The last chapter was received so well that it gave me tingles inside! I love all the enthusiasm that goes into all of your reviews; you all seem to love the story and its characters as much as I do! And because this story has such a great big fan base of such wonderful readers, I'm willing to do something special; when you review this chapter, in your review, say who your favorite characters from Links in a Chain are and whoever gets the most votes, I'll draw a picture of them and post it on DeviantArt, dedicated to all those who voted for that/those characters. This is just a little "Something, Something" to spice up the times… and to make up for the slowness of this chapter.
Enjoy the chapter!
Links in a Chain
Chapter 36
Origins, Part 1
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"Maybe… maybe it's time you two explained some things..."
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Syaoran's glare turned deadly. "And if either of you decide to try to talk your way out of this, lie, OR dare to steal anyone's memory, I will make sure neither of you have enough magic left afterwards to blink!"
Miaka gulped, stepping behind Dren for protection.
Toya growled, rounding on Syaoran. "And if you do that, I'll make sure you never see tomorrow, you brat," he hissed. He ignored the strange looks that his family and the other humans gave him as he stood his ground, ready for a fight. They were all thinking the same thing; why was he defending two people who were supposedly strangers to him? Toya gave no sign that he cared. With his fists up and ready, he was only waiting for Syaoran to lunge.
Nightmare weighed his options quickly from his position between the two men; there was no way he wanted to get caught up in a brawl between the two humans, even if one his Master. Hoping for neutrality in the matter, the spirit jumped to the side and stood against the wall, a good distance out of the way if there was a fight.
With Toya's obvious challenge for a fight hanging heavily in the air, Syaoran looked more than willing to take it and beat the hell out of the infuriating man. He growled, and with a glint in his amber eyes he tried to step around Sakura to take up Toya's challenge. Then, to Syaoran's surprise, Sakura stepped in his way and stood before him defiantly, arms crossed tightly over her chest and staring up at him with stubborn expression drawn across her face.
"Sakura, move," Syaoran whispered. His voice was kept low so that only she would hear it, but it only served to increase the stubborn glint in her eye.
"You're not going to fight anyone, Syaoran," she said, her voice unnaturally grave. "Not Toya, or Life or Death and you're especially not fighting Miaka or Dren."
"Let him go, Sakura," Toya commanded. "The kid needs to be taught a long over due lesson on respect!"
Syaoran's amber eyes shot up to glare over the top of Sakura's head. "And you're the one who's supposed to teach me?" he asked sardonically.
Toya pounded his fist into his palm threateningly. "I'll beat it into you if I have to," he replied darkly.
Spooked by his Master's unusually aggressive behavior, Lost backed away until he was well behind Nightmare and Seduce, almost completely hidden by the giant bow on the back of Seduce's obi. He reached out timidly through his magic to Sakura for reassurance in the matter and received a gentle brush of her magic in return as she silently tried to calm his little boy's heart, but her own distress in the matter made it worse. He peeked out from behind Seduce and caught Dren's eye, it flickered for a moment to pale blue then back again and he nodded to the spirit as if to give his own reassurance. Lost felt little assured.
Suddenly the spirit was aware of a tugging on his robe and he knelt down to where Sorrow and Illness were huddle on the ground at his feet. Without words they knocked him onto his backside and took the edges of his robe and tucked themselves inside, one on either side of him, and wrapped the robe so tightly around them that only a small space was left for their eyes to peer.
"Shh, take cover; this-," "is going to get ugly…" They warned in hushed voices.
Lost looked back and forth between the two of them a couple of times, sensing the tense air around them. A sudden feeling of foreboding sunk into his chest. He shrunk back into his robe and huddled close to his sister spirits, the three of them peering up at the room with wide, rapt eyes.
Dren raised his hands in a surrendering manner to the two boys preparing to brawl. "The both of you; calm down," he said quietly, and as he said this he smoothly transformed into Death, his presence strikingly powerful in the room. Dren's suggestion, along with his sudden transformation, only served to bring the attentions back to him and Miaka, and if anything, the tensions in the room increased.
Toya's eyes widened as he came face to face with the being that he had met so long ago in his backyard, the creature that had given him his second chance to see his mother again. Out of respect, he listened to Death's command and dropped his fists.
Syaoran, on the other hand, did nothing of the sort; his glare turned feral and he looked positively ready to jump over Sakura to get to Death.
"How dare you tell me to calm down!" he roared, the ferocity in his voice making everyone in the room jump in fright. "You have no right; not after all this! Not after every battle, wound, and close call that Sakura and I went through for you and your damned freedom, you selfish son of bitch! Those demons out there- these spirits right here- none of it ever would have happened, none of them would have ever existed, if it weren't for you!"
Those words, said without thinking in the heat of their Master's anger, cut through the Sakura spirits like hot knives. Speechless and shocked, they collectively drew back from Syaoran as if he taken a swing at them, the intensity of the words feeling like a physical blow to them. They all felt his red-hot anger resonating within them like a fire, the connection they shared with Syaoran and Sakura enabling Syaoran's anger to storm through the spirit's systems like a tempest; like it was their own anger. But as his words rang through their minds like an empty echo, something else burned within them with a new, intense pain.
Were they… unwanted?
Without staying to listen to their Master finish his rant, Nightmare, Seduce, Lost, Sorrow, and Illness glowed brightly and reverted to their Card forms, gliding through the air sadly to slide into Sakura's outstretched hand. She sensed their distress, but didn't understand it. In an attempt to comfort her dear cards, she hugged them close to her chest and enveloped them in her warm, loving magic.
Syaoran continued his rant, unaware.
"I have been beaten, bloodied, and near death for you! Sakura nearly lost her heart and her life because of all this! You violated me by taking my memory, and God only knows what else you could have possibly done to any one us without our knowing! And all for what?! Because you got bored of living and now you want to die, and you're willing to risk the entire universe for it?"
