Disclaimer: I don't own anything. It belongs to somebody else. I'm just writing down what my crazy mind makes up.
Chapter 11: Rhianne
When Marguerite stepped into the light a pleasant feeling came over her. The warmth and the feeling of belonging was almost overwhelming. She closed her eyes for fear of going blind. But the light was so bright that her eyes didn't stop hurting after she did so. She tried shielding her eyes with her hand so she could at least see where she was stepping.
"Hello? Is there anybody here?" She called. The light started losing its intensity and Marguerite could finally open her eyes. She found herself in a strange white room. The room itself wasn't white it was the woman standing in the middle of it and filling it with a strange light. She had long, blonde, wavy hair and wore a simple though beautiful white dress. Her face looked as if it was made from porcelain. She was very fair-skinned, but she didn't look pale. Her eyes were a bright blue tone and her thin lips were a pale pink.
Marguerite held her breath. That was exactly the same woman she had been seeing. The woman smiled.
"Welcome back. We missed you." She said and her voice was so pure, so melodic that it was a pleasure listening to her no matter what she was saying. Marguerite didn't know how to react at first. She just stood there looking at the woman and not knowing what to think. The whole situation was asking too much of her.
"I can understand that you are confused and frightened, but you don't have to be." Marguerite sighed.
"I know. And there's a feeble voice inside of me telling me that I shouldn't be, but those feelings are there anyway." Strange, she thought, why is it so easy for me to trust her, to tell her everything. It felt as if she was somehow related to that woman.
"I would probably feel the same if I were you. But you have to listen very carefully. What I tell you now is very important." The woman made two steps towards her.
"My name is, as you might already know, Rhianne. I'm a woman of Avalon. And I've been instructed to tell you about certain things you need to know, before you can fulfil your destiny." Rhianne went towards Marguerite and took her hand.
"Let us make a journey." She said and then there was a flash of light.
**********
Marguerite was surrounded by darkness, but she could still feel Rhianne's hand holding hers.
"Where are we?" She asked.
"This is the beginning of everything." Although there was nobody, who could see it, a look of confusion and puzzlement appeared on Marguerite's face.
"How is that possible?" Rhianne gave it a soft laugh.
"In Avalon everything is possible. But that is not the point right now. This is the time when everything started. Though you cannot see anything, the greatest battle that has ever been fought is just going on. Many people used refer to it as the Chaos, but we call it the Kaie, the fight between good and evil. There was a very powerful leader on each side. The leader of the evil was called Dierdre and the leader of the good people was called Morrigan." Now it was Marguerite's turn to laugh.
"Morrigan? You must be kidding me?"
"Not at all. But we should concentrate on the important things now. The battle would have been endless. Well, it could have been ended, but there would have been no one left to celebrate the victory. A tragic incident finally lead us to call all people to a meeting: Morrigan and Dierdre had died in a fight. The situation on each side was hopeless. The people came to the decision that there was no other possibility to end the terrible fighting than to find a neutral person. So we chose to revive the spirits and powers of Dierdre and Morrigan and unite them in one body. That's how The Chosen One was created. Her task was unique in the world of Avalon, the place where the good live, and Zereon, home of the evil. She was supposed to keep the peace and the only person, who was able to communicate with good and evil." When Rhianne stopped for a moment Marguerite sighed.
"That is interesting, but I can't see what this has to do with me and my destiny." Rhianne's face showed sadness and she closed her eyes for a moment.
"You have to be strong now, Marguerite. What I'm going to tell you is probably incomprehensible for you and it's also hard for me to tell it, because I'm not free from blame." She fell silent and Marguerite felt sorry for her. Suddenly she remembered some of her dreams, about the little girls and Rhianne just standing there watching without doing anything.
"No, I'm not blameless at all." Rhianne repeated before she looked at Marguerite again and continued.
"You know about the Chosen One, don't you? That you were the Chosen One?" Marguerite felt uncertain about her choice of words. Why did Rhianne say that she had been the Chosen One, wasn't she still? She nodded anyway.
