Cynem for Nael

[u]Forbidden Love[/u]

[p]He'd been born with a wandering spirit that needed more adventure than the occasional hunt to bring in meat for his village. When other men were content to slump under their furs and sleep at night, he'd be sitting beneath the stars, staring up to the sky in wonder.

[p]She was a lesser goddess often overlooked, with only a handful of worshippers old enough to remember when she'd saved the village by giving her blessing to a dried-up well. She had a soft spot in her heart for humans that her many sisters had warned her about.

[p]Their first meeting was by chance. He was enjoying the first true day of spring in a grove of ancient oaks, his admiring eyes picking out patterns of leaf and shadow. She'd climbed from the well to bask in the sun, plucking the occasional berry from a thick clump of bushes. (She never could get enough berries.) He saw a woman of terrible beauty, one that would surely turn the Queen herself green with envy. She started at his soft step but did not flee. There was a spark of kindness in his eyes that rooted her to the spot. Most men were hairy, ugly creatures little better than the shaggy beasts they relied on to till their fields. This shepherd's son was beardless, his skin smooth and pale despite a lifetime spent in the sun.

[p]The penalties for a mortal and immortal to associate were steep. They knew what would happen if their secret were ever exposed to the light of day...and the attention of the Great Gods.

[p]Love seldom listens to reason.

[p]For it was love that struck their unsuspecting hearts with all the force of a bolt from the Sun Lord's bow. Not infatuation or lust but a real soul-bond cemented in tender moments beside the eternal pool and sunsets shared on the side of a grassy hill.

[p]She realized the danger the moment life was kindled. She cast a magical sleep over her lover, taking him into the deepest reaches of the underground realms, desperate to avoid all curious eyes and ears. She whispered the truth directly into his ear, her voice half joyous and half sobbing.

[p]"My Heart, rejoice...and despair. I carry your children."

[p]He took her into his arms. "There is a place, treasure of my soul. You must disguise yourself. The people there hate and fear the gods in all their forms but they are a reserved lot. We can pass as pilgrims. Only those shunned by the gods make for this place."

[p]Sanctuary was indeed a last resort, filthy and ill-kept. She shuddered to even look upon it. They might as well be entering the gates of Heil.

[p]For nine moons they lived in blissful squalor. When her time came, she had no choice but to seek the light of the sun. A goddess cannot bring forth life in darkness.

[p]They knew they were doomed at the first sign of blood. A true god-born emerges in a burst of brilliant light. The blood was a token that these half-immortal children were the gift not of a deity, but of a mortal man.

[p]Retribution was fast in coming. She was taken to a weed-choked river filled with the salty flow of her own tears, allowed to taste ambrosia only once a year so that her powers would not be entirely lost. He was given a cursed gift, ambrosia tainted with cosmic dust. He would live out a seemingly immortal life while suffering all complaints of the flesh. The gods stuck him in a labor camp at the far end of the world to sweat and bleed in misery for the next thousand years.

[p]The twins born of their union were cursed. The boy was to be locked in a forever sleep, living only through the senses of the creatures that brought his wasted body nourishment. The girl was to be in constant pain, with a wasting sickness of decay attacking every system of her body. It would not overwhelm her to the point of death but would constantly threaten her with the loss of a limb or vital organ. Everything she lost would regrow...only to be afflicted again.

[p]Even the gods could not predict what would happen when these two discovered each other with the power of thought.

[p]Love is patient. Love is blind. Love is a conqueror more powerful than even the gods.

[p][u]Endless Dream[/u]

[p]The creatures of the forest were both his nursemaids and his eyes. Each one from the patient doe to the bristling she-wolf would come to him throughout the seasons, sharing their milk in the days past the weaning of their own young. He took his nourishment by reflex, never opening his eyes or tasting what passed over his tongue.

[p]He had only the vaguest awareness of the body into which he'd been born. His dream-self could look down on that sorry shell but he preferred to cast his mind far beyond the boundaries of the cave that was his prison.

[p]He could soar on the wings of the eagle, feel the racing heart of the wolf on the hunt and slither through the mud of the riverbank alongside the hungry trout. He got tantalizing tastes of a world he would never see or hear or feel.

[p]Yet he was not alone. Not really.

[p]His awareness of his twin sister Rafyelle started when he was only three. He could not reach her - not yet - but he rode along as she got into trouble with the sisters who raised her and learned the proper hold on a blade and won her first tournament. He ached to be a part of her life in more ways than a ghostly presence hovering at the edge of her thoughts. He longed to have her know him.

[p]For sixteen years, he used the crows in the towers and the rats in the scroll halls to acquire the knowledge of sages. A thief in the night, he had no concern for being caught or punished. If his host were caught, it was simple enough to find another.

