Feet made noise against the dusty darkness and Lila found herself shrugging away sleep. She could sense movement and she could sense warmth and her heart soared. She slowly opened her eyes and regarded the ruined feet that sat in front of her.

The feet were splattered in all sorts of dirt, and even in the cruel moonlight the skin was marked with scars and bruises, a beautiful and saddening thing to behold. How its owner could withstand the harshness of the land she would never know and all she could do was admire the individuals dedication.

"Shhh. We must wait quietly." The thick voice spilled out familiarly and Lila closed her eyes again.

She had to pretend that nothing was going to happen. Dorogs sensed emotions, they sensed things like magic and contentment. She had to pretend that she was still the miserable laborer she had become.

But her veins burned with the intensity of her knowledge, she was so excited. It had been such a long time since she had been on the verge of joyful exhaltations. Such a long time since she had felt safe.

She turned on her side and was unfortunate to roll onto a rock. She almost let out a whimper at the pain the rock inflicted and almost jumped away, but than remembered that it would cancel out her underlying emotions. Dorogs would only sense the ache, because that was what fed them. She gritted her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut and than let out a sigh of resignment. She would accept this.

After all, she had taught herself to live in the present, but she found it so hard. Especially when she had a past that she could remember so selfishly. A time of blissful ignorance in which she could lose the ache. But often, the dreams concluded with her feeling more loss.

Sometimes she woke up feeling her heart bleeding. Never literally, but it might as well have been. Lila was not a selfish person, but the finding of the one thing she had never believed in (love) it had made her hope. She could even admit that the emotion had been so inexhoribly, beautiful.

But now, all that remained of her dreams was a endless pang of regret. So often, she had to pretend that she was an outsider to those dreams, so often, she had succeeded to expel her heart from herself. So often, she had managed to become someone else.

Now, she could have these dreams and feel so painfully lonely, so isolated from the things that she would like to believe were attainable. Once... so very long ago, she had had an absolute knowledge of these things... and back than... they had been attainable.

Kalta with the butter cat eyes had awakened the dreams. Lila had been able to drown herself in the work, until her only thoughts were of continuing.

Kalta had made her remember her self identity. Amidst all the pain of the Corps, Lila had forgotten her worth. She had forgotten hope and her only thoughts had been the thought of a coward.

She had been obsessed with the punishments the strange Dorog creatures would hand out left and right. As if what they gave their victims was a honor. Lashes, cuts, chains... burdens that both physically and mentally despaired the reciever. But, than that one night she had broken out of her daze.

Somehow the picture of her own reflection staring back at her had stirred a lost part of her and this lost part had observed the child that had gazed so longingly at her dazzling tresses. Than she had greedily felt the need to help the strange tattered child. She had cut her hair and had been introduced to hope...

Lila eyes snapped open as they had so often done before. Her memories were processing towards the present, soon sleep would only be a reminder of the promise she had made.

She had promised a young lost individual that she would be a savior. Had she known that it would have caused pain to the very people that had helped her escape, she would have never considered it. But for once, she had allowed her monster to answer. She had accepted...

She had taken on the responsibility of a dieing people, but while doing that she had given in to a selfish whim. She had escaped because when she had been offered the oppurtunity, her monster had demanded attention and she had selfishly and inwardly thought 'Now I can be with Lucas.' That thought, had given birth to the guilt.

Could she force herself to return? Did she hold the ability to retain her self identity? How would she help those chained and broken souls? What did she have to do? The main thing that bothered her was that she had no knowledge of how to even begin to end the suffering. For once, she had come across something that she individually could not fix.

She would need help... lots of it.

Her fingers tightened around the silk sheets. They felt alien to her as if her body had acquainted itself with the dust of the sunless Dorog Corps. So surreal that it wasn't possible that she had escaped. But, everytime she pinched herself she remembered the blood, the pain, the love that had focused on her even as she stumbled away.

The tattered girl as she held out her hand and directed one sad smile at Lila. "At least I was able to hope..." the last cryptic words of a innocent child.

She could not forget... and Kalta's words haunted her. 'You 'ill be our 'avior."

Lila let out a gasp as her guts churned; as her emptiness flooded out and was replaced with desperation. She couldn't let them down or she really was the true monster. She couldn't let that happen. She had evaded so many things. But this... she couldn't escape. A promise... was a promise; and a broken promise was only selfishness.

She let go of the cloth and slowly took deep breaths. Emotions would always be weak, only useful when reduced and masked. Motivators to a life of caution. She would be cautious. Would hide her own suffering. She would let her heart bleed in the dark... no one would ever know about it. Her pain would belong only to the shadows.

She slid out of the bed easily, grimacing at the friction against her scars. Scars that had been obtained in the escape. A gruesome reminder of the scars of selfishness. Gritting her teeth she raised her gaze to the ceiling and was surprised to observe green and blue veins.

The colors had been there during the day but she had never expected for the lines to glow in the dark. She had eliminated all light in her chamber, had closed the curtains and blown out the strange gleaming balls of light and collapsed into the cover of the bed.

Sliding her gaze around the room she observed that all that was in it was darkly shaded. Never a complete black but still, not very cheerful at all. Strange, that such a vibrant world would provide her with the most darkly colored room she had ever occupied. She wondered if there was any significance to it.

She made her way to the odd aqua window and reached a hand to its surface. Gasping when she discovered that the material pulsed beneath her hand. Her eyes widened and she stepped back. "Its... alive?" She murmured into the dark.

