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「Catharsis」Interlude: Peralei |
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"So you are the one my daughter searches for."
Peralei watched, amused, as the Chimera swiveled around, searching wildly for her before finally catching sight of her. He tensed, and she could see his clawed fingers reflexively shaping themselves in reaction to her presence. She did not blame him, for she did nothing to restrain the well of her power, letting it flow freely for him to feel.
It must have been a very disorienting and terrifying experience, standing before someone whose strength so greatly outmatched your own.
Oh, Henry, Peralei mused, I wonder what you would say to this boy who would take your daughter's hand?
ƸӜƷ "Who are you?" asked the Chimera, voice biting and rough even as he began to lower himself in preparation for an attack. "And what are you talking about?"
Peralei deliberately loosened her posture, keeping herself relaxed even though it did little to reassure the boy in front of her. And he really was a boy, wasn't he? Still so young even with the experiences he'd had, involved with wars that had nothing to do with him. The reminder of that--of his youth, and his unfortunate circumstances--made her sad, for it made her think of her own children.
"You may call me Peralei," she said, with a flourish of a bow. "And I am the matriarch of the Rullae clan." A title that she will soon one day be able to relinquish. "You met my daughter, once, years ago. About a decade, I believe. You met on the border of the sea, on the eve of the great battle that would mark the first step towards your title as the infamous Hellhound."
He flinched at the name, but by the recognition dawning in his eyes she could tell that he knew what she was talking about. "But how did you..." He shook his head. "You said she was your daughter. So she told you?"
"Not exactly," Peralei said, much to his confusion. She did not bother to explain it, however, for it was something that she was certain he would not quite believe. "In all honesty, I have only sought you out in order to speak with you, so you should put those claws of yours away before you hurt someone."
Despite the assurance, the Chimera remained tense, somewhat offended and naturally distrustful of her words. She saw no fault in that and even praised him for it inwardly--if he had immediately relaxed or shown any other reaction than the wary curiosity he displayed now she would have thought him a fool. But since he reacted exactly as she had hoped, she kept herself calm and made no move to further agitate him, simply watching and waiting as he decided upon what to do next.
It happened gradually, but he eventually did loosen from his tightly wound stance. Not fully, but she was expecting that. He was a soldier through and through, but not one without his mind. More than that, at the base of his genetics he was a canine, instincts calling for pack dynamics but not quick to either try to assert dominance or show submission. He watched her with guarded blue eyes, ears attentive and yet not sticking straight to her but rather their surroundings. She silently praised him again.
"Good. Now, let us walk. I find it easier for all wanderers to speak whilst moving, and you do not seem to be the type to sit still." She brushed past him, steps elegant and graceful after centuries--millennia--of practice. "There is much I would like to say to you, and I've a limited amount of time in which to say it. I have no doubt that you will have your own questions that you would like answered in the end as well, so the sooner we get into things, the better."
The Chimera trotted after her, his gait strange as he tried to fall into the rhythm of her footsteps. The sight and sound of it reminded Peralei of the once upon a time when her own children would stumble along beside and behind her, trying to acquaint themselves with the feeling of walking with their human legs. She smiled inwardly, aura calming and warming just ever so slightly more to the quiet boy at her side.
When he finally found a pace that kept up with hers that he was comfortable with, she began, "I do not know how acquainted you are with the mermaid species after your meeting with my daughter--" here she ignored the startled and vaguely flustered look he sent her at the obvious emphasis of her words, "--but I can guarantee that there is much more to us than what you believe. Particularly if all you know is from what your human creators have told you. While accurate in some respects, my people have long since stopped appearing before surface dwellers as openly as we have in the past, acknowledging that the Age of Man has transcended the Age of Gods of the Old World. And thus, much information that humans hold about my people are likely largely outdated."
Peralei glanced back at the red-haired boy, flashing him a small smile when she saw how intently he was listening. It was not often that a mortal looked upon her and took her seriously for all her unnatural beauty and youth. "The first thing I will tell you is that mermaids belong to the sea. That is where our Great Mother cast herself away, living and breathing until she became one with the waves. And so it is to the sea that our bodies will return to. The only way to escape this fate is to gain and share a soul with another, binding oneself to their fate rather than the sea's."
"Yeulveren... Although she is my daughter and not as directly tied to our ancestor, she is, perhaps, even more tightly bound to the fate of our kind than others," Peralei admitted quietly. Solemnly. The Chimera's ears twitched as he strained to hear her words even though she was right beside him. "Even more, it is a fate she chose willingly, for if she had wanted she could have rejected it as so many others have before her."
"...And this makes you unhappy?" the Chimera asked, deep voice almost rumbling in his chest. It was a soothing sound.
"It would make any mother unhappy to see her child give up so much of her life for a responsibility that she did not ask for," Peralei replied. "To know that she chose this path because she did not believe she had any other choice is even worse."
