It was the sixth hour since she fell unconscious and the pendant on her neck shone. Sil’s dad wondered what it was and why. He had laid her to rest on her bed and wiped the blood that had stained her clear skin and the floor. There was fear in his eyes and the only person he could think of to call was Aelfric. He had already sent for Aelfric but was told that Aelfric was nowhere to be found. His anger was even more than his fear. Though he wanted to trust that Aelfric would not ditch his daughter, he feared that that might be the case. He had been away on merchant trips. But was even more upset that Sil had not told him about her pregnancy. But what mattered now was her life. He wanted his daughter to come back to life.
It was days now and Aelfric still hadn’t been by the house and Sil still had not woken up. Farmer Melses grew grey with worry as he wondered every day if Sil would wake up. He was wiping her body as usual when she twitched her fingers. He was sure he had not imagined it so he stared wide-eyed at her to see if she would move again but nothing. Disappointed and sad, he made to leave the room.
“Aelfric?” She managed to say as she opened her eyes. “Father?”
He turned and rushed back to her bed side. “Oh my Silver-Dew! You are awake! She’s awake!” He said amidst tears and laughter to no one.
“Where’s Aelfric?”
“He’s not here. He hasn’t been here”
“I have to see him.” She struggled to stand up but couldn’t.
“No, you should not move a limb. You are still weak.” He gave her a liquid made from some of the herbs he’d mixed to drink and she went back to sleep.
***
Months had gone by and Sil still hadn’t heard from Aelfric. She was bent over a plant at a farm plucking some leaves for her father. Her legs became to hurt so she stood up. With the hand that held the leaves on her back and other on her stomach, she rubbed her baby bump as the soothing sun shone on her face. How her unborn child managed to survive was still a mystery to her and her father.
Two days after Sil’s awakening from her unconsciouness and total conviction that Aelfric might have died, her father had decided that they moved to Belldol, a town far from Wivern’s Rest. To give her a new beginning.
“Sil! Sil!.” Her father called from the door. “Come, breakfast is served.” She turned and walked to the house.
At the table, both father and daughter talked and laughed at memories that happened back at Wivern’s Rest.
“Remember Sir Jon’s and his peculiar black boots? The way he always called at to his dogs?” Farmer Melses asked.
“Crane sit. Hover stand.” Sil mimicked. Farmer Melses laughed so hard he did not notice the change of expression on Sil’s face. Sil touched the floor beneath her with her hand and smelt the liquid that had just dropped from her.
“Father… Father!”
“Yes my dear.” Father Melses answered still laughing.
“I think my water just broke.” He stopped laughing immediately and rushed to her side.
He rubbed her hand as he said shakily, “You will be fine. Hilda! Let me go call Hilda. Stay here okay?. Don’t move an inch.” He ran off the door to call one of the town’s midwives.
***
He saw again. Her hair was being blown by the midnight wind and he walked to her. He held her.
“Don’t leave me. Ever.” Sil said
“I will never do such my love.” He answered looking into her eyes. He was just about to kiss her when a light from the talisman she wore shone pushing him powerfully away from her and the wind stronger than before blew her away. Away from his reach.
“Sil! Siiiilll!.” He screamed into reality. Aelfric had been having the same dream since he woke up from the effect of the ritual. He was confused about what it could mean, though he was sure that he had lost the most important thing to him, Love.
His Sil.
He stood up from his bed and he prepared for the day’s healing routine at the Citadel.
***
Back at Belldol, Farmer Melses could not believe his ears and eyes. He was heartbroken. She was gone. His precious. His Silver-dew was dead and so was the baby. He cried and watched as her body was wrapped to be buried. The pendant on her neck was removed and handed over to him. He took it, stared at him and put it into his pocket. Sil was buried that day with her child beside her.
Two days after Sol’s burial, Farmer Melses got the pendant from his pocket where he had kept it the day Sil died. The pendant still shone its light, though this time, it was dim. He couldn’t help but think that something was strange about it.
Maybe Magic. He thought.
The talisman held his gaze as he felt a heavy need to return it to someone. He didn’t know who it was but he knew that the pendant was not his to keep. When the talisman finally released him, he remembered that he had gotten news the day before about Aelfric and his doings at the citadel. So he decided to send it back to Aelfric. At least as one last piece of her to hold on to. Wrapped in a gift and a letter box, it was sent to Aelfric.
Aelfric got the letter and hurriedly opened it to read. He was heart broken at the situation described by the words. He fell to the floor and wept uncontrollably as he prayed that the floor swallowed him whole. Minutes after he was calm, he went back into the house and put the pendant into the philactory he had crafted. Memories of their days together flashed though his mind’s eye and he made the promised never to let her go or love another.
And so he lived, healing the people of Wivern’s Rest and glad that his ritual worked. He trained a few young lads to take after him. And as years went by he moved from town to town, city to city agelessly and hiding his identity as a Lich. He evolved with the centuries and so did his name, Aelfric Simbal.
PART 3
THE AWAKENING
Once the soul awakens, the search begins and you can never go back. From then on, you are inflamed with a special longing that will never again let you linger in the lowlands of complacency and partial fulfillment. The eternal makes you urgent. You are loath to let compromise or the threat of danger hold you back from striving toward the summit of fulfillment.
~John O’Donohue
***** ******
She could hear the hands of the nearby clock ticking. There was a cackling noise, probably from the modern fireplace warming the room. Someone was on the phone. It was a deep melodious male voice. Clair found the sound of it soothing.
Strange.
“Yes Alice. Just for two weeks. I want you to shift all the meetings I’ll be having till then, the ones that cannot be postponed, have Stanley stand in for me.”
A minute. Two minutes.
