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An old friend

Loivissa POV
Mercury was gone.

The notion that he could be gone just like that was too surreal for Loivissa to accept. This was Mercury, the same person who had survived more than she would ever even know of, the person that had taken over the world and who had already risen from the dead once already. He could not be gone just like that.

It had been too…easy. She had expected having to fight him in a battle of life and death. It would have been a fight for the bards to write songs about for generations to come, but it had never been. What had happened instead was that she had stabbed him through the heart, and then he had kissed her…and thanked her, before exploding right in front of her.

She was still slightly confused as to how she had survived the explosion completely unscathed when all of her wards had been down, but a look down at her right hand provided the answer. The lapis lazuli ring, the ring whose reddish match had been on Mercury's hand moments prior, had activated when it had happened and protected her.

But the ring had been designed to protect its wearer against spirits and the destructive effects that followed the death of shades, so why had it activated now? The obvious answer was also one that Loivissa found impossible.

The Mercury that she knew, or thought that she knew, would never steep to using sorcery to enhance his personal powers. He would have considered the risk of losing control of his mind to be unnecessary and found another way around the problem, because if there was one thing that she knew would never change with Mercury, then it was that he valued the control of his own mind above all else.

Besides, sorcery was banned by law in the Alliance, which had supposedly been ordered by Mercury himself before the Alliance's very formation, and though she knew that he had ignored rules when they did not suit his needs in the past, it should have been different when it had been he that made the rule.

A soft knock on the door tore her out of her bewilderment. She turned on her heel and readied her namesake to kill the next being that walked through the door, but became even more baffled when the door opened only slightly, before the quiet gentle voice of Ilumëo flowed through, "excuse me, my lady, but would you allow me to enter unharmed?"

It took a moment before Loivissa recognized that it was her that the aide was talking to, at which point, she lowered her sword slightly and said, "you can enter".

The aide was dressed in a green leather outfit with a dagger hanging from the waist, and though no tears were visible right now, Loivissa thought that her eyes looked like they might have cried recently.

"It is done then", the aide said with a sigh as she looked the Mercury-free office over, before she turned to Loivissa and asked, "did my lord have any last words, my lady?"

Loivissa blinked several times at the realization that the aide had known what would happen as well, before she eventually responded to the question, "he- he thanked me?"

"Oh, I see", the aide said with a small dip of her head, before her attention became fixed at the desk, "you have not picked up Aiedail yet".

"Aiedail?", Loivissa said confused. Aiedail had been decimated a month ago, and she was its only survivor, so how could she pick it up now?

"Your sword", Ilumëo said and nodded towards the desk, before motioning to the door behind her, "we ought to leave from here soon".

It was only then that Loivissa realized that it was her old rider's sword that Ilumëo was talking about, and that it had been lying on the desk this whole time. She had not noticed it upon entering because Mercury's body had been in the way, and she had been too preoccupied afterwards to notice the sword in its sea-blue sheath.

Loivissa moved to the desk and placed her namesake down upon it, before she drew her old rider's sword from its sheath and let her fingers wander over it. It felt real, it looked real and it had the right weight to it, but none of that answered the questions raging in her mind.

"Why is it here?", Loivissa asked confused, "are you giving it back to me?"

"Giving it back would imply that we took it from you in the first place", Ilumëo answered, "Mercury liked to think of it more as storing it for you until the time was ready for you to have it again".

"…Is he really dead?", Loivissa asked bluntly. She had to know.

"If you did your part properly, then yes, he should be dead", Ilumëo answered.

"My part…", Loivissa mused as she took a tighter grip on the sword, "you are telling me that he planned for this to happen?"

"Yes, but I would rather that you got the explanation directly from him", Ilumëo nodded, before she once again motioned towards the door, "but we really should get going now".

"You just told me that he was dead?", Loivissa said confused.

