A/N: Saaa...okie...this is my first foray out into the world of fanfiction
in close to four years...blame the wonders of roleplaying...^_^ Alas...Luc
and his story however has caught my atttention and rattled my muses awake
once more. This is just a prologue mind you, a teaser if you will, to test
the waters and see if I should bother slaving over this ficcie if it
utterly bites. ^_^ So thus I put forth this question, should I continue to
set it on the shelf along with many other things in my meandering life?
~*~*~*~*~*~
Cometh before Fall: The beginning of the End
Cold.....he was cold...frozen and icy as he tried to keep his eyes open, tried to continue staring up into silver lashed luminous seas of crystalline blue. How she had found him, he had no idea, but somehow this brave soul trapped within such a fragile form had found her way through the crumbling ruins to reach his side once more. He was dying, he knew that...or at least as close to dying as one such as he could come. He had to tell her to go...had to free her so that she wouldn't suffer his fate as well...she was an innocent...not a corrupted and twisted person like himself.
"These ruins will collapse...Sarah, you must escape. You are free to go" It took all of his willpower to get those words to pass his lips as his breath grew more ragged and pained in his chest. It was hard to attempt to order her from his side one last time, especially when she held him of so gently in her arms, the soft scents of her, a heady mixture that was purely Sarah, making it impossible to think clearly.
She shook her head slowly, those pale silvered-blond strands dancing about her jawline as she looked away, a far off look shimmering in expressive depths. "No, I'll stay. I chose to follow you and let a million people die. I must be punished for this." She finally whispered after a long moment, a small eternity of silence that left him breathless and on the brink of darkness. It began to ebb about his senses, closing in to grey his vision and slowly wrap himself in it's darkness.
"Sarah......" The world faded away for him then, blackness enwrapping him in it's velvety wings draw him back into ebon pools that he found oh so hard to try and swim free of. It would be so easy to simply let go right now and just drift back into eternity, forget all of the pains and sorrows he'd known and simply refuse to face the harshness of reality forever. But he couldn't ignore the silvery pull he felt just beyond the darkness of his closed eyes. It began with the soft waft of scent...Her scent....and then the pillowing warm of something resting beneath his head as soft arms wrapped about him. And then....a softly whispered sentence that snapped him fully back into awareness.
"I was living in that palace all alone. No one cared for me, even though they were after my power." Her words were quiet, musing as her tone took on a pained note, her words raw with remembered pain as sharp as crystalline shards. "Only you..." She whispered softly, feathered lashes veiling those soft grey-blue depths for a moment as they fanned across those pale cheeks to hide the traitorous shimmer of tears that burned in her eyes.
"I might have been after your power, too..."His quiet words were almost drowned out by the soft, distant rumble of the ruins collapsing about them...it was a wonder neither of them felt the urge to attempt to flee from this slowly crumbling death, perhaps they were both tired of fighting the inevitable. One gloved hand dared to rise to trace a path he'd considered a thousand times across her cheek as he stared up at her. Those pale emeralds, despite his words were all too serious and oddly open as his fingers froze just mere fractions of an inch from her cheek as if he dare not truly touch her.
"It doesn't matter. I chose you because you brought me joy. I must accept my punishment..." He felt the soft warmth of her hand as she covered his with her own, guiding a softly trembling hand to her cheek to finish the act he had started. He could read her emotions all too clearly now, the unfailing love she'd harbored for him and the silent suffering it had brought with it. Worry and a sad, tired sorrow mixed with those soft love in Sarah's eyes as she stared down at him, her warm cheek pressing comfortingly into his gloved hand.
Oh how he wished he still had the strength to pull that damned sheath off if only for one chance to caress; to explore the soft contours of that delicate visage even as her words filled his tired, dying heart with a soft glow of happiness...and of a regretful sorrow for a chance they would never have. A chance wasted in pride and sheer stubborn stupidity and a refusal to acknowledge anyone but himself in his miserable little world. And now.....it was too late.... "But..Still, you should..." P She nuzzled her cheek into his hand, her skin sliding along the leather in a soft motion, rousting him from his silent reverie to look up at her with hazed, glassy emeralds. His voice rose once more in a pained whisper, her name slipping past his lips to hover in the air between them in a silent plea to flee...to live. "Sarah....."
