"Until The Fall" - 3/48

[rissy_james]

Title:  Until The Fall
Author: Rissy James
Characters: DG, Cain, Azkadellia, Jeb, Glitch, Raw, Tutor, and some old & new OCs (updated 02.24.09)
Pairing: Established Cain/DG; established Jeb/Az
Rating: M
Summary: Sequel to " Of Light". A year after returning to the Zone, DG sets out to complete the task given to her by the Gale. Soon, she must learn that there is always more to everything than first meets the eye. (updated 02.24.09)


Author's Note: Wow, this is late. Apologies to everyone.

Chapter Three

Spring

DG sat on the ground, next to a tall, tangle-branch tree. The canopy of leaves above her head filtered the rays of the afternoon suns, causing freckles of shadow and light to dance across her cheek. A cool spring breeze was disrupting the silence, the rush of it stirring through the high leaves, lifting her hair and playing with it as a lover. The forest around her was still, and yet at the same movement dancing to the strange music of nature. It was an absolutely perfect day.

She was enjoying the suns light and the breeze more than she should, she knew, but she couldn't help it. She was supposed to be paying attention - to what, she didn't know. She was supposed to be listening - for what, Glitch hadn't been too specific. He'd sat her down in the lush undergrowth beneath the massive tower of a tree, told her to close her eyes, and left her there.

Minutes ticked away. She opened her eyes, and looked around, but the advisor had disappeared. She sighed, and closed her eyes again, but found it impossible to concentrate on her unknown task when the wind was singing as beautifully as it was. She'd spent an entire winter locked inside of the Central City palace, hadn't been outside the city gates since her secret arrival at the end of September, under Cain's protection.

Cain... with no idea where he was, what he was doing, he was just a figment of her overactive imagination.

This wasn't how her afternoon was supposed to have gone. She'd been scheduled to attend a charity auction for the Fire Brigade, but instead Glitch had come to fetch her, saying he was taking her away. Pleased, she'd followed him. This wasn't exactly a walk in the park, and it definitely wasn't a picnic, but she'd take it. She had learned that lesson fast: in the O.Z., you took what you were given, and went with it.

More time passed. Her eyes were open by this time, and she was studying the muted light speckling her flesh, watching the hairs on her arm raise with the cool nip of the breeze that rustled intermittently by. She had to give Ambrose credit; it truly was a beautiful day to be outside. She found herself relaxing, when she was sure he wanted her on her toes.

How long had it been?

“So, what am I supposed to be doing again, exactly?”

Glitch's exasperated voice rang out, disembodied. “You're supposed to be concentrating, and you fail.”

DG opened her mouth to argue, but instead decided against it; she shut her mouth, pursing her lips. She looked around once more, a quick darting of her blue eyes, to drink in the scene before her, the suns and the trees and that light, playful breeze, before closing her eyes, and shutting out all the beauty with self-imposed darkness.

“What am I concentrating on?” she called out.

“Nothing. Just concentrate.”

It was DG's turn to be exasperated. “That makes no sense.”

Glitch chuckled. She couldn't see him, but she could imagine him touching the ghost of a scar, now hidden well by his thick black hair, which still had a tendency to part down the middle. He was the master of making no sense, and yet making perfect sense, once he had you seeing things his way. “You keep losing your focus, DG. You need to stop paying attention to what I'm doing.”

“Well, what are you doing?” She looked around, still not seeing her friend.

There was a sharp “Ah ah!” and she snapped her head back into place, closing her eyes again. Concentrate, concentrate... the white-water rushing sound of the leaves through the trees could almost remind her, for almost a moment, of a prairie wind through the high grass back home. Back home. Kansas. Not home, never was...

She could lie to herself, but in the end, there was a homesickness for the Other Side, even for Kansas, that she wasn't sure would ever go away.

