A/n: Hey. Don't ask me where this idea came from, I'm not even too sure. Please let me know if you think it's worth continuing. I'll take suggestions on how to proceed too, since I don't want this to be a re-write of the Legendsong with different characters – Elf, Cassy and Atthis are going to make their own story, with appearances by the girls-who-should-have-been, Ember and Glynn, too. Sorry, all sounds very confusing. If you love Obernewtyn and Legendsong, you should be able to catch on.
Obernewtyn and Legendsong characters and themes all belong to the one and only Isobelle Carmody.
The Crossoverby Min
PrologueAs Atthis' mind merged with that of the young woman before her, she felt the abating flicker that had been her life, once so full of heartfire. With Atthis' death would come rebirth; Agyllian Eldars had been created in essence of the fantastical Phoenix's of the Beforetime, carrying out an eternal existence, always remembering.
It was the young woman in front of her, the one Atthis had taken and made a legend of, whose flame would not rekindle. Atthis felt the Seeker's acceptance, knowing that her job was done; her Quest was at its end. She could rest.
Atthis felt remorse. What machinations the Agyllians had been meddling in all these years, she scorned! To manipulate the minds of the other beasts; the minds of the two most powerful young women of any era, to what ends? Atthis had let them live, and destroyed their lives. Atthis had not been the Destroyer. The alter-ego of the contrived legend had never existed. Atthis had been a Destroyer though.
As Atthis poured her memories of the ages into the dying girl's mind, and watched as the emerald-green orbs widened in realisation, she expected the funaga reaction emotions of hate and self-pity. But the Seeker hid her emotions from even the great Agyllian, so adept had she become in hiding all that was precious to her.
In a moment of great indecision, Atthis segued and sought a means to keep the Seeker alive. Through time and space did Atthis travel, travelling light-years in the blink of an eye, catching glimpses of futures rebirthing and pasts never lived.
There was a light of hope in the Beforetime. In the age where the first Elder had begun their schemings and wound the young latent futureteller and healer Cassandra, and the strange, devoted feline who called himself Maruman, into their cause.
Atthis segued with the flailing life-force under her spirit wings, leaving the desolate Land upon which the Agyllian's had succeeded in imposing revenge upon, witnessing another timeline inexorably close itself as its all possible futures ceased to exist.
After delivering her protégé to the Beforetime era Atthis was so loathed of, the great Agyllian sealed herself in the Void, ensuring all Agyllian Elders reborn would never again have the ability to manipulate the futures.
…But even as the Agyllian sealed herself in the Void, she could feel the futures of the Beforetime shifting to accompany the new addition to its world…
***
Chapter 1The undulating silver ebb of mindstream had been calling, reaching, soaking into Elspeth for so long that the chaotic dream she had experienced seemed out of place. With longsleep would come peace and forgetting. Forgetting about all those who had taken their own longsleep in trying to save the Land alongside her.
Time was slowing down, Elspeth felt, and a flash of her old, sharp intelligence wondered if longsleep would be forever forgetting more and more slowly until the trickle of memories ceased to be absorbed by the mindstream leaving nothing – no, less than nothing, for one needed memories to be able to perceive the concept of nothing.
That's when she started to feel cross-eyed, and the feeling of floating began. She was being blindly torn from her body, blindly dragged through a cold abyss of nothingness, blindly lead to subconsciousness.
"What's going on?" Elspeth was able to wonder.
Her mind plunged. She felt the cool flow of water around her, and wondered palely at the mindstream's dealings with her.
A horse whinnied in the distance, urgent. Elspeth's mind soared to it, hoping for Gahltha, for Avra, for someone – anyone – to cling onto. Her mind groped hopelessly.
The whinnying echoed obscurely, and in a moment of realisation Elspeth knew she was hearing hundreds of horses, all trapped in this watery nightmare with her.
Irrational fear slapped Elspeth into consciousness and she screamed immediately. She was supposed to be dead! How could there be waking?!
Her screams bubbled and Elspeth's head cleared enough to tell her she was underwater, and the horses were still screaming at her. There was no telling to how she was alive, but she was in trouble. She kicked madly upwards, for surely there must be a surface if she was underwater. Her garments inhibited her, tangling about her legs. She wondered furiously why she had been brought back from the mindstream, only to experience the panic that preceded death all over again.
As she kicked, mind was propelled upwards ahead of body, sending out a desperate plea for help.
