Chapter XVI: The Preparations
Within Grayskull, the Sorceress watched her daughter trudge off unhappily via the view screen in her throne room. Teelina sighed roughly. Not being able to raise her child herself had always been a sore spot with her. It was bad enough that she could not raise her as a mother should be able to, but Teela did not even know who her mother was.
In that regard, Teelina truly envied Lady Moria. True, the Dereskian Queen had not raised her daughter either, but at least they were together now. And at least Evil-Lyn had known her mother's identity.
The Sorceress groaned angrily and refocused her eyes to the form of her daughter. Teela was so stoic, so unmoving, so much a warrior in so many ways. She would be a wonderful guardian of Grayskull, when the time came. She would be strong and courageous, fully resolved in standing up for what she felt she had to protect. She was that way now, Teelina reasoned. She smiled as, on the screen, Teela cursed beneath her breath at the idea of getting a in a pink dress.
So absorbed was Teelina in her thoughts that she did not even bother to be startled when she felt a familiar hand upon her shoulder.
"What do you want?" she asked after a few moments of unwelcoming silence.
Her visitor used the grip at Teelina's shoulder to turn the Sorceress around, causing her to look into amethyst eyes. "What makes you think I want anything?" Lady Moria asked, mildly entertained.
"Because you always want something," Teelina stated, removing the elder woman's hand from her shoulder as, behind her, the image of Teela faded.
Moria smiled lightly. "Oh, Teelina," she questioned amusedly. "What have I ever asked of you? Hmm?"
The redheaded woman turned away and began to walk down the steps of her pyramid. "The more relevant question is 'what haven't you ever asked of me,'" she muttered almost incoherently.
The elder followed her down the steps until they had reached the cold stone floor. Moria smiled, her eyes twinkling. "Not exactly looking forward to nightfall, is she?" She asked, indicating Teela.
Teelina did not reply. Her head hung somewhat low, the feathers of her headdress just touching the upper contours of her chest.
Lady Moria had not really expected an answer. "Will you be in attendance at such a grandiose festivity, dear?" she asked, eyes whirling in some unknown emotion which may have been glee.
Looking up somewhat uncertainly, the Sorceress nodded in the affirmative. "I was given an invitation, yes. Therefore, I must go."
The elder woman's eyebrow quirked upwards. "You have no choice in the matter?"
"Not much of one, no. The Eternian kingdom must be well represented by those who protect it. I am consequently required to make an appearance," Teelina replied, sighing.
A small laugh could be heard from the Ancient Dereskian. "You should be pleased, my dear. At least this way you can escape the confines of these walls for an evening. Speaking of which, how exactly do you intend to remain in human form while you are there?"
The redhead looked at her quizzically, wondering why Moria was so interested in this topic. "I can maintain my form for a few hours, as long as I do so sparingly."
Moria nodded. "Of course." She was silent for a time, a bemused smile upon her lips. "What will you be wearing?" she asked after a moment, eyes twinkling.
Teelina looked at her angrily. "I don't see how that has any relevance whatsoever. Now please, stop attempting to be social and tell me what you are doing here."
The elder woman let out a small chuckle and gently caressed the Sorceress' cheek. "What makes you think I have any other purpose than being social?" She winked an amethyst eye. "Humor me, dear. What will you wear?"
Teelina sighed raggedly and ran her finger through the feathers at her neck. "A velvet dress, now can we please change the subject?"
"Hmm. I should have thought you'd be more of a satin person than velvet, but no matter," Moria commented, paying the younger woman's second comment no heed. "What color?"
Teelina rolled her eyes at Moria's indifference. "It's blue, now can we please-"
"Interesting," the elder woman interrupted, her eyes laughing. "Have you ever considered wearing maroon, dear? It would bring out your hair wonderfully."
The Sorceress shook her head a bit defensively. "I like blue. It matches my eyes." Though she still questioned Moria's motives, a small part of her found it amusing to be discussing fashion with the Dereskian Queen, and she laughed in spite of herself.
"Of course," the elder woman said, winking. "And how long is this dress?" Inwardly, Lady Moria was laughing as well. It was somehow refreshing to simply talk with no real agenda, even if Teelina thought she had one. Of course, the elder woman did not really know why she was bothering asking the redhead all of these questions about a dress she would see later tonight anyway.