Sakura ducked before Syaoran's emphatic gestures sideswiped her in the head, his shouting becoming louder as he was fueled by an angry passion. She was not frightened by his anger like the others who watched, she was connected to him; she could feel where he was coming from, even though she didn't agree. If anything, she pitied him for having to feel this way.
"God dammit! I am tired of being led around blindfolded by you, by Life, and by that bastard Hiiragisawa, without knowing all that's going on! You have absolutely no right to even dare say the words "calm down", I am far too pissed off to calm down! I want to know what the hell you two are and what you're doing here; no more beating around the bush, I want answers NOW!"
The silence that followed the end of his rant was so profound that everyone could hear their own heartbeat in their ears.
It was Death who broke the silence first. His shoulders sagged heavily and a long sigh issued from his mouth as he let go of any remaining hope of salvaging the situation. "Of course, there is no more trying to avoid this conversation, I knew that it would come to this someday… Eriol, perhaps we could take this into a more appropriately sized room?"
Eriol gave a startled laugh. "Yes, it is getting a little crowed in here, isn't it?" he said quickly, pushing his way through the room to the ebony door of his magical room. Holding the golden knob in one hand, he bowed with a sweeping gesture of his of his left hand into the grand Looking Room. "Please, I invite everyone into my Looking Room-."
Yue appeared in the door of the bedroom, the mundanes backing off quickly. "Are you sure that that is such a great idea, Eriol, having so many people invited into your own personal magical room? It's highly unorthodox." He pointed out firmly. "Especially for one with so many secrets to keep."
Eriol straightened up and fixed the moon guardian with one of his most cold but charming smiles. "We are in a highly unorthodox situation, Yue, and as long as no one touches anything they are not supposed to or take anything that does not belong to them, I am pretty sure that all of my secrets are safe and that the room won't hurt them."
Yue still did not look convinced, so Eriol pressed on.
"This is only a one-time invitation, the first and last time that I am allowing anyone other than myself and the spirits that are free to come and go as they please to enter the room," he said, "beyond this, none of you will ever be welcomed inside my Looking Room again. So, again, I invite you all to join me in my Looking Room to sate the curiosity that I know is eating away at all of you." And as he said this, his eyes strayed to Syaoran, meaning to taunt the warrior in his usual way, saying he could see the curiosity that was eating away at him.
In Syaoran's delicate state of mind, he nearly snapped and jumped the sorcerer. It was by mere stroke of luck that Sakura was still standing in front of him to stop him.
Without waiting to see if anyone was going to follow them in, Death slipped his hand underneath Miaka's arm to support her and helped her inside the Looking Room.
Slowly, the rest followed.
Toya inched forward, warily stepping into the room. His eyes did not stray from the two figures walking in front of him, and when Miaka stumbled over the foot of an old mirror reflecting a dessert of blood red sand, he leap forward to help support her other side. After what they did for him when his mother died, the gift they gave him, he felt obligated to help them however he could now.
Fujitaka entered after his son, taking in the Looking Room with rapt fascination, everything from the high, shadowed ceiling hung with countless empty birdcages, to the walls lined with shelves sagging with books and nameless magical items. Being the scientist and curious person that he was, every little facet to the room captured his attention and conjured a thousand questions for each item he saw. Never, not even in his wildest dreams, had he ever imagined anything like this to exist in the world. His eyes caught the glimmer of the reflecting pool shinning from the center of the Looking Room and immediately he was drawn to it.
After him came both Kero and Yue, their expressions solemn as they passed through the doorway into the extra dimension of the house; for them, this was trip down memory lane. The majority of the miscellany in the room had once belonged to their dear master Clow Reed, and still bore his magical essence on them now; it was like having him back with them again. Countless memories surfaced as they passed the many familiar things from their past; a certain painting; an ornate, hanging cage whose invisible occupants cooed softly as the guardians passed; a delicate obsidian hand mirror which still reflected the last person who looked in it, Clow Reed. It was almost painful as they were forced to remember what once was in their lives.
Sakura looked to Syaoran to see if he was going to make the first move, but when he didn't, she pressed her Sakura Cards close to her chest and made her way to the Looking Room. She paused briefly to meet eyes with Eriol, something in the back of her mind told her that it wasn't right to just walk in, but when he nodded reassuringly she continued on into the strange room. Glancing over her shoulder once to see if Syaoran was following, she saw that he was still rooted to the spot she had left him in. Knowing that he would come in when he was ready, Sakura began making her way towards the sparkling pool of water in the center of the room, where everyone else seemed to be going.
Eriol cocked his eyebrow at Syaoran, a taunting grin spread across his lips. "Well, are you coming? Aren't you the one who wanted all the answers?" he asked tauntingly. "They're all in there."
Syaoran growled. "I'm not stupid, Hiiragisawa, I know what it means for another sorcerer to walk in to one sorcerer's private room."
The grin on Eriol's face remained taunting. "Ah, those age old rules of courtesy amongst us magic users; never allow another into your domain unless there is absolute, unflinching trust and undying loyalty between the sorcerer and guest, for the room contains every secret of a sorcerer's soul. Any sorcerer would be put at an extreme disadvantage by opening their room to anyone else but himself. Both sorcerer and invader would be disgraced if someone were to enter uninvited."
Syaoran's face was a mask of the contained emotions he was now struggling to rein in as he stared Eriol down, meeting the sorcerer's mid-night eyes with his own burning amber orbs.
The lessons that had been drilled into his head about entering another sorcerer's secret room being a disgrace screamed loudly in his mind, reminding him of every other harsh lesson that had been drilled into him at a young age. Disgrace. Dishonor. No matter how many times Syaoran told himself that he had known Eriol for a very long time, that they have been able to trust each other with their lives in the past, his body still refused to approach the entryway. He just couldn't trust Eriol now.
