Some are born to sweet delight
Some are born to sweet delight
Some are born to endless night.
We are led to believe a lie
When we see not through the eye
Which was born in a night to perish in a night
When the soul slept in beams of light.

Auguries of Innocence, William Blake

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( Five ) _________________________ Of Contiguity and Things Unspoken

Eriol stood by the window of the Rosewood Drawing Room.

The chamber was inescapably well designed, like all the rest of the Reed Manor. The walls were covered in elegant tawny French silk and the lower portions were faced with rosewood panels. The fireplace at the middle of the east wall was decorated with a series of craved rosewood binding. On the panel shelves and many tables stood porcelain vases and fine crystal figurines. Watercolors of scenic English countryside lined the walls. Electric lamps were carefully disguised behind patterned rosewood friezes. Shafts of white light were cast down from the edges of the ceiling in a shower of brilliance.

But the grandeur of the decor was lost in the severity of the matter at hand. Eriol was motionless. The double doors behind him were still moving after his hastily entrance to the room from the chamber of the scarlet portrait. He needed to get away.

"I know your hiding something, Hiiragisawa," Syaoran announced as he walked into the room after Eriol.

There was no reply. Eriol was simply standing by the great rosewood paneled window overlooking the southern portion of the manor grounds. The heavy yellow silk curtains were pulled back. Suddenly, Eriol grasped the old bronze handles of the rosewood windowpane and pushed the huge glass window open. A draft of cool night air rushed into the warm chamber. Eriol's dark navy hair was ruffled by the sudden wind.

"Hiiragisawa!" Syaoran exclaimed in a loud voice. "What on earth?"

"It is a bit musty in here, no?" he answered. His voice was cool and collected. "I never spend much time in here. I much prefer the Amber Room. I have the most beautiful red tapestry hung up there." He smiled slightly. "I would rather like to show it to you, Li-san."

Syaoran frowned. His features became gnarled for a brief moment. "Stop it with your idle talk of extravagant pretexts," he snapped sharply.

Eriol breathed heavily. He turned away from the open window. "Very well then, my cute descendant."

Syaoran redden mildly at the comment. "Get to the point," he threw him an acidic glare.

He smiled. "Li-san, you're really something," Eriol said. In a swift moment, he settled himself into a large rosewood Victorian chair. He allowed for a long pause as if he was waiting for dramatic cello chords to come floating into the room.

There was a soft rapping at the double doors of the room and Sakura entered soundlessly.

"Sakura-chan! What timing," Eriol said with a soft chuckle. "Settling down, now. You'll want to hear this one," his tone was soft and mellow as if speaking for a child waiting eagerly for a bedtime story.

"Oh God," Syaoran muttered under his breath. "He's making a joke out of this."

Eriol folded his hand in front of him patiently. "Allow me to start from the beginning then," he finally announced dramatically with a light smirk on his face. "As you all well know, I had been the ever so wise and powerful Clow Reed in my past life, the creator of the omnipotent Clow, er, Sakura Cards and the most powerful magician ever to walk the earth. And I possess now his memories and experience--- not to mention his magic. Of course, it is only logical to conclude that---"

"Spare me the vanity, Hiiragisawa," Syaoran interrupted.

Sakura had sat down in a chair at the other side of the room. Her brown hair, which she kept loose and flowing down her shoulders, was blowing with the wind of the open window. The green sweater she wore brought out the brilliant hue of her eyes. There was something elegant and serious about the way she was sitting. Her face was void of emotions and her eyes were leveled at Eriol.

Eriol shrugged and the smile vanished. He turned to look at Sakura sitting behind Syaoran's standing form. His eyes held her emeralds orbs. "Li-san," Eriol began again addressing Syaoran while still looking at Sakura. "Clow Reed had many terrible secrets and what he had seen in the future had destroyed him. They say that ignorance is bliss. It is always easier and more painless to hold on to honeyed lies. The truth is a blinding light which only few can successfully perceive."

Syaoran nodded. "Go on."