DG tried not to talk. Tried to wipe her mind blank, tried to put herself in a peaceful mental state. But, it was so beautiful here, she was falling into the strange lull of being both relaxed and refreshed, and her brain was too alerted to how wonderful that felt to lock her thoughts up inside her head. Glitch, whatever he was doing, wanted silence. So, she sat; then tongued the back of her teeth for a while. And then... “So why are we really here?”

He sighed, as if realizing her questions wouldn't cease unless answered. “I thought you might like to get away for a bit.”

Her laugh came out unrestrained, unladylike. “Really?”

Glitch stepped out from behind another tree of impressive girth then, stretching his arms, arching his lanky frame backwards with exaggerated movement. Daintily, he stifled a yawn with the back of his hand. “Well, I wanted to get away for a bit, and I thought you might like to join me. I hate coming here alone, it makes me feel creepy.”

Though incredibly pleased with him, she couldn't help but frown. “That doesn't sound like a good enough reason to get me out of the charity auction this afternoon.”

He grinned sheepishly as he plopped down into the leaves and dirt she'd been sitting in. “Azkadellia offered to go in your place.”

DG felt her frown deepen almost painfully. “Az shouldn't be doing things like that for me. She's got so much to do already, she's busy all day. The coronation is in August, that's only four months away! Thank you for thinking about me, Glitch, but you should've just let me go to the auction.”

Glitch's grin widened, his dark eyes twinkling. “I'm supposed to pass on that you owe your sister a favor.” DG smiled. That she could handle. Glitch continued, “But I did promise Tutor I would help you with some of your studies. He said you're having trouble.”

Her frown was back. “I'm not having trouble. I'm just not...” She sighed, taking a moment to look for the right words. She was a disappointment to her teacher, with her wild style and her 'carefree' way of looking at everything. That was his word, 'carefree'. She didn't know how she acted carefree, when every magic lesson only reminded her of the troubles she'd had with her Light in the past, and the uncertainty of the task before her that left too much open to wonder.

She knew the kind of power she had, and she was beginning to think that unconsciously, she was holding back, intimidating herself. She knew she was disappointing her old teacher with her reservation. It wasn't hard to call his voice back to her, to hear him chastising her. You depend too much on your sister... you're too accepting of such mediocre results...how do you expect to overpower the magic in the Emerald when you can barely hold a spell for five minutes?

DG was too quiet. Glitch quirked his head. “You okay, hon?”

She sighed. “As fine as anyone else is nowadays. If I wasn't stressed out, scared, exhausted, I'd be okay.”

Glitch's grin was indulgent. “We all would be.”

She looked up. The tangled branches above her head were too thick to make out if it was a cloudless day or not. The light from the twin suns was unrelenting, so she doubted it. The breeze had picked up, rushing past with the slightest hint of push and shove, of a harsh winter left not too far behind, but with the promise of spring in the scent it carried. She had to hand it to Glitch - he had picked a truly perfect day.

“I can't believe I'm going to say this,” she said, tearing her eyes away from the canopy of wood and foliage, with its strange patches of light and sky, “but I think its time to get back to work.”

She was on her feet first, and helping him up. As Glitch walked away, DG held her wrist up to her nose, inhaling deeply the scent of the outdoors, of the wind that was stuck to her clothes. She brushed off her slacks, wiping away the dry, brittle leaves clinging to the material. There was a strange, mechanical whirring sound, then in a wave of dark overtaking light, the forest around her dissolved, disappeared. She was left standing in the middle of an empty, windowless room, and Glitch was fussing over the machine he'd just turned off.

“I still think the transition is a little rough,” he was saying absently. “What do you think?”

She held her wrist up; she smelled of dust, like she'd been sitting in a stale, shut off room for the last hour. Looking down, her clothes were spotlessly clean. She sighed. Just think, travel to distant, exotic locations and never have to leave your palace prison! Every princess will want one, she thought bitterly, as she eyed the machine Glitch had taken from the Tower. The sudden appearance of Alta Torretta through the illusion the machine had created was disheartening at the very best.

Speaking of other princesses... “What time does Azkadellia get back, do you know?” she asked.

