Time
Written for SureMiku Week 2016. This is day 5: Void, Energy, Absence.
General Audiences - "This content is suitable for anyone: kids, teenagers and sensitive people."
Disclaimer: The characters and universe of this story do not belong to me.
Warning: SPOILERS!
When he woke up, it only took Mikleo two seconds to sit up straight on the bed with Sorey's name on his lips. Finding himself on his and Sorey's bed back in Elysia, he thought for a moment that he had but woken up from a long and vivid dream where he, and three other seraphim let Sorey fall asleep for a very long time to save Glenwood. But when Zaveid peeked at him from the archway to the bed with a sad, sad little smile and silence on his lips, this wishful fantasy crashed down. He got out of bed also in complete silence, slowly, robotically, and stepped out of the house barefoot, followed closely by the wind seraph.
Upon laying eyes on the very bright pillar of golden light that came from the forest, Mikleo fell to his knees and wailed inconsolably. He didn't even bother covering his face or masking his cries. There was no point. Rose and the other seraphim looked at him from a distance, both Elysian and the Prime/Sub-Lords.
Mikleo cried himself back to sleep that day and no one had said a word to him. No one could entirely understand the pain inside the seraph's heart and the ones who knew decided it was best to let him grieve the loss of his world as he knew it for he had woken up one day to the gaping absence of Zenrus, his beloved grandfather, and Sorey, his one and only.
It took Mikleo one week to leave his house again. When he did, he looked as composed as he ever did. He was promptly pulled by the other seraphim to the entrance of the village and was filled in to what had been happening while he had been asleep. Elysia was now the domain of one of the Elysian seraphs and, although not nearly as strong as Zenrus' had been, it was powerful enough to repel most hellions. To be extra safe, the seraphim had worked up a schedule to patrol the ruins for any disturbance that could pose a threat to…the purification of the continent. The only thing left was for them to discuss the course of action to take and he looked at them with great determination.
'Well, first I think it would be a good idea to seal the entrance to Camlann to keep Sorey and Maotelus safe.' Mikleo suggested, making it a point to not avoid saying Sorey's name. Sorey wasn't dead and, in spite of the grief, Mikleo recognised that they still had too much to do to just sit around.
'Agreed.' Lailah asserted with an ecouraging smile towards him. 'We should put up barriers and traps in the ruins.'
'Letting these guys keep up their surveillance could work as a prevention measure.' Zaveid proposed.
'After that we just have to help the purification of the land by getting rid of as many hellions as possible, correct?' Rose asked, putting her hands on her waist and a challenging grin on her face. Her eyes were red and puffy just like Mikleo's.
The rest nodded in agreement.
'We should contact Alisha and Sergei while we're at it.' Lailah recommended. 'It won't happen straight away, but when the Malevolence begins to thin out, more people will have enough resonance to become squires and even Shepherds.'
'The leaders of the world have to be educated on what it means to see seraphim again, and it will be our job to do that.' Edna pitched in with a small smile.
Mikleo's lips also stretched a fraction and they all looked towards the forest to Mabinogio. Having formulated a first draft of a plan, the group of seraphim and Rose headed towards the ruins in silence. A march that signified the very last time they'd see Sorey in a very long time, possibly ever for Rose. The way was long as everyone was focused on their own thoughts because, yes, they still had a lot of work to do. Sorey was doing his part, it was up to them to do the rest.
As they approached the entrance to the great crater where Sorey now lay inside a blinding pillar of warm light, the group slowed down.
'Sorey, thank you for you sacrifice.' Lailah said towards the pillar of light. Mikleo's eyes stung from the tears as he looked on at the figure of his best friend, sleeping peacefully, dreamless. 'I knew since the moment you first asked my name that you were destined to do great things. You are the greatest Shepherd and the greatest friend I have ever met.'
'Thanks for helping Eizen…' Edna muttered as she hid behind her parasol. The tears finally fell down Mikleo's cheeks.
'We will be waiting for you, Shepherd!' Zaveid promised with a two finger salute.
Rose sniffed hard besides him and when she spoke, her voice trembled so much it would have been funny, had they not been saying their goodbyes.
'You have to promise me to wake up while I'm still alive, you hear me? I am not immortal like these guys, you hear me?' She almost shouted. 'I would have never met Dezel if it wasn't for you. And you can't just dump your job onto me and run away!'
After a long pause in which Rose sniffed loudly she looked on with a smile full of tears and snot. 'Goodbye, Sorey. My best friend.'
As she broke down in sobs, Lailah hugged her and petted her hair softly.
Mikleo then turned to the pillar of light himself and looked on crying.
'I just…hope you don't forget.' He whispered. He clasped his tunic in front of his chest in a futile attempt to alleviate the pain in there. 'We promised to explore all the ruins of the world together, Sorey. And I still have…something I've got to tell you. So, please…don't take long.'