Teelina sighed raggedly. "It trails down to the floor. The neckline plunges to just above my bodice and there are far too many ruffles than could ever be practical. May we please change the subject now?"
"Certainly. How will your hair be done?" Moria asked, unable to hide her amusement.
The Sorceress groaned. "I won't have on the headdress, if that is what you're asking."
Winking, the elder woman gently extended her hand and rested it upon Teelina's cheek. "One should hope not, love." The Sorceress flinched at such a familiar gesture.
True, Moria had touched her in much more intimate places than merely her cheek before. Yet even so, the older woman seemed in a very different mood than usual. Her frequent detached attitude was still evident, but she seemed. more distant than was customary. It almost seemed as if the elder woman was not in the present time. It more appeared that Moria was lost in the past.
The Dereskian Ancient winked at her, bringing the Sorceress out of her reverie. Her eyes refocused on the elder woman. "Why are you so interested in me?" she asked. "Why do you care what it is I will wear or how my hair will be pinned? Why are you here?"
Moria looked at her softly, her eyes smiling gently. She removed her hand from Teelina's face and put it by her side. "I am here, Teelina, because I have unfinished business within these walls. Business of the kind that cannot be accomplished in only one or two visits, but must instead take many, many years. I am also here because of you. As for what I want." she broke off and let the unfinished sentence hang in the air.
Smiling in her enigmatic fashion, Moria winked a swirling eye and backed up against the wall. \\See you tonight,\\ she whispered in her own language, and then disappeared into the wall.
After she had gone, the Sorceress turned to the wall into which she had vanished and let out a small scream of frustration, pounding her fists into the cold, unrelenting stones.
"Damn that woman!" she screamed, before bending over herself and sinking to the floor.
She hated her. She hated, hated, did not hate her, but wished with all of her self that she could. Despite whatever she wanted, Teelina could never fully despise Lady Moria. A part of her would always admire the elder woman, and respect her. She would never be able to hate Moria. That, perhaps, was what she hated most. .....
The Dereskian Queen reappeared in her own chambers, more than a little shaken. Her visit with the Sorceress had begun well enough. But towards the end. she didn't know why she had begun to tell her. There was no way in the Nine Hells that the Sorceress was ready to hear what Moria had to tell. Not even Lyn knew that much, and the elder Dereskian had resolved that she wouldn't for many years.
Moria inhaled sharply and shook her head, trying to clear it. She looked around her chambers, a little more relieved to discover that Lyn was not there than she would have liked to admit. There was a small piece of parchment on the table, which, when she picked it up, had been written in Lyn's clear, small, seemingly sharp letters.
Morämé, ki mousht urë ât contie des mez aglar por mo lamentinatio. Ki we necsk tall tumantë eithel gewpor uial.
Maethor, Moritënia
\\Mother, I have gone to bother with my attire for this evening. I will return here well before twilight. With love, Evil-Lyn\\
The Ancient Dereskian smiled softly, as if her daughter could see it, and then replaced the letter on the table.
Idly, she realized that if Lyn was busy fiddling with her wardrobe, she should probably do the same.
She turned to the right wall of her bedchamber, the only one that did not have a bookcase on it. There were numerous carvings etched all over it, mainly of quotations or seemingly oddly placed letters of the Dereskian language.
Moria extended her index finger and pressed it to several letters in a specific order, spelling out a word.
'Remiosantix.'
Memories.
The wall split down the middle and opened, revealing a series of large passageways that split and extended into the depths of the mountains in which had once surrounded the Dereskian lands.
Moria chose a hall that was off to the side, and traveled down it slowly. She could hear the wall closing behind her, but it did not faze her. She was traveling in passages that were far older than most anything on the planet. These halls had been among the first things constructed under the reign of Vädia, the first of the Dereskian Queens.
They had stood through the tests of time well, still containing much of their original luster, even now.
As Moria looked closely, though, she could see the cracks and impurities of a construction that was struggling to survive. She paused for a moment and looked at the walls. The halls had stood for nearly seven thousand years, but their splendor was tied in directly with those of the Dereskïgiä. Moria knew that if she traversed all of the corridors, many would be collapsed, and others nothing more than piles of rubble.
The flames that had been the Dereskïgiä had all but burned out. All that remained it their glory were one less than a handful of candles, only two fully lit. Of those, one was slowly sputtering out, and Moria knew it all too well.