"He is, and he has left me with the task of handing over control of The Northern Wastes to my sea-loving brother. Though I suppose that it is about time for him to leave his toy ships and settle down", Ilumëo confirmed, before her voice took on a more snappy tone, "but unless you would like to be implicated in his death, then I suggest that you take that sword of yours and follow me out this door".

"Implicated?", Loivissa said and blinked confused, "I caused it?"

"Yes, and I will have his funeral later, but would you please just follow me out this door?", Ilumëo said rather annoyed, "you have someone waiting for you".

Loivissa cast one more look of longing upon the blade that she had not wielded for four years, before she made up her mind, put it back in its sheath, laid the sheath back down on the table and said, "with Mercury dead, Aiedail is no longer needed. Bury it with him".

"I will include it in his casket", Ilumëo nodded gravely, before she held the door open for Loivissa and said, "now, shall we?"

"We shall", Loivissa said and picked her namesake up from the desk and put it back in it sheath once again, before she followed the aide out of the office.

She half expected to be apprehended immediately upon leaving the sanctity of the office, and more than half suspected a suddenly revived Mercury to be present during the apprehension. She could practically already see his smug expression as he asked her whether she thought that it would be that easy.

But upon going back out the door that she had come in through, the only thing that Loivissa found was the same empty hallway that she had gone through on her way in. There were no guards standing ready to apprehend her and no Mercury waiting with a raised eyebrow and a smug grin.

Ilumëo had already started moving down the hallway, and Loivissa had no option but to sprint to catch up to her. She would have drawn up her hood to conceal her identity, as well as drawn the dauthdaert, but Ilumëo stopped her by saying that it would not be necessary.

It was not long before they reached the wall, which Loivissa had originally entered through. She immediately headed for the switch, but Ilumëo caught her arm and shook her head as she said, "that is not our way out".

Though Loivissa was confused by it, she had so many other questions that nagged and confused her already, so she simply added this one to the pile and followed Ilumëo further down the hallway. The aide did not seem even the least bit concerned with the risk that would be involved if she was seen in the presence of a known rebel, like Loivissa.

A short while later, Loivissa found out why, because just as they rounded a corner, they ran into a pair of guards that wore the uniform of the Varangian Guard. Loivissa tensed upon seeing them and already readied her hand to grab the hilt of the dauthdaert, but Ilumëo simply nodded in greeting to the two, and they passed them without a hitch.

"They did not apprehend me?", Loivissa asked confused once they were out of earshot from the guards.

"Of course not", Ilumëo scoffed, "they probably did not even recognize who you were, but save your questions for later. And walk at my side, it makes it look far less like I am escorting you around".

Loivissa nodded and followed the aide at her side as instructed. They walked through many halls and hallways, and though they crossed the paths of many guards, none of them seemed to take offense with Loivissa's presence.

Ilumëo nodded to most, spoke a few words with some and simply ignored the rest. Loivissa on the other hand kept as quiet and unnoticeable as possible during all of the encounters, even though it became more and more evident that she would not be stopped at any of them.

In the end, the two ended up exiting the main building of the castle not through some secret tunnel or hidden door, but through the front door. The courtyard between the gates and the main building had always been large, but Loivissa had never noticed how crowded they were during the middle of the day.

A constant stream of people walked through the gates in either direction towards whatever job or assignment that they had. There were people of all the known races, including werecats in human shape, though there were most humans, which was not surprising, as even with the settlers from the Alliance, most of Albion's population consisted of humans.

"Where is he waiting?", Ilumëo asked a nearby human guard.

"In the Winter Rose Garden, my lady", the guard answered and pointed to his left.

It was then that Loivissa remembered that Ilumëo had been made the archduchess of Albion, which meant that aside from the Varangian Guard, which was sworn to Mercury and him only, everyone else here were now either the aide's subjects, employees or her diplomatic guests from the other provinces.

"Thank you, sir", Ilumëo said and continued in the direction that he had specified.

