The Fall
Rounding a bend in another tunnel, Rhapsody suddenly found herself looking out over a deep crevice that split down the center of the next cave. This room was dimly lit but well enough that she was able to see everything that was in it, including Achmed.
He was directly in front of her, hanging from the chains that the F'dor had left him in over the crevice. His shirt was removed and bloody gashes shown around his torso.
A rainbow of bruises spanned across his chest with two near by sites of impact on his right side that the rest of the colors radiated from. As she looked further up, she could see that a tight gag was stuffed and tied in his mouth, preventing him from uttering any word.
But what appalled Rhapsody the most from the scene, was his eyes. Even if his mouth was unable to speak, his eyes were screaming. She stared into his eyes for a moment, wondering what it was that he was trying to say to her.
Dread settled upon her when she saw genuine fear in his eyes; a fear that she had never seen before from him. Pain also was there, but this was only minor to something deeper, some meaning that he was trying so hard to express to her, but she just wasn't getting it.
Then, out of nowhere, another Nain rushed her, swinging his wicked sword. Without thinking, she drew her sword, hearing the clarion call resonate in the open cave, ramming it through the assailant's unprotected middle. Viciously, she yanked her blade from the collapsing man and turned her attention back to Achmed, only to have her heart stop.
Distantly, she could hear her voice screaming something and could feel her feet taking her to the very edge of the precipice, but these actions were all on another level of consciousness from her. Dimly she was aware of the wicked spears that reached up towards the plummeting body of her husband.
As she watched in appalled and helpless horror, time began to change. It was as if she could feel a bubble in time appearing directly in the center between their two bodies. The bubble rapidly expanded to encompass them, allowing time to continue to flow outside of this bubble but drastically slowing for them. These were their final moments together, and they needed to make them last.
Eyes locked upon his eyes, she searched for words that he was still trying to tell her, but now, these words had changed. The fear and the warning was now gone. These had been replaced by acceptance and love.
Then, it felt as if she could truly hear him for the first time ever. It started as a whisper and began to grow. As it grew, the scene before her faded and she found herself standing on a blank plain of white with Achmed standing before her.
"Rhapsody, I want you to know how much I love you," he was saying.
"What is this? What is happening?" she demanded
"I don't know, but I am grateful for this final chance that we have been given to say what needs to be said."
"No! Achmed you can't leave me. This isn't happening," she cried. Tears were spilling out her eyes.
"Shh Rhapsody. We don't have much time. I don't know why we have been given this gift, but I want to make the most of it. I have never been able to truly tell you how much you mean to me. I have been closed off from the world for so long that I could never really open up, not even to you. Now, none of that matters anymore. All that exists for me now is our love."
"No… Achmed, I love you so much, don't end this here, I won't survive it."
"You will, and you must. I won't tell you all that you still have to live for because this is our moment. This is the last chance that I have to let you know the depths of my love for you."
"I love you so much. I can't see you go like this," she began, struggling against some unseen force to move closer to him, to hold him and be held in his arms one last time. She found that she was completely unable to move from her spot. And she could see that he too was limited to the space that he now occupied. This was a moment meant only for words.
"Rhapsody, dear one, in many ways, I have loved you more than life itself. That may be why we have been granted this moment at the last. I have invested all of my emotions in you. Never before have I so completely depended on another for my survival. If I had ever lost you, I would not have been able to carry on."
"And that is where I am now. You can't leave me now. It will kill me. You once told me that survival is what it's all about, well my survival is in the balance here with yours as well. If you die here, I will too. I will follow you right off of this precipice."
"No you won't. You have and always will have something else to live for. You were the first and only thing that ever entered my life that I could ever invest myself in.
'I have to apologize to you. I have been a horrible person to deal with and I am sure I have caused you pain that you don't deserve. I wish there was a way to keep this pain of my death from you now, but there is nothing that can be done. This is the final stroke and I am ready now that I realize that you truly have loved me in return all of these years. I am still surprised that it can be true, but this truth will guide me on to the next life where someday I hope to rejoin you."
"No, stop!" She screamed as she felt their window receding. The plain they had existed on for the last few moments was fading, returning them to the hateful world once again.
"Goodbye Rhapsody, my light, my love, my wife."
"Achmed, I love you. Don't leave! No! no," and then the bubble popped, throwing the horror of the scene in to a sharp relief once again. The broken body continued to plummet to towards the hungry spears below. Her No's rang through the entire cavern and echoed in her very soul. It was unbearable to watch, yet there was no way that she could turn away from it. Tears of rage and despair flooded down her face unchecked and unnoticed. She was losing him, and there was nothing she could do.
Tears of a like kind also spilled from his eyes, but these were more for the pain that she was experiencing and would continue to go through after his death. An absolute peace settled over him as the final few feet closed between him and the deadly spears below. He knew that he was going to die, right here, right now, and he felt that he was now ready. Everything that he had needed to say had been said. She would carry on and move past this, no matter what plots the demons have in mind… she was going to be alright and that was enough for him.
It was then that a breeze shifted across Rhapsody's neck as a coppery gold mist seemed to pass through and by her, rushing with unnatural speed at the falling body. There was no shape to this mist, but as it reached the chain that trailed after the doomed Achmed, it was yanked taunt, causing his body lurched away from the wicked spikes that were only inches away from stealing his life. The mist towed the line with the dangling body away, just beyond the pit of spears before dropping him the last few feet to the floor of the cavern.
All thought suspended and unable to fully register what had just happened, Rhapsody rushed down a flight of stares to the cavern floor that she never even realized she had seen until that moment. The only thought in her mind was to reach Achmed's side; nothing else in the universe seemed to matter at that point in time.