Seeing the internal battle being waged in Syaoran's eyes, Eriol knew that he was fighting the hard lessons he had been taught at a far too young age. Eriol beckoned Tomoyo to him and held her close, seeking comfort from her, breathing in her soothing scent. He kept his gaze on Syaoran, though. "Come now, Syaoran, are you telling me by your silence that there is no trust between us? You wound me deeply," he sighed, unraveling Tomoyo from his hold and letting her slip into the Looking Room. He meant his words as a light taunt to appeal to Syaoran's pride, and by the new light in the warrior's eyes, it worked.
Gritting his teeth, Syaoran managed to growl out, "Fine, I'll enter your damn room; it's the only way I'm going to get any answers around here!"
Defiantly, he marched forward quickly and passed into the Looking Room without looking back. He did not even bother to slow down to look around the room as he made his way to the reflecting pool where everyone was already gathered. He was only going to be in there long enough to get the answers he wanted and then he was out again as fast as possible.
Eriol watched the warrior's march into his Looking Room. "Perhaps, someday you will allow me to enter your Weapons Room?" he asked quietly as Syaoran passed.
"Not likely," was Syaoran's terse reply, but they were only words.
Remembering the remaining mundanes, Eriol turned to where they were still huddled in the doorway, watching apprehensively. "You're welcome to join us, the door is still open," he offered.
They backed away into the hall quickly. Chiharu tripped over her sprained ankle in her haste to get away from the Looking Room, her hiss of pain echoing loudly in the hall.
"There is no way I am going inside that room with all those things!" she wailed.
"Things? Gee, that really hurts," Nakura pouted as she came up behind the group.
The girls all gave off shrill yelps of surprise.
Eriol shook his head. "Nakura, Spinel, since my guests don't appear to want to join everyone else in the Looking room, I want you to stay out here and keep them company."
"Of course, Master," Spinel said, nodding in acknowledgement to the order. Naoko eyed the floating cat-like creature with a certain amount of interest.
Takashi's head popped into the room and waved once to Eriol. "Don't worry about us, Eriol, we'll be fine. Besides, I remember my grandmother's funeral clearly now, I remember Miaka and Dren being there; I already know what they are."
"I see, then the house is your, for now," Eriol said with a small wave of his hand. The ebony door clicked closed with a curt chink and rippled like water for a few seconds before it sun completely into the wall and was gone completely.
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In the Looking Room
The tension in the room was so intense that it was almost difficult to breathe.
Around the reflecting pool, various chairs had appeared and were taken up by the people who had chosen to come into the Looking Room. Sakura and Syaoran occupied a old looking, claw footed love seat, Fujitaka seating in the winged, black marble chair that had flew up beside them, and Toya leaning comfortably against the folded wings, watching Syaoran's every movement, as if the boy was suddenly going to explode and do something. Yue stood stoically next to a skinny, carved pedestal of jade where Kero had chosen to rest.
Across the reflecting pool, Eriol sat in the high-backed chair that Clow Reed once owned, one that he normally kept in his house to sit in, but for this very occasion he chose to summon it to the Looking Room. In front on him, sitting next to his legs on an over-stuffed cushion of deep, royal violet, sat Tomoyo. She seemed anxious as she leaned against his legs, looking across the reflecting pool anxiously, as if she felt that she belonged on the other side with the others. To his right, Death stood next to the chair with an unreadable expression stretched taut across his face, and to his left, Miaka leaned heavily on the side of his chair, staring at Syaoran with a mix of fear and apprehension.
Growing even more agitated with every passing second, Syaoran finally cracked. "What the hell are you?" he asked scathingly, everyone jumped, Miaka and Death looking up guiltily. His eyes flicked to Miaka, focusing on her very human appearance; her very human, non-magical aura. Even as he studied her, everything about her was human, not an illusion, like a spirit posing as a human, she was human through and through. But she was also Life.
Then he moved to Death, who straightened for Syaoran's appraisal; there was no sense of humanity anywhere in the immortal's being, he was all magic; all power and death concentrated into a single standing entity. No human was capable of pulling enough power together to try and pose as this spirit; depleted as he was, Death's power still outranked any sorcerer's like a candle to the sun. And yet, he was also Dren.
"What are you?" the warrior asked again, this time a little less fueled than before.
Miaka rubbed her wrist consciously, her clothes shifting from her silvery slip to Life's robes, and then she was Life. "It's all very, very complicated," she said quietly, begging them with her eyes to understand.
"Try us" Syaoran hissed.
"Alright, let's see if you can wrap your minds around this" Death said, taking the challenge. "Dren and I are two completely different people, with two separate bodies, two different sets memories and experiences, two completely divided existences, and yet weshare the same body, the same soul, the same space in time. When Dren's conscience takes precedence, he is completely human, as mundane and un-magical as Tomoyo is, and when my conscious takes over, I am an immortal; a spirit; as magical and as inhuman as Yue and Cerberus. But Dren and I are the same person. Even though I am standing before you as Death right now, Dren exists in this very spot at the same time, standing here before you.
"I can feel what he feels, and he can see what I see, all of my memories are his, as his are mine. We are intertwined so intricately that there is no he and I, there is only one, even though we both know that we are two different people. If we were to somehow be unraveled, we would look a giant loop, constantly running into its self.
"We are two people, and yet we are one. Miaka and Life are exactly the same way." At last, Death finally paused, looking up into the wide eyes of the humans sitting across from him. By their expressions, none of them truly understood what he had just said, but that was all right, not even he himself understood his condition completely. The spirit made sure to look directly into Syaoran's eyes before he spoke again. "That, Syaoran, is what Life and I are."
No one looked like they had any words to dispute Death's claim.
