Midnite Tempest

Frustration. Fear. Uncertainty.

Rheinallt's face. Why was she seeing his face so clearly every time she closed her eyes?

Raene couldn't force the image from her mind, and she fell out of the meditative position she'd been sitting in on the mat in the center of her living room, laying back with an exhausted sigh.

"Three days, Raene. Work it out or sleep, damnit."

Try not to end up dead like the others.

She growled at the unbidden memory of her ex-friend's warning, frustrated. "Shut up, Riley! Just...fuck off!"

It had been more than a dream. She was sure of it now. Grant was different - distant - ever since that night, it was like he was holding her at arm's length. She hadn't even seen him today, though they'd spoken on the phone briefly. Plans for tomorrow. Dinner.

Her frustration growing, she sat up with a rocking motion that took her to her feet in a smooth arc of motion that was graceful and swift, her momentum sending her toward the window and quickly out of it into the night. She was sure of where he'd gone that night, but until now, she'd respected his need to work things out for himself - one of the many traits they had in common. Pushing was bad. Letting him work things out and come to her was good. The master is the calm in the storm, yadda yadda, and why didn't the Tao have anything useful when it came to dead lovers intruding on your life?

Raene just couldn't wait any longer with the uncertainty hanging over her head like the sword of Damocles. It was a lesser betrayal in her eyes than allowing him to face whatever was coming to him alone. Now, she just had to convince someone else of that...

She leapt to the balcony of the tower, but before she could lean against the rail to debate interfering one more time, a familiar voice sounded like a gentle knock at the door of her mind. I'm downstairs, Raene. Use the front door.

She smirked knowingly with an amused chuckle to herself, and leapt down to the ground to find the front door standing open. She found him in the foyer where he'd been meditating just as he was adding a gentle admonition. Quiet, please. My wife is sleeping. She has been scrying for the better part of today, and is exhausted.

Nodding, she moved to sit opposite the mage with a curious expression, always feeling oddly comforted in this repository of great mysticism and knowledge. He spoke casually with a warm smile, his gaze coming to rest on Raene once she was settled. "This is quite the surprise at... Three O'clock in the morning. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Without missing a beat, Raene smirked in her smart, playful way. "I couldn't sleep and I was in the neighborhood, saw the lights on... Isn't that always the way these things happen?"

"Yes, many people find themselves at my home at odd hours of the day because they were "in the neighborhood."

Like Grant. Vincent knew exactly why she was here. "Well, actually, I only live a few blocks away..."

He nodded. "I know. I also know that you're here for something."

"Okay, yeah--"

"You're troubled."

She hesitated and cocked her head to the side. "You already know why I'm here."

"Yes, and you should know that I cannot show you what I've shown him."

"Well...I knew you might say that, yes...but...you see, there's more to it than just what he might know. I think it's about me, and I think that gives me some right to know, don't you?"

"It was his vision."

"How accurate was it?" she chanced, hoping that an indirect approach might give her something to go on.

Vincent sighed. "Raene..."

She nodded as though he'd just answered her question. "That's what I thought. Show me. Please."

"I cannot. There are things that you do not understand. I know what will happen if I show it to you."

"He's not the only one that has a dark cloud over his head where ever he goes."

"You do not understand my place in this."

"What's going to happen? Vince, I need to know what's haunting him. I know...I've known something has..." She let out a frustrated sigh.

"Yes, he's had a vision. He came to me, wanting me to reveal it further, to clear the fog that accompanies most dreams. What he glimpsed, was truth. A future that is possible."

"Okay. So what happens if you tell me? Wouldn't it be better if--"

"You will run."

Raene's voice failed her, and she stared at him, incredulous, shaking her head slowly. She'd promised herself she was through running.

"I've glimpsed the future in all of its infinite possibilities, Raene."

"The only way I'd run from this is if he were going to..." she began shakily before asserting control over the fears now rampant in her mind. "No. No, he's fine."

Saddened by his own words, Vince continued. "You are both upsetting the balance."

It sounded as though someone else was talking, registering another weak protest. "I love him."

"He loves you. Never doubt that."

"What balance?" She was trying desparately now to keep up with the conversation. Where a few moments ago, she was capable of keeping up even with the sometimes cryptic archmage before her, she was now barely able to keep the swirling tempest in her mind from drowning the rest out. It was the curse. Hers. His. Did it even matter anymore? He was talking about balance, and next, he'd say something about fate, and she would die inside again. She knew it.

Vincent sighed, standing and walking to a window to gaze out into the night. "The balance that keeps all existence in a circle."

"How are we upsetting the balance? We're just two people."

"There is such thing as Fate, Raene. I know this, because I've spoken with the individuals that weave the intricate patterns that make up the lives of all individuals. But, in rare instances, individuals deny their fate, transcending Law itself. You are that case. Grant Miller is that case." Lovingly, Vincent added with a whisper, "My wife... Is that case."

"And...this is a problem? How do you know he and I aren't meant to be," she threw out defiantly.

"To those that wield the power to determine how one's life will turn out, yes. I never said you and Grant aren't meant to be. As I said before, there are millions of futures I've seen."

"We cancelled each other's curses out," she continued insistently, suddenly knowing that it wasn't Vincent that she was trying to convince. It was herself.

"I know this, Raene. You do not think that I've seen a future in which you both are happy? I've glimpsed a future in which I witnessed the birth of your child, my dear."

"Well, then, which is the truth? Whatever his vision was or that?"

"Both are truth."

She threw up her hands with an irritated groan. "I don't understand. What did he see? Why would it make me run?"

"He glimpsed a future in which all that he loved was no more..."

Her breath caught in her throat, and she stared at him, unmoving, unwilling to process what he was telling her.

"He glimpsed a future in which he finally gave in to the thirst for Vengeance that he has constantly fought since his death and rebirth at the hands of the Countess. A future in which his friends became his enemies, and he died at your grave site. That is what he glimpsed."

Her voice was distant in her ears again, hoarse, unbelieving. "No."

"It pains me now to tell you this, as I know what you will do. And I know what I have set in motion."

Reality was becoming a blur again as the tempest of thought assaulted her senses fully, and she stood suddenly to turn on heel to face him, shaking her head. "No...you're wrong. Th-that can't happen. It wouldn't."

"Raene, there are millions of possibilities. If I were to show them all to you... You would not be able to conceive them."

She fought to keep her voice steady. "How possible is this one? Really." Tears began to fill her eyes, denial in her tone. "He wouldn't DO that!"

"Listen to me! Grant knows of this fate, that was not supposed to happen. How he was fortunate enough to glimpse his future, I will never know, but he did. He has the tools to change his fate. And yours. You do not think that he will try? It is always been Grant's will to fight."

"And trying could produce the same results, right? Isn't that the way this mystic bullshit works! Do something and it might happen. Don't do something and it might happen." She was losing what little control she'd had left over the rising bile of fear and anxiety that threatened to overwhelm her.

"And that is why I did not want you to know, Raene."

"I'm so sick of fate and how screwed it makes everything! You tell your friends I hate them! I hate the way fate and destiny fucks with everything! Especially MY damn life!" She turned and stormed out, tears brimming in her eyes as she leapt into the night.

"Raene!"