"Couldn't you tell her not to, then?"
The Rullae matriarch sent him a wan smile. "I say no to that for the second thing that I must tell you about mermaids: my people are very old, although we do not look it. Even the youngest of my children is much more than twice your age, boy." She laughed softly at his startled expression. "Unfortunately, such an age tends to lead towards a certain stubbornness inherent in almost all long-lived creatures. And that is exactly what my daughter is--stubborn. She hides behind the pleasant smile that I taught her to have, but beneath the softness is an iron will. Once that will is resolved, even I cannot stop her from carrying it out no matter how much I may wish to. A mother's folly, you could call it, wanting only the best for her children and yet giving them the room to grow on their own."
The Chimera was silent for a while, quietly soaking in her words. Finally, slowly, he asked, "And what does this talk have to do with me?"
His words, while frank, were not meant to be cruel, she knew. It was not out of carelessness that he asked but genuine curiosity--for what reason was she telling him such things? And why did she approach him with those topics specifically? He knew of his chance meeting with her daughter, but that was long ago and he could not fathom what ties that gave him to her future.
Very few ever did understand their standing in the complex web that was fate and destiny.
"What would you say, Hellhound..." she began, voice pouring out like silk as she gave every effort to hold his attention, her power coursing through her veins as she executed the skills of her race against him. She saw him freeze as it took effect, his back straightening and becoming rigid with tension as he tried in vain to break himself from her spell. "...if I were to tell you that in every life, every timeline, your destiny and my daughter's destiny are intertwined?"
Deliberately, Peralei lifted her hand and, despite his best efforts not to, the Chimera followed the movement. He watched in alarm as his limb moved against his will; his trepidation spiked when she flicked her wrist and his hand revealed its claws. His head snapped to her and his mouth opened in a snarl, but with her free hand she silenced him before he could speak.
"There is no such thing as an infallible being," Peralei recited, voice firm. "Even I, after all my years of living, will one day fade away. Not even the gods can escape the fate that is Death--it only comes down to a when and where. It is foolish of any being to believe otherwise. I taught this to my daughter long ago so that she did not fear Death when it came for her, so she would accept its judgment when it came to pass. It is an honor to be chosen, to be taken back to the world that birthed us, and something that she must face with grace and dignity."
Taking a deep breath, she steeled her will before cutting her gaze straight into the eyes of the Chimera, seeking out the hellhound within and holding its gaze--the one that summoned Death. "The fact that the gods see it fit for you and my daughter to find one another time and time again is no mistake, child. An abomination such as yourself should not exist and yet you do, because the gods will it. Because life accepts you and has given you a purpose to fulfill--a purpose that involves my daughter. I do not know the specifics, but know that in every lifetime you both come across great strife and grief. You will lose much, and give up more. The pain you will receive will be bearable, but will wear you down eventually."
"In all honesty, I had given this encounter much thought and contemplated more than a few times that I will simply kill you and be done with it, for I have no interest in watching my daughter suffer, knowing what I know. Even if I had allowed it in another life, another timeline, whether because I had no choice or felt it right, in this one I feel there is no reason for her to go through such pain and sorrow." She released her hold on his clawed arm, allowing it to fall limply at his side. "But then I remember the girl she used to be, and the woman she became since meeting you. And I cannot fault her for wanting to meet you again, because if there is another thing consistent with your unfortunate destinies, it is the fact that you both will irrevocably change one another."
She released the hold she had on his voice next, then his body. "And so I will leave it to you to decide, knowing what you know now from what I have told you. Will you allow yourself to meet my daughter again, even if it will only end in tears? Or will you let this chase go on, never letting her catch up to you? Stubborn as she is, even she will one day have to slow as she takes over my clan as its next head, and a hunt with no reward is unsatisfactory to any creature."
The Chimera moved his limbs as he regained mobility of them, shooting her a dirty look. She stared back, expression blank. He eventually gave up and sighed, sifting a hand through his hair. "That's one hell of a choice," he muttered.
There was another few moments of silence as he slowly rotated other parts of his body, as if to make sure her influence was completely gone and he was fully in control once more. Eventually, he ceased, only absently rubbing the wrist of the hand she had raised earlier in position to strike before saying, "I can't help but notice something, though..."
Peralei quirked a brow at him, inclining her head for him to continue when he glanced at her.
"When you spoke about gods and death, you mentioned that that was fate," he said slowly as he recounted her words. When she nodded again, he continued, "But when you talk about me and your daughter, you say destiny."
She gave nothing away, waiting patiently as he made his own conclusions.
"The two sound the same, but they're inherently different, are they not? So while the fate of death is something that comes to all, like you said, the destiny that supposedly waits for me and your daughter... isn't." His eyes were clear as they peered into hers even from the distance away from her that he stayed at, instincts sharply reminding him that she was dangerous and not to be casually approached. "It doesn't have to be that way--the way that you said. Even if the other... versions of us from different lives and timelines were like that, we don't have to be. We don't have to end up like them."
