A/N: Calliope and Kellyn are characters from a series that I started and never actually completed, or posted. Because it was a side-fic about their past it doesn’t matter about not knowing what happened in the actual story.

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The heavy rain was relentlessly beating against anything and everything and unfortunately for her that included Calliope. To say she was cold, wet, and miserable, (as seemed to be the trend) was an understatement. To say she was a freezing block of ice, soaked to the bone and utterly desolate was a little more like it.

The figure shadowing her however, wasn’t bothered by the abuse the elements were throwing at her. Kellyn was accustomed to the freezing waters, the vicious wind and the numbing pain. It was like a companion, always there or at the very least lingering at the edges of her mind, pressing for entry.

Kellyn blinked her amber eyes, keeping the driving rain from them. She took a moment to study Calliope as she had done so many time since the other had come into her life. The white haired female looked to be young, despite the colour of her hair, however she spoke with a wisdom that couldn’t have been gained from a brief existence upon the world.

When they’d first met, four months ago, Kellyn had, of course, treated Calliope with mistrust despite her laughing aqua eyes that looked like they could never hide the truth. Well, as it turned out, they could, and that truth stung Kellyn more than she was willing to admit.

She’d never asked for this so called gift, but the ‘Divine’ as Calliope referred to them as, ‘bunch of bastards is more like it’ Kellyn often found herself thinking, thoughts tinged with hate and a rage. Why should she had to endure all this? But then, ever the hypocrite, she found herself using her ‘gift.’

What she could do, not that she knew the ins and outs, or, for that matter, cared, was the following. Using something as a catalyst of sorts she could watch an event being played out somewhere within close proximity to her position. That was something that irked her, having to be so close to the subject/location she was observing. It would have been nice if Calliope had bothered to show her a way to combat this. Not too worry, somebody else was offering her this knowledge.

She wasn’t an idiot though. She knew that what the other said, should be taken with a pinch of salt. But Kellyn couldn’t deny what she had been shown.

Huddling in the corner of an abandoned warehouse, Kellyn was draped in an oversized pale brown coat, but she was still cold. She was always cold, although she began to feel the smallest degree of warmth spread through her body when Calliope smiled at her, and laughed with her, although she never liked to admit it to herself, let alone anyone else.

She’d been alone for so long; she couldn’t accept another into her life, let alone her heart. And so she made moves to push the elder woman away. One such way was to come here, the warehouse. Once during a storm, a natural, physical one and a personal one, Kellyn had sheltered her and it became a refuge of sorts. It was deserted, but from the outside it didn’t really look that way, and it was locked up, although she had managed to find a way in. Those things, the sturdy looking locks, kept street vermin away. She laughed silently, bitterly, to herself. Once she’d been street vermin herself, before Calliope arrived and decided that she’d look after, protect the younger. And teach her. Always with the teaching! It got so fucking tedious!

She felt her confusion welling up within her. She was alone yet she had Calliope. She didn’t rely on anyone yet she depended on Calliope. She didn’t need love yet she loved Calliope. Yes, that was the truth she wasn’t willing to admit, forcing itself out, not wanting to be in the locked chest of her heart.

Footsteps. Just a single person. Probably male. Getting closer.

Kellyn tensed and fingered the dagger that was at her hip. She wasn’t a fool, she knew the dangers of the street and she was nobody’s prey, least of all some idiotic male who was probably so desperate for sex that he’d try and fuck the first girl he came across.

“Oh come on! If ya wanted to do somethin’ hurry up already! Stop fondling the knife an’ attack!” A males voices pierced the relative silence, clear above the general background noise. The she heard him mutter, “Geez, what do they teach the youth? Our future my arse, think I’ll be staying on top of it’s all the same to ya.”

She snarled, a wild, feral gesture as if she was back on the streets and this intruder was trying to steal some of her precious supplies and food. Well it never happened on the streets so it sure as hell wasn’t going to happen now.

Gripping the knife and staying low, she disentangled herself from the coats grasp, then leaped towards the man, aiming the knife at his leg. She wanted answers so she’d try not to kill him just yet.

However her target evaded her, much to her disgust at herself for launching such a pitiful attack. ‘He can’t be that good,’ she decided but apparently he was. She ended up with a slash down her left arm whilst he remained relatively unhurt. Was she losing her touch? She couldn’t bear the thought of that, if she didn’t have her fighting skills what would she have left? Some vague whisperings of magic? That was a load of bull, she decided, even if it was true all she could do was watch which in this circumstance was no use at all!

A small voice spoke up at the back of her mind. ‘Calliope,’ it whispered, ‘You’ll still have her.’