Shaking out of her reverie, the Dereskian Queen came to the end of her hall, and reached for the door to a large chamber. Her closet.
She turned the handle, and was instantly hit with a thousand different memories of her past. Within this closet, all of her most treasured material possessions, few as they may be, were kept. In particular, everything of her sister's that she had been able to find.
Of course, the majority of her younger twin's possessions, as well as her own, had been destroyed along with the palace and every other thing that had ever been Dereskian after the War of Three Days. However, some of their belongings had been kept in the very rooms that Lady Moria now made her residence. These things had been kept intact, as none of the Eternians had known of the existence of the personal chambers.
After the War of Three Days, when Moria had discovered that the chambers had not been affected, she had moved every possession, both of her sister and of herself, into this room, and dubbed it a closet. She had not been back inside since Lyn had been born.
The Dereskian Queen pushed open the door and offered herself to the memories, letting them sweep over her as if devouring her. Every surface, every item, every highlight of every object brought back a dozen memories that she had long since forgotten.
For a long moment, she simply stood outside of the door, staring. She knew it all so well, and yet was experiencing it for the first time. She closed her eyes, and slowly entered inside, shutting the door behind her.
Taking a deep breath, Moria slowly opened her eyes. She was instantly overwhelmed with emotions she had not known she still possessed. Everywhere she looked she saw something of her sister.
She managed to walk to the area where she had stored all of their clothing, and reached out a tentative hand to touch the sleeve of the first outfit that caught her eyes.
Oh, she recalled this dress. It was one she had worn in the days just following her coronation; back when she had been Caerlin, Queen of the Dereskïgiä. There, beside it, hung the one her sister, the original Moria, had worn on the same day. What a pair they had been. She had dressed in silvers and blacks and purples, always choosing clothing that set off her eyes. Her sister had been clothed in whites and yellows and blues, complimenting her perfectly. Their facial features had been exactly similar, of course, but Caerlin had always been amazed by the appearance of calm her sister had always radiated.
She went from dress to dress, outfit to outfit, remembering every time she or Moria had ever worn them, remembering the way her sister had looked in each of the gowns and other garments.
As she expected, a great wave of loss swept over her, and her legs buckled, causing her to fall on the floor. She had not forgotten her sister, and never would. She was bound to her sister's life through her own. In her mind, she considered herself responsible for Moria's death, and she knew that would never change.
In life, Moria had been the one spot of happiness she had ever known. And in death, Moria was all she had left to cling to. She had tried, countless times, to simply tell herself that her sister was dead, but Moria's presence would never let her be. And the Dereskian Queen was not altogether that she wanted it to.
Lady Moria never slept at night, and, though she could argue that it was unnecessary, she knew better. She knew the true reason that she never slept was that she feared of what she would dream, or remember. Her sister's screams echoed in her mind even when she was wakeful. In dreams, Lady Moria had no control over what she remembered.
Lady Moria laughed slightly. She knew she was insane. Her love for her sister, both when she was living and even now, had long since chased away all of the sanity she possessed. Her sister had died seven hundred and sixty-eight years ago, but to her, it had been only yesterday. She clung to Moria's memory as tightly as possible, even though she knew it was pointless. Even though she knew there was nothing she could do to change it. Even though she knew it would eventually lead to her death.
She could not say just how long it was that she hid inside her memories.
After a time, there was a touch at her shoulder, gently trying to shake her out of the grip of her memories. Lady Moria Vadorian slowly turned and looked at the pale hand, her eyes unseeing for a few moments.
"Morämé?" Evil-Lyn questioned, slightly worried. She had seen her mother retreat into her mind many times, but this was the first time Moria had ever not been aware of her presence.
The elder woman's eyes slowly focused in on her daughter. She blinked a few times, and then shook her head gently. "Lyn?" she questioned softly. "How did you get in here?" she asked after a pause.
"I followed your trail majickally," her daughter answered simply, reaching out her arm to help the elder woman to her feet. "What is this place?"
Evil-Lyn's eyes danced around the room, drifting from one item to another, looking at the finery of the gowns and the shining of the various weapons and the warm, wooden surfaces of other objects.
As she stood, Lady Moria shook away the final traces of her memories. She smiled softly at Lyn's sense of wonder. "You never knew your mother had such a large closet, did you, dear?" she asked, amusedly.
"This is your closet?" the younger Dereskian asked, amazed. "I had no idea." She looked around the room again slowly, and then turned back to her mother. "What were you doing when I came in?"
