28th Day of Goodmonth, 565 CY
Chapel of Heironeous, Chendl, Furyondy
Each step forward seemed to take twice as long as the last one.
Sounds were muffled; the faces of people; his friends, Heldenster and his assistants, all oddly out of focus.
It was as much by touch as by sight that Elrohir made his way to the entranceway of the Room of Return. The ranger stopped momentarily against the marble door, feeling the cool marble beneath his palm before stepping through the open doorway. A small foyer, also of marble walls, stretched out to the right and Elrohir followed, barely registering the grinding noise of the door closing behind him.
The Room of Return was not as large as he had imagined it; perhaps twenty-five feet to a side. Everburning torches, which gave off light but not heat, illuminated white tapestries inlaid with gold filigreed designs that hung over the upper halves of the walls. The ceiling boasted four different tile mosaics of the Archpaladin. Several wooden chests of drawers were positioned near the walls at different points.
He saw Tojo first.
The samurai was lying on one of two altars in the room. Except for his face, he was covered completely by a white woolen blanket with the holy symbol of Heironeous; a fist clutching a lightning bolt, prominently displayed on it. A large pillow supported his head.
Tojo appeared to be sleeping, and a feeling of relief swept through Elrohir as he saw the samurai's chest rise and fall slowly. Tojo's face was as peaceful as the ranger could ever remember seeing it.
On the other altar, near the far end of the room, was Talass.
Another cleric of Heironeous was adjusting Talass' pillow and looked up as Elrohir approached. A young woman in the familiar white cassock with gold trim that all acolytes of the Invincible One wore, she seemed somewhat flustered and gave him a brief nod as she grabbed a box from the floor that Elrohir could see at a glance contained Tojo and Talass' old and bloody clothing. The priestess then opened a small door at the far end of the room that Elrohir hadn't noticed before and hurried through, her two long braids bouncing behind her. The door closed slowly behind her, seemingly of its own accord.
Elrohir approached his wife. Talass also appeared to be asleep, although he could see, peeking out from underneath the blanket, her left hand and part of her arm.
True to their contract to heal them all fully, Heldenster had regenerated Talass' arm with his divine prayers, but Elrohir couldn't resist sucking in his breath as he saw the chalk-white pallor of Talass new limb. It was admittedly smooth and unblemished, but the ranger couldn't help wondering if it would always look that way. The next instant however, he had dismissed that thought as childish and irrelevant. She was back. His wife had returned, and he shouldn't give a damn about trifles like that.
He turned his gaze to Talass' face. Her poor nose, broken so many times, looked as if the priestess might actually have trouble smelling through it now, but at least there was no more blood. He had just taken in her face, looking so incredibly beautiful to him no matter how many times it might have been mauled when Talass opened her eyes and turned to see him.
Those light blue eyes he knew so well opened wide in amazement.
He smiled at her.
"Hey there, beautiful."
Her expression did not change.
"Dearest," she whispered after a very long moment. "Is it really you?"
"It's me," he nodded, unable to prevent the tears filling up his eyes again. "Your jumping partner."
And then he had rushed forward and hugged her as best as he could given her position. Talass struggled to sit up but seemed only able to use her right arm.
Elrohir decided to spend the rest of his life in that embrace.
The words that came out of his mouth were badly incoherent, but it didn't matter. Talass too seemed to be messing up her speech, but their tears spoke for both of them. Elrohir had never felt more in tune with his wife than he did right now.
He silently vowed then and there not to lose that connection again. He'd show Argo what the best and strongest marriage in The Three Worlds really looked like.
"Sit," Talass said, a flicker of her old commanding ways evident even in that one soft syllable as she maneuvered her body enough to create a sliver of space on the altar where her husband could sit, and he did so.
She looked down and to her left and grimaced. "My new arm is still asleep. The High Priest says the blood will be flowing fully through it in about an hour or so and I'll have full use of it then." Talass gingerly touched her nose with her right hand and grimaced again at her husband. "Seems strange having such a perfect arm attached to such an old, broken-up body."
Elrohir lifted her chin and stared pointedly into her eyes.
"Don't you dare change a thing about that old, broken-up body. I like it just the way it is."
This time they kissed.
They kissed as if it was their first time.
They kissed as if it would be their last.
Elrohir had never dreamed a kiss could have such healing powers; how much stronger it could make him feel. Not to mention, he had to admit with a smile he kept inside, how much aroused.
