Dryad Eyes 17.5
"Twice in as many days," she thought to herself, "I should be careful about getting any ideas about being allowed in Geran's rooms on a regular basis." Patiently she ground the herbs in the mortar with the matching pestle; on the table in front of her and slightly to one side lay a bowl filled with the purest water she could obtain, waiting to be added to the mixture.
"Honestly Geran, why didn’t you have her wash her face when you saw the grit yourself?"
"That was my first thought, to be honest." Clothed in a long, white, sleeveless shirt, and loose fitting black trousers, he sat beside Charis. Their fingers were intertwined. He had been pacing, until she had softly asked him to stop. "Given her description of what went on, I wanted to be sure that we knew exactly what we were dealing with before I meddled. Besides, you were only a minute or two away. Had it been any longer, I would not have waited."
"Well glad to see one of you has some sense. Charis what were you thinking chasing after that woman alone without anyone to guard your back?" Carefully she began pouring the water, adding a few drops at a time to the mixture in the bowl. "You were fortunate that she only threw ground hematite into your eyes. With half a shrug, Charis answered. "Geran is rubbing off on me. He's a bad influence."
"Hey!" She grinned at his startled response. Normally quite pretty, her smile did nothing pleasant to her features as her face remained red and swollen. Shaking her head Kimera, couldn’t help the smile that tugged on the corners of her mouth. "Girl even if this fool man of yours goes off and battles Gods and Demons on a regular basis it’s no reason for you to try and match him for bravado. There is a reason men are gifted with so many muscles, it’s to make up for their lack of brains." Completing the mixture, she empties the bowl carefully into a medium-sized bottle before attaching an eyedropper cover. "Three drops in each eye, three times a day, should reverse any of the effects the hematite had on your vision. As for the rest of you, well be glad that most of the palace hasn’t realized they have a wedding to look forward to yet. Use the salve I gave you twice a day, morning and evening, and keep out of direct sunlight until the redness on your skin is completely gone. If you think it’s gone, give it another day and come see me before you go gallivanting again."
"Thank you, Kimera. I appreciate your help, and your kindness." Charis said genuinely. "And, in all seriousness, I did not expect trouble when I went to see the woman. I was just... fact checking. When she bolted, I didn't have time to call for help."
Geran seemed frustrated, but was careful to keep his ire down and his thoughts cool. "On that note, I've posted a guard outside Lithia's door. She is not exactly a prisoner, but she knows that she is not presently free to move about on her own. Had she not worked so hard with you to save Treyp, I -would- have had her moved to the dungeon."
"He's overreacting," Charis quipped. After a careful study of her own feelings on the subject, she had personally asked him to go easy on the girl.
"Curious, what does the poor run-away have to do with the witch-spawn?"
"She claimed that she had delivered a package to that particular apothecary, having been hired by a sorcerer of some sort to do so after leaving her tribe in Fyrendi. That was why I went there in the first place, because I was... mistrustful of Lithia, given her background." She pointedly did not look at Geran while making this admission, and was thankful that her face remained red so as the disguise the flush of embarrassment. He did not react.
"However the ... apothecary didn’t disprove anything the girl said. So... how does the apothecary’s later actions in any way reflect on her?"
"I but asked if she remembered the girl, and she became defensive. Then she bolted. I did not yet have this hideous face to warrant such a reaction." Charis chuckled, and Geran squeezed her hand. "Then, there was a comment the woman made at the Silver Kettle before setting it ablaze. It doesn't prove or disprove anything, but it does not look good. We need to find out what Lithia is about, and I think she will give us a chance to do that. I still have hope that she is an innocent in whatever went on."
"Time will tell, as it usually does, somehow I think she may yet surprise you. That costume you described earlier is most telling." Dusting her hands on her skirts, Kimera stood up from the table, stepping back a bit. "You know it’s been a year since the Battle for Gateway, and almost three months since I came back here."
"Indeed," Geran agreed. "It was good to see your face again, after you were... gone, for so long."
"Speak truthfully Geran" her voice is soft "The Blade Dancer died, and now I’ve come back. As for seeing me, well I think there is something everyone should understand about what happened, and I want you two to be the first."
"We are honored. And you have our complete attention."
