Author's Note: I can hardly believe I wrote this chapter! It came to me in a flash, and I could not stop writing for about an hour! Enjoy!
Chapter 12
Mera's point of view
I was thrust backwards so violently I was knocked off my feet. For perhaps the first time in my life, my vision was blurry. Slowly, my hearing began to return. Music, mainly violins, and southern accents. Horses whinnied, their hooves beating against the dirt, wheels grinding against the packed earth. I felt the earth beneath my palms as I sat there on my hind end. I lifted my hand as my sight came into focus to see the red clay clinging to my softly glowing skin. Everything smelled different, both fresher, and dirtier at the same time. Horse manure and animal fesses lingered in the air.
I looked up, my breath catching as I took in the sight before me. Wagons, horses, puffed sleeves, top hats... hoop skirts? What on earth...
"You have got to be kidding me!" I exclaimed under my breath. I shook my head.
A whinnying caught my attention, and just in time. I fell to my back and rolled out of the way just as a wagon wheel rolled where I had been. I landed my roll on one knee, one hand stabilizing myself. I climbed to my feet, and was oddly aware of the fact that no one seemed to notice me standing there in a faint blue dress that would be considered entirely immodest in this day and age.
Time travel? Really? I groaned, trying to piece together how this could have happened. I remembered Cronus trying to warn me, of this, I could only assume. I just woke and had memories of you, ones that I did not have before... did he send me here? Did I? If so, how can I? This feeling of overwhelm filled me as I wondered what gave me this power. How could I be so powerful as to break the laws of physics, or tear a hole in the fabric of space-time? A sardonic laugh left my lips, thinking just how many of those 'laws' I have either witnessed broken, or broken myself. Still. How?
My thoughts were startled as I scanned the people moving through the crowds. Upswept golden blond hair... tell tale violet eyes. I knew her face. I knew her name. Vanessa Amara Le-June. French Baroness... and Pandora's descendant. Her jaw was stronger than mine, her nose a button, her lips as full as my own and her violet eyes held a grave intensity.
Funnily enough, her gown was the same shade of blue I was currently wearing. I took in as many details as I could, so as to spot where I was in time. There was an engagement ring on her finger, a light blue diamond cut into a heart. She would never marry, she would die on October 25th of 1839, aged 22, in an assignation. She had gotten engaged five months before her death, to a wealthy land owner her grandparents had chosen for her. She had a lover, another man who would soon be beyond her reach after her marriage.
Vanessa's eye darted around as she held her self in perfect composure; she looked right past me, as all the rest did. She knocked on a wooden door, which was promptly opened by a man with pale blue eyes, blond hair and pale skin.
Minutes passed before I put another piece of information together. And then another... Vanessa was murdered by the Nameless One, in an explosion. Pale blue eyes, pale skin... and she was five months pregnant at the time.
I moved into action, running as fast as I could, only half aware that I was running through the people and wagons in the street, instead of bumping into them. The force of the explosion did nothing to stop me. My symbol was not a phoenix for nothing. But it was too late, I watched as she was thrust backwards by the force of the explosion, impaling her head on a thick old nail that stuck four inches out of the wood. The weight of her body ripped the nail out of the wall, and her body fell with it. I heard the little heartbeat in her womb begin to slow. Vanessa laid there, burnt and bloody, amidst the screams and cries from outside, with blank eyes as blood ran from a wound on the back of her head. I fell to my knees and grabbed for her shoulders, only for my hands to go right through. The heartbeat continued to slow, my maternal instincts screaming at me to find a way to save the child.
"Ariston!" I screamed out, and watched him appear.
"No," He whispered, and was examining her wound as his head fell in defeat. "Not again."
I reached out for him, my hand going right through him as my horror grew. He shuddered and I realized that on some level... he could feel me. The he must be able to hear me as well.
"The child!" I screamed. "Save her child!"
His brow furrowed, and then raised as his eyes widened. He carefully lifted her burnt body into his arms and teleported away, his glowing form hidden from sight by the bright flames. I sat there, shaking and trying desperately to make sense of this. I saved the child, I half thought, half realized. The babe was supposed to live, as history dictates. Would Ariston have come in time if I had not called to him? Would the babe have lived if I had not come back? So many questions…
Eventually, I looked up and nearly jumped at the sight across the room. The man with the pale blue eyes. He sat unharmed on a burning chair amidst the flames and as I watched, his disguise dissolved.
Jason sat there, leaning his forearms on his knees as he wrung his hands together. His eyes were dark, cold... Zenophian, not Jason. His black curls and pale skin were slightly covered with soot. Watching him, I became horrified, and furious. And hurt. I had to remind myself again and again that this was not Jason, not truly.
"How could you?" I whispered, knowing the answer all along. "My Jason... how did you become this?"
At the sound of his name, his eye snapped up. They were different now, filled with emotion, with need and torment. Those were the eyes I knew, and here he was!
"Jason!" I screamed. "YOU MUST FEEL ME!"
"Lyra?" He softly called, then louder. "Lyra?" He got to his feet and ran outside into the street littered with burnt and broken bodies, searching for my face. "Lyra, please!" He stared at the faces of the dead, grief and horror stricken. "Not again." He cried and then screamed into the air before teleporting away.
I stood there, alone amongst the carnage. I felt truly lost, in a way I never have before. I realized that there was one place left for me. Those gold veined marble walls called to me. Home. Safety, and hopefully, answers.
