"It's not a big deal… it will be fine," I mutter to myself, my head low, as my legs plod on farther. The sky had clouded over and cast a grey light over the whole, open land. There was no path below me, which only reminded me of the obscurity of this situation. "…They won't care that much anyway…" But what if they do?
I had been traveling for what had to have been months, but for some reason that day I had more regrets than I ever had before. I shook my head to try and empty my head of such thoughts.
"This is what's best," I said, assuring myself.
A deep rumble in the sky brought me back into the world around me. The sky had turned to a darker gray, and the wind had turned warm and picked up considerably. Signs of rain. I looked around and saw what seemed to be a town in the distance. It was likely for the better that I stop for a day or two, since I had begun to run low on provisions anyway.
By the time I had made my way to the distant town, it had begun to lightly rain. I pulled the hood of my cape over my head and entered the small village moments later. Judging by where the sun had been before it was hidden by clouds, and how much time it had taken to walk to the town, it was beginning to get late, so I found the small inn and found a room there.
The rain poured outside, and flashes of lightning lit up the small room every few minutes. The storm outside was the only sound, since the inn had only a few residents that night. I sat on the edge of the bed, reading a book off the small shelf in the room. The text was quite large, making the book seem to be larger than it was. "It's a trick that young authors often use—because people naturally gravitate towards the biggest books on the shelf." I could hear Mother's voice say in my head, bringing a small grin to my face. I quickly lost it, however, when I remembered why I was here. I closed the book, set it back in its place, then I laid down on the small bed; that thought had made me loose interest in reading.
The regrets that I had had all day caught up to me as soon as I laid down. I stared at the ceiling that occasionally was lit up by lightning outside, considering all these feelings instead of brushing them away, as I had done all day. Why was this bothering me so much? I had been alone before. You cried then too…
I harshly turned to my side, ignoring the voice in my head—the voice that told me that I was still a child, and that I still needed my parents and my home. No, I was past that. I had lived through enough that I knew how to be alone. I didn't need them as much as they didn't need me. Now you're just lying to yourself…
I felt a single, cold tear run down my cheek, down towards my pillow. I severely rubbed it away and turned to face the other side. The window on this side dripped with water, only reminding me of the sorrow that crawled inside my chest.
"Grow up," I grumbled aloud to myself. "It's not like you could go back now anyway… They would just hate you…"
"You'll always have a place at my side."
Hearing Father's words ring through my head, the same as Mother's a moment ago, made me squirm. They had always been so kind to me, so accepting of the way I had acted. Even when I had screamed at them, or disappointed them, they always forgave me.
And you repaid them by running away…
Audibly groaning, I rolled onto my back to stare at the ceiling again. I rolled up my sleeves and lifted my hands upwards to look at them. The storm had passed quickly, and the clouds had revealed a very miniscule amount of moonlight. Even in the dim light, the pale skin of my forearms glowed… accenting the fading scars almost beautifully.
"I love you, no matter what you tell yourself. No matter how hard you cry, no matter how much you scream, and no matter to what you've done in the past, or future, I suppose. I love you." I, once again, heard Mother's words in my mind. She had said that after the war with Valm, when she had spoken to me about those scars. She had held me close and kissed me, and then told me that everything was going to be alright, even when I knew that she was not certain herself. She had said that she loved me. And I had left.
I felt two more tears trickle down the sides of my face as I lowered my hands, resting them on my chest. I swallowed a lump in my throat and closed my eyes, listening to the silence around me. My mind began to drift away to the times right before I had left my home. The lies that I had told myself…
No, they weren't lies. I had to go—it was for the best. Those weren't my real parents anyway.
But what about Morgan? And what if Maegan comes back from our future, only to find that you've abandoned your family?
Grimacing, I opened my eyes one last time. I took a deep breath and prayed with everything inside of my soul that Morgan would forgive me. That Father and Mother would forgive me. And, most of all, that Maegan would never learn what I had done, wherever she was.
My eyes closed slowly this time, letting one last tear fall out of my eye. My mind then drifted away as I finally fell asleep.
"Well, well; this is unexpected. Has your master granted you respite for a time?" A man asks a woman and she approaches him. He dawns a stark white cloak, enlaced with intricate, gold and blue patterns. He stands over a large pond, confined by walls high enough for him to rest his arms upon. The pool contains crystal clear waters, accenting the light from tens of shining orbs that float freely in the liquid.
The woman sighs as she rests her elbows on the edge of this pool, "Yes, enough time to speak with you, at least."
"I figured you wanted something—it isn't often that the Fell Dragon makes time for meager dragons such as myself," the man sneers.
"Don't get used to it," the woman replies hotly, her expression then loosening when she looks at the waters before them. Her white hair falls over her shoulders, covering bare skin with the absence of her signature dark coat.
The man waits a moment before speaking again, "So, what would you have of me?"