Toya regarded the two with unusually deep eyes, then his eyes moved to stare at Yue, studying him as if trying to determine something. He slid his eyes back to the two creatures across the reflecting pool and asked, "Are you two like Yue and Yuki?"
For some reason, Life saw this question as laughable while Yue balked at being compared to such creatures as Life and Death.
"Not even close," Life managed to say when her laughter died down. "Yue is a compilation of magic, created and given life by a very talented and powerful sorcerer. His other self, "Yuki", is not even human; he is merely another face for Yue that enables him to camouflage his true form in front of mundanes. He is no where near what we are, Toya- but nice try."
Colour spread across the bridge of Toya's nose and he looked down in embarrassment.
Sakura stared at Life and Death, as if she was seeing them for the first time. She studied them, thinking over everything she knew about them and everything she knew about Miaka and Dren. Although she could not understand what they were together, she understood the separate parts; the human and spirit, which led her to a question she blurted out without thinking.
"Have-um…have you always been like this?" she asked nervously.
"No," Life replied with a simple shake of her head, "we haven't… although, we've been together for so long that it feels like we have."
Sakura leaned forward curiously, studying Life in the silvery light of the reflecting pool. "What happened to make you like this?" she pressed.
Life opened her mouth to explain, but before any words came out Death placed his hand gently on her shoulder, shaking his head to quiet her. He closed his eyes and looked like he had to concentrate a little to bring Dren forward, and as he did this Life got the hint and she faded into Miaka.
Fujitaka watched in fascination as the change took place, intrigued by the impossibility of what he was seeing.
In unison, the two walked up to the reflecting pool and sat down on its edge, completely human, but the remnants of their other selves still seemed to be in the air.
"Instead of just explaining it to you, you would gain a much better understanding of how this happened to us if we showed you," Dren said. The light from the reflecting pool glinted in his dark, dark eyes and made them rich and haunting.
Together, he and Miaka dipped their hands into the pool, slowly swilling the water until it sparkled brightly and images began to surface from its depths. Sakura slid off her seat and approached the water's edge to watch the scene take shape, Kero joined her on her shoulder and her father appeared on her right. Syaoran came up on her left, almost reluctant to come close to the pool, and Toya crept up as far away from Syaoran as possible. Even Eriol craned his neck to see the image, inviting Tomoyo to sit on his lap to have a better view as well.
Before their eyes, a world came into focus; a younger, newer world than their own, an Erath that had once existed thousands of millions if years ago. Wild and untamed, it was a land unpolluted and pure. Nameless trees stretched to the sky, hundreds of feet tall, maybe even thousands, their leaves so green and broad that they blanketed each other in the canopy and made the ground almost as dark as night. Upon the ground of the forest, the vegetation was huge, and green and foreign; flowers with petals of wild pink and yellow stood as tall as humans and the moss was bright, lime green, clinging to every surface like a living carpet. Even the sun in this young Earth seemed different, it was brighter somehow, and the land looked warmer.
The scene smoothly changed from the forest to a mountain, seen from a great distance, its towering presence rising up from a hot plain of red sand and gold sand. The mountain was as red up the sides as rust, dusty and uneven, sparse trees growing here and there, red dust settled over everything. It was so tall that the peak was lost in the clouds that gathered around it in the sky, but if it had been visible, it would have been capped in blindly white snow and grey rock. The simple sight of it left everyone breathless as they tried to fathom its height, though Miaka and Dren merely sighed wistfully as they stared at the long gone giant.
Again the image changed, and this time it became the edge to a cliff over looking a vast valley stretched so far it looked to be touching the horizon. Thick, emerald green grass carpeted the ground, grounding up around the trunks of tall, skinny trees whose branches spread out at the top like a large, leafy green umbrella. But it was not the view this time that shocked everyone; no, this time it was the giant, scaly creatures that were reaching up to the top branches of the valley trees that took their breath away. Gargantuan bodies covered in hard, dusty green and grey scales leading up to a long, thin neck stretching high above its body to a small, rounded reptilian head that gently plucked at the leaves and chewed thoughtfully.
Speechless, the captivated audience watched as the valley came alive with more and more extinct, impossible creatures. As Miaka and Dren brought forward memories that they had not thought about in a long time, the image that was conjured took shape in the valley. Hulking beasts with hard, plated scales of deep red and orange swayed leisurely through the grass, tiny, snow white bird-like creatures settled comfortably on their backs. Sleek, reptilian beings slunk about in the shadows of the cliff, tall, feather-like crests sprouting from their heads and sharp beady eyes watching the others carefully. Their patterned scales of red, brown, and orange glinted like metal in the light, and the shadows of their large, clawed feet were frightening.
This was the world that Miaka and Dren were from.
Seeing that everyone was now enraptured with images that they had created from their memories, Dren spoke, softly but clearly.
"What you see before you is Earth as it once was, before the ice age and before any comets hit, when all the continents of today existed as one. What you call it today is "Pangaea", but to Miaka and I, this land was called "Shaedi'ah", and it was our home."
Glancing to Miaka, Dren nodded to her and they dipped their hands again, disturbing the image of Shaedi'ah. Soon, the colors blended, swirling and rippling in a storm, slowly coming into focus again, becoming a vast golden plain of waving, wild wheat, planted by the wind and nurtured by the small, natural canals of water that slithered through the plain. The golden sea blended together as the image swooped over top, racing the wind over the waves of wheat until it came to its very edge, slowing to a stop on a small, crumbling mud hut with a weaved grass roof. It stood out in the open under the hot, relentless sun, and looked undeniably sad and lonely. To its side was a large, crudely made pen with a large herd of shaggy brown creatures the size of sheep in it, a single, curved horn growing out of their forehead making them look tough.
Keeping their eyes focused on the reflecting pool as the images played out, everyone kept their ears open as Dren began to retell his and Miaka's story.