“Are ya done yet?” His gruff voice cut through her thoughts. She grunted but sheathed the small blade, her amber eyes not straying from the man in front of her. He seemed to be in his late twenties or possibly his early thirties. Then again it depended what sort of life he had previously led. Lifestyle and class had a hand in how a person aged. The years of the streets had had there affect on Kellyn, making her tough and lean, keeping her in shape but giving her more lines around the eyes than she should really have. Well, she wasn’t a vain person so she cared little for her appearance and more about the manner in which she carried herself. She’d learnt that was the important part.

“Right, so ya are done. Good. I have some important stuff I gotta tell ya. Where to start, eh?” He gazed off into the distance, his cocoa eyes dimming slightly. If she wasn’t so curious Kellyn would have seized that opportunity to gain the upper hand. After a few minutes he blinked rapidly then smiled. “Ah, so I do have your attention, otherwise I don’t think I’d still be standin’ ‘ere. That’s good.”

He moved forward, then past where the shorter Kellyn was stood and sunk to the floor, back resting on the rough wall. “Come sit ‘ere with me.” It wasn’t a demand as such yet all the same the dark haired youth felt compelled to do as he had bid. She slid down the wall but kept some distance between them. “So what did you want?” She asked coldly.

The stranger shook his head. “Ya have it wrong. It’s not what I want, it’s what you want.” It was clear from her expression se wasn’t quite sure if she was following. “The one, Calliope, she’s told you things, no? Things that are ‘ard ta understand, but that’s just ‘cause she doesn’t tell you enough, no? Well what you want is to know more. Well… I can help ya with that.” He smiled once more, whilst Kellyn sat processing the information. It was no secret that Calliope had enticed her with the power then not revealed everything, and it hurt doubly so for some man she didn’t even know to tell her that.

It took a lot for her to say this but… “Then tell me what I have to do to learn.” She wasn’t a fool, she knew that there was a price for information, for knowledge, and it was seldom cheap. Even as she asked she knew what was coming, what had already starting to pass.

She would be doomed to betray her heart.

From then on she had been learning and honing her skills. The range of her Sight had been increased and she had been entrusted with a narrow staff, that seemed to be wooden in nature but a lot more durable. On top of this, but not actually touching it, so it was clearly a magical artefact, were some metallic seeming components that were a similar shape to the ying-yang symbol but with a midnight blue gem, infused with the element of air, settled between them. It would allow her to bind her prey. Calliope.

Her chest felt constricted as she thought about what she was about to do. Deliver her once teacher into the hands of her enemy. But Kellyn believed in paying her debts lest they increase and something yet greater, or worse, is required of her. Not that she could think of what could be worse at that time.

Before she had met Calliope, whilst she was still a street rat, she had believed her heart long dead, just as her parents were, and the little sister she had tried so hard to protect. Tried, and failed. Alone she had just focused on surviving, that was until she had been shown that she could be so much more. If only she had been shown enough, then she wouldn’t have been enticed, still enticed, to find her knowledge elsewhere. Was it worth it? She didn’t know. So far Calliope had never asked any price for the knowledge she imparted little as it was.

Calliope turned into an alley, a dead end, knowing what was coming. She had a different Sight to Kellyn, and it was a Gift she had cultivated for a long time. Although she knew that treachery was afoot, and so she had tried to prepare for it, she couldn’t help the heavy heart. She was a lonely being, and had craved companionship for some time, all of the bonds she formed seemed to be weak, fleeting things. It seemed that the one with Kellyn, the one she hoped that would have been so much more would end prematurely.

Even though her Sight allowed her to see glimpses of the future it was not a certainty. It was only a future, although more often or not the most likely future, therefore the one that pans out. Yet she had hoped against hope that the love she had glimpsed would be pure and true, the betrayal was a lie sent to test. So she didn’t protect herself, and she allowed herself to fall in love.

‘And be trapped,’ she thought as Kellyn, the object of her thoughts and feelings, entered at the mouth of the alley.

“Calliope,” she greeted as cold and biting as the wind. She got a soft smile in return and Kellyn couldn’t help the feelings in her heart that begged her to reconsider her actions. Almost she heeded them, before she remember the thinly veiled threat she had received before leaving. She had to succeed.

Even as she removed the staff from her back and angled it to provide a focus of her power the white haired wonder before her spoke. “Don’t worry, Dear One, for I will always forgive you.”

Kellyn hesitated then chanted the words she had been taught as her amber eyes misted with unshed tears. Just as the spell was completed Calliope spoke again. “I will always love you.”

Then she was gone and the first tears in years graced Kellyn’s cheeks.