Disclaimer:  If it were mine, would you love me?  

Author's Note:  Hullooo!  Great, big, immense, huuuuuge thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed so far!!  ^___^.  Anyway, as I'd like to take the 'Risen' approach to this fic and focus solely on it until it's finished (hopefully), I'm going to do as in Risen, and split some chapters so as to get them out more quickly. *nod*  Sooooo, here's the first part of Chapter One.  I'll be working on the second part whenever I get a spare moment, but it might be awhile as I have work.  So.  Anyway.  On with the fic! 

~*~

Chapter One:  Descent [1]

Accompaniment:  Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, by Ludwig van Beethoven

As gently as a feather, Seiryuu floated.  The sky was a mist of white and powdery blue around him, and despite the fact that he was suspended higher than the highest mountains, he felt nothing of dizziness or vertigo or even the smallest ounce of fear.  This could have been, he reasoned, because he was so unaccustomed to dealing with the idea that he could die, or it could have been because he had done this many times before in the past--floated, high above the world, and gazed down on his children as they worked and lived and died.

He felt a flicker of gratitude within him, that the Creator had allowed him to enjoy this calming pasttime once more before damning him to the world below; already, he realized, he was drifting downwards, being lowered gently towards the ground, where his mortal life would begin and end.  Strangely, though, he did not fear the coming end, any more than he feared the thought that the invisible grip on his body might unexpectedly slip, send him tumbling down through the air--he felt nothing, he found, but peace and a vague kind of comfort, as if, somehow, this had been what he'd spent all of his endless centuries waiting for.

Seiryuu...

It was Her.  The voice seemed to come from within himself, within the mind of this new mortal body, but he could feel Her presence around him, filling him and fulfilling him--reminding him that he was not alone, even when the voices of his brothers were forever lost to him.  He gave himself a moment to savor the familiarity of Her presence, and for a moment, things were as they always had been. 

Suddenly overwhelmed with a sadness he didn't entirely understand, Seiryuu gazed down on the world below him, the world he was moving ever closer to, and spent a long moment just looking at it.

Although he had spent all of his life in the realm of the gods, he had always been intrigued by the world of the mortals.  There was such beauty in it:  the rise of the mountains--distant peaks of azure and violet, bathed in green-leafed seas that seemed to sway in time with the pulse of the earth around them; the smooth, glassy stretches of the lakes, gleaming silvery-blue in even the brightest sunlight; the many fields, whether they be rows of yellow-brown corn stalks or a colorful flood of wildflowers.  But, even with all the beauty of the natural world, what had always intrigued him the most were those pieces of beauty that belonged entirely to the mortals.  It had shocked him, the first time, to realize that these humans, these children whom they had created from the very dust of the earth, were capable of creating beauty to rival even the most brilliant sunsets, the most stunning array of painted clouds.

They had created buildings, formed from the stone and wood of the world around them, some that stretched up towards the sky and others that were content to lie closer to the ground, squat but still beautiful.  They had altered the land, also, making way for their neatly-ordered cities and smaller, scattered towns; they had removed trees, planted trees, dammed great bodies of water, constructed massive bridges that conquered the barriers of rivers and lakes.  And, they had planted gardens. 

He was drawing closer to the land, now, and thus was aware of the fact that he was not moving in a direct line of descent, but rather was floating forwards, moving towards one of those gardens--moving towards the sloped red roof of the Imperial Palace of Konan.  He remembered, once, that he'd slipped closer to the palace in order to see the garden, for it truly was a work of beauty--trees and flowers imported from all over the four countries, some tall, some squat, some slender, but all full of a vibrant, colorful beauty that remained, even during the cooler winter months.  Of course, Konan was the warmest of the countries, and the palace rested far enough south that the path-lined rows of flowers, shrubs, and trees rarely if ever saw a frost, let alone a flake of snow. 

Is this where I'm going? he asked silently, confused.  To the gardens?

There was a moment's pause; he still lay high enough above the world that none of the bustling villagers below, dressed in their drab earth tone colors, were likely to see him, but he was drifting lower and lower as he moved towards the gardens. 

Her reply was like a whisper in his mind, barely heard--now that he thought of it, it did seem as if Her presence were thinning around him, as if She were pulling back, pulling away.  Was She...leaving him?

I cannot help you much, Seiryuu, She replied.  Speaking to you now requires all of my attention, and it is only possible because you have not yet been placed on the ground of the mortal world.  As you grow nearer to it, though, you drift farther away from me, and once you touch it, you will have broken away enough that I will no longer be able to speak to you.  From that moment on, the only way you may seek my advice is by speaking to my human form.  As for the gardens--yes.  That is where you are being placed, to begin this great journey.  Although I cannot tell you much, I can tell you that you will find at least one of the Suzaku shichiseishi there, and that he will help you to find the rest. 

A flicker of panic slid into him--it was not a feeling he was accustomed to.

I won't be able to speak to You anymore?

