[read with The Lone Watcher: Hero's Fall.]
Gesturing at the younger creature, Lark steps down from the platform and turns to the archway leading away from the room. She immediately recognises the hallway. "We aren't far from Harmony's den. C'mon."
The females are able to make their way easily to the chamber where Harmony lies resting. The doorway is covered over with a drape of exquisite colour and design.
The centaur filly seems so intent on her path that she barely takes note of her surrounding. Lark, having missed the drapery before, mentally marks it as something to investigate when time allows.
"Harmony?" she calls out.
"Come in child." The lilting feminine voice says, muffled slightly by the curtain. "I've been waiting for you, both. Please, Lark... sit. Oracle, come to me. I will not harm you, as you know." With a gratious smile that shows a fangless maw, the old dragoness snakes her head forward, sniffing the Centaur filly.
Steeling herself at the approach of the huge head, the young seer studies the dragoness. "I... know." She whispers.
As Lark glances about for an appropriate seat, the young equine takes a few hesitant steps forward.
"Come closer child, I'm afraid this old maw would do nothing more than bruise you... and that only in self defense." Harmony muses at Oracle's hesitation. She sniffs the young centaur filly...
"Oh, I've waited a long time for you to come here, child... so long." She whispers, tears winding their way down her creased muzzle, to drop on the well worn rug that lays beneath her.
Lark locates a small wooden chair. She tests it for sturdiness and then sits down quietly.
She peers with whitened orbs in Lark's direction. "Eat." the tells the woman, using her tail to set a basket of fruit on the side table next to the chair Lark sits in. "Then go back to the portal room. There will be someone waiting there for you, to take you to aid your friends and people against the Dark beasts that plague Entarre'."
The elven woman starts as the large serpentine limb comes close. She reaches for a ripe redfruit and then stops when Harmony's words sink in. //Leave Oracle?// The thought wars with her cautious nature. //But she is in good hands,// she reminds herself quickly. She sighs deeply, troubled.
The dragoness begins to turn back her attention to teh young centaur, when Lark's voice cuts off her own words from tumbling form her maw.
"Who is to meet me, great Lady?" she asks as politely as she can. //I don't seem to have had any control over my fates since I saved The Master from that crowd!// she fumes lightly.
"The one who will take you further in your life than you would ever have imagined." She smiles enigmatically, then adds, "You go to meet with your destiny, child." Then with a broad smile, and light cackle, the dragoness turns back to Oracle. "He will be a handsome man, with a great red cloak about him." With that, she begins to herd the centaur to a more private area of her den. "Come little one..." she coaxes, "You have as much to fear from me as you would from Gentle Rain, herself." her light cackling fades from Lark's ears, as she talks in hushed tones with Oracle, using their own Seers' speech.
Lark sighs, recognising the dismissal. She makes her way out, listening to Oracle's hesitant reply with only a slight misgiving.
"Harmony? I don't want to be blind..." the innocent protest fades behind the elven mage.
Picking up her step, Lark hurries to the small chamber Harmony had told her about. Once there, she hesitates to enter, uncertain as to what she is going to find, and even a little frightened.
He had faught the best he could, and now the pain was worse than before... he knew something dark would happen soon... the time was close for it as the pain grew worse. But he did not know what that would be, and that is what worried him most. He had been helped by his brother/cousin, Blade, and then had been told by Blade's wife, his sister, just where he needed to go; but why? Would he not find the dark one's forces still within the realm of Demonshire... he did not understand the unfurling of this age's tapestry, and that is what confused him most. But then, it was too late to dwell on that, any more. A figure was transporting to the portal room he now stood in... the one his sister had said would be his destiny.
Shaking herself quickly she enters.
Jenirri feels that now familiar tug of the magical energy scattering her molecules through space to another portal room. And then she saw him. Collin stood before her, alive. His baby-blue eyes filled with unfathomable pain and suffering. His brow creased with worry. All of that vanished for a brief moment, as he saw her, a smile faintly touching his lips as he spoke to her. It was hard to make out what was said, as it was spoken so softly that the hum of the magics drowned it out.
Lark stares, unbelieving for a moment, then rushes up to stand before him.
Collin looks at the lovely woman for a moment, the pain reflected in his eyes showing more clearly than it did so before.
"Thank the gods, you're alive!" she cries out, her eyes searching him for injury. She can see nothing unusual outside of the perpetually bleeding wounds at his wrists.
He smiles with her words, allowing her to examine him briefly. But then, he takes her hand and says, "We must go, before it's too late."
"What happened to you? What is happening here? Harmony said it was important to meet you... do you know what she means?"
"I was defeated by Barrabidus, but the Blade came back to aid me... I had to take time to heal. As for the rest, you will see it unfold before you, and we must help your friends to win their battles... or all hope is lost for this world."
Lark shudders at his dire prediction. //Something tells me this has more to it than a diabolical dragoness bent on world domination,// she frets.
~And you would be right, dear Jenirri.~ The man whispers to her with a mental voice only.
The woman shakes her head, unused to the intimate form of communication. Slight color comes to her cheeks at his use of the endearment.
He leads her to a pair of large double doors, and places his hand to a metal plate. "My dear Lark... Jenniri... it is important that you not reveal this next secret that I show you to anyone. If you were to do so, then it would jeopardize the balance of light and darkness for this world; for I show you the power of the gods." With these words, he presses his hand firmly to the plate, and the doors whisper a hiss before they open. Beyond is a dock, like a sailing vessel would be roped to; and she sees a craft of some kind, it's design like something from a bizarre dream.
The elven woman's eyes widen when she realises first the craft does not rest in waters, but drifts in the empty space between the stars. Her eyes then narrow as she tries to make practical sense of the craft's shape.
Collin smiles at her facial expressions, watching with enjoyment as they change from one of shock and wonder to that of acceptance. //She's definately a Spectral.//
Flabbergasted, she gestures weakly at it. "Should I speak of this to _anyone_, I would be instantly taken for a lunatic. What manner of ship _is_ this?"
~There are always ears of the darkness that listen to your words, my lady.~ He mindspeaks to her, waiting for a new reaction from her.
Her eyes turn towards him suddenly. Once again she blushes. //He says that with such...// she stops herself and turns shyly away from the powerful man. //Don't even start, Jen,// she chastises herself.
"Now, we must be away, before Bastion's tower falls." He takes her hand, pulling her close; then positions her arms around his neck, and tries to guide her to wrap her legs around his own. Then, speading his arms, Collin fills the flaps that hang loosely with a breeze from the edge of the dock to send him across the space to where the hatch is for the ship. He opens the ship's door quickly, as the icy vastness encroaches on the protective magics that surround himself and the woman with him; then inside, he moves to close the door and recirculate the air in the cabin.
The near intimate closeness is disturbing, but not half as much as the journey that makes it necessary. Once within the craft, she detaches herself as quickly as she can without seeming offended... more than aware of the sudden warmth within that is making her uncomfortable... and the blush it causes to her skin.
"That should do us... next time we exit, it'll be easier... as we'll be inside Steelstar." He says, giving reference to the legendary home of the gods.
Her discomfiture is forgotten. "Steelstar?" she exclaims. For a brief moment she cannot decide between fear and excitement. Images of the legendary silver buildings and diamond studded cielings of legend war with her familiarity of the drab metal halls that she and her compatriots had discovered.
Then she hesitates, caution winning dominance in her heart. "Steelstar?" she asks again, "Why are we going there? How can that help Bastion on the world below?"
[continues in The Lone Watcher: Crossover.]
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