Chapter 1
Vanyel stood silently upon the moon paths, and leaned into Yfandes' side. Head bowed as he contemplated the Star-eyed Goddess's request. He took comfort in her stalwart presence, and held himself fast against the emotional gale that threatened to blow him over. Oh gods, why me? Can't they leave me in peace? I don't think I'll have the strength this time.
:You don't have to do this Chosen.: Yfandes informed him firmly, :You've done more than should have been asked of you already.:
His hand closed on her mane, and he rubbed his cheek against her soft fur, seeking comfort. He'd 'moved on' a little over ten years ago. Valdemar and her allies hadn't been prepared for the Mage war that followed hard on the heels of the catechism. Valdemar and Karse, there Mage-priests and Herald Mages decimated by 500years of improper training and lack of magic in general, were the hardest hit. Valdemar's populace was scattered, her lands shattered. Karse was in similar straights.
Oh Gods, Tylendel. He'll hate me! Steffen, Steff, will never even be born. I'll lose 'Fandes. Oh Gods. If I do this, I'll be completely alone. I don't think I can do this, I'm not strong enough.
Yfandes nuzzled him gently, :You will never truly be alone Chosen: She said softly into his mind. : Even if you do this Chosen, we will be together again. It may just take longer.:
:And your new Chosen?: He enquired before he could stop himself. Shame washed over him at the jealousy that colored the question. He sighed and shook his head. : Sorry, I'm being possessive and I shouldn't. Just the idea of never having you. Of remembering it all and knowing what I once had while watching you with your new Herald and knowing that you won't know me. Fandes, it hurts!:
She nuzzled him again. : It is your choice, Chosen. I would take this from you if I could, but it is your choice, and I will love you no less regardless of your choice. If I cannot walk beside you in life then I will walk beside you in death my Chosen. The spirit in me recognizes and honors the spirit in you. It will always be so Chosen. Even if we do not know you as a Herald, we will know that you have done much for Valdemar, even if we do not remember it, and we, the Companions, will honor you for that sacrifice. :
Vanyel sighed and raised his head, "what will happen if I refuse?" he asked after a second.
The Star-eyed met his gaze and answered his question, her voice level and mild. "Then the timeline will remain as it is, and Valdemar and my Children will fall."
"And if I do this?" he enquired noting the strangely beautiful creature that twined around her for the first time. It was a large cat. Thought smaller than any 'large cat' he'd ever seen or heard about. Roughly a foot and a half tall at the shoulder it was, oddly enough, around 6 feet from the end of its nose to tail tip. He noted absently, that approximately half of that length was the animal's bushy and apparently semi prehensile tail. It couldn't weigh more than a small hound; 30 pounds if he had to guess, but he doubted it even weighed that much. Not with the way it moved, on silent feet with an almost liquid grace. It disappeared from one spot, only to reappear in another, and seemed to vanish whenever it held still despite an admittedly beautiful coat that should have done nothing to hide it. Particularly not here of all places.
"There can be no guarantee, young Vanyel, for the timeline will reset, and what the world does in the years after your sacrifice will depend wholly upon them. But your sacrifice will have bought them time, and the magical strength to potentially hold fast against the coming enemy." She replied in the same, aggravating mild tone one would discuss the weather on a positively monotonous day. The cat creature flowed around her, pausing periodically to stand upon the empty air. Abruptly, it sat down before her on the open air, its ridiculously long tail hanging down behind it, so that it looked for all the world as if it perched upon an invisible branch. Turning its head, with an almost regal air it regarded the goddess with its full attention, and Vanyel got his first truly unobstructed look at the thing.
It truly was beautiful. A ruff of thick fur, reminiscent of a bobcat, framed its face. The fur on the back of its neck was longer then the fur on the rest of its body, but nowhere near long enough to be termed a mane. It blended beautifully back into the overall short but thick body fur in a manner that was both elegant and beautiful. The base of its coat was a strangely beautiful ebony color that shown like polished obsidian. It had strange silver markings, and seemed incapable of deciding whether or not it was striped, splotched or spotted. Long wickedly curved, ivory claws, clutched the open air at its paws and Van realized with mounting fascination that the strange soft noise on the edge of his hearing, was the animal's voice as it spoke to the Goddess in utterly nonsensical sentences.
"Shoulder our ancestral load, and two worlds may be saved," it replied jovially. "Three, long ago, became one. One walked in dreams, and spoke truths in riddles safe enough to grace mortal ears Great Lady. One stood openly as confidant and guide, that man was a shadow without. The last predator, with predator's sensibilities. Now, all we once where, we can never be again, for we are more together then we were apart." It turned its head and regarded him with far too intelligent eyes, and Vanyel shuddered when he noticed its teeth for the first time. Elegant backwards curving, and serrated incisors, only just reached past the creature's lower jaw. However, they were a great deal, shorter and more robust then the long, thin sabers he'd seen on Change-lions. "Should you choose to give two worlds a chance, we shall ensure you don't walk alone. It won't come as you think at a glance, when you reap the help you've sown." The creature flashed him a grin, before slowly vanishing from his sight, one splotch at a time.
The Star-eyed shook her head and sighed, "as ever old friend, you leave me wondering if you mean what you say or say what you mean, and nothing more." She turned her attention back to Vanyel. "What is your decision?"
Vanyel closed his eyes, and his hand clenched tightly in 'Fandes' mane. He didn't want to do this, but he didn't really have a choice. Maybe the peacock Fandes had first Chosen would have turned and gone back to his rest. But Herald Mage Vanyel didn't have it in him to see pain and simply turn and walk away. "I will do as you have asked," he replied softly.
