Domino One

Chapter 12:

The Legacy

"The shore sands sway around your toes

In the even' tides that Seers know.

And your face once written on the sea

Is hidden by the waves of thee.

It will remain, though you may go,

Sunken to the sands below."

She drew her breath in tightly, as if some unseen part of her own self clenched her throat as she spoke. "I am a horrible person." She paused as if to rethink her words, but no correction escaped her. "But Kezia says that I'm an honorable Guardian. I'm not even sure she knows why I'm so upset...." Pacing before the fireplace, she relished the last of the light that the sun gave before it gave up its glimmer to the dusk. But at a curious revelation, she stopped. "I wonder how she treats her friends...." She paced for a moment more before stopping again. "I wonder if she even has any friends...." Ana pondered this silently and motionlessly. Whether or not she connected her thoughts, no would have been able to tell, had they seen her. But the only person that saw her was arguably present. She looked up at him with the blue eyes they shared, though hers were curiously the more lifeless of the pair. "She doesn't seem like a horrible person when she lies. Does that mean that I'm not horrible either? We're both Guardians...." She stared at him though her eyes went unfocused. "No," she decided after a moment, "I am a dreadful person, and there is nothing that I can do about it."

Omri Anblick had not appeared to her in several months, but at the end of August, just a week before Ana's last year of security at Hogwarts and the summer after Ana betrayed herself and her friends, he appeared, as if out of nowhere, and for reasons that were beyond even his daughter's knowing eyes. Though his image shone with the supernatural brightness that was only visible to Ana, it was becoming more clearer how she was becoming more like her father. Her once dark eyes seemed to always gleam in a sparkling sapphire blue, bringing out all the traits that her father had given her only after bowing to the genes of her mother. The way they stood, the way they walked, the way the watched and listened... even without interacting for most of their life, it was clear how they shared the same lifeblood. But to the untrained psyche, no one would have seen him standing before his daughter as the sun set below the fragile horizon, and no one would have been able to make the comparison.

He was listening to her wearing a look that listened to what she said with the concern of a father, and the pity of one with experience. Glistening blue eyes followed her as she paced, though Ana ignored it with ease, as if he wasn't really there. And perhaps he wasn't.

Ana stepped away from the fireplace and ascended the short stairway to the balcony. The first stars were just beginning to gleam through the dimming dusk, but they still called to her with the whisper that only she could hear. She gazed upon them for a moment before she turned back, her arms folded across her chest, leaning against the doorframe, and addressing her silent father.

"I can still hear her sobbing. Sometimes," she said with absent emotion, "I even see her reflection in the mirror. I can't even look at the crystal ball without seeing her.... She knows I lied to her son. She was probably there when I told James. And she won't let me forget it."

Her father looked away, his white-blonde eyebrows sinking as some of the gleam of his spirit faded every so slightly.

A cold, tight laugh escaped Ana's throat before she quickly suppressed it. "And how am I supposed to address him and the others when they arrive back at Hogwart's? Act as if nothing of significance had happened? That's even more horrible!" she insisted angrily. She glared at her father. "What kind of life have you given to me?" she demanded, stepping down the stairway once more slowly, approaching him with anger that avoided her controlling grip. "A life of lies? A life of deceit?"

He still did not look at her, but she did not relent.

"And what, father, about the Circle? You sure did leave the Circle, but why? Did the lies get to you too? Because they must lie even more than I do! And I lie, father. Didn't you lie too?" she charged. "You must have. There's just some things that you can't go telling people!" She stopped, her head spinning with her life and words of contradiction. Running her hands through her hair with stress that stretched to her neck and back, she groaned and kicked the chair next to her. She turned away from her father, and for a long while, she didn't utter a word. Her blue eyes gleaming, she gazed at the floor numbly, quietly tucking away her anger to the secret chambers of her soul. And with the absence of anger, logic flourished once more.

She turned back slowly, meeting his waiting eyes with caution in her words. "Is this what you meant by playing god? That's why you left the Circle... was it the lies that got to you?"

Omri did not falter in his steady demeanor, but he neither nodded nor shook his head. No inclination was made toward either side and Ana gave him plenty of time. But he did not respond in any way.