"It was not long ago, less than four decades, that Morrigan and Dierdre were separated. The leader of the evil, his name is Tuathal, decided to increase his influence. He found the chosen girl, who was still a baby and wanted to perform the ritual on her. You have to know that the performance of this ritual isn't easy and it took him a great deal of time to prepare it. Avalon knew about it all the time and did never do anything to stop him. There were too many advantages, too many things they would benefit from, if Morrigan had her own body. Perhaps you know already that this baby was you." Rhianne stopped so Marguerite had the chance to digest the new information. Marguerite just starred into the darkness.
"So the dreams I've been having were real?"
"Yes. I sent my memories to you. But we should return now. Close your eyes." Marguerite did as Rhianne told her. Only a few seconds later they were back in the white room and Marguerite was glad that she had closed her eyes, because the sudden change from darkness to light would have been very painful for them.
Rhianne took a deep breath and continued.
"But there are more things..." She hesitated, not sure how she could tell her.
"Your mother..." Marguerite's eyes widened.
"You know my mother?" She interrupted her. The sad look returned to Rhianne's face and Marguerite instantly knew that there was something wrong.
"I knew her, yes. Very well actually. Eleanor was my niece." Marguerite had to take a deep breath.
"Eleanor? That was my mother's name? What happened to her? And how can you be her aunt? I mean you don't look old enough to be my great-aunt? You look just as old as I am!" Rhianne nodded.
"Yes, I do. But I'm much older than you can imagine. I am one of the few enchantresses, who survived the Kaie. Morrigan was my master and a very close friend of mine. I had one sister her name was Aislinn. She possessed incredible magical powers. They were even stronger than my own, but she died when she gave birth to her second child. That was your mother. You have to know that we cannot die from age and that we are able to heal most diseases, but even our powers have certain limits. I always blamed myself for her death, because I always thought that we could have done more to save her, but the truth is that she had lost too much blood and she was too weak. But Eleanor and Nevan, Aislinn's son, were just like her. Your mother had the same powers my sister once had. And she became a powerful enchantress. I think she was the most powerful one since Morrigan's death. But she fell in love with a mortal man. She chose to give away her powers to live her life together with him. You cannot take away the powers of a woman from Avalon, of course, but they were blocked so she couldn't use them any longer. It's too dangerous if you possess such powers in the world out there. After their marriage they had two children." Rhianne stopped talking, when she saw that tears were streaming down Marguerite's cheeks.
"I cannot believe it! I've been searching for these answers for all my life and now they are there just like that and I'm not sure if I really want to know about them." She sobbed.
Rhianne looked down. She wasn't sure if it had been a good idea calling Marguerite. She had gone through a lot in the past and now that she had just begun to rely on people, to trust others and believe in herself someone burdened her with all these things. Rhianne felt so sorry for her and at the same time she blamed herself for being the one, who got her into that trouble in the first place.
"Listen, Marguerite, I know that this will be hard for you, but there are many lives at stake." Rhianne didn't dare to tell her yet, whose life was in particularly great danger. But she knew that it would be necessary to tell her.
When Rhianne could be certain that she got Marguerite's attention back she continued.
"As I said she had two children, two beautiful girls. The older one was called Sophia and her sister, who was six years younger, that was you." She pointed her finger at Marguerite.