"So you believe you can escape what all your others had tried to?" Peralei asked coolly.
"No."
Again, she raised a brow. "No?"
The Chimera shook his head. "No." But he gave her a derisive smile, nearly a smirk in the way it lifted more on one corner of his mouth to reveal a sharp fang. "But do you really think that we wouldn't try anyway?"
Snorting, the mermaid matriarch relaxed, gave a soft smile of her own, and praised him again. Aloud, this time.
ƸӜƷ In the end, Peralei bid a fond farewell to the young Chimera, wishing him luck in his travels. She saw him off before going off on her own way, traversing miles across the land as she had in her youth until she came upon a familiar spot as dear to her as it was heartrending.
With an exaggerated sigh of exhaustion, she sat down amidst the grass and flower field, turning her head up to bask in the sunlight.
"He's a nice boy," she said after some time. "Very straightforward. Smart. Serious when it calls for it. You would approve of him, I'm sure." She tossed a smile over her shoulder, expression softening. "He reminds me a bit of you, actually. But he doesn't hide his loneliness as well. Perhaps that is why Little Yeul becomes so attached to him in every incarnation? She always has been the nurturing type, deep, deep down. I suspect that's where her healing abilities come from, at any rate."
She imagined a laugh, bright and cheery, answering her and she smiled in response. "I'm certain you were listening, but when I asked him what he would do, even after all that I said to him, he all but said that he would allow them to meet again, and that they would try to find happiness when their others could not. I do not know whether to call him arrogant or a romantic, and to be honest I cannot tell which one would be worse in this case."
Henry's voice replied to her, summoned from the depths of her memories, "Do you really care?"
"...No, I suppose not," she answered, voice thoughtful. "He could be either, both, or neither judging by what my Honored Grandmother showed me, as Yeulveren will accept him no matter what simply because he is what he is. It worries me, but I suppose I cannot say anything considering I was the same way with you."
"True, true~"
Peralei hummed. "In the end, all I hope for her is to be happy. But with everything I know, all that I've been told by my Honored Grandmother, I cannot help but worry. Any path they take together will be full of obstacles, and it will be a long, uphill battle for them to reach any sort of happiness--if there is any waiting for them in the end at all."
"She will be strong. Don't worry."
"She is strong," Peralei said gently, tears welling up in her eyes as she reminded herself that it was truly only a memory she was talking to, and not her lost love. She laughed in spite of her tears. "I wonder if she will have the courage to do in this life what I could not, and leave her responsibilities behind in order to grasp her happiness fully...?"
"You know that I never would have let you," Henry's voice said, as crystal clear in her memory as if she were just listening to him speak. So young and foolish, her dear Henry, full of conviction and strength when even her heart wavered. "You love your life below too much to ever let go of it, so I would never let you give it up because that would make you unhappy."
"But the joy of standing beside you as your wife would never let me have such sorrow," she said, recalling her words from that day, that argument. She had said it with much more passion then, but they were no less true when she said them now, with quiet longing. Sighing, the Rullae matriarch lowered herself until she lay on the grass, staring up at the bright blue sky. "I meant what I said, you know. I would have left my life in the sea behind, torn away from a life of eternity, gladly, and married you. It would have made me happier than anything in the world, other than bearing your children."
But Henry had never allowed it, because he could not bear to take the sea away from her and so refused. She had wondered, after his death, if he had known he would die so early and so refused because of that. She had a feeling he did, for the letters he wrote to his children for them to have after his passing were too planned to be anything but deliberate. He had had time to think about it, and it was not just something he had done on a whim.
But he was dead now, and had been for an obscenely long time.
"And forever out of my reach," Peralei murmured, stretching her hand above her to the heavens. For even if she died, if she did not marry and tie herself to another to share his soul she could never reach where Henry was. And she had no wish to tie herself to any but him, no matter how much she loved any of her lovers after Henry's death.
Would Yeulveren end up the same way?
Carrying the blood of both Peralei and Henry, she was a child of unwavering conviction. Her loyalty to the clan, her dedication to her family and responsibilities, her love of learning and the unknown... they were all things passed down from her parents and wrapped neatly together into one tiny, incredibly stubborn being. But while Peralei knew her daughter's will was strong in things she believed in, she knew that it was only so far that one could bend without breaking. Would her daughter break in the face of her destiny? Would she hold so tightly to what she believed she must do, forsaking her own happiness?
Peralei, as her mother and current clan head, hoped not.
And, though she was not one for optimistic and frivolous prayers, she sent up one of her own that her eldest child will be happy, if only in this life.
No, she amended. Not only in this life. Somehow, someway, she prayed that her daughter and the hellhound in all their incarnations would find their way through the tears and pain, to a happiness that they could share.
Nymeia · Tue Jul 15, 2014 @ 05:27am · 0 Comments |
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