Of course he knew. “By four, I think.”

“I think I'll go back to my room until she gets back,” DG said after a moment.

“I'll walk with you,” Glitch said, and when he followed her out of the room, there was a definite, annoying bounce to his step. Completely rejuvenated, it seemed, and ready to get back to work. In the past eight months since the Eclipse, DG had watched her oldest Ozian friend transform from a zombie walking around in an exhausted haze to a manic workaholic, one to whom the regular rules of twenty-four hour days didn't apply. If he slept at all, she wasn't aware of it.

She made him walk slowly to the elevator, though he wanted to rush; he would bound forward and open doors for her. “Eager to get rid of me?” she teased, though she knew it far from the truth. He only smiled at her, his pale face friendly and dark eyes warm.

As they entered the elevator and stood silently during their ascent, the faint, greenish twinkle tried once again to capture her attention in the mirrored walls of the lift; she could see it out of the corner of her eye, something swimming in the glass, though she knew there was nothing green to be reflected. She ignored it, or tried her best. The light would disappear if she looked straight at it, like a strange Magic-Eye picture. While Glitch used the mirrors to his advantage, to preen and check over his hair, she stared at her feet until they jerked to a stop; when the doors opened, she walked purposefully out, turning down the corridor and leaving him running to catch up.

When they reached her quarters, Glitch gave her a short bow and a long hug. With a promise to send her shadow up to her, Glitch left her alone. Feeling more relaxed now than she had with Glitch in the holographic forest, she kicked off her shoes. She had two hours to sit by herself; he'd done her more of a favor than he knew, and she'd have to thank him later for it. Spare time like this was rare.

The only interruption she received for two hours was Hass, slipping into the room quietly, and taking a seat by the door. It was companionable silence, as they'd run out of things to talk about months before. She was more than used to him, considered the man a friend though she barely knew him. She admired his determination to keep her safe, though she sometimes also found it annoying and meddlesome. Even within the palace walls, she wasn't allowed to walk from one room to another without the corporal close behind.

She opened the curtains, perused the bookshelves. Picked things up, put them back down again. Walked so many circles around the room that Hass made a comment about her putting a track in the rug. She watched the clock, as the minutes ticked slowly by. The mirror over the side table, she stayed away from.

When four o'clock finally rolled around, she stuffed her feet back into her shoes and made for the elevator. Two of Azkadellia's ladies' companions were waiting for the princess; DG merely got into line. When the doors slid open, Az walked out with all the bearing and poise that made DG's heart ache with jealousy every time. Echoes of her smaller self, the younger sister who blindly followed the older... until something grabbed her attention and pulled her off in the opposite direction, Az trailing protectively behind.

Your adventures have a way of getting me into trouble...

Azkadellia didn't spot her sister right away, as her brown eyes slid blankly over those that waited for her. She made a dismissive sweeping gesture with her hand, and, with polite curtsies, her ladies' companions nodded their heads and slunk quietly away.

Az's heels clicked on the marble floor as she headed straight for her chambers, Jeb Cain following closely behind. He caught sight of DG, where as Az had already strode away. He nodded for her to follow, and DG fell into step behind him, the three of them forming a strange sort of caravan through the halls of Alta Torretta.

“I'm going to lay down before the dinner tonight,” Az said over her shoulder, though she'd barely turned her head.

“Seems like wasted time,” Jeb said casually, as DG hurried to walk beside him. In barely five minutes, they had come to the door of Az's quarters, and while she turned with a smile, it quickly disappeared when she realized DG had been following.

“DG!” she exclaimed, and the lost smile was soon replaced with another, though this one altered, as if of a different nature. After a moment of recovery at her sister's sudden appearance, Az reached out to loop her arm through DG's. “Come lay down with me.” Her eyes flicked to her guard. “We'll be fine alone, Lieutenant. Take an hour for yourself.”

Jeb's lips set themselves into a very familiar unimpressed line. “I'll wait out here, if it please.” He reached over and opened the door for the princesses, and ushered them through. He shut the door behind them, and DG found herself alone with her sister.

