InkSkin

The Ancient Ones

Alsuha slipped out of LuSol's embrace as the suns' rays began to lighten the room. She quietly opened and closed the door of her bedroom and after a moment's deliberation she made her way to her brother's and As'a's room. She didn't know what to expect once she was able to speak to her brother alone. Her stomach cramped with nerves and fear.

She knocked lightly on her brother's door and let herself in quietly. Alsen and As'a stood in the middle of the room; they turned as one towards her. She grinned at them.

"What happened to your hands?" Alsen asked as soon as he noticed them.

"Do you like your room?" She asked pointedly ignoring her brother's question, she'd forgotten about the bandages LuSol had wrapped around her hands and knees.

"It is a lovely room," As'a said slowly.

"Als..."

"It connects to mine through that door," She rushed on, interrupting her brother. She pointed at a small plain wooden door on one side of the large room.

"I didn't come through there because Lu..." She shook her head.

"LuSol said he would have new beds brought in for you both and you will get new clothes, oh and the best part! You have your own baths! See!" She exclaimed as she rushed to the other side of the room and flung open another door.

"Alsuha!" Alsen shouted to be heard over Alsuha's rush of words.

"What?"

"Would you please stop?" Alsuha stopped, her nervous on edge. She came to a standstill before her brother, her hands clutched tightly in front of her body.

"As'a, will you please excuse us?" Alsuha watched as both men seemed to communicate without a word. As'a gave her a simple nod and with a gentle squeeze of her brother's hand, he quietly left them.

"I am sorry about Eyre. He should not have..." Alsuha began.

"You have a strange view of how things work in this world." Was her brother's response.

"I do not. You do not belong to him."

"And who do I belong to, your Prince?" There was humor in Alsen's voice, but Alsuha could see the question in his eyes.

"In the eyes of the Western world, yes, but in reality, you belong to yourself."

"I belong to myself?" Alsen scoffed lightly.

"Of course." Alsuha responded without hesitation.

"That is something I have not... believed in a long time. Perhaps living in the Palace has made your brain think oddly?" Alsuha watched as her brother cocked his head to the side. She couldn't tell if he was joking.

"You will see. LuSol is different. He will never..."

"Yes, I can see your little Prince is different," Alsen said rather thoughtfully.

"He is, but he is not mine." Alsuha stated with a laugh.

"He belongs to you completely and irrevocably," Alsen said cryptically. "I have searched for you." He continued before she could respond to his strange statement. Alsuha felt a twinge in her heart at her brother's softly spoken words.

"I forgot you," she admitted almost cruelly, but she meant the words more for herself than for her brother.

"You were newly Ink'd. You..."

"I chose to forget," Alsuha said angrily, "You were all ghosts. You made me weak."

"We all cope in different ways Alsuha." She shook her head from side to side mutely.

"Our brothers have searched for you." Alsen continued. Alsuha shook her head even harder.

"Father has as well. Mother..." Alsuha's head snapped up, her eyes large and haunted. Haku swirled out of her Ink and stood calmly by her side. She leaned heavily into him.

"Mother has searched for you. She continues to live because of you. She pushes on in hopes of one day seeing you again." Pain tore through Alsuha. A keening wail filled her ears. Memories flooded through her so quickly she felt like her very Ink flowed as heavy and thick as molasses.

"I let them go. I let you all go." Thick hot tears streamed down her cheeks as she looked up at her brother, but it was the love and acceptance there that made her heart break. She knew all she deserved was their hatred; all of the Ink'd deserved to hate her, but most especially her family.

She felt LuSol startle awake, his presence filling her mind, searching for whatever had caused her pain, but she shied away from his calming presence. How selfish she had been to accept any sort of kindness. She didn't deserve it. In her heart she knew that. She had chosen long ago, but it was her family, her people who had paid the ultimate price. She had known once why she had chosen as she had, but that too she had erased. She chose instead to remember the consequences. She had watched her people pay for them for two thousand years.

"Bani." The name undid her, but it was her brother's embrace that saved her, his words which doomed her.

"I understand. You had to live so that one day we could be free again." Alsen's words tore through her, breaking open the part of herself she had sealed away when she had made her choice to live. She had chosen life and in exchange she had rejected everything she had ever held dear. What she wouldn't give to be able to give it all back, to give her life for just one last moment with her family.

Whispers filled her. She was pulled away from her brother, the feel of his arms around her vanished and her eyesight went dark. Suddenly, a blinding light filled her and as she blinked the dark spots out of her eyes she noticed strange creatures cloaked in mists and shadows standing around her. Their voices whispered and soothed. Colors, so many bright colors, blinded her, colors she'd only ever seen reflected on her own skin.

The creatures smiled and suddenly Alsuha was buoyed up as first roots tangled themselves around her, cold and dark, yet comforting; and then water filled her mouth, her nose; sharp and crisp, and she thought she'd drown, but her body accepted the water as a part of itself; then came fire; it caressed her and she burned, hot and filled with love. They smiled as they each embraced her and accepted her.

Alsuha gazed at the three creatures surrounding her and her heart knew who they were. Her mind was flooded with memories of the first time she had met them and of the choices they had given her. She had agreed to walk the path all others had rejected. She had agreed to be Bani – both Destroyer and Creator. She had agreed to not only save her people, all of them, including the Air Tribe, but to be so much more than she had ever expected. For a moment, the weight of that decision bore down on her and she felt her chest tightening until her breaths were shorter and shorter. But, again, the Ancients soothed her and murmured intelligible words of comfort to her.

They set her before them and Alsuha gazed up at them questioningly as she recalled the last part of her Prophecy, but the three Ancient Ones simply gazed down at her with loving eyes.

Vaguely she saw a fourth figure, it stood floating, staring, slightly behind the first three. Its body was white and gossamer in appearance. Alsuha had to squint to make it out and despite its diaphanous appearance Alsuha thought there was an almost sadly broken air about it.

She wasn't surprised she had not noticed it before. The first three Ancients seemed so much more vibrant and alive in appearance than did this mysterious creature.

Alsuha was distracted from it as the other three Ancient Ones moved as one as they drew her into themselves, but as she filled them that ethereal creature smiled and whispered, "Come home Daughter."

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