Prompt 485 Argumentum ad baculum - naughty_bangles - Ghosts - Original

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Title: Ghosts
Author: naughty_bangles
Disclaimer: All mine!
Prompt #485 Argumentum ad baculum
Note: I'm back from an epic succession of bad luck.  First, Internet went out at my place for a week and a half.  Which sucked big time since it happened on a Thurdsay and made me miss two week-ends.  Then, for some reasons, LJ had decided I needed to revalidated my email address to post anything, except I never received any of the revalidation emails I was supposed to get.  And out the third week.  This week I noticed that LJ doesn't bother me on the computer at work, only on mine at home.  So I don't know.  Anyway, I know I've missed way too many weeks as it is, and my participattion count is broken, but I'm still posting the texts I've written while I was waiting for things to get better.  You never know.


Laetitia already showed traces of addiction, farther gone that what Lainey would have expected for the span of time she had had the cross. It was going to make things a lot harder. Once the addiction settled in, it was difficult to give up the powers of the cross, worse than any drug withdrawal. And like with any other drug out there, making an addict understand that behavior was bad for them was nearly impossible, especially when the drug was giving them eternal life.


“I know why you’re here, but you’re wasting your time. I’m not giving it back. It has chosen me, because you have become too weak for its power. It’s too late to have regrets.”


“Don’t be stupid, Laetitia. The cross favors the weak. Someone strong wouldn’t be as easy to manipulate. Someone strong might not give up entirely.”


The young sorceress tightened her fits, a veil of anger settling on her face. Lainey ruled her face so it didn’t show the fear and uncertainty she felt. Maybe anger wasn’t the way to free Laetitia. It could even be dangerous for herself. But she felt it was her best shot.


“So what?”, the young one replied, a mocking inflection in her voice. “You recognise you’re weak, then?”


“I was, yes. I got better.” Lainey crossed her hands over her knees. “You can too, I’m sure the strength to do so is somewhere inside you. The quicker the easier. If you keep on going like this, the cross will consume you, Laetitia, until there’s nothing left but a ghost bent to its will.”


Lainey saw hesitation crossing the face of the young one. She had heard the stories, then, the one that weren’t about herself, but about the previous ones, the ones that had let the cross consume them.


And yet she hadn’t thought better than stealing the damned artifact and use it for herself. Lainey had also heard the stories, right before she went to look for the cross, following its trail through literature and lore. She hadn’t believed them, not entirely. She knew now they were probably true, but Laetitia was only beginning to comprehend the power and its consequences. Both women were so similar in certain ways.


“You used it for decades”, Laetitia finally said, mockery leaving her voice to be replaced by interrogation. “And yet, you look normal, as if nothing had happened. How do I know you’re not lying to me to get the power back?”


The woman stayed suspicious, but something was opening in her mind, something that might be ready to listen, an overture thought which Lainey might be able to drag her back from the dark path she was walking on. All she had to do now was to be careful enough and not slam that overture shut with the wrong word.


“It took me nearly as long to recover and be the way I am today. For a long, long time, I wasn’t sure I would be able to come back entirely. You don’t have to believe me, but Rafa took care of him during that time, and he taped a lot of the it. I can have him show you. It won’t engage you to anything.”