"Sophia and you got the mortality from your father, but the magical powers from your mother. But their happiness didn't last very long. Your father, who was a soldier in the Royal Irish Regiment, was shot by a comrade during a shooting practice. It was a real tragedy. Even now nobody really knows how and why this happened. That was when your mother was still pregnant with you. When you were born she found out that there was something special about you. It frightened her, because she expected Tuathal, the new leader of the evil, to harm her child. Tuathal is feared, because of his brutality and ruthlessness, but he's far less powerful than he pretends to be. Eleanor turned to her brother, who was still living in Avalon. Nevan warned us and we noted it, but nobody did anything. But Eleanor was his sister and Nevan felt responsible for her, especially after her husband's death. And he decided to go back to her and support her. But when he reached the village in Ireland where she lived it was already to late. Tuathal had murdered half of the village's population and Eleanor, Sophia and you were gone. Tuathal and his men had brought you to a cave, where he had prepared everything for the ritual. I was there, too. I tried to prevent the worst, but somehow I knew I wouldn't be able to. I acted cowardly and I'm really ashamed of it." Marguerite stood there petrified saying nothing. There was no expression on her face, which could give information about her feelings in that moment.
"They separated Morrigan and Dierdre, who had been in your body and put Dierdre's spirit and powers in your sister's body, but Morrigan stayed inside of you. Tuathal and his men planned to kill you and your mother afterwards, but with Nevan's and my help you succeeded in escaping. Sophia's soul was too weak for Dierdre and she died instantly. Her body is not more than a shell Dierdre lives in. Sophia the little girl doesn't exist anymore. There is just Dierdre living in the body that once belonged to your sister." Marguerite still didn't move. There were too many questions haunting her mind, which wouldn't let her think properly.
"Your mother," Rhianne said, "Was stabbed to death when we tried to escape. We tried to bring her back to Avalon in time, but when we arrived there she was already dead. Nevan took care of you, but we knew from the start that you couldn't stay in Avalon. It was too dangerous for us and for you. Tuathal was aware of where you were. He would have come to kill you and with Dierdre and her powers it would have been very easy for him. It's true that Morrigan was still in you, but you were still a baby and what could a baby have done? Nevan brought you to an orphanage and tried to visit you as often as he could, but it was too dangerous. Tuathal already became suspicious. He would have found you, if Morrigan had been active in any way. I guess we were lucky that she did not even stir inside of you. She must have been aware of the dangerous situation." Marguerite felt anger rising in her and it was much more intense than the sadness she had felt before.
"You say I should consider myself lucky that I live when my whole family was slaughtered by a madman. I tell you what: You don't know what I lived through during my childhood, my youth... Sometimes I wished I had been dead. Where were you then?" Marguerite was now yelling at her.
"And where was this Nevan? Have you just called me here to mess up my life again now that I've finally found peace? What the hell do you want from me?" Rhianne took Marguerite's outburst with composure. She could understand it. And she knew that she couldn't conceal the facts any longer. So she said it forthright.
"You have to kill Dierdre." Marguerite tried to give it a scornful laugh, but she couldn't. Her mouth was too dry and her voice was merely a whisper when she spoke.
"You expect me to kill my sister? You expect me to repair the damage you've caused in the first place? I was not the one, who didn't try to stop Tuathal." Rhianne sighed.
"I knew you would say that. I'm sorry, but I guess you don't have a choice."
"What do you mean?"
"Dierdre must be defeated or your unborn daughter will die."
End Chapter Eleven...
Special thanks to:
pandagal: Thank you so much for your review. And I'm so sorry about taking so long again… Well anyway I hope you like the solution I found to this "Chosen One" issue…
keys3303: I hope the answers you found in this chapter are okay. And I hope you're not angry with me that it ends with a cliffhanger again. However thank you for your review it means a lot to me.
A. Windsor: Sorry, no Aly in this chapter. But he'll be back:) Thank you very much for your review
Lexie: I didn't really think about the end yet. At least not in detail. But after this chapter you should understand something, now. Yes and thanks for the name…
Alexpat1: Thank you for your review. I agree, so much can happen, even now that you already got some answers.
Angel LeeAnn: Thank you so very very much for the review. I'm honoured to get reviews from you! And I hope that this chapter helped at least a bit to get over the confusion…
TheChosenOne3: And last but not least (that's for sure): Thank you for reviewing! You always find the right words to encourage me. And as a countermove: I hope you liked YOUR chapter, because this one is for you :)