Her King His Queen

Memory Lane

Liliana

    As I laid in the water darkness swallowed my conscious mind. I was thrown back in time in the depths of my memory. Suddenly I was jerked awake by a blinding light. I closed my eyes and opened them again looking around at my surroundings. I was in a crib in a bright white room. I could hear noises on other side of the door, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. Sunlight shined in from the windows as birds chirped at each other. Suddenly the calm curtains were blown open and something dark slithered inside coming up along side the crib. Looking at this thing in front of me all I could see was darkness and pure evil. I started crying because I didn't know what this thing wanted from me. I had never seen anything like it before in my life. Tendrils shot out covering my mouth as it hissed at me. More tendrils picked me up from the crib in which I was laying in. Swiftly the thing faded into the shadows taking me with it. We passed buildings that sparkled like jewelry. I stared in awe of everything I saw wondering just where this thing was taking me. Hours passed when the dark creature came to a halt in front of a tall mound of ground. He took me inside the ground where a small hole was. The farther we went down in the darkness the colder my little body got. My stomach began growling and as soon as it did I started crying and thrashing my arms around. The thing hissed at me again but that just made me cry even more. Finally the thing set me down on the ground in front of someone or something. I looked around franticly trying to figure out where I was or what was going on. The dark thing sank back into the background as someone gasped out. Looking for the sound I saw the most beautiful woman I had seen. She had beautiful white hair that hung down her back. Silver eyes locked with mine as she looked me over. She slowly crept over to me looking franticly around us. She snatched me up and cuddled me to her chest. Whispering ever so softly, "Oh my poor child what have they done to you? I am so sorry that you are here trapped with us.” She gently began to rock me back and forth. I started to cry again because my empty stomach. “Oh dear you must be starving. Hush little one.” The beautiful lady rocked me again as a bottle appeared in her hand. I ate the bottle with greed while listening to her hum a melody lulling me to sleep. A loud cackling screech woke me up from my slumber. The beautiful lady scooted closer to the wall and laid me down on the ground between two figures. “My child please listen you must stay quiet until it’s safe. If he finds you he will kill you and it’s not your time yet sweetheart.” She placed her fingers against her lips as the cackling grew louder. I scrunched my tiny body as close as I could between the figures trying to hide myself. The lady placed herself between us and the noise as if ready to attack whoever or whatever was coming our way. The figures around me started to slowly move pushing me further into themselves so no one could see me and so I couldn’t see anything either. I looked to the figure in front of me only to see violet eyes staring at me. From looking at the figure I could see it was a man. He looked as if he was in excruciating pain. His cheeks were sunken in to his face. His frame thin from not eating. His breathing was shallow and ragged. He slowly smiled at me then winced in pain as the cackling turned into a high pitched screech of anger. As if something from a different world stepped into ours, the darkness became darker and more sinister. The other figure quickly slide me under a cloak with holes in it that looked like it had be burned. Turning my little face to the other side I glimpsed at the figure. It was another man who had a beard as brown as dirt. Eyes of honey and a frame that looked like he had been built like a rock but was slowly growing thinner. Their clothes hung off of their frames as breathing became harder the closer the darkness came to us. 