After they eventually pulled apart, Talass nodded towards Tojo. "I was so frightened when I saw Tojo lying there, but Heldenster said he had returned as well." Her head suddenly jerked back towards Elrohir and her face showed apprehension now. "I didn't have the chance to ask him. Did we... did anyone…?
Elrohir placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "No one else aside from Hengist, and he died before you."
"Did he-"
He shook his head. "No. The others weren't able to get his body across the chasm in time. We did meet up with Wainold, however. He had also been captured by The Nine but managed to escape when the volcano erupted."
As he watched his wife digest this new information, Elrohir's heart suddenly seized up.
He had just remembered why he was here.
"Talass," he said. Elrohir kept his voice as gentle as he could, but the ranger couldn't keep the trembling out of it. "Heldenster said there was a message-"
At that last word, Talass suddenly bolted upright and gasped, oblivious to the blanket falling off of her upper body.
"Dearest! What is it?" All the old fears and dreads, so recently thought banished forever, had returned and were rearing their ugly heads.
All the happiness had drained away from Talass' face.
Slowly, the priestess of Forseti turned and faced her husband again. Of such intensity were the mixed expressions now forming on her face that Elrohir never even glanced at Talass' naked torso, when he normally would have done much more than glance.
Wonder, joy, grief and fear were somehow all superimposed on that face which Elrohir had thought he knew so well. It was as if a multitude of Talasses, superimposed over each other, were staring at him simultaneously.
Then the wondrous Talass spoke. The words were low and soft, but Elrohir thought the whole Flanaess could still somehow hear them.
"Dearest," Talass seemed barely able to get the words out, as if the import of them had swelled the very sounds until they were too large to disgorge. "Dearest, I saw Him!"
Elrohir frowned. "Who?"
"Forseti!"
Elrohir nearly gasped himself. "The Justice Bringer? The god himself?"
Talass nodded vigorously. "He was right there! I was standing in a meadow, and at the far end of it was a waterfall; the same one I had seen in my vision! Then the fossergrim emerged from it, but as he walked towards me, he changed- and it was Him!"
The joyous Talass now took center stage. The cleric seemed lost in rapture, her eyes now elsewhere.
"Oh, Elrohir; I wish you could have beheld Him! To be in that presence; there are no words I can find that could convey that…"
Elrohir sat silently and watched as Talass seemed to be trying to recapture the essence of that moment. While a part of the ranger was happy for his wife; to be in the actual presence of one's deity was the highest dream any cleric could ever ask for, he knew it was among the rarest of events as well.
A faint feeling of uneasiness nagged at him like a persistent itch.
Talass seemed to give up on the attempt and returned herself to the present. "Then He spoke to me, Elrohir. He explained everything! The true meaning behind my vision, and-"
She stopped abruptly, and then gasped again. Her face drained of all color until it was as white as her new arm. Her eyes went blank.
"Talass! Dearest, what is it?"
Talass face now showed only grief. Sorrow as if no other emotion ever had or ever would reside there again.
Elrohir grabbed her by both shoulders. Fear flooded through every fiber of the ranger's being.
"Talass!" he shouted. "What is it? Speak to me!"
Slowly, Talass turned her eyes towards him again.
A single tear ran down her cheek.
"Dearest," she whispered. "I have to go."
Elrohir stood up.
He staggered backwards away from his wife.
She held out her arms to him beseechingly, but he took several more steps back, nearly stumbling. Fear had now given way to horror.
Was it a lie? Was it all a lie? Had Talass come back briefly only to-
His wife, ever the Priestess of Truth, discerned his thoughts.
"No, dearest," she said, her voice strong now but still no less shaken with grief. "Not in that sense. I'm not going back to Asgard; at least, not until my final day here on Oerth, but… but I…"
She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, but more tears still leaked out.
"I have to go home. I have to go home to Rhizia. To the Fruztii."
She opened her eyes again. Elrohir was still staring at her. She couldn't bear those eyes.
"Dearest," she croaked, her arms still held out towards him. "Please, sit back down. I'll explain. I'll explain everything I know. Don't leave me."
Don't leave you? Didn't you just say you were about to leave me?
Very slowly, Elrohir walked back towards the altar but he did not sit down. He remained standing beside it, gazing down at Talass. His features settled themselves into a stony mask.
Elrohir had no choice. He had to do this. If he was ever going to be able to hear what his wife had to say; and part of him knew he had to hear it, even as the other half would sooner have stabbed himself through the heart than hear these oncoming words, he was going to have to banish all emotion.