“I’m very sure he can handle it. Send me all documents that require my attention via email and of course any other valid update. I wouldn’t want you calling all the time. No matter how urgent it is, just send it as an email. I’ll attend to it and back to you as soon as I can. Do you understand?”
She wanted the voice to continue talking. She wanted his smooth voice to keep soothing her. How disappointed she was when she heard what sounded like a dropped phone. The room went silent and she did not like it. Clair couldn’t understand these feeling. She didn’t understand herself at the moment. She felt very fatigued and drowsy. Her eyes were still closed and though she tried her best to open them, they chose to remain close.
Where am I? What is happening to me?
She did not have the time to answer the question or ponder much on it as her languid body won her over and drew her into another deep slumber.
*****
Rick gazed at the burning embers as he absent mindedly stroked his three days old stubble. He was sitted on the wooden plum cushion that was beside the bed, analysing the situation that he found himself in.
When they landed on Arcus Island, Rick settled Clair in a suite near his own chambers. It was far enough from his rooms to afford him some privacy, but close enough for him to check up on her. She’d been ill, as he’d expected. The last Four days has been pretty difficult for him, he had spent the most part of his day in the room where Clair laid. She had not roused from her comatose state and he was beginning to worry.
He had never performed the bringing back to life ritual on anyone, and although he knew that it could go both ways if he did, Rick wasn’t exactly sure which trail this particular one would take, but he concluded that it would be worth the risk. After all, if he doesn’t perform the ritual, she’s already dead and if the ritual goes wrong? Same results.
But at the moment, he was beginning to wonder if he made the right decision performing the ritual. Clair was starting to develop a slight fever and he wondered how long it will be before it got worse. And she has not even as much as opened her eyes.
He knew from the information he got reading the magix book that one of the things that could happen to the person brought back to life was brief illness or serious fatigue but she hasn’t fully come to for him to even determine how sick she was. It was starting to take long. It’s been four days since the airport incident. Four long days. Aelfric could only hope that she regains consciousness as soon as possible because the longer she is unconscious, the more dangerous it was and the slimmer the chances of her making it.
Rick looked at where she lay on the bed, her head propped up by a pillow and her hair splayed all over it. She looked so angelic and Aelfric felt like if he stared at her for long he would stain her, taint her innocence with his dark soul. She looked almost unreal lying beautiful as she was and he felt unworthy to gaze upon her. But he couldn’t stop staring.
Her smooth skin was a pale shade of alabaster. He wondered if it was as soft as it was smooth. He wanted to run his hands over it. A small pointed nose punctuated her face, her breathing was faint. He knew this because he had put his index finger just below her nose and felt the almost non-existent flow of air.
Please Clair, I know you cannot hear me but if by some miracle you can, please wake up.
It was almost as if he imagined it, her small nostrils flared as she took in a lungful of air. No, he did not imagine it, because in less than a second later, her chest heaved in sync with the air intake, then she resumed her shallow breathing. Rick sat stock still where he was watching her, waiting to see if she will rouse a little more and hopefully, eventually wake. Nothing happened. Five minutes later, things were just as they were before.
Rick sighed and dropped his head. He raised his head and swung his gaze back on her face. His eyes trailed down to her pouty heart shaped lips. How he wanted to run his tongue over it.
Stop it. Aelfric closed his eyes and ran his two hands through his hair. She’s just a child Aelfric. Not just any child, an unconscious one. You can at least hold off your thoughts till she is awake. Although you should know better. There can never be anything between you and her.
But he knew that already, she was only a child and he was a withered old soul. He saw her as a child because compared to him, he had lived miserably for a thousands years and is looking for a way out. He was incapable of emotions and has not felt a thing for anyone since he lost the only woman he’s ever loved.
Beautiful Sil, with her plum red lips and her bubbly giggles that I couldn’t seem to get enough of.
Aelfric, with his closed eyes, rested his head on the back of his chair and reminisced all the good times the spent together. The warm moments, the sheer laughter, the happiness. He would give anything in the world to experience that again, even if it was only a small fraction of that happiness he used to know, he was certain it will satisfy his ailing soul.
He glanced at Clair again but this time, the red stone necklace caught his eyes first before it could travel up her face. His erratic heartbeat returned, his heart racing rapidly. And with an acutely striking force, it came back to him. His heart hammered against his chest with such an intense force he feared it might fall off his body.
He knew he had seen that pendant somewhere, it was the very same pendant he had given Sil.
Rick remembered specifically how he’d meticulously fashioned a vessel to protect their soul, Sil and himself. Sil’s was a lovely, painstakingly carved pendant with a blood-red stone in the middle, from the day he gave it to her. She always wore it around her neck. It was made from the heated blood of the Chimera that captured Sil and the other missing girls. When Aelfric killed thw beast, he collected some of it’s blood in a vial and used it for the ritual. Aelfric had fashioned a box out of the flesh of this most magical beast. He built the structure from of the creature’s more fragile bones from its skulls and paws, stretching the creature’s tanned hide around it. Only the tiny red stones baked onto the leather’s surface matched Sil’s piece. Aelfric thought that by using chimera blood, he would be able to link their souls not only to their phylacteries but also to each other for all time.
Waste of effort. He thought bitterly as he remembered the night of the ritual. Like he has done a million times, he once again wondered what became of the woman he loved. He thought about how outrageous it was that with all the time and power he has, he is incapable of protecting the ones dear to him. He had hoped that somehow the enchanted talisman would keep them both alive and safe but he was wrong.
But how did clair come to be in possession of the red stone pendant? The book of magix and death plainly said that an object enchanted with the chimera’s blood cannot be stolen only gifted. He remembered he had lost it somewhere he didn’t know back when he was in Wivern Rest.
Rick had a lot of questions he needed answered, but he knew he would not be getting any while Clair was still unconscious. Everything at this moment was beyond his control.