The very distant past…
"He is dead Abegayl, you must let him go"
"Why? Why should I?"
"You are an immortal, immortals can not love the dust makers – play with them for your amusement, but do not love them"
Abegayl glowered at her sister, anger filling her body, to the point where she could not articulate responses to her sister's lecture.
They had ridden now for two hours, searching the fallen dead. Isobel found it a morbid unnecessary task. Her sister, however, obsessed with locating her lover would not be dissuaded.
"There are rules to the way we are – alter those and suffer the consequences"
"There are no consequences so great as to live without him" Abegayl managed to hiss through her clenched teeth.
The battlefield ran with the blood of the young soldiers. On sighting the object of her search Abegayl jumped from her sister's horse, the blood of the battle seeped into the cloth of her dress. Lowering herself to his side she reached to touch the face of her lover; with his eyes closed he could be asleep. A smile adorned her features as she stroked his cheek.
"Come sister, the others will be here soon – I have no wish to die another death so soon. If you must choose to take this path then take what you need and let us go" Isobel nervously peered to the horizon, the clouds hung heavy. A storm had begun to
Abegayl reached forward to open his shirt; placing her hand over his heart she uttered an incantation, slowly quiet at first. As the words were repeated stillness fell about her, the moans of the dying were lost to the wind. Her words grew louder. The elements responded to her call, against the laws of nature she drew from his chest his heart. Still warm it pulsed once in her hand before lying silent.
"We will be together again Henricus"
Grabbed by the arm and pulled to her horse by her sister, Abegayl rode into the darkness of the disturbed eve.
oo00oo
"Mum's old book, always creeped me out a bit"
Henry looked up at his son, absently drawing his hand across the open page.
"I often asked her where she found it, told me it was at a fair before we met"
"Well its weird, I doubt I could even sell it"
"Abe, we'd never sell this", he closed the book and held it to his chest. "But I agree, spells and potions are not really my cup of tea. I suppose it is the oldest form of medicine, so out of curiosity it makes sense that Abigail would have it. I find it odd that I have been unable to translate it"
"Well put it away, dinner is ready and I don't want that", he pointed at the old manuscript on Henry's lap "anywhere near the dinner table".
Abegayl strode around the room. Times had changed from stirring cauldrons in damp caves. A limited technology had allowed her to pursue her quest with an increased fervour, what hadn't changed was her sister's frustrated opinions on her continued pursuit.
"He died, it didn't work – please cease this action"
"He died because the circumstances were not right, but we were closer this time. The wound must be directly to his heart, and inflicted during the protection of an innocent", the last few words muttered as if reciting a spell.
"You cannot keep resurrecting the poor man to have him keep dying"
"He remembers nothing each time"
"That does not make it right, and one day he will – If you succeed he will remember each death, surely you would not wish that fate upon him. I still remember the eve of Solstice where I was burned, it is a memory I would rather be gone from my mind"
"He will remember his deaths, and the joys of his life. I will make sure that the good outweighs the bad"
The conversation continued in a circular fashion with neither giving ground. Isobel, frustrated, conceded the argument by changing the topic.
" I must take leave, Gwen is to be flayed tonight for heresy" Isobel appeared unperturbed by her friends pending future demise.
"You are happy about that?" queried Abegayl
"I'm neither happy nor sad, it breaks the monotony of life in this town, and I will meet her after at the tavern outside of town"
"You take risks my sister"
Isobel looked over the stolen heart her sister held locked within a golden case.
"As do you my sister"
oo00oo
Winds whirled, trees strained, the darkest spirit of nature tore through the land.
"It is done", Abegayl whispered. Her sister remained asleep in the separate room.
"It is done, by the spirit of the sea he will be reborn. Death will no longer hold him prisoner, he lives". Brushing over the now gently beating heart, held within its casket – she smiled, momentarily losing herself in the moment when they would meet again.
"He lives and you will die", Isobel announced haven been woken by the repeated banging of the window upon the frame. She stood behind her sister. "You have interfered with the order of things, and now you know you must suffer" she spoke loudly over the storm, startling her sister.
