Shadows at the Dawn - Part 4
Zeeda and Remmus met the king of Pluto and his daughter early the next morning.
"Where I will be taking the two of you is generally forbidden to any outsider. I cannot stress enough the need for secrecy once you leave."
"It will go with us unto death." Zeeda assured him.
"And you, my boy?"
Remmus swallowed. "I won't tell. She'd kill me if I did."
Standing next to her father, Pluto's eyes widened slightly.
"Oh, I wouldn't kill him. Main him, remove his tongue - now that I would do." Zeeda said, her smile not quite reaching her eyes.
King Pluto was satisfied, he had no doubt the two would keep their word and utter nothing to anyone about what they would see and experience below.
"Also, it is quite easy to get lost. The tunnel is enchanted to keep most curious eyes away. So everyone please stay together."
They followed him down a long sloping tunnel that led some distance from the palace proper. It ended in a long dimly lit hall, empty save for a large set of doors at the far end.
"Let us hope we get lucky today, or this may end up being a very long week." King Pluto said as he opened the doors and stepped in to the realm between times.
"There is no need for luck, they're everywhere." Zeeda said, her brows drawn together.
"What do you mean, everywhere?" he demanded.
"It may be an effect of the various times we're near, but I can sense them all around." Zeeda's eyes were closed, her head tilted to the side as if she was listening for something. "These feel different though."
"Different?" King Pluto asked.
"These are not the same types of fragments as in the void, but so very similar at the same time."
"Sis, share with me?" Remmus asked.
Her eyes still closed, Zeeda held out her hand.
"You're right, they are different."
"How..." King Pluto began to ask when he suddenly felt Zeeda's firm grip on his arm.
Softly, almost in the back of his mind it felt, he could hear a faint whispering. He could not make out what the voices were trying to say, but he did not feel alarmed by them either. Looking around, he saw the same wondrous confusion on his daughter's face as Remmus took hold of her hand to share it with her also.
"There!" Zeeda exclaimed.
She had felt the faint stirrings of the darker thought, and tried to focus on it, to hang onto it long enough for the rest to sense it too.
"Is that?" King Pluto asked.
"Yes, but..."
The other whispers they had been hearing suddenly grew louder, almost like they were attacking the darker one. Soon, it was reduced to a faint nothing, and the other voices settled back down.
"What just happened?" Princess Pluto asked quietly.
"I don't know." a confused Zeeda responded.
King Pluto expected everything to go quiet again when Zeeda finally took her hand off his arm. While the whispers did grow a great deal quieter, he found her could still hear them.
"I can still hear them. Not as loud as before, but they're still there." his daughter echoed his thoughts.
"Why don't we finish the discussion back outside?"
Stepping back through the doors came as a relief to Zeeda. The whispering shadows, so similar to the ones she was used to, but so different, simply unnerved her.
"Are you unwell Legati?" King Pluto asked her.
"I'm fine. Just unnerving to actually hear them. Usually, it's just a feeling - happy, sad or otherwise. But never have we heard them, or suspected that there would be so many voices."
"Do you think we have much need to worry a great deal right now?"
"I advise that you continue to monitor them, and if more dark voices make themselves known, then worry. Though, it seems as if the other voices attacked the one I found - very odd behavior indeed."
With Lienta off visiting his family when Zeeda and Remmus returned, she used the days waiting to see him again to gather as much information as she thought useful and sent if off to King Pluto. The feeling that she was missing something bothered her greatly, but she kept hitting a brick wall when she tried to discover what it might be. Remmus helped as much as he could, since the two of them could mention nothing to the others. Lienta returned at the end of the week with the supply shipment for the extra legions they were quartering during the yearly review. The two of them finally managed to steal away from everyone after dinner, fleeing to the farthest reaches of the gardens. Which actually was not all that far away, but secluded enough for some time alone together.
"You must have really missed me." he said when they had finally separated for some air.
"Maybe a little."
"Seems rather stupid doesn't it, having to wait another two years to finalize the contract."
"One cannot go against tradition." Zeeda said, in a very poor attempt to sound like Lord Afont.
They were quiet for a long moment, lost staring at the distant stars.
"Does it ever bother you that one of us has to give up our ties to our clan when the ceremony takes place?" Zeeda finally broke the silence.
"While I am very flattered love that you still entertain the idea my powers are greater than your own, I don't think it will be anything to worry about." Lienta placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Why do you think my parents have no problem with the amount of time I spend here?"
"That still doesn't make it right. It's a union between the two of us, why can't it be a union between the two clans?"
"Your stubbornness is to be admired, but you can't change the whole clan system my dear." He gently brought her face up to his. "You can't change the world, so will you settle for changing my life?"
Zeeda didn't answer him with words.
"They've been out there all night."
"Kalah Turenta Centurious Hazzul!"
He turned, shocked that his wife had pulled his full name out of her arsenal.
"If that was one of your sons out there, you wouldn't give a damn what he was doing. You get away from that window right now!"
Kalah stood there in shock. It had been a while since he had seen Zornah so worked up over something. After a brief moment though, he noticed what she was not wearing.
"Yes ma'am!"
Pleasant memories should not hurt, but you may find they do after the first couple thousand years. The pain is not so bad, it is the fear of forgetting such times that is worse. For two years we watched, we waited, and it seemed nothing was going to happen to shatter those times.
The Battle of Thanus came and went with little loss, and the dark fragments were quiet again for a time. The only shadow upon those few months was the loss of the heir to House Saturn. The boy child was lost only a few months after his birth to a strange fever. Darkness descended upon them, and I was saddened remembering the gentle strength in the man I had met that one evening at the palace. I could not imagine their pain.
Finally, the day arrived when my beloved and I could finalized the marriage contract. Ours was not the only joy however. That year was a relatively happy one for most of those of the Silver Millennium as well - seeing the birth of Princess Serenity and those that would become her closest friends. All was then at peace, and I wished it would have lasted. But we learn to enjoy the times we're allowed to have with those we love in spite of it all.
AN:
A note on my funny seeming names - from where you saw Zornah using Kalah's full name on him when he was grumbling about Zeeda and Lienta being together in the garden. It goes a little something like this:
First name - Second name - Birth Clan - Spouse's Clan
So we have Kalah Turenta Centurious Hazzul, and Zornah Hiran Hazzul Centurious
And here in the next part we'll have Zeeda Lorent Centurious Torpel and Lienta Mushin Torpel Centurious.
Mainly cause I just love to make things complicated...and it sounded like fun at the time. But it's part of the clan system floating around in my brain. And as that would probably be a very boring story.....just a tidbit of useless behind the scenes info every now and then whenever I feel like it.
And yes, don't know why, but I seem to have a thing for names that end with -ah sounds. Don't ask why because I don't know. I just make noises until it sounds interesting...and then I try to figure out how to spell it.