No matter what the cost.
His mask seemed to crumble Talass' face as if he had taken a warhammer to it, but the ranger would not yield.
"Explain," he commanded.
The cleric's entire body was trembling violently now. The fearful Talass had emerged; the one that Elrohir had never seen before the cavern of the cave fishers. She clumsily pulled the blanket back over her as well as she could with her right hand and then, being unable to look her husband in the eye, stared down as she began.
"I saw not only my god, Elrohir, but someone else as well. Forseti showed him to me. It was; it was my father."
She glanced up at Elrohir as if hoping for any sign of commiseration from him, but his face remained impassive.
While there was a part of him that did sympathize with Talass; the unexpected revelation that her father had died must have been crushing, even with her deity nearby, Elrohir's one meeting with Talass' father had not been a pleasant one. The High Priest of Forseti had borne nothing but ill-will towards the foreign man, and that surely had not improved after his daughter and Elrohir had eloped and hurriedly left the land of the Frost Barbarians.
Talass looked away again. Her voice choked up again, but she continued.
"It had happened right before we were first summoned to Chendl. That was why He sent me the vision in the first place."
Elrohir frowned. He was so confused that he forgot to keep up his mask. "I don't understand."
"There is no one left now to continue the priesthood of the Peacemaker among the Fruztii," Talass continued. "Other faiths, such as those of Kord and Tyr, will take its place completely. More warlike faiths. My father was unable to find anyone else who was willing to assume that mantle before he died. First my sister Talat had deserted him, and then I-I…"
Talass broke down into sobs.
Elrohir continued to stand there.
Damn you to Hel's realm, Elrohir! Comfort her! She's your wife; weren't you just vowing to yourself seconds ago how things were going to be different now? You knew how much she had given up to marry you, even if she never let you see it! Put your arms around her and comfort her! You love her no matter what! You know you do!
And he knew it was true. All that his mind raged at him was true.
But the hurt held him back.
After a few minutes, Talass continued, her voice stopping and starting in fits as she kept trying to hold back further tears.
"The Justice Bringer told me I had to return home. With no formal line of succession of our priesthood left, I'll have to re-establish myself as a valid claimant in the eyes of the Frostwulf jarl before I can legally claim the title of High Priestess of Forseti. That's the second of the two tests Forseti spoke of."
Elrohir frowned again. "The second? What was the first?"
With what seemed a superhuman effort, Talass raised her eyes to meet those of her husband again. "My vision."
Despite himself, Elrohir found himself sitting down again next to his wife. She smiled through her tear-stained face and clasped his hand. That contact, both joyous and painful, caused Elrohir's mask to instinctively re-assert itself. Seeing this, the priestess dropped her eyes away from him again, but continued her tale.
"I first had to prove myself to my god before I could prove myself to my jarl. While I was still accepted by Forseti as His instrument, I still betrayed my church when I left with you, dearest. He needed to see a sign of my loyalty. Was I willing to make the supreme sacrifice to further the ideals of loyalty? Of putting the welfare of others before my own? Of helping to defeat the designs of evil, whenever and wherever they might be found?"
With another flicker of her old strength, she tightened her grasp on Elrohir's hand so much that he looked back at her, to find her ice-blue eyes blazing fiercely.
"That was the true meaning of the vision, Elrohir! I misinterpreted it! We all did! One of us won't be coming back. It wasn't death the Justice Bringer was referring to at all!"
There was a brief silence and then Elrohir spoke. His voice sounded hoarse and strange to him.
"So it was you, after all. The one who wouldn't come back."
Talass let go of his hand. Again her eyes filled with tears as her strength seemed to fail her.
"Yes," she whispered.
Again Elrohir felt vindicated.
And again the feeling of knowing he had been right had never felt so wrong.
"If all this you say is true, then why," he asked, his face drawn tight and his voice as hard as he could make it, "can't I come with you?"
Elrohir didn't know what kind of response he had been expecting, but Talass surprised him. His wife grasped his hand again.
"You can, dearest! You can! Only," she paused, "not right away."
Her husband's eyes narrowed. "Why not?"
Talass took a long, slow, deep breath.
"A month or so after my sister Talat had run away, my father received word that she was now in the company of Nitch Redarm, a cleric of Hextor-"
Both Elrohir and Talass looked wildly around them. The everburning torches had all momentarily dimmed.
