Viper Manor~ January 7, 2029

Viper sat in the sitting room area of her chambers, sipping, or at least trying to, at a cup of chamomile tea, silent tears trailing down her face. Lara, Lynn and Demyan were sound asleep, together in the King-Sized bed in the next room, covered by the strongest wards Viper knew. True, the Manor was probably the safest place for them to be, but after tonight... well, there was no way Viper was taking any chances.

She bit her lip as more tears cascaded down her face as she gazed upon her children's sleeping faces. To Viper they looked just like angels, and were all she had left in the world.

Kiara somehow managed to aperate to the outer rim of the Viper maner wards, she still had tear casscading down her face as she clenched the items Sevastyan had givien to her to bring to his family.

The memory of the fight for Viper, and his ring for Lara.

Kiara's heart broke at the thought of the 3 young kids, who had just lost there father, and Viper who had lost her love.

Holding to tighly on to the items she walk up to the main front door of the Manor and knocked with knocker, and waited for a answer.

The Manors Protection Charms activated instantly upon sensing another's presence. Viper's hand tightened around her wand as she waved the other one, conjuring a holographic image of who the potential-intruder was. She breathed out a sigh of relief when she saw it was only Kiara, who probably with the help of the pendant Sevastyan wore sensed the exact moment he... he... well, Viper couldn't quite bring herself to say it.

She whispered a spell to have the front door open for Kiara as she rose from her seat. She cast another glance at her children to ensure herself once more that they were safe and asleep before closing the door carefully as to not break their sleep. With that piece of mind her way down the staircase, wiping the evidence of tears away, smoothing her appearance.

Kiara sighed when then door opened for her, she bit her lip and walked inside the maner. She wondered how Viper was holding up, how were the kids? she assumed Viper knew that Sevastyan.... was well... gone.

She looked at the small veil the held Sevastyan's memory on the fight. How she wished she could bring who ever did this to justiced, but she had promised Ciaran she wouldn't going looking for a fight, and she kept her word. No matter how much it angered her, she could not do anything more then what she was already doing.

Wipping the tears off her face and pushing the rest of her tears back for later, she glanced around for any signs of Viper.

Viper was about halfway down the staircase when Kiara entered the front door.

She took a deep breath to calm herself before calling out,"Kiara.", nodding in greeting before continuing her descent down the stairs until she was right in front of the other witch.

Kiara nodded her head and looked at Viper, the wife of one of her best friends, and a friend to her herself.

"I am guessing you know why I am here...."

"Viper I am so sorry, I arrived there to late, he was already......" she let her sentence drop, unable to say it without losing what little grip she had on her emotions. She wanted to say dying..

"He was still alive when I got there" she managed to breath out.

"He wanted me to give this to you" she said as she handed over the veil that contained Sevastyan's last memory. The fght that revealed the purgers identies.

"And one other thing.... He wanted Lara to have this" she said as she held out her other hand that revealed the ring Sevastyan had given her just before he died.

Viper inhaled sharply upon hearing Kiara's reply, stiffening when she heard Kiara mention how he was barely alive when she arrived. How she had been the last one he saw...

With an expressionless face, she reached for the memory and the ring, "Thank you." she replied, grasping them tightly in the palm of her hand.

"You should go. Your children and...and..husband are waiting for you..." Viper more or less snarled, looking rather icily at Kiara.

Kiara winced, she recognised that tone, and as usual she was stuck in a hard place with Viper. Worse then they usually were as Viper was now greiving, and so was she really so she wasn't about to argue with her.

"Yes, I understand you are angry.... and why you would be at me, and I am sorry. If you wish for me to leave I will" Kiara said in quiet voice, she didn't the energy to fight with a gireving Amaranth Viper. So she turned to leave, but then she got a differnent thought. Of course she was mad, what wife wouldn't be with a another women who was with their husband at his final moments.

"However if you want me to stay so you can vant that anger now that is alright to" she offered.

Viper scoffed. "Anger? What anger? What anger could I possibly have from all that has happened? Just because purgers happened to attack my family on my youngest daughter's birthday is nothing..." she laughed, a sound that once echoed in a graceful melody of delight now hollow and dead.

The fact that I had to choose between leaving my husband and saving my children or leaving my children and helping my husband doesn't anger me! The fact that my husband has just died leaving me alone to raise three children doesn't make me feel anything!" Viper laughed bitterly, the grief and anger coursing through her driving her into a state of hysteria as she began pacing back and forth, absorbed in her thoughts and rant.

"Nor does the fact that you were the last one to see my husband in his final moments to be the last thing he sees and the last voice he hears, and the last one he speaks to have any impact on me..."

"Or even the fact that once this is all said and done you still have children and a husband to go home to, despite being on top of the bloody list..." Viper hissed clearly on the brink of tears as she dug her hails into the stair railing tightly, hard enough to the point where one could even see the crescent nail markings.

Viper closed her eyes and took a deep, shaky breath before turning to Kiara with an expressionless face, though her eyes were filled with tears that she refused to allow to trail down her face. "No, I don't feel any anger." she replied softly in a defiant tone.

Kiara kept her eyes on Viper through out her rant, Many of the things Viper ranted she could understand. It was this understanding and the fact she knew how much Viper and Sevastyan loved eachother she was letting Viper say this at all. She was right on many counts, life was very curel on this day to Viper and her familly.

