A/N- this chapter covers a lot of ground, and has rather sketchy details. Certain incidents stick out because those would have been far more memorable to Lyris/Levi than the rest. And also, beware- this chapter gets rather angtsy. It also raises several questions which will be answered in later chapters. Promise. That said, read on, oh noble... erm, reader. :D





Lyris's Story

Part Two

They never found the Fae that afternoon- in fact, no one did. It was as if they'd melted into the very reef the island was built upon.

Eventually the little people began showing themselves, their leaders discussing ways to fix the hole with the leaders of the Ageless (as Lyris and Piotr's people called themselves) and the mer-folk, and the red-skins. It was becoming more urgent- stray souls were filtering into Never-Land. No one really knew what they were, but they were causing havoc and something had to be done to seal up the magic again.

Lyris stared up at the trees, feeling both awed and sad and confused, all the same time. She had never seen anything like this, and while it was beautiful, it was a mark of Time, slipping in.

The leaves were turning, falling to the earth. The entire island had turned gold and crimson as the first autumn in living memory came upon it.

Lyris closed her eyes, feeling the cold wind and falling leaves on her face. It had a bittersweet twinge to it, and something deep within told her that things were changing- her life her wouldn't last.

"Lyris?"

Lyris started and turned. Phineas was standing behind her, face carefully blank. Lyris almost smiled to herself- he looked more like the crazy youth she remembered from her childhood. But years had changed him, even if only on the outside, and Lyris could no longer see her brother in the man that was her leader.

"What?"

"You ceremony starts soon."

Lyris looked up at the sky. The clouds were turning pink- it would be dark within the hour. She gave Phineas a nod. "All right." The pair tromped off through the undergrowth, back towards the village.

The Elder Council was trying desperately to make it seem as if nothing was amiss- but really, how can you hide a rain of light and all the trees on the island spontaneously bursting into a riot of color? It's an utterly ridiculous idea. But things were Business As Usual- including Lyris's ceremony. It didn't have a name, it was just basically being formally welcomed as a potential Elder-in-training and acknowledging that she was old enough to choose a mate. She didn't know if she really would, but it was Open Season on her after tonight.

They had already started building up the fire in the Center. By dark it would be a roaring bonfire, reaching up as if it longed to join the stars. Everyone would sit in a big semicircle around it, and then she and Phineas and her mother, Amity, would stand before it. The ceremony was always different, and Lyris half-hoped hers wouldn't be a flop.

"Lyris! There you are, child- well, not really," Amity cried, approaching her daughter with brush in hand. Amity looked to be only twenty-six, and Lyris was in all respects a fifteen-year-old girl. The slowed aging didn't take affect until the fifteenth year, after that they might live to be three hundred years old and never age beyond thirty.

"Nervous, love?" asked Amity, herding her only daughter to a log and sitting her down on it, then running the brush through Lyris's waist-length dark brown hair. It was tangled and frizzy from a day of running about looking for glow-balls.

"I suppose," Lyris mumbled, enduring her mother's impromptu grooming session. "I can manage on my own, you know. I've lived in my own hut since I was eleven."

"I know, but humor me." Amity set down the brush and moved so she could see Lyris's face. "Will you be choosing tonight?" she asked, her jewel-blue eyes-exactly like Lyris's-glittering mischievously.

"Mother! I don't know," Lyris cried, rather scandalized. "I'll know when I get there, all right?"

"I remember my ceremony- I chose your father that night." The impish glint faded, replaced by vague sadness. Ossian had Faded nearly two years before, and Lyris had been rather estranged from her family ever since.

"Where do we go after we Fade?" asked Lyris suddenly. She had never heard anyone explain it, and suddenly wanted to know.

Amity looked confused by the question. "What ever do you mean, Lyris? I thought you knew- we go Beyond. We get too mentally translucent after a while, and the body follows suit."

Lyris shuddered, thinking about the Fade- thinking about what Phineas had said to the other Elders a few night before, that they would Fade faster.

The Fading started slowly- they were distracted easily, started forgetting things. They went pale, slowly, oh so slowly. People got thinner, became translucent. Literally. She remembered seeing through her father's hand and being scared. Any stray wind carried them away, unlike the rest, who almost commanded the breeze.

