Diamond Heart

Wanna'Ah - Two days later

Tur'An had scoured the ruins of Wanna'Ah from first light to last, but still be couldn't find Insy's body.

He now searched beyoned the charred city walls, traipsing through churned mud and the long wild grasses. The sun began climbing down, he would have to turn back soon. He scanned ahead one more time and saw a crescent moon sword planted in the ground. He knew then, just knew, that was where his princess lay.

A Quort cloak had been rested over Insy. Her skin, always fair, had turned porcelain pale, a thin trickle of dried blood running from the corner of her mouth onto her cheek. She should have been dead, yet somehow, she was still taking shallow breaths, her green eyes half open, unfocused but searching.

The knelt beside her, Chopin her cold cheeks. "You found me?" Her voice cracked and gasped from between her dried lips.

"I'll always find you." He felt years threaten and catch in the corners of his lashes.

"I wanted-" Her voice choked up. She was slipping away, losin her trip on whatever had helped her to hold on. "To see...you."

Sommething inside him broke. Tur bent and kissed her cooling like. "Well, here I am. Just like I always promised I'd be."

"Vix?" She coughed up another dribble of blood.

"She's alive, she's safe, she'll be crowned soon enough." Tur felt anger begin to mix in with his grief. "We should have had years."

Somehow, she found the strength to smile. " I never wanted my crown, Tur, only you. I love you." Her voice trailed to nothing more than a bare hiss as she died. He held her for a few moments longer, allowing himself to feel the first waves of grief and loss which surged through him.

His anger riled again, boiled up until his tears evaporated, until his hands shook against Insy's near cold skin and he had to bear down on the scream building in his throat.

Again, he eyed the sword planted above her head, a sign of respect among the Quort, granted to those who have performed spectacularly in battle. He hated it. Hated that she had fought hard enough to earn respect from an enemy who had still cut her down. He should have been with her.

Tur picked her up, cradling her body still wrapped in her enemy's cloak which had been gifted as her shroud, and re-entered into what remained of the city. People stopped clearing, sweeping, tidying and bowed to the body of the woman who should have been their queen. Tur walked through, and past, them all. He didn't care for their grief, his own took precedence.

The temple beneath the Grand Serra Palace was cold and dark, damp spreading from cracks in the stone ceiling. The altar was bare, the gold and silver artefacts having been stolen away by the soldiers. That was where he set her to rest.

"Why!" He screamed, blood burning, rage making his muscles ache to hit something. He threw a wild punch into solid stone, two of his knuckles cracking. That pain was nothing compared with the one inside him. "She gave everything for them! Everything! And what do you do? Watch from up there, not giving a shit that she prayed to you every day, honoured every law, preached to her people ensuring they kept faith. And now, now she's dead." He sank to his knees. "Where were you?"

The silence stretched. "Watching." Came the reply.

Tur'An reached for a dagger before even thinking about getting up from his position on the floor. He faced a woman, all at once old and young. Her pure silver hair fell dead straight to her shoulders, amber eyes watching his weapon warily. "Who are you?"

"Did you truly imagine I would not hear the voice of my blessed, my beloved. I am Wa'i, Tur'An, and I have heard you both."

The dagger fell to the floor, steel ringing against stone. Before him was the goddess to whom this temple was dedicated, the beginner of Wanna'Ah's royal line. Tur should have been on his knees in supplication but his anger kept them locked tight .

"Why have you come?" He could almost hear Insy telling him not to be antagonistic or disrespectful. Just don't be yourself, Tur. She wouldn't have been shocked to find the goddess standing in front of her. Insy would already be making demands for this woman to find a way to help her people.

"You loved her." She placed a hand on the altar, so close to Insy's own which had come free from the cloak.

"Everyone loves her." It was the truth. Insy had been devoted to her family, to her people, and they had respected and loved her for that.

"I am not asking about everyone."

"Yes. Yes, I love her."

"How much?"

He couldn't put into words how much he loved her. It had been consuming him for years, since they were little more than children. Only circumstance had kept them apart. Her sense of duty had kept him at arms length, stolen touches and kisses in alcoves and forgotten rooms were all he had to remind him that she felt the same way until she pulled him aside. Sat him down and told him of her plans to pass on her right to her father's throne if he dared to object to her choice of partner.

"It is impossible to describe." He stepped up and placed a hand on her hair. "She's all I've ever wanted."

"Is she all you will ever want?"

"Yes."

"There is a way to bring her back. A gift I can give to you though it will not be easy."

A way to get her back? He could be with her again? "I'll do it." No matter what.

"Are you certain?" He nodded. He'd never been more sure. Wa'i waved a glowing hand over Insy's body. She began to transform. Tur watched until she became too bright and he had to turn away, shutting out the glare with a hand across his face.

When he dared to look back, once the yellow spots had ceased to dance on his eyelids, Insy's body was gone. In its place was a basket full of eye sized diamonds. "Insy?"

"Her essence is now trapped within these gems. I will scatter them across the world. If you wish to have your beloved back, you must find all the gems and then return here." The goddess waved her still glowing palm over the basket. All but one diamond disappeared. "I give this to you so you may find all the others and bear a constant reminder of the promise you have made to restore your love."

"I'll die before I find them all." He despaired even as he accepted the final diamond.

"Until your quest is complete, you will not age. If you succeed, your mortal life will be restored to you so you might love the life you should have known."

She disappeared as fast as she had come, leaving Tur to process everything. One day, one day he would have her back. He almost didn't believe it. Only the solid warmth of the diamond in his hand made him truly believe her.

In three days, his quest would begin. Three days to help rebuild his people and then nothing would be able to keep him. He pocketed the diamond and left to help the others.