"Elisa." The intimacy of that childhood name startled her. She shouldn't have given him permission to call her that.[break][break]

The further they walked on the shore, the harder it was to lean into the casual banter from before, and the more difficult it was to pretend she wasn't committing the evil that she had sworn to commit.[break][break]

This was where the pretending inevitably failed her.[break][break]

This was where the guilt set in, during those wasted moments spent agonizing and wringing her hands with indecision. How many years had she wasted in such a manner, before she'd killed the man who'd made her into this monster?[break][break]

"We always wanted to use one another, didn't we?" she started, a hand nervously threading through her long blonde hair. "Since you discovered what I was, that day in the Petalburg Woods. Even I think when you first pursued me."[break][break]

That was right, of course that was right. He'd thought she could give him access to some grandiose future of power and control, hadn't he? Macro Cosmos had given him a glimpse of such a thing.[break][break]

It had been absurd to her when he'd confessed as much on Mt. Chimney; that he'd still wanted to pursue that dream later, when Wo-chien had claimed her, seemed all the more absurd after.[break][break]

"You wanted something from me. You always have."

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

So he even admitted it. They'd been manipulating one another since the beginning.[break][break]

Inexplicable relief washed over her at this, and a genuine smile rose unbidden at uncovering this path to her eventual destination.[break][break]

He'd said that ridiculous reasoning before, that he'd wanted 'her company,' but she knew better of course. There were hundreds of women in Hoenn who offered better company than hers, who laughed at men's jokes and who were welcome among their friends and family. She was none of those things. She was rarely even pleasant to him, truth be told.[break][break]

She knew better than to delude herself into believing that lie.[break][break]

No, Elisabeth still remembered what he'd truly wanted -- what he'd desired from her more than anything else -- and she pulled his arm ever-so-gently to remind of that fact. This simple gesture arrested them both for a frozen moment beneath the moonlight, and she was reminded not for the first time how absurdly tall he was, looming over her like something far too powerful for her to ever topple.[break][break]

Her heartbeat pounded so fast and so hard in her chest, she feared it might drown out all the words she spoke to him now.[break][break]

"You don't have to lie to me anymore," she said softly, and this was the kindness she promised herself she'd give him before she struck him with the knife destined to plunge into his back. "You don't have to pretend to enjoy nights like this one, and you don't have to endure my company again. You can be free of me, and all the trouble I've caused you."[break][break]

When she unveiled the Red Shard that declan walsh had given her, the false jewel trembled in her shaking hands.[break][break]

"I brought it like you asked. The Red Shard. Our business with one another is concluded."[break][break]

She couldn't look at him.[break][break]

She could barely even breathe, for fear of what might happen next.

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Awhile," she admitted quietly, still refusing to look at him. The trembling in her hands had stopped, though.[break][break]

It would be a lie to say she wasn't relieved at this turn of events.[break][break]

If he was angry now, maybe that was good then. Maybe she could prepare to defend herself before whatever inevitably happened, happened. If he became some horrifying, primal version of himself, or if Groudon thrashed about as wildly as Kyogre had that time they'd faced it together, she'd have some shred of preparation ready.[break][break]

Should she release a Pokemon now, or later? Would it be wise to antagonize him if he was already angry, and get this all over with?[break][break]

"I didn't know the right moment to give it to you. But this felt like the right one."

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"...What?"[break][break]

Everything suddenly had the slow-moving quality of a dream as he declared his love for her, sworn with a chilling passion that struck terror into the darkest depths of her soul.[break][break]

The intensity of his confession snapped her out of her down-cast reverie, pulling her gaze up to face him with wide-eyed fear and confusion. How had he dismissed the Red Shard he'd yearned for so quickly and readily? It baffled her that he'd chosen to profess her worth after she'd expended the last of her value to him.[break][break]

Why, then? Why was he still pretending?[break][break]

She'd never believed him before when he'd lied to her like this -- that he 'loved' her. She'd thought he believed himself, of course, but that he hadn't meant it, not really.[break][break]

Matias didn't love her in any meaningful way, but only loved her in the way you loved something that was convenient and enjoyable to have. People could 'love' many things meaninglessly, including other people.[break][break]

Except this time, a sinking dread revealed an unwanted truth with terrible clarity: she believed him.[break][break]

He loved her. He misunderstood her so completely, he'd fallen in love with her as a result.[break][break]

"Why deny yourself of it now?" she confronted him, breaking through the shock that had rendered her speechless. "I thought this was what you wanted? Why... why are you still waiting?"[break][break]

Of all the possibilities she'd expected, this hadn't ever once come to mind.[break][break]

"Don't you understand? You don't need me anymore."

