(Reposted from the Through the Woods folder, as it directly involves the Act VII story)
(The soundtrack for this scene is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbS-Zhz31CA )
The evening of the second day, Toby approached the back bedroom's door quietly, peering at the half-lit room beyond. Tabitha was a slender shape under the covers, and to his eyes she seemed frail, almost gossamer. Always such a lush and healthy woman, it seemed to him as if she was just fading away bit by bit, like a dandelion in the breeze.
The shape stirred, and her voice reached his ears, faint and shaky. "Toby?"
He shifted slightly. He hadn't meant to disturb her and yet this moment had to come. He put on that apologetic, boyish smile and moved into the room. "Hey sweet pea. You behaving in here?"
A faint smile creased her face, as she shifted up a little against the pillows. "Why, are you going to tell on me?"
"It'll be our little secret." As he said this, Tabitha's eyebrows drew down slightly, and she slowly tilted her head. "What?"
She looked at him, saying nothing.
"Tabi, you're giving me that same look you give the girls when they pretend they don't know who snuck cookies off the plate."
"Mmmhmm." She smiled then, tiredly. "So tell me what it is you're not telling me, then."
"Hey. I thought I was the telepath here." Toby slowly sat down. It didn't really surprise him, though. Tabitha had an unerring way of knowing what he was thinking, as well as the girls. He wasn't sure if it was a gift.. or just *her*. So he told her the whole story, of Murelle, of the Dark Forest, of the being of shadow, of his meeting with Queen Teleperien of Eldicor, of Xenograg's request. And he told her of the devices he built.
"If you've decided... why do you still look so lost?" She was weak, impossibly so, but Tabitha hadn't lost her perception yet.
"If I go... I may not come back. I want to do what's right.. but.. what if I don't come back? What if I leave you, like this.. and the girls? What happens then? I can't just leave my responsibilities to you... you all come first."
Tabitha waited with her usual gentle patience until he'd finished rambling, and then answered. Toby noted, though, that she was taking longer to draw the breath to answer. "You'll come back."
"How can you know that? What if I don't? If I'm gone.. and you're..." Toby's voice broke, he found himself unable to finish the sentence.
"But you will come back. It's what you do, it's what you always do." Tabitha took a moment to gather her strength. "You have to do what's right, Toby. You can't be any other way, you don't know how. And I'm no afr-," she paused, seized by a terrible coughing fit.
"I'm not afraid. You'll come back, and I'll be f-fine."
He looked her sadly. "I wish I could be so sure as you are. I have a terrible feeling."
"Oh, Toby. That's because sometimes, smart as you are, you really are a dummy." She looked so solemn when she said this, before the ghost of a smile crept over her face. Then Tabitha's face contorted again, seized in the throes of a coughing fit that lasted almost a full minute. She grimaced, drawing her sleeve over her lips, not noticing that it left a dark streak.
Toby did notice, but stifled his immediate reaction. "You need some more water." His hand shook slightly as he took her glass from the nightstand and headed for the kitchen. Behind him, her voice trailed out, shaky but with a teasing tone. "And maybe a new lung if you've got one handy."
He smiled as he refilled her glass, then his expression turned stricken as he heard her coughing again, this time mixed with a slightly panicky wheeze as Tabitha tried futilely to draw breath. He started back to the bedroom, his steps turning quicker as the coughing fit would not subside.
Mirali, the nurse, was already coming in from where she had been taking a few moments break. The sound of the coughing had drawn her, and she immediately set to work trying to assess the situation. It didn't take her long.
"She has fluid in her lungs, too much. She's drowning. We have to get her to a hospital, now." She was saying something else too, but Toby didn't even hear her. His thoughts, his perception, were drawn to his wife, and to the warm glow, the aura of her, that was such a central part of his life. But it had a new tinge to it now... a shadow. Toby was no doctor, but he knew what he was seeing.
Tabitha was dying. Right in front of him.