"Where is the child my servant brought to me?" It hissed out as black smoke could be seen in the air. The lady stood a little taller and said defiantly, "The child is not yours Whiro! You can not claim her as yours just so that you can be freed. I will not let you!" With every word the lady spoke her voice got stronger as she stood taller. "Oh my dear Dione, you for one should know that I always get what I want. And I will have the child. She will be the one to free me from this hell hole that you and your disgusting friends trapped me in. Do not forget that just because my body is not here does not mean that I can't hurt you!" He pointed his black smoky finger at her and black tar shot out of it at her. She screamed in pain as she fell to the ground twisting and turning trying to get the goo off of her. Laughing the black figure looked on at his work with these departing words, " I will be back for the child and once I have her, she will free me from this hell and then nothing will stop me from killing all of you and ruling this realm!"  The darkness receded and the lady crawled the rest of the way over to us. The man hiding me removed his cloak and slowly held me out to the lady. "Dione hold the child she can help you heal. Just the little bit that I've held her I feel some of my strength back." The lady looked at me then her friends. "Aita is that true? Do you feel your strength returning to you as well?" Aita looked from her to me and just nodded his head. "We must get her as far away from here as we can. If Whiro gets his mangled hands on her, I fear our sacrifice will be for not." She looked at me with so much love and sympathy in her eyes that tears started falling down my cheeks. "Hush little one we will not hurt you. We have been trying to protect you since before you were born. Dione had a vision long ago of your arrival and the different paths of what could be. I am saddened that this is the path that unfolded.  Remember child, you will survive what is to come and when you do. Let the rage and anger fuel your wrath. Bring this evil to its knees as you destroy it. I gift to you the power of destruction. I hope that you do not forget us my child, but I feel that you will." Aita whispered to me as he kissed my forehead. Dione said, "My little one you are so beautiful already. When the time comes your eyes will turn silver as mine. When they do you will be able to see all the evil so that you can destroy it. I am sorry that I can not give you much more than that. I pray that we will see you again. And when that time comes I hope that you will forgive us for not being able to stop what is in the future." She looked just as sad as I felt. The other man with the honey eyes looked at me as he said, " Child I give you the ability to use the minerals of this realm as well as the other realms. Whatever you imagine will be at your fingertips." I looked at all three of them. Their eyes finally held a little bit of hope in them. I stretched my baby arm out and touched all of their faces and laughed when my hand tangled in the last mans beard. I closed my eyes for just a split second and the next thing I knew I was laying back in the water of the pond the gods and goddesses left me in. When I looked around I didn't expect to see Empusa there running to me in the water and screaming, "Where did the water take you? Who did you see?" I was so startled that my whole body went under the water. I flared around trying to get my bearings. I let out my breath while struggling trying to get to the surface. Water rushed into my mouth and nose I thrashed around more trying to surface but it felt as if an invisible force was holding me down. The light started to fade into darkness when just as suddenly it started to fade the light got brighter. Strong hands lifted me out of the water and hauled me to the shore. Coughing up water gasping for air that I had been denied for only a short amount of time felt like forever when I was able to breathe properly. Empusa's head popped out from behind me as she started firing questions at me again. 

"Where did the water take you! Who did you see? What did you hear? Answer me!"  The more she talked the more high pitched her voice became. When I looked at her she had tears streaming down her face which had gotten very pale since the last time I had seen her. "I laid in the water and closed my eyes like Rillifane and Aine told me to. The next thing I know I was laying in a crib in a white room. I don't know where I was to be honest but I was a baby. I could hear noises outside the room. I don't know what they were saying, then this black thing came in from the window. It hissed at me when I started crying. It covered my mouth and then it took me from the room. I remember seeing shining buildings and then this really tall mound of ground." Before I could finish my story her breath caught in her mouth as a strangled cry escaped her lips. "My child do not finish your story yet. I must get the other gods and goddesses back. If what I think happened then we all will need to hear what you have to say." Just as she finished all the other gods and goddesses showed up. Aine ran over, "What has happened my child?" Empusa looked at her and then said, "We must take her to the heavens so that her soul is protected until she wakes in her body. When we get there she will tell us what happened." Rillifane picked up my shaking wet body and walked into the light. I felt warmth fill up my soul with every second the light was on my skin. Rillifane sat me down as we walked into a beautiful garden. Flowers of every color lined the walkway as trees were placed so that only little bits could be seen through them. The sky was dark but sparkled with tiny little lights. The air tasted sweet and fresh to my nose and mouth as I breathed in. Following Rillifane I noticed that I was wearing a dress of multiple colors. My feet were in sandals that wrapped around my calves. We walked into a building that had no walls and the top was open so we could see the sky. In the middle of the building was a table in the shape of a circle but the ends were open and there was no middle but open space. Aine and Selene came up behind me putting their hands gently on my back, they guided me to a chair that was in the front so I could see of the gods and goddesses. As I sat down I noticed that there were 3 chairs that were left unattended with dust covering them. Hecate noticed where I was looking and placed her hand on my shoulder as she told me, "We leave those chairs there in remembrance  of our fallen brothers and sister. It was a very long time ago that we lost them." she wiped a tear from her eye and sat down in her chair. 

