Editing Tears of a Fallen Crown:Characters:Mirage:History (section)

==Chapter 13:  Reunion==


As they rode out of town to meet Walker in Darkness at the stables, they were mostly quiet, thinking their own thoughts about the weekend and both silently and secretly smiling at the thought of their marriage.  The quiet enabled them to hear the soft thudding of hoof beats behind them.  


They both turned to see a man with long flowing hair, wearing what appeared to be a stone mask adorned with real flowers that appeared to be blooming from cracks along it, riding on a large Arabian stallion.


“I don’t like this.”  Samira whispered, and tried to spur the horse into a soft gallop.  Sure enough, their pursuer galloped his horse softly as well.


Caleb shrugged, “Maybe one of the villagers wanting to travel with us?  Should we try to speak to him?”


She nodded and called behind her, “HEY!  WHAT DO YOU WANT?  IF YOU WISH TO SPEAK WITH US THEN SPEAK!”


The rider said nothing, but upon seeing them slow down, began to gallop his horse a little faster.  


Samira prepared her sword and called out, “STOP!  OR PREPARE TO FIGHT!”


The man on horseback stopped.


She felt strangely sick at the sight of him, there was something very familiar about the man’s form that she couldn’t place, him and the magnificent horse he was riding.  Still, whether she knew him or not, it was becoming clear his intent was hostile.


She yelled, this time letting all the anger out in her tone, “IF YOU DON’T WANT TO DIE I SUGGEST YOU MAKE KNOWN YOUR INTENT!”


The rider laughed, a sound that reminded Samira of fingernails scraping a blackboard and said, smugly, “I should think you’d know my intent, Samira.  Revenge is something you should know a lot about!”


Both Caleb and Samira gasped.  The voice they were hearing was that of the fey Marian.  And, by the look of him, he was alive and well.


He laughed again, smugly and hissed, “Well, isn’t this a handsome group, a ghost and a puppet.  You should’ve watched me die as you wanted – since it seems, from the look of things, you were a bit too late after all.”


Samira was breathing heavily.  She felt her heart beating faster and faster as the feelings of hate and anger welled back into her mind, and consumed with them all of the joy the weekend had brought.  She couldn’t hear Caleb trying to calm her down, nor could she see the clouds suddenly thickening and blocking out the sun in the sky above her.  All she knew was the dark itch in the back of her mind had become too much for her to handle and she could feel the darkness starting to overtake her – and once again, she found herself liking it.


The fey had gone into another tangent about how he was going to make her suffer like he suffered, and about how he had managed to stop himself from bleeding to death and called to one of the horses to escape…when he too began to notice the change in Samira.  She had begun go growl and laugh at the same time.  He began to see two lumps bulging in her back that suddenly sprouted out into what looked like black angel wings.  Her eyes were glowing a bright yellow, and her jaws began to pull themselves outward becoming like the maw of a dog.  There were feathers sprouting along her face as well as black fur, and her fingernails were turning into claws.  By the time the dark energy had manifested itself she looked like a monster out of a fairy tail with dark billowing wings, a jackal-like Anubis head very similar the mask Caleb had made for her, wicked claws for hands, and black spines lining her back where her backbone should be.  She was flapping the wings and hovering over her horse, staring at him with murder in her eyes.  Both Marian and Caleb were suddenly terrified and speechless, so she spoke for him.


Her voice was raspy and deep, like one would imagine an animal to sound, if it were suddenly to gain the ability to speak, “Why so silent, Marian?  Could it be I’ve even made you speechless?  You’ve truly made my night, Sir.  I’ve always regretted not being able to see you die, and now it seems you’ve given me a second chance!  How kind and how foolish!”


Caleb whispered breathlessly, “Mira, please…”


She jerked her head in his direction, growling, “Don’t rob me of my revenge!  This is one dream I definitely wish to fulfill!”


The fey hissed, “I think you’ll find that more difficult than you think!”


