Lifeline

Log Info

• Title: Lifeline

• Emitter: Ravenstongue

• Characters: Ravenstongue, Telamon

• Place: Ravenstongue and Telamon's house

• Summary: Ravenstongue has a major memory back, but it's not a cause for celebration. Telamon comes into her room from his own troubled sleep and helps her through it. Together, they'll make it through.

-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=- Dramatis Personae =--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-     
Ravenstongue         5'0"     99 Lb      Half-Elf          Female    Short half-elf girl with violet eyes and black hair.                       
Telamon              5'6"     140 Lb     Half-Elf          Male      A platinum-blond half-sil man with dancing dark eyes                       
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-

It's late. This is the hour when drunk mages are stumbling home, when lovers newly made settle down into abodes for the evening, and when the other night dwellers are stirring in the dark of a dimly lit winter night.

All should be quiet in the Lúpecyll-Atlon home, but it is not in one room. Ravenstongue has crumpled into her pillow and she wails into the silk, her sobs ripping through her lungs and body like freshly received wounds.

Pothy flies to her bedside, trying to nuzzle his beak into her hair. He's trying to comfort her. Little whistles leave him, but she doesn't stop crying. She's either not interested in what he has to hear or it is simply not reaching her.

There is only so much that a bird can do.

Telamon sits bolt upright in bed. He's not... frightened. But it's as tangible as if someone grabbed his shoulder and shook him awake. Even as he's climbing out of his bed, he tries to remember the dream. Something stalking him... and then the great, shifting shadow, standing there. And then an intense sensation, an awareness that he needed to talk to Cor'lana, at least check on her. Pulling on a robe, he opens the door and pads next door. He hesitates at the door, and then knocks. "'Lana? Are you awake?" he calls to her. Half hoping she's not, that this is just a silly dream, the result of trying the peppered jerky.

He's answered with very audible sobbing and wailing from the door. To put it gently, it's the sound of someone's world shattering.

Thankfully for Telamon, the door opens. Pothy flaps down from the doorknob and just stares at him as the open door now means that Ravenstongue's sorrow is even louder. "We have a problem," Pothy says in Ravenstongue's voice, before he flies back to a bedpost on Ravenstongue's bed, his eyes trained on Telamon.

It's a look that says, "I can't do anything here. You can, though." And judging by the fact Ravenstongue hasn't even paused to lift her head up from the pillow, she's too utterly consumed in her emotions to have even noticed Telamon yet.

It's bad. He's never seen her like this, so broken and desolate. She's weeping like a child, like someone who's found out their world is irrevocably marred. And so Telamon goes to her, brushing by Pothy swiftly as he sits down on the bed next to his sobbing girl, and touches her shoulder. "'Lana. It's me, Tel. What's wrong? Please, talk to me?" Putting his heart into it, because in truth it's wounding him to see her in this state.

Ravenstongue finally stirs with his touch. She slowly moves at first, as even lifting her body seems like a challenge, but then she moves so quickly, pushing herself into his lap and wrapping her arms tightly around him as she looks up at him.

Her face is so red, so wet from tears. Her violet eyes even have a slight red tinge to them. "Tel... Tel, I..."

She shakes her head and whimpers, looking away for a moment. "I k-killed... I killed my m-m-mother," she manages to say before she just breaks down again.

Pothy looks away from his post on the bed. It's like an admission of knowledge.

Telamon wraps his arms around her, holding her tightly. At this moment he has to be the rock, the tree, the lifeline for her before she drowns. At her admission, though, he says, quite reasonably:

"I'm sorry, you what?"

His tone is not of loathing, or anger, or disgust. It's absolute confusion. Befuddlement. It's as though she'd told him she was giving up sorcery and taking up knitting instead. It makes no sense at all to him. "'Lana, love of my life... that makes no sense at all."

"I kn-know, i-it doesn--doesn't," Ravenstongue says, her words interrupted by her own little sobs and a little hiccup. Then she just squeezes him. Holds him. And she folds her face into his shoulder to sob.

For a long, long moment, it's like this. Then she finally is taking deep breaths. Deep, deep breaths. The whimpers come less and less. The storm has either left, or the eye of the hurricane has simply come over for that bit of respite.

Ravenstongue finally looks back into his eyes, breathing heavily as one does when they're wailing. "I... It was a dream. But it wasn't. I was there. Pothy was there. Seyardu was there. Skielstregar, Mikilos--they were there too. A beautiful elf woman in mythril armor appeared and told us that we were about to face the Nightmare. She said my mother's name and gave Pothy a treat. Then she disappeared and we were... transported, into a desert. A terrifying dragon appeared. Everyone else was scared of him, but I was so angry, I demanded the woman to come back and give me answers. I wasn't scared at all."

Her hands tremble against his back again. "Tel... Tel, the dragon said he'd tell me something. He tapped his claw to my head and... I saw it. My real memories. The last night..."

The tears well up again. "The last night my mother was alive. The real way it happened."

Telamon places his hand at the back of her head, letting her sobs gradually wear down. Cuddling her close, as she calms down. Taking a deep breath, now that she's not in complete disarray, and starting to review her words. "Damn. And here I was about to ask you about dreams, but I think you had it worse."

He strokes her hair, organizing his thoughts. "The first question: how do you know? Are you sure you're not being tricked, or lied to? This... Nightmare, this dragon -- could it have spun you a fable?" He cups her cheek, looking into her eyes. "How did he say it happened?"

Ravenstongue takes in more deep breaths as Telamon strokes her hair and cups her cheek. His efforts are working to keep her calm enough to speak, at least. "I know, because when I woke up, I asked Pothy if it was real."

She squeezes Telamon a little as she says, in a tinier voice, "He told me that he wished I didn't have to find out that way."