"Why did you call the guard sir?", Loivissa asked confused that a guard had been addressed as such.

"Because he is not a guard, but a knight in the Knight-Wings, and therefore entitled to being addressed as such", Ilumëo answered with a shrug, "the black wing that fastened his cloak signified his status, though when they are on active duty, they like to use cloaks resembling the wings of their partners".

"But he is an Alagaësian?", Loivissa argued. The accent had been a northern Alagaësian one, if she was not mistake.

"He was born here yes, but he is an Alliance citizen now", Ilumëo corrected her as they continued walking through the outer courtyards, "I believe that that one was actually the first in all of the provinces of Alagaësia to earn his wings, though it took the considerable effort of both parties to earn it. The lethrblaka are very picky about whom they partner with".

"I see…", Loivissa murmured, though her objection had been more about what had made someone that had likely lost relatives in the invasion, and who had heard stories about the evilness of the lethrblaka and ra'zac race ever since he had been a child, decide to suddenly work so closely with one.

"He should be right through here", Ilumëo suddenly stopped before a wooden door and said, "I will be waiting out here in case you have any other questions afterwards".

"Who is in there?", Loivissa asked nervously.

She had not given the matter much thought before, when she had had so many other things to worry with, but now the question of who exactly it was that they were here to see pressed precariously in her mind.

"An old friend that I think that you would like to meet again", Ilumëo answered and refused to say anything more.

Loivissa accepted that she could get nothing more out of her and gingerly began to open the door inwards. The garden was a plain field of white roses that were blooming everywhere, despite the fact that they should not do so yet.

Cobblestone paths crisscrossed through the garden in waving patterns, which occasionally intersected and formed circular terraces with patio tables, chairs and stone benches, and lying in the middle of the largest of the terraces, which was placed at the very centre of the garden, was a sea-blue dragon that stared directly at her with his sea-blue eyes.

"Adûn", she breathed.

The great dragon blinked once in acknowledgment, before Loivissa felt a light touch prod at her mind. It was a sensation that she had not felt for four years, and though it should have been reflexively that she let her partner-of-heart-and-mind in, she found that she hesitated.

What if it was not him, or if he would abandon her once he learned of what she had done? She knew that she would not survive if that happened, so perhaps it was best if she kept safe with what sanity she still had left, instead of risking it all at once.

The prodding continued throughout it all, but it never sought to force its way inside. It felt almost like it was caressing her conscious and begging her for entrance, begging her to complete it and fill the hole that both of them had in their hearts.

Slowly and hesitantly, like a wild animal only hesitantly letting its guard down, Loivissa let the dragon through her barriers. Once it was through, Loivissa did not know who of them that started it, but what she did know was that they both enveloped each other completely.

There was no battle of who was in control, only a primal need to mix and connect with the other. Loivissa felt her legs move and her eyes water, as she sprinted directly across the field of flowers to embrace her partner-of-heart-and-mind physically as well as mentally.

I missed you, she said mentally as she enveloped his snout in a hug and openly began crying.

And I you, dear, Adûn answered her and hummed with satisfaction at being reunited again.

For a long time, the two remained content to simply remain like they were, but eventually, Loivissa was the first to break the moment, when were you given so much freedom?

She had not said it, but her partner-of-heart-and-mind sensed the underlying accusation of why he had not sought her ought before if he was given this much freedom.

Mercury signed my release papers a month ago, but only under the stipulation that I would wait with seeking you out until you came to me, Adûn answered carefully, as if afraid of what her reaction might be, he said that he needed me to offer you something after you had…

…Killed him?, Loivissa finished the sentence with a mix of a chuckle and a cry, what did he want you to give me?

A message, Adûn said, are you sure that you want to see it? You do not have to. We could both leave right now and never think of any of this ever again.

I want to see it, Loivissa said adamantly, I have so many questions. I need to know the answers.