"It might be easier to understand if I show you something else first." The fact that she is uncomfortable is obvious. A Gateway appears in the center of the room, well away from anything that could be damaged by the use of magic. "Will you come with me?"
"Of course," Geran answered immediately, and rose. Charis was a little slower in gaining her feet. It was not from disinterest; exhaustion was beginning to nip at her heels. She hesitated, and then spoke. "Kimera... I know that this must be important, and I am terribly sorry, but would you mind if I bow out? Now that I have had some small measure of relief, I believe I hear a rather large bed calling my name. Rather insistently at that."
"It is understandable. I am sure Geran will explain what you miss yes?"
"Of course," Geran answered again. Running his hand along Chari's arm, he applied his lips to her cheek. "Will you be alright while I am away?"
"Yes," she murmured as for a moment longer, he stood beside his bride-to-be. Then he turned his attention again to Kimera and her gateway, and stepped away from Charis. "I am ready."
"This shouldn’t take very long, we aren’t going far." She walks through the gateway alone, calmly holding it open for him to follow at his leisure. Geran and Charis can see light; coming from a torches, or perhaps a campfire, grow on the other side of the gateway as the two watch. Pausing for but a moment to take a look at the edges of the gateway he followed.
As the gate closes behind him, Geran finds himself in a torch lit cave facing a very familiar suit of armor, a suit made for a woman. Her voice comes from off to the right, her figure partially hidden by the flickering shadows. "It was easier to bring you here directly, although I could have spun the gateway just to pass the entrance. I spun it from your chambers for Charis' benefit, to keep her from the sunlight."
"I... appreciate that." His attention was captivated by the armor before him. Remember it, he did. "Even with the torches, it is cold as the grave in here."
"All things considered that’s exactly how it should be. Well, I can warm things up easily enough." A small use of power took the chill from their surroundings. On shelves and tables around them were relics of a life. A collection of ribbons in every shade and hue numbering in the hundreds lay beside trays of necklaces, and rings. Across the far wall stood racks of clothing that held styles spanning the range of design, from simple skirts and blouses to elaborate gowns. Separate from the rest, in a small well-lit niche of its own, was a ring of gold depicting a serpent biting its own tail. "They worked hard, bridging their differences to build this place. I have never seen it before. The armor, it was finished one year ago at midnight.... too late to serve its intended purpose."
"This is your tomb."
"No, this is the tomb of the Blade Dancer."
Geran was, by no means, a stupid man. The deliberate distinction she placed on herself and 'the blade dancer' was not lost on him. He looked at her in askance, waiting for her to continue. This, he realized, must be central to her purpose for asking him here. Her voice was still soft, almost gentle, but the words were no less a command for all of that." Look behind you, Battle King and you will begin to see."
Meeting her eyes for but a moment longer, he did as she asked. On a carved stone ledge there was a very familiar body, wrapped in plain white cloth only the head and shoulders visible. Long black hair in a single braid made a trail to her waist. It looked as if she had only been there a few hours, asleep. “That is what remains of Kimera ni’Togita t’Rahl.”
"Kimera?" Geran asked, dumbfounded. He approached the body, which he recognized as surely as he did his own or that of his bride-to-be. He remembered drawing her into a kiss, and into his bath, back in DarMinask. He remembered the swell of her abdomen when she was with child, and even her slightly lopsided breasts over which he had once loved to tease her. He was looking at Kimera. But if that was who lay upon the stone ledge before him, then to the woman behind him he could but ask, "Who are you? Or is this some kind of trick?"
“My name is Kimera Calthair. I am not the woman you knew Geran, I never was. I am Kimera reborn, not resurrected.”
"I'm not sure that I understand the difference." He had yet to remove his gaze from Kimera-that-was.
“In order to resurrect someone, you have to have their body. This body was too well protected to be taken to the city of Calthair. However that did not stop the leader of the tribes. He went across the sands to the Mystic City, and begged the Mages and their Dragon-Gods to bring back the woman he knew they had been searching for. A woman capable of taking the throne, and ruling their people. Fortune was with him and the Gods agreed. The bargain struck and a new body was created to house the worthy spirit. I am the result. I am like the woman you knew, but I am not her. I can remember her past, but it has little bearing on who I am or my future.”