Nearly collapsing down at his side, she looked, unbelievingly, down at his still living face, soaking his skin with her still unnoticed tears. Quickly she removed the gag that prevented their communication and before he could say a word, she covered his mouth with her's, desperate to feel his kiss in return. Weakly, yet just as desperate and passionately, he return her kiss. But a slight noise disturbed the two enough to break their shared moment.
Suddenly remembering that some other presence had saved her husband, Rhapsody looked over to where the misty light had settled on the floor of the cavern. She watched as the mist slowly gathered and began to coalesce into the vague shape of a dragon.
Confusion filled Rhapsody as she slowly rose to a stand, staring at the dragon, wondering why Elynsynos would be this far from her cave.
As she stared, trying to figure out what this was, the shape changed and began to turn into a new form, the form of a man. As color and shading began to enter the body, the light that this form radiated became brilliant, forcing Rhapsody to look away for a moment.
When she was able to look back, it took her a moment before the sight that she saw hit her with a tremendous force of recognition and flood of emotion that almost knocked her over.
"Ashe!" she cried as she took a step to run to him, only to be stopped by his raised hand and a shake of his head.
The multi-toned sound a dragon speaking rang in the cavern, "No Aria, it wouldn't be right. We are separated and must remain so from now on. We are now two different people, neither of us are as we were when we were together."
Rhapsody felt a slap in the face at his words though she knew they were filled with truth. "Ashe, why? Why have you come if this is how you feel?"
"I have been near by for sometime now and I came to see you one last time before I leave for a very long time. I have explored all the elements that this land has to offer, but I know that I must leave this land to go out to sea. That is the only place that I will ever be able to be truly happy now."
The tears that had almost stopped began to flow freely once again as she listen to all that he said. "So, it is truly over between us. Not even in the next life will we ever be together again," she said as a realization statement, even though she knew this was something she had known all along.
A sad smile crossed the face of the dragon-man. "My Emily, I know that this is hardest for you, but you have known this always."
Heavily and slowly she nodded. Then, hearing the slight clank of chains, she looked back to where Achmed lay, trying to sit up but finding the heavy chains to be too much for him to lift. Quickly, she returned to his side, placing a gentle hand over his chest to keep him from struggling to rise, risking further injury.
"Aria, I have paid your debts for you. You must not live in each other's debt, you should only owe each other mutual love and respect from now on." As his words rang in the cave the light once again began to grow. The solid form of the man began to melt back into the ethereal mist that had first entered the cave.
"Sam, I will always carry you in a special place of my heart and in that way we shall always be together."
"Yes Rhapsody, hold on to that and I shall have a place in the afterlife after all. Take care of our son and tell him that I shall always love him and am proud of him."
As Ashe continued to fade into his ethereal form again Rhapsody looked down to where Achmed was trying hard to say something, leaning down to him Rhapsody could just hear him whisper, "Meridion, is a thrall."
Looking up in alarm to her fading former husband, Rhapsody cried, "Ashe, wait!"
"Do not worry, I have already been to see him, he should be here shortly, returned to his former self. He is strong and was almost free of the spell on his own, it didn't take much of my help to release him from the F'dor's hold. Now, take care of your new husband and live a happy full life. Perhaps I will see you again, perhaps not. Goodbye my bright one, my once treasure. Goodbye." And with that the mist had faded into nothing taking it's brightness with it.
Taking one final deep breath to steady her shredded nerves and emotions, Rhapsody once again turned her attention to Achmed. He was certainly a wreck and hardly in any shape to make it back out of that labyrinth of tunnels.
First thing she needed to do was get those chains off that kept his arms stretched out above his head as he had been for she could not guess how long. Once again drawing her sword, she swiftly sheared though the heavy iron lock that held the his manacles in place.
As she worked, Achmed continued to try to talk to her, to tell her something, but she silenced him, knowing that time was not on their side and he was going to need every last bit of strength that he had left to make it out of there.
As soon as she had his arms released she began to slowly help him lower them to his sides, achingly and painful as it was. Working in an agonizingly slow way, Rhapsody didn't even notice as Meridion came to her side.
"Mother," his whispered gently, nearly causing her to jump as she instinctively reached for her blade.
Backing off a step and putting his hand up he said, "Don't worry. I'm me again and I know what has been happening. We must hurry, there is much that is going on that must be stopped."
Painfully, Achmed nodded his head in affirmation. "F'dor's," he managed to growl.
Looking down at the wreckage of the king, Meridion was overcome with grief and sorrow over what he had done to this man. "Gods, Achmed. I am so sorry, I tried to stop but I couldn't. I could see you, but was unable to do anything," he said as he knelt down beside the king as well.
Shaking his head, Achmed brought Meridion's apologies to a halt. "Achmed knows that it was not you who did those things," Rhapsody said gently to her son. "You were powerless and are no more responsible for this than either of us. Now help me with him, I'm afraid that his ribs are cracked and I'm going to have to wrap them before we can move him."
Nodding, Meridion went to work beside his mother, working on getting Achmed patched up enough to get out of there.
For some time the only sound that could be heard in the cave was a soft humming tune that Rhapsody hummed over Achmed and slight hisses of pain that escaped from the kings lips as they worked.
It was a sudden horrendous sound that caused all of them to jump when the shriek echoed in their heads as it did around the cave. They all looked up to where a woman stood on the cliff above with murder in her eyes and the slightly struggling form of Omet clutched by his throat in her right hand.