AN: A dream I had .. Don't ask, probably sugar and the marathon. Standard
Disclaimers apply.
A place beyond our time, both before and after, exists as a constant watcher and constant parallel. Sharing the same sun, it is home to the Tree of Knowledge and was home, before it became what it is, to the Witchblade. Not called the Witchblade then, her name was Lilith, and she existed in this place, Paradise or Purgatory, whichever was true for the day, with her husband. They existed because they had always existed, not as impetuous youth, nor decrepit elderly, just as they were. The wisdom they contained due to their long habitation with the Tree would have satiated the most inquisitive scholar and only whetted the appetite of the greediest conqueror. They were the caretakers of the Tree, if the Tree had any, and their sole duty was to exist, to balance the evil that, in abundant supply, continuously threatened the Tree's ability to live and learn. Everyday the two of them would fight against the hordes that threatened to overtake them and every night, as they healed, the hordes would shrink back into the darkness from which it came. It was a cycle, and like any other in this place, those participating within it, were content.
One day, things were different. For the past weeks the hordes had been gaining territory, the darkness that they spread consuming ground that Lilith and her husband had defended the day before. Their view of the sun was fading, rather, the sun was fading from their view. Darkness was rolling over it, bits of fire and pieces of core were spitting out all around it in a halo of flame. Suddenly, in between the arrival of the dawn and the closing of night, a bit of sun spat towards the awakening couple and pierced Lilith in the heart, emerging behind her on the ground. Anguished and confused, her husband held her in his arms as he both wept and screamed. He reached above to the tree under which they slept and ripped off a branch. The Tree shuddered and then was still. Forming it in his hands he grabbed the offending bit of sun, which had melded with his beloved's heart. In his hands it became a stone, full of fire and clear as blood. He set the stone in the curls of the branch, giving it the form it is now known by. Unbeknownst to him, the combining of the branch and his wife brought new consciousness to the bauble, although it is doubtful that, in his grief, he could have cared. He held the body of his wife and her life in his hands and waited for the darkness to consume him.
Suddenly, and luckily for us, the Tree came to a decision. It extended its tendrils and placed the husband and wife and Witchblade into our reality. There they have remained until the three can be reunited. The Weilders are their daughters, their fights now holding back the hordes. Yet as long as the tiny bit of the Tree remains pure, so will the entire Tree itself. The husband now watches, older now, deep lines of concern cutting ruts into his visage. He watches his children, as they love, lose, and fight, all the while protecting his wife against the hordes that threaten her.
A place beyond our time, both before and after, exists as a constant watcher and constant parallel. Sharing the same sun, it is home to the Tree of Knowledge and was home, before it became what it is, to the Witchblade. Not called the Witchblade then, her name was Lilith, and she existed in this place, Paradise or Purgatory, whichever was true for the day, with her husband. They existed because they had always existed, not as impetuous youth, nor decrepit elderly, just as they were. The wisdom they contained due to their long habitation with the Tree would have satiated the most inquisitive scholar and only whetted the appetite of the greediest conqueror. They were the caretakers of the Tree, if the Tree had any, and their sole duty was to exist, to balance the evil that, in abundant supply, continuously threatened the Tree's ability to live and learn. Everyday the two of them would fight against the hordes that threatened to overtake them and every night, as they healed, the hordes would shrink back into the darkness from which it came. It was a cycle, and like any other in this place, those participating within it, were content.
One day, things were different. For the past weeks the hordes had been gaining territory, the darkness that they spread consuming ground that Lilith and her husband had defended the day before. Their view of the sun was fading, rather, the sun was fading from their view. Darkness was rolling over it, bits of fire and pieces of core were spitting out all around it in a halo of flame. Suddenly, in between the arrival of the dawn and the closing of night, a bit of sun spat towards the awakening couple and pierced Lilith in the heart, emerging behind her on the ground. Anguished and confused, her husband held her in his arms as he both wept and screamed. He reached above to the tree under which they slept and ripped off a branch. The Tree shuddered and then was still. Forming it in his hands he grabbed the offending bit of sun, which had melded with his beloved's heart. In his hands it became a stone, full of fire and clear as blood. He set the stone in the curls of the branch, giving it the form it is now known by. Unbeknownst to him, the combining of the branch and his wife brought new consciousness to the bauble, although it is doubtful that, in his grief, he could have cared. He held the body of his wife and her life in his hands and waited for the darkness to consume him.
Suddenly, and luckily for us, the Tree came to a decision. It extended its tendrils and placed the husband and wife and Witchblade into our reality. There they have remained until the three can be reunited. The Weilders are their daughters, their fights now holding back the hordes. Yet as long as the tiny bit of the Tree remains pure, so will the entire Tree itself. The husband now watches, older now, deep lines of concern cutting ruts into his visage. He watches his children, as they love, lose, and fight, all the while protecting his wife against the hordes that threaten her.