Title: Inevitable

Summary: Leaning against the wall outside Danarius's Hightown mansion, Fenris considers the futility of trust.

Notes: This is a response to a Cheeky Monkey challenge, the prompt being to write a difficult character. Fenris has always eluded me, my feelings on him best expressed on a scale from "WTF to ARGH." I can't say I'm thrilled at how this turned out, but then again, I can't really say I understand Fenris any better either having thought about this. I never quite got his brand of drama queen.

Betrayal is simple: broken words, forgotten vows, careless missteps, circumstance robbing us of rewards, possessions, affections.

Betrayal is complex: whispered illusions and veiled temptations, empty promises held forever out of reach.

Knowing the only possible outcome of the circumstance that first stole me away from the one who would possess me neither quieted the whispers nor diminished the temptation. And for a time, the promise was even delivered into my willing hands. Though wary at first, I came to find the experience of being cared for rather than cared about to be exhilarating. Given time, I may have felt it freeing.

Fleeting though my memories of that time are, I recall with crystal clarity the first laugh to pass my lips unbidden. It was a simple reaction to my surroundings, terrifying in its authenticity, born of joy and mirth, unprompted by demands and expectations. Never had I imagined that I could seek reward for its own sake, or take pleasure in the small necessities of living. How very strange it was to see myself showing concern for another with no other reason than having felt it.

And then there was an end to that terrible novelty, a rising freedom born of resignation and truth. My purpose defined, those few prepared to stand against me fell as easily as those careless enough to let down their guard. What circumstance has stolen, fate will return. The illusion shattered under a crimson mosaic of questioning fear and startled pain, fate carried me back to my beginnings and the liberty of servitude.

Betrayal is intimate: certainty that one's will is never one's own to claim, a lurking ulterior motive behind every act of charity, a calling to never-ending vigilance.

Betrayal is inevitable.