An eternity of peace surrounded him as he floated warmly in golden
seas that filled his very soul and being until all that was left was the
glorious light. He was gone, floating up wards into eternity to be lifted
into the heavens on soft wings that would carry him past even eternity and
time to a new world beyond all.
But then....it began....just a soft whisper at first, the faintest caress of coolness...and then slowly...inexorably...he was draw downward. Away from the light and the warmth in such a way that he found himself unable to even put up the weakest of struggles as he was pulled back toward the coldness of the world, his floating soul entrapped once more in the chains of mortality. The thousand sensations and knowledges he'd barely even had a chance to sample seeped away, leaving him feeling inadequate and cut off. But even that faded away as his senses dulled, the limited human perception thankfully unable to comprehend such things and thus letting them go.
When he was ready to awaken once more, he'd been born anew with no memories of the light and of the wonders of the world beyond. Instead his first sight was of cold grey stone high overhead, it's mortar long disused and cracking free in places. There was a weight pressing down on his body, a pitiful warmth given off by a weak fire cracking beside him...not that he knew what a fire was afterall.
Cold was one of the first things he learned, the chill wash of the drafts filling this grey room a constant nagging reminder that kept interrupting his confused thoughts as they bumbled and jumbled about in his mind. The object that he would later come to know as a blanket offered little warmth against the drafts and in his shivering, he found he could even move the long, gangling limbs that extended beyond his body so that he might curl into a fetal little ball under the covers. It gathered a pool of warmth about him and he experienced his first feather-light touches of pleasure at the silken caress of finely made sheets across his skin and the way that the warmth slowly spread through his limbs.
He didn't know how long he curled there, the concept of time unfathomable to him as he lay there studying his surroundings, for like a child he was curious and in awe with every new thing he learnt or felt. But he was drawn from his silent thoughts at the unexpected grating sounds of the door being opened. He was still marveling over how the unnamed object could do such a thing when she stepped in. Wide, surprised emeralds grew wide as he caught his first look at the odd moving object. His feeble, child's mind held no real conscious thought or comprehension as the dark haired woman strode on silent feet across the floor to approach the bed.
".......I am pleased to see that you've finally awakened....." The woman murmured softly, dark lashes fanned across pale cheeks and he jumped like an animal, a shimmer of wild, animalistic fear glittered in his eyes as he curled away from her. A look of pained chagrin flashes across her face as she grew a chair up beside the bed. He lay there warily watching her as he tried to puzzle out just what she was. He'd seen the gangling extensions to his own body and even he hadn't missed the similar share he and she held...but then she was speaking again, shattering what small trains of thoughts he'd been able to piece together.
"I realize you must be confused right now so please pay attention so that I might help you to understand what is happening to you...." Her voice was the same soft murmur though a note of testiness had tread its way through it. But even she, a person that had tried for so long to keep all others at a distant, could not really be cruel to such a wide-eyed, confused looking creature. "My name is Leknaat...." At his blank look of confusion, a soft smile tinged with amusement curved the blind seer's lips. "Worry not young one...here you will be safe...between myself and this....you will understand all in time...." A pale hand had extended to gently grasp his own, surprisingly rough fingertips tracing the outline of a design he hadn't noticed before...what....was that?
Unconsciously, his brows had knit together in a small frown and he peered closer at the marking laid upon his hand. It's gently arching edges curled in a sleek, barbed circle as those tri crescent shaped markings gathered to form what he would later come to know, much to his dismay, as the True Wind Rune. But for now he could not even articulate the questions running through his mind and he was simply reduced to looking up at the woman in confused silence.
"It's a rune.....it allows you to touch upon the very wind and air that surrounds you....but...come now that is all for later, for now you must rest and learn" At the sudden rumble from his tummy, his body at least betraying what *it* knew of hunger, she smiled faintly and nodded. "And eat....yes you must indeed eat..." It was perhaps a small blessing that she was unable to see the confused youths next actions as he lifted the blankets and sheets to peer in wide-eyed surprise at his own body. Though he didn't not know it, hunger had been gnawing at him for hours now and with a slightly consternated look, he poked at the pale flesh where the rumble had been birthed in a clear motion to say "be quite!"