Pothy's blue eyes are positively filled with sorrow. The bird may be sad when it comes to not having his snacks, but this is so much worse. "I'm sorry," he says, mimicking Ravenstongue's voice.

Telamon shakes his head. "I don't get it. Your mother was a mage as well -- at least a middling competent one, correct? How on earth could you kill her, with your talent barely emerged?" His brows are furrowed, but he doesn't let go of 'Lana. He looks at Pothy. "There's more to this, there has to be."

He helps Lana sit up in his lap, rubbing her back. "How old were you when this happened? Unless you were some kind of amazingly precocious child..."

This is probably not how Telamon expected for Ravenstongue to be in his lap for the first time. Chances are high that Ravenstongue didn't think it would be this way, either. She wipes her eyes with a hand that she briefly frees for the purpose, returning it quickly around Telamon's back once her eyes are clear.

"I was eighteen," she says. "It was on my birthday. I knew that much. Before, I remembered her giving me a book. She told me, 'Everything you will need is in here.' I opened it up and Pothy flew out. He told me, 'I am your beginning, and you are my end.' I looked away from him and the book was gone. So was Mother."

Her lower lip wobbles again, but it seems her tears have run dry. "What really happened was... She told me I was ready. She told me that I wouldn't understand why she did the things she did but that it was better I didn't remember things, because a monster was going to come and take me away. She told me I was the inheritor of Apotheosis. She told me that the reason I was drawn to Navos is that because Knowledge was bestowed onto our ancestor--and that only one person at a time could bear that knowledge, could handle that power. And so, she was passing Apotheosis down to me. She held out the book and gave it to me."

"Everything you need is in here," Pothy says in the deeper and more maternal voice, echoing Ravenstongue's voice.

The sorceress shakes for a moment, but she nods. "Just like that. I opened the book and we performed the ritual that was inside. I remember screaming when I saw her beginning to disintegrate before me--but she told me it was what had to be done, that I couldn't just wait for her to pass naturally. It had to be this way, for my safety. Then..."

She swallows. It's a dry, hard swallow. "She told me she loved me. And I felt burning inside of me--and I saw her crumble to ash. When I came to, she was gone, and Pothy was mine."

Telamon just stares. The emotions in his eyes... aren't disgust, or horror. They're confusion. Even a little anger. "Why... why would she lay that on you? I... thought there had been some accident, some chance of fate. But..." His voice firms, becomes unyielding. "You did not kill her, 'Lana. Look at me. No, look." He firmly cups her chin, so she can't turn away.

"What happened... what you described... that wasn't murder. The way you're saying... she engineered it. Binding her familiar to you, and then passing... she did it on her terms." He gives her a gentle shake. "It hurts, because you've finally remembered it... but it wasn't your fault."

Ravenstongue's eyes tremble. She sniffles again, but the tears are simply just gone, a dry cry. And of course, she doesn't dare move away from his touch. "She did it because she earnestly believed the Feathered One was a monster. Because she was terrified of him reaching me. It... It's heartbreaking, because if she knew the truth..."

She frowns deeply. "She died because she was afraid and because she loved me. And now I'm here with no mother. I know it's not my fault... But that doesn't stop the guilt, Tel."

Telamon sighs. "And if the Feathered One had caught up to her and you, and been able to explain... things might've been avoided. The irony is palpable." He cradles her face in his hands. "What happened was a tragedy, and my heart aches for you, love. But you cannot blame yourself for this. Don't take the guilt on yourself, because you won't be able to ever get past it."

He brushes back her hair, and rests his brow against hers. "I am so very sorry you had to learn this. It's not fair and it's one more sad tale in a world littered with them. All we can do is try to make better stories."

Ravenstongue closes her eyes. She sits there, lets him hold her like she's adrift at sea and he's the only thing keeping her above water.

"...Tel..." she eeks out.

Her hands slowly reach up and rest on top of his. "Just promise me the rest of my life will be happier now that you're here," she says, her eyes opening. "I don't want you to disappear before my eyes, too. Please."

Telamon slips his arms around her, holding her tightly. "I'm not going anywhere," he says firmly. "You're stuck with me, 'Lana. And I promise I will spend the rest of our lives together, doing my damnedest to make you smile." All he can see is her face, worn from tears and anguish. Stroking her back, as he presses his cheek to hers. "Do you want me to stay here with you tonight?" There's nothing intimate in the offer... merely the proposal that whatever dreams may come, might be easier to face with someone to hold onto.

"I want you to stay," Ravenstongue says, rather firmly.

The warmth of a blush creeps onto her face as she then says, "And I don't mind what might happen, either."

Pothy looks a little shocked, looking around the room rapidly. He doesn't want to be here anymore. He flaps over to the door and twists it open with a mix of his talons and beak, rapidly flying out of the room.

That actually does make Ravenstongue smile again. "I said it a little just to get him out of here," she says, "but... I... I'm alive. And right now, all I want to think of is you. You're also the love of my life. And..."

Her face flushes. She can't say the rest.

Telamon can't help but smile. "You're vulnerable right now." He guides her back down onto the bed, and then slips in next to her... curling his arms around her. "I love you. More than I can figure out how to say. I don't want our... well, first time, to be when you're broken down and wounded." He does, however, kiss her tenderly on the lips, a warm contact, an affirmation.

"You and me, 'Lana. Together. Whatever happens, let's face it together."

Ravenstongue folds into his arms and smiles, snuggling up into his form--and smiling all the wider as he kisses her. The tears are now long gone and replaced solely with another look of adoration. "You are kinder to me than I think anyone might have ever been to me, Tel," she says softly. "More honorable than anyone I've ever met. I..."

She closes her eyes, still smiling. "I want to be with you forever," she says.

And the sleep comes after.

The Lúpecyll-Atlon house is peaceful and quiet once more.