The faster Viper came to terms with it the better it was for them. Afterall Viper couldn't very well turn this loose on her kids. And with Sevastyan gone, she was the only one in the Viper manor at the moment to be the release valve.

"Don't lie to your self Viper of course you do, no woman it you situation wouldn't. Now say it, you feel anger."

She said in quiet but firm tone, she could unlock her feelings at home, Viper was right she had a husband to home and cry and release her feelings on. Viper didn't have that anymore.

"Your husband died, and I heard his last words and saw him take his last breath, and that tears you up inside I know it does"

"Your right I have a family to go back to, now you do not. I know it isn't fair, more then anyone I know it isn't, and I am sorry"

She felt anger to at how horribly unfair it was, she was at the top of the blood list and yet she and her immidate family were untouched. She could not blame Viper for that one. I was mere luck and spell work that had gotten them this far.

She stepped tentively closer to Viper.

"Viper you have every right to be angry...."

"Don't lie to your self Viper of course you do, no woman it you situation wouldn't. Now say it, you feel anger."

"How would you know?" Viper challenged in a low, deadly tone, her green eyes flashing into a dangerous shade of grey.

"Your husband died, and I heard his last words and saw him take his last breath, and that tears you up inside I know it does"

"You don't know anything!" she hissed, her wandless magic knocking over a nearby vase, turning the once priceless antique into a pile of shards. "You don't know what it feels like to have your children ask you where their father is! You don't know what it's like to know that one minute you and your family are all sitting together and the next your husband is handing your baby to you and telling you to run!

You don't know what its like to have one moment where you have to choose between husband and child! You don't know what its like to sit and think all about how the hell you're going to celebrate your child's future birthdays when the man who gave you your children was murdered on that day! You won't ever know, and you know why?

She gave a short laugh of hysteric disbelief before her rant elevated into a new, more extreme level. "Because you're bloody Kiara! Things always work out for you!" Tears started trailing down Viper's face but the witch ignored them, for she was to engrossed in her own internal maelstrom. "So don't even begin your naive, ludicrous thoughts that you can even begin to imagine how this is for me, how it will be! You know nothing! You never will, so you can just-"

"Mama..." a young child's voice echoed from the upper floor, magnified by a charm Viper had placed.

Viper inhaled sharply, cutting off any other words she had for Kiara as she heard her youngest daughter call for her. She breathed in deeply as best as she could, wiping away all the tears she just realized had fallen. All evidence of her fury vanished upon hearing the sound of her child's voice. While Viper had lost her composure speaking to Kiara, there was no way she would make the same mistake with her children. She would rather die and be doomed to live on forever more as a lone ghost than ever intentionally hurt one of her children.

When she felt she had composed herself just enough that she could face her children without frightning them, she turned to face Kiara once more. "Please, just go away..." she said in a stiff, almost rebotic tone devoid of all emotion except for the slight tendrils of grief and pain one could still hear. "I've never asked for anything from you before. Please, all I ask is that you leave."

Kiara had her fists clenched throughout Vipers rant, she was right of course she didn't exactly was it was like in many of those instances. They did of course have the close calls, and in anyone of them could have ended in disaster. Of course she never said her knew what Viper felt. It was plain as day to hear the pain in her voice to know that was what she was feeling.


"Because you're bloody Kiara! Things always work out for you!"

She almost spoke back at that... almost. Obviously Viper was hurt to much on her own to remember, Kiara considered Sevastyan a member of her family. She had watch him die and was helpless to do anything about it. Viper would also not realize the amount of guilt and pressure she had on herself to protect her family as it was her fault they were in danger in the first place. So no she had to disagree things didn't work put for her. If they did she would have made it to help Sevastyan in time.

Tears were cascading down her face as Viper continued her rant, and she said nothing. Her head moved up a bit at the Childs voice, and she felt a pain shoot through her. No at this moment she did not know how Viper felt exactly, and she hoped she wouldn't have to.

When Viper asked her to leave she nodded her head, satisfied with the amount of emotion Viper had released on to her. She turned to the door but at the door way she paused wanting to say on last thing.

"He loved you and the kids Viper, more then anything, his last thoughts and words were not about me, Viper.... They were about you and your children. I am merely a messenger in his last moments. You and children were the world in his mind Viper, surely you know that." she said.

Then she stepted out the door and walked almost running to the manor's ward boundry. Want to do nothing more then to go to the forbidden forest and blow something up.....

"He loved you and the kids Viper, more then anything... his last moments...You and children were the world in his mind..."

Loved... Were... Final moments...

Hearing those words uttered by someone whose husband was still living, her children safe and sound was like the equivalent of someone coating bleeding wounds with salt, driving an already pain-inflicted area into a new state of agonizing hell.

Viper had already began making her way up the staircase when those words reached her ears. Stiffening instantly, she turned around 90 degrees with a fierce glare. Her emotions escaped her control, taking over her powers, resulting in a row of Painted Viper Clan portraits to crash to the ground and burst into flames.

"Get out..." she hissed coldly, though upon hearing the cries of her daughter grow louder, she turned to dash through the remaining distance towards the crying child.