“How was the auction?” DG asked. She watched as her sister tugged off her gloves, and then began to unpin her hair. “Here, let me,” she said, with a hint of pride in her voice. She walked over to her older sister, and held out her hand. The bobby pins appeared in her hand in an instant, faintly glowing at first, and then fading to their normal color. Az's hair tumbled onto her shoulders, and down her back.

“Oh,” she moaned appreciatively. “Much better. Thank you.”

DG grinned, pleased with herself. “You're welcome.” She walked out of the sitting room, into Az's bedroom, and put the pins down on the dressing table. A flicker of green tried to catch her eye. She grumbled at it, “Leave me alone.”, but the mirror twinkled incessantly at her.

“DG, would you please bring me the hairbrush?” Az called from the sitting room.

Frowning, she scanned the tabletop. While she couldn't call it a mess, for there seemed to be some sort of semblance and order she didn't understand, she could definitely call it over-cluttered. Not seeing the brush immediately, she bent and began to rummage through the top drawer. When her unruly hair fell into her eyes, she flipped it back over her shoulder, and in doing so, caught the glimmer of green teasing her in her sister's vanity mirror. Turning back to the task at hand, she found the brush and extracted it from the drawer. Straightening, she faced her demon.

To her surprise, whatever winked at her from within the mirror didn't disappear, and her mouth dropped open. Almost five months, the light had danced in the mirrors of the palace, crying out for her attention and then vanishing when she tried to get a better look. Randomly, it would appear at first, but then more and more often until seeing it wherever she went was a guarantee. From white to green, it had changed. But never had she been able to look it straight on.

It moved like a ribbon being pulled along through the air, undulating, all flash and glitter. Just a green light, nothing more, and nothing special, but for the fact that it floated, unreflected, behind the glass.

DG reached out and touched the surface of the mirror. The ribbon of light touched her finger from the other side, and damned if it didn't feel warm. She pulled her finger from one end of the glass to the other; the light followed, as if now attached to her fingertip.

“Huh,” she breathed. Look at that. She squiggled her finger; the ribbon squiggled. Now she was confused. “Az!” she called out. “Could you come here for a second?”

The clicking of her sister's heels on the sitting room floor signaled her approach; the steps were muted by the lush carpet of the bedroom as Az walked through the doorway. “You can't find it?” she asked slowly, as she saw her sister holding her hand up to the mirror of her vanity.

DG held out the brush in her hand, not taking the other away from the glass, forming a three o'clock position with her arms. She waved the brush at her sister; Az walked over to take it. She watched her sister, not a little worriedly. “DG,” she said quietly. “What's wrong?”

DG motioned her now free hand towards the mirror. “Tell me you see this,” she said, very seriously, as she slowly swept her finger from one side of the reflective surface to the other.

Azkadellia perked an eyebrow. “Tell you if I see what, exactly? The streaks on the glass?” Her eyes flicked towards her sister, who was looking at her imploringly, blue eyes almost quivering with the need there. With a sigh, Az took a few steps closer, watching the glass carefully, until she could see herself. DG was staring hard into the mirror, at the place where her fingertip connected with the glass, and the reflection of her hand.

DG turned her head to stare at her sister. “Really? You don't see this?” Her fingertip skated across the glass again, pulling the green ribbon of light along.

“DG, what are you talking about?” Azkadellia asked her softly, as if she were overexcited and was in need of some quiet. A child, a crazy person.

She felt her expression fall, shatter; she didn't need to see it reflected in the mirror. Yanking her finger away from the glass, she faintly registered the light fading, disappearing as she grabbed the frame and turned it upwards and away from her. Spots of refracted light danced their way up the wall, shimmered on the ceiling. Normal, truly there.

“Wait,” Az said, reaching out and turning the mirror upright again. “DG, what do you see?”