You may not like them, he warned, but she still felt him shift through his memory to bring forth a specific one, which she swiftly dived right into.

She saw the very garden that she was in now, complete with all the roses still blooming, but everything was tinted with a sea-blue colour. For a moment, she thought that she saw the present through Adûn's eyes, but then she noticed the small flakes of snow that were falling around the figure sitting on a stone bench in front of her.

It was Mercury, she realized, and he was wearing the same clothes, even the same rings, that he had been when she had stabbed him through. His hands were folded on top of his legs, which were crossed, and his head was looking down.

Then he looked up and stared directly into her eyes with his silvery dragon-like eyes, before he in a crisp voice said, "greetings Loivissa".

You want that to be her first impression upon seeing you?, Loivissa heard the Adûn of that time comment mentally.

"No, you are right. Cut out that bit", Mercury nodded and said, before he tried smiling towards her and said, "hello Loivissa".

The smile looked strained, like it was not something that he was used to be doing and had almost forgotten how to do, which was also commented on by the Adûn of that time. Mercury responded that it had been a while since he had had to do it and really mean it, and that it was a lot harder than he recalled, before he asked Adûn to cut out that opening as well.

After that, they went through half a dozen openings, each one more awkward than the previous, before Mercury finally let out a sigh and said, "forget it, this is just how it is going to be".

He then looked up at her again, and the look in his eyes was one that she had seen countless times before. It was the look that he had always used whenever he was in a meeting, directing a battle or otherwise in a situation that required him to guard his emotions and keep calm at all costs.

"Greetings Loivissa, by the time that you are seeing this, I will be dead, and if I have not told you already; thank you", he said with a small dip of his head, before he continued, "I am sure that you have many questions, and I will try to answer the ones that I can think of.

First and foremost, as you no doubt experienced yourself a little while ago, I am not exactly what I once was", he said with a gesture of his hand towards his heart, "I would not say that I am a shade, because a shade is an amalgam of a spirit and the mind of its host body, and I am not that. What I am is something less than a shade, because I cannot access much of the power of the spirit within me without risking further contamination of my own mind, but I do still retain control of most of my own mind, which is still the dominant one. For now at least.

I say that because though I developed a way to merge with a spirit and gain its endless lifespan, which I had a need of, I will eventually turn into a shade given enough time, and you stopped that from happening, so thank you again".

"I admit to having used you to further my own goals, and for that, I am both sorry and unregretful", he continued with a slow chuckle, "strange, is it not? How can one person be both sorry that he did something to another, and yet he would still do it all over if given the choice? The reason for this is very simple; I love you, Loivissa. I love your spirit, your determination and your passion, but I love you the most, perhaps even too much, when I watch how you shine and struggle without giving up, despite all the hardships that you are facing.

It is in part because of this that I always knew that it had to be you that killed me in the end, because there was nothing else that I could ever give you to even try to make up for what I have put you through. I do not expect your forgiveness, but I wish for you that you will move on and put the ghosts of your past to rest with my death.

To help you in doing this, I purposely kept your involvement in Aiedail a secret from everyone but Ilumëo and Adûn, so that you could have a life afterwards".

He then looked down on his right hand and played with the red ring that matched her lapis lazuli one, before he with a chuckle mused, "did you like the ring? I had it made just for you, knowing that you would be the first to discover the hidden compartment. I had this one made to remind me of your eyes".

The sudden change in atmosphere was palpable, and when he looked up again, his mask was once again in place as he addressed the Adûn of that time, "do not include that bit as well…or the entire part about me loving her".

I will do with them as I did with the rest, Adûn promised.

"Good", Mercury nodded in satisfaction, "it is better that way".

The figure of Mercury then descended into a thoughtful brooding posture, before he eventually looked up again and said, "Loivissa, my death was both my final gift to you and my personal reward for having completed what I set out to do.

For the first time in history, the people of the world are united under one rule, which is elected by the very people that it represents. No longer will bloodlines or conquests of war determine who rules over one or the other, but the people themselves will.

