Ok, so this chapter wasn't supposed to exist, but upon reflection I really needed to add this to my story. I felt like this chapter was necessary to flesh out Luxa and Nerissa, and it was also necessary for plot reasons (to glue everything together). As a short standalone scene, it is probably the shortest non-epilogue chapter of the trilogy, but I hope you find it interesting nonetheless.

Thank you to bugging killer and Gyltig for your reviews for the last chapter! That both of you cite the previous chapter as your favourite Gregor/Ripred moment in my trilogy is very kind of you, I take it as a sign that my writing has improved! Thank you for that.

This chapter is written from Luxa's perspective.

Chapter 43: Whispers from the Future

"I am leaving."

Luxa turned around to find Nerissa standing at the entrance to the mausoleum. Her hair was straightened and the usual storm in her eyes had abated. Her outfit was modest, despite being stitched together by the spinners' finely woven silk - she simply wore a baggy overshirt and a pair of trousers. She stood up straight, her jaw set resolutely and her nose tilted towards the heavens.

She was as healthy as Luxa had ever seen her.

"You are leaving?" Luxa enquired.

Nerissa walked further into the mausoleum, each footstep producing a deafening echo that rippled through the frail silence. She stopped a few steps away from Luxa and surveyed her surroundings. Her eyes settled on an empty niche in the corner of the small building. "I have not been here in many years," she said softly. "I forget that absence is the most haunting presence in our world."

Luxa didn't have to follow her gaze to know where it was pointed. "He still lives with you," she replied.

Nerissa wrenched her eyes away from the niche and met Luxa's gaze confidently. "As he does with you."

Luxa felt a twinge in her heart. It was the one thing she could not reconcile all these years - how her best friend, her childhood companion, her own blood, had betrayed her and everything she stood for. How could he side with an enemy that had taken the lives of his parents? And yet… perhaps they were just two sides of the same coin. Had she not earlier sought to forge an alliance with the enemies who took the lives of her people? Had she not spared Gorger's life when fate demanded vengeance?

No, they were not alike. But they were not altogether different either.

"I blamed Gorger and his lies for turning him against us," Luxa said. "I see now that it had always been his choice. I was… I was… I was wrong." The word felt heavy and clumsy, so unfamiliar in its utterance she was.

Nerissa cocked her head to the right ever so slightly. "I wonder why you changed your mind."

Nerissa's penetrating stare almost brought down Luxa's decaying facade. But Luxa held her nerve. "I simply realise now that we are the masters of our fate."

Nerissa's response was an unnerving smile. "Indeed," she replied. "I have come to a similar conclusion to myself."

It was Luxa's turn to stare at her cousin quizzically.

Nerissa looked at the statues and effigies around them. The mausoleum was not particularly large - it was perhaps half the size of her throne room. It was reserved specifically for the royalty of Regalia. If one were a king or queen, one's bones would be interred in a sarcophagus, upon which statues and effigies were constructed to mark their deeds in life. If one were of royal blood but never sat on the throne, one's bones or ashes were placed in a niche in the wall of the dead.

Luxa hated the place. She couldn't stand the fact that her eternal rest would be in a dark, cramped space where she could not be free, even in death. She should be with her people, placed in rafts and sailing down the river to the Waterway, to be lost in the small lights and vast darkness, finally unshackled by the burdens of her inheritance. It was no privilege to be buried and memorialised in this haunted place, placed next to tyrants and murderers and monsters.

But this was where she could be closest to her mother, and she didn't fancy being separated from her mother by the river of eternity. And now more than ever, she needed to be here with her mother. It might be the last time she would be able to see her parents.

When Nerissa spoke, her complexion suddenly changed, appearing so much sallower than it had been mere seconds earlier. "All my life I have awoken in my dreams. They are the past and the future, and everything else in between. I have always known that it is as much a gift as it is a curse, to be both believed and doubted."

Her eyes settled on her father's niche on the wall of the dead. "Know you the story of Prometheus, Luxa?"

"I do not," Luxa confessed, "though it sounds familiar. I have heard Aurora mention his name before. Is it not a story from Overland histories?"

"Indeed it is," Nerissa said, her eyes glazing over. "Prometheus stole fire from the Gods and gave it to mankind. To punish him for this transgression, the gods chained him to a rock where vultures feast on his liver. Each day his liver would be eaten, and it would grow back the next day only to be eaten again."

"Vultures?"

"Beasts from the Overland," Nerissa replied. Her face grew haggard, and suddenly she seemed like the Nerissa of old. Gone was the light in her eyes, and now a familiar weariness latched on to her cheeks. Luxa had no idea if she was imagining it, but Nerissa's face seemed to sag down now that it was back to carrying the weight of her visions.

"Nerissa…" Luxa began, but her cousin raised a tired hand to cut her off.

"There are days I am convinced that Sandwich speaks to me from the past," she said. "He watches my every waking hour, and then in my slumber it is my turn to watch his."

She looked down for a second, and took a deep breath. When she eventually looked up, the light in her eyes had been ignited again by fire. "That was, until a few nights ago."

"What did you see?" Luxa asked.

Nerissa smiled.

