I wrapped my arms around the only thing in the world that calmed the roaring voices in my own mind. She smiled and squeezed me in return as we simply stood holding one another for what felt hours, until her voice shattered the fragile silence. "Ysellian, are you alright? Your left arm is trembling and-." Before she could continue I pulled back and smiled to her. "Simply tired is all, far too much to do and not enough time within the day to do it my Moonlily." She wiggled her nose, a sign she knew better than to believe that. Followed by a gaze I had come to recognize as her "Don't lie to me" face. She didn't even have to speak as I sighed and shook my head. "The memories of before, my brother, the demon, all of it weigh on my mind like being tied to a stone in the middle of a lake."
Her gaze softened slightly as a hand caressed my cheek. "Fuck them." She said with a flat tone, though followed with a short huff. "They are gone, long since in the past where they will remain. You are the Wolfsbane, Prime hunter of our home and son to our elder. More than that you are Ysellian, the man who holds my heart." She gave a soft smile and cupped my face in her hands. "The past is behind us, where it will remain. Nothing can or will change that, not even this demon that has a false claim on you. Your mine, not his, I would like to see him try and take you from me." She gave a playful grin and nudged my nose with her own.
I couldn't help but smile, she was right of course. In more than one way, the past is the past where it will remain. As well as in truth it would be entertaining to see anyone try and take anything from her, especially something she has claimed as her own. One would have a better chance wrestling a cub from a mama bears claws. "You are right my love, as always, forgive me. I let my mind wander too far and found a place that I did not want to be. Foolishly choosing to rest there as I wandered." She nudged my arm and huffed. "Damn right I'm right, now sit and eat I didn't cook all this just for it to get cold and rot." Something she said often though for some reason always cooked far too much for just the two of us. The next day it is usually shared amongst the hunters and traders as a "Gift" of sorts.
The night was quiet, far too much so, as if all sound in the world was stolen and all that was left was the sound of my heart beat. I lay awake as the stars danced across the sky just outside, the moon painting its solemn glow across the town. As soon as I felt myself drifting to sleep, I was thrust awake. A scream, the roar of flames, a heinous laugh that made my stomach turn and blood boil. Lelienna was no longer in my arms, I sat up to find flames growing around me. Their heat searing my exposed skin as I bolted for the door. Crashing through it just as the house crumbled to the ground, completely consumed in flame. That is when I saw him for the first time in years, the shadowed doppelganger of myself. His gaze was steady, though now he held no grin, only a hungering stare.
He said nothing, simply stood as if a statue, though his breaths bore visible heat from his mouth. I stood slowly from the ground, my gaze never leaving his. Barely blinking in the smoke filled air as I took careful steps forward. "You lost once, do not embarrass yourself to claim a second failure." My tone was steady and yet testing, finding if this were merely a nightmare or another of his -visions-. No words came from the visage as it began to move, each step forward a near thunderous echo in my own ears. I stopped, so did he, I moved left, he moved right. He was mirroring me, as if trying to become my exact mimic. Though at the moment he was always a small split second behind, still he said nothing though his breathing was now audible over the roar of flames nearby.
"You have grown in the years Ysellian." Words finally spilled from his mouth like rocks grinding against one another. "Wolfsbane, Bond to Lelienna...Or should I call her Moonlily?" I felt anger begin to spike in my chest as he spoke of her, taking a steady breath I held it down for now. "Do not dare speak her name as if you have earned the right to say it." His grin finally grew slightly as if amused. "Shall I show you what becomes of her now that she has chosen you? A step long since whispered in the threads of fate. A step closer...To me..." I grip my hands to fists and stand straight glaring down the horrific visage. "All you ever show me is lies, a path you want me to take. One that I refuse to step foot on." His grin widened, he straightened from his half hunched stance and the visage took a far more normal form. His hair near matched my own silver flow, though his eyes remained the coursing blood red orbs. His voice shifted into something sickeningly regal.
"Now Ysellian, let us make something inescapably clear. The path you so desperately wish to avoid, is the one you have always tread upon. From the moment of your...Birth...To the very second your mind breaks and you beg for my help. Your fate has been clearly set before you, attempt to defy it all you wish. I truthfully enjoy watching the display, how agonizing it must be to know there is absolutely. Nothing. That you can do." He grinned wide as his sharpened teeth were set on display, he began to walk slowly around me. At a set distance as if knowing how far I could spring into action effectively. "If your so certain of this, why tell me at all, why even bother if its unavoidable."
