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Ch.17: Family Matters (Part 3) |
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Making sure I had the Fallen Wish securely contained in shimmering paper, I answered the door. Flet and Jet had placed a call to Jareth's castle telling him to get over to my grotto A.S.A.P. He had seemed doubtful, so Jetsam had said I had gotten the Fallen Wish, which I had, as extra leverage. And so here he was, wrapped in the dark blue of the early winter night outside.
Trances were easier to go into at night since most people went to sleep then anyway and it would require less effort to slip between worlds. "The Fallen Wish is payment for my services I presume," Jareth said, guessing my plans.
"Yes," I answered, blushing.
"I also presume you did not come across that locket by accident." He indicated the ruby around my neck with his right forefinger; I had tried for days to remove it, and so had Flet and Jet, but the necklace refused to budge. (Sounds kind of like the necklace Kaedae put on Inuyasha, doesn't it?) "Fae jewelry is fairly rare in the human world. I'm surprised that you came across such a prizable piece."
"I went to Kaname and Zero and it was among the documents they gave me. Flotsam identified it as faery made, so we knew that you could tell us more about it. It has "Learn to be Lonely" enscribed on the back of it and a picture of what we assume is Erik's family inside."
"Ah. And you wish to seek answers to your questions in a place where anything is possible."
"Yes!" I shouted with exictement. "So, will you help me out, please? They don't call you the Dream Weaver for nothing you know."
"Indeed they don't, and I'd say the Fallen Wish is fair-payment," he replied. He strolled over to one of the two marble slabs on the far right shore of my grotto. "Well then, shall we?"
I laid down on the other slab to answer his question. I heard music drifting through the grotto (It sounded like an oboe and piano duet.) as I heard him speak the words that would send us into the Realm of Dreams: "Sleep now. Leave this world behind." (Just before I closed my eyes, I saw the boys playing the respective instruments I had heard. 'How sweet of them.' was the last thing I thought before darkness shrouded my eyes.)
I woke up in a place that had a different sort of music: silence. (Then again, it was a snow-covered graveyard so it seems only natural it would be at least mildly quiet.) I looked around but Jareth was nowhere to be seen. 'Damn,' I thought. 'He promises he'll walk with me in my dreams, and then he abandons me. *sniffle* Just like Pha-... like he did.'
I gazed silently at the tombstones for a while, when suddenly a voice drifted over the quiet snow.
"Wandering child, so lost, so helpless.
Yearning for my guidance." the voice sang.
I knew that voice, so I sang back to it. (I was cautious though since for all I knew it could be Lelouch.)
"Angel or master,
Friend or Phantom,
Who is it there staring?"
"Have you forgotten your angel?" the voice asked me.
"Angel! Oh speak
What endless longings
Echo in this whisper?" I sang back excitedly.
"Too long you've wandered in winter,
Far from my fathering gaze."
"Wildly my mind beats against you." I sang, a little scared now.
"You resist." the voice answered. Then we sang together. (Note: The lines after the slashes are his, and mine are in front of them. No slash indicates that we sing together.)
"Yet the soul obeys./Yet your soul obeys.
Angel of Music I denied you/Angel of Music you denied me
Turning from true beauty.
Angel of Music, my protector/Angel of Music, do not shun me.
Come to me strange angel./Come to your strange angel."
I trailed off, listening to the velvet voice caress my ears. "I am your Angel of Music. Come to me Angel of Music." What did I care what Lelouch was doing with my friend? I had found my own angel and nothing could tear me away from him.
"No, Anastasia wait!" Jareth shouted from some distance behind me. "Wait!"
"Jareth, there you are," I said, slightly pissed, while turning around to face him. "Where were you?! I thought you'd abandoned me."
In response, he ran up to me and hugged me close. A gloved hand gently brushed my cheek as he said, "I thought I had almost lost you." I stared into his eyes, which were filled with apology and relief, and I knew that his words were true.
"Get away from her!" the voice shouted, pure fury dripping on every word it said now and not so far away either.
I pushed Jareth away and drew my sword, which I had brought with me from the real world, as a hooded, strongly masculine figure dropped from the roof of the mausoleum above us. It was simple in design, a silver rapier with a standard French grip, but Mat had told me that even the simplest weapon could work wonders. "Jareth, run!" I told him urgently. (I wanted to be the only one who was hurt in this encounter.)
My oponent drew his sword in response and began advancing towards me. I blocked his thrusts and backed away, hoping for an opening to push forward, but he paried my blows as well. He backed me into the low stone wall, but I aimed for his head knowing I had an opening. He ducked and tried to cut me from below.