The aqua material pulsed again and where her hand left a print the color changed to a rich glowing violet. Lila gaped at it in confusion and than she whirled on her heel and rushed out of the room.

Outside in the corridor the stones pulsed dimly but more brightly than they had at her arrival. Dazed she gaped at the odd stone and walked slowly down the corridor.

Her goal was to find someone, to ask them questions... she wanted to understand how these materials were possible.

"Ah, there you are. I need to... what is it?"

Lila gazed at a particularly veined stone and placed her hand on its surface. At the contact the stone made a unique humming noise and Lila turned towards the voice.

Ethera was awed to observe a child-like expression on Lila's face. She had seen Lila calm, passionate and intense, but never like this. The girls fine chiseled form seemed to have softened with the change and Ethera found herself speechless. It was a very endearing sight.

She swallowed and turned her own gaze to the stone. "Its called Amvera." She informed and let out a sigh. "Its existence among many others, is why the Split happened. The "Rufara" could not handle the knowledge that both Earthly things and Immoralian things could flourish here... thus there was a war." She said sadly.

Lila pressed her hand against the stone and the stone responded with a louder hum. "The rufara?" She questioned.

Ethera face twisted into a bitter line. "The pure. They could not handle that Elitedelians had both a little of earth and immoralia in them. They were jealous that fairies could dominate both the skies and the earth, dwarves could live above ground Unfortunately, being direct, the rufara had the power to dominate the war. Half of my people were captured. The rest were either killed or driven into the shadows. Now some of my people are known as half-lers, because there life is full of nothing but fear." Her eyes narrowed and than she shook herself. "Thus, you must rule a broken nation." She murmured.

Lila finally took her hand off of the stone. The humming had intensified and with that she had begun to have visions. Flickers of people in chaos, flickers of blood and pain and her heart had plunged. The amvera held memories, memories that were like her very own. Need... it would always haunt her, but she didn't even know how to answer it.

She ducked her head and took in several breaths, calming herself, even the land held hints of the past.

Ethera observed her daughters reaction. "Its cries are intense, aren't they?" She questioned softly.

Lila raised her eyes from the ground. "How can you bear the stone? Its everywhere." She stated.

Ethera closed her eyes. "Amvera is the legacy of Elitedel, rumored to be the first seed of compromise between Earth and Immoralia. Indeed its story is sad, but, its only proof, that people leave marks. Marks that somethings will never forget..."

Lila glanced back at the stone. "So its like a scroll?"

Ethera smiled. "If you can understand, but, so few understand. They've all died or disappeared. Everything has changed because of the Split." She whispered and in the silence the whisper seemed to echo and Lila felt the churning of need again and she laid her hand on the veined stone again. The stone was still humming and she closed her eyes and let the flickers filter through her mind. Sound of war, the thud of a dead body, the last breath of air from the wounded, than Lila was scrambling for breath, terrified with the visions... a gentle curious hand being laid on it, a large glowing stone and a general feeling of panic...

It was as if the stone was begging to be acknowledged, as if it had a message that the world needed to hear. Lila gasped as she forced the thoughts back and snatched her hand away from the wall. It was too intense.

Ethera folded her arms. "Its been getting more and more demanding lately, I expect it has something to do with the missing Equa Element..." She said vaguely.

Lila folded her arms and somehow the words seemed familiar. A picture of the silver haired lady flickered through her mind and the womans odd words. "The Equa Element effects the balance." She wanted to ask her mother more about it, but suspected that the topic was one that Ethera had little knowledge of. She sighed and straightened.

"Can you tell me my second lesson?" She asked softly. Somehow she had the intuition that Ethera would turn down her request.

Ethera's action was slow and oddly wise. "Can't... its something that you have to learn for yourself." She murmured.

Lila's eyes gazed at the odd knowing expression in her mothers eyes. "A hint?"

Ethera chuckled and than sighed. "Come with me." She directed turning her back and heading in the direction of a particularly large aqua door.

Lila regarded the door skeptically. "A door?" She mused.

Ethera giggled at the confusion on her daughters face. "No. Actually, you'll be on gate duty this night. You get to decide what things are let in and what is kept out of this village. Its a very important duty, and whether you believe it or not, many things want in; both bad and good. Yet other things are trying to escape. Be cautious..." She whispered and than the world quaked and Lila stumbled, only to find herself outside the palace and standing by a glowing aqua wall. A strange sparkly grass like substance covered the ground and large vibrant materialed buildings stood close by.

Lila gazed all around her at the unique and foreign objects in fascination. "It's so..." Her remark was interrupted by the sound of a knock against the door that was only a few feet from her. Lila let her eyes focus on the door, hoping to see what was on the other side but was unable. With a tired sigh she made her way to the aqua door and leaned against it. "Who is it?" She called to the unseen knocker...

0o0o0o00o0o0o0o0


So, this one was definitely unexpected... It felt like Lila needed another memory moment and that the audience needed a deeper look at her and than I finally came up with how Lila is going to be tutored. Not in the way I had originally intended, but, it works, and my gut feeling is that it works. So... now all I got to do, is decide why her experience as gate opener is important... believe me it is.

What do you think of the setting. I was finally able to describe it in detail. Sometimes I feel like the setting never gets enough credit or description and sometimes it almost seems as if my character are floating through colorless land. I hope it made it seem more solid. That was my intention.

You rock socks!

-lightzing ^o^