"Dragons … Mages … So you are her in essence, but not body." Geran stated. "That is what has been behind the various comments you've made, maintaining a distinction between who you've become and who you were... before."
"Yes, when I came back I was fragmented, I had been fragmented for years, but coming back the way I did made it all worse. You healed that, solidifying her memories, but even healing the old wounds couldn’t change the basic fact that your Kimera and I are two very different people." Her voice rough, continues "I don’t even look like her."
"Well, there are differences, but the face... “Geran finally turned away from the body to look at her directly.
"No, not even that." As she closes the distance between them a shimmer surrounds her. Her familiar form and features change revealing a slim woman who stands barely tall enough to reach his heart. Her hair, still silvery reaches to just below her rib cage, violet eyes taking on an almond shape set well in a face with the distinct features of a woman of the tribes. Her skin tone deepens to the golden cast of a woman who has lived long beneath the desert sun. "The image you have seen all this time was a glamour laid on me before you entered my chambers back in Calthair. It saved time and confusion then, and ever since I have avoided showing myself for fear of confusing everyone."
“Hnh." He stared at her hard in the face for a long, quiet moment. He was looking for something, and whatever it was, he seemed to find it. He nodded to himself before closing the distance between them. "You know, my niece nearly died, and then there was Charis' incident this evening, now this. Since I am handling everything so well, and it is one HELL of an adjustment, can you girls stop turning the world inside out on me long enough to let me get my balance? It would be greatly appreciated."
"Well I was kind of hoping that between your niece and your fiancée... that this would sort of just... seem less important?"
"Kimera, you are one of the six most important women in my life." He ticked off the numbers on his fingers as he continued. "Arimus. Porthos. Treyp. Eyrenya. Charis. You. Then you have Ganatal, who is the brother I never had, and Sharn. If you tell him that I included him in a list of people I cared about, however, I will call you a damn, dirty liar. If something... momentous happens to one of you, it is important. It does not stop being important simply because there are other things going on."
She looks up at him with the faintest of smiles, for a moment the woman he remembers so well. "That’s the first time I can remember you saying anything like that to me. And no I won’t tell Sharn that you care, but you can’t tell anyone my secrets either. Especially Ganatal, he will be angry to say the least when he finds out the details and I don’t think I can deal with an angry Atlantean King, or former Antlantean King for that matter, just yet."
"My lips are sealed."
"Honestly Geran, why didn’t you have her wash her face when you saw the grit yourself?"
"That was my first thought, to be honest." Clothed in a long, white, sleeveless shirt, and loose fitting black trousers, he sat beside Charis. Their fingers were intertwined. He had been pacing, until she had softly asked him to stop. "Given her description of what went on, I wanted to be sure that we knew exactly what we were dealing with before I meddled. Besides, you were only a minute or two away. Had it been any longer, I would not have waited."
"Well glad to see one of you has some sense. Charis what were you thinking chasing after that woman alone without anyone to guard your back?" Carefully she began pouring the water, adding a few drops at a time to the mixture in the bowl. "You were fortunate that she only threw ground hematite into your eyes. With half a shrug, Charis answered. "Geran is rubbing off on me. He's a bad influence."
"Hey!" She grinned at his startled response. Normally quite pretty, her smile did nothing pleasant to her features as her face remained red and swollen. Shaking her head Kimera, couldn’t help the smile that tugged on the corners of her mouth. "Girl even if this fool man of yours goes off and battles Gods and Demons on a regular basis it’s no reason for you to try and match him for bravado. There is a reason men are gifted with so many muscles, it’s to make up for their lack of brains." Completing the mixture, she empties the bowl carefully into a medium-sized bottle before attaching an eyedropper cover. "Three drops in each eye, three times a day, should reverse any of the effects the hematite had on your vision. As for the rest of you, well be glad that most of the palace hasn’t realized they have a wedding to look forward to yet. Use the salve I gave you twice a day, morning and evening, and keep out of direct sunlight until the redness on your skin is completely gone. If you think it’s gone, give it another day and come see me before you go gallivanting again."
"Thank you, Kimera. I appreciate your help, and your kindness." Charis said genuinely. "And, in all seriousness, I did not expect trouble when I went to see the woman. I was just... fact checking. When she bolted, I didn't have time to call for help."
