This one's a bit shorter. Oh, and for anyone wondering, I'll be putting a few lines from a poem, song, speech etc at the beginning of most of these chapters, to give you a vague idea of what to expect. INTERTEXTUALITY

Scene Two

I am too pure for you or anyone.
Your body
Hurts me as the world hurts God.
-Sylvia Plath, 'Fever 103'

"I do not want to."

"You must."

"Magic kills."

"Yet it also brings life."

Tentatively, Rylai stretched out her hand. It was shaking. As she watched it, that long-forgotten caress of cold tickled her palm, and the air crystallised into tiny icicles that danced.

Then she remembered, the blood and the horror, His cruelty and His laughter.

The ice disappeared.

"Leave me alone!" she screamed, covering her face with her hands to try and tear away the vision.

Auroth frowned. It had been two years, and Rylai's scars were still raw. Inwardly, she cursed the Psychomancer who had caused this, murdered the Crystal Maiden's companions in cold blood before letting…
Read More