His world centered in on those tear-filled pale blue eyes, his entire focus turning toward the reflection of himself in crystalline seas and he was surprised to find an answering shimmer shining in oddly alien pale emeralds. He had never truly given his appearance much though but to his shock, he saw a vulnerable boy staring back at him. Then it was over, those pale lashes falling once more to mask those mirror like eyes and his head fell back into the soft warmth of her lap as yet more of the light drained from glass-green eyes.
"I sincerely thank you, Sarah...My soul will be healed. I'm convinced now that I too have a soul of my own..." He murmured, the words not really registering much anymore in his mind as he simply rambled on, half-lost in the world of light and of shadow. crystalline eyes snapped open at his words and those hazed emeralds slowly found their way back to hers to stare at that tearful visage. With one last shuddering sigh, his physical form, the shell used to simply house a True Rune, breathed it's last breath before going still. The ruins continued to crumble about them, the cracking of the stones bringing about the inevitable end to the tragic pair.
*~*~*~*~*~*
She knew when he returned of course, he'd always seemed able to fill the dark emptiness of her tower with his very presence and lifeforce; even in death it was no different. The dark maiden stood poised as still and silent as a statue, her long mane of rich midnight dark hair cascading down toward the cold floor underfoot. She of course could not see the brilliant wash of light as the glowing spirit floated into her tower though she knew it was Luc all the same.
Sorrow tinged with a saddened resignation flowed through her as that beautiful visage rose, unseeing eyes forever masked by dark crescents. "So, you've returned...." She murmured quietly, that low voice was deep and fathomless as the depths of space. It never betrayed what she truly felt or thought, though perhaps a soft sheen of the pain she felt at her apprentice's tragic end glowed through the deliberately distant mask that reigned over her features. He was unable to question her though she heard his silent cries as surely as she heard her own breath all the same. "That is fine. I will answer you if I see anything with these sightless eyes. The wheel of destiny is heavy for a man to turn, but it's not impossible. I'm the executor of the Balance...I have no tears to shed..."
How she wished she could, but the years had sapped away at her humanity, the horrors of the world blinding her to the pain of reality more thoroughly then even the loss of her sight. The lightly bobbing sphere wavered in front of her, it's agitation obvious as the faint green veined through the brilliant white light pulsed softly, but alas for Luc, she was not finished quite yet. " Luc, you challenged God like a fool. You disregarded a million lives with a cursed soul, but I forgive you and bless you. You're human, too. I bless your soul." She paused then, the soft shift of sorrow flashing across her face to shatter the perfect, glacial mask for an instant before her features tightened, that low voice becoming slightly choked with emotion.
"My apprentice, my son, child of a cursed rune, you're a human child. One that can sleep now. Even though Destiny can be brutal, it will allow you to rest, one hundred and eight stars will bless you. Man is powerful enough to change destiny." Her face turned slightly, unseeing eyes turning toward the second light that appeared to float beside the other one, her other child. There was no mistaking the way the twin lights moved together to draw closer both to her and to each other. "No matter how futile our struggles seem, they all make a difference!"
The lights finally drew almost within touching distance to the blind seer and through she was unable to see the sudden sharpening of the light in the room, she could see in her mind's eye the outline of her two charges. Bathed in soft white light and standing shoulder to shoulder, the pair stood, fingers twined together for just the briefest flashes of a second before it was gone and she was once more cast into darkness. As the two lights floated out the window, a soft comet's trail of glittering lights floated behind them, twining together as they made a slow circle about the tower before drifting off to the stars above.
