Re: Reflections

[Ella Lyghtstone]

I was walking through the forest when I came upon a little pond in a clearing. “Well this seems familiar...” I trailed off as I walked up to the pond I noticed scorch marks on the ground. “Oh!” I squeaked in surprise. “This is where Margurka kissed me...” I blushed.
I sat down at the edge of the pond and peered inside. They say it shows your true self. When I looked down I saw a girl in elegant clothes, and skin riddled with scars that reappeared from the past and the emotional scars gave a physical toll to her body as well. Her right eye had a long scar from just above her eyebrow to the middle of her cheek, her eyes were sad but her smile was cunning and didn’t quite reach those sad eyes.
I forced myself to look away. “So this is the way it is.” I mumbled to myself. I heard a twig snap nearby and shot up. “Hello? Who’s there?” I called out.

[Margurka]

(We’ll say this is pre-Colagartrune/Volum extinction)

I stepped out into the clearing. A single massive guard, enveloped in an ethereal glowing armor waited in the treeline behind me. The sounds of nature stopped around us. Even the rushing of water and wind seemed to disquiet. My mask was now engraved and gilded with what seemed to be religious symbols. I removed the hood to my fine garbs, resting it over the deep collar of an expensive-looking tail coat; my mask’s polish glistened in the sun.

“It’s been a while, Ella,” I broke the silence.

[Ella Lyghtstone]

I stared at him in awe. I quickly recovered and I got mad. “ ‘it’s been a while Ella’ that’s the first thing you say after you kiss me left and I don’t see you for years!” I said starting towards him. “I’ve been going out of my mind trying to figure out what that ment. If you were genuine about it or if you were trying to play me. How could you just leave like that? Not a word no goodbye or see you later?” I started up at him and I wanted to rip the mask off his face. Curse my being short, I couldn’t even be eye level with him to yell at him.

[Margurka]

“I called for aid in recovering my throne,” my voice did not betray a hint of change in my demeanor, a testament to the royal conditioning I had endured, but the heat emanating from my body spoke for me as it would for any fire dragon, “if you had wished to discuss it then, you had plenty of opportunity. I came here to discuss war plans with the other leaders, we’re on recess and I saw you head into the forest. I am here now.”

[Ella Lyghtstone]

I released a strangled sigh. “You idiot. Take that stupid mask off.” My eyes were pleading. “I don’t want to see only half of you.” I reached up and touch his exposed cheek.

[Margurka]

“I can’t anymore,” I looked away in shame, my chest tended and the heat rose, “it is grafted into my face now. Upon my coronation examination, they determined injuries from the original trauma were exacerbated by the ritual combat for my throne. I lost most of my sight in the eye. The mask IS my eye now. This IS my face now.”

[Ella Lyghtstone]

I stepped closer to him. “I’m so sorry.” I said and wrapped my arms around his waist burying my face in his chest. “I loved your face.” I turned my head upwards to peer at him.

[Margurka]

My heart spiked at Ella’s embrace, my body temperature rising, but the heat naturally cut itself away from Ella. It wafted around her like a pierced veil. Slowly, as if in a trance, I raised my arms and wrapped them around Ella in return; I was hesitating, because I didn’t understand the feelings that led me to do so. I didn’t know why, but for the first time since I had last been here, I allowed myself to act on them again. I tightened my arms, nestling warmly into Ella’s arms in reciprocation.

“I used to believe I hated my face,” I spoke muffled under my breath gently into her ear, “but now that I am cursed to bear this mask, I’ve realized what misery truly is. The mask was what I found hideous all along, and now it is fused to me in a way that can never be removed. My mask and my face have become one and the same.”

My voice trailed off into a growl, the sounds of sizzling tears cut between the light hiccups that the growl had morphed into. The heat had intensified to a roast, grass beneath us shriveling away, yet still somehow, did not sting at Ella.

[Ella Lyghtstone]

My heartbeat quickened as he wrapped his arms around me, he was warm, such a comforting warmth. A shutter down my spine as his voice filled my ears. Pain welled in my chest at hearing him reveal the secrets. “Oh Margurka... not even my magic can help?” I asked tears stinging the corners of my eyes. I wanted to help him, I didn’t want him to feel this pain.

[Margurka]

“It would take a team of dragons,” I began, “a nature dragon to reassemble the biology where the nerve was separated and blood vessels severed, a water dragon to restore bloodflow and nourish the redundant cells, and an electric dragon to coordinate the attachment of the neurons in my brain back to the restored nerve endings. If any one of these went wrong, I could lose my sight, my eye, even my life, during the spellcasting. It would require such finely tuned spells to avoid damaging my brain, it essentially IS brain surgery. Colagart is not known for its expertise in magical academia and with the border restrictions between most of the other planets, there are no doctors even an Emperor can bring to Colagart, skilled enough to perform the procedure. There are even fewer who would dare attempt it, and none who trust each others’ abilities enough to work together!”