He did not recognize the silvery peals of sound that came form Leknaat as laughter when she stood in a soft swirl of hair and pristine robes, all he knew was that it was a pleasant sound that drew his attention back to her. "Oh most certainly food....I shall be but a few minutes....." She took the time to build up the fire once more, strong, capable hands finding the flaggering flames and feeding a steady stream of sweet hardwood until the all but lifeless flames were crackling and popping merrily. Almost immediately, some of the chill in the room was sapped away and he was engulfed in the sweet sensations of warmth once more. She said nothing more as she left the room, that long mane of glorious midnight hair falling almost to the floor in a sleek fall of thick silk as it whispered and shifted across her slender back to pool with the hem of her robes behind her.
The door was left askew and to the confused youth she seemed to reappear almost instantly, carrying a tray heavily laden with foods that smelt wonderful even to his untrained nose though in later times he'd come to realize just how plain a fare his meal had been. But the hot, fresh bread, sweet with honey and the flavorful cheese and chilled fruits was most tempting indeed, enough so to waken his tummy once more to growl and grumble threateningly. And thus was he faced with a problem...he had no idea what to do with these sweet smelling things she'd brought with her upon her arrival and he stared at the trey in confusion.
It's food...you eat it...." She could not help the bubble of amusement that flowed through her as she reached to break the bread, tearing the soft substance into edible piecea. She'd had the foresight to slice the cheese before hand and soon enough a healthy sized chunk had been nestled within the dark bread. She demonstrated how to eat it by chewing it carefully before trying to swallow. His attempts were amusing and comical, yet oddly endearing as she looked on with growing warmth at his stumbling attempts at dinner. He would learn in time, swiftly no doubt knowing him and she would be here to help him. How long had it been since she'd seen such an open, delighted look on his face? Too long indeed....for long infact that she couldn't remember him ever looking so blissfully open and happy. Thus was this decision that had half been forced upon her both a blessing and a curse...for she wanted her old apprentice back...wanted the chance to make up for mistakes of the past...but on the other hand....she was affraid that he would simply relive his life as before and follow the same path that would lead to his destruction..
"Tomorrow we'll begin your lessons and get you outfitted for clothes. I fear I threw out all of your old wardrobe long ago..." She trailed off, a pained expression crossing her face as a soft sigh rose to play across her lips. She didn't have to see to know he'd stopped eating, a questioning look of confusion on his face and she simply shook that long cascading head of dark hair. "Nevermind....we'll cover all this later....for now we'll start with the basics and work out way up, hmmn....?
*~*~*~*~*~*
And thus did his learning begin anew, it was months before he intellectually what he was before. Leknaat had been right in her assumption that he would learn quickly, for he soaked up knowledge like a sponge soaked up water. When he'd first relearned to talk, the word "why" had been his first question....that should have clued her then and there but after a month of his constant stream of questions, she'd stepped up his education on reading and writing and had simply let him free in her library.
Now why would a blind person keep a library some might ask? Only those few ignorants who did not realize that she had not always been blind would of course ask such a question, and none daring to do so to her face. Not that the knowledges contained in those tomes were never truly lost from her, especially in the good days when her Luc had been at her side. It had been his eyes she'd used, the words conveyed on that smooth tenor to break many a dark night by their fireside and now that she had him back again, they spent many a pleasent evening discussing both the politics and various histories of the lands as well as more light and pleasent coversations that helped both to while the often lonely and desolate nights away.
She'd struggled long and hard over what to call him at first, for the name "boy" did not suit him nor his station in life. Finally, simply accepting that one could not hide from the past by ignoring it, she'd settled on his old name...Luc...it was a good name despite the horrible direction he had taken in his previous life. That was the past and for whatever reasons, she'd felt the pull from beyond and had known that his time on this plane was no over quite yet...neither of them were.
And so he spent his first few years in complete, ignorant bliss of what atrocities he'd wrought upon the world and it was not until the stirrings of his run started that he began to remember. At first he had begun with dreams, terrible vibrant nightmares that left him chilled and sweating in his bed; a scream frozen in his throat. The visions confused him, scared him and left him with an odd feeling of dread and anguished sorrow. Images and faces stayed with him throughout the daylight hours even, haunting his ever waking moment. Who was the girl...the pale, delicate figure that seemed to have been wrought from snow and a wintry sky? Whenever her thought of her, a empty feeling filled him, a sense of incompletion.
And who was the young man who bore features so similar that they could have been related? And why did thinking of him fill him with a confusing mixture of resentment and kindred affinity? There were more images that haunted his mind, the dreadful figure of a ethereally formed man that was as cold and insane as winter's snow in his stark black clothing. He spun nightmares in those bicolor eyes just by peeking out from beneath the low brim of his hat and Luc knew that death sang truly and bloodied along the keen lines of those quicksilver swords.
