It's Not Paranoia If People Do Really Want to Kill Me

  Gillian survived.

  Bloody, bruised, and healed just enough to save his life before being thrown in a cell, but alive.

  Marci, after a fashion, also survived.

  Not her body, which had expired at the entrance of the Shard chamber, but her mind and her soul. Unlike the first time, after she had bonded with the Shard and been exploded, there was no interruption of consciousness, no dip into oblivion. Instead, she was 'snapped' back into the Shard, shuffled off from her mortal coil, and for the first time since she had awoken as a Shardkeeper saw the entire world solely through her Shardsense.

  She was retively sure that a new body would… reform, or something like that, perhaps in three days like the first time, but she hadn't dwelt overmuch on the idea, instead directing her forces as they subdued the hero's party—the bard and wizard dead, Bernard the half-elf knight and Amelia the dwarven princess-cleric alive—and then proceeded to beat back the faltering and shattering attack, possessing Jonda's body and casting spells, fury and rage and hurt still burning within her at what Gillian had done, and perhaps making her more willing to use lethal force than was strictly necessary.

  The cracks from where her supposed friend had struck her ached at a deep, metaphysical level, and even thought she could feel them beginning to sort of pull themselves back together, it would be some time before her Shard was once again whole.

  With her direction, the coalition forces buckled and shattered. Some ran, others fought to the death, some surrendered and were taken down below and put into the dungeons. Marci had no idea what she was going to do with them long term, and at that moment, didn't particurly care.

  "What do you mean, 'Gillian betrayed you?'" said Of, regarding Saoirse, who had allowed Marci to speak through her, with extreme wariness.

  Saoirse spoke decent Altisch, enough to know more or less what was happening, but not enough to have spoken so easily, and occasionally she could feel the demoness turning over words in her mind. The reason that Marci had asked to speak through her, and not the deranged Jonda, however, was that other than Of, Tissa, Anke, and that damned traitor, the succubus was the only one who knew that Marci was trying to stop being a Shardkeeper.

  Well, at least, she had been. Now… now Marci wasn't so sure if she wanted to rush to give up that power. If the whole world was against her, and her closest friends might try and kill her, perhaps the only way she was going to survive was by making herself strong enough to no one could hurt her. It was a dark thought, but one that had occurred to her more than once since the end of the battle.

  "I mean, he betrayed me," said Marci, crossing Saoirse's arms. "He took the moment I was distracted to free a group of adventurers who attacked me at the Priory, and then attempted to shatter my Shard. He actually inflicted quite a bit of damage before I managed to stop him. Oh, and you know, he and his friends destroyed my body."

  Of exhaled. "Fuck, will… will you be OK?" he said. "Will you… 'come back' again?"

  "I don't know; probably," said Marci.

  "Well, thank the Gods for that," he said. One of his ears flicked. "Marci, I'd like to talk to him—to Gillian."

  "No," said Marci.

  "What!? But- but Marci-"

  "No," repeated Marci. "There is nothing to say; nothing to do. I saved him from the noose, and how did he repay me? By attempting to murder me. I will not forgive that."

  "I'd still like to speak with him," said Of. "Please Marci. I understand… I understand why you've locked him up, but I want to… I need to understand what's happened here."

  Marci huffed and looked away, running the succubus' eyes over the thousands of tomes in her library-ssh-study.

  "Fine," she said, giving a mental command to one of the three demons waiting outside the study.

  "Thank-you-"

  "But there are new ground rules," said Marci, raising a finger. "None of you will be allowed anywhere near the Shard, and you will have an escort at all times."

  "What!?" said Of. "But- but Marci- I would never- I would never hurt you!"

  "This is not a discussion," said Marci, her voice cold. "I am telling you what is happening. You may go."

  "Marci-"

  "You may go."

  Of looked both hurt and angry, and shook his head as he and Anke turned and left the room. Tissa, who had been hovering nervously at the back stayed a while longer, her long tongue darting out to lick her eyeballs.

  "We are happy that Friend Marci is unharmed; or perhaps, not dead," said Tissa, choosing her words thoughtfully. "But we are very worried by this: by Friend Gillian's betrayal, and also by Friend Marci's coldness."

  "He came within seconds of murdering me, Tissa," said Marci.

  "And because of his duplicity, you believe that we would harm you?" said Tissa.

  "I didn't believe that Gillian would, and he did," said Marci.

  Tissa lowered her head. "We are most hurt that you no longer find us trustworthy," she said. "We hope that one day, you will regain confidence in us. You are most precious to us, Friend Marci."

  Marci opened her mouth to reply, but couldn't find the words, and after a few moments the rge reptilian woman turned and stomped out of the library, barely sparing a gnce at the pit fiend that Marci had assigned to keep an eye on her.

  Was she being too paranoid? Putting a tail on Anke felt like something that should have been done even before Marci became a Shardkeeper. But surely Tissa wouldn't backstab her. Tissa was honest to a literal fault, it seemed unimaginable that she would betray Marci.

  But, the sore and angry and terrified part of her said, you thought the same about Gillian.

  Marci released Saoirse, and the demon blinked rapidly and shook her head.

  "That was so weird," she said, gncing up at the ceiling in what probably felt, intuitively, like she was addressing the voice in her head. "And… well, I didn't understand much, but that didn't go well, did it?"

  'Not really,' replied Marci. 'Thanks Saoirse, I didn't want to use Jonda's body for that conversation. She's…'

  "A bit unhinged?" suggested Saoirse.

  'A bit unhinged,' agreed Marci.

  The succubus peered at some of the books on Saoirse's desk for a few moments before speaking again.

  "So, what now?" she said. "Keep on working on trying to disentangle your soul?"

  Marci mulled this. 'No,' she said eventually. 'I want to build up my defences first, and… and get us away from the South. I need to survive long enough to figure out a way to get free. Let's… let's work on my necromancy. My skeleton troops didn't do so well in a proper fight against mages and organised soldiers.'

  "Sure!" said Saoirse. "But, wait, 'getting away from the South?' You mean, going North? Into the territory of the other Shardkeeper? Are you sure that's a good idea."

  "No," said Marci. "But I don't know how many more attacks like that one I can hold off."