UO Free Server

"What is the definition of love?"
"When you care about someone and want to see the best for them."

"Shouldn’t someone deserve better, someone who they can depend on?"
"Well, isn’t that up to whomever it is to decide, and not you? I mean, it’s their life, and their love for you. Right?"

Part One – Girl Talk

"Or you could do plenty of other things."

She looked over to where the red haired woman had appeared in the chair across from her. "Hello!" Astra greeted her brightly, and shifted her seat so she could look between both the new arrival and Sasha, to whom she had been speaking.

"Oh? Like?" Sasha pursed her lips, watching the other woman, speaking to her as if unsurprised by her presence.

Astra continued softly petting her cat while the woman continued, " You could simply find two men you love and explain to both of them. Brother husbands I think is the term."

"That’s an idea!" Astra brightened, "Then you can both be happy!"

Sasha frowned, thoughtfully, "That would require both halves of me to be able to love, and to find that love." The woman nodded to her. "Neira, what did you do to Engale?" Sasha quickly changed the subject.

"You’re Neira?" Astra fluttered her eyes curiously. She’d heard so much about this woman, and how dangerous she was, but she surely didn’t seem dangerous sitting here before her, chatting as if they were simply having tea. So she decided to be polite, since it seemed the right thing to do at the moment, "Oh, hi, I’m Astra!" She smiled warmly.

"Hi Astra," Neira smiled back to her, looking her over with equal curiousity, "Oh! There’s three of you," she noticed, though Astra had no idea how she could see it all, "Are they all Astra as well?" The girl giggled, nodding, "Oh yes, I’m all me!" Neira smiled lightly in return, then looked back to a clearly confused Sasha, "I took back seventy percent of his life that he owes to me, for being an idiot."

"You need to stop throwing me around," Sasha informed her, "it’s really starting to piss me off."

"You’re very observant," Astra noted, "I read your book on Necromancy. You write very well."

"Oh? A fan? Well thank you!" Neira brightened. "People get so melodramatic when it comes to necromancy."

Sasha eyed the woman cooly, "Yeah, good book, nice touch about the dead lover part." Astra saw Neira cringe. She had read that too, the ending part. She wondered if Neira was like Sasha and Scarlet, and perhaps she had simply been hurt. Maybe that was why she was so angry. "Why are you here?" Sasha demanded.

Neira simply looked over to her with a patience that reminded Astra of her mother, as she explained, "Sasha, when I send you away, it’s because you are acting like a child. You sometimes need a time out." Astra brightened, yes! Just like her own mother! "Are you Sasha’s mother?"

"I don’t think so," she seemed to consider this carefully, "You know, I don’t really know how related we are." Sasha’s eyes widened at the comment, "What?" Astra still seemed to be interested in this, though, "Like when Fenrir tells me to calm down?" Neira nodded to her, "I’m sure." She smiled, and Astra smiled in return, "Oh, okay!"

The young Tiefling looked to Sasha to explain, "Sometimes Fenrir has to tell me to calm down. It’s okay, he does it because he loves me." Her explanation was met with a resound, "Hrumph."

"Neira when are you going to start teaching me?" Sasha looked back to Neira again, who replied, "I’ve been teaching you since before you were born."

"Before?"

"How can you teach someone before they’re born?" Astra inquired curiously.

"I have influenced human generation since the beginning. In a sense I’ve taught them all something; survival, evil, good."

"Oh, are you a god? I never met a god."

Neira laughed softly, "I am no god. I am just stuck."

Astra tilted her head, confused, "Why are you stuck? Stuck how? I saw a grave with your name on it. Is that how you’re stuck?" She was thinking about Neira being a necromancer. Had she done something to make herself not be able to die, or some such? But Neira shook her head, "I’m sure the gods would surely destroy me if they felt like it."

"Do you like being stuck?"

"Mmm," Neira shifted a bit more comfortably in the chair, "That’s a good question. Sometimes it’s less droll than others." Astra’s nose wrinkled, "What’s ‘droll’?" The necromancer chuckled softly in amusement, "It’s the summation of all the thoughts a troll ever has – in other words….. boring."

"Neira," Sasha addressed her again, "You need to fix Engale. Damnit Neira, we need him!"

Wearily Neira rolled her eyes, "Engale, Engale. Such an idiot! I didn’t kill him or anything Sasha."

"No, but what you did, sent him away!"

The necromancer smiled wryly, "Sometimes you have to lose everything to realize how much you have," she explained as if she had been through it, and Astra thought again about her words at the end of the book. "He also needs to learn your part, as do you."

"Yes, well, if anything happens to me while he is gone, we will lose everything," then she stopped and thought, "My part?"

"Why am I here Sasha if not to protect you in his absence?" Neira tilted her head a bit.

"B-but you’re the one who killed me?" Utterly confused now, Sasha simply stared at her. "And clearly you are alive," Neira informed her. Sasha faltered, "Y-you tried to drive me crazy." Her lips trembled as her eyes glued to Neira.

"Well not entirely mad," she explained to Sasha, "I have a process. You had several crazy things in your brain," she remarked, swirling her long red hair in her fingers, "You can’t tell me you were better off before."

Sasha frowned, considering it, "N-no. I have more… freedom now, and better control, sort of. But I am also in more danger."

Neira smiled reassuringly, "That, too, will pass eventually."

"You honestly believe, as Engale, that I will be stronger as two? That We will be stronger?"

"No Engale is an idiot," the necromancer scoffed, "It’s up to you how you decide to proceed. You have it in you to heal the rift or have two halves."

"We can work together, but heal the rift?"

"It’s your soul," Neira explained with an offhand shrug of a shoulder, "Who has more power of it than you?" Then she rolled her eyes wearily, "God, I wonder why all you humans are so stupid at times."

Apparently fed up, Sasha blurted out in frustration, "LIKE YOU HEALED YOUR TWO HALVES?!"

At that moment a large form in deep blue appeared around the corner of the screen that separated the visiting room from the foyer of the keep. Fenrir’s eyes became huge as he noted the presence in the room before his fiance, and he froze in place. Astra just looked up at him with her wide, innocent smile, "Fenrir! Look! It’s Neira!"

[To be Continued]