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

What now, then? What now? She'd been prepared for anything but this.[break][break]

She stood paralyzed with indecision, a half-dozen voices competing for her next action. Run, one said, the voice she relied upon the most of the cacophony that screamed inside her mind. It was the voice that had driven her out of Kalos into Hoenn, burying the sins of her past in the roses and rot. Get as far away from him as you can, and let this all be behind you.[break][break]

Although she couldn't do that. To do that would make him suspicious of what she'd just given him, rendering all this grueling effort pointless. She couldn't risk that.[break][break]

Specifically, she couldn't risk angering declan walsh. So no, running was not an option.[break][break]

Reject him, another familiar, sneering voice hissed in the back of her mind. This was the voice that had gleefully shattered wine glasses to scandalize her husband at his galas and had torrid affairs to shame him; this was the voice that had befriended the Ruinous Beast that every other part of her reviled, bound together by a pact made in blood. He seems to even enjoy it, so why not stomp on his ego? Why not remind him all this was between you was always a transaction? Put him back in his place.[break][break]

But that behavior wouldn't match the actions she'd taken here, either. It'd be inconsistent, and for all that she often underestimated him, he was more cunning than she wanted to admit.[break][break]

She waited for some better, ancient wisdom to reveal itself to her, surfacing from the murk of her thoughts like salvation. Instead, this was a quiet voice, one she often turned to on lonely nights that stung with resignation and regret.[break][break]

You can just keep pretending, that defeated voice said, and it had a meekness to it that she didn't want to examine too closely. Isn't it nicer when we pretend, anyway? Isn't it nice, to feel loved for a little while?[break][break]

Don't we like to be fooled?[break][break]

"Is this what you want?" she said then, and this time, the voice was decidedly her own. Everything else in her mind went mercifully silent, as if those voices were each forced into the submission of an unseen observer, unable to stop her from whatever actions she might take next.[break][break]

She let her hand stray to his cheek, her thumb gently brushing across his lower lip, as she once again held his gaze. An emotion she couldn't explain, but that glimmered with something akin to pity and misunderstanding, reflected in her emerald eyes.[break][break]

"Is this all you have left to ask of me?"

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Watching this unfold was like peering down at the precipice of some monstrous, terrible chasm, unable to stop herself from being prodded towards an inevitable fall towards rocks and ruin.[break][break]

A shiver ran up her skin in uneasy anticipation of what would happen next -- what had to happen next -- in this script she'd written for herself to survive.[break][break]

He'll kill you for this, a secret voice whispered, riddled with fear, if that Red Shard doesn't kill him first. He'll hunt you down to the ends of the earth for this betrayal. Love festers into resentment, not indifference. You know that.[break][break]

Yet Elisabeth could still sense her mind slowly disconnecting from her body, like a spool of unraveling thread. That last warning vanished as quietly as a light dimming in the distance, until it finally snuffed out in darkness. She watched another woman step forward to perform this part she was terrified to play, puppeteering her into being the actress that all of Kalos and now Hoenn believed her to be.[break][break]

Matias would feel the touch of that woman's hands running through his hair, loving in their tender caress. He'd breathe in the scent of her as her body pressed flush against his, their proximity too intimate to hide their mutual intention. He'd hear the words she said next before the softness of her lips brushed against his, bestowing this last cruelty upon him that masqueraded as kindness.[break][break]

"I wish you'd asked for something else," she murmured, "but if you want me, Matias, then tonight you can have me."[break][break]

She betrayed him with a kiss, the way she'd betrayed him and so many men before.[break][break]

It was the way she betrayed herself most of all.

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]