* * *
Luciprochoros
* * *
I don't particularly want anyone to share what is almost my greatest failure, so of course Lady Tia allows 'Sy and Katherine into the chamber in the next moment. I get the feeling of someone waiting for Regeneration - not Elete, though. Gerald. Ah, he fell into some ill luck during the mission? He's not visually present - which means Lady Tia is waiting for something else before she allows 'Sy to bring him back.
Probably rubbing my nose in my shame--
My thoughts break off abruptly as I realize who else is in the chamber with us. Ebrelle is... not very recognizable without his makeup and with his hair gone white. He's also shaking and leaning on Katherine and 'Sy just to stand. He has an odd determination in his eyes, though.
I just don't understand why he's here.
Lady Tia pats my arm. "You're being given a second chance, Lu-i-si'vrahn-prochoros-otheosil-ma-at." She regards me as I take in that Name again. It's never been something I've completely warmed to, but the sting has dulled, oddly. "To be fair... you never stood a chance at reviving him the first time."
She savors the look on my face in that moment.
"Why?" 'Sy saves me from replying to her, and his voice is just as disgruntled as I'd expected it to be.
"Because none of you know my brother." Ebrelle's voice is so broken that I feel pity for him... and it has been very difficult for me to ever feel any pity for Ebrelle. He looks up through that curtain of prematurely white hair, his eyes meeting mine, of all people's. "Alestere died before you could even meet Eleth-travente and take him from my Court. He died years before that even happened. But I was Alestere's older brother, and he was my shadow everywhere I walked, up until a point."
...Alestere?
The Song is an informative thing, now that I've finally decided to listen to it, to take the role of it as I should. It floods into my head at that moment: the song that is Alestere. The melody he would become, were he to exist. The hole his absence has left in the greater Song, all these years.
Breath of the land, how did I never notice?
Ebrelle steps toward the altar. Before he places himself next to me, he hesitates.
I bite my lip. "Come on, then."
He joins me at my side, looking as uncomfortable with such a placement as I am. After a brief few seconds, in fact, I have to brace him. He can't stand on his own.
He was Judged, Father. He shouldn't be walking. He shouldn't even be awake.
Ebrelle's brow furrows. It's strange to see him in here. He's been here before, of course - Katherine has needed his presence a scant few times when she'd managed to get herself killed. But it's different now - Katherine is standing behind us, healthy and almost fully-grown. Goodness, was she only in here so recently, on this altar herself?
I realize the altar has grown since then. It's not to hold a baby. Not even to hold a full-grown man, as it tends to have to do from time to time. It is three times that latter size.
"What will you give, then, Ebrelle?"
I keep my arm firm around his shoulders and keep him standing up. I have the suspicion that the support will be dearly needed.
Ebrelle brings his hand to his face as the tears fall down. "What wouldn't I? What haven't I?"
Lady Tia watches the first tear trickle down the back of Ebrelle's hand and hit the altar. "You've paid this price over and over, yes. But now you pay it to me, who can actually give what you want in return."
He whimpers, his shoulders shaking. "How? I never understand this. How?"
Tia wraps her arm around Ebrelle from the side opposite me, brushing against and twining with my own. "It's like being born. You don't remember being born, do you? You remember your brother, though. Remember Alestere. Suffer for Alestere. Wound yourself for Alestere. These are all things you do for me now, and in return for your tribute... I may give back." She flicks her free wrist towards the altar, running through the tears it's collected, her fingertips leaving wet trails. With that hand, she brushes my cheek, and it's only then that I realize that I'm crying too.
I miss him. Whoever he is, through whatever hole he's left in the Song, I miss Alestere.
* * *
Elesse
* * *
I miss the feeling of wind through my fingers
Coming together now, but I miss-- I don't
It's not long now, I feel, somehow I'm ending. Is this alright, am I
Don't want to go, want to stay here in the--
--like it's rushing up inside of me
No, I'm afraid.
I don't understand what you are at all, really, nor what I am. Do you remember--
I don't want to remember being Alestere. I don't want to remember life--
But it's so beautiful, so much fun! And it felt so much better as Alestere--
I want to be with my wife, Elesse.
I look at the man before me half sunken into the ocean, look at myself, and realize that there is too much of both of us to make one person. Then a voice above us, or perhaps in the distance, tells me not to worry about that. Elete drops into the water, and I'm left alone.
* * *
Elete
* * *
Lady Tia, please, I just want to be with my wife and daughter--
The water rushes over my head.
"You can."
I can't describe what sort of joy I feel from the sensation of drowning, how many times I dreamed of this moment, longed for the chance to dive beneath the waves and rejoin my wife. I promised her that I wouldn't leave her alone. Now I can fulfill that promise--
There's a tingle through my scalp as I dive down deeper. I can almost hear her down there. As I go, the worries finally slide out of my mind. It's so peaceful down here. So cold and soothing. Like some sort of home, forever...
