Faith
"As I walk, I can hear him Always watching over me. His voice surrounds me, Spirit of the sea." —Blackmore's Night; Spirit of the Sea
He wasn't dreaming.
Rhy'Din was known for change; the realm standing in a state of eternal flux. Time and space danced, colliding and parting yet never stopping. Everything interacted with everything and there was no stopping it. This however, was something different.
Men could die and rise again at will.
Seasons came and went whenever they liked.
Time could run backwards and inwards, for all he knew yet none of that could change a few very real, very solid constants. Everything stayed the same when it changed. Renne couldn't let go of the few he loved.
And his faith in some were as constant as that.
He sat for a while out here on the beach and idly ran his fingers through his re-growing hair. Inside, he didn't know whether to smile, laugh, cry or just quietly weep. Oh, Renne had examined and reexamined his own head enough for the last two years but one more didn't hurt. Much. Someday, out of the blue
The constants of Rhy'Din and himself remained.
And Archie was as perfectly real.
Renne sat in the sun, then moved to another spot in a matter of minutes. The bare earth where a home and family once lived was a ghost of itself but he held on to those ghosts fiercely. Even if some were sinister and stood in the darker corners of his mind, others weren't at all frightening. Some ghosts were the friendly whisper, the echoing laugh or the playful ruffling of fingers in his hair.
Things fell into place after so long.
The dark-haired one was alive — returned probably by a Rhy'Din trick. Where he was, Renne didn't know and part of him wondered why he dared to ask himself that. Another voice inside whispered the reason why and he came to grips with it in the warming day. Maybe years from now, or tomorrow night
The golden-voiced one was still alive, still well and as strong as he had been remembered. He was a little softer now, mellowed perhaps. He'd begun to wear the mantle of age — not too terribly so, just enough to distinguish him a little. It fit him, in some eerie way.
Renne decided to let himself smile.
Archie hadn't changed much. Renne examined the event as he met Archie again for the first time in painfully, too long. He saved me once, long ago Memory flickered back to the morning, then the evening at the Red Dragon. Renne's almost-smile remained on his face as he thought back. He'd come in and run into a very common type in Rhy'Din; the typical bully. He hadn't expected much more than a self-sufficient evasion of the fool but he knew the pang of shock when he felt it. Heard it. It was, to him, like out of nowhere, the voice thundered.
And whimsically, Renne's mind compared it to the voice of a heroic warrior coming to save the day.
The evening had proven just as surprising, for the morning had shown Archie like the hero, rescuing, then riding off into some invisible sunset with the promise of a return. Ill turn and I'll find you
He did return.
Years ago, he didn't say goodbye.
Just a night ago, he returned.
And as Renne left the shoreline, he very gladly wept with joy.
"As I walk, I can hear him Always watching over me. His voice surrounds me, Spirit of the sea." —Blackmore's Night; Spirit of the Sea
He wasn't dreaming.
Rhy'Din was known for change; the realm standing in a state of eternal flux. Time and space danced, colliding and parting yet never stopping. Everything interacted with everything and there was no stopping it. This however, was something different.
Men could die and rise again at will.
Seasons came and went whenever they liked.
Time could run backwards and inwards, for all he knew yet none of that could change a few very real, very solid constants. Everything stayed the same when it changed. Renne couldn't let go of the few he loved.
And his faith in some were as constant as that.
He sat for a while out here on the beach and idly ran his fingers through his re-growing hair. Inside, he didn't know whether to smile, laugh, cry or just quietly weep. Oh, Renne had examined and reexamined his own head enough for the last two years but one more didn't hurt. Much. Someday, out of the blue
The constants of Rhy'Din and himself remained.
And Archie was as perfectly real.
Renne sat in the sun, then moved to another spot in a matter of minutes. The bare earth where a home and family once lived was a ghost of itself but he held on to those ghosts fiercely. Even if some were sinister and stood in the darker corners of his mind, others weren't at all frightening. Some ghosts were the friendly whisper, the echoing laugh or the playful ruffling of fingers in his hair.
Things fell into place after so long.
The dark-haired one was alive — returned probably by a Rhy'Din trick. Where he was, Renne didn't know and part of him wondered why he dared to ask himself that. Another voice inside whispered the reason why and he came to grips with it in the warming day. Maybe years from now, or tomorrow night
The golden-voiced one was still alive, still well and as strong as he had been remembered. He was a little softer now, mellowed perhaps. He'd begun to wear the mantle of age — not too terribly so, just enough to distinguish him a little. It fit him, in some eerie way.
Renne decided to let himself smile.
Archie hadn't changed much. Renne examined the event as he met Archie again for the first time in painfully, too long. He saved me once, long ago Memory flickered back to the morning, then the evening at the Red Dragon. Renne's almost-smile remained on his face as he thought back. He'd come in and run into a very common type in Rhy'Din; the typical bully. He hadn't expected much more than a self-sufficient evasion of the fool but he knew the pang of shock when he felt it. Heard it. It was, to him, like out of nowhere, the voice thundered.
And whimsically, Renne's mind compared it to the voice of a heroic warrior coming to save the day.
The evening had proven just as surprising, for the morning had shown Archie like the hero, rescuing, then riding off into some invisible sunset with the promise of a return. Ill turn and I'll find you
He did return.
Years ago, he didn't say goodbye.
Just a night ago, he returned.
And as Renne left the shoreline, he very gladly wept with joy.