Author's note: Found this little snippet while tidying up my hard drive the other day. It was originally meant to be a part of a longer story, which I never got around to writing. But it stands pretty well on its own, so I thought I'd put it out there ... Now I feel quite nostalgic ... Maybe I should re-read MKR ...
Disclaimer: Magic Knight Rayearth belongs to CLAMP. No copyright infringement intended. I'm not making any money with this story.
The Divide
The magic of Emeraude's leave-taking was as achingly beautiful as everything about her had always been. When Clef looked back on it later (much, much later), the teacher in him couldn't help but appreciate the infinite elegance of the water as it arched up to wrap her in a glistening cocoon, couldn't help but marvel at the purity of the spell light that set the throne room aglow and continued to linger in the air, like drops of liquid sunshine, long after she had vanished.
But right now, in this moment, he wasn't her teacher. Right now, he was the one left behind, and it was all too much. Too much beauty, too much power, too much pain, and all he could do was drop to his knees and hold out his hands to receive her parting gift; the strange creature he was to pass on to the Magic Knights. The creature's fur felt soft and warm against his icy fingers, and he held on to it as if it were an anchor, the only thing that kept him from being swept away in a maelstrom of despair and inevitability.
He lost all feeling of time as he knelt there, his robes drenched, hugging Mokona to his heart. Minutes might have passed, or hours, till an outraged voice shook him out of his stupor.
"Where is she?"
Clef slowly got to his feet, still clutching the small white creature, and turned around. Zagato was standing in the entrance, his eyes stormy, his face a mixture of fear and anger.
"She's gone," Clef replied flatly, taking a few hesitant steps towards his former apprentice.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Zagato walked further into the room, surveying the damage, the water spilled over the dais.
"You know what it means."
"No!" Zagato exclaimed, furious denial filling his voice. He stormed to the dais, the water splattering in all directions, and pierced it with his stare, as if his will alone could make Emeraude reappear. "I won't allow it! I won't allow the legend to come true! I will destroy the Magic Knights when they arrive!"
"That makes us enemies," Clef stated quietly. He felt fragile, as if his next movement might shatter him into pieces.
Zagato froze, then slowly turned around, his gaze full of suspicion as it wandered over Clef, and the creature in Clef's arms.
"This was your idea!" he accused, and the sheer weight of betrayal in his voice was almost enough to send Clef to his knees a second time. "You knew about our love, you've suspected it for a long time. That's why you've been prodding me all the time. You wanted proof, so you could separate us." Zagato sounded almost calm, but there was a dangerous flicker in his eyes, something barely sane. "And to think she thought you might understand. You might forgive. What do you know of love? Duty and sacrifice, that is all you've ever understood. You told Emeraude that it was her duty to end her life – for the sake of Cephiro!"
"I took an oath to serve this land," Clef said, cautiously. "The Pillar is the land. I have no power over her."
"Emeraude isn't the land!" Zagato yelled, his unnatural calm fractured instantly. "She's human!"
His words echoed the words Clef himself had spoken to Emeraude only a short time ago. He wanted nothing more than to agree with his apprentice, to erase that look of hatred from Zagato's eyes. But if Zagato couldn't hate Clef, would he hate Emeraude for her choices?
Master and apprentice stared at each other silently for a long time across the expanse of spilled water between them. On its shimmering surface, their reflections bled into one another, the white of Clef's robes mingling with the black of Zagato's vestment.
"I don't want to lose you, too," Clef finally whispered.
Zagato made a harsh sound that could have been a laugh if it hadn't sounded so much like a sob. His face seemed to crumble, he raised a hand to press trembling fingers against his eyes, and for one brief moment, Clef almost dared to hope that he might yet reach out to his student. But then Zagato straightened, his hand dropped away from a face that was as smooth as a mask, completely void of emotion.
"What you want no longer matters, Guru," he said, almost casually. "You disgust me! Leave, before I destroy you!"
"Do you think you can?" Clef asked. But the words held no challenge. He felt the power of Zagato's hatred, his desperate wish to safe Emeraude's life. Clef's own wounded heart didn't stand a chance against that.
He turned and walked away. Behind him, he heard Zagato intoning a meditative song. It was a song filled with love and anger, grief and desire. It built up in the air around the palace, forming a psychic wall that separated the palace from the rest of Cephiro, like a mirror, like an impenetrable shield.
Zagato would fight to the end in Emeraude's defense. Clef would fulfill his duty and lose both of them.