And then one day, they simply wouldn't be there anymore. They just... melted away.

"Never mind the future, you've a present to worry about," said Amity gently, breaking Lyris from her sudden reverie. "Go wash and be back quick- we'll be starting soon."



* * *





The flames roared, rushing upward, sending sparks upward like dying fireflies. The faces of all those gathered around it were half in shadow, half in brilliant orange light, the contrasts sharp and jarring.

Lyris searched the assembled, mentally ticking off names. The Elders, all in the back. The littlest children and their mothers nearest, but far enough away so as not to risk burning any curious fingers. Everyone else sandwiched in between. All eyes on her.

Everyone was so serious and somber- wait. Not everyone. Lyris almost started giggling from mixed mirth and tension- Piotr was off to one side, making goofy faces, hazel eyes dancing in the firelight.

Once he'd caught her attention, Piotr let off and gave her a broad grin. Don't worry about it, was all over his face. She gave him a grateful look.

"Ready?" asked Phineas, resting one large hand on her shoulder. Lyris looked up at him and gave a slight, tremulous nod. He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze, then stepped before the flames. Instantly silence descended on the assembled, even the smallest child recognizing that something significant was happening.

"Tonight," Phineas started slowly, unconsciously deepening his voice to make it sound more authoritative, "we loose a child. But in doing so, we gain a sister."

Lyris sort of fazed out at that point. She stared at the fire until her eyes burned. Then her mother's hand was on her arm, guiding her into the center of the semicircle to stand beside Phineas.

"Lyris, daughter of Amity, will you leave you childhood behind and join us?"

Lyris nodded numbly. "I will, Elder."

"Will you defend your people, as a blood daughter?"

"I will, Elder."

"Then we, the Elder Council, remove your childhood from you and present you as a woman." Phineas removed the thick leather bracelet from Lyris's left wrist, and for a moment she felt rather vulnerable without it. She'd worn that thing as far back as she could remember. Then Phineas replaced it with another bracelet, this one made of the hard-to-obtain steel, inset with obsidian and opal. It had markings on it that made Lyris think of the mer-folk.

"I thank you, Elder," she murmured, running her fingers over the cool surface.

"You are of age now, Lyris, and as traditional dictates, I ask you now- would you choose a mate tonight?"

She knew she could simply say "no" and Phineas would wrap up the ceremony, then start the feast, and no one would think askance of her. But she suddenly thought- would she ever get a chance to chose, before they had to leave this place? Who knew what traditions the people of the Dark Lands held?

Besides, wasn't this what she wanted?

"Lyris?"

Lyris took a deep, fortifying breath. "Yes, Elder."

It was a rather stupid question to ask who-everyone knew who it would be-but ask Phineas did. "Name him."

"Piotr, son of Leander."

"Come forth."

Piotr, looking to be somewhere between shocked and smug, stood and came towards the fire. He stood before Phineas, and for a moment Lyris swore he looked terrified of her brother. It was all she could do to keep from giggling hysterically.

"Would you, Piotr, be joined with this woman?"

It felt weird to be referred to as a 'woman,' Lyris thought absently. She'd always been a girl. But now, it seems, she was all grown up. She almost felt sad.

Piotr hesitated, and Lyris could almost see him saying "no." But then he nodded. "Yes, Elder."

Lyris didn't know whether to be relieved or nervous.

"Stand before me."

Amity pushed Lyris forward; she almost stumbled, but caught herself just in time. Phineas produced a rough white strip of cloth from somewhere in his tunic.

"Clasp hands."

Rather disbelievingly, Lyris and Piotr obeyed. Their eyes met. Piotr was looking like he wanted to laugh, and Lyris knew that if he did she'd start laughing and there would be no end to it. So she gave him mock-stern look, silently saying, If you laugh, I'll laugh, and the rest of this will be absolutely bungled.

Piotr swallowed his oncoming giggles enough to fake a somber appearance, although his mouth was twitching with barely contained mirth.

Phineas looked just as nervous as the two teens standing before him- he'd only been leader of the Elder Council for a few months, and had never done this before. But he'd been through one on the other end and was able to summon the correct phrases and actions.

