When the echo of her last question faded through the walls of the house plunged into the night, a brief silence reigned between the two women. One whose right hand had practically lost two fingers, and with each pulse of blood that didn't reach its destination, sent a signal of immeasurable agony to her head, flaying her mind and soul equally. And the other, pregnant and visibly shaken by twice the energy she was using, stared at her without even blinking.
A minute that lasted an eternity, until Tiara cut the silence like a knife:
"I don't hate you, Tristessa. I hate the Discord you emanate, because that's what the origin of all the evil my family suffered," she began to answer, with absolute serenity. "I hate that you are so loved by Vel'Moran, because it was that god who gave the Shadow Queen the power to drive millions of innocent people mad and destroy half the continent almost five hundred years ago."
"…!"
Tristessa stifled a sigh, as horrified as she was surprised by this enormously tragic historical milestone for Nekrom. Millions of innocents… The light elves, who knows how many humans and other species…
"And I hate that I have more reason to believe that you're a spy for the Coven than a victim who, by some miracle, managed to escape their clutches." Snapping Tristessa out of her brief train of thought, Tiara slowly walked until she stopped right next to her head. "That's why I feel nothing doing this."
A kick straight to her face reminded Tristessa of her position. That she shouldn't feel sorry for a world that had already killed her three times and was close to achieving its fourth. A world so hostile, so cruel, and about which she had received due warnings from that blood elf she remembered, but that he certainly didn't:
"You're not prepared."
There was no better way to explain it, and that was considering that Tristessa hadn't seen even the tip of the iceberg of what Nekrom had to offer. The unfair fate that had befallen her, like a divine punishment for sins she didn't even remember, brought a smile to her face as she received kick after kick. To the face, to the chest, to the arms. Her blood-stained vision became turbulent, and thinking clearly became more difficult, but not enough to allow her to reason with the idea that, perhaps, it was best to give up.
Perhaps if she revealed the truth to Tiara, if she let go of all that weight she was carrying, it would all end.
But...
"Tiara will go insane..." she thought, unable to feel any more pain, each kick a powerful shove that made her spit and vomit blood. "She'll kill herself like that time... Her baby... and me..."
Who did she want to lie to? Herself? Her thoughts were nothing more than selfishness fueled by the hatred Tristessa felt and refused to admit to herself for the woman who was kicking her like an animal.
There was only one real reason why she didn't dare take that step.
"...I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die... I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die..."
Tristessa repeated her wish endlessly, stemming from the traumatic terror that every Death she had encountered brought her, until Tiara halted her barrage of violence, leaving the girl reduced to a shrunken, blood-spattered bundle struggling to breathe.
"I will protect my family at all costs. If I have to torture a woman your age, I will," Tiara warned her, wiping the sweat from her forehead and all the blood that stained her shoes against her prisoner's ruined and filthy clothes. "Do you have anything else to say to me? Scream all you want if you can, you won't get the chance again."
"…run away. Run, before it's too late…" she whispered, as clearly as she could through swollen lips and ruined teeth.
"And what about you? Will you stay behind to buy us time, like a tragic heroine?"
Tristessa was no hero. She was never going to be one. Someone so cowardly and worthless, aspiring to something like that was like flying too close to the sun.
"Save me," she begged, more tears welling up between her swollen eyes. "I don't want to die."
Her honesty made Tiara burst out laughing.
"Oh, Tristessa… Jin told you we were banished. Don't you understand what it means? There's nowhere in the Domain where we can be safe. Outside this house, we're rejected and forsaken. Wherever we go, people have the right to even kill us. There's no way out for us."
She couldn't see her well in the state of her eyes, but as she said that, the girl sensed the regret in her words and understood that Tiara Archeos had already given up long ago.
If a woman like her —a Nekromian who knew perfectly well about the darkness that was threatening the world— had surrendered to an ominous fate… What was left for her?
"Jin cares a lot for you, you know? I'm watching this door day and night so he doesn't try to sneak in and give you even a little food… He's too good for his own sake," the woman let her know, with one foot on the stairs leading to the kitchen. If she'd been able to see clearly and not focus her efforts on breathing, Tristessa would have seen a nostalgic smile on the Tiara's face. "I once believed I was a good person too, but I realized that if this family had even the slightest chance of surviving, someone had to take on the role of the bad one. Someone needs to take unsavory, ruthless decisions that no one else is going to. For the man I love, for the son I lost, and for the children I'm willing to give my life for in the blink of an eye."
With that said, that woman…that mother, left the warehouse, locking the door and not bothering to cover her prisoner's mouth or eyes. Given the condition she'd left her in, there was no need.
There was nothing Tristessa could do to change anything. Once again, her fate was sealed, and she proved Tiara completely right: there was no way out.
The dark was everything she was destined for. Waiting there, alone, for the end to come.