Beyond the Fairy Gate

Chapter 35

Nyline

It was the music that reached Nyline's ears before anything else and she knew the melody that played in the corner of the large golden ball room by heart, as the music started to hum along. Slowly she opened her eyes to see the people wearing their finest as they danced in circles. The skirts of the lady's dresses and the tailcoats of the men flaring every time they turned in a lavish display of a perfect performance. Then right on time, every dancing woman, switched partners to their right, not even one missed a beat as they continued the perfectly choreographed presentation with ease.

With a shallow breath, Nyline's eyes snapped up to the balcony as her heart started up a new rhythm in her throat before it stuttered as she saw that it was empty. She turned away from it, feeling as though her heart were breaking. She'd never realized how much she'd wanted a connection with her parents before seeing them back in Thaul. Their death had just become something that she had accepted after watching the memory of them dying so many times over the years. It was just been something that she'd come to accept. She'd stolen several memories of them from Uncle John over the years but seeing them in Thaul was different. It was as if her mother had looked directly at her and it had simply opened up a chasm in her heart that blead with the 'what ifs' that circled her mind now. Maybe, all of this mattered now, since she was back. In truth, she'd never planned on actually returning, on meeting Gabriel, or even stepping foot back into Thaul. Now that she was here, everything felt so real and so raw. She walked across the ballroom floor and towards the refreshment's table her mind cluttered with all of the information that swamped her mind.

The memory that Queen Alice had given her of the last time she'd seen her mom, was insane to say the least. She had just vanished. Her original memory of her parent's death was fake, it was obvious to her now that she'd met the people of Vaccoon, she knew that it couldn't be true. So then, what had actually happened? She leaned her hip up against the table that held all the little cakes, cookies, and finger foods, her arms crossing as she stared out across the sea of twirling skirts. Her heart froze in her chest as she saw someone, a someone that did not belong in this memory. That was something that she was positive on, she knew every single person's face that was in this memory, and that man with his bright green eyes, wasn't one of them. Breath caught in Nyline's throat as she felt the panic try and crawl up her throat in desperation. The truth of the matter was that memories didn't change, except for this one it seemed as it kept throwing new things at her at every turn since she'd arrived back in the aether world. It made her skin crawl.

Once their eyes had connected, half of his lips hooked up into a grin, he looked intrigued, his eyes glinting as he started walking towards her. He side stepped every single person dancing, not touching a single skirt as it flared out. His silver hair glinted in the lighting and fell down his back in a tail, bundled together at the nape of his neck with a black ribbon. The bow not quite as perfect as Janti's but it was damn close. The black pressed suit was coupled with a vest that was a couple shades darker than the man's hair, and his shoes were shined so much that the ceiling was reflected.

"Good evening, young lady." The man spoke in a deep rumbling voice that reached into all the way down into her soul and trembled something that hadn't been touched in a very long time. That voice, she knew that voice but if felt like it was from some long-long dream. She had no memories that contained this man's face. The feeling of knowing and the logic swirling around in her mind and started to make her dizzy.

Nyline hadn't taken her eyes off the man since she had first seen him across the hall. The man however, bent into a deep bow, holding it there for a few seconds before he pulled himself upright, those bright green eyes going back to hers. Now that she was looking at him up closely, she couldn't help but feel a pull to those eyes. The man moved easier than he should have with the coloring of his hair, and the deep wisdom that was held inside of those eyes. Endless secrets swirled in them, sending a shiver from her tailbone, up to her spine and into her skull, where it spread out making her nerves tingle.