The elder woman hesitated for a long moment, her eyes dropping from Lyn's gaze and turning instead to the floor. "I was. thinking. of my sister."
Evil-Lyn nodded slowly and shifted her gaze to a particular dress. It was black, with a plunging neckline and finely sewn silver embroidery etched all around the hems. There were long slits up the side to provide ease while moving, and the back of the dress was longer than the front, creating an almost cape-like effect.
Moria was not so lost in her own mindset that she failed to realize her daughter's gaze had shifted. She looked over to see what held her daughter's interest. "That one." she said softly. "She wore it on the day before Elënuial's christening. it was the last dress she ever wore to a social event.." Her voice was no longer sad; rather, it was the deep, mellow tone of one who was remembering something that had brought them joy.
"You should wear it tonight," Lyn said flatly, turning to meet her mother's gaze. Her tone allowed no refusal to be attempted.
The Ancient Dereskian looked at her daughter with a mixture of horror and surprise in her eyes. "I couldn't. it would be." she broke off, looking at the dress for a long moment, a small smile forming on the corners of her mouth.
"Perfect," her daughter said, her eyes twinkling softly as she regarded Lady Moria and looked for her reaction.
The elder woman looked curiously at the dress, then at her daughter. "Alright," she said gently, walking slowly towards the gown and running her hands through it. It felt as smooth as silk without the heavy feeling usually associated therein. She took it out from where it lay and held it up, paying attention to every detail of stitch work, every glare of refracted light caught by the almost glittering material.
She looked over at Evil-Lyn, who was smiling in her way, her eyes twinkling. "It will match what I'm wearing wonderfully, Mother," she said, winking softly.
"Will it indeed?" Moria asked, her tone rising as she regarded her child with an amused look in her amethyst eyes. "Very well then. Let us leave these halls and prepare, hmm?"
Lyn nodded, "But of course, Morämé."
Moria smiled and approached the door, holding it open for her child to exit. After Evil-Lyn had done so, the Ancient Dereskian took one last fleeting look inside her closet and all of her sister's possessions. Smiling sadly to herself, she exited and closed the door behind her.
It was the last time she would ever enter.
Within Grayskull, the Sorceress watched her daughter trudge off unhappily via the view screen in her throne room. Teelina sighed roughly. Not being able to raise her child herself had always been a sore spot with her. It was bad enough that she could not raise her as a mother should be able to, but Teela did not even know who her mother was.
In that regard, Teelina truly envied Lady Moria. True, the Dereskian Queen had not raised her daughter either, but at least they were together now. And at least Evil-Lyn had known her mother's identity.
The Sorceress groaned angrily and refocused her eyes to the form of her daughter. Teela was so stoic, so unmoving, so much a warrior in so many ways. She would be a wonderful guardian of Grayskull, when the time came. She would be strong and courageous, fully resolved in standing up for what she felt she had to protect. She was that way now, Teelina reasoned. She smiled as, on the screen, Teela cursed beneath her breath at the idea of getting a in a pink dress.
So absorbed was Teelina in her thoughts that she did not even bother to be startled when she felt a familiar hand upon her shoulder.
"What do you want?" she asked after a few moments of unwelcoming silence.
Her visitor used the grip at Teelina's shoulder to turn the Sorceress around, causing her to look into amethyst eyes. "What makes you think I want anything?" Lady Moria asked, mildly entertained.
"Because you always want something," Teelina stated, removing the elder woman's hand from her shoulder as, behind her, the image of Teela faded.
Moria smiled lightly. "Oh, Teelina," she questioned amusedly. "What have I ever asked of you? Hmm?"
The redheaded woman turned away and began to walk down the steps of her pyramid. "The more relevant question is 'what haven't you ever asked of me,'" she muttered almost incoherently.
The elder followed her down the steps until they had reached the cold stone floor. Moria smiled, her eyes twinkling. "Not exactly looking forward to nightfall, is she?" She asked, indicating Teela.
Teelina did not reply. Her head hung somewhat low, the feathers of her headdress just touching the upper contours of her chest.
Lady Moria had not really expected an answer. "Will you be in attendance at such a grandiose festivity, dear?" she asked, eyes whirling in some unknown emotion which may have been glee.
Looking up somewhat uncertainly, the Sorceress nodded in the affirmative. "I was given an invitation, yes. Therefore, I must go."