The sardonic eyes of the redhaired man that floated through his dreams was what finally drove him to seek out Leknaat's council on these touchy manners. That holier-then-thou smile and look of all knowing arrogance incensed him for some reason and it was with a black heart that he sought out the seeress in her austere tower room. "Leknaat.....?" He queried softly as he paused in the doorway of the room. The profound emptiness of this solar always send a shiver up his spin, the sheer amount of energy radiating from the very stonework causing his hairs to stand on end as he dared to step two feet past the doorway.
"Can I talk to you....?" Those clear green eyes darted around warily as he cleared his throat, a sure sign of his nervousness. His anxious attitude was only all the more betrayed as he scratched at the rune mark on his hand, the skin seemingly to tingle in response to the magick filling the air. "Downstairs? It's time for lunch anyway...!" He hastily inserted, knowing all too well that Leknaat was aware of how much her tower room effected him. It was his own pride that demanded he not appear like a total coward to her by asking to hide away from this room like a child.
She turned gracefully towards him in a soft whisper of dark hair, a small smile gracing pale lips as she nodded in agreement. Certain things stood unspoken between them, Luc's dislike of this room one of many that she couldn't quite force herself to talk of with him quite yet. "Yes...that would be lovely, thank you for reminding me, Luc..." Though she were blind, the pale maiden had no trouble making her way across the sparsley appointed room, the hooded robes she wore whispering with that impossibly long banner of hair as she placed each foot in front of the other gracefully. "What would you like to talk about today?" The tower door was eased close behind them and she looped her arm through Luc's extended one so that they could make their careful, slanted descent towards the kitchens at the base of the tower.
"I......I'm keep having these dreams...horrible....terrible dreams...." He didn't know how else to start, the confusing jumble of emotion coloring his tone and thickening his words with the sheer depth of it all. "They're terrible, Leknaat....I keep seeing myself and these other people and we're hurting others...we're killing them!" At his side, Leknaat had gone still, her slight form almost being pulled forward by his unthinking grip on her arm as she froze in her tracks. If possible, that pale face grew more ashen and bloodless before crumpling into a pained mask for a moment.
"You......you must tell me more of this...tell me all that you've seen, Luc....spare no details in this...we must figure out just how much is truly being revealed in these dreams of yours...
He nodded and shakily began to recount the dreams of the various people, of the grey lifeless world...of the young woman who was the last thing he remembered and of the oddly ashen and black haired youth who, in those horrific dreams, killed him. "I don't understand....what's going on, Lahknaat.....?" Open confusion glittered in those translucent emeralds, the pained uncertainty and fear oh so bright and pleading for answers. The blind seeresss's head bowed downward, those silken black locks falling about her face to cast delicate features into shadow.
"These dreams of your's....I.....I believe....I believe that they are memories...memories of your life before...." His look of confusion betrayed his lack of understanding as he peered at her from beneath a jagged fringe of pale brown hair. "The rune on your hand....it's a true rune....it carries on the memories of it's previous owners and I think it's revealing what happened before to you....the people you were describing...one was Sarah....she was a sweet girl..."
"...was....?" There was a definite note of hesitation in that low tenor voice, those arching brows drawing together in a small frown over those suddenly dark and hazed emeralds. Leknaat simply smiled sadly, shaking her head in a soft manner as a low of regret flashed across those ethereal features. Her next words were soft and pained with remembered sorrow as the regretful pain of their passing rose anew in her mind.
"You know the answer even without asking me, Luc." Came her softly chiding remark, those soft lips tightening to a grim, solemn line. "....she died with you....when everyone else abandoned you...she stayed....I found your bodies later and...." Her words were abruptly broken off, that ethereal face tightening as her head averted from him so that dark cascade fell forward to cast her face into shadow.
"There's more....." He murmured quietly, eyes suddenly intent and one pale hand extended to touch her shoulder and she nodded solemnly. A sigh rose in her throat to shudder through her body as she straitened, a hint of that iron will glinting through her genteel surface as she continued.
"Yes....when we brought you back....we brought her back as well....it was in my vision....." Her voice was low and even as her face turned toward the low crackle of the fire. "Though she was cloned as you were...she was reborn as a chid...you will remain the same age as when you died because of your rune...."
"S.....She's alive...." He breathed those worse softly, a world of uncertainty glittering in those emerald depths as he looked to Leknaat. The dark maiden nodded slowly, that serene composure, so often mistaken for haughty ice, never breaking. "Where is she? You haven't kept her here that's for certain...."