The blind seer made no move to stop them or the call out to the departing souls for she knew the wheel would turn once more and that perhaps fate wasn't done quiet yet. Sarah and Luc had been the brief, brilliant lights that had lit her life and tower all too briefly, gifts such as their's could not be bound by mere death of a physical body after all. No...time would tell....they would all have to see.....
~*~*~*~*~*~
Cometh before Fall: The beginning of the End
Cold.....he was cold...frozen and icy as he tried to keep his eyes open, tried to continue staring up into silver lashed luminous seas of crystalline blue. How she had found him, he had no idea, but somehow this brave soul trapped within such a fragile form had found her way through the crumbling ruins to reach his side once more. He was dying, he knew that...or at least as close to dying as one such as he could come. He had to tell her to go...had to free her so that she wouldn't suffer his fate as well...she was an innocent...not a corrupted and twisted person like himself.
"These ruins will collapse...Sarah, you must escape. You are free to go" It took all of his willpower to get those words to pass his lips as his breath grew more ragged and pained in his chest. It was hard to attempt to order her from his side one last time, especially when she held him of so gently in her arms, the soft scents of her, a heady mixture that was purely Sarah, making it impossible to think clearly.
She shook her head slowly, those pale silvered-blond strands dancing about her jawline as she looked away, a far off look shimmering in expressive depths. "No, I'll stay. I chose to follow you and let a million people die. I must be punished for this." She finally whispered after a long moment, a small eternity of silence that left him breathless and on the brink of darkness. It began to ebb about his senses, closing in to grey his vision and slowly wrap himself in it's darkness.
"Sarah......" The world faded away for him then, blackness enwrapping him in it's velvety wings draw him back into ebon pools that he found oh so hard to try and swim free of. It would be so easy to simply let go right now and just drift back into eternity, forget all of the pains and sorrows he'd known and simply refuse to face the harshness of reality forever. But he couldn't ignore the silvery pull he felt just beyond the darkness of his closed eyes. It began with the soft waft of scent...Her scent....and then the pillowing warm of something resting beneath his head as soft arms wrapped about him. And then....a softly whispered sentence that snapped him fully back into awareness.
"I was living in that palace all alone. No one cared for me, even though they were after my power." Her words were quiet, musing as her tone took on a pained note, her words raw with remembered pain as sharp as crystalline shards. "Only you..." She whispered softly, feathered lashes veiling those soft grey-blue depths for a moment as they fanned across those pale cheeks to hide the traitorous shimmer of tears that burned in her eyes.
"I might have been after your power, too..."His quiet words were almost drowned out by the soft, distant rumble of the ruins collapsing about them...it was a wonder neither of them felt the urge to attempt to flee from this slowly crumbling death, perhaps they were both tired of fighting the inevitable. One gloved hand dared to rise to trace a path he'd considered a thousand times across her cheek as he stared up at her. Those pale emeralds, despite his words were all too serious and oddly open as his fingers froze just mere fractions of an inch from her cheek as if he dare not truly touch her.
"It doesn't matter. I chose you because you brought me joy. I must accept my punishment..." He felt the soft warmth of her hand as she covered his with her own, guiding a softly trembling hand to her cheek to finish the act he had started. He could read her emotions all too clearly now, the unfailing love she'd harbored for him and the silent suffering it had brought with it. Worry and a sad, tired sorrow mixed with those soft love in Sarah's eyes as she stared down at him, her warm cheek pressing comfortingly into his gloved hand.
Oh how he wished he still had the strength to pull that damned sheath off if only for one chance to caress; to explore the soft contours of that delicate visage even as her words filled his tired, dying heart with a soft glow of happiness...and of a regretful sorrow for a chance they would never have. A chance wasted in pride and sheer stubborn stupidity and a refusal to acknowledge anyone but himself in his miserable little world. And now.....it was too late.... "But..Still, you should..." P She nuzzled her cheek into his hand, her skin sliding along the leather in a soft motion, rousting him from his silent reverie to look up at her with hazed, glassy emeralds. His voice rose once more in a pained whisper, her name slipping past his lips to hover in the air between them in a silent plea to flee...to live. "Sarah....."