I tore away from Ella, thrashing my arms out in a rage at the air I walked into, embers spouting like dust from my feet where I stopped at the edge of the water.

[Ella Lyghtstone]

I tried not to let him go. I didn’t want to let go yet. I fell back with an umoff. “Ow” is whispered standing back up. I walked up to him as his back was turned and hugged him from behind now. “So what you need for full reconstruction is Hestia, Jack and me?” I mumbled. “But I was just talking about getting the mask off at all so you can feel like you again.” I spoke a little louder. “What do you see when you look inside the water?” I asked.

[Margurka]

Staring into the water the sounds of screaming civilians and distant gunfire echoed towards the front of my memory. The water began to murk like a sky set ablaze by the burning of a city. I saw the billowing smoke and rolled around in a daze. I couldn’t breath, the pain was so intense. I leaned onto my right side, away from the burning on my face, but it was not soothed. A small manor was ruined in front of me. The sculptures out front bore a resemblance enough for me to recognized the smoldering ruins of my childhood home.

I rolled back to the other side, saw the fleeing citizens in the street, the hustling guards. The gate was still shut, and a small group of guards were slamming it with an axe. My gaze returned to the sky. The water showed me a scared child with scars on his face, though the child did not show a face of fear. It was a face of rage, stoked to fight, unwilling to let his guard down having learned the lesson that many enemies wore the mask of friendship. A mask faded into place over the child’s scars.

“I see myself, the way I was as a schoolboy, after my mother and sister were assassinated. After my powers finally manifested.”

[Ella Lyghtstone]

I stilled for a moment, then I unwrapped myself to sit on the edge. “When I look I see a beautiful monster... whose emotion scars have been given a physical ones. With cruel sad eyes and a cunning smile that seems out of place.” I turned away from the image to look up at the man beside me. “Help me stand?” I asked feeling a little weak.

[Margurka]

I reached my arms around to support Ella, “I must confess I didn’t just follow you here to reminisce. I saw the opportunity and embraced it, but there is a matter of importance that I wished to confide in with you as well.”

[Ella Lyghtstone]

I nodded in understanding. “Yes, what is it?” I asked as I leaned into him again. I felt that same comforting warmth spread over my body where we touched. I sighed into it. I could stay in his arms like this forever. I thought with a slight blush.

[Margurka]

“The World Eaters are nearly upon us, and Colagart is working on a weapon of unimaginable power. If we are forced to use it...” I turned close to Ella, looking her in the eyes, “if we are forced to use it, this may be the last time you and I may ever speak.”

[Ella Lyghtstone]

“No!” I nearly shouted. “No...” I whispered it this time pulling him closer. “You can’t leave. I forbid it.” This time I did start crying, the tears came out hot and slow like the pain was too much for them to go down. “Please don’t leave.” I held on tight staring up at his face. Even if I was on my tippy toes my forehead would only reach his lips I think. I knew he could see the tears and the pain on my face.

[Margurka]

“If I could stay here with you, forever-” the words came flooding out of my mouth like a dam had broken when Ella began crying, and I stifled them.

“I do not want to leave. But leading the Empire has been all I ever wanted since I was a boy. I finally have my charge and I sacrificed much of myself for it,” heat rose from my body again, “please, do not ask me to abandon it.”

[Ella Lyghtstone]

“I wouldn’t ask you to give it up just not to leave me alone again.” I understood his determination for his home, it was the same I had for wanting to find my family.

I suddenly realised what he said at first and my blush deepened and my cheeks and ears were bright red. “I’m going to ask you something I’ve asked before, but this time I truly want to know. . . Margurka do you love me?” I bit the corner of my bottom lip a little afraid he might say no.

[Margurka]

“Love...” I pondered, “I don’t know if I remember the meaning of that word... but when I’m with you my heart pounds. All I can think of is your scent, the touch of your skin against mine, the flush in your face, and the brightness in your eyes.”

Embers sparked around my feet, harmless flames licking up at us both, rising to envelope us like a firestorm. My breathing became labored.

[Ella Lyghtstone]

I stared at him my blush turning dark. I swallowed at the lump in my throat. “T-that’s love...” I trailed off. I couldn’t stop staring into his eyes and briefly I would look at his lips. I was stunned no one had ever outright told me something so intimate. My heart was racing so loudly in my ears, I was afraid he could hear it. [i]BREATHE![\i] I reminded myself and took in a deep rush of air

[Margurka]

I pulled Ella into me, leaning down to connect her lips with mine. The flames burst outward and subsided.

[Ella Lyghtstone]

I all but melted into his kiss. This was different from before. Sparks were shooting off my body. I let out a little moan bringing my arms up and around his neck.

[Margurka]

Parting my face from hers, I whispered to Ella, “come with me.”

[Ella Lyghtstone]

I slowly opened my eyes confused but I followed him nonetheless. “Where are we going Margurka?” I asked holding his hand.

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