Awakening
A Green Rider tale
By: Sirius
Disclaimer: None of the recognizable characters are mine; they all belong to the incomparable Kristen Britain. I'm just playing with them, as Blackveil has left me massively conflicted and I have to do something.
Rating: T, for now
Summary: Karigan wakes up – and the consequences of certain actions become painfully clear. The fight's not over, yet.
Author's Note: Warning. This story has MAJOR spoilers for Blackveil. If you have not yet read the book and don't want to be spoiled, DON'T read this story.
Author's Note 2: Yes, I'm still working on my other fics, but I had to get at least some of this out of my system before my head imploded. And yes, the Prologue is short. The following Chapters will be much longer.
Prologue:
It was Agemon who heard the sounds first. Despite the damage done to his body during his translation of Theanduris Silverwood's book – and ignoring the fact that the menders still had him on restricted duty – he was driven to oversee the work of the other caretakers. The meager light of the tombs and the moving shadows that were the Black Shield tomb guards were familiar and reassuring sights to him, and he wasn't frightened by unusual sounds. Ghosts were friends – more often than not – to the caretakers of the tombs; it was the living that unsettled them. What the Chief Caretaker heard now were sounds made not by the dead... but by one who was trying to avoid joining them. Quickening his steps, he stumbled on unsteady feet to the High King's tomb, and the sarcophagus next to it of Sacoridia's new queen. It was from there that the muffled sounds came, warning him of a living presence inside a tomb that was as yet meant to be empty.
The sounds had faded by the time he fully realized what was happening. It took only a nervous whistle to draw three tomb guards to his side, who helped him ease the cover stone bearing Queen Estora's likeness off of the sarcophagus. A bright glow filled the tombs and Agemon had to blink away the tears caused by the light, shrinking away in shock when he realized that the bloodied, unconscious person bathed in the strange light was the Rider that had been in the tombs twice before – once on the King's orders, and once as a Weapon. Agemon was determined that she would not be allowed to leave a third time. She had trespassed in the tombs, and in the tombs she would stay. A deeper look at the Rider revealed that he might not have to argue with her about it, though; given her injuries, he wasn't sure how long the Rider would be for this world in any case.
One of the tomb guards let slip a gasp, though Agemon didn't know which, and all three moved swiftly to remove the Rider from the sarcophagus, their intention obviously to get her to the mender. "Black Shields," he said, speaking for the first time in recent days, "if the Rider lives... she stays. Third time this Green has been here; she doesn't leave again." With that, the Chief Caretaker of the tombs turned away, and went back to his rounds, leaving the Weapons to care for the Rider. Must clean the Queen's tomb later, since the Rider bled all over it...
TBC...