"Thanks," she said, her voice laced with acid. Another cold and spiteful laugh evaded her lips. "And here I thought you were going to give me some useful advice. You certainly are due for that, you know," she said, folding her arms across her chest and holding her head a little higher in righteous defiance. "You left mom and I so many years ago, and why? Because you left the Circle. You could have stayed there, kept mom and I safe, but of course, you didn't like that plan did you? You just had to go and leave, and get yourself killed. Tell me, father, did you even give a thought to mom and me? Did it never occur to you that our lives would be turned up, down and inside out because of your decision?" He was giving her a look of wearing patience and his glowing eyes became more icy as he listened. "Oh, and what's this?" she asked innocently, sensing his mounting anger. "You're angry? You? Oh, no, no, no, no!" she laughed. "You have no right to be angry! Because all of this is your doing, father." The smile melted from her face and she gazed at him seriously. "The Circle is not playing god. They've never played God. All they want to do is help people - people like James, who were filled with so much pain, so much mental torment, so much ugliness and evil and spite, that they could hardly live any more. The Circle is set on keeping the world on course so that some day, the world will be at peace. It's a diving calling, but it is not playing god!"

Ana imagined that if her father were truly before her, he would have had some choice words for her. But much to her surprise, he simply shook his head slowly, his eyes of firm disappointment never leaving hers. And though she was the one who was angry and accusing, hers were the eyes that backed down. She looked away, turning back to the balcony, now fully in the shadows. The doors stood open on the heated August night as if the heat of the underworld was vented off her parapet. Though her father made no sound, nor cast a shadow, she sensed him moving. Giving him a sideways glance, she saw him walk with silent steps over to the fireplace mantle where a stack of letters rested. He looked from them to her, with a knowing look. They were the letters from Remus since the beginning of the summer. He had not been able to visit her, which, though she missed him so much it hurt, in her heart was a good thing. She probably would not have been able to face him, just as she would not be able to face James. But she could face her father.

Standing tall again, she shrugged. "What? Just letters from Remus." Her father did not relent. Ana knew that she had hardly written him at all, pawning off her excuse as being busy, which she was, as an understatement. Thinking of how cold she was made the fury within her rise more. But she shrugged. It was just something that had to be. And she was horrible person, or so she figured with all sincerity.

But her father simply gazed at her with sad, disappointed eyes that struck her so deeply, that she felt herself sinking down to the chair behind her. In them were so many memories of happiness that overcame the memories of fear and loss. He stepped closer to her, right up to her side, and knelt by her chair, his eyes studying hers from his slightly lower position. Ana tried desperately to look away, but even as she did, she could feel his look. It pierced her, and Ana gave in just enough to blink away a few tears that fell from her eyes. She still couldn't look at him, but she did speak as evenly as she could.

"I am doing the best I can," she said hoarsely, her voice cracking slightly as she tried to keep her tears from flowing freely, "try to put yourself in my position. I don't know what's going to happen to me, whether I'll join the Circle or not, or..." she faltered, but forced the words, though they hurt her so, "stay with Remus...." But at that, she folded. Her entire body contracted as she brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them tightly as she shook with tired, overwhelming sobs. "I don't know..." she whispered to herself between sobs. "I don't know..."

She could not recollect how long she had cried, but when she brought her head up, the room was filled with the night, and her father was before her, glittering star-like tears falling from his own eyes. She looked at him earnestly, with a slightly mad urgency. "I don't want to be a horrible person, daddy."

He knelt down before her with the silence of a ghost, until he gazed up at her with knowing eyes. Tears were falling down his face. They gleamed so brightly, it almost hurt Ana's eyes to see, but she couldn't tear her gaze away as they slid down his porcelain visage, and off his squared jawbone into the open air, where they evaporated into a mystic, white smoke. He opened his mouth urgently to speak, but closed it. He simply gazed at her with pity and remorse as he shook his head. Though she hardly remembered her father, she remembered the look - that look which he was giving her now, and had given her back before a time when her memories of him were lost. She knew he wanted to take her in his arms and hold her for as long as she needed, and she wanted it with all her heart. But Ana decided that she would settle for one thing.

"I just want you to tell me that you still love me," Ana said, wide-eyed, as two more tears trailed down the sides of her red face. "That's all I want," she whispered desperately. "Tell me I haven't let you down. Tell me you still love me."

His shoulders dropped as he listened to her, and again he opened his mouth to speak. He shook is head in shock, and reached a hand up to her face as if for a moment, he honestly thought he could touch her. But he did remember what he was, and backed off immediately, standing, and looking down at his daughter with sad eyes in one last glance. Finally, he walked towards the balcony doors, which stood wide open on the hot, summer evening. His glowing figure nearly dimmed the stars that shone in the sky beyond him. For a moment, he looked at the sky and then, turning back to her, he spoke only one word.

"Credyn."

At that, he left her, his glowing body combusting into countless sparkling stars that shot in every direction and scattered among the heavens.