He wrapped the pair's clasped hands with the cloth, then presented them with a dramatic gesture (which was all silent add-lib, he loved melodramatics) to the crowd. "Before you tonight, I present this pair, now joined together until they both Fade to the Beyond. May they be quite happy with each other."

Then the serious atmosphere shattered with cheers. Piotr grinned, and Lyris laughed. That wasn't so bad, was it.





* * *





After that, it seemed that Time truly was seeping through the cracks. The trees lost their leaves, and everything went cold. Snow fell. No one died, but they suffered greatly during that winter. The first and last that Never-Land ever lived through.

They started leaving just as spring was returning.

First the families with small children, flying off into the sky with only a few packs of clothing with them. Then, slowly, hesitantly, tearfully, the others began leaving.

Amity, Eros, Miriel- all of them. Soon Phineas was the only Elder left, and without the Council he could call no more. He organized the exodus as best he could, but he had so much else to do.

Lyris was constantly busy- hunting fairies, helping the others pack, foraging, guarding against the wraiths that had infested the cove. Eventually they built crude boats and took to the water, but they haunted the shores still.

The only two things that kept Lyris going were Janus and Piotr. Every day she would pay tribute to the sunrise, then speak with Janus. He put her fears to rest, assured her. Then she went about her day.

And every night, she would go back to the hut and sometimes stay up late just talking with Piotr in their hammock. Sometimes they did... other things, and Lyris blushed whenever she thought about it.

Everyone was changing during those months- aging. Phineas suddenly had lines and gray hairs. Piotr shot upwards almost a foot, and went from the appearance of a sixteen-year-old to twenty in under two months. Lyris didn't get any taller, but she changed too- she refused to look at her reflection in any respect, but she knew it was happening.

It was night. She was in the hammock in their hut, absently sharpening an arrowhead. Piotr was next to her, staring at the ceiling.

"Gareth and Xander are leaving at dawn."

Lyris jumped- it had been silent for almost half an hour. Then she swallowed. "Sure?"

"They have everything packed."

Lyris nodded. "We'll be the last, then, besides Phineas."

Piotr sat up, making the hammock rock. "Phineas says he's going to get his things together and leave by midday. I plan on getting our things ready, so we can go with him."

Something in Lyris froze at his words. As much as she had once said she wanted to leave, to explore, she didn't want to go anymore. She wanted everything fixed. She wanted...

"All right," Lyris whispered. "By midday."

Piotr watched her silently, hazel eyes unreadable. Over the past weeks he'd been losing his good humor, becoming more somber. Something was bothering him, but he wouldn't say anything about it. He reached over and grasped her hand.

"You know what will happen if we stay," he murmured. "We'll have Faded long before those fairy idiots fix this. Even if we do age in the Dark Lands, we'll be alive." He laid down again. Suddenly exhausted-emotionally, as well as physically-Lyris did the same, burrowing her face in his side.

"I'm scared," she murmured, voice muffled slightly. "I said I wanted to go somewhere, but now..."

"I'm scared, too." But he said nothing more.

Lyris almost said something, almost told him, but something kept her from it. If they made it past the Boundary safely tomorrow, she would tell all then. Not before.

She fell asleep that way, curled up in Piotr's warm embrace.





* * *





Xander and Gareth left at dawn, as promised.

As soon as they vanished from sight the three remaining went into action, gathering what they would need and nothing more. They were quickly done.

"There's a stiff wind higher up," said Phineas, slipping his rucksack over his shoulders. Lyris didn't like looking at him too long- he looked to be thirty-five, not the twenty-something youth he'd been only months before. At least, months as her people measured them.

"How long should it take to get there?" asked Lyris, grabbing her own rucksack. Phineas shrugged.

"A few hours, maybe. I'm not sure."

"I'm not going."

Chills ran down Lyris's spine and made every nerve-ending tingle madly. She turned slowly.

Piotr was standing off to one side, arms folded, eyes downcast. He was standing unnaturally straight.

"What do you mean?" Lyris asked rather shrilly. "We have to go, you know that."

Piotr looked up, eyes carefully blank. "There's something wrong here, something I have to figure out. I'll be okay."

"Piotr, this place is falling apart," Lyris said desperately. "You're not as immortal as you seem to think."

