She was in darkness, although all around her seemed to hang bundles of, stuff seemed the only relevant word. Almost like silkworm cocoons. She reached up and touched one and was suddenly arrested with a vision of her twin brother smilingly throwing a tin can at her. And she wondered, was everything here like that?
***
It was to a hushed library that Hue Orendra came with what she hoped were the answers to the Night Lords prayers. And that of the odd Dragon that had been his houseguest this past month, growing tetchier and tetchier; but speaking to no one bar Lord Theirry and Lady Hannah. Ash Redfern had been the same, even his precious soulmate couldn't seem to drag more than a few words out of him.
"Hue, I believe you have something for us?" Theirry's light gentle voice pierced her reminiscence and the young Vietnamese witch looked up to find herself regarded by every person in the library; and most disturbingly by a pair of very deep, very draconic eyes. She was aware she had interrupted a conversation but it was important "Yes sir, I believe I do" The Night Lord inclined his head "Speak then" she paused a moment and then dragging herself together told what they had discovered "The stone that we were given with the body" she ignored the sharp intakes of breath to continue "Is the key to the entire dilemma, but however the solution is not without risk" she adjusted her glasses nervous at all this attention "If the stone is broken, which during our research we have decided is the only feasible way of releasing the soul trapped within. There is an unfortunately large chance that the soul could be shattered and dispersed"
There was a very long silence before the Night Lord spoke "No, that cannot be countenanced, what is the other alternative?" She stayed very still for a moment "The other alternative is impossible, you would have to have someone who is linked to her, a twin, or perhaps a soulmate." She saw something like pain flicker over the features of the silent Dragon. She wanted to press the subject but Ash Redfern was at her elbow and was thanking her while he moved her towards the door. Without realising it she was outside and alone, and wondering what was to be done.
***
Inside there was less doubt, all eyes had turned to Bran FallenStar who was staring fixedly at the carpet "You heard the lady FallenStar" that was Ash "You're her only chance" he couldn't answer, he'd hoped and prayed that it would all be simple. A spell an incantation, blood sacrifice, anything but this. "You truly believe this is the only way?" his voice was flat, its normal expressionless tone broken by exhaustion. Theirry nodded "I cannot sanction the breaking of the stone" Bran shook his head "Very well, I will try"
***
As he walked into the room where the witches had been working he was filled with a flat sense of foreboding that he couldn't confide. What if she didn't want to come back? To most people that would have been a ridiculous idea, but they hadn't seen her eyes at the end, and the relief written large in them. But he had to try, he knew now why Theirry had dedicated his immortality to finding Hannah, the feeling of being totally connected to a person was terrible, but to be without that person. That was worse.
He sat on the edge of the couch he could sense Ash and the others somewhere over his left shoulder, but all he could see was the pale lifeless features of the woman in front of him and he could feel clenched in his fist the freezing darkness of the stone that could resurrect her, the Necromancers stone. He reached forward without thinking about it and brushed back a long blood red curl that had washed across her cheek, fingers brushing marble skin and the stone he held boomed with midnight light, and he felt something rip free and all was darkness.
***
Theirry caught him as he fell, dead weight, and placed him in the chair next to the bed where Lynx lay, watching as the light in the Necromancers stone blazed even higher and praying under his breath in a language long gone for the deliverance of both of them.
***
Black-out, complete and utter darkness, but the darkness glowed. He supposed it was only experience that showed him the way. Before you can possess a dark fire then you must master the shades that birthed it. But there were objects in the darkness and in curiosity he reached out and touched one....
***
"You must try harder!" he was seeing from a third party view a tall red head man standing over a girl who possessed hair of the same hue although slightly darker, the pair of them were shades of blood and fire. "But Grandfather.." it was a child's voice, piping and wavering slightly, but the mans fist whipped out and smacked her backwards. "No buts child, you just do as I say" he saw the bruise on her cheek blacken and disappear but the bruise in the golden eyes remained long into the next set of exercises.
***
He was back in that twilight staring at the cocoons that surrounded him, each one was a memory, he suspected that most of them were bad. He couldn't bring himself to think of them now; not when there was a chance of finding her.
He wandered the half light of the stone for what felt like lifetimes before to his surprised eyes a glow dawned on the horizon. Flickering fire against the midnight blue and he broke into a light run, and there hand outstretched towards one of the cocoons was Lynx, there was something different about her here than there was elsewhere. A serenity that she hadn't had before for all her icy self possession. He wanted to call out, to alert her to his presence but the urge to touch was deeper, to see whether what had always bound them together still existed. Even here past the threshold of life.
He crossed the intervening space with breathless speed and placed gentle fingers to her shoulder, there was no arching connection as there had been before, but golden eyes turned towards him in quiet appraisal "What do you want?" it wasn't the normal demand he would have expected but a low flat question. "It's not a question of want" he answered, surprised in his own mind at his ability to prevaricate. "No?" he shook his head "It's a question of need"
***
'A question of need' those simple words caught and tugged, and she followed them, absently holding his hand. There. One of those odd cocoons, they would explain to her the mystery of this man, who she didn't know but felt as if she should. She reached up and touched the silver threads of moonlight that bound them with their entwined hands and was catapulted forward.
