i apologize for the long wait. blame it on a stalling muse who wanted me to work on something else, and the lack of reviews didn't help either. reviews tell me people are reading this. people reading this fuel my muses. please and thank you. (on another note, the other project is being posted here too. you should totally read it. it has zev in it! crow's fall)
He landed with a heavy thump heartbeats later on the stone walkway of the garden, his pants landing on top of him. A quietly phantasmal giggle echoed from next to him, where a still very translucent but animated Lupa sat, watching him. The rose bushes behind her were budding out, climbing luxuriantly over the wood of the trellis.
Fenris clambered back to his feet, yanking his leggings back on and up and hastily redoing his belt. He straightened, grumbling, then gave the amused mage a wry smile. "Not precisely the way I had intended to return."
Lupa made an exaggerated charade of dusting him off before her hand froze over a small scorch mark half-hidden behind his jaw. "Certain of your shades were rather justifiably not thrilled to encounter me in your memories," he shrugged the already mostly healed wound off. She gave him an apologetic look, pulling her hands back, and he smiled as reassuringly as he could. "There are only two doors left, amica mea. I'll be fine. We will get through this."
Lupa glanced up from her study of her own feet at that, a suddenly worried look in her eyes. Her gaze flickered back down as Fenris ran his fingers though the edges of her form, the closest to an embrace he could manage with the incorporeal mage. Just out of his line of sight, her own fingers tapped against themselves as she counted to herself. The worried look in her eyes deepened, and she looked up at him frantically.
Fenris bent his head by hers, and earnestly whispered soothing words to his beloved. "I swear to you, Lupa, I will save you. No matter what."
She opened her mouth, then closed it soundlessly, reaching out a hand to brush wistfully through his hair, a few strands moving under her hand as if caught by a subtle breeze. The worried look in her eyes seemed to only grow at his words, joined by a hint of sorrow.
Fenris placed a hand over hers for a moment, trying to read the uncertain question in her eyes. She pulled back, her fingers passing icily thru his skin, and returned to the bench, staring contemplatively at the sundial, whose shadows had shifted drastically from his last visit. He took a few steps after her departing form, one hand reflexively reaching after her before he caught himself. "I love you," he quietly stated. She looked up, fingers wrapping around and through the stone tightly enough that more substantial knuckles would have paled, and watched him stalk towards the next door.
Beyond the door was only darkness; deeper than the deep roads and blacker than a magister's heart. Fenris kept walking forward, guided by the tiniest trace, the merest flicker of light, burning in a sickly mix of purple and green at the edge of his vision.
Lupa huddled between the swells of unstable ground, one arm wrapped around her knees and the other dangling before her, the sickly light of her branded palm dancing eerie shadows across her flesh. Fenris sat next to her, the blue lights under his skin providing a ghostly glow to the immediate surroundings. She remained still despite his presence, gaze fixed on the smoldering blacklight glow of the pawprint on her hand.
He watched her with growing concern, seeing the claw marks and gashes across her skin, bloodied lines black in the blue light of his lyrium. He reached out carefully, brushing her hair out of a oozing graze along her shoulder. "Lupa?" he asked, louder than he'd intended, and she flinched back from the sudden sound in the silence of the dark. He pulled his hand back at the motion, his markings dimming as the muted echoes of his question faded away, suppressed by the smothering darkness.
The shadows deepened, the dark gleam of the trickster's mark flickering along the threshold of visibility. The very air seemed to thicken as the darkness pressed in upon them, muffling even the steady beat of his pulse.
"You shouldn't be here. " She whispered flatly, still not looking at her lover.
"Where is here?" He asked, trying to reactivate his markings, hoping for some hint of light.
"Just another nightmare. It doesn't matter. You shouldn't have come after me."
"I'm supposed to leave you to the dark?" Fenris started to gesture to their surroundings, and realized he couldn't see anything past his nose in the gloom.
"Nothing the Trickster ever offers is what it seems, beloved. I'm not worth the deal he offered." She shifted her position next to him, and he felt her chilled skin brushing against his brands. He pulled her closer, ignoring the still tacky lines of slow drying blood. She stiffened, pushing against his grasp for a moment before going limp in his arms, burying her face in his neck.
"And if I disagree with your estimation of your own worth?" He asked gently, trying to keep away from the claw marks in her back as he ran a soothing hand over her spine.
"He's not going to let us out of here unscathed. Even if he loses he wins, one way or another. And he's the one holding all of the cards." Her face pressed against his skin again, and he could feel the tears running down her cheeks.
"Then I will at least go down fighting. At least I will have tried to get us home again." He whispered fiercely, and his markings flared back to life, driving the darkness back. "Nothing could be worse than living without you. There was no choice but the one I made. I love you, arguments, magic, jokes and all. You are cor meun cor, the heart of my heart."
"I love you, Fen. You're the only one I've ever tried to give my heart to who hasn't thrown it back in my face, the only one I've ever been able to trust. You have one of the purest souls I've ever known, and the thought of the dread wolf destroying it… I'd rather be tranquil than lose you like that, except it would stop me loving you." She sighed, tears still running down her cheeks as she snuggled closer to the glowing elf. "Cor meun cor, beloved. "
"We will get through this, amica mea. ." Fenris rested his face in her hair, trying to push back his own worries. "As long as we are together, we will get through this."
Lupa snorted, trying to restrain the quiet chuckle that rose to her lips. "I adore the sentiment, beloved, but this is a dream of a memory of a dream. Pleasant as this is, or would be under better circumstances, when you wake from this memory, I'll be just a silent shade again, as increasingly put together as I'm becoming. And there is one thing you've forgotten, love."
"What would that be, amica mea?" Fenris asked, shifting to look his mage in the face.
"The trickster said there were…" even as she spoke, the brand on her palm flared, and she faded back out of solidness, a look of worried irritation on her face. The oppressive darkness swirled away, leaving him back in the blooming garden.