"To truly understand what we are now, you all have understand who and what we were before," Dren said, his voice ringing out clearly over the Looking Room, everything else mysteriously falling silent. "This is our story."
In the reflecting pool, the flap of the hut lifted up and young woman stepped out, thrusting her face towards the sky and taking a deep lungful of air. She was slender and tall, tanned with flaxen hair that fell to her shins and shone brightly when it caught in the sunlight. Her eyes were clear, granite grey that glinted impishly in the light. She was clad in a single, roughly woven, brown toga-like outfit, tied loosely at her shoulder and around her waist. From behind her, six other girls spilled from the tiny hut, all dressed in the same fashion, sharing the same blond hair and grey eyes as the first girl, but they were all younger than her.
"This is Mehiya, who Miaka was. She was the oldest sister of seven girls born to a poor farmer who just barely managed to keep himself and his seven daughters alive with the food he grew and the money he got from selling his zjizjas. They lived outside of the capital city of Moeak, which was the only city in the world at the time, the population of humans at the time being less than 10, 000. Though they were not rich, Mehiya and her family were happy…"
A man who must have been there father jumped from the hut with several clothes in one hand and a clay jar of bathing oils in the other, both held out for his girls to take. With one look at the bathing supplies their father held out, the girls turned tail and shot off through the zjizja pen, leaping over the other side and off into the sparse, dirt plain that was beyond. There was no sound for the reflecting pool, but it was obvious that all the girls were laughing.
Miaka of now stared down at the pool, her eyes dark and sad as she gazed upon herself as she was. "I forgot that that's what I looked like …" Miaka whispered, meant only for Dren to hear. She reached out timidly and let her fingertips ghost over the vision of herself and her sisters.
Sakura glanced up Miaka, taking in the drastic changes that had taken place in the girl; her once golden-tanned skin was now nearly the color of snow and her shinning blond hair had become a ghostly white. A pang of pity hit Sakura's heart as she stared at the girl's expression as she watched herself from the past; there was pain evident in her once grey, now blue eyes. She had forgotten who she was.
"Even though Mehiya's family was poor, her name was not unknown amongst the men of Moeak. In fact, she was known for her beauty and kindness all over Shaedi'ah. All men sought to have her as their wife, but their offers to court her were always rejected. Mehiya simply showed no interest in the opposite sex, nor any of their grand offers, though she was well past the age that she should have taken a husband. She was far more interested in filling her days with running through the plains with the animals and working for her father in his fields or with the zjizjas. Unfortunately, her unusual behavior caught the attention of the oldest son of Lord Raoh, who ruled all of Shaedi'ah, and he wanted to see this famed, stubborn, beautiful maiden for himself…"
Dren closed his eyes as he dipped his hand to change the scene, as if he didn't want to see the face his memories would conjure. Nonetheless, an image formed, becoming a severe looking young man with earthen colored hair and dusty brown eyes, his face sharp with hawk eyes, a pointed nose, and a thin, down-turned mouth. He dressed in a regal looking green tunic with a pair of expertly woven and sewed pants of honeyed brown, both embroidered with golden thread as a way to show off the man's obvious wealth. He wore light, plated armor over his clothes, made from what appeared to be iron and held in place with worn leather straps.
The man sat atop a strange version of a horse, with a scaly body, muscular legs and tough, three toed feet, its ridged, reptilian face drawn out into a razor sharp beak that exposed rows of deadly looking fangs. Bright yellow eyes darted everywhere, follow every little movement of the world around it.
A growl issued from Dren mouth before he spoke.
"Raj was not a good man of any kind, he had several wives already and used them as one would use a worthless item. He owned concubines and pets, seduced young maidens and stalked fair women, and because he was the oldest son of the Lord of Shaedi'ah no one could appose him or his awful behavior. His hunger to possess the other sex was never sated, no matter how many women's lives he ruined. With his desire fueling him, he set out the very day he heard of Mehiya in search of her, taking only his younger brother and their two steeds to find the strange, famed maiden who refused all men. He wanted to own her as a new prize to his collection."
A twisted grimace grew on Dren face as he watched himself from the past come into view in the reflecting pool.
"By some foul play of fate, I was born his younger brother, De'rahn."
It was easy to say that the Dren from the past, as he was shown in the reflecting pool, was a sinfully hansom man, easily filling the role of a Lord's son. Dren's already tanned skin was far darker in the past, his swarthy appearance very striking and exotic. His hair, which was cut short and grew wildly in all directions, was a dark, nearly black, brown, looking soft and touchable in the bright sunlight. His eyes were a deep, intelligent, liquid brown that one left one simply breathless by looking into them. The one thing that hadn't changed was his expression, it was still his neutral look that bordered on disinterested. He was dressed as his brother was, in a tunic and loose pants, though the colors were different, natural white and sandy beige.
"You were very hansom back then..." Miaka whispered absently. Dren graced her a small smiled before speaking again.
"We were the only children born to our father before our mother died, and after that, Raoh refused to remarry. I suppose our lives were happy in Moeak, we were the lords of all Shaedi'ah, after all… what could be better? But, as I look back now, I seemed to lack the passion needed to truly enjoy my position. I had everything in the world, and yet I felt as if something was missing." Dren paused as he took his time to examine De'rahn, himself, smiling sadly. "Raj certainly did not lack passion, nor greed or lust, and though he may have been an awful man, I was jealous of him; I wanted just a little piece of what he had… Perhaps that is why I went with him on his stupid quest. Little did I know, this whim of my brother's would set in motion a string of events that would ultimately force Miaka and I to become what we are now…"
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Shaedi'ah
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"Come on, little brother, do you not wish to see if the rumors of this beautiful maiden are true?" Raj asked, his eyes burning with hunger at the prospect of a new conquest. From what he had heard of this strange woman who turned down all men, she was the most intriguing creature ever. Any man in his right mind should have been more than just interested about her. De'rahn was neither interested nor even curious.