He jumped off the horse, diving for her with his sword outstretched.  She laughed hoarsely and glided out of the way, slicing at him with her sword as well.  He stared her in the eyes and concentrated, only to look confused as she threw back her head and laughed at him, having protected herself from his magic.  He screamed and darted for her again, this time managing to slice off a few of her feathers from her newly acquired wing.  Still, she struck back just as quickly, managing to cut off several strands of his long flowing hair.  As they fought one another sparks seemed to erupt from their weapons clashing, probably from the dichotomy of cold soul-steel to the fey’s dream-crafted weapon.  He jumped for her and she dodged deftly out of the way, she dove for him and he would move just in time to avoid the full blow, and yet both seemed to defy gravity, jumping higher and moving faster with every attack.  He was fighting her with brute force.  


Finally, Marian, with a look on his face as though he were growing impatient switched weapons to a longbow and took aim at Caleb who was having trouble keeping up with the fight.  Marian said with a chuckle, “Don’t worry, I’ll show him the same courtesy you showed Miana!”


Before he could pull the bowstring, he felt the powerful blow from Samira’s fist impacting the stone mask and breaking it in two.  He dropped the bow, using both hands to cover his marred face.   “NO!”  He screamed, looking for the other half of the mask.  “YOU WEREN’T TO SEE ME LIKE THIS!”


She laughed cynically, “I knew your face was beyond repair.  Pathetic!  Too bad your skill isn’t as large as your ego.  Now I know why you came here after me.  You wanted revenge or you wanted to die.  And, I won’t give you either.”


She took one half of the mask, attached it to his arrow, picked up his bow, and shot it as far as the bowstring would allow her, hissing as she did so, “Happy hunting, Marian!  Let’s go, Caleb!”


They left the now bitterly weeping fey behind and continued along the road.


Caleb was silent as they traveled the rest of the way to the stable.  Finally, he couldn’t take it, “Mira, are you okay?”


She nodded, but said nothing.


He sighed, “You should’ve killed him.  He didn’t deserve to live.”


She laughed bitterly, “Ah, but that was what he wanted me to do.  Killing him would’ve been being merciful.”  She paused, and, as he looked into her eyes, he saw something sorrowful behind her expression in her unnatural glowing eyes, as she sighed, saying, “I’m sorry.  I should’ve killed him.  But, part of me wants to know he’s still suffering.  I’m a monster now, aren’t I?”


Caleb shook his head, “I don’t care what you are, Mira.  You’ll always be that noble knight you used to be to me.”


A bestial smile formed at the corners of her maw, “Thank you, for that – and for this weekend.”  


Caleb motioned ahead of them, “I think we should be thanking him for that.”


Walker in Darkness was leaning against the stable.  His orange eyes wide with surprise and what looked like pleased amusement as he stared at Samira’s appearance.  He laughed and grinned, “My!  You did have a nice weekend!  Didn’t you?”


Walker in Darkness seemed to be hiding something from them.  Even though he seemed very happy to see them, there also was sadness behind his eyes.  He said, slowly, “Well, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking this weekend, and I’ve concluded that you both are nearly finished with my training.”


Both Samira and Caleb gaped.  She stammered in a throaty growl, “But…but we’ve only barely been here a month…”


He smiled, “Well, I said you were quick learners, didn’t I?”


Caleb frowned, “Are you sure we’re ready?  We haven’t done anything wrong have we?  If this is about this weekend…”


Walker in Darkness shook his head, “No, no, dear boy!   Not at all!  I guess this is more about me than you.  You see, I’ve been concentrating so hard on training you I’ve been neglecting my duties as a Deathlord.  Neither of you have done anything wrong – at least not in my eyes.”  He laughed a little, looking at Mirage’s appearance again.  


She sighed, “Well, I’ve enjoyed training with you.  If you need more time to yourself though, we understand.  In fact, maybe we could even consider training less often and letting you go about your business.”


He shook his head and sighed heavily.  She noticed he oddly seemed to be very sad.  She was even more shocked when he said in an almost pleading voice, “Please, you don’t understand.  I like the two of you – and there are things I have to do that I don’t want you to see me doing.”


At that, they both nodded solemnly and Caleb sighed, “Well, how much more training do you think we need?”


He grinned, “Two weeks at most.  But they’re going to be very very rough and long weeks!”