It is not a perfect world, that would be impossible for one such as me to even imagine, but it is a chance that the world has never seen before, and now all that remains is whether the world is ready to seize what I have presented it with.

I cannot force them to make it, as little as I can live in the world that I am offering them, because if I did either, then it would not be the world that I wished for. Frankly put, I am in the way of my own dream, and that is the final reason that you had to kill me".

He then looked away for a while, seemingly in thought, before he turned back and in a commanding voice said, "go now, live your life and experience what this world has to offer. I wish you well".

The memory ended and Loivissa felt herself return to her own mind once again. She brought her hand up to her face to make sure that this was really her, only to realize that she was crying once more.

He told you to cut it out, she said to Adûn.

And I never promised him that I would, Adûn answered.

You should have, she said sadly, it would have been better if you had.

I told you that you might not like what I had to show you, Adûn growled, but with empathy at her feelings showing in his voice, you would have never known the truth if I had done as both of you asked.

So, what do we do now?, Loivissa asked as she wiped her tears away.

As he said, we live our lives as we want them to be, Adûn answered her and comforted her with his mind, will you fly with me, dear?

Always, Loivissa answered immediately and leapt into the saddle that had already been prepared on his back, before Adûn took off with a roar of satisfaction at once again bracing the skies with his rider.

Two months later, Loivissa and Adûn were standing at the bow of a large merchant ship heading west. The captain had agreed to take the two with them free of charge, though Loivissa suspected Ilumëo of having paid for their fare.

The former aide had explained Mercury's sudden death to the public as him finally succumbing to an illness that had been plaguing him for years, and he had been summarily buried in accordance with his last will. Loivissa had been there in Teirm, when the funeral procession had taken place, and though she had not been an official part of it, Ilumëo had made sure that she was brought to the front, so that she could see it.

His casket had been a block of translucent ice that had been carved into the shape of a coffin, and inside of it, a dark-clad figure with a dark cloak that had a silver dragon fastening had been laid with its fingers folded around what Loivissa recognized as Aiedail. The hood of the cloak concealed most of the face from view, which certainly had looked real enough, and no other discernable features were visible that could prove that it was indeed Mercury's body.

When she had later asked Ilumëo about what had been in the ice casket, as it certainly could not have been Mercury's body, the former aide had revealed that it had been the body of a fallen soldier with no family that had had the approximate same build as Mercury, and who had then had the mirage of Mercury's face planted atop his own. The light distortion of the ice had supposedly made sure that any errors had been written off as just that.

The ice casket with the stranger's body in it had then been carried on the shoulders of many Varangian guards through the city to the docks, where the casket had been loaded onto Mercury's waiting ship, The Mirage.

Loivissa had never thought that the name suited the ship more than when the casket had been put directly at the helm of it, before the honour guardsmen had then departed the ship and sent it sailing out towards the open sea.

Once The Mirage was safely out of the harbour, several fires had started across the expanse of its massive hull. Blue-coloured flames had licked up the sides of the ship, ruby-red flames had engulfed the bow, green flames had taken the main deck, black flames had taken the stern and golden, silvery and copper-coloured flames had each devoured one of the three masts.

It had been quite moving, and Loivissa had wished that this could have been what had really happened to Mercury's body, but she knew better. He had died as he had wanted to live; in complete control of his own fate.

After the funeral, Loivissa and Adûn had flown around Alagaësia for a while, before they had finally agreed that there was nothing that held them there, and that it was best for the two of them to seek new lands to explore.

And now we have to see what summer will bring, Loivissa mused with Adûn as their ship set sail.

Firstly, this was not the last chapter. There will be one more, but it is more of an epilogue.

Secondly, there will also be two Sidestory chapters more(one of which is the explanation one that I talked about in an earlier chapter), which will be posted on the coming Sideshow Saturdays.