[p]He learned the makings of the mind and how to project his thoughts. Astral projections - using cosmic energy to portray what he was thinking in the mind of another - became a sort of specialty.

[p]Then came the day at last when he had the presence of mind to not only listen and observe, but to speak mind-to-mind.

[p][i]Rafyelle? Can you hear me?[/i]

[p]He could sense her hesitance. Her reply was wary.

[p][i]Yes...I hear you. Who are you? How do you know my name?"[/i]

[p][i]We shared a life once...within the safe harbor of our mother's womb. You were restless even then.[/i]

[p][i]My mother died in childbirth. I have no brother.[/i]

[p][i]They told you lies for your own protection. I am your brother. Deep in your heart, you know I speak true.[/i]

[p]His name came from her mind, a question and an admittance. [i]Cynem?[/i]

[p][i]Dear sister.[/i]

[p]He projected the truth of their past, the circumstances of their birth and his own sorry state, stuck in a remote cave and cursed with eternal sleep. He sensed the hatred starting to simmer in her breast and did nothing to discourage it.

[p][i]One day, brother...one day they will pay for cursing our very existence.[/i]

[p]He watched her progress every day from barely-known warrior maiden to Queen Thayala's own champion. He took great pride in her prowess and was thrilled when she took a strong interest into researching the ancient texts that told more than any living mortal knew about the gods. He was with her every step of the way, combining his knowledge with hers and helping her out with those translations she could not understand.

[p]Their excitement was entwined when she found the scroll with the answers they sought. It was a map that would lead straight to the gods.

[p]Or to their mutual destruction.

[p][u]Mires of Miazar[/u]

[p]The creatures of the mires were not the usual sort he was accustomed to greeting. Slithering snakes and irascible toads and slow-moving crocodiles that resented any sort of suggestion that they move away from food rather than toward it.

[p]Worse still were the seaweed wraiths, creatures of plant, bone and feral magic that sought warm-blooded victims to drag down to the depths.

[p]Cynem projected flashes of light and color that imitated the natural lapping of water on stone, confusing the sightless creatures and giving Rafyelle those precious few seconds in which to make a kill. Every step she took was guided by his light arrows that kept her from stepping into quicksand or landing herself in a nest of vipers.

[p]He could only watch as she faced the final foe. The hum coming from the Golden Ring of the Dusk Goddess was like a shot of mead to the brain. He both longed to be near the artifact and feared it dreadfully.

[p][u]Forest of the Pillar Stones[/u]

[p]He almost felt he could have dwelt forever among the monoliths of the ancient Forest of the Pillar Stones. So much knowledge contained in the complex jumble of symbols that swirled on the faces of each jutting stone finger.

[p]The ring Rafyelle wore around her neck acted as a guide from one marker to the next but it was Cynem who could decipher what the stones wanted her to do. Cynem chuckled to himself over the complex riddles, many of them leading to wicked traps that made a lifetime in an enchanted cave seem hardly like a curse at all.

[p]He could sense Rafyelle's relief when the forest came to an end but he himself felt a pang of regret at leaving the place behind. Perhaps someday, when he was free of his curse, he'd be able to return.

[p][u]The Indigo Desert[/u]

[p]He felt less than useless as his sister faced off against those metal monsters given cursed lives by the gods. He could not swing a blade or read the movements of a cunning enemy. His great mind could only hinder Rafyelle if he spoke up at the wrong moment and got her killed.

[p]He felt her despair in that moment when she faced the two greatest of the creatures, steps away from the gate that was her goal.

[p]He gave her the thoughts that to him had been mere dreams. Herself, whole of body and fair of face, dancing a warrior's dance in a golden gown woven from moonlight. Him, walking the streets of the world's great cities and lecturing fascinated students on the habits of the animals that had once kept him alive. Both of them together, embraced by the parents who had clung to their budding lives rather than casting them away to continue a forbidden love.

[p]She raised her sword arm...

[p]...and drove it into the heart of the Lighted Gate.

[p][u]The Fog City[/u]

[p]He was a guttering candle flame, not long for the world.

[p]He had known the danger of giving so much of himself. He'd done it anyways, out of love for his sister.

[p]He could only watch in horror as the gods and goddesses on their onyx throne sneered down at his amazing sister who had come so far only to be frustrated in this final challenge. She also had nothing left to give.

[p]Her body failed at last but with the last grain of his strength, he could feel her mind resisting the inevitable. He didn't care if the effort killed him. He gave her the broken bits of himself, fortifying her in any way he could.

[p]It was then that they both felt the stirring of the First God and First Goddess.

[p][u]Awakening[/u]

[p]He observed his sister's conversation with the First Beings as if he had become his sister and stood in her place.