He had passed over the great wall that surrounded the Imperial Palace, was floating towards the colorful expanse of the gardens.  As he moved, her voice seemed to fade even more, to grow to nothing more than a delicate feather-touch against his mind.  

You will be able to speak to me whenever you need to, my Child.  I just will not be able to answer.

And then, as if a great door had slammed closed in his mind, she was gone, and he was alone.

~*~

He knew nothing of the rest of his descent, but that when he came back to himself, he was lying on his back amidst a thicket of lilies, and there were tears in his eyes.  The sky was vast and blue above him, visible through the breaks in the trees, and the smell of earth and pollen was all around him, pungent and thick.  Birdsong trickled into his ears at sporadic intervals, sometimes long and melodic, other times short and gurgling; and, for the first time in his life, there was the murmur of human voices.  They were hushed, blending together at times and fading away at others, but they were always there, and he would've been very content to lie there and listen to them until the sun had flattened itself onto the horizon. 

Unfortunately, the heavy shape that thudded onto his chest a moment later had other ideas.

There was a very high-pitched shriek--"YiiiiiAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"--and then, Seiryuu felt a sudden pressure against his chest, and discovered with some alarm that he could not draw breath.

No!  He struggled, wheezing, eyes squeezed tight with the efforts to regain control of his respiration, but found that no amount of willing himself to breathe would allow him to.  No, I cannot die now--not now, when I have just arrived!  Taiitsukun!  You cannot allow it!

The physical pressure against his chest lifted, then, and a whisper of warm air tickled against his cheek even as a soft, apologetic voice reached his ears.  "Ahah, gomen ne.  I was looking at something else, and I guess I must've--"  The voice paused; utterly consumed in trying to force the breath back into his lungs, Seiryuu barely noticed the slim fingers that clutched his shoulders, drawing him up from the ground.  "Ne, are you all right?"

He was just starting to feel light-headed, as if he were floating up towards the sky again, when something slapped a quick rhythm against his back, and he began to cough.  With the coughs came breath, and with the breath, a gradual end to the panic. 

It wasn't until he was breathing normally again, the trembles beginning to slow from his limbs, that Seiryuu opened his eyes, and realized with some embarrassment that there was more than one set of eyes on him.  Those that he focused on, however, were those directly above him. 

They were large and rimmed in black, the lashes thick and full, all a stark contrast to the muddled violet, pink, and brown that swam in the eyes themselves.  Above the eyes rested slim, arched brows, and below them a pert nose, lips painted a soft pink, and a smooth, slightly-rounded chin. 

As his eyes flickered from one place to the other, he realized that the owner of those features was sitting just beside him in the patch of flowers, legs folded beneath a flood of royal-blue skirts, and that one of her arms had been wrapped behind his shoulders to hold him in a sitting position above the ground.  A flood of unadorned violet hair washed over the young woman's shoulders, some of it tickling against the former god's arm in the breeze; she reached up to sweep it away from her face as she spoke, the grace of the motion seeming to suggest that she was well aware of its beauty. 

"Ne," she said softly, "daijobu ka?"

He coughed again, more to break free of the spell of her presence than anything else, and managed to move his head in an awkward nod.  "H...Hai."

His voice sounded weak, even to his own ears, not at all the booming tenor he had possessed when he was a god.  It still sounded like the voice he associated with himself, but it was...lacking something.  Or, perhaps he just needed to adjust to forming words with breath, rather than thought.

Seiryuu cleared his throat, glancing briefly at the cluster of well-clothed women peering at him from the edge of the lily patch, and tried again.  "Thank you," he said firmly, drawing an extra long breath to give it more strength, "for saving me.  However you did it, I am in your debt..."  He paused, waiting expectantly.

The woman lifted an eyebrow.  "My name is Kourin."  The cultured brow lifted a bit higher.  "But, I didn't save you.  You just had the wind knocked out of you--nothing life-threatening."  Her eyes narrowed.  "Are you sure you're all right?  I could have one of my maids summon the palace doctor, or--"

Seiryuu reached out, gripped the young woman's arm.  "Are you telling me," he asked urgently, "that what I just experienced could not have killed me?  That...that it was a--"  He swallowed.  "--normal part of being human?"

Kourin frowned, glancing briefly at the hand gripping her arm before turning, nodding to her maids.  "One of you," she commanded, "go and find the doctor and bring him here.  Hayaku."

There was a fluttered murmur of assent from the girls; a moment later, one of them had broken away from the group and was hurrying off down the path, only a rustle of cloth and the thud of feet on dirt to mark her passing.  He returned his attention to Kourin to find her frowning down at him, having lowered him back onto the ground.  Her lips were pursed, eyebrows pushed together on her forehead, and there was something about the way she was looking at him...

"Ne," she said at last, sounding suddenly cautious, "who are you, anyway?"

~*~

[Part two of chapter one, hopefully Coming Soon!  Until then, feel free to let me know what you think!  Arrigatooooooo!  ~Ryuen]