The goddess inclined her head, "do you fight for Valdemar alone, Vanyel? Or do you walk this path, in order to give two worlds a chance?"
Vanyel raised his chin and met her eyes, "You have presented me with the Chance to save, not only my own country, but my world, if I am to be given the chance to save another as well, then I shall gladly take it."
She gazed at him, expression, maddeningly neutral. "Follow the Moon paths back. Change the past so that Velgarth may have a future, and be ready Vanyel, for when the time comes you will be given the opportunity to Change the fate of two worlds."
He closed his eyes, swallowed his pain and nodded. "Yfandes," he paused unable to finish the request.
: I will stay with you, until we must part. : She said firmly into his mind, :I have stood beside you through ages Chosen, I love you. I will be with you for as long as I am able. :
He inclined his head and, trembling like a leaf before a gale, he turned and they walked side by side into the mists parting only to return to their separate pasts. He paused were the roads diverged, anguish flooding his heart and shattering his soul, as the bond that had once been between them dimmed and vanished. The shock of it drove him to his knees and he groped after it drunkenly. It lingered, like the soft caress of a lovers' lips. There wasn't the utter desolation, and utter void of Repudiation that Lendel had endured; but he was a shadow of himself, though he wasn't –truly - shattered. He was a man without a soul, listless and lost.
Oh Gods, I can't do this! I Can't. I'm not strong enough, I thought I , but I'm not. Gods what am I to do? Tell me what am I to do, when I feel as though a chunk of my soul is missing? He wanted to scream in anguish. But then as the last lingering echo of that precious bond vanished – he lost the will to do even that. How could a man live like this? He was so all-consumingly empty. He had known much of grief in his life, he'd felt the shock and the pain of Gala's death echoing down between the bond he shared with his lifebonded Lover. He'd lost 'Lendel hard on the heels of his Repudiation and Gala's sacrifice. But none of that had prepared him for the reality of losing Fandes! It felt like someone had torn his beating heart from his chest, and sundered his soul. He lived, only because he had not died. He shuddered, gasped and scrambled to his feet.
You have a job to do, Herald! He reminded himself sharply.
How Can I be a Herald when I don't have a Companion?
Then it dawned on him, he would live for her. To honor her memory, he would do what he had to do, and then he would wait for her. Staggering to his feet, he turned and trudged forward intent on his destination and his mission.
He never saw that cat, which padded silently at Yfandes' heels.
He set one foot in front of the other, and trudged onward with all the enthusiasm of a man walking to his own execution. Away from Yfandes' influence, his gift of forsight assaulted him with multiple possibilities. Images flashed before his eyes with each step he took, coalescing into an unintelligible amalgamation of probable outcomes. He focused on the path ahead, and forced himself to take another step.
Oh Gods if this keeps up will I even be sane on the other end?
The world around him had consolidated into a deep gray mist, the only light emanating from the path he was following. A voice rang out of the darkness, buffeting him from all sides. Full of playful challenge and impossible to place, it took him a moment to place, by the pattern.
"True Names stop clocks, shadows grant peace and arrests fame. Heed the shock, question who's truly to blame? Truth is far from plain and how you think it should appear. Would you arrest the plot, Herald, and stride across new frontiers? Grant your enemy his wildest dreams. Past paths lay forward, know the future never as it seems. Who is good and who is wicked, little Herald, all depends on where you stand." The damn, invisible, cat informed him.
An improbably loud noise, somewhere between a hiss and a roar, rang out to his left and he jerked to the side, reaching for the sword he wasn't wearing, and fell back at the sight of the large predatory cat leaping towards him, arms out stretched, claws extended, great jaws agape. His foot connected with open air, and he fell, tumbling end over end, off the moon path. To slam back into his mortal body with a very real, and physical jolt on impact.
He moaned with a pain that was more spiritual then physical and took stock of his position, finding himself dizzy weak and nauseated; on his knees in the damp grass.
"Staven's Dead, and they're celebrating."
((({
The star-eyed raised her eyebrows at the cat sitting innocently on thin air beside the moon path, grooming one large paw. "Was that really necessary?"
The cat gazed at her, his face a mask of indifference, before swiping his paw over his ear. She sighed and reminded herself that feline personalities were similar regardless of breed. That this particular cat, could call itself "first born of the gods" didn't change that fact. Though she wondered what the three species had been like before they'd had the misfortune of getting caught in a magical singularity and been spliced together. The resulting creatures had migrated into her world via one of the magical portholes that existed between all the different realms and ended up living in the Pelagris. For a while it had seemed that the new species would die out. This was partly due to the soul deep geis placed on one of the species by their gods. Noctis was the first of the cubs born on Velgoth to survive into adulthood. Like all of the creatures that migrated between realms, they had adapted to their new home. However, they had never truly been able to escape their original god given duties. They walked a new path now, but coming of age was still dangerous and half of the kittens born died.
Noctis was a dear friend, and had been since he'd stumbled upon her moon paths eons ago, weak and sick from the unfulfilled geis. Despite centuries of friendship with the occasionally aggravating creature, she didn't often think about what befell the various species when magic decided to change things. She knew what had become of the Pelagris Spider when they'd migrated into another world. They, like the damn cat she had the duel pleasure and aggravation of calling friend, had evolved to fit their new niche. However, in general it wasn't something she paid attention to.
"Should he choose to take heed, he will arrive at the best soil to plant a seed." Noctis informed her. "I must consult the proper tale, and find the one who will not fail." With that the First Male of the Forest Tree Phantoms vanished into the mists, on silent paws.