"No...she....." Her voice finally faltered and she paused to choose her words as carefully as she could. "She....is in Harmonia...."
But then....it began....just a soft whisper at first, the faintest caress of coolness...and then slowly...inexorably...he was draw downward. Away from the light and the warmth in such a way that he found himself unable to even put up the weakest of struggles as he was pulled back toward the coldness of the world, his floating soul entrapped once more in the chains of mortality. The thousand sensations and knowledges he'd barely even had a chance to sample seeped away, leaving him feeling inadequate and cut off. But even that faded away as his senses dulled, the limited human perception thankfully unable to comprehend such things and thus letting them go.
When he was ready to awaken once more, he'd been born anew with no memories of the light and of the wonders of the world beyond. Instead his first sight was of cold grey stone high overhead, it's mortar long disused and cracking free in places. There was a weight pressing down on his body, a pitiful warmth given off by a weak fire cracking beside him...not that he knew what a fire was afterall.
Cold was one of the first things he learned, the chill wash of the drafts filling this grey room a constant nagging reminder that kept interrupting his confused thoughts as they bumbled and jumbled about in his mind. The object that he would later come to know as a blanket offered little warmth against the drafts and in his shivering, he found he could even move the long, gangling limbs that extended beyond his body so that he might curl into a fetal little ball under the covers. It gathered a pool of warmth about him and he experienced his first feather-light touches of pleasure at the silken caress of finely made sheets across his skin and the way that the warmth slowly spread through his limbs.
He didn't know how long he curled there, the concept of time unfathomable to him as he lay there studying his surroundings, for like a child he was curious and in awe with every new thing he learnt or felt. But he was drawn from his silent thoughts at the unexpected grating sounds of the door being opened. He was still marveling over how the unnamed object could do such a thing when she stepped in. Wide, surprised emeralds grew wide as he caught his first look at the odd moving object. His feeble, child's mind held no real conscious thought or comprehension as the dark haired woman strode on silent feet across the floor to approach the bed.
".......I am pleased to see that you've finally awakened....." The woman murmured softly, dark lashes fanned across pale cheeks and he jumped like an animal, a shimmer of wild, animalistic fear glittered in his eyes as he curled away from her. A look of pained chagrin flashes across her face as she grew a chair up beside the bed. He lay there warily watching her as he tried to puzzle out just what she was. He'd seen the gangling extensions to his own body and even he hadn't missed the similar share he and she held...but then she was speaking again, shattering what small trains of thoughts he'd been able to piece together.
"I realize you must be confused right now so please pay attention so that I might help you to understand what is happening to you...." Her voice was the same soft murmur though a note of testiness had tread its way through it. But even she, a person that had tried for so long to keep all others at a distant, could not really be cruel to such a wide-eyed, confused looking creature. "My name is Leknaat...." At his blank look of confusion, a soft smile tinged with amusement curved the blind seer's lips. "Worry not young one...here you will be safe...between myself and this....you will understand all in time...." A pale hand had extended to gently grasp his own, surprisingly rough fingertips tracing the outline of a design he hadn't noticed before...what....was that?
Unconsciously, his brows had knit together in a small frown and he peered closer at the marking laid upon his hand. It's gently arching edges curled in a sleek, barbed circle as those tri crescent shaped markings gathered to form what he would later come to know, much to his dismay, as the True Wind Rune. But for now he could not even articulate the questions running through his mind and he was simply reduced to looking up at the woman in confused silence.
"It's a rune.....it allows you to touch upon the very wind and air that surrounds you....but...come now that is all for later, for now you must rest and learn" At the sudden rumble from his tummy, his body at least betraying what *it* knew of hunger, she smiled faintly and nodded. "And eat....yes you must indeed eat..." It was perhaps a small blessing that she was unable to see the confused youths next actions as he lifted the blankets and sheets to peer in wide-eyed surprise at his own body. Though he didn't not know it, hunger had been gnawing at him for hours now and with a slightly consternated look, he poked at the pale flesh where the rumble had been birthed in a clear motion to say "be quite!"
He did not recognize the silvery peals of sound that came form Leknaat as laughter when she stood in a soft swirl of hair and pristine robes, all he knew was that it was a pleasant sound that drew his attention back to her. "Oh most certainly food....I shall be but a few minutes....." She took the time to build up the fire once more, strong, capable hands finding the flaggering flames and feeding a steady stream of sweet hardwood until the all but lifeless flames were crackling and popping merrily. Almost immediately, some of the chill in the room was sapped away and he was engulfed in the sweet sensations of warmth once more. She said nothing more as she left the room, that long mane of glorious midnight hair falling almost to the floor in a sleek fall of thick silk as it whispered and shifted across her slender back to pool with the hem of her robes behind her.