With a sigh, DG turned and looked into the mirror. She saw the bedroom reflected behind her, she saw herself, studying the reflection too hard, and she saw her sister, who was studying her too hard. Everything in order, nothing ethereal, nothing out of the ordinary, even for this side of the rainbow.

She took two steps back from the mirror, shaking her head slowly. She was beginning to look insane, even to herself, but... she couldn't deny what she'd seen, or what had happened. However big or small or undetermined at this moment, something had changed.

“Okay,” Azkadellia muttered, after realizing her sister wasn't going to answer her outright. “You saw something in the mirror,” she said, her voice too serious, too low, that menacing way she didn't like to talk... but sometimes, she slipped into it. Sometimes, it would take over.

The change in tone caught DG's attention. She looked at her older sister, knowing more every passing second that the answer to this wasn't going to land in her lap or jump out of the mirror (she hoped). She was going to have to ask someone, and her sister might know... after all, though it was never mentioned, hadn't she observed the Witch for fifteen annuals?

“Is that normal?” was all she could manage to ask. Carefully, carefully...

She caught Az's eyes in the mirror. “Its not unheard of,” her sister said, voice slow, a little more like herself. “What exactly did you see?”

DG didn't like her sister's cautious tone. “Its light,” she said, “a weird little green light.”

“Like your wisp?”

She shook her head. “No, its not a ball. Its more like a... strip. It moves, kind of... snakes.” DG demonstrated, flitting her hand through the air in a waving motion. She turned back to the mirror, and touched the glass, cold again. “Its in the glass, and now apparently I'm the only one that can see it.”

“A light.” Az pondered this; DG could almost see the wheels inside her sister's head working. “Are you sure you didn't see a face?”

DG snorted. “No, I didn't see a face. I think I'd know the difference.” Azkadellia only sighed, shaking her head slowly, purposefully. “Is this bad?”

“I don't know,” she told her sister honestly. “I don't think I've ever heard of anyone seeing lights in a mirror before. But... my education is a bit lacking on the subject of Light. I've seen things in the mirror that were never there, but... that was before.”

Ah yes, DG thought with a sad glance towards her sister in the glass. Before...

“I think,” DG said, turning around to face her sister, “that I'll go talk to Mother about this.”

Azkadellia nodded; she looked unnerved, and a wave of guilt slammed into DG at the thought that she'd caused her sister to look at her that way.

As she caught DG staring, Az tried a tiny, faltering smile. “Send Lt. Cain in, would you? I've decided not to take a nap after all.”

Two weeks later, the April suns had beckoned DG out of her tower prison and into the light.

She sat, cross-legged, on a stone bench, her sketchpad in her lap. The bench was located in the middle of a square, stone plaza, a hulking stone pillar set into each corner. Atop one, a golden brown falcon was perched, watching the garden intently.

Her placement in the garden, despite its innocent place in the suns light, and its nearness to the stone planters that were beginning to bloom with life, was not innocuous. From the advantageous spot, she had a perfect view of the front gate, of the guard-shack, and the driveway. And it was this she sketched.

She heard the footsteps approaching, but was surprised when a body threw itself down onto the bench beside her. She looked over to see the hazel eyes of Jeb Cain watching her, amused.

“Whatcha doing?” he said, in a far more casual manner than he would have inside the palace.

She smiled at him, as she snapped her sketchpad closed. “Nothing. Just passing time until supper. Where is Azkadellia?”

Jeb shrugged. “She's at a meeting with Her Majesty and a group of advisors. With your mother's guards there, I was given a break. Saw you through the window, and I thought I'd come see what you were doing. You're surprisingly alone.” DG jerked her head towards the pillar to her right. “Ahh,” Jeb said as his eyes fell onto the falcon. “So why are you drawing a picture of the gate?”

“Because,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady, as it always had a tendency to waver when she was trying to lie. “I thought the scroll-work in the iron looks pretty interesting. Its turning out nice, I'll show you when its finished.”