Breaking through the surface and gasping for air, Elspeth thrashed, trying to throw off the dragging sensation being fed by the horses screams, and her own clothes. She called out, in panic, in pain, in fear. Her energy was failing. Her limp body chose that moment to give in to its weariness and she promptly slipped back into unconsciousness.
***
Atthis witnessed the Seeker's crossover, unable to intervene the moment she had sealed herself and all her future descendants into the Void. In her final attempt to save the young woman, she had contrived to have her borne of the waters in the Beforetime and found by the one who had first been coerced to dream of her, the girl-child, Cassandra Duprey. Atthis had underestimated the Seeker before, and once again she had been drawn into a strands of another's weavings.
***
Cassy sat on the balcony of the Dionyssos hostel, her knees drawn up to her chin as she watched the ferry make it's final run for the day across the Aegean Sea to one of the minor islands. Biting her bottom lip, she wondered for the hundredth time if she should have gone with Chen to Mykonos.
No. Seperation had to be good for them, she reasoned with herself.
Truthfully, Cassy couldn't explain her longing to remain on Naxos for the remainder of their visas – and hadn't minded to let Chen know that this was her intention just yet. Naxos felt right. Despite feeling somewhat abandoned akin to Ariadne and Theseus' legend, and intimidated travelling alone for the first time in her life, Cassy had been almost relieved that Chen had chosen to leave for one of the party islands. There were a few long-termers in the hostel who were friendly enough, but still everyone generally kept to themselves. One went to Ios or Mykonos to experience other people. One went to Naxos to experience the island.
The sun had long ago set behind the slopes of Mt Zeus, rendering the air chilly and invigorating. The breeze, carrying the smells of sea-salt and fish, invited Cassy to cast off her oppressive air and walk the twilight hours with the alluring zephyr. The atmosphere was hypnotic, musical, and Cassy delighted to obey the call.
She made a pit stop in her dorm to don a hoodie over her jeans and white singlet-top, grabbed her passport and wallet, and hastened outside.
By the time she reached the beach, her hair had been pulled free of its usually limp plait, and her face felt fresh and clean. Cassy sauntered through the sand, kicking off her sandals and letting the cool sand creep between her toes, wondering if she'd ever felt so alive.
She did not regret staying on Naxos. Not with moments such as these to live for.
The breeze spoke to her.
Cassy opened her eyes, wondering if she had just heard what she thought she heard. A voice on the wind. She couldn't make out the words.
She turned her head slowly, looking for a speaker.
The breeze spoke again, closer than before. Urgently.
Cassy crossed her brows and surveyed the beach once more. There was nobody there. Was she loosing her mind?
A third time.
'…anyone there?!'
Ooook, there was definitely a voice now. Cassy's gaze froze on movement in the water before her. Someone was thrashing around out there, and they looked like they were in trouble!
After a moment of indecision, wondering if she should run back to the hostel for help, Cassy threw her sandals down at the shoreline and ran into the water. Whoever it was out there wouldn't be able to wait much longer.
'…please!'
Cassy gasped as she waded into a cold patch of water, doubly at the realisation that the voice was female and it was being spoken into her mind!
She convinced herself there would be time after to question this drowning girl, only if she concentrated on the task at hand. Focus on the swimmer and get them both back to shore.
Cassy's eyes were glued to the flailing hands and arms. She was sure that her own heart stopped when the arms stopped moving, the mental cries stopped coming, and the girl slipped back underwater.
Cassy threw caution to the wind and dove, tearing off her hoodie and kicking in the direction of the sinking girl. She passed through another cold patch of water, then a warmer one, telling herself that the girl who had been calling to her must have gotten a cramp from the changing temperatures. The water changed a third time, so suddenly it was as though someone had driven a blade of ice through Cassy's chest. Near the end of her air reserves, Cassy moved to break for the surface, then felt a spasm of pain as her muscles cramped with the sudden change! She tried wriggling her body upwards, thankful for the knowledge that the human body was buoyant and using all her will to make her body rise. Her lungs felt like they were about to explode from holding her breath so long, and tears emerged from Cassy's eyes, merging with the salt water of the Aegean.
She was so close to the surface now, she could see the moon shining down into the water, she would break through any moment…
Why was she seeing two moons? It had to be a trick of the mind, she thought, as she forced her way to the surface…
***
A/n: so…?
Apologies to anyone whose from, or has been to Naxos. I've never been there. I don't know if the Dionyssos hostel overlooks a ferry port, all I have is my Europe on a Shoestring and a will to travel again…