***
They stood in a park watching a pair on a hill, one was obviously her and the other him. She looked towards the him that accompanied her but he was riveted so she returned her attention to the scene unfolding before them.
"For god's sake FallenStar, what do you want with me if not to hire me?" she was incensed but none of it showed in her bored languorous tone but her eyes were flashing a pure crystalline blue. The man raked a hand back through silver blonde hair he looked frustrated, no hidden emotions there "I have no bloody idea why I wanted to see you Lynx, okay?" She raised an eyebrow, well she had a name for him now, she knew she was Lynx from earlier memories; He must be FallenStar, but above her the conversation continued
"Why not? We've met what? Twice? You must have some idea?" she watched them and had the uncanny idea that something deep flashed in his eyes, "Yeah I have a small idea" then he grabbed her and kissed her. A knife had flashed momentarily but it tumbled now unheeded to the grass as she lay almost limp in his arms, a second later she managed to break backwards and her fingers limed by moonlight were trembling "You have to be out of your mind!" the man grinned and looked as if a thousand cares had lifted from his shoulders "No"
The silence was deafening before she spoke again "By all the thousand lesser hells, I'm cursed" then she paused again "Soulmates. With you!"
Soulmates, even as the familiar greyness that heralded the end of a recollection enveloped her that word sang out. It was important she knew, and spoke of trust and love, something that almost none of the other memories she had touched showed.
She looked at him again as they stood in the deep blue something that was the landscape, then she spoke "FallenStar?" he turned to her eyes open and a deep shade of green than shone even here "Bran" she nodded "Bran, I don't like it here" he nodded she could feel a chill wind catching at the leather jacket she wore which provided no shelter. He caught at her hand "Let me take you back"
Take her back, she hadn't thought of that, to go back to all that she had known, all that these memories had shown her. She didn't know if she could, it had driven her near to the edge of sanity before, could she bear to do it all again? The other question was could she bear to stay, never to know the rush of fresh blood into her veins, to see her brother again, to force grief where she had never expected mourning at her passage?
She had an idea that her own pain would be easier to bear than the thought of all these pains given to others on her behalf, she looked up her eyes a clouded bronze "Yes"
It was one word but it wreaked the same havoc as the most powerful of midnight spells. The world around them shattered, and all she saw as she fell was a sliver light like a lifeline before her eyes.
***
It was to a hushed library that Hue Orendra came with what she hoped were the answers to the Night Lords prayers. And that of the odd Dragon that had been his houseguest this past month, growing tetchier and tetchier; but speaking to no one bar Lord Theirry and Lady Hannah. Ash Redfern had been the same, even his precious soulmate couldn't seem to drag more than a few words out of him.
"Hue, I believe you have something for us?" Theirry's light gentle voice pierced her reminiscence and the young Vietnamese witch looked up to find herself regarded by every person in the library; and most disturbingly by a pair of very deep, very draconic eyes. She was aware she had interrupted a conversation but it was important "Yes sir, I believe I do" The Night Lord inclined his head "Speak then" she paused a moment and then dragging herself together told what they had discovered "The stone that we were given with the body" she ignored the sharp intakes of breath to continue "Is the key to the entire dilemma, but however the solution is not without risk" she adjusted her glasses nervous at all this attention "If the stone is broken, which during our research we have decided is the only feasible way of releasing the soul trapped within. There is an unfortunately large chance that the soul could be shattered and dispersed"
There was a very long silence before the Night Lord spoke "No, that cannot be countenanced, what is the other alternative?" She stayed very still for a moment "The other alternative is impossible, you would have to have someone who is linked to her, a twin, or perhaps a soulmate." She saw something like pain flicker over the features of the silent Dragon. She wanted to press the subject but Ash Redfern was at her elbow and was thanking her while he moved her towards the door. Without realising it she was outside and alone, and wondering what was to be done.
***
Inside there was less doubt, all eyes had turned to Bran FallenStar who was staring fixedly at the carpet "You heard the lady FallenStar" that was Ash "You're her only chance" he couldn't answer, he'd hoped and prayed that it would all be simple. A spell an incantation, blood sacrifice, anything but this. "You truly believe this is the only way?" his voice was flat, its normal expressionless tone broken by exhaustion. Theirry nodded "I cannot sanction the breaking of the stone" Bran shook his head "Very well, I will try"
***
As he walked into the room where the witches had been working he was filled with a flat sense of foreboding that he couldn't confide. What if she didn't want to come back? To most people that would have been a ridiculous idea, but they hadn't seen her eyes at the end, and the relief written large in them. But he had to try, he knew now why Theirry had dedicated his immortality to finding Hannah, the feeling of being totally connected to a person was terrible, but to be without that person. That was worse.