“Oh,” Jeb said, and though she was staring down at the cover of her sketchpad, she could hear the grin permeating his voice. “The scroll-work. Are you sure? 'Cause it looked to me like you were drawing an escape route.”

DG sighed, and laid her sketchpad down on the stone slabs at her feet. “What do you want, Jeb?”

“Nothing,” he said with a shrug, “I don't know anyone else in the palace, and I've got some of that rare thing called 'free time'.”

She found herself laughing. “Well, I'm glad for the company,” she said. “Hass isn't much of a talker.”

Jeb looked up at the corporal, his mouth quirked in an interested smirk. When he turned back to DG, his eyes were sparkling. “So I hear someone has a birthday coming up,” he said, completely out of the blue.

DG laughed, shaking off a double take. “You heard? How could you not? I told her I didn't want any sort of celebration at all, but...” she trailed off, as a delivery vehicle pulled up to the palace. She gestured her hand towards it as the guards let the driver through the gates. “Looks like its gonna be another big thing. No one listens to me.” She laughed at this fact, though it kind of upset her.

“Well, a celebration is sometimes a good thing,” he said dismissively. “I mean, it brings people together.”

She frowned. “Hundreds of people that I don't even know, coming together because my mother asked them. You know,” she said slowly, “when I turned twenty, a couple of friends and I drove out to an old abandoned highway with a case of beer and set off some fireworks.” She remembered, suddenly, the look on Gulch's face when he'd pulled up to the impromptu party in his squad car... lesson learned: if you're underage and drinking, don't set off fireworks to alert the authorities to your location.

“That sounds better than what your mother and sister have planned,” Jeb told her with a sage nod.

“It won't be so bad,” she said, though of that she was uncertain.

“If you don't mind my saying,” he said slowly, “your mother seems to have a desire to celebrate every holiday the O.Z. has ever had.”

She found herself shrugging, a small smile creeping onto her lips. “She says the people need a reason to celebrate. She says that with so much darkness, it takes more than the suns reappearing to make the people forget everything that happened while she was imprisoned.”

“And while you were on the Other Side.”

She nodded.

“And while your sister was possessed.”

Again, she nodded. “So I guess I don't mind lending her my birthday as a reason to give back to the kingdom. I just...” She didn't quite know what to say.

“Well, maybe you'll have a good birthday, despite the black-tie crap,” he said, quite certainly. When she looked at him confused, he only offered her a smirk, though his eyes twinkled conspiratorially at her. He stood then. “I'd kiss your hand, but I think you'd probably slug me. So have a good afternoon, Your Highness. And I'm supposed to tell you not to go running off. You might miss something important if you do.”

And after leaving her those words of wisdom, he turned on his heel and strode purposefully back to the palace. She thought about calling out after him, but shook the thought out of her head. To catch his attention, she'd either have to yell at him, or chase after him, and both would have the undesired result of drawing attention to herself. So she watched the young Cain walk away.

The falcon above her cried out once. With a sigh, she looked up at him. He was watching her, looking down with his yellow eyes directed on her, studying.

“Don't look at me like that,” she huffed, as she looked away, to her feet, and the sketchpad that lay there on the mosaic stone tiles of the plaza. She picked it up, and flipped to the drawing she'd been working on. The guard house, the gate, the fence; looking at it now, she realized she hadn't really done the scroll-work justice.

“I'm supposed to tell you not to go running off. You might miss something important if you do.”

Strangely enough, she found herself smiling, and for the first time, looking forward to her birthday.

Author's Note II: Okay, next chapter is going to be another C/DG reunion - just wanted to say before people stop reading. And if its not the fluffiest, most wonderful, romantic, Cainish (and did I mention fluffy, possibly - but not assuredly - smutty) chapter ever, ya'll can have your money back. Its a Rissy promise! Oh and comment if you love it, hate it, what have you.

Table Of Contents:

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10
11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20
21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30
31 - 32 - 33 - 34 - 35 - 36 - 37 - 38 - 39 - 40
41 - 42 - 43 - 44 - 45 - 46 - 47 - 48