"Nothing," she said. "Nothing, cousin. I was shrouded in darkness from the moment I crawled into bed to the moment I rose."

"Does that…" Luxa began to ask, but Nerissa had no intention of leaving her to guess.

"Every night since then, I have gone to bed without fear," answered Nerissa, her smile growing more crazed by the second. "The dreams are gone, cousin. Sandwich is finally dead."

"He has been dead for centuries, Nerissa."

"No," Nerissa said, shaking her head. "That is not how time works. The past and future collide in the present. It is in the present where the great battles of our time are decided."

"I do not understand," Luxa said honestly. She had no idea what Nerissa was trying to say.

"I knew your future," Nerissa said softly. "I saw what you said."

"Do not confound me with riddles, cousin," Luxa replied. "I was never one to enjoy them."

"You ended our bloodline," Nerissa said softly.

Luxa froze, her blood turning to ice. "What… what do you know?"

Nerissa looked around her once more. "This may yet be your home," she said. "But it will not be mine. I understand now the power I have. You are right - we are the masters of our own fates."

"Nerissa," Luxa said, her voice quivering slightly, "what did you see?"

Nerissa sighed, but then she smiled again. "That knowledge does you no good. In any case, what I have seen may no longer come to pass. You have the right to decide what happens to you."

She took a second to clear her throat, and then continued. "I have earned that right for myself too. I am leaving Regalia to be free."

Luxa could not believe what she was hearing. "Are you mad, cousin?"

"I never thought I would hear those words from you," Nerissa replied.

"You know that is not what I mean!" Luxa said exasperatedly. "You barely have the strength to leave the palace, let alone traverse the Underland in this time of war."

"The war is ending soon," Nerissa pointed out. "If we lose, I will be dead one way or another. Better to die on my terms than on theirs."

When Luxa could not find the words or strength to respond, Nerissa spoke up.

"I know this is sudden," she said gently, "but it is what I want. For too long I have been chained to this place by words uttered hundreds of years ago. I wish to be free."

"It is dangerous even in times of peace, Nerissa," Luxa said. "Who will join you?"

"I have arranged for a flier to take me out," Nerissa answered. "As for where I will go, even of that I am still uncertain. But perhaps I can take a leaf out of your uncle's book."

"Hamnet?"

Nerissa nodded. "He travelled far beyond the jungle. There are paths that are yet untread…. Paths that may yet be hospitable to a lone woman such as I."

Luxa was still far too overwhelmed to compose a coherent response. Nerissa walked up to her and hugged her. "Everything will be alright, Luxa."

"How do you know that?"

"I do not know," Nerissa replied, "but that is part of living, is it not?"

Luxa stood still, her arms glued to her sides as Nerissa continued to wrap her arms around her. And then, slowly but surely, she felt herself lift her arms and return the embrace. Her eyes began to feel watery. "The Prophecy of Ragers," she whispered to her cousin. "What does it mean?"

"I cannot say," Nerissa replied. "But I believe Sandwich never understood it either."

Luxa pulled out of the embrace and looked at Nerissa. "So…"

"I cannot say," Nerissa repeated herself, shaking her head again.

She turned around and made her way to the exit of the mausoleum, her footsteps producing a mournful hymn that tolled around the building. Just as she was about to leave the building, she stopped and turned around. "You intend to issue a decree tomorrow."

Luxa gulped. "I do."

"When you speak," Nerissa said slowly, "you must have Susannah and Howard by your side."

How did she know?

Nerissa took it upon herself to speak in Luxa's silence. "Their presence is imperative in legitimising your decision. You know this to be true."

"Yes," Luxa said, tears welling up in her eyes.

Nerissa turned her back to leave.

"Wait!" Luxa called out. Nerissa turned back around to face her, her eyes now brimming with tears too.

"Will I see you again?" Luxa asked.

Nerissa smiled sadly. "Perhaps we will see each other again some day," she replied. "But I do not know for sure. I suspect it will be up to you."

"I see," Luxa said, her tears now liberated from her eyes. She was too moved and surprised to find better words. She wished for all the world she could keep her cousin safe and close to her, despite the emotional chasm that had grown between them in recent years. But now more than ever before, she understood the impulse to be free. And whatever it was that gnawed and nibbled away at Nerissa's mind for more than twenty years had finally stopped. She could sleep again, smile again, breathe again. Luxa would be a hypocrite to deny her cousin that. So she said the one thing she still could.

"Fly you high, Nerissa."

Nerissa's tears were now in free fall too. "Fly you high, Luxa."

As she turned around to leave, she took a last, fleeting look around the mausoleum. "I am glad he is not in here," she said. "He would have loathed it."

And then she was gone.

Short but hopefully sweet enough for you! My story definitely hasn't involved Nerissa enough (or at least developed her well enough) so I felt I needed to bid farewell (for now) to a fairly major character from the original series. Still a few more loose ends to tie up before we get to the major battle, some of which are somewhat visible in this chapter.

Please drop a review! It's been a rough week and these reviews keep me going. I am so exhausted.

Question: What do you see for Nerissa's future? Can she survive like Hamnet? Does she actually have a plan up her sleeve? Are there other reasons she is leaving? Do you see her showing up in the story again?