The Dreaded Talk

The following morning Sabella rose and bathed and dressed before going to see The Oracle, leaving Nathan to fix the bathroom door. As always, she went down to the kitchen to prepare his breakfast and tea and put it all on a tray before heading back up and down to his chambers. She tried to keep herself level headed despite her nervousness. She did not want to have this talk with him, and yet she knew that she had to. She had been blind to what had been going on because of her love for him and her sense of duty towards him. If it hadn't been for him finding her that day she would not likely have lived much longer. He had given her a life she had only dreamt of and because of him she had met Nathan. However, she could no longer deny the facts and this talk must be had. She paused outside his chambers before knocking and then walking in. She smiled at him.

"I brought your breakfast Father."

The Oracle had gotten dressed but it had labored him and he was now sitting in his easy chair going over several financial papers that were on a neat stack on his chair desk. He smiled when Sabella entered, his fatherly smile he always gave her when she came to him. 

“Oh how you take care of me daughter,”he said and looked up at her. He was hungry and hadn't really been awake too long. His hair was still in disarray nor had Gina been in to shave him yet. By all accounts a slow morning for him but it was hardly unusual. He was getting on in years and didn't have the energy that he used to. 

“And how is everyone...Nathan?” He said though in a more neutral tone as he began to dress his plate how he liked it.

Sabella put the tray down on the table by his chair and began to prepare his tea. She began to feel more and more nervous about what she was going to say and to her surprise the tea cup began to quiver. She put her hand down on it to stop it and then slowly handed him the cup.

"I'm sure you know by now that Leila killed Sloan yesterday."

The Oracle paused as it seemed his eyes faded out and then in right then. With a sigh he set down his butter knife then turned to face her. "There are questions that you need to ask and the answer is yes," he said plainly as he picked back up his butter knife and began to butter his bread.

Sabella wasn't entirely sure what to say at first. She just stared at her father in a growing state of shock.

"Yes...to what exactly?"

"I have always looked out for you Sabella...as a father should. It wasn't always easy to keep you safe but we'd done so much good you and I...so many people are here and alive and happy," he said with a frown but he neglected to tell her that it was all apart of his knowing he'd need them all and soon to keep him out of Albereth's hands. Like a chess game with a deep amount of book thinking he had planned it all but not everything happened the way that he saw it. But he tried to make it so.

Sabella looked at her father and sighed a little. "Nathan believes you are planning to sacrifice him in order to keep yourself alive and me ultimately with you. He says you sacrificed Westley too. Is this true?"

He paused in buttering his bread again and set back down his knife and licked his lips as they had gone dry just then. "My dear...Sabella...we all make sacrifices and I can hardly see everything as it happens. Did I believe he'd die?" he said as he finally looked up to face her and it was clear that he was quite unhappy. "Yes and the choice was either you or him...you, whom I vowed to protect," he said with a bit more energy than before. "And you know I could not stop you unless I told you all and I will not do that," he said though that was also not exactly true. He said just enough to hedge his bets the way he wanted them to go. he could have told her Westley was going to probably be killed but then she would have gone alone and died instead.

Sabella was starting to become more and more upset. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. If he had just told her then Westley might be alive today! She began to shake her head. "And now you're doing the same thing with Nathan. I know everything and I am going to do whatever I have to in order to keep him alive. I will not lose him. I love him and am happy with him. What I don't understand is why you wanted us together in the first place if you knew he was going to die. What did it matter to you?"

"Do you think I wanted you to be with...with that..that animal?" He said with nearly a snarl. "You think it is easy for me to sit back and watch people die? People we care about!? I told you, each and every time I tried to change things. Each and every instance came out worse than it had been. You know this Sabella. You save peoples lives...we save peoples lives, educate them, give them safety and solace, give them hope and a home. Not all of us were meant to be happy," he said and his face looked so sad for her. To keep them both safe he had had to make decisions and sacrifice others to keep that outcome consistent through the years. Now he needed everyone but he had known that too then. What happened first was of no consequence to him now. He didn't like how upset she was getting and so he moderated his tone.

"You know I'd do anything to keep you from being hurt daughter and it will be so...you just have to hang on for a little longer...we're almost there," he said almost pleadingly. Yet he didn't really answer her question.

Sabella wasn't entirely sure she believed him and that only confused and upset her more. She felt her entire reality crumbling around her. It had all just been a fantasy world. Nothing now felt real. She no longer knew what to believe and what not to believe.

"Why me?" She looked at him. "Why did you choose me? There were many other young girls in your care that you could have created the bond we share with. Why do you keep me so close? Why do you keep things from me?"

"Because you lack the experience and the maturity to be objective," he said plainly. "As does Albereth though she does not know it either. If she gains control of my abilities, the entire world will suffer from it. And so I will give you an option here and now. Either follow Nathan's plan or kill me...there is not a third option. Now do you see? Now do you see how hard it is to know what I know? I never asked for this power Sabella. But we are beyond what we want for ourselves now," The Oracle said.

Sabella was deeply wounded by The Oracle's response to her question. Did that mean that he truly didn't care for her at all but was just using her? She felt sick to her stomach just thinking about it. Objects in the room began to tremble as her own hands began to shake. She suddenly felt as though she knew nothing...nothing at all.

She left the room without saying another word. Tears began to fill her eyes. She tried to move through everyone in the hallway but she found they were suddenly staring at her. She thought she could hear several of them ask her if she was alright...but their voices sounded far away and strange to her ears. She felt as if the hallway were tipping to one side and it was all she could do to keep upright...then everything went black...

ooc-new thread