The door was left askew and to the confused youth she seemed to reappear almost instantly, carrying a tray heavily laden with foods that smelt wonderful even to his untrained nose though in later times he'd come to realize just how plain a fare his meal had been. But the hot, fresh bread, sweet with honey and the flavorful cheese and chilled fruits was most tempting indeed, enough so to waken his tummy once more to growl and grumble threateningly. And thus was he faced with a problem...he had no idea what to do with these sweet smelling things she'd brought with her upon her arrival and he stared at the trey in confusion.
It's food...you eat it...." She could not help the bubble of amusement that flowed through her as she reached to break the bread, tearing the soft substance into edible piecea. She'd had the foresight to slice the cheese before hand and soon enough a healthy sized chunk had been nestled within the dark bread. She demonstrated how to eat it by chewing it carefully before trying to swallow. His attempts were amusing and comical, yet oddly endearing as she looked on with growing warmth at his stumbling attempts at dinner. He would learn in time, swiftly no doubt knowing him and she would be here to help him. How long had it been since she'd seen such an open, delighted look on his face? Too long indeed....for long infact that she couldn't remember him ever looking so blissfully open and happy. Thus was this decision that had half been forced upon her both a blessing and a curse...for she wanted her old apprentice back...wanted the chance to make up for mistakes of the past...but on the other hand....she was affraid that he would simply relive his life as before and follow the same path that would lead to his destruction..
"Tomorrow we'll begin your lessons and get you outfitted for clothes. I fear I threw out all of your old wardrobe long ago..." She trailed off, a pained expression crossing her face as a soft sigh rose to play across her lips. She didn't have to see to know he'd stopped eating, a questioning look of confusion on his face and she simply shook that long cascading head of dark hair. "Nevermind....we'll cover all this later....for now we'll start with the basics and work out way up, hmmn....?
*~*~*~*~*~*
And thus did his learning begin anew, it was months before he intellectually what he was before. Leknaat had been right in her assumption that he would learn quickly, for he soaked up knowledge like a sponge soaked up water. When he'd first relearned to talk, the word "why" had been his first question....that should have clued her then and there but after a month of his constant stream of questions, she'd stepped up his education on reading and writing and had simply let him free in her library.
Now why would a blind person keep a library some might ask? Only those few ignorants who did not realize that she had not always been blind would of course ask such a question, and none daring to do so to her face. Not that the knowledges contained in those tomes were never truly lost from her, especially in the good days when her Luc had been at her side. It had been his eyes she'd used, the words conveyed on that smooth tenor to break many a dark night by their fireside and now that she had him back again, they spent many a pleasent evening discussing both the politics and various histories of the lands as well as more light and pleasent coversations that helped both to while the often lonely and desolate nights away.
She'd struggled long and hard over what to call him at first, for the name "boy" did not suit him nor his station in life. Finally, simply accepting that one could not hide from the past by ignoring it, she'd settled on his old name...Luc...it was a good name despite the horrible direction he had taken in his previous life. That was the past and for whatever reasons, she'd felt the pull from beyond and had known that his time on this plane was no over quite yet...neither of them were.
And so he spent his first few years in complete, ignorant bliss of what atrocities he'd wrought upon the world and it was not until the stirrings of his run started that he began to remember. At first he had begun with dreams, terrible vibrant nightmares that left him chilled and sweating in his bed; a scream frozen in his throat. The visions confused him, scared him and left him with an odd feeling of dread and anguished sorrow. Images and faces stayed with him throughout the daylight hours even, haunting his ever waking moment. Who was the girl...the pale, delicate figure that seemed to have been wrought from snow and a wintry sky? Whenever her thought of her, a empty feeling filled him, a sense of incompletion.
And who was the young man who bore features so similar that they could have been related? And why did thinking of him fill him with a confusing mixture of resentment and kindred affinity? There were more images that haunted his mind, the dreadful figure of a ethereally formed man that was as cold and insane as winter's snow in his stark black clothing. He spun nightmares in those bicolor eyes just by peeking out from beneath the low brim of his hat and Luc knew that death sang truly and bloodied along the keen lines of those quicksilver swords.