Geran seemed frustrated, but was careful to keep his ire down and his thoughts cool. "On that note, I've posted a guard outside Lithia's door. She is not exactly a prisoner, but she knows that she is not presently free to move about on her own. Had she not worked so hard with you to save Treyp, I -would- have had her moved to the dungeon."
"He's overreacting," Charis quipped. After a careful study of her own feelings on the subject, she had personally asked him to go easy on the girl.
"Curious, what does the poor run-away have to do with the witch-spawn?"
"She claimed that she had delivered a package to that particular apothecary, having been hired by a sorcerer of some sort to do so after leaving her tribe in Fyrendi. That was why I went there in the first place, because I was... mistrustful of Lithia, given her background." She pointedly did not look at Geran while making this admission, and was thankful that her face remained red so as the disguise the flush of embarrassment. He did not react.
"However the ... apothecary didn’t disprove anything the girl said. So... how does the apothecary’s later actions in any way reflect on her?"
"I but asked if she remembered the girl, and she became defensive. Then she bolted. I did not yet have this hideous face to warrant such a reaction." Charis chuckled, and Geran squeezed her hand. "Then, there was a comment the woman made at the Silver Kettle before setting it ablaze. It doesn't prove or disprove anything, but it does not look good. We need to find out what Lithia is about, and I think she will give us a chance to do that. I still have hope that she is an innocent in whatever went on."
"Time will tell, as it usually does, somehow I think she may yet surprise you. That costume you described earlier is most telling." Dusting her hands on her skirts, Kimera stood up from the table, stepping back a bit. "You know it’s been a year since the Battle for Gateway, and almost three months since I came back here."
"Indeed," Geran agreed. "It was good to see your face again, after you were... gone, for so long."
"Speak truthfully Geran" her voice is soft "The Blade Dancer died, and now I’ve come back. As for seeing me, well I think there is something everyone should understand about what happened, and I want you two to be the first."
"We are honored. And you have our complete attention."
"It might be easier to understand if I show you something else first." The fact that she is uncomfortable is obvious. A Gateway appears in the center of the room, well away from anything that could be damaged by the use of magic. "Will you come with me?"
"Of course," Geran answered immediately, and rose. Charis was a little slower in gaining her feet. It was not from disinterest; exhaustion was beginning to nip at her heels. She hesitated, and then spoke. "Kimera... I know that this must be important, and I am terribly sorry, but would you mind if I bow out? Now that I have had some small measure of relief, I believe I hear a rather large bed calling my name. Rather insistently at that."
"It is understandable. I am sure Geran will explain what you miss yes?"
"Of course," Geran answered again. Running his hand along Chari's arm, he applied his lips to her cheek. "Will you be alright while I am away?"
"Yes," she murmured as for a moment longer, he stood beside his bride-to-be. Then he turned his attention again to Kimera and her gateway, and stepped away from Charis. "I am ready."
"This shouldn’t take very long, we aren’t going far." She walks through the gateway alone, calmly holding it open for him to follow at his leisure. Geran and Charis can see light; coming from a torches, or perhaps a campfire, grow on the other side of the gateway as the two watch. Pausing for but a moment to take a look at the edges of the gateway he followed.
As the gate closes behind him, Geran finds himself in a torch lit cave facing a very familiar suit of armor, a suit made for a woman. Her voice comes from off to the right, her figure partially hidden by the flickering shadows. "It was easier to bring you here directly, although I could have spun the gateway just to pass the entrance. I spun it from your chambers for Charis' benefit, to keep her from the sunlight."
"I... appreciate that." His attention was captivated by the armor before him. Remember it, he did. "Even with the torches, it is cold as the grave in here."
"All things considered that’s exactly how it should be. Well, I can warm things up easily enough." A small use of power took the chill from their surroundings. On shelves and tables around them were relics of a life. A collection of ribbons in every shade and hue numbering in the hundreds lay beside trays of necklaces, and rings. Across the far wall stood racks of clothing that held styles spanning the range of design, from simple skirts and blouses to elaborate gowns. Separate from the rest, in a small well-lit niche of its own, was a ring of gold depicting a serpent biting its own tail. "They worked hard, bridging their differences to build this place. I have never seen it before. The armor, it was finished one year ago at midnight.... too late to serve its intended purpose."
"This is your tomb."