She slowly lets her finger fall into the water. The liquid ripples from the touch, disturbing the entire pond from its long stillness. "I… I've been thinking about some things lately. About the people that I left behind…"
"Don't tell me you're feeling sorry for them," the cloaked man crosses his arms. "You're the Fell Dragon—you don't need humans to keep you satisfied. They're better off without you."
"That is easy for you to say. Humans betrayed you and left you for better lives—I betrayed them for a power that I never received," she replies, then leans her head into her hand. "I cannot help feeling this way. They were the only family I ever had. I… I loved them…"
The cloaked man waits a moment before inquiring, "What does this have to do with me? I don't go out of my way to listen to others' sob stories."
"And I do not go out of my way to tell them," the woman replies, straightening up slightly. "I need your help."
Without waiting for an answer from the cloaked man, she thrusts her hand into the water. As soon as her touch hit the pool, a cloud of violet murk expelled from her fingers, clouding the liquid to a dark color. Murmuring some ambiguous words, she slowly moved her fingers within the pool. The glowing orbs that floated on the surface moved away from the area around her hand, clearing a large range.
"Why would you…" the man breathlessly says, alarmed.
Upon the surface of the waters appear blurry images of people. The images start out as blurred colors, but slowly still into recognizable persons. The first several disappear almost as quickly as they come, but the water settles finally onto a specific image. The water shows a young girl laying on her side while in bed. The bluenette harshly wipes away a shimmering tear and turns to the opposite side. Her chest expands and contracts rapidly as she ostensibly tries not to cry.
"…Your daughter?" the man realizes aloud.
The woman bits her lip and does not take her eyes away from the water.
The girl in the reflection rolls onto her back and lifts her arms in the air to examine them. Eventually, they fall back to her chest and she appears to fall asleep.
"…She… she doesn't know what she wants," the woman says, seemingly excusing the child in the image.
"And? I can't do anything for mama's little butterfly," the man mocks, stepping slightly back from the pool.
"I want your help in fixing what I broke," the woman replies, briefly running her fingers through the water, causing the image to dissolve. She turns to the man but does not move away.
"How do you mean? You did nothing to her—she chose that for herself," he argues back. "If anything would fix her, it would be letting her see the consequences of her decisions. Likely, she'll just get herself killed out there an—"
"If you so much as make her trip herself I will end you," the woman interrupts him sharply, her eyes briefly flashing a deep violet. "I didn't come here for you to actually help—I have more power than you do, so why would I ask anything of you?"
"Then why say that you needed me?"
"I need someone who is actually mortal to make my plan work."
"Then you clearly have me mistaken for someone else," the man turns away from the pool and begins to walk away. He knows what she is about to ask of him.
"I want to use your daughter."
The man comes to a quick halt, his teeth clenching and his lips twisting into a grimace. He comes up with an excuse, "that's impossible. They live in different worlds. Different sides of the universe that the gods designed to stay separate."
"You know that it is possible—you simply don't want your daughter to know mine," the woman retorts.
The cloaked man gradually makes his way back to the edge of the waters. He then gestures towards the pool, "Grima, you know who created this pond, do you not?"
"…Dragons," the woman replies bitterly, obviously annoyed by the dancing around her statement.
"Exactly—our brothers. They created this as a place of control, if you will. It keeps all these worlds balanced with one another. You cannot simply change their order without some consequences."
The woman responds by holding her hand above the water. Two glowing orbs begin to make their way to her hand and gently brush under her touch. She picks one up and looks closely at it, then sets it very close to the second one on the near surface. "We create a way to go between them. We've both murdered thousands of people within our lifetimes, I am certain that we can make a simple passage."
"…It won't work."
"Such rash conclusions—I haven't even said my plan yet," the woman puts a hand on her hip. "She needs to learn that people love her—something that I didn't teach her, and certainly did not show by taking the path that I did. Your daughter is the perfect person to show her that. I will put my daughter into that world, and make her meet yours, and as soon as she figures it out, I will bring her back to where she belongs."
The man was beginning to see her vision with this idea, "if you had this grand plan, then why didn't you just do it? You are one of the most powerful beings that these worlds have ever seen, you could have simply done it yourself. Why ask me?"
"Because, believe it or not, I do still have some sense in me. And I wanted to ask before using your beloved daughter for my own benefit."
He gritted his teeth slightly, "I do not commonly refer to her as my daughter…"
"All the same—she is of the world that you once safeguarded. I did not know for certain if you wanted my dirty hands on it."
The cloaked man considered this briefly, nervously wringing his hands together. He looked to the pool before them. "…And if this does not work?"
"It will," the woman replies surely, not a hint of uncertainty in her expression.
"If they both end up in tears or at the edge of the living, don't say that I did not tell you so."
The woman lifts one corner of her mouth. She puts her hand over the two orbs nearest to them. They begin to stir and twist as a gentle, blue light comes from them both.