Water and Wind

Chapter 42

Arian

He makes it to the clearing breathless and face flushed, but still unwilling to drop the sandal. Not now, not ever. Behind him, Lucifer comes to a halt, and Arian jerks his head left and right. He doesn't see her, and he doesn't see the spirit. Where is she?

Lucifer inhales sharply, the barest, coarsest and most ragged inhale Arian has ever heard. "Out of the clearing, Arian."

Arian shoots him a hard look. "No, just because-"

Lucifer shakes his head, dark hair obscuring his eyes. "Out of the clearing, brother." Arian freezes at the endearing term and the split second nearly lets Lucifer push him out of the line of vision before he comes to his senses. "No." He grabs Lucifer's arm and pivots wildly. "She's here, she's here somewhe-"

He freezes, eyes catching on the hem of a skirt by the bushes, and the honey gold hair woven into the- no. No.

"I told you to get out," Lucifer whispers. "I told you to leave before it stings." His black eyes shine, raw and bitter with hurt and longing. "I told you she wasn't made for this world, that she was too good for all of us. Nimue-"

"Don't say her name like that," Arian hisses, dropping beside the body and pressing his forehead to hers. "Nimue, I-" he whispers, then stops. I what? He what? He doesn't have enough words, or enough anything right now.

"Who killed her? Where are they?" Lucifer is hell-bent on revenge, and his muscles tense as he kneels beside Arian. For once, Arian doesn't stop him. "Call her back, Arian." Lucifer grabs Arian's shoulders and shakes. "Make the portal, do something, anything," there's a desperate, crazed look in his eyes that Arian has never seen, not even when Lucifer left the forest.

"I can't." Two words that pain him to say.

"I don't care what you can't or can do, do it."

Mouth utterly dry, Arian pulls his hands together and lays his hands on Nimue's shoulders. He's about to utter something, when a slight breeze tugs his attention away, and he whips his head around.

Nimue is standing at the edge of the clearing, translucent white dress hanging around her pale frame. See-through. Spirit. Something lodges in Arian's throat and he freezes. Lucifer strides over first, putting a hand to Nimue's cheek.

"I'm sorry," he whispers, the words escaping between squeezed teeth and a shaking hand. "I'm sorry I couldn't make things right, and that I ended up this way." He casts his gaze downwards, ignoring the tears that are falling fast and furious down his face. "But most of all, I'm sorry that it ended like this, and I'm sorry that we can't go back, because Nimue, if I had one wish, it would be to turn it back, to turn back the time and-" he presses his fingers to her cheek lightly.

Her spirit's fingers touch his lightly. "You have nothing to be sorry for." She hesitates, floating lightly on the tips of her toes, then kisses him lightly on the cheek. "I love you. But not that way."

Numbly, he steps back, and nods. "Yeah. Yeah."

Arian is still frozen in place. He can't move. It's shock, that's what they call it. Shock. He can't. He just can't. In three seconds he'll wake up and it'll all be a dream. Nothing more, nothing less.

"Arian."

His shell of denial cracks, and everything in him wavers as she steps toward him, feather-light on her toes. The waves of her honey hair frame her face, bouncing as she glides towards him. Even in death, she's as graceful as ever, and Arian has to close his eyes.

Like water. Fluidity. Motion. Refreshing, but not cold. If he doesn't open his eyes, none of this will be true.

He feels a light touch on his cheek, and it hovers there until his eyes open. "I-"

She presses a finger to his lips silently and shakes her head, her own tears swelling the tide in his eyes. "Stop."

"Nimue-" A sudden pain wrenches his chest, so hard and fierce that he falls to his knees. Not going back with her. Coming back to the group to say that she died in his arms. Something in him snaps, and he shakes his head, his voice low and gravelly. "I can't do it, Nimue." He searches around for something, anything sharp, but she grabs his arm in a surprisingly tight grip.

"Arian, don't do anything you're going to regret." Of all words, she'd choose those. But there would be nothing to regret, not if he could join her. She sees it in his eyes, and lays a hand on his cheek. "Arian, I wasn't made for this world," he opens his mouth to protest, but she holds up a hand. "It's true. The circumstances of my generation weren't the same as yours." He notes the use of generation instead of birth.

"But you," she breathes, circling closer to him. "You were born for this earth. You, Arian, I've seen you, and you were made for this world. Not just to exist," she clarifies. "You were made to change it." She waves a hand and their siblings' faces appear in shimmering swirls. "Jinx, Sirena, Lorelei... Freya," she emphasizes, and with each name, Arian feels his willpower break a little.

"Think about what it would do to them if their beloved Arian didn't come back."

"But you-"

She shakes her head. "It's not about me. It's never about me. I want to do this for you," the acute feeling of her cool hand on his cheek is startling. "Live, Arian," she whispers. "Live for those who can't, live for me... live for you."

Her eyes close, lashes fluttering as if she's exhausted. "Nimue," he murmurs, but she holds up a hand, eyes still shut. It's a few seconds before she begins to sing, and spellbound by her sweet voice and lilting melody, he keeps quiet.

She rises a little higher with each word, that signature dazzling smile still imprinted on her face.

"Over the mountains, over the sea

that's where my heart is going to be."

She stretches her fingers out to him and pirouettes, still smiling.

"Live your life, it was meant to be

Arian, live, for you and for me."

She squeezes her eyes like the words pain her, then relaxes them.

With one backward glance, she opens her eyes, stretching her hand out to her mother. Mother-daughter duo complete, they look at peace. From a distance, they look like angels, hair streaming behind them in the wind as they fly with the breeze.

Over the valley, and downstream, toes skimming the water. The sun is shining on the darkened forest, and Arian feels like his heart has either sunk to the depths of his stomach or risen into his throat.

Halfway down, near the place where the old cabin laid at the foot of the mountains, he hears a slight laugh on the gust of wind that's skimming his skin. Between tears blurring his sight, he looks up, and sees her waving, golden hair streaming behind her. She looks happier than he's seen her in a long time.

Her voice echoes over the rolling hills and crystal water.

"Follow the river, out to the sea

Over the coral, that's where I will be.

Under the blue sky

That's where I will fly

Flying for all eter-nity."

He presses his hand to his mouth, bestowing a kiss on his palms before he breathes in the peace of the valley. The blue sky, the lit grass, the vividness of the scene with its bright colors, tinged with a bittersweet mist.

But a good kind of mist, for after all, mist is water droplets, and water droplets have a memory. Mist clouds, but shades. It's eternal, it's fluid.

The feelings come out as a gentle breeze, dancing its way through the valley and down to Nimue. She looks up, and radiates pure light. A small smile edges out of him as the most gossamer drizzle drops light raindrops on his cheeks.

One foot. Another. The imprints they carve in the soft soil of Arcanum Valley.

The pure glow of the two lovers ignites the air, bursting along with the dandelions: to flight, to the winds... to eternity.