Chapter 3
"Rhapsody? Could you tell me what is goin…" Ashe began. But that was as far as he could get before his dragon sense finally was able to find what was wrong.

What is this? Someone has touched my treasure, the dragon screamed. Ashe's head wheeled. His Emily, his wife had been touched by another. And not just any other… He knew that presence, only all too well. Achmed, that snake!

Rhapsody watched as the worry on Ashe's face vanished and was quickly replaced first by confusion and then rage. She could feel the dragon threatening to rampage. The vibrations spilling from her husband were frightening, but anything he did to her, she felt she deserved.

Suddenly he just collapsed; his rage vanished into the air. There was not any hint of the dragon left that had completely filled the room only a moment ago. All that was left was a broken man kneeling on the floor, face buried in hands, much like his wife had been not long ago.

"Sam. Sam, I am so sorry. I never meant to hurt you," Rhapsody sobbed as she crumpled to the floor next to him. This was not the reaction that she had expected. It was a relief that he was not going to be consumed with rage, but this was almost worse. To see him so completely destroyed like this was not what either of them had deserved. She should have been the focus of his rage. She should have been crushed in his torrent of jealousy. Now here he was crushed, paying her no attention and tearing himself apart.

After what had seemed like forever with the two of them sobbing on the floor of their chambers, Ashe quickly pushed his wife away and stood, crossing to the window to lookout at the stars which Rhapsody had recently been gazing upon. For a long time there was only silence as Rhapsody stayed on the floor, staring up at her husband, wondering what might happen next.

"I'm sorry too Emily. I should have been here. But I suppose that would only have prolonged the inevitable. This was bound to happen one day. I am just sorry it happened so soon."

"Sam, this wasn't your fault. I did this; I have done something that is against everything that I have found sacred. You have nothing to apologize for."

"Not yet, but I will soon… very soon," he replied, the last part was said almost to himself.

"What are you talking about Sam?" concern was growing again in Rhapsody.

Continuing to gaze up at the stars Ashe allowed a gap of silence before answering. "I heard them calling to me Rhapsody. I heard the earth, the air, the stars, the fires… And the sea. I heard the sea calling me."

"What are you talking about Sam?" Now she was near panic.

"The elements Rhapsody, I heard them calling me. I heard them beckoning me to join them. I know what father must have felt like now when he began to hear them. I'm amazed that he went so long as he did after first hearing their call. I was nearly ready to give myself up right then, but there was one thing that kept me from that."

Almost afraid to ask Rhapsody said, "And what was that one thing?"

Again, a brief moment of silence before he answered, "You. I was not ready to leave you yet."

"Sam, you better not be saying what I think your saying," She burst out as she stormed across the room to where her husband stood, still looking out of the window. When she reached him, she grabbed him and spun him around to face her saying, "You are not giving up on this life yet! Don't you dare use my weakness as an excuse to go commune with the elements!"

"Emily, I have nothing left now. I would have gone right there on Gaematria, but I couldn't leave you all alone. Now I see that I won't be leaving you alone. You have another reason to continue on now, and I don't"

"You don't really mean that! I know you don't. And what about your people? What about the governing of this land. You are not going to go and leave that up to me! And gods know that the people would never accept Achmed as their Lord, nor would either of us ever want that to happen. He does a fine job governing the Bolg, but the Bolg are not the same!"

"Of course I wouldn't want him as Lord! I would never expect that to happen. The Lord and Lady don't have to be married. A mother and son duo would work just as well."

Rhapsody just stared at him blankly for a moment before it dawned on her exactly what her husband was saying. "You mean you want our son to take over your place?"

"Why not? He would be the most logical to at least fill in for me at least until the next moot which isn't that far off anyway, and then the people would more than likely choose him as my successor anyways," he said rationally.

"It sounds like you have already thought this through. Did you know about this before you left?"

"No, of course not. I just began thinking about what will happen when I could no long resist the element's call."

"This is insane!" She called out as she began to turn from him. Then another thought entered her mind as a possible argument, "Have you asked Meridion if this is what he wants?"

"No, I didn't know that I needed to ask him until now, but I'm sure that he already knows. And that brings up another reason he would be perfect for my job. He knows things that are to happen in the future and he has the benefit to learn from the past. Meridion will make a fine Lord Cymarian." He said this with all the pride of a father very pleased with his son.

"But you know that Meridion is still trying to figure out how to put this information to work. He hasn't decided yet how best to use his powers. Right now he just observes, never interferes. If he were to be put in charge of so many people, he will feel almost forced to use his knowledge of the future and past to help those people. You heard him say that he doesn't know what to do when it comes to trying to change a future he sees, because he never knows how a change might affect the outcome."

"He needs to be using his gift, and if this is something that will get him to use it and stop running from it, then there is obviously more than one good reason for me to retire now."

"But you're not just retiring; you're asking me to kill you! I will not go through that again! I already did this to your father and you saw how it nearly destroyed me!"