Eriol closed his eyes for a brief moment. "His name is Thor Reed," he announced simply.

Syaoran stiffed at the words. "Who?"

"Clow's older brother, his name is Thor Reed," Eriol said again with his voice suddenly soft and severe. "And like the Clow, he is also gifted in magic. But he had his differences with the family and---"

"Bullshit," Syaoran snapped. "Clow Reed never had a brother."

"You wanted the truth," Eriol replied.

"Then don't lie to me, Hiiragisawa," Syaoran said with his voice raising dangerously.

"Syaoran," Sakura said softly from her chair across the room. "Please continue, Eriol-kun."

Syaoran breathed airily and looked away.

"I know this must be obscure to you, Li-san," Eriol said. "But Thor had been... rather a difficult person, if you will. He was stubborn and narrow-minded, down right malicious at times. He never listens and jumps into conclusions within a breath. But he was powerful and extremely intelligent. He was recklessly determined and it was his ambition that had kept him sane."

"Are you telling me that this so called Thor Reed had broken into the Reed Manor to burn that portrait?" Syaoran asked in a withering tone. "You actually expect me to believe that this man from the eighteenth century is still alive today?"

"I'm telling you the truth," Eriol said with apathy brimming in his voice.

"Damn you," Syaoran muttered. He walked towards the window and grabbed the rosewood edge with both hands. "Damn you, Hiiragisawa."

"Thor left the family when he was seventeen, claiming that he couldn't bear his parents intangible utopian ideals. His view of the world never coincided with Clow's, such a contrast, the two of them," Eriol continued as if nothing had happened.

"Thor left London and traveled to Paris. He had always been fond of the French culture. It had been just after the French Revolution, if I recall correctly," Eriol said. "Thor arrived to a France under great turmoil and social unrest after the revolution. He knew then that the people did not trust the current French government. The Directory was weak and he saw his perfect chance to raise to power. But when he met Napoleon Bonaparte, he knew that the people would just fall to their grasp. So Thor declared a truce with Bonaparte. He used his magic to ascertain the coup d'état in exchange for power. Thor thought that Bonaparte would be able to conquer the world like Alexander the great, with his help of course.

"The coup was a large success and soon Bonaparte had work his way to be the dictator with Thor as his right hand man. With his magic and conveyance, Thor helped Bonaparte when battle after battle and soon Europe was within their reach," Eriol paused for a moment. "Then, he met Cecilia. Cecilia had been the sole heiress of a wealthy French noble family and he fell madly in love with her. He courted her tirelessly. I believe that Cecilia had also fallen for Thor then. I'd also like to believe that for those brief moments that love had redeemed him.

"Thor did not know then, but Cecilia had the gift of second sight. When Cecilia foresaw the downfall of Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo, she convinced Thor to leave France. Thor was reluctant at first, but he agreed when Cecilia refused to marry him if he did not leave."

Eriol suddenly smile bitterly. "The irony of it is that the fact he left Bonaparte's campaign alone had caused his destruction. And that when he returned to England with Cecilia, the only two people he had ever trusted in his life would betrayal him."

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Author's Notes: I know this is confusing. It was suppose to be. I wanted to write a mystery when I started the story, and I plan on following through with that. Cecilia, Clow, and Thor had an amazingly complicated history and it will be made clear later in this fic. I'm really pushing the plot here a bit. I wrote this entire chapter within two hours so I think I've rushed through a good bit of it.

I made up that bit about Thor being in the French Revolution and helping Napoleon to power. In truth, Napoleon had been a exceedingly ambitious person and it was his own faults that led to his downfall. I had in fact written an entire thesis paper on Napoleon's personality and its effect on his military campaigns. Thor, however, is a character of my creation and he was not in the actually French Revolution and did not know Napoleon.

Bonaparte was Napoleon's first name. I made Eriol to refer him by his lesser-known name to show that Eriol or rather the Clow was not afraid of Napoleon and did not exalt Napoleon for his military genius.

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