The Huntsman of Adamos (Quartet)- draft

CH THE EVE OF THE DAY OF LIGHT RETURNING

The Oracle Lady Fleur sat in the nursery she was rocking baby Kaleth and singing to him. It was the eve of the Day of Light Returning. Their anniversary in the far future. She did not know the Huntsman stood outside, listening.

Cinna entered with a cup of tea, “You sing so beautifully, Lady Fleur.”

She smiled up at him, “Thank you Cinna, and thank you for another lovely dress. I am getting so spoiled. I am not a person for fancy things, you really shouldn’t make me anymore, I have enough. ” Her newest dress was a rich plum velvet with blush trim and insets. It was the closest color to red she would agree to wear.

“It was the least I could do with all you are doing to ensure that some of the market children get to go on the Tear.” He pulled her hair back as she rocked Kaleth, humming the tune she just sang, and quickly created an intricate braid. “I am not sorry I spoil you, you can’t dress in the colors of rocks and sticks and dead leaves all the time. My lady, you are too beautiful for the moon. If we were in the kings City, I would dress you and every available royal of both worlds would pursue you. Every female would try to emulate your look and every male would crave just a smile from you.” He promised teasing her.

“Oh, that sounds dreadful,” she giggled softly. “Please, make the rest of my dresses the colors of rock and sticks so, I can run away to the forest and hide.” Kaleth was finally drowsy, so she laid him down then she ran her fingers through Kalyssa’s fiery curls that remind her of Yllumina and Abrieth, she started to sing an ancient lullaby Irish she learned as a girl.

“May you find love, and may you find happiness, may you find kindness in all that you meet.”

Soon the babies were sleeping side by side and her heart broke that soon they would be forever separated, never to know each other. She nodded to the nurse mother as she and Cinna left. Yurieth climbed up a level and hopped over the three balconies and entered his room.

Quietly he went down the hall to his father’s study above the library.

“Sing another one, my lady, it sounded so lovely from down the hall,” Oren asked as she and Cinna entered.

Yurieth settled into his chair in his father’s study above to listen.

“I am afraid I know only songs that will make everyone sad, besides the lullabies,” Fleur made an excuse.

She could feel Prince Xeus staring at her, “You’re one of the happiest people I know, how can they all be sad?”

Fleur shrugged, answering, “Perhaps another time, my prince.”

Yurieth shook his head as they continued to harass her as they used to do him, until finally Mina intervened, “It is midwinter Eve, none of us can sing except Yurieth and he isn’t here, so you must sing, little flower.”

“Fine, fine but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Fleur surrendered. “Give me a moment to translate them.” She felt Adamos smile at her, so she rose from her place and went to stand by the fire. The first note came pure and sweet, words from her favorite singer-composer, a woman named Enya, lost eons ahead of this time during the harvest of Fleur’s birthworld.

“Cold as the northern wind on midwinter’s morning,

cold is the cry that rings from this far distant shore.”

As she sang through the songs of longing and sorrow, she poured her own emotions through her voice.

"Winter lies before me

Now you’re so far away.

In the darkness of my dreaming

The light of you will stay..."

Suddenly, she realized she was singing the song she sang at Kaleth’s funeral where she told everyone she would grieve no more until the war was ended. Only her Yuri in the future, her sisters, and Karstien had seen her grief breaking her. To the rest of Aetheria and the human survivors in the colonies, she was a pillar of calm strength and determination, a beacon of light and hope in those dark times. She had maintained the façade until the last battle, she had stayed for the celebration of victory, and then she had taken her children and left Aetheria for decades.

“Where are you this moment,

only in my dreams.

You’re missing, but your always,

a heartbeat away from me...”

The words about being alone and seeking a lost love flowed like blood from her hemorrhaging soul. She started singing Yurieth’s song, but it wasn’t this Yurieth’s song, it was her Yuri’s future song.

“May it be an evening star shines bright on you,

may it be when darkness falls,

your heart will be true...

You walk a lonely road...”

She could feel Yurieth above her, listening, yearning, so she poured her love into the chorus trying to give him hope. She could feel him considering her words but also, his hatred and honor warring with his hope and heart.

“May it be the shadow’s call will fly away.

May it be you journey on to the light of day.

When the night is overcome, may you rise to find the sun...

Morning comes, and darkness is fading, believe and you will find your way...”

Upstairs, listening to the song, Yurieth could feel her singing it to him, he could feel her trying to encourage him through words and voice. It felt like she was singing to the deepest part of his soul, to the longing he had always had within him. He kept trying to remind himself she was a dark wielder, but part of him questioned how so much joy and beauty could come from a shadowed one. It hurt his heart because he had chosen his honor, he had chosen to hate her, and she had chosen to love him despit it.

Half-way through the last stanza, Fleur had a terrible thought. What if Yurieth’s amnesia in the future wore off like Karstien’s did, and he remembered when she returned home? Her heart clenched painfully at the thought of her Yuri hating her, as she let the verse die away. Smiling wanly, she cleared her throat against the sudden tightness it held.

“I think my voice needs to rest.” She sat back down and picked up her cup, considering her premonition. Her mind pondered the idea Shadz had suggested, that they all remembered, as Cinna and Serapha talk about the music of Xelusia and how festival for this night is one of debauchery and blood sacrifices instead of one of music and family.

