start to soar,
And you'll live as you never lived before”