De'rahn regarded his older brother passively. "No," he replied bluntly. He reigned in his horse next to his brother's so that they both could see over the castle's high, stonewall, gazing out over their city of Moeak. As always, De'rahn looked disinterested, his only reason for being out with Raj was because he had been summoned there.
Raj flicked an annoyed glance at his brother. "Then you are an idiot," he stated, then sighed, opting for a softer tone. "I am beginning to wonder about you, little brother. You are going on your nineteenth summer and you have yet to find at least one wife for yourself."
"While you are about to go on a quest for your seventh wife, Raj, who I have no doubt will be treated as foully as you treat every other woman who comes within arm's reach of you," De'rahn retorted plainly. "I am not interested in collecting women as trophies, nor do I wish to marry merely for procreation or pleasure. I am not sure what I am looking for… perhaps a connection… a deeper friendship of some sort."
"A connection? Other than sex, how else does one "connect" with a female? They are simply objects for us to possess, De'rahn, nothing more; don't think too far into them," Raj laughed, De'rahn flinching under the harshness of his older brother's barking laugh. "You have such strange thoughts running around in that head of yours… perhaps it is better you stay single."
"Perhaps," De'rahn sighed.
"But enough of this, you and I shall leave at once for this famed Mehiya, beauty of the plains, who refuses all men!" Raj announced proudly, turning his horse around and galloping off for the gates of the city.
De'rahn studied his brother's retreating back for a few seconds, wondering how it would feel to be that passionate about anything. Sighing, he urged his horse to follow after Raj, briefly wondering if this "Mehiya" was really worth all the trouble.
Through the city they raced, faster than the wind itself. The packed dirt streets of Moeak were teeming with people, and when the lordlings came crashing through, they had to dive out of the way before they were trampled. Raj gave no sign that he cared or not if he trampled anyone, but De'rahn carefully steered his beast so that he avoided hitting anyone. Out the towering city gates they flew, winding blowing hard in their faces, sun beating down on their backs. Over vast plains their horses galloped, untiring it seemed, and at impossible speeds, passing herds of dinosaurs, trampling through the wilds of the jungles, galloping through lands with no name.
On the third day of their wild race across Shaedi'ah, the brothers came upon a giant outcropping of red rock in the middle of a wide savanna. It jutted up like giant spikes from the ground, softened at the top by the strange, gnarled trees that grew out from it. Water could be heard rushing somewhere within the strange crowd of rocks, and over the rush of water came the subtle sound of a woman's voice.
De'rahn tilted his head up to observe the formation warily, hoping against all hope that whomever belong to the voice he heard was not the Mehiya that they searched for. Raj gave the signal to dismount and tie their rides, doing so silently, De'rahn followed his brother into a small cave near by, feeling his way up the inclined tunnel until thy came upon an opening. They came out on a shelf in the rock near the top of the rock, next to a steaming waterfall of hot water heated by the volcano in the distance. Below, the woman's singing continued.
Raj tapped De'rahn's shoulder and signaled him to get down, so that they wouldn't be spotted.
"That must be her," Raj hissed. The hunger in his eyes as he observed the creature below them was almost sickening. "She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!"
"If you say so," De'rahn replied, watching the girl absently. She was swimming about naked in the water, her form obscured by the steam. "Let's leave her in peace for now, she is bathing at the moment."
"No, I will not leave, nor will you. We will stay and watch her until she gets out, and then I will claim her as mine and we will take her back to Moeak to be my new wife." Raj hissed. "She will be mine!"
De'rahn pitied the poor girl more than anything now.
Mehiya continued to swim for sometime longer, singing and talking to herself, unaware of being watched. When she finally did decide to get out of the water and head out of her secret hot spring, she saw the two tied horses and knew she wasn't alone. Footsteps echoed out of the dark opening of the cave that led to the top of the waterfall, so Mehiya found a rock and prepared herself for whatever was about to come out.
Two males emerged from the darkness, both dressed in finery that Mehiya could never own. They appeared well groomed and mannered, and with a quick once over Mehiya instantly knew who these two were: lordlings, the two sons of Lord Raoh, Raj and De'rahn.
The older one, obviously Raj, stepped forward with a feral gleam in his eyes as he looked her over, from her toga in its normal disarray, to the rest of her body, and then to her face. She did not like the vibe that the man gave off, and in defense, her grip on the rock tightened.
"Beautiful woman, by any chance would your name be Mehiya?" The lordling asked, his voice dripping with false sweetness.
Mehiya nodded warily, watching to see what either man would do. Raj's grin broadened, and Mehiya suddenly recognized the look on his face.
This man was a would-be suitor!
A scowl marred Mehiya's face. "I know who you are, Raj of Moeak, and if you have come all this way to ask for my hand in marriage then consider this a wasted trip. I have no interest in marriage, or you, or any other males for that matter."
Raj looked undeterred. "That does not matter, little desert girl, I have already decided that you will be my wife and nothing you say can change that." He grabbed her wrist and tried to drag her to the horses.
"Bastard!" She screeched and smashed her rock on his fist, successfully freeing herself. She spun on her heel and bolted into the savanna, her long legs carrying her as fast and as far as they could.
De'rahn watched her escape in surprise, he certainly had not expected a simple girl to get the best of Raj; she definitely was an interesting creature, to say the least.
"Quickly, follow her!" Raj hissed, clutching his hand to his chest, where it bled into his shirt. He mounted his horse quickly and took off after the girl, De'rahn following suit seconds after.