That tingle again, reminding me just a little of my former life, of my obligations. I feel it one final time, and then they're lifted from me, along with my attachment to that former life...
Then there is just her, and me, and forever.
* * *
Elesse
* * *
The woman holds my hand as I watch Elete sink into the water and disappear into its depths. Her grip is strong and very imposing. She makes me nervous.
"Everyone's a little afraid, before they're born."
Then the tide comes upon me and rips me apart.
* * *
Luciprochoros
* * *
The Song fills my head, the sound so strong and loud that I almost collapse under the assault. It's been so long since it's caught me up like that... since I was allowed to be caught up in it and just let it take me where it would, losing all cares, all sense of self, feeling the new branches grow up and the dead growth wither away and the flowers bloom everywhere I can behold...
It dwindles, resumes at a normal volume, and leaves me wanting.
But someone is on the altar now, where before no one was at all.
I, being the Song, can't find the words fast enough. There are so many possible ones, after all. And so... "Three people." 'Sy voices my confusion.
Surprise ghosts across Ebrelle's face before he collapses to the floor, unconscious. I can't blame him. I'm exhausted as well, and I didn't just face down the Trident.
A cold shiver runs down my back as I consider the possibility, though. But in the present... I'm seeing in triple. There's the man nearest me, who I know must be Alestere. He appears the same age as Elete, but has some of the carefree look of Elesse.
Why isn't he a baby? Tia always gives us back babies!
Then there's the other two, both also full-grown. One looks very much like Ebrelle and Elete, but the family resemblance isn't quite there. Certainly the pale skin and long black hair, but the face...
I blink. The face I recognize. I glance back at 'Sy, and am validated by the shock in his eyes. "Vailem," he croaks. "But... it's been years. We'd just left Chethar when he disappeared. My Lady, why have you returned him to us? He must have been in the Void for quite a long time now."
Tia shakes her head. "He came with Alestere. With Elesse, to be precise."
We stare at her in complete befuddlement. She shrugs.
"It seemed that since he wasn't a whole person, he was somehow packing a few additional souls inside of him for stability. Otherwise I imagine he wouldn't have lasted as long as he did. Do you want them? I can always take them back."
"Please don't. We need them," a voice replies with a great deal of urgency. I realize after the others glance my way that the voice is my own. It's in the Song, I realize. I don't know how or why it's happened this way, but we need all three of these people.
Katherine glances at the altar again. "Who's the third one? He looks like a Xaillyndesse."
'Sy's face gets that pinched look of his when Diyn is informing him of something he may or may not want to hear. "Eistinn. Ebrelle's older brother. He's guilty of murder." At our reactions, he merely shrugs. "Everyone's guilty of something."
At that, he reserves a special glare for me. I do my best to ignore it.
Katherine speaks up and breaks the moment, bless her. "We need to take them outside, if they're coming with. 'Sy, for Gerald, do you need--"
"I'll do it alone, this time. Go on ahead." I can't quite look him in the face anymore. 'Sy endures far more Regeneration ceremonies than anyone else.
Tia leans over Ebrelle's body and waves her hand, returning him to the Armed Hall. She turns to me then, cocking her head towards the altar, a question in her eyes and half a smile on her lips.
I nod my head. "Please."
With a wave of her hands, the trio on the altar join Ebrelle. Then Katherine and I follow, and 'Sy is left alone to collect his son.
* * *
Gerald
* * *
Picture this:
I'm on an altar, the same altar I wake up on every time I get the notion in my head to do something particularly heroic. Father gazes down on me, slight disapproval hovering about his expression, but the foremost emotion is relief, as always.
"You're testing your limits, lad. At this rate, I think I see you a fair bit more often than your Father does." The Lady of the Void chuckles and slides her cool fingers through the crop of curls on my head. Ah, good. Still got the hair.
Father shakes his head and gathers me up. I tell him that it'll be okay - that we've survived this long, fought this hard, come so far in so short a time. Instead it all comes out as a gurgle.
He grins, chuckles, then cradles me over his shoulder. He looks happy again, and I suppose that's enough for now.
Then there's a flash of light and the rushing of air all around us. I'm back in the world again.
* * *
END
The Peacock King Trilogy
* * *
Wait!
This is not the end!
...Well it is the end of the Peacock King Trilogy, I didn't lie up there. But it's not the end of the story! Next week we'll be posting a sort of epilogue short about Elete, and then we'll be posting a prequel novella Char has been writing called Echoes. It'll go into the history of the characters that come from Chethar, and what happened over there so long ago that will give you a lot of insight into how things are in PK's present time.
And then, after that?
Well, we've got a LOT more story for you. I'll just put it this way...
The Peacock King is only the FIRST trilogy in this story.
Stick around! More news is forthcoming. News about a new site design with really neat features, ebooks, and a print edition...
It's going to be an exciting time for readers. AND writers. As in, Char and I.
As in... we've got a lot of work to do, bye!
- Irk 8/20/2010
