153(Bottom of page is a note for you, thanks!)
"Who.. who are you?" Eleanor asked no one in particular… she took a gulp of air and looked around fearfully. Voices were in her head… that must not be healthy. You! Just kill them all, my darling… and everything will end… then they will stop… and you will be happy again.
A searing pain erupted behind her eyes, her hands, and her stomach...Eleanor screamed. She clutched her head in agony. Her mind felt like it was being raped from the inside out, her body burned like the summer solstice fires at midnight. Images of everyone that she cared about was dying, screaming…blood, the voice kept whispering to her. For the first time in her life she wanted her mother. She wanted to cry in her mother's lap, she wanted to know who her mother was…She just wanted something…anything but this wicked voice in her head…anything but that. She started to rock back and forth; the wicked voice still telling her things she didn't want to hear. Telling her how she could kill everyone with just a flick of her wrist.
"Stop…stop…STOP IT!" Eleanor screamed at the top of her lungs, but the voice only grew louder. Just a single flick! Why do you scream, my dear? Why? I am you, you are me…so why are you scared? These people are making you sad, my dear. No one is aloud to make you sad… no one but me!
Eleanor opened her eyes with fresh tears falling from them heavily. She didn't care. Everything was quiet…as quiet as it was when she was stabbed… did she kill everyone? Did the voice somehow make her kill everyone? Why was everything happening to her?
"Elle? Elle… we stopped…"
However if Shannara's voice was meant to sooth, it did the opposite instead. With the voice showing her pictures of her friends…dead. Eleanor immediately put the word stopped and dead together. Until both where unrecognizable, both meant the same thing…gone. Her friends were gone. The only ones who, perhaps, truly cared about her.
Eleanor looked up; everyone was looking at her…everyone was dead. Everyone…Shannara was dead, but she was talking. Impossible. If a person was dead, then they could not talk. Eleanor was positive. So she did the only thing her panic ridden mind could do(other than faint)…scream.
Shin knew something was wrong the moment he heard Eleanor say 'stop'. He was no fool; Shape-Shifters specialized in reading other people. How else would they have survived for so long? Luck? No, it was skill; from early childhood they where taught the art of body language, speech, facial reading, and acting. Some people called Shape-Shifters mind readers since they new everything about a person after spending only a day in their presence.
Shannara is impossible to read since she has so many layers of fake emotions. Also, Lord Silver and His Majesty were hard to read since they always had blank expressions on. Glay practically threw his emotions and thoughts at him, while Eleanor quietly passed them to him in a more reserved manor. Sometimes it took a bit of reading, but in the end, he knew everything about her. However, he didn't at the moment. Something was awfully wrong with her at the moment…and it wasn't just her screaming.
"Elle? Elle…we stopped…" Shannara said quietly to her friend. Shin knew immediately, so did Shannara, that it was the wrong thing to say. Eleanor looked up from the floor and stopped her rocking, and stared in a horrified way. Her eyes were glazed over, tears running down her face, lips as red as her blood. She looked beautiful…not that he would say it out loud. He knew a taken woman when he saw one, Lord Silver had clearly stated that she was his the moment he listened to her when he was battling Lord Nartain.
There was lots of proof that Lord Silver had staked his claim on Eleanor. When the guards stabbed Eleanor, the palace healer told Lord Silver she might not make it. Lord Silver then slept in her bed to make sure no one else would harm her. There were other subtle ways too. He gave her his protection ring, and he was positive he saw Lord Silver kissing her after she was stabbed. Never mind the suspicious deaths around the two guards that had attacked Nor and Eleanor just last night, of course no one would dare say anything to Lord Silver about it.
Drawing himself out of his musings he started to think fast. Looking hard at Eleanor's horrified face, trying to ignore the fact that he could see down her shirt; he studied her. Realization dawned upon him on what was happening!
"Eleanor…we're not dead. Look, focus on someone closely alright… focus on His Majesty…" Shin turned to the Dark Emperor and gestured for him to move. Narcross's eyebrow rose as if to say 'you are beneath me scum'.However, Shannara who was standing next to him, promptly stomped on his toe while elbowing him in the stomach causing him to stumble backwards with a grunt.
"Ignore everything else, it's alright. Someone is going to get the Healer. He's going to help you. Nothing's wrong…don't worry." One of the women in the room quietly left the room and then started to run down the hall. Lord Silver, he assumed that he also knew what was going on, started toward Eleanor.