His laugh was sickening, taunting, a sour tone that would make ones ears curl if they could. "Why? Because it is far more entertaining watching you try to change it all, the lengths you mortals go to simply to cling to what you call life. As if any of you have control over it at all." A blink and he disappeared, his arm curling around my shoulder and neck slowly like a snake. Whispering to me, for some reason I still cannot explain. I listened. "I could save them you know? All of them from the fate that awaits them the longer you resist me. I could take what is mine, all you need do is hold out your hand. Grasp mine, and claim that you need my help." His fingers glide across my chin as he spoke, the words sank in and his offer echoed in my head. Save them from what, who, though the question that lingered far more in my mind was why.
I heard his chuckle, deep and echoing in my ear as his arm pulled back and he stepped into view once again. "This is my final offer to you Ysellian Densayh, take my hand, gain my aid and your people will thrive. Live." He stopped and turned slowly to me as his eyes swam like lakes of blood. "Refuse? They will be ruined, burned and lost to the winds of time. Never to be remembered, never to be truly laid to rest...And you...Will be the last remnant of a dead culture. One that could have been saved if all you had done is accept your fate." He stepped close and spoke with a hefted tone. "Cursed to walk the world as a husk of a man that once was, consumed by your own failures. Eaten alive by your own decisions, loved by none, hated by countless...Never able to truly die, only to watch as those around you fall into the depths of life and death. Leaving you...Alone..."
Every word he spoke made my heart skip a beat, I could feel my breath hinging and my lungs tighten. I had heard liars speak what they believed to be truth, been able to note the very lingering quiver in their tones and call them on each of them. Exposing their lies to even themselves...Yet this...There was no quiver, no shake, no shudder or even a small twitch to show that any word he spoke was within the same realm of a lie. I could feel my body begin to shake, the ruins of my home faded and closed in around me as my gaze left his for the first time.
His hand lingered in the space between us, his final offer to something I could not understand. Part of me that day wanted to take it, fear that his words were correct laced every thought. Though what is a demon if not one to manipulate and try to sway from the truth? I found my hand only a few inches from his, before I dropped it slowly to my side. Lifting my gaze to him. "No." I said with shaken yet meaningful resolve, his gaze swayed slightly as he sighed. His hand returned behind him to link with his other as he shook his head. "Such potential put to waste, a failure you will regret Ysellian." He turned and walked away slowly. "Enjoy the calm while it lasts, we will see one another again in time." As his final step pressed to the ash covered path, my eyes shot open and I sat up in bed swiftly. Looking around in a panic before Lelienna's hand lifted to rest on my back.
"Ysellian, are you alright? What happened? Was it another nightmare?" Her words cut through my haze like steel through flesh, and in that moment everything was clear. No voice lingering in my mind, no thoughts of the past and the nightmares. No hovering fear of the future and what it will bring, for the first time in years I felt calm...And it terrified me...Pained me...I had become so used to the whisper, the temptation, the lingering fear that I had all but relied on it to occupy my mind when I wished to escape. It was an Agonizing feeling, to my mind alone as my body was perfectly fine. I lifted my hand to Lelienna's and gripped it tight, pulling it to the brand on my chest. "I will be fine my Moonlily, it was, yes another nightmare."
The days to follow were strange to me, nothing hazing my mind, no thoughts lingering in each conversation. I had even found myself interested in conversation I had previously given no care for, in many ways I was far happier. Though in some I felt something was wrong, as if it were all being forced, all of it fake. Days turned to months, months to a year. Every day feeling as if it were perfect, unburdened by the weight of the world. Thriving in ways that were unthought of only a decade ago, yet now are a reality that shine within our village every day. I remember the day I began to accept it all, that he was truly gone. Forcing myself to realize and understand that it truly was his last offer, had I dodged such a deadly deal with a demon. Or were his words truth? In the time I couldn't tell which were more terrifying, though I began to let such thoughts fall from memory. Claiming this peace and calm that overtook our home like a warm blanket in a winter storm.