Talass gave Elrohir a sheepish smile. "I suppose I should watch my language here," she said, clearly hoping for another softening of his expression, but it didn't come. After a few moments, Talass continued, her tone downcast.
"My father, despite his anger at my sister, pronounced a charge of heresy against Redarm for the act of seducing a priestess of the Justice Bringer. Any Fruztii who placed his faith in Forseti would be honor-bound to capture Redarm if possible and return him to Rhizia for trial. Needless to say, the punishment after conviction would be death."
She glanced back at Elrohir.
"I am certain that after you and I left, dearest, that he had done the same to you. That was why I always said it would be useless to return and try and reason with my father. I knew you'd never willingly let yourself be taken prisoner. Nitch Redarm died from other causes before he was ever captured, but I know; as much as I hate to think it, that my father never renounced his charge against you before he died."
"Wouldn't it have died with him?" Elrohir asked.
Talass shook her head. "No. Only the High Priest, or High Priestess, of Forseti could recant the charge. Do you understand now? If you came back with me now, you'd be arrested by the first Fruztii who recognized you. But once I can gain the title of High Priestess, I can recant the charge myself."
"Wouldn't that be seen as a conflict of interest?"
His wife smiled. "Fruztii law lacks many of the subtleties and nuances of these southern courts. In truth, my jarl could object, but I won't get to be High Priestess without his blessing anyway, so I doubt he will."
Elrohir tried to quiet the storm raging behind his stern mask, with little success. "How long will this take?"
Talass hesitated. "I can't be sure. My jarl is sure to assign me a difficult task to prove myself to the Fruztii before he would even consider re-instating me. At a minimum, I'd say two to three months."
Elrohir abruptly stood up, said, "Just give me a moment," and started to pace the room, thinking furiously.
Perhaps, he thought, it wasn't all as bad as he was making it out to be. Two, three, maybe even four months was a long time to be sure, but compared to an eternity without Talass, it was endurable. Even the prospect of returning to Rhizia with Talass seemed more palatable now, without her father to interfere. Elrohir had retired for the second and last time; of that he was sure. Neither riches nor glory appealed to him. Not that either had ever been a driving force in Elrohir's life, but now a quiet life in the rugged Thillonrian Peninsula appealed to him. He, Talass and Barahir. A family together at last.
He stopped pacing and turned back to Talass as more questions entered his mind. "When would you have to leave?"
"Time is precious in this matter," she replied quietly. "Tomorrow, if possible."
"And what happens if you fail this task? You are free then to return here, right? Your obligation would be discharged?"
Talass gulped.
"Dearest," she said softly. "If I fail in whatever quest my jarl appoints for me, it will only be because I have died in the attempt."
"What?" Elrohir thundered, his wife flinching from his voice. "And your god demands this of you? After all you have sacrificed for him and his ideals- your very life? I don't see why you have to do this, Talass. I don't see why you have to do any of this at all!"
"Dearest," she cried back. "I am His priestess, the instrument of His will-"
"A slave to it, you mean!" the ranger roared. "What kind of a god would inflict such misery upon his best and most loyal servant? It sounds like The Earth Dragon all over again! If Forseti is so uncaring about his worshippers, perhaps it is best if he winds up with none at all!"
"Elrohir!" Talass shrieked in horror.
And then The Question broke loose from Elrohir.
The one he had wanted, but never dared ask, from the very beginning.
"Who is more important to you, Talass? Your husband or your god?"
Talass tore at her hair and wailed.
Please dearest, oh, please DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE!"
"I'm not the one forcing this decision upon you, Talass," Elrohir replied, his voice suddenly calm again. "Forseti is."
"Elrohir-"
"I have to go now, Talass. You need your rest. We will talk more of this after Heldenster releases you."
In truth, Elrohir had no desire whatsoever to talk anymore about this; he couldn't see what could come out of it except more anguish and heartbreak, but it gave him an excuse to leave. He rounded his back on his wife- and stopped.
Propped up on both elbows, Yanigasawa Tojo was staring at him.
Elrohir looked away as he blustered past and down the foyer. There was no handle on the marble door, but it began to open as soon as his hand touched it.
The Room of Return was soundproof from within, but now Talass' sobs could be heard issuing from within as Elrohir rushed past his shocked friends and companions, ignoring their frantic questions.
He knew he was hurting her, but he also knew he had been hurt.
All he had ever wanted for him and Talass had been a union of love, and her god had destroyed that.
He cursed Forseti and all gods above and below as he hurried from the chapel.