The elder woman's eyebrow quirked upwards. "You have no choice in the matter?"
"Not much of one, no. The Eternian kingdom must be well represented by those who protect it. I am consequently required to make an appearance," Teelina replied, sighing.
A small laugh could be heard from the Ancient Dereskian. "You should be pleased, my dear. At least this way you can escape the confines of these walls for an evening. Speaking of which, how exactly do you intend to remain in human form while you are there?"
The redhead looked at her quizzically, wondering why Moria was so interested in this topic. "I can maintain my form for a few hours, as long as I do so sparingly."
Moria nodded. "Of course." She was silent for a time, a bemused smile upon her lips. "What will you be wearing?" she asked after a moment, eyes twinkling.
Teelina looked at her angrily. "I don't see how that has any relevance whatsoever. Now please, stop attempting to be social and tell me what you are doing here."
The elder woman let out a small chuckle and gently caressed the Sorceress' cheek. "What makes you think I have any other purpose than being social?" She winked an amethyst eye. "Humor me, dear. What will you wear?"
Teelina sighed raggedly and ran her finger through the feathers at her neck. "A velvet dress, now can we please change the subject?"
"Hmm. I should have thought you'd be more of a satin person than velvet, but no matter," Moria commented, paying the younger woman's second comment no heed. "What color?"
Teelina rolled her eyes at Moria's indifference. "It's blue, now can we please-"
"Interesting," the elder woman interrupted, her eyes laughing. "Have you ever considered wearing maroon, dear? It would bring out your hair wonderfully."
The Sorceress shook her head a bit defensively. "I like blue. It matches my eyes." Though she still questioned Moria's motives, a small part of her found it amusing to be discussing fashion with the Dereskian Queen, and she laughed in spite of herself.
"Of course," the elder woman said, winking. "And how long is this dress?" Inwardly, Lady Moria was laughing as well. It was somehow refreshing to simply talk with no real agenda, even if Teelina thought she had one. Of course, the elder woman did not really know why she was bothering asking the redhead all of these questions about a dress she would see later tonight anyway.
Teelina sighed raggedly. "It trails down to the floor. The neckline plunges to just above my bodice and there are far too many ruffles than could ever be practical. May we please change the subject now?"
"Certainly. How will your hair be done?" Moria asked, unable to hide her amusement.
The Sorceress groaned. "I won't have on the headdress, if that is what you're asking."
Winking, the elder woman gently extended her hand and rested it upon Teelina's cheek. "One should hope not, love." The Sorceress flinched at such a familiar gesture.
True, Moria had touched her in much more intimate places than merely her cheek before. Yet even so, the older woman seemed in a very different mood than usual. Her frequent detached attitude was still evident, but she seemed. more distant than was customary. It almost seemed as if the elder woman was not in the present time. It more appeared that Moria was lost in the past.
The Dereskian Ancient winked at her, bringing the Sorceress out of her reverie. Her eyes refocused on the elder woman. "Why are you so interested in me?" she asked. "Why do you care what it is I will wear or how my hair will be pinned? Why are you here?"
Moria looked at her softly, her eyes smiling gently. She removed her hand from Teelina's face and put it by her side. "I am here, Teelina, because I have unfinished business within these walls. Business of the kind that cannot be accomplished in only one or two visits, but must instead take many, many years. I am also here because of you. As for what I want." she broke off and let the unfinished sentence hang in the air.
Smiling in her enigmatic fashion, Moria winked a swirling eye and backed up against the wall. \\See you tonight,\\ she whispered in her own language, and then disappeared into the wall.
After she had gone, the Sorceress turned to the wall into which she had vanished and let out a small scream of frustration, pounding her fists into the cold, unrelenting stones.
"Damn that woman!" she screamed, before bending over herself and sinking to the floor.
She hated her. She hated, hated, did not hate her, but wished with all of her self that she could. Despite whatever she wanted, Teelina could never fully despise Lady Moria. A part of her would always admire the elder woman, and respect her. She would never be able to hate Moria. That, perhaps, was what she hated most. .....
The Dereskian Queen reappeared in her own chambers, more than a little shaken. Her visit with the Sorceress had begun well enough. But towards the end. she didn't know why she had begun to tell her. There was no way in the Nine Hells that the Sorceress was ready to hear what Moria had to tell. Not even Lyn knew that much, and the elder Dereskian had resolved that she wouldn't for many years.