Fleur rose slowly to hide the tears threatening, “My tea is cold, and I think I’ll go to bed now. Good night.”

“Do you want me to help you back to your room or with a healing bath?” Oren offered, but she shook her head not trusting her voice, and quickly left, almost running up the stairs to her room.

“Why did Lady Fleur flee like that?” Prince Xeus asked, concerned.

Taking a deep breath, Serapha explained, “On Aetheria, the Day of Light Returning is a time of joy. She probably was sealed to her late husband on that day. But as a prisoner of the blood mages, she was more than likely bled for the blood altars and raped. We know they cut a child from her body, if it lived, it was probably sacrificed to the Darkness on this night.”

Prince Xeus was clearly horrified. Oren looked so shaken that Cinna embraced him.

Abrieth just nodded, adding, “During the war, we had many more mothers and elder siblings than usual flee with small children to our lines as the Night of Darkness approached. The pits of the Temple City were filled with the bones and corpses of the innocent.”

They were silent for several minutes, then Yllumina spoke, “I do not think it was only that. The second to the last song was the one she sang at Kaleth’s memorial and, I believe, the last song was a message for Yurieth. Do you agree, my eldest?”

They all looked up to see Yurieth standing at the railing of Adamos’ office above. “Whether it was or not, Mother, only time will tell.”

Adamos raised an eyebrow, “Could you not feel that it was sung with love and imbued with hope?”

“I am not an oracle, Father,” Yurieth answered gruffly, as he turned on his heel and left.

Serapha leaned into Abrieth’s chest. “Will he never accept her love because of her magic?”

Abrieth simply pressed a kiss into his sealed one’s temple, he had no answer for her. “My brother is a fool.”

Love was the most important thing to give or receive in the beliefs of their people and Yurieth was refusing it out of spite and pride.

Fleur barely reached her room and closed the door before the first sob forced its way out, she pulled her emotions in so to not distress Adamos and Mina. Sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace, she petted her kitten. The more she thought about it the more she realized her fear was true. Shadz was on to something. At some point, probably after their entrapment by the soul spiders, Yurieth had remembered this time. Everything in his changed behavior toward her suddenly made sense. It wasn’t that the hallucinations of the soul spiders had caused him to fall in love with her and that was why he agreed that they should distance themselves from each other, it was because he had remembered that he hated her and why. That was the only logical explanation.

She remembered how hurt she had felt when she had returned to Aetheria after the reclamation of Terrearth, he had acted as if he had not even missed her and focused solely on her children, especially Jenna and Kalen. Her eidetic memory played through everything in reverse order. Watching the regression of their lives together, she realized that he may have always remembered. His hostility toward her on occasions was sometimes wildly exaggerated from some mild offense. Then she had assumed it was the trauma of recovering from the Dark Dust imprisonment but now, she wondered. Her heart did not want it to be true.

She had always cared for him, even when he made her raving mad. She made allowances for both of their irrational behavior because of circumstances. But he carried a piece of her soul into her time in the future, it explained so much. It explained her ability to share magic with him and the bipolar friendship they shared. Fleur's mind stretched itself analyzing every reaction and every word and every look they ever shared.

Hours later, she couldn't decided if he loved her in the future or hated her and was hiding it. Something was wrong... Fleur intuitively knew something was wrong but she couldn't sort it. She didn't have enough facts to discern the truth and she wouldn't until she got back. If she went back.

Her mind replayed the evening of the Only Red Charity Gala. Yuri, only a few months from his imprisonment had accused Demona of killing Fleur. Demona denied it but Yuri's grief had been real. Her mind replayed the glimpse of Fluer in a mirror of black glass, it seemed they were saying goodbye.

Time... Time... Time...

Rising, she went quietly out and opened the portal to the manor of the House of Odini and then reset the control to the Fjord Fortress of Odini. No one felt her as she walked into the room where the items from the future had been placed. Her hand ran over the surface of a box. Not even Karstien would realize she had taken this or that she had figured out what created the Dark Nebula. Walking over to the Relic of Time, she sat down and leaned against it. The hum of the ancient artifact was comforting.

"I wish I could let you take me home for a night... I have so many questions. So many desperate and pathetic doubts... Things I will never know, old friend. But no, I won't go... I won't waste the trip for selfish reasons and I won't get to ask because I am not going back with you, not next time."

Its strange clocklike face watched its oracle. She did not know it had falsely limited her to two trips per rotational cycle to keep her from being trapped in a paradox . It had held back and let her do the math to think she could overcome the limits. But the next time they traveled, it would bend its own rules and give her unlimited access to its tech, even it overused its magic and died.

"I am going to do what I did when we went to back to see Adamos off. Double trip on the same beam. I'll make sure you have enough energy for your passengers." She knelt and ran her hands over its symbols and sighed. "We only have a few months left I'm afraid. Then you will be a hero and I will be a martyr. If only... if only there were a way to save more."

Her fingers traced the fractal dome etched on the sides. It looked like decoration, it was ornamental but also more. "I never had the time to figure out the equation of this lovely design. Maybe someday I'll have a moment to do the math."

Standing, she walked out without saying goodbye. Stepping out into the courtyard of the Odini's Manor, she reset the portal to the mountain home of her house. Another watched her go through the portal to the Winter Castle of Adamos with sad silver eyes. He longed to chase after her to beg her to give up the madness of staying her to die but he couldn't... not yet... he wasn't even supposed to be here.