Abegayl refused to turn, keeping her face low
"It may not be my fate"
"If …when you meet he will fall in love with you, on giving you his heart again, you begin to die. That is the price of the resurrection. He will live and you will die". At this point tears escaped her eyes, sadness, anger merged as her voice had risen.
"To live without love is not to live, to live with love – if only for a moment is worth a final death"
Isobel could fight no more; too many centuries of the same argument had come and passed into time. She knew her immortal sister would spend her life seeking out her lover, for though she had raised him she could not know from where he would be reborn. At that moment, when they would meet, her sister would be lost to her kind.
The two remained silent each attempting to accept the others truth. The moment lengthened until urged by centuries of kinship both moved to hug. "We will experience the joy of this moment, and when I find Henricus I will find you again to say goodbye. You will always be my sister in life and in death"
oo00oo
She knew who belonged to the knock at her door long before she opened it. Seventy years had passed since they had last been in contact.
"Isobel"
"Abigail"
No other words were spoken, as each embraced the other, so tightly they seemed to squeeze the lost years from each other. Pulling apart Abigail took time to regard her sister.
"You look well", she smiled warmly
"You look old", her sister smiled back over her shoulder as she strode into the house. Purveying the room, Isobel frowned with disapproval before placing herself at the head of the kitchen table.
"Why would one choose to live like this", she waved her hand "in a unknown backwater…Terry, no Tarrytown? Really Abigail, you are better than this."
"This is a good life for a mortal, its simplicity is its reward"
"Please, don't be boring". Isobel becoming agitated started to wander about the house, peering behind doors. "Where is he, your pet immortal"
"Henry is no pet, and he is not here"
"Henry? Hmmmmm I suppose more fitting for the time, you too have changed your name, it was harder to find you"
"But I knew that you would my sister, if it was your wish to do so"
"He should be here, he owes you and should be here…."she paused not sure how to word her next thought, "to care for you given your ….age"
"I did not raise him to care for me. Isobel", she pulled her sister to the lounge to sit beside her "I have so much to tell you, I had almost given up hope, so many years trying to find him, and then he was there" a moment was taken to remember Henry's first glance towards her. "I could not know for sure he would feel the same for me, then he looked at me and I knew, in my heart I knew he remembered me. It was as if we were back on the Moors – as if time itself did not exist"
"Bah! Time did not exist for you, and he did not, could not remember you. But enough I grow tired of the argument. Tell me did he ever question the ease at which you accepted his return"
"I believe he was content to have a person who accepted him, there seemed no need to tell the story"
"You chose to live a lie Abigail?"
"Yes, I have" no other response was given. It was clear it was the one decision, which continued to haunt her.
The evening was spent relaying Abigail's life, her time with Henry, raising Abraham, her final decision to leave. Isobel remained silent throughout, attempting not to judge her sister, though still finding to difficult to reconcile what had she had sacrificed for what, to Isobel, seemed so short a time of happiness.
"Will I see you again?" Abigail queried as her sister took her leave.
"I have lost a true concept of time, my days are your years. I can say I wish to see you again"
Abigail accepted that it was as close to a promise as her sister could make.
Isobel slid into the red convertible she had acquired from her most recent liaison. If she demonstrated any affection, other than to her sister, it was to the sleek metal machine she melded into. Knowing in her heart she would not return, she glanced one last time at her sister. Grown so old, Isobel realised that was what she feared the most, age and the vulnerabilities inherent. Seeing her sister frightened her far too much to return, yet there was another whom sparked a youthful curiosity.
"I believe it is time Henry met his in-laws," she murmured whilst turning the key. The engine roared into life.
"You ok Henry?" Abe noticed his father tremble in his chair.
"Yes Abraham…its just…its just I had the sensation of chills. I think the expression is of someone walking over ones grave"
"You've been reading Mum's book for too long, told you it would give you nightmares"
Henry peered down at the pages still open on his lap – before him was a hand sketched picture, anatomically perfect, of a human heart.