He sat on the edge of the couch he could sense Ash and the others somewhere over his left shoulder, but all he could see was the pale lifeless features of the woman in front of him and he could feel clenched in his fist the freezing darkness of the stone that could resurrect her, the Necromancers stone. He reached forward without thinking about it and brushed back a long blood red curl that had washed across her cheek, fingers brushing marble skin and the stone he held boomed with midnight light, and he felt something rip free and all was darkness.
***
Theirry caught him as he fell, dead weight, and placed him in the chair next to the bed where Lynx lay, watching as the light in the Necromancers stone blazed even higher and praying under his breath in a language long gone for the deliverance of both of them.
***
Black-out, complete and utter darkness, but the darkness glowed. He supposed it was only experience that showed him the way. Before you can possess a dark fire then you must master the shades that birthed it. But there were objects in the darkness and in curiosity he reached out and touched one....
***
"You must try harder!" he was seeing from a third party view a tall red head man standing over a girl who possessed hair of the same hue although slightly darker, the pair of them were shades of blood and fire. "But Grandfather.." it was a child's voice, piping and wavering slightly, but the mans fist whipped out and smacked her backwards. "No buts child, you just do as I say" he saw the bruise on her cheek blacken and disappear but the bruise in the golden eyes remained long into the next set of exercises.
***
He was back in that twilight staring at the cocoons that surrounded him, each one was a memory, he suspected that most of them were bad. He couldn't bring himself to think of them now; not when there was a chance of finding her.
He wandered the half light of the stone for what felt like lifetimes before to his surprised eyes a glow dawned on the horizon. Flickering fire against the midnight blue and he broke into a light run, and there hand outstretched towards one of the cocoons was Lynx, there was something different about her here than there was elsewhere. A serenity that she hadn't had before for all her icy self possession. He wanted to call out, to alert her to his presence but the urge to touch was deeper, to see whether what had always bound them together still existed. Even here past the threshold of life.
He crossed the intervening space with breathless speed and placed gentle fingers to her shoulder, there was no arching connection as there had been before, but golden eyes turned towards him in quiet appraisal "What do you want?" it wasn't the normal demand he would have expected but a low flat question. "It's not a question of want" he answered, surprised in his own mind at his ability to prevaricate. "No?" he shook his head "It's a question of need"
***
'A question of need' those simple words caught and tugged, and she followed them, absently holding his hand. There. One of those odd cocoons, they would explain to her the mystery of this man, who she didn't know but felt as if she should. She reached up and touched the silver threads of moonlight that bound them with their entwined hands and was catapulted forward.
***
They stood in a park watching a pair on a hill, one was obviously her and the other him. She looked towards the him that accompanied her but he was riveted so she returned her attention to the scene unfolding before them.
"For god's sake FallenStar, what do you want with me if not to hire me?" she was incensed but none of it showed in her bored languorous tone but her eyes were flashing a pure crystalline blue. The man raked a hand back through silver blonde hair he looked frustrated, no hidden emotions there "I have no bloody idea why I wanted to see you Lynx, okay?" She raised an eyebrow, well she had a name for him now, she knew she was Lynx from earlier memories; He must be FallenStar, but above her the conversation continued
"Why not? We've met what? Twice? You must have some idea?" she watched them and had the uncanny idea that something deep flashed in his eyes, "Yeah I have a small idea" then he grabbed her and kissed her. A knife had flashed momentarily but it tumbled now unheeded to the grass as she lay almost limp in his arms, a second later she managed to break backwards and her fingers limed by moonlight were trembling "You have to be out of your mind!" the man grinned and looked as if a thousand cares had lifted from his shoulders "No"
The silence was deafening before she spoke again "By all the thousand lesser hells, I'm cursed" then she paused again "Soulmates. With you!"
Soulmates, even as the familiar greyness that heralded the end of a recollection enveloped her that word sang out. It was important she knew, and spoke of trust and love, something that almost none of the other memories she had touched showed.
She looked at him again as they stood in the deep blue something that was the landscape, then she spoke "FallenStar?" he turned to her eyes open and a deep shade of green than shone even here "Bran" she nodded "Bran, I don't like it here" he nodded she could feel a chill wind catching at the leather jacket she wore which provided no shelter. He caught at her hand "Let me take you back"
Take her back, she hadn't thought of that, to go back to all that she had known, all that these memories had shown her. She didn't know if she could, it had driven her near to the edge of sanity before, could she bear to do it all again? The other question was could she bear to stay, never to know the rush of fresh blood into her veins, to see her brother again, to force grief where she had never expected mourning at her passage?
She had an idea that her own pain would be easier to bear than the thought of all these pains given to others on her behalf, she looked up her eyes a clouded bronze "Yes"
It was one word but it wreaked the same havoc as the most powerful of midnight spells. The world around them shattered, and all she saw as she fell was a sliver light like a lifeline before her eyes.