Moria inhaled sharply and shook her head, trying to clear it. She looked around her chambers, a little more relieved to discover that Lyn was not there than she would have liked to admit. There was a small piece of parchment on the table, which, when she picked it up, had been written in Lyn's clear, small, seemingly sharp letters.
Morämé, ki mousht urë ât contie des mez aglar por mo lamentinatio. Ki we necsk tall tumantë eithel gewpor uial.
Maethor, Moritënia
\\Mother, I have gone to bother with my attire for this evening. I will return here well before twilight. With love, Evil-Lyn\\
The Ancient Dereskian smiled softly, as if her daughter could see it, and then replaced the letter on the table.
Idly, she realized that if Lyn was busy fiddling with her wardrobe, she should probably do the same.
She turned to the right wall of her bedchamber, the only one that did not have a bookcase on it. There were numerous carvings etched all over it, mainly of quotations or seemingly oddly placed letters of the Dereskian language.
Moria extended her index finger and pressed it to several letters in a specific order, spelling out a word.
'Remiosantix.'
Memories.
The wall split down the middle and opened, revealing a series of large passageways that split and extended into the depths of the mountains in which had once surrounded the Dereskian lands.
Moria chose a hall that was off to the side, and traveled down it slowly. She could hear the wall closing behind her, but it did not faze her. She was traveling in passages that were far older than most anything on the planet. These halls had been among the first things constructed under the reign of Vädia, the first of the Dereskian Queens.
They had stood through the tests of time well, still containing much of their original luster, even now.
As Moria looked closely, though, she could see the cracks and impurities of a construction that was struggling to survive. She paused for a moment and looked at the walls. The halls had stood for nearly seven thousand years, but their splendor was tied in directly with those of the Dereskïgiä. Moria knew that if she traversed all of the corridors, many would be collapsed, and others nothing more than piles of rubble.
The flames that had been the Dereskïgiä had all but burned out. All that remained it their glory were one less than a handful of candles, only two fully lit. Of those, one was slowly sputtering out, and Moria knew it all too well.
Shaking out of her reverie, the Dereskian Queen came to the end of her hall, and reached for the door to a large chamber. Her closet.
She turned the handle, and was instantly hit with a thousand different memories of her past. Within this closet, all of her most treasured material possessions, few as they may be, were kept. In particular, everything of her sister's that she had been able to find.
Of course, the majority of her younger twin's possessions, as well as her own, had been destroyed along with the palace and every other thing that had ever been Dereskian after the War of Three Days. However, some of their belongings had been kept in the very rooms that Lady Moria now made her residence. These things had been kept intact, as none of the Eternians had known of the existence of the personal chambers.
After the War of Three Days, when Moria had discovered that the chambers had not been affected, she had moved every possession, both of her sister and of herself, into this room, and dubbed it a closet. She had not been back inside since Lyn had been born.
The Dereskian Queen pushed open the door and offered herself to the memories, letting them sweep over her as if devouring her. Every surface, every item, every highlight of every object brought back a dozen memories that she had long since forgotten.
For a long moment, she simply stood outside of the door, staring. She knew it all so well, and yet was experiencing it for the first time. She closed her eyes, and slowly entered inside, shutting the door behind her.
Taking a deep breath, Moria slowly opened her eyes. She was instantly overwhelmed with emotions she had not known she still possessed. Everywhere she looked she saw something of her sister.
She managed to walk to the area where she had stored all of their clothing, and reached out a tentative hand to touch the sleeve of the first outfit that caught her eyes.
Oh, she recalled this dress. It was one she had worn in the days just following her coronation; back when she had been Caerlin, Queen of the Dereskïgiä. There, beside it, hung the one her sister, the original Moria, had worn on the same day. What a pair they had been. She had dressed in silvers and blacks and purples, always choosing clothing that set off her eyes. Her sister had been clothed in whites and yellows and blues, complimenting her perfectly. Their facial features had been exactly similar, of course, but Caerlin had always been amazed by the appearance of calm her sister had always radiated.
She went from dress to dress, outfit to outfit, remembering every time she or Moria had ever worn them, remembering the way her sister had looked in each of the gowns and other garments.
As she expected, a great wave of loss swept over her, and her legs buckled, causing her to fall on the floor. She had not forgotten her sister, and never would. She was bound to her sister's life through her own. In her mind, she considered herself responsible for Moria's death, and she knew that would never change.
