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Zahara returns to the Cascade, and immediately leaves the others to their own devices while she seeks out Cerin. ::Where are you?:: she calls to him.
Cerin ::Welcome back.:: She can see the smile on his face. ::In the gardens closest to your chambers::
Zahara maneuvers swiftly through the corridors, a simple thought making the paths straighter, more direct, until she comes upon him in the gardens. The blooms seem falsely bright to her eyes, and she runs her hand along one of the bushes, pulling the blossoms off and leaving them crushed in her wake.
Zahara "Have you made peace with your memories yet?" she asks as she sits down beside him with a rustle of silk.
Cerin "Something about the last one ... it still does not hold true." He says, slipping an arm around her. "How was Selonis?"
Zahara "Depressed."
Cerin "Why? Markuran?"
Zahara looks out across the gardens, leaning up against Cerin, "I think so. He is lonely." she pauses, then quietly, bitterly says, "And he confirmed our fears about our great and glorious god."
Cerin "So, he does not care?" Cerin says quietly, and holds Zahara a little closer. "What did Selonis have to say about the other solars?"
Zahara "We are still being punished for our past lives, who fell from his grace. Now he does not care what happens to us... The other sparks... the ones that have not been tainted by darkness, like Ebon's..." she looks up at him, "They have been trapped, captured for other, unspecified purposes."
Cerin "Like the Man With A Thousand Faces And None, I would guess. How were they captured though?"
Zahara "In his exact words, 'What have fish always been caught for? To breed, or to gaze at in a tank. Or to eat.' He did not specify how they were caught, but I suspect they are being used for the new 'tools' Autochthon was creating." she pauses, then "Let me just tell you all he said, maybe you will glean more from it."
Zahara thus, relays the conversation
Cerin frowns deeply at this. "That is most vexing."
Zahara "Luc is shattered."
Cerin "He did place so much faith in the Sun. I will have to find him later, though what I will say, I do not know."
Zahara nods. "I hardly know what to say. Thirteen... he started giving inspiring speeches. It was...strange."
Cerin "That is ... odd." He squeezes her side softly. "Though we had already resolved that he needed talking to." He says, a way of making it sound not quite so bad.
Zahara "Somehow it was easier before I knew we were right." she quickly looks around to make sure there are no others in the garden, then sighs and leans her head against his shoulder.
Cerin strokes her hair and sits there in silence with her for a while, before eventually he speaks again. "Could you tell me again, how Talmuda died?" he asks very softly.
Zahara "Hmm?" she looks up from her contemplation, "Why?"
Cerin "Because something you said about it, several months ago, it doesn't agree with what I saw this morning."
Zahara closes her eyes, and thinks back to that day, through different eyes.
Zahara "It was Ymir, bearing a dark sword; the Day Breaker." she puts her hand to her chest, over her heart, "I did not expect it, and she stabbed me through the chest." she takes a slow breath, "As I was dying, I saw your face, and Kiriath's... there was a third face. It has haunted me, that I can't see who it is... someone hidden from either sight or memory, but...whoever it was, was evil."
Cerin "Do you know where you were?"
Zahara "No," she admits, "It was not clear."
Zahara "I remember you were not wearing your badge, at the time."
Cerin "Then that, at least, fits. Though still, I did not see Kiraith or anyone else in the room, but your body. I do not think they would simply have left her in there..."
Zahara "Herons said you were alone, too, but that is not what I remember."
Cerin "Hrm."
Zahara "I looked up, and I saw three."
Cerin "I do not doubt you, my love."
Zahara allows her hand to fall from her chest, onto his knee. "What did you see, then, that was different?"
Cerin "There was simply Ymir, sitting before a mirror and dressed in black. You were behind her on the bed, and she held the hawk amulet in her hands. She was speaking calm and slowly, and not particularly quietly. She mentioned that the flowers would be coming. But there was no Kiraith, no strange evil."
Zahara "You could have taken me there, after."
Cerin "I could have, though why would they leave her? Why were they there?"
Zahara "I don't know."
Cerin shakes his head and puts his hand on Zahara's
Tags: (:tags Selonis, Thousand-Faced Man, Atomnos, Talmuda, Daybreaker, Kiriath, Ymir, Herons :)
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