It wasn't uncommon for mages to suffer from the magical illness called Mique. In fact, he had expected it to happen much sooner. Mique is a magical overload, for non-magic users it is described as having too much energy in one day, yet not knowing how to spend it all. Therefore you feel depressed or frustrated. Eleanor was never trained to be a mage, so she could not use her magic, yet she has the potential power to be one. If his assumption was correct and he was ninety-five percent sure he was... she would be a powerful mage. At some point this morning, she had unconsciously called up her magic wanting to help her friends. Not knowing how to use her magic, or how to stop calling upon it, her magic overloaded and entered her bloodstream
Magic has its own canal to travel through, never coming in contact with the blood, or the brain in the host's body. While the canals are not in use, they collapse, and become invisible. However, once in use, the canals fill with liquid humans call magic, the color of the liquid varies from person to person. If by chance the magic enters the bloodstream and mixes with the blood, Mique happens; or as the pixies call it, magical insanity. Once mixed with the bloodstream the magic accesses the brain and creates havoc. Fevers, hallucinations, voices, restlessness, and frustration are just a few of the side affects.
To prevent the magic from constantly poring into the broken canal, or even from filling to their maximum capacity, familiars (magical creatures, or animals that share a bond with the magic user.) or an object that can be used to channel and hold magical power are given to the magic user. A familiar can draw on, channel, or use, their master's magic, while an object can only channel the magic.
Eleanor had none of these things at the moment.
Eleanor felt someone settle down next to her, she had an inkling it was Lord Silver. However, she was to busy listening to Shin talk and watching His Majesty at the moment to care. Somewhere in the back of her mind she thought it was funny when Shannara had made His Majesty move, but right now, she clung to that movement, drank it in like a half starved woman who had been without water for days. It was hard to focus on the fact that everyone was alive, when the voice in her head kept showing their dead bodies.
She felt someone's arms wrap around her and hold her, more proof, that everyone was indeed alive. More movement to her left showed an unknown man walk into the room with white robes on and a calm, peaceful face.
"He's going to help you." She felt the same slim body that she had first felt while in the woods after running from the Sazza, wrapping around her body. Looking down, she saw the dragon she had first seen while tied to a post; awaiting her death by the dragon. He was smaller though, much smaller, so that meant Lord Silver could control his size. Amazing.
"Look at me." the Healer said. All she could feel at that moment was pure bliss; it was coming from something in the healer's hands. "A gift from your father. He's now your familiar, take good care of him, phoenix's are vain things."
A soft trill and Eleanor was fast asleep, wrapped in a dragons hold, and sung to sleep by a phoenix.
"Elle did you go insane? And why do you have a father when you're an orphan?" Shannara's eyes widened. "Elle! You lied to me...Elle... oh, your asleep." Shannara sighed with impatience then turning towards her mate.
Narcross just sighed while glaring at Shannara…he abhorred phoenix's. They were creatures of the light…he hated the light.
Everyone thank Raine for being the beta for this chapter! Honestly when I read over it in the morning I had to wince. Note to self: never ever start writing a chapter at midnight! Such an angel! And next chapter should be posted at some point... -
Alright I promised review responses in this chapter so here we go! Oh dear god… there's so many!
estrela jem: Well I wouldn't say half a year… okay it was pretty close, but really…- who am I fooling?
Natsuhiko: Yes lets all share our hate for computers. –moment of silence- okay computers are only good for: Internet, games, email, and chat –smirks happily-
YonderTiger: Welcome to the website then! And I hope you keep reading! And start writing if that's your thing.
Aria Deloncray: Lord Silver's cute no matter what happens… well I'm sure that if I shaved him, made him wear a neon greed jumpsuit and magically grew a beard he wouldn't be all that attractive then, nah, then he's an eyesore. Oh god the horror! What have I done!
IouLily: Next chapter and then the chapter after the next chapter is posted! XD
RandomPerson13: You have got to be one of my favorite reviewers… And see! And update and an update all in one week! –gets writers block again- curses! I knew I was abusing my muse to much.
Volleychick89: I'm back from the dead! Just in time for Halloween! –does evil laugh- I would never abandon Lord Silver… just go on vacation for a couple of years then start it all over again. –smiles sweetly- lol.
Ms. Anna: An update with an update soon followed by another update hopefully in four days… - I have a feeling my muse is going for another vacation soon after reading that sentence.
Jelly Wombat: -dies- I have faithfully updated with a couple of updates and now you an acknowledge those two chapters too… right? –smiles sweetly- lol
DJ: My brother can burn in hell… but since all my friends have crushes on him I should assume so. And stop giving my muse ideas! Each time I start writing I get the urge to throw a random sex scene in! Its rated PG-13 damnit lol.
Why can't I just be tall: I wanted to be short when I was little… cause all the kids said I was too tall to play monkey in the middle… -cries- but now I'm the smallest one in my most of my classes! Oh ya… I updated! And I am very glad you like the story so far.
(ch.10)
YonderTiger: -grins- I like fun fights when Shannara is in them there entertaining to write. And the next update for you!
Raine: YOU ARE MY HERO!
RandomPerson13: 0o –looks at review- is my computer going wonkey or did you actually write "yay! i" for your review… well then I am honored that yay and i could join me while writing your review. XD
Vollychick89: I must be a good fisher then (that was bad I know, you should kill me and save me the trouble XD)… lol posted the next chapter