Mikleo felt that the sealing of the entrance to the ruins was like a definite goodbye. He was leaving behind a large piece of his heart and it hurt. There was a void inside him in the shape of all things Sorey. A permanent painful void that would accompany him for centuries to come and that would make still times nostalgic. It was a void that would bring tears to Mikleo's eyes when the night took away his hope and replaced it with the gaping absence of his one and only, his most important person. Yet he would face every day with courage and remind himself that someday Sorey would wake up and fill the spaces that were entirely his again…and Mikleo would fulfil his promise to tell Sorey what he should have said to him over and over again since the very beginning.
It took Mikleo one century to finish his first book. He had taken art lessons from an older seraph five decades prior to be able to record every step of his journey. Not only did he want to complete and correct some of the facts on the Celestial Record, he wanted to preserve the existence of some of the most fragile structures. He published a beautiful book entitled "The Adventure of the Shepherd Sorey". Unpublished, however was a second, thicker book of the unedited journey from his point of view. The book was fat with lose pages full of drawings of places and especially of people, for that was part of the reason for him to learn such as skill as art: it was the fear of forgetting his human friends who were growing old under the merciless march of time.
Mikleo drew them: he drew Alisha with her husband Sergei and their son, then a toddler; he drew Rose as she posed for him in her very own Shepherd garb, with her squire right by her side. He also drew the places he'd visited with Sorey, he drew them as Sorey had seen them, all the way from Ladylake to Marlind to Lohgrin and also wrote next to the drawings the adventures they'd been through.
He drew Sorey, several times, from memory alone. He drew him sitting on the floor of their house in Elysia, with the Celestial Record open in front of him. He drew his expressions when examined ruins and murals; when he looked at his friends; his smile, his eyes…the unforgettable face of his one and only. He drew Sorey smiling when he himself felt content, drew him pensive when he was bored, serious when he needed motivation.
One night he drew Sorey's expression that night in Lastonbell when the shepherd had confessed to love him for the first time as fat tears rolled heavy down his porcelain skin.
It took Mikleo four centuries to finally revisit Camlann. When he had followed over six different Shepherds, of which two he'd been the Prime-Lord, Mikleo decided that the void in his heart was all too painful to bear. So he walked, fast, unthinking, directly into the Mabinogio ruins and through the seals he had helped erect centuries before.
He walked all the way to the very edge of the chasm where his most beloved slept, the only person who could fill up the hole in him, and cried. He wailed like a child, like the first time he laid eyes on that light. He cried himself inconsolably to sleep atop a bed of green grass and flowers.
The landscape had changed significantly since the last time he had been there. The earth was now covered in green soft grass and flowers were blooming in uneven colourful patches everywhere. Small birds and butterflies flew around collecting the pollen and carrying it to spread even more the life on that place. And so, after waking up, Mikleo drew that landscape too.
He drew the light pillar right in the centre, big and bright, but for the first time he couldn't bring himself to draw Sorey.
It took Mikleo seven whole centuries to finally, finally be able to tell Sorey those words he didn't say.
The ruins he'd been exploring weren't new to him. They had been there before, the Shepherd Sorey and his friends. Much of Mikleo's knowledge however, was new and so, he was able to find passages to rooms previously undiscovered.
As he walked through a room bathed in searing lava, Mikleo felt a change in the air. The very slight breeze that blew gently from the entrance stopped, at first, and then started blowing in a different direction. Any normal human would not have noticed such a slight change. Not even his younger self. Surely some structure in the ruins shifted somewhere.
Guided by his innate curiosity, Mikleo advanced through the ancient structure. He found that indeed, one of the murals he had previously recorded had moved, giving him passage to a new, very spacious room.
Bright blue light filtered through large openings on the tall ceiling and Mikleo shielded his eyes with a gloved hand as he admired it. The excitement of finding new ruins to explore had never left him so he looked around the room, cautiously making his way to the centre where he had spotted a large stone embedded in a rock altar. As he approached it to read the inscriptions there, the water seraph felt the floor under his feet vanish. His heart skipped a beat and tried to grab the edge of the rock, but he wasn't quick enough.
I am going to fall!
But he didn't.
A very strong familiar hand had reached down and caught his wrist, the owner of said hand grunted with the effort.
Mikleo's heart raced, with adrenaline, yes, but so much more than that. The figure of his rescuer had been blurry, outlined by the bright blue light that was shining above, and yet there was no way he could have mistaken that person.
With the fondest expression and tone of voice he could have mustered, Mikleo said the name of the one and only person in the world that mattered more to him. His best friend. His one and only.
'Sorey...'
A.N.: Ladies and gentlemen...I made myself cry so I am going to go on a walk right now...
ON THE TAGS: #sormikweek2016