They were on her heels for most of the chase; miraculously Mehiya was able to stay out of reach the entire time. But soon her hut loomed in the distance and she was quickly running out of room to run, so she gave off a loud, piercing scream and, from nowhere it seemed, miniature versions of Mehiya appeared at their sister's sides, looking ready to fight.
De'rahn pulled up hard so as not to trample any of the little girls. "It seems we are out numbered, brother," he pointed out. Raj growled.
"They are only little girls," he replied, swinging his horse around in a hard circle, knocking the two youngest ones to the ground. "You do not intimidate me, desert girls, I demand to se the one in charge. Where is your father?" He demanded, meaning to go directly to the head of the family to get what he wanted.
Mehiya rushed to her sisters' aide, helping them up and pushing them behind her. None of them looked ready to say anything to the invader.
"Here, sir," an old voice called from the zjizja pen. "I'm am the girls' father." A grizzled old man stood up amongst the shaggy brown zjizjas and waded his way to the gate. "What has my poor Mehiya down to exact the anger from a lord such as yourself?" he asked calmly, sweeping back his tangled dark hair and scrubbing his dirty hands on his brown tunic.
"She assaulted me!" Raj accused angrily.
"He grabbed me and demanded I become his wife!" Mehiya screamed in reply. "Father, the man is insane!"
"Hush now, girl," her father soothed tiredly. He turned to Raj and assessed the lordling, seeing the armor and weapons, the wealth and the pride; this man could have easily killed his daughter for being so insolent. "Perhaps we could work something that would appeal to you, Lord?"
The grin returned to Raj's face. "Yes, I believe we can work something out," he replied. They had walked directly into his ploy.
De'rahn gazed upon Mehiya and tried to convey his pity to her, but when his eyes met hers, she returned his look with one of pure venom and fire, wild and untamable.
"What are you looking at, lordling?" she hissed venomously.
"Nothing," he replied quietly.
Unfortunately, the dealings did not take long. Mehiya's father, under the impression that he was doing what was best for his daughter, sold Mehiya to Raj to be taken away to Moeak and become his wife. That night they set out with a kicking and screaming woman strapped to De'rahn's horse, since she had attacked Raj too many times. She howled and cursed for the entire time it took to return to Moeak, struggling even harder when they entered the city, her raw flesh splitting, bleeding freely.
In the castle, she was cut loose and immediately she lunged to attack the nearest person. With his nerves shot from three days of listening to her scream, De'rahn dived in to meet her attack head on and easily flipped her so that he pinned her to the hard ground of the courtyard.
"YOU! WILL! BE! SILENT!" he commanded in the loudest, most demanding voice he had ever used in his life. Shocked into silence, Mehiya only stared back at him.
Raj grinned at his new prize as if she had been an angel the entire way back, watching her be taken away to be bathed and dressed properly. A week from now, a wedding would be set up and she would be his. "What a fine, strong, creature she is," he hummed.
De'rahn brushed his clothes off and glared at his brother, hating him, but not bothering to say anything. He stalked off to go sulk somewhere in the castle.
The days leading up to the wedding passed with surprising speed, each day passing with at least one or two escape attempts made by the determined Mehiya. She was a very determined girl. At one point she had released all the horses from the stables and tried to escape in all the chaos, then the next day she had stolen rope and tried to climb out her fourth story window. She fought anyone, even Raj's other wives, who dared come within arm's reach of her. It seemed only De'rahn was unaffected by the chaos Mehiya brought and soon was assigned to watch her for the remaining days to make sure she did not destroy the castle in her attempts to escape.
And that was how he now found himself in the vast garden of the castle, studying Mehiya as she sulked in the shade of some tropical, broad-leafed tree. The few days that he had been with her, De'rahn's patience had been tested, his sanity put in question, and his life threatened multiple times, and yet he found it strangely invigorating. This simple girl was drawing something out in him that he had never felt before, and he was suddenly far more interested in her than he should have been. And he now found himself angered by the impending marriage that tomorrow would bring.
Mehiya glared up at the man who continued to watch her with his smoldering brown eyes. It was unnerving how his expression never changed, how he never seemed to be happy or sad or angry; at least on the outside. Everything about him was foreign and guarded, distant and almost… sad. But that never stopped him from taking her hand and guiding her through the castle, sneaking her around so that both of them could avoid Raj, indulging her when she ran, and chasing after her as if it were a game. He never demanded anything from her, not since the day he had ordered her silence, and he had even apologized for that the next day. Reluctantly, Mehiya had to admit that she had formed a kind of friendship with the stoic lordling.
She sighed and broke the silence that had settled in the garden. "I hate it here," she grumbled.
After a time, De'rahn replied, "so do I, but we are stuck here."
She frowned, getting up and brushing off the white slip that was given to her to wear, it was fancier than anything else she ever owned and was reluctant to ruin it. Slowly, she approached De'rahn and flopped down next to him on the stone block that was used as a bench, leaning against him sadly. "Too bad we couldn't both just run away…" she sighed, not really thinking about what she was saying.
De'rahn tensed, regarding the girl with one of his guarded expressions. After a fashion, he turned away from her and looked up at the gathering storm clouds, their fierce presence in the sky a dark warning to the storm to come. "Yes, it is too bad we cannot just run away," he replied.
That night, the storm that had been gathering finally broke, and the land was bombarded with screaming winds and pounding rains. This night, De'rahn chose to sneak out of his chambers in the far side of the castle, snaking through the shadows quickly, moving silently as he approached Mehiya's bedroom on the fourth floor. He didn't knock, assuming she was asleep, and was surprised when he found her on the floor, huddled over a tiny fire built in the middle of her stone floor, a tiny pot full of boiling oil sat happily on top. Around her were tiny tubers she must have dug up from the garden when he hadn't been watching, and spread out on a cloth to her right was an assortment or herbs and flavorful berries. She peered up guiltily when De'rahn looked in.
