the epic guts-spilling dialogue

Mah OYAN homework this week. Way too much fun. XD

“So... why?” I asked Fable, keeping one eye on Alethia as we circled around her. The net Fable had thrown over her shimmered with magic sparks. “Why did you kill Kaden? What did he ever do to you?”
His face was twisted in an expression that was part sneer and part scowl. “I killed him because I knew it would hurt you.”
It hurt, all right. The pain was like a hot poker in my chest. I felt tight, stretched, burned. “Okay, so you wanted to hurt me. Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” he spat, hatred smoldering in his eyes. “It isn’t just about you, it was never just about you! I wanted to hurt you in order to hurt Memory. She was far too easy on Mourn, who ruined me. It’s her fault he survived that Council meeting! She was given the chance to finish him, and she chose mercy! Mercy, for the one who should have had none!” The heels of his boots clicked on the tiles as he prowled around the edge of the Inner Sanctum.
Mourn. He always came back to Mourn, even though it was Memory he was after. “Mourn didn’t survive the meeting,” I pointed out. “You killed him.”
“Yes, I killed him, but only because Memory would not! She tried to stop me, you know.” A bitter laugh fell from his lips with the weight of a stone. “She tried to save your father. But I beat her to him, and he finally got the end he deserved.”
Alethia stood, paralyzed, between us as I moved to stay opposite Fable, glancing at the sword he held. Eran’s sword. The sword that stole Kaden’s life. “I still don’t understand what you had against my father,” I said, fighting back the anger that wanted to come broiling out. “What did he ever do to you? From what I can tell, you hated him more than you hate Memory.”
Fable’s eyebrows crashed together as he shouted, “I have everything to hold against Mourn! He beat me! He stole from me! He betrayed me! How could I do else but hate him?”
“I said the same of you, once,” I said. “You’ve done terrible things to me, Fable. Horrible, unforgivable things. But I’m still trying my hardest to forgive you, though I think it might kill me to do it. I think you had a pretty messed-up childhood, but there are better ways to deal with that than revenge. Lashing out probably feels like the natural path to take, but it certainly isn’t the best, or only, one.”
Fable’s snarl rang loud in the vaulted space. “Don’t lecture me!” He looked like he might leap at me and tear me apart.
My knuckles whitened on the hilt of my dagger as I shouted, “Just forgive Mourn already! He’s dead! Why do you go on hating him?”
“I hate him because hate is all I have.” Fable’s voice dropped to a low growl. “I can’t forgive him. And I’m willing to bet that you can’t either.”
“I already did,” I retorted, standing up straight on my once-twisted leg, imagining the scar fading. “It took me long enough, but I did it. We’ve both been hurt by Mourn. I forgave him. Can you?”
He staggered back as if struck. “You’re – you’re not limping,” he whispered. “Why aren’t you limping?”
“I don’t have to. The weight that was crippling me is gone.”
Eran’s sword clattered to the tiles. I felt a flash of compassion for Fable as he slumped to his knees. He looked weak. Weak and alone, and crushed by his own hatred. His brow was knotted in pain. He closed his eyes. “So now it is my turn to ask, ‘Why?’ Why did you try to stop me?”
I still held my dagger, but I feared little from Fable at this point. “Stop you from turning Alethia to stone, like all those other poor Leondreans? I did it because Mirano asked me to... but more than that, it was the right thing to do.”
The laughter was bitter even now. “The right thing? Don’t tell me that was your only motivation, Andra. There must have been something driving you, something inside yourself that kept you after me, even as I stacked up the odds against you. What was it?”
I thought about this as I crossed the Inner Sanctum to stand before Alethia, still frozen in the net. “You might say it was a need to prove a point to myself. I needed to know that I was capable of doing good, and that my father’s evil had not touched me. That was what pushed me out the door in the first place, more than any obligation, although obligation was a part of it.” I knelt and began untangling Alethia from the magic net. “I think I’ve sufficiently proven that point.”
Fable bowed his head. “You have.”
Alethia squirmed in my arms as I tossed Fable’s net away and got to my feet. “All right then. Now that we have that settled, I’m taking Alethia back to her parents. I think they will be very happy to see her.”

Fable be pwnd. I like him more and more as I get to know him, isn't that weird? I keep finding out all these interesting things about him, like the fact that he knew Andra's father when he was a child on the streets of Amren, and killed him later, and was Memory's apprentice for a while, and used to be called Briar... all sorts of interesting stuff.

Commander Kip
Missed it by THAT much...
Normal is overrated!