Something like regret flashed across Piotr's face. "I can't explain it, Lyris- I'll follow you as soon as I can, I promise. But..."

"I understand, Piotr," said Phineas. "There is something wrong here. But I have a responsibility to my people. And you..."

"You can't just stay," said Lyris. "And you can't just egg him on, Phineas!"

Phineas bit his lip and retreated into the trees. Lyris whirled on Piotr, eyes flashing.

"Are you mad, Piotr?! You're going to die. You're aging too fast, forget Fading- you'll wither away like a dry reed."

Piotr grabbed her by the upper arms, suddenly intense. "I'm not talking about forever here," he said roughly. "I'm not just leaving you, all right? Get a grip."

Lyris blinked, eyes tearing up. "You can't..." she whispered, trying not cry.

"This is something I have to do, Lyris. Maybe I can fix it and we can all come home. I can't..." he shook his head, and Lyris vaguely realized he was just as torn up as she was. "I can't say exactly what it is. It's like something tickling my mind... I have to figure it out."

"Promise you'll come and find me?"

Piotr suddenly pulled her close, wrapping her in his arms so tightly she almost couldn't breathe. But she didn't care.

"I'll follow you to the ends of the earth," he whispered into her hair. "Past the end of forever, if I have to, to find you."

"And if you can't?"

He didn't answer.

Levi pulled back just enough to look up at him. "I'll come back. If you don't find me, I'll come back. Even if those dratted Fae take over."

"Lyris-"

"Just be careful, okay?" Lyris swallowed hard to keep from crying. Her eyes were glassy with unshed tears. "Things are messed up enough already."

Piotr nodded. Lyris knew he was just as screwed up inside as she was- he'd never been good at expressing any emotions beyond amusement, but it was there. But also there was sincerity- and that was enough to give Lyris hope- that he really would be all right, that he'd come for her, that if she went looking he'd be there to be found.

"I'll go up with you," he said softly. "See you off."

Lyris nodded, suddenly too choked up to speak.

"Just... don't turn back."

They found Phineas, then trudged up towards the mountains tramping down the island's spine. They could have taken off anywhere, but the winds higher up were stronger and would get them going faster. Besides, the walk was an excuse to spend that much longer in their home.

They stopped when they reached the tree line. Lyris adjusted her rucksack, saw Phineas doing the same.

"See you soon?" Lyris half said, half asked. Piotr nodded. They stood there for a moment, just staring at each other, as if emblazoning the other's features across their memory.

The pair hugged tightly, as if unwilling to let go, ever.

"I love you, Lyris- don't ever forget that," Piotr whispered in her hair.

Lyris almost cracked, almost told him, just to get him to come. And she knew if she said anything, he'd cave and fly away.

But something stopped her.

And suddenly she knew, as assuredly as if Janus himself had yelled it in her ear, that Piotr was needed here. Something depended on his staying. As if he were an anchor, keeping the island in the sky from floating away.

"I know. Don't forget me," Lyris whispered.

They kissed one last time, and then Lyris stepped away, rubbing her eyes to keep the tears at bay. With one last regretful glance, she rose into the air and flew away. Piotr watched her go, eyes misty.

"I hope you know what you're doing," said Phineas gruffly. "Be glad she loves you so much, or I'd beat you to a bloody pulp right now." Then he followed his sister and vanished into the clouds.





* * *





Lyris didn't know how long it took them to cross the Boundary. She only knew that once they got past the clouds, higher than she'd ever gone, they crashed into... something. It was like flying in a hurricane.

Eventually it stopped and they were drifting over a night landscape, the stars at their backs, the dark earth beneath. There was a large city, lit by torches.

They landed a few miles from the outskirts, in some unsuspecting farmer's field. And then Lyris cried on her brother's shoulder.

"I shouldn't have left him there. I should have told him..."

Phineas didn't say anything, just let her cry. But certain things she said tickled at his thoughts, and left him wondering.

At sunrise they started walking for the city. Lyris didn't play her song, didn't even acknowledge the birds. All she could think about was the strange new world they were venturing into, and the fact that Piotr would in all likelihood never even know about his child, let alone meet them.

Lyris died seven months later, only a week after her child's birth. She never knew what happened to the little girl, the child she named Autumn.

And she never knew why Piotr hadn't come.