"Can anyone tell me about them?" I asked no one in particle. Bahamut looked briefly at the chairs and shook his head. "Now is not the time to go into tales my child. We need to talk about what we all felt from you and Empusa." Looking at her he raised his hand in a gesture of go ahead and explain. She looked at everyone then landed her eyes on me. "I had gone back to the pond to check on Liliana. When I got there she wasn't in the pond. It was as if she was transported somewhere. I tried searching for her and couldn't find her. I sat and waited for her to reappear. Then I felt them for only a brief minute but I felt Dione, Aita, and Moradin. As suddenly as I felt them they disappeared again. Liliana then reappeared in the water. I ran over to her asking where the water had taken her and who she had met. Liliana I think now is the time for you to tell us what happened to you. Please my child." I looked in her eyes and could see all the pain of loss and the hope she had as if begging me revile something to her that she couldn't see. I took a deep breathe and then began my story of what had happened to me. When I got to the part of the 3 figures who had protected me all the gods and goddesses gasped in shock looking from one to the other. Atargatis asked me with a shaking voice, "Liliana I need you to be honest with us. Did you hear any names for anyone in that cave? Think back carefully child please for all of our sakes." I looked her dead in her eyes as I answered her question. "Yes I heard four names. Dione, Aita, Moradin, and Whiro. I didn't get to see much since I had a cloak covering me but those are the names that I remember hearing. Why what does this mean? Who are they?" She looked at Empusa and Asmodeus, who had gone white leaning over their chairs visibly shaken up from what I had just told them. Rillifane stood up and began pacing in place. "Did we truly leave them there to suffer all these centuries at the hands of that monster? What the hell does that make us Aine? How could we have just left them there?" Aine wrapped her arms around him and soothingly told him and everyone else, "We did not know that they were still alive. We all saw them die by Whiro's hands. None of us knew that it was a distraction just to keep them there. We will find a way to get them back. This I promise you my love." She looked him in the eyes as she kissed him gently on the lips. That I did not see coming. Empusa stood up and held her hand up to the sky. "We will come and save all three of you! This I swear to you!" A red and black light shot out of her hand and went straight up into the sky. The other gods and goddesses did the same thing. For some reason I went and stood in the center of the room, when I looked up into the sky I saw 3 lights start to shine a little brighter. I held my hands up and prayed with everything in me. "Please be alive. I give you my strength to heal and be ok."  An iridescent light shot from my hands going straight to the 3 lights. Gasps sounded all around me as the lights got brighter just like the other lights in the sky. Finally I put my hands down and looked at everyone. "So, I'm going to go out on a limb as say that the three people I saw trapped in that cave are gods and a goddess who are being held captive by this Whiro guy." Hecate answered me, "Yes they are. And now we need to come up with a plan to save them." "Well I think that we may need to have you all leave this place and come back with me to wherever my body is. I fear we will need more help then what the ten of us here can do. As your the ones who have told me that I need to trust the people you all put in my path now." Rillifane stepped back from Aine, "She is right. We do not know how much longer they can hold on. I think it is time that we get all of our children back together and we all help Liliana to end this monster." With that he began to walk back to the archway we had come in from. Following behind him I let a small smile on my face. Finally I will be able to punish all those who have hurt me and anyone else as I have come to care deeply for the gods and goddesses. I headed back into the light hoping that when I came out of this I would be finally back in my real body and remember all that has happened.