In life, Moria had been the one spot of happiness she had ever known. And in death, Moria was all she had left to cling to. She had tried, countless times, to simply tell herself that her sister was dead, but Moria's presence would never let her be. And the Dereskian Queen was not altogether that she wanted it to.
Lady Moria never slept at night, and, though she could argue that it was unnecessary, she knew better. She knew the true reason that she never slept was that she feared of what she would dream, or remember. Her sister's screams echoed in her mind even when she was wakeful. In dreams, Lady Moria had no control over what she remembered.
Lady Moria laughed slightly. She knew she was insane. Her love for her sister, both when she was living and even now, had long since chased away all of the sanity she possessed. Her sister had died seven hundred and sixty-eight years ago, but to her, it had been only yesterday. She clung to Moria's memory as tightly as possible, even though she knew it was pointless. Even though she knew there was nothing she could do to change it. Even though she knew it would eventually lead to her death.
She could not say just how long it was that she hid inside her memories.
After a time, there was a touch at her shoulder, gently trying to shake her out of the grip of her memories. Lady Moria Vadorian slowly turned and looked at the pale hand, her eyes unseeing for a few moments.
"Morämé?" Evil-Lyn questioned, slightly worried. She had seen her mother retreat into her mind many times, but this was the first time Moria had ever not been aware of her presence.
The elder woman's eyes slowly focused in on her daughter. She blinked a few times, and then shook her head gently. "Lyn?" she questioned softly. "How did you get in here?" she asked after a pause.
"I followed your trail majickally," her daughter answered simply, reaching out her arm to help the elder woman to her feet. "What is this place?"
Evil-Lyn's eyes danced around the room, drifting from one item to another, looking at the finery of the gowns and the shining of the various weapons and the warm, wooden surfaces of other objects.
As she stood, Lady Moria shook away the final traces of her memories. She smiled softly at Lyn's sense of wonder. "You never knew your mother had such a large closet, did you, dear?" she asked, amusedly.
"This is your closet?" the younger Dereskian asked, amazed. "I had no idea." She looked around the room again slowly, and then turned back to her mother. "What were you doing when I came in?"
The elder woman hesitated for a long moment, her eyes dropping from Lyn's gaze and turning instead to the floor. "I was. thinking. of my sister."
Evil-Lyn nodded slowly and shifted her gaze to a particular dress. It was black, with a plunging neckline and finely sewn silver embroidery etched all around the hems. There were long slits up the side to provide ease while moving, and the back of the dress was longer than the front, creating an almost cape-like effect.
Moria was not so lost in her own mindset that she failed to realize her daughter's gaze had shifted. She looked over to see what held her daughter's interest. "That one." she said softly. "She wore it on the day before Elënuial's christening. it was the last dress she ever wore to a social event.." Her voice was no longer sad; rather, it was the deep, mellow tone of one who was remembering something that had brought them joy.
"You should wear it tonight," Lyn said flatly, turning to meet her mother's gaze. Her tone allowed no refusal to be attempted.
The Ancient Dereskian looked at her daughter with a mixture of horror and surprise in her eyes. "I couldn't. it would be." she broke off, looking at the dress for a long moment, a small smile forming on the corners of her mouth.
"Perfect," her daughter said, her eyes twinkling softly as she regarded Lady Moria and looked for her reaction.
The elder woman looked curiously at the dress, then at her daughter. "Alright," she said gently, walking slowly towards the gown and running her hands through it. It felt as smooth as silk without the heavy feeling usually associated therein. She took it out from where it lay and held it up, paying attention to every detail of stitch work, every glare of refracted light caught by the almost glittering material.
She looked over at Evil-Lyn, who was smiling in her way, her eyes twinkling. "It will match what I'm wearing wonderfully, Mother," she said, winking softly.
"Will it indeed?" Moria asked, her tone rising as she regarded her child with an amused look in her amethyst eyes. "Very well then. Let us leave these halls and prepare, hmm?"
Lyn nodded, "But of course, Morämé."
Moria smiled and approached the door, holding it open for her child to exit. After Evil-Lyn had done so, the Ancient Dereskian took one last fleeting look inside her closet and all of her sister's possessions. Smiling sadly to herself, she exited and closed the door behind her.
It was the last time she would ever enter.