The sardonic eyes of the redhaired man that floated through his dreams was what finally drove him to seek out Leknaat's council on these touchy manners. That holier-then-thou smile and look of all knowing arrogance incensed him for some reason and it was with a black heart that he sought out the seeress in her austere tower room. "Leknaat.....?" He queried softly as he paused in the doorway of the room. The profound emptiness of this solar always send a shiver up his spin, the sheer amount of energy radiating from the very stonework causing his hairs to stand on end as he dared to step two feet past the doorway.
"Can I talk to you....?" Those clear green eyes darted around warily as he cleared his throat, a sure sign of his nervousness. His anxious attitude was only all the more betrayed as he scratched at the rune mark on his hand, the skin seemingly to tingle in response to the magick filling the air. "Downstairs? It's time for lunch anyway...!" He hastily inserted, knowing all too well that Leknaat was aware of how much her tower room effected him. It was his own pride that demanded he not appear like a total coward to her by asking to hide away from this room like a child.
She turned gracefully towards him in a soft whisper of dark hair, a small smile gracing pale lips as she nodded in agreement. Certain things stood unspoken between them, Luc's dislike of this room one of many that she couldn't quite force herself to talk of with him quite yet. "Yes...that would be lovely, thank you for reminding me, Luc..." Though she were blind, the pale maiden had no trouble making her way across the sparsley appointed room, the hooded robes she wore whispering with that impossibly long banner of hair as she placed each foot in front of the other gracefully. "What would you like to talk about today?" The tower door was eased close behind them and she looped her arm through Luc's extended one so that they could make their careful, slanted descent towards the kitchens at the base of the tower.
"I......I'm keep having these dreams...horrible....terrible dreams...." He didn't know how else to start, the confusing jumble of emotion coloring his tone and thickening his words with the sheer depth of it all. "They're terrible, Leknaat....I keep seeing myself and these other people and we're hurting others...we're killing them!" At his side, Leknaat had gone still, her slight form almost being pulled forward by his unthinking grip on her arm as she froze in her tracks. If possible, that pale face grew more ashen and bloodless before crumpling into a pained mask for a moment.
"You......you must tell me more of this...tell me all that you've seen, Luc....spare no details in this...we must figure out just how much is truly being revealed in these dreams of yours...
He nodded and shakily began to recount the dreams of the various people, of the grey lifeless world...of the young woman who was the last thing he remembered and of the oddly ashen and black haired youth who, in those horrific dreams, killed him. "I don't understand....what's going on, Lahknaat.....?" Open confusion glittered in those translucent emeralds, the pained uncertainty and fear oh so bright and pleading for answers. The blind seeresss's head bowed downward, those silken black locks falling about her face to cast delicate features into shadow.
"These dreams of your's....I.....I believe....I believe that they are memories...memories of your life before...." His look of confusion betrayed his lack of understanding as he peered at her from beneath a jagged fringe of pale brown hair. "The rune on your hand....it's a true rune....it carries on the memories of it's previous owners and I think it's revealing what happened before to you....the people you were describing...one was Sarah....she was a sweet girl..."
"...was....?" There was a definite note of hesitation in that low tenor voice, those arching brows drawing together in a small frown over those suddenly dark and hazed emeralds. Leknaat simply smiled sadly, shaking her head in a soft manner as a low of regret flashed across those ethereal features. Her next words were soft and pained with remembered sorrow as the regretful pain of their passing rose anew in her mind.
"You know the answer even without asking me, Luc." Came her softly chiding remark, those soft lips tightening to a grim, solemn line. "....she died with you....when everyone else abandoned you...she stayed....I found your bodies later and...." Her words were abruptly broken off, that ethereal face tightening as her head averted from him so that dark cascade fell forward to cast her face into shadow.
"There's more....." He murmured quietly, eyes suddenly intent and one pale hand extended to touch her shoulder and she nodded solemnly. A sigh rose in her throat to shudder through her body as she straitened, a hint of that iron will glinting through her genteel surface as she continued.
"Yes....when we brought you back....we brought her back as well....it was in my vision....." Her voice was low and even as her face turned toward the low crackle of the fire. "Though she was cloned as you were...she was reborn as a chid...you will remain the same age as when you died because of your rune...."
"S.....She's alive...." He breathed those worse softly, a world of uncertainty glittering in those emerald depths as he looked to Leknaat. The dark maiden nodded slowly, that serene composure, so often mistaken for haughty ice, never breaking. "Where is she? You haven't kept her here that's for certain...."
"No...she....." Her voice finally faltered and she paused to choose her words as carefully as she could. "She....is in Harmonia...."