"No, this is the tomb of the Blade Dancer."
Geran was, by no means, a stupid man. The deliberate distinction she placed on herself and 'the blade dancer' was not lost on him. He looked at her in askance, waiting for her to continue. This, he realized, must be central to her purpose for asking him here. Her voice was still soft, almost gentle, but the words were no less a command for all of that." Look behind you, Battle King and you will begin to see."
Meeting her eyes for but a moment longer, he did as she asked. On a carved stone ledge there was a very familiar body, wrapped in plain white cloth only the head and shoulders visible. Long black hair in a single braid made a trail to her waist. It looked as if she had only been there a few hours, asleep. “That is what remains of Kimera ni’Togita t’Rahl.”
"Kimera?" Geran asked, dumbfounded. He approached the body, which he recognized as surely as he did his own or that of his bride-to-be. He remembered drawing her into a kiss, and into his bath, back in DarMinask. He remembered the swell of her abdomen when she was with child, and even her slightly lopsided breasts over which he had once loved to tease her. He was looking at Kimera. But if that was who lay upon the stone ledge before him, then to the woman behind him he could but ask, "Who are you? Or is this some kind of trick?"
“My name is Kimera Calthair. I am not the woman you knew Geran, I never was. I am Kimera reborn, not resurrected.”
"I'm not sure that I understand the difference." He had yet to remove his gaze from Kimera-that-was.
“In order to resurrect someone, you have to have their body. This body was too well protected to be taken to the city of Calthair. However that did not stop the leader of the tribes. He went across the sands to the Mystic City, and begged the Mages and their Dragon-Gods to bring back the woman he knew they had been searching for. A woman capable of taking the throne, and ruling their people. Fortune was with him and the Gods agreed. The bargain struck and a new body was created to house the worthy spirit. I am the result. I am like the woman you knew, but I am not her. I can remember her past, but it has little bearing on who I am or my future.”
"Dragons … Mages … So you are her in essence, but not body." Geran stated. "That is what has been behind the various comments you've made, maintaining a distinction between who you've become and who you were... before."
"Yes, when I came back I was fragmented, I had been fragmented for years, but coming back the way I did made it all worse. You healed that, solidifying her memories, but even healing the old wounds couldn’t change the basic fact that your Kimera and I are two very different people." Her voice rough, continues "I don’t even look like her."
"Well, there are differences, but the face... “Geran finally turned away from the body to look at her directly.
"No, not even that." As she closes the distance between them a shimmer surrounds her. Her familiar form and features change revealing a slim woman who stands barely tall enough to reach his heart. Her hair, still silvery reaches to just below her rib cage, violet eyes taking on an almond shape set well in a face with the distinct features of a woman of the tribes. Her skin tone deepens to the golden cast of a woman who has lived long beneath the desert sun. "The image you have seen all this time was a glamour laid on me before you entered my chambers back in Calthair. It saved time and confusion then, and ever since I have avoided showing myself for fear of confusing everyone."
“Hnh." He stared at her hard in the face for a long, quiet moment. He was looking for something, and whatever it was, he seemed to find it. He nodded to himself before closing the distance between them. "You know, my niece nearly died, and then there was Charis' incident this evening, now this. Since I am handling everything so well, and it is one HELL of an adjustment, can you girls stop turning the world inside out on me long enough to let me get my balance? It would be greatly appreciated."
"Well I was kind of hoping that between your niece and your fiancée... that this would sort of just... seem less important?"
"Kimera, you are one of the six most important women in my life." He ticked off the numbers on his fingers as he continued. "Arimus. Porthos. Treyp. Eyrenya. Charis. You. Then you have Ganatal, who is the brother I never had, and Sharn. If you tell him that I included him in a list of people I cared about, however, I will call you a damn, dirty liar. If something... momentous happens to one of you, it is important. It does not stop being important simply because there are other things going on."
She looks up at him with the faintest of smiles, for a moment the woman he remembers so well. "That’s the first time I can remember you saying anything like that to me. And no I won’t tell Sharn that you care, but you can’t tell anyone my secrets either. Especially Ganatal, he will be angry to say the least when he finds out the details and I don’t think I can deal with an angry Atlantean King, or former Antlantean King for that matter, just yet."
"My lips are sealed."