Aftermath

Prologue

He strode intently through the clinging smoke of battle, a man on a mission. A dark avenging angel, it would later be said. She lay limp in his arms, disconnected from the world. The countryside about them was quiet; a silence born from the pain and suffering ended such a short time ago. Naught else stirred; all of the others had left or were no longer able to move. He clutched her to his chest, relief flowing through his veins every time her heart beat. So many had died, he could consider her current survival a miracle. Later, he would weep for the dead; now was the tie for caring for those who still lived. Such was the way of war. Such was his way.

The light blinded her, after so long in the dark. She felt as though she swam upstream, fighting an inexorable current that was ever so slowly sweeping her back towards the darkness. She heard a voice calling her name, calling her to come back to where she belonged but, in the instant that she was distracted, the darkness came to overwhelm her. She fought with all her strength, pushing out mentally. Repeatedly she battered herself against the inevitability of her submergence but at last, when her mind and body were exhausted, she let go of her grip on reality and slipped away.

He held her hand, refusing to let go despite numerous requests to move away. She could not die; he had only gone back into the hellhole that was the battlefield to save her, because he could not believe she was dead. He had emerged victorious, bearing her unconscious, yet still alive, body. He had pulled the woman he knew was capable of curing her forward, although, at the time, he could not think of this nurse's name. Still, it was enough that she had the expertise needed. He sat, waiting, watching. Seconds, minutes and hours melded together, rushing by in an interminable blur. The only time he really noticed anything was when the body at his side stirred, even if only an infinitesimal bit.

She saw the light again, only this time it did not blind her. Indeed, instead of the hard, cold light that had greeted her before she was being called by a gentle golden glow, one that warmed her heart even as it showed her a path. She knew, instinctively, that her eyes were closed and that she was seeing with her mind but it didn't worry her. Rather, she felt reassured, as though no harm could come to her. And perhaps, she reflected, such was true. There certainly shouldn't be anything that could possibly hurt her, not as far as she knew. And yet...there was something waiting there for her, something that could not be evil, not with the way it dwelled in the golden light. She opened her eyes unknowingly, all control over her movements gone. For an instant, she met the ebony eyes that stared down at her and then she was falling into them, back into the darkness that she had inhabited for what seemed like eons and yet, at the same time, like seconds. Only this time the darkness was different, more welcoming. Without realizing it, she settled her mind into it, like a cat into a favoured chair. She had come home.