I jumped off the wall and landed gracefully on the snow-covered ground. (Thank Poseidon that sea-witches are gifted with good senses of balance.) He followed, just as gracefully as Jareth would have if he were fighting me, and we engaged again. I backed up as far as I could before I tripped on the root of a tree and fell over. (Hey, I have good balance but I don't have eyes in the back of my head! scream ) He aimed for my head but a hit a tree branch instead, giving me time to recover.
I stood up and swiped at him, a foolish move that he easily batted away, but then I trapped his sword under mine and thrust them both into the metalwork of a nearby grave. I got a good look at my oponent's sword before he shoved me aside and engaged again. (It was a silver rapier with a French grip, just like mine, but the hilt of the sword was shaped like a human skull. Gruesome!)
He circled me, parrying my blows, and then ducked behind a nearby grave. I went around the other side, waiting for him to reappear. I screamed as I blocked a downward thrust that would have killed me if I hadn't heard him coming from behind me.
I advanced toward him, and even though my thrusts were parried away I could tell he was weakening. As if he had heard my thoughts, he spun in a circle (a gesture of swordsman bravado), his dark cape swirling around him, sword poised at my neck height. I ducked and then yelped in pain as he sliced my left arm. 'That's going to smart when I wake up,' I thought. 'Good thing I use my right hand when fencing.' (Note: If you get hurt in the Realm of dreams, you wake up with the wounds you got in the real world.)
I circled around behind him, aiming to get away, but he would not give up so easily. He pushed me back with sideways swipes, which I easily parried but I couldn't help feeling that he was holding back on me. I thrust hard into his sword, forcing them to the ground but falling down as I did so. Bad move, because he kicked my sword out of my hand and pinned me beneath him, raising his sword to stab my chest and end my life, end my suffering. I was not afraid.
"No Erik!" Jareth, who had been watching us fight the whole time, shouted.
The figure turned and his hood dropped, revealing a familiar face covered by a white half-mask. "Stay out of this Jareth," he barked. Then, leaning closer to my face, he whispered, "I don't think I recall you ever having any boyfriends Anastasia. When you voiced your affections to me, you swore that you would love me and no other." (Did I detect a hint of dissappointment in his voice, as if he knew that this would happen?)
I stared deeply into his blue eyes as I said, "And I will always love you like no other. You were my first love and I could never forget you. Other men may pass through my life, but you will always have a special place in my heart. (I pointed to my chest with my good arm for emphasis.) I would kiss you if you would get off me."
Erik stood up and sheathed his sword. "That's just it," he said. "If I kiss you now, how will I know that Jareth won't try and kiss you again?"
I got up and walked over to him, grabbing my sword as I spoke. "I swear on my word as your student that Jareth is already engaged to another."
With those words, my romantic attachments with Jareth, however weak they were, dissolved as smoke into the cold air around us and my heart was at peace. Erik looked into my eyes, where honesty stared back at him, and nodded. Almost immediately after, his eyes went to my breast pocket. "Give it back to me," he demanded, holding his hand out expectantly.
I had not felt the locket slip from around my neck into a pocket; then again I hadn't seen my wardrobe change in the Realm of Dreams either. I reached into the pocket and, sure enough, the ruby was in there, still attached to the golden chain. "Thank you," he said as I dropped the locket into his waiting hand. "This is the last thing I own that was from my mother. She had it commissioned for me when I was still a child, and most fae children don't recieve anything from their fae heiritage until at least 13 years of age. I thought that she genuinely loved me, for once.
"But oh, how cruel fate can be. My father died the same year that it was finished and she left me soon after. She had never loved me she said, that she had only stayed with me for my father's sake. Her darkest desires, she told me, were what gave me life and that I should never see her again lest she succumb in full to those same desires."
This gave "Music of the Night" a whole new meaning. Before, I had thought the song was for Christine or me, or for anyone else that it was sung to. Now, it seemed like a fervent entreaty for his mother to return to him. I felt more sorry for him now than I had ever had since we had met. I embraced him as if he would shatter if I ever let go, just like Flet and Jet did when I had seen Melissa and Lelouch together.
He embraced me back and I pulled him into a kiss to rival the one that Jareth had given to me. The only difference between the two kisses was that he was ready to recieve my affection and returned it with equal vigor. He now remembered why I had fallen for him.
That didn't sit too well with Jareth apparently because he said the phrase that would return us to the real world: "Time to wake up now!"
"No! I don't want to leave!" I turned to Erik, who was slowly fading away. "You are lucky that I love you," he said. "My ___ will not hold back."
"Wait! Who is your __?" I called out, but then he faded all together and I was staring at the sandy walls of my grotto.
 srs diva 2011 xxl · Fri Mar 06, 2009 @ 04:15am · 2 Comments |
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