She wrote something! YAY!
Mar. 23rd, 2007 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kippurbirdLook! I wrote something!! I must be feeling better. WHOO!! Anyway, this is the epilogue to "Call of the Champion". Yes, I know, I haven't written the book yet, so how can I write the epilogue, but I did it anyway so neh. I thought it had nice closure.
The sword felt wrong. And Marlina knew why it did. While being a finely made sword from the fey, it wasn't her sword. The sword that she had wielded for over a thousand years (though it didn't feel like that, time within the lands of the fey was always subjective). The sword that she had just passed on. She had done her duty and now she would do what she had wanted to do for all these long years.
Sword in hand, she approached the ruins of Pentarch. Or what had been the ruins of Pentarch. Now they were so much less than that. Trees over grew on the rubble and stone of what had once been buildings. Grass poked through the streets nearly hiding them. Only a few walls stood stubbornly out, indicating that here people once lived. Here once was a great city.
The grass tugged at her legs as she walked through the streets of her childhood. She could see that there was the shop where she had bought her first dress to impress a boy. And there had been the tavern that she had loitered with friends after classes. Down that street her best friend had lived. Down there her first kiss. In her mind the city still stood gleaming with life and magic. In her mind her family still lived, her friends still waited for her, her lover hid just around the corner waiting to surprise her.
She held onto the memories tightly as she approached where the great university had stood. The center of all magic, they had proclaimed it. If it couldn't be found here, then it wasn't worth finding. The great elemental courts had been reclaimed by nature and looked like pasture. Tiny whoot birds called from within the blades sounding almost like the chatter of students. Almost, but not quite.
But at one place, nature had not taken its course. At one place tiled stone still took the brunt of the sun. Here at once had been the Welcoming Court, life did not come. The tiled ground was still scorched black, just like it had been the last time she had come here. The same leeching feel still tugged at her, at her soul and bones. The rift had not been healed. It still ached for life, for closure.
She still could not fix it. Perhaps her successor could. But she doubted it. The boy was strong magically, but not too bright and slightly scatterbrained. The rift, however, was not why she had come. She had come to deal with the cause of the rift.
Again she strained her senses, trying to gain a hint of Lorac, a guess at where he might be. They had told her that he had long died with the creation of the rift, but from what she had heard from the Fey, she doubted that. Griffin had been right, the Fey did have a hand in the destruction of her home.
She could not deal with the Fey.
She could deal with Lorac.
"Where are you?" she murmured to herself.
"Right here."
Marlina spun around, dropping into a defensive pose, sword held at the ready. There, standing nonchalantly, was Lorac. He looked every inch a Seriph with his white blond hair and ice blue eyes. Though the mad smile on his face ruined his handsome looks. And he was handsome, not looking a day over thirty. "Where did you come from?"
"I saw that you had given up the sword. I knew you would come looking for me. So, I decided to wait for you." He gave her a smile and a shrug, looking perfectly harmless. She did not let her guard down.
"So, you know why I am here then?"
"Yes," And that mad smile grew wider, "I know. You've come to revenge your family. Your people. It won't work. Not as you are now. Perhaps as you had been, but not as you are now."
"I know. Still, I must try."
"Of course." He spreads his arms out, as if inviting her to embrace him. She shifted on the balls of her feet.
"He will defeat you. The current bearer of the blade."
He just smiled a wide and smug smile. With a long repressed desire to wipe that smile off his face, Marlina charged him. The smile grew wider and magic swirled around him. She did not stop, she did not hesitate, she raised her sword and dove into the nimbus of energy.
For a moment the whoot birds stopped their calling as a ripple of magic rolled over the city like a breeze. Silence and stillness reigned as if the world was holding its breath and then, cautiously the birds began to sing again. A real breeze gusted over the grass and the city stood empty of human life again.
The sword felt wrong. And Marlina knew why it did. While being a finely made sword from the fey, it wasn't her sword. The sword that she had wielded for over a thousand years (though it didn't feel like that, time within the lands of the fey was always subjective). The sword that she had just passed on. She had done her duty and now she would do what she had wanted to do for all these long years.
Sword in hand, she approached the ruins of Pentarch. Or what had been the ruins of Pentarch. Now they were so much less than that. Trees over grew on the rubble and stone of what had once been buildings. Grass poked through the streets nearly hiding them. Only a few walls stood stubbornly out, indicating that here people once lived. Here once was a great city.
The grass tugged at her legs as she walked through the streets of her childhood. She could see that there was the shop where she had bought her first dress to impress a boy. And there had been the tavern that she had loitered with friends after classes. Down that street her best friend had lived. Down there her first kiss. In her mind the city still stood gleaming with life and magic. In her mind her family still lived, her friends still waited for her, her lover hid just around the corner waiting to surprise her.
She held onto the memories tightly as she approached where the great university had stood. The center of all magic, they had proclaimed it. If it couldn't be found here, then it wasn't worth finding. The great elemental courts had been reclaimed by nature and looked like pasture. Tiny whoot birds called from within the blades sounding almost like the chatter of students. Almost, but not quite.
But at one place, nature had not taken its course. At one place tiled stone still took the brunt of the sun. Here at once had been the Welcoming Court, life did not come. The tiled ground was still scorched black, just like it had been the last time she had come here. The same leeching feel still tugged at her, at her soul and bones. The rift had not been healed. It still ached for life, for closure.
She still could not fix it. Perhaps her successor could. But she doubted it. The boy was strong magically, but not too bright and slightly scatterbrained. The rift, however, was not why she had come. She had come to deal with the cause of the rift.
Again she strained her senses, trying to gain a hint of Lorac, a guess at where he might be. They had told her that he had long died with the creation of the rift, but from what she had heard from the Fey, she doubted that. Griffin had been right, the Fey did have a hand in the destruction of her home.
She could not deal with the Fey.
She could deal with Lorac.
"Where are you?" she murmured to herself.
"Right here."
Marlina spun around, dropping into a defensive pose, sword held at the ready. There, standing nonchalantly, was Lorac. He looked every inch a Seriph with his white blond hair and ice blue eyes. Though the mad smile on his face ruined his handsome looks. And he was handsome, not looking a day over thirty. "Where did you come from?"
"I saw that you had given up the sword. I knew you would come looking for me. So, I decided to wait for you." He gave her a smile and a shrug, looking perfectly harmless. She did not let her guard down.
"So, you know why I am here then?"
"Yes," And that mad smile grew wider, "I know. You've come to revenge your family. Your people. It won't work. Not as you are now. Perhaps as you had been, but not as you are now."
"I know. Still, I must try."
"Of course." He spreads his arms out, as if inviting her to embrace him. She shifted on the balls of her feet.
"He will defeat you. The current bearer of the blade."
He just smiled a wide and smug smile. With a long repressed desire to wipe that smile off his face, Marlina charged him. The smile grew wider and magic swirled around him. She did not stop, she did not hesitate, she raised her sword and dove into the nimbus of energy.
For a moment the whoot birds stopped their calling as a ripple of magic rolled over the city like a breeze. Silence and stillness reigned as if the world was holding its breath and then, cautiously the birds began to sing again. A real breeze gusted over the grass and the city stood empty of human life again.
