The Curse of Eternity

Death Ten

I awaken from oblivion to the sound of distant crying; a mournful howl of a being who has been torn from everything they love. It is the cry of the Chimera Sea. The soft rustle of cloth, hurried footsteps, and hushed whispers accompany lending a soft moonlight timbre.

"Did you hear what happened to the Lord?"

"No, what happened?"

"I overheard Headmaster Gregoire speaking to Headmistress Byrne; someone attacked the Lord last early night."

"Will he die?"

"Don't be an idiot Ceres. He is the Immortal Lord, he can't die."

"I know Myorla. You have told me many times. What if he is immortal like we are?"

"He isn't. I saw the Lord fall off his steed and break his neck, any one of us would die instantly. The Lord did not. In a few candles, he was back on his feet and strolling through the palace like it never happened. It happened about a century ago. Now the Immortal Lord rarely leaves the palace. Without a Bride, he cannot travel beyond the Soul Trees. He is forced to spend night after night in pain, pent up in his rooms answering letter after letter of people who want something from him. The affairs of his estate are his excuse to ignore the happenings outside the realms. We all know it is his soul is dying and every New Moons Turn, he grows angrier and angrier. He knows as well as we do, there will be no lift to this curse. The spark that makes him human will fade and we will fade along with him. We will become the shell of the beings we once were."

I remember Myorla and Ceres as the maids who chased me around the bathing pool the night I arrived. Letting their hushed tones wash over me, I take a few flickers to gather my thoughts.

Again, what happened to me this time? It has become a pattern waking with gaps in my memory. How long can I continue this without losing my sanity? I breathe deep, relaxing further into the embrace of down stuffed pillows calling up the sounds of my last memory.

Chicken scratching fills my ears through the haze, but no chickens are kept near the place I sleep. Then, ah, it's more akin to etching on leather-hard clay. The realization links my mind to the flash flame.

I awoke to my mupu etching vases and placing them in the kiln? No, my memory remembers nothing of the familiar scent of baking clay. My mind makes another link, I remember Myorla and Ceres and the bathing pool.

The Immortal Lord.

I awoke to the sound of the Immortal Lord writing and with the calmness of a still lake, he explains he found me unconscious in the bathing pool. I frantically search for my dresses feeling as though I'd be struck down by the Dyu's should I forgo them. It's futile as the Immortal Lord's deep tintinnabular timber engulfs me saying, "I have dried you, dressed you, and cared for you these past four nights, anything you wish to hide can no longer be hidden from me."

My heart leaps in my throat, he saw me; and not simply my hands, face, or feet but all of me. I'd grown angry, very angry. I wait for the wave of rage to consume me but instead, I feel satisfaction; and like s'modion tiles memories fall forward. The smugness I feel is akin to my original killing. I was hanged for the death of eight villagers. When I woke in my mupu's sleeping chair, I only felt satisfaction and smugness. In all my deaths, this satisfaction has been twice.

When I killed the villagers and now.

Had my anger unleashed my uncontrolled Loris'rife and Will and killed someone?

Thought's stray back to the words Myorla and Ceres spoke. The Immortal Lord was severely attacked. Realization strikes, I attacked the Immortal Lord. I lowered my hood and if not killed, severely injured a being. My deepest fear came true and for my treachery, my mupu would hang. I take a deep breath, shoot straight in the bed and release a short, high-pitched scream.