His world centered in on those tear-filled pale blue eyes, his entire focus turning toward the reflection of himself in crystalline seas and he was surprised to find an answering shimmer shining in oddly alien pale emeralds. He had never truly given his appearance much though but to his shock, he saw a vulnerable boy staring back at him. Then it was over, those pale lashes falling once more to mask those mirror like eyes and his head fell back into the soft warmth of her lap as yet more of the light drained from glass-green eyes.
"I sincerely thank you, Sarah...My soul will be healed. I'm convinced now that I too have a soul of my own..." He murmured, the words not really registering much anymore in his mind as he simply rambled on, half-lost in the world of light and of shadow. crystalline eyes snapped open at his words and those hazed emeralds slowly found their way back to hers to stare at that tearful visage. With one last shuddering sigh, his physical form, the shell used to simply house a True Rune, breathed it's last breath before going still. The ruins continued to crumble about them, the cracking of the stones bringing about the inevitable end to the tragic pair.
*~*~*~*~*~*
She knew when he returned of course, he'd always seemed able to fill the dark emptiness of her tower with his very presence and lifeforce; even in death it was no different. The dark maiden stood poised as still and silent as a statue, her long mane of rich midnight dark hair cascading down toward the cold floor underfoot. She of course could not see the brilliant wash of light as the glowing spirit floated into her tower though she knew it was Luc all the same.
Sorrow tinged with a saddened resignation flowed through her as that beautiful visage rose, unseeing eyes forever masked by dark crescents. "So, you've returned...." She murmured quietly, that low voice was deep and fathomless as the depths of space. It never betrayed what she truly felt or thought, though perhaps a soft sheen of the pain she felt at her apprentice's tragic end glowed through the deliberately distant mask that reigned over her features. He was unable to question her though she heard his silent cries as surely as she heard her own breath all the same. "That is fine. I will answer you if I see anything with these sightless eyes. The wheel of destiny is heavy for a man to turn, but it's not impossible. I'm the executor of the Balance...I have no tears to shed..."
How she wished she could, but the years had sapped away at her humanity, the horrors of the world blinding her to the pain of reality more thoroughly then even the loss of her sight. The lightly bobbing sphere wavered in front of her, it's agitation obvious as the faint green veined through the brilliant white light pulsed softly, but alas for Luc, she was not finished quite yet. " Luc, you challenged God like a fool. You disregarded a million lives with a cursed soul, but I forgive you and bless you. You're human, too. I bless your soul." She paused then, the soft shift of sorrow flashing across her face to shatter the perfect, glacial mask for an instant before her features tightened, that low voice becoming slightly choked with emotion.
"My apprentice, my son, child of a cursed rune, you're a human child. One that can sleep now. Even though Destiny can be brutal, it will allow you to rest, one hundred and eight stars will bless you. Man is powerful enough to change destiny." Her face turned slightly, unseeing eyes turning toward the second light that appeared to float beside the other one, her other child. There was no mistaking the way the twin lights moved together to draw closer both to her and to each other. "No matter how futile our struggles seem, they all make a difference!"
The lights finally drew almost within touching distance to the blind seer and through she was unable to see the sudden sharpening of the light in the room, she could see in her mind's eye the outline of her two charges. Bathed in soft white light and standing shoulder to shoulder, the pair stood, fingers twined together for just the briefest flashes of a second before it was gone and she was once more cast into darkness. As the two lights floated out the window, a soft comet's trail of glittering lights floated behind them, twining together as they made a slow circle about the tower before drifting off to the stars above.
The blind seer made no move to stop them or the call out to the departing souls for she knew the wheel would turn once more and that perhaps fate wasn't done quiet yet. Sarah and Luc had been the brief, brilliant lights that had lit her life and tower all too briefly, gifts such as their's could not be bound by mere death of a physical body after all. No...time would tell....they would all have to see.....