"Rhapsody, when you did this to my father, you were being duped, and you were forced to unknowingly tell a lie. It was that lie that had nearly destroyed you that time, not the act. You are going to be completely aware of the situation this time and there will be no reason to lie about what happens to me."

"I won't do it Ashe, I won't!" There was a namer's ringing of finality to her words.

Ashe looked at her for a moment, allowing the ringing of her words to die. Then gently, he picked up the argument again. "Emily, you must have known that this day was coming. Everything seems to be falling in to place and it seems that now is a perfect time for me to leave. You have another to find comfort in…"

Rhapsody began to say something but Ashe waved his hand as if to cut her words and continued, "Meridion is ready to take my place and he will be a great leader, we are at relative peace right now so my absence won't stir things up too much, and most importantly, I am ready now."

"But I'm not! I don't know what I will do without you… You don't know what your death will do to me! How can you so easily throw your life away when you still hold many, many ties to this world?" She was nearly in tears, but they were more tears of rage than sadness. She just couldn't believe that this was happening.

"But you are," Ashe began softly. "You have proven in my absence that you are ready to let me go. You may not believe this yet, but I can see that it is true." He paused to allow her to soak in what he was saying, "You ask how I can leave when I still hold ties? I don't hold as many ties as you believe. I have lived a very long and full life. All of my dreams have been realized except one, to know what it is like to live as one with the elements. You have dreams yet to live. Your stars have not yet finished falling into your hands, Emily, mine have. The last one that I had to hold had faded now and I am ready to meet that final star in the sky myself."

"I won't do that to you," she said with anger that was too quickly fading. To try and save herself from his words she whirled away from him to leave.

"Rhapsody," he started as she turned around and began to storm out of the room. He grabbed her hand saying more gently, "Emily… please, do this for me. You owe me this much peace."

Her back still to Ashe, she paused and forced herself not to cry. He was killing himself because of her. This was what she deserved, but not him. How could he want to leave this world so badly?

"Alright," she whispered. "Alright Sam, I will do this for you. But only if Meridion agrees to take the position of Lord after you're gone."

"Of course, Emily. Of course." He released her hand and she continued on her path to the door. "Emily," he said softly, causing her to pause again, still unwilling to turn around and face him. "I love you. I always will…"

"I know Ashe. I know." With that she left the room, closing the door softly behind her.

It was a mere five days later that the ceremony was held. It was just Rhapsody, Anborn, and Meridion in attendance at the waterfall retreat that Ashe had first taken Rhapsody to after her first encounter with Elynsynos. There was a chill in the air that was characteristically out of place for the midsummer evening that they assembled on.

Rhapsody had held Ashe in her arms as he had fallen asleep form the same drug that his father had taken before his transformation. Tears flowed freely from her eyes, soaking the white shirt Ashe was wearing. It was the same white shirt that he had given her when their time together at Elysian had ended. He had said that this time, he needed to take something of her's with him.

Slowly, Anborn and Meridion carried the stretcher that held the lifeless body of the Lord to his pyre. Rhapsody began singing the passage dirge of her people as the men laid the body down. It had been almost impossible for her to get through the dirge with all of the tears that were choking her.

Finally, she brought the song to an end, allowing silence to fill the glade. After a moment, Meridion stepped forward. "Father, I love you. I understand why you are leaving us, and I know that it is what you truly want. But I am still sorry to see you go. You have been the best father that a son could ever hope for, and you shall become an equally great dragon. I wish you luck on this new and final journey that you now go on." With that, he stepped back beside his great uncle.

Rhapsody stood still, knowing that her time had now come. A deep longing to take back many things that she had said and did through out the years flooded her mind. A sadness and sense of loss filled her to the point of paralysis. How could she do this again? How could he expect her to end their life together?

Without realizing that her son had come up beside her, she felt his arm wrap around her shoulder. "Mother, it is time." A ring in his voice seemed to snap the cords of sorrow that had held her bound.

She straitened as Meridion stepped away. Meridion was right, the time had come. Looking up into the night sky, she searched for a fitting star to send Ashe on his finale journey.

After a quick glance, her eyes fell upon the helmsman star. A very bright star that was one that ships at sea would often use to steer by. The mythos claimed that this was Merithyn the explorer's own star. This was the star that she would use to guide Ashe.

Pointing her Sword at the star, she closed her eyes and nearly whispered the name, "Canopus."

A brilliant light consumed the quiet glade as the starlight roared to the earth. It struck the pyre with a crashing force, immediately consuming all that had been there is fire.

Rhapsody watched as the flames reached back towards to heavens that they had descended from. Sorrow once again filled her as tears heedlessly streamed down her face.

She stood lost, looking into the flames, for what felt like an eternity. Flashes of her life with Ashe passed through her mind, the good and the bad. It all came back to haunt her.

She couldn't feel the arm of her son around her or the strong hand of Anborn patting her back. She was completely lost within her own mind.

Suddenly, a wind blew through her hair, and seemed to caress her cheek. A shiver ran through her spine as she came to herself, realizing once again where she was. Looking at the fire, she could see that the flames had nearly died out, leaving a pile of fine white ash.