"Is this your knew plan, Mehiya, burning down the castle?" he asked.
"No, I'm hungry," she replied matter-of-factly. "This is what my family ate when we were hungry- it's better than the stuff you eat here." She stabbed one of the tubers with a knife, probably stolen from the kitchen, smothered it with the herbs, taking collected shiny berries and stuffing them inside, and dunked the tuber in the boiling oil. It hissed and crackled for a few seconds, and they watched the tuber cook. A few minutes later, she pulled it out, blew on it, and tossed it to the man in her doorway. Examining it carefully, De'rahn had no way of knowing that this was the ancient ancestor to the modern day hash brown- or that the berries that Mehiya had stuffed inside were deadly belladonna berries...
"Try it," she offered, stabbing another tuber to boil for herself. "It won't kill you."
Cautiously, De'rahn bit into the steaming tuber, the berries inside bursting under his teeth and their hot, sweet juices running into his mouth warmly. Mehiya watched him with wide eyes, pulling out her own tuber, blowing on it and nibbling.
"It's not bad," he commented, taking another bite. Mehiya grinned and continued to nibble on hers. De'rahn stepped further into her room and took a seat across the tiny fire to watch the strange girl over the flickering light, her flaxen hair glowing yellows and oranges in the firelight. Her eyes were such a clear grey that he thought he could see her wild soul shinning in them, and he knew that if she stayed here any longer- in this castle, caged in this life- her soul would shrivel and die, and that only solidified his reason for being there.
Finishing his tuber in a single bite, De'rahn arranged his tar black cloak around him absently, trying to decide the perfect time to set his plan in motion. The time came when Mehiya finished nibbling on her tuber, looking up to see why De'rahn was so anxious.
"Come on," he whispered, getting up from the floor. "We're getting out of here."
"Out?" She repeated dumbly. "Where?"
He grabbed her arms and hauled her up, brushing off her white slip himself and grabbing the heaviest cloak he could find out of the pile that sat at the end of her bed; he hoped it would be enough to stave off the cold of the storm. It was light blue and held closed with a heavy silver clasp, hanging off her like a thick blanket. "Any where away from here." He hissed, working quickly to extinguish the fire. "Far, far away from here."
"Why are you doing this?" she inquired breathlessly, watching him move. He was nothing more than a swirl of black around the room, his dark brown hair and blood red tunic catching in the light, the gold stitching glittering hauntingly.
"Because people like you should never be forced to live in a cage like this. You're too free, Mehiya, your soul would just die if you became someone's wife, whittling away your life to make a man happy instead of yourself. I cannot allow you to live like that, not now."
"…Thank you…" she managed to reply awkwardly. "I'm glad you're my friend."
De'rahn paused; he had never been called a friend before, but for some reason he wanted something more, with difficulty, he ignored the feeling. For the first time, he felt passion burning in his chest, riding on the high of it as if it were a drug; he saw no need to spoil it with passing thoughts.
Without a word, he grabbed Mehiya's arm and flew out into the familiar halls of the castle, down several flights of stairs, towards the back entry where the stables were.
Thankful for her quick feet, Mehiya followed on his heels. "What if someone catches us?" she whispered worriedly. "Raj will kill both of us if we're caught."
"Don't worry, I'll protect you," he whispered feverishly, throwing open the door to the howling storm beyond. "I'll stay by your side and make sure you're safe."
His horse tossed its head anxiously as they rushed up to its stall. Fast as lightning, De'rahn had a soft leather saddle strapped to the beast and rope reigns tied onto its halter. He wavered slightly before mounting; his vision blurring momentarily as the poison of the belladonna berries began to take effect. He shook his head to clear it and mounted, Mehiya jumping up behind him.
Back out in the storm, Mehiya had to clutch desperately to De'rahn's waist so that she was not blown off by the ferocious winds. They were out of Moeak in minutes, racing along the broad, muddied road like lightening. Mehiya had no idea where they were headed the storm was disorientating all her senses as lightening flashed and thunder boomed overhead, but her companion seemed to know exactly what he was doing.
Moeak itself, sat atop a large dais of jagged rock and sharp cliffs, the main path down was open and slick with dark mud; they couldn't take it, someone could see them. De'rahn turned the horse hard the left a half just outside the gates, into an almost invisible side path that led up higher, into the mountain ranges. As the horse labored to run through the pounding storm, its tri-toed feet struggling to keep from sliding off the sheer cliff they ran next to, its riders were beginning to suffer from the poison.
Try as they might, the more they struggled against the belladonna's poison the more it seemed to take hold of them. Mehiya was the first to lose consciousness, having consumed far more of the berries before hand. Her light form became a dead weight against De'rahn back as she slumped heavily, her arms dropping their tight hold. De'rahn panted, struggling for breath, trying to focus his vision in the dark storm, but sadly, the poison took hold of him, as well. A violent spasm took hold of his arm, jerking the reigns fiercely, sending both the horse and its riders veering to the right...
...straight over a cliff.
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Well, there you go, Origins, Part 1, the first real glimpse into who Miaka and Dren where before and how they came to become Life and Death. I hoped you liked it… I'm absolutely excited about it! I have been waiting for over two years to write this chapter and solidify how Miaka and Dren became who they are today, I feel as if I accomplished something really big now. I'm terribly sorry if anyone didn't like the chapter, but there was no way to avoid it. Better luck with the next chapter!
If anyone had trouble with the pronunciation of the weird words or names:
Shaedi'ah (Sha-eh-di-ah)
Moeak (Mo-eek)
Zjizja (jji-jja)
Mehiya (Meh-he-ya)
De'rahn (Deh-rawn)
Raoh (Row)
Raj… Um, rhymes with Taj, as in Taj Mahal in India.
If there's anything else, review me with the question and I'll try to answer it the best I can.