Broken Spirit

Writers: Eimi, Yvonne
Date Posted: 28th February 2006

Characters: Meijah, Verora
Description: Meijah shows Verora just how much control he has over her.
Location: Garnet Valley Hold
Date: month 10, day 24 of Turn 3

"Get up you lazy herdbeast!" Meijah growled as he poked at the former headwoman of Garnet Valley's shoulder, none to gently. "While you were snoring like a porcine you let that bitch get away!"

Verora winced as his foot hit a bruise that he'd left on her side a few days ago. Wincing away from him, she struggled up into a sitting position. "What are you talking about?"

"Jerandra! Who else would I be talking about?" he asked as he loomed over her. "She took everything while you sharding _slept_! Our food, our supplies, everything of value!" Lucky for them, Meijah kept the bulk of the valuables with him at all times. He had never trusted either woman. But he would not tell Verora that. Let her think all was lost. "What?" Cringing back from him had become second nature by now. "I wasn't supposed to be watching her! You don't trust me to stand watch!"

"I trusted you enough to _wake up_ when the someone robbed you blind!" he screamed down at her. "You useless lump of lard!"

"I'm sorry!" Tears formed in her eyes as she huddled in on herself. "I didn't hear anything!"

"Why are you just lying there?!" he snarled. "Get up! Take a good look at what your laziness has already done!"

She staggered to her feet with a groan, her whole body aching from endless night sleeping on the cold, hard ground. With her hair a tangled mess and her fine gown so muddy and tattered that it was hardly recognizable as clothing, she looked nothing like the proud woman who had left Garnet Valley so few months before. Fear filled her eyes as she glanced at Meijah, etching the lines in her face deeper. "I'm sorry," she repeated again, clutching her dirty shawl around her shoulders as she shivered.

"You're sorry? You're _sorry_?" he asked with a malicious laugh. "Well, you'll be a whole lot sorrier when your stomach growls and there is no food.
Or when you shiver in the cold and there is nothing to cover you. You think your sorry now, but just wait my girl. The sorry is just beginning." He sighed and crossed his arms across his chest. "Shards, I should have left you long ago."

"Wh-what can I do to make it better?" She hated the words, but they came out by habit now. Sometimes he sneered at her or even hit her... but those were the good times. It was easy to be afraid of him when he was like that...
easy to _hate_ him. The other times... "You've done quite enough for one day." He shook his head as he looked at her from head to foot. "Shards, but you're pathetic. You used to be the Headwoman of a major hold. Just when did you become so sharding spineless?"

She asked herself the same question sometimes... but then Meijah got that _look_ in his eyes... the one that made her think that things could still get so much worse. Even after all this time, though, her back straightened the slightest bit as she remembered a time when _she_ had held _his_ life in her hands. "I don't know what you expect me to do!"

"How _dare_ you take that tone of voice with me!" Meijah screamed as he grabbed her armed and pulled her painfully towards him. "I am the only thing keeping you alive! You remember that!"

Verora went limp again, terrified to do anything that he might interpret as resistance. "I'm sorry!" Meijah pulled her close, this time wrapping his arms around her reassuringly. "Shhh, Verora, it will be all right. We may be hungry for a while, but we will get through this. It will be ok."

Instead of feeling reassured, Verora felt the dread building even as her body relaxed against his out of habit. This time she wasn't going to let him lull her into a false sense of security... this time she would remember that she could fall asleep in his arms and awake to pain... "Things will be better now that she's gone, Verora," he whispered in her ear as his fingers smoothed her hair down her back. "Jerandra caused so much tension between us. But she's gone now. Now we just have to take care of each other. Things will be like it was before. Like they were in the Hold.
You'll see."

"But--all of our things?" Verora's voice was breathless with fear. "I--I let her get away!" "Yes," he sighed releasing his hold on her and pulling back slightly. "Yes, you did."

She curled in on herself. "I'm sorry." Meijah shook his head slowly as he looked anywhere but at her. "Verora, I... I need to know that I can trust you. I have no one else out here."

It was a trap. A trick or a cruel joke... and yet part of her wanted to believe so badly that it had been the stress of their narrow escape and Jerandra's presence that had caused him to be so cruel. And she _had_
betrayed him first... maybe she'd deserved a little of it...

Hope that had almost died kindled briefly as she held out a shaking hand to him. "I'll do anything, Meijah... I promise." He looked down at her hand as if he wanted to take it, but still could not bring himself to. "I don't know, Verora. I've been betrayed by you before..."

"I was scared," she said quickly, taking a step forwards. She set her hand hesitantly on his arm. "I'd never do that again." "And the next time you get scared? What will you do to me then?"

"Only what you tell me to," she promised, hating herself for how desperate she was to please him. "All right, Verora," he finally said, "but if you ever betray me again..."

She shuddered, not sure if it was hope or fear that made her hands shake as she clung to his arm. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." The words tumbled out as if she couldn't stop them. "I want to believe you, Verora," he whispered taking a step closer to her.

"What can I do? Please, please tell me..."

"I don't know, Verora," he said, slipping a loose lock of her hair back behind her ear. "I think its just going to take time."

Time... she could give him time, as long as it meant she'd really be safe at the end of it. For the first time, she let herself hope. "I'll do my best."

Meijah sighed and gently touched her cheek, looking down into her eyes glinting with that flicker of hope. **Just when did it stop being fun trying to break her spirit? When she just rolled over gave up like a silly porcine, probably. Oh well,** he thought as he leaned down to kiss her passionately. **We'll just have to see what else I can have fun breaking...**

Last updated on the March 1st 2006

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Broken Spirit