[p]They had slept in peace for several million years, letting the events of history unfold as they would.

[p]It was for their children and the creations of their children to determine the direction of the world.

[p]The sight of those children so abusing a life made in the depths of love had touched those two stone hearts at last.

[p]Liquid heat fortified Rafyelle's bones and knit the rotten flesh, making it whole and flawless.

[p]One by one she pierced the breasts of the gods and goddesses who could only look on in stunned horror.

[p]When the deed was done, she fell to the ground and wept.

[p][i]They will be reborn, my Child. See how the corruption seeps from the thrones of my children, leaving them once again clean as new-fallen snow?"

[p]Rafyelle looked up at the First Goddess' words. It was true. The onyx thrones were turned purest white and on the center of each sat a babe, tiny and wide-eyed.

[p]The First God sighed. [i]It will take them time to re-learn their duties but it must be so, every millenia or so. The mortal realms will be in chaos...but this also is right. Stagnancy is worse than death. The dead are reborn. The stagnant only pretend to live.[/i]

[p]Rafyelle felt a gentle touch on her brow - the kiss of a Goddess.

[p][i]Your brother has also been cured, as reward for your efforts. Return to the world of mortality, Child. Know that you have the blessing of all the gods for what you have done.[/i]

[p][center]*****[/center]

[p]Cool stone was beneath his cheek. The sound of birdsong was in his ears. He knew a herd of deer were grazing fifty feet from the entrance of the cave. He knew it had rained recently and the gentle drip of water came from the ivy that half-concealed the cave's entrance.

[p]He came to his feet, weeping for the share joy of [i]feeling[/i].

[p]He could sense her approach.

[p]Rafyelle fell to her knees beside him, cradling his head against her breast. He was overcome by the joy of the moment and wept shamelessly.

[p]Soon he would venture out and see all the lands, gaining knowledge from each and introducing the people of his native land to creatures they had never imagined. Soon he would become the world's best-known sage, the man who solved the greatest mysteries of the Forest of the Pillar Stones. He would watch his nieces become warriors to outshine their mother and take on his nephew as an apprentice capable of deeds as great as his own.

[p]Not yet.

[p]There was one further secret the First Goddess had seen fit for Rafyelle to possess. She bent down to whisper it in Cynem's ear.

[p][center]*****[/center]

[p]The River Xyathian was unfit even for saltwater creatures to drink. Its greasy current was often cursed with further gifts of refuse from powder makers and slop pails from a nearby sick house.

[p]Only one small curve was really fit to drink. It was said to be a spot of blessing. Sometimes a dying mortal would seek that tiny spring rather than perish amid the stink and noise of an overcrowded castle.

[p]Most died along the way but the few who made it to that little-known shrine were healed.

[p]Ariadne's once-fine teal gown was patched together with rotted strips of cloth. Her once-beautiful golden locks hung in limp strands. Despite her ill use, she still sang at dawn and dusk, praying some small blessing from the Sun God would descend. Her cries to her father fell on deaf ears.

[p]She darted into the quiet corner that was her home at the unfamiliar steps of two youths.

[p]Until, with a mother's instinct, she recognized the soft voices of her own children.

[p]Mingled joy and grief as tales were told and promises made. The Great God had given Rafyelle two tokens, one to be given to each of her parents. Simple wooden medallions worth more than a king's trove of gold. Pardons for a lesser goddess and her cursed mortal lover.

[p]She slipped the disc over her head and took the twins by the hands. They would go together to the opposite end of the world and retrieve her love.

[p][center]*****[/center]

[p]The gods had seen fit to deny him death but not to slow the aging process. His beard was more gray than brown and his hands pained him terribly at the end of every day. The overseers ranged from lazy as rocks to downright cruel. They were some sort of cross between ogre and goblin, their desire for treasure matched only by their creativity for new methods of punishment.

[p]Imagine his surprise on waking one morning to find all his captors turned to stone.

[p]He kept to his bunk at first, terrified this was some cruel trick of the gods, encouraging him to attempt an escape so his punishment could be increased.

[p]Hunger eventually won out over even his fear of pain. The overseers kept a well-stocked pantry. He could live a whole year on the salt pork and hardtack they had set aside.

[p]He'd slipped into an uneasy sleep when the sound of soft steps brought him to full alertness.

[p]Though it had been over twenty years, he would know her face anywhere.

[p]She held him to her while he wept. His children - the most beautiful sight he had ever seen - knelt on either side to be part of the embrace.

[p]He took the token Ariadne offered, slipping the cord over his neck. The carved faces glowed.

[p]Ariadne gasped. Around Hector and both children was the soft aura of a demigod.

[p]They could feel the smile of the First Goddess, like a gentle caress on their brows.

[p]Story by [user=Pureflower]