Done Running

When the White Guard made their way up to the entrance of the Catacombs where Harmony and Fate kept Knight-General Adam Jenners company, they handed over A'Rann Adams into Jenners custody.

Jenners used a gateway to take his prisoner to Duststand Citadel to talk to Lord Drakkhar. He went willingly, but timidly; no chains nor wards were used. Before leaving, Jenners offered gates to the rest of the Guard, but none complied.

The White Guard came out, unharmed and smiling, Leif knew all too well that this business wasn't done with; he felt so deep inside him, his skin crawling like spiders were marching up and down his arms in the early afternoon. The Sun hadn't quite reached its peak in the sky when they emerged.. To his great fortune, the Guardsman in the black cloak with the sour temperament had been relieved. Lief made a mental note of the man whom he knew not the name and meant to issue him a belated apology.

"Where to now, boys?" Elle smiled.

"Are you in need of company, sister?" Korah asked softly, apparently trying to get in a better mood, Leif presumed.

Leif had mixed feelings about Korah's rapid return and no longer had the black cloaked man with him. He had seen the man walking off, his shift over and had jogged over to the man. Leif could've listened in on whatever brief conversation took place, but chose not to if for no other reason that he felt self-conscious that Korah went out of his way to speak to the man he had rebuked not that long ago.

"Not particularly..." she smiled, first at Lief and then Korah, each in turn. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do...." she lingered as she slinked away into the clear, pleasant afternoon.

"That leaves much, sis--" Korah began, but the rest of what he had meant to say never left his lips, Leif observed. In mock-surprise he looked to smiling at Lief beside him and nodded. They made their way towards Southcrest, to find a hill to sit on, as silly and old-fashioned as it was. Leif did not mind.

Lief remained mostly silent, which wasn't uncommon but this time it was because he knew he had to tell Korah about the Loop.

Less than an hour later, they had found a suitable hill in Southcrest in which to lounge the afternoon away. Korah conjured a bit of a light lunch--neither of them were very hungry, not after the painstaking effort they took in finding a hill that was just right. Lief had much to say and Korah was a very good listener.

"Did you know there are nineteen regions on Aenim?" Lief asked, smiling.

"That many--I know only Oasis, and the Hallowed Dunes." Korah replied.

"Thats one region love, I've seen five."

"That many?" Korah asked in elated surprise, but he could tell Leif had a heavy heart that afternoon, but bit his tongue. When Lief did not continue, Korah said,"you can tell me anything--and I mean that," he grabbed one of Lief's hands and held it his larger one. Their eyes met. "It's been bad, hasn't it?"

Lief's eyes welled up with hot tears he hadn't expected and made no effort to make them stop; they would come, and they would make the words easier, he honestly believed.

"Sure, dork," Lief smiled, the tears like prisms shining on his high-cheeked face. Korah wiped them way with one thumb and then placed on his lips and blew a kiss.

"I'm waiting..." Korah patiently stated, while he continued to hold to Lief closer and look into his azure eyes, reflective like looking-glasses and smiled in adoration.

"I have an affliction," Lief admitted. It was hard to start, and the Witch knew it would be, but it had to be done. He was nearly 27 years young and had been running for most of the past five years or more and could run no more. "It's called the Loop---or thats my name for it," he paused, licked his lips, drank some water and began again.

"The Loop was taken from something that I had read from the The Last Age. A Loop is a programming term in computer language that the AI--Artificial Intelligence--used before the Gods enacted the Stasis. The Stasis---"

"--Lasted nearly three centuries, yes, I know." Korah nodded and went silent again.

"The Stasis began nearly nine centuries ago; were reaching our new millennia, but that doesn't matter---well it does, but it's not what I needed to say to you, and you're not paying me much attention," Lief spoke quickly but quite clearly, sipping water from a chilled vial that Korah kept conjuring to keep the container full despite Leif's large, greedy gulps. It wasn't true of course, he had been listening while looking at him as though nothing else mattered but listening to Korah; he had simply wanted some kind of response, encouraging Korah to step in if he needed to.

"Five long years ago, when I was twenty-two," he began, no longer crying, his eyes dilated. Speaking the secrets he'd kept so long felt liberating. Korah listened intently and actively nodded and gestured. It was something Lief had come to love to see Korah do. "I lived in the Far West--or Far East...it doesn't really matter, not the geography. It seems an age ago now that its happened.

"In Sabhe, a great magical city there, five years ago....the city burned. I did not do it, I swear it on all that I stand for--"

"I believe you, and in you...." Korah trailed off, gently.

"That's very sweet, Korah, and I believe in you--in us--but you must hear what I have to say," he paused, sipped from the vial, swallowed, took a deep breathe and began again. "In Sabhe I was in love...it was with a woman...her name was Katara. We were young and foolish, of course. I still remember the look on her face when men in black robes from I don't know where came and tied her to a tree and burned her alive--," the tears returned, and again, Leif allowed the tears to be wiped away by Korah's large, masculine fingers.

"It was terrible indeed. The City burned and I thought they'd take me instead. I screamed for them to do so, but they would not. That was the first time I saw the face of a magician. Her name is--as far as I have been able to discover—Karrin D'Lan. It wouldn't be the last time to have an enormous, embarrassing breakdown, but it was only a year and a handful of weeks past that I discovered her name. And managed to clear the junk out of my head, mostly through meditation, to see her face again.

"I ran, of course....that's when the running began. Nearly a year past, I had moved to a region to the north of Archaea, a city called Phoenixshire. Like it's name-sake, it burned...there was no lover lost there but good friends, close friends....I can still smell the stink of the their flesh burning. Phoenixshire burned, and I ran yet again.

"Further east, above Azuae, is a city called Drawnsham. Not quite a year had passed--"

"It burned too," Korah interrupted, nodded, then fell silent again.

"Her name was Hannah Longshadow. She did not burn, at least I do not think so. At that point, an obvious pattern had begun to develop there and I left with minimal damage. The city burned as I traveled south for the first time, out of the mountains and into a valley called Nellay. It had no city, not really, but Amberlight was a sweet country town there. Life was pleasant. No lovers, not many friends...I left that town behind mostly undamaged. By then my theory was beginning to take frightening form--"

"And then?" Korah asked. Lief moved closer. The afternoon had begun to head west and the sky was painted in purples and pinks under the protection of Sysellis, the great-tree that protected Oasis.

"I came to Azuae not quite a year ago," Leif began, and paused a bit too long.

"That I've heard of," Korah grinned.

"Yes, love, I know---I'm nearly finished, I promise." Leif whispered and those words were like melodies to Korah's large, angular ears. And it had been so obvious. They kissed, a peck really, but intriguing all the same.

"I came to Azuae in early spring, when the temperature there is nearly perfect, but only weeks later the humidity drove those spring temperatures into nearly incalculable heights. I knew by then--or thought so at the time, rather--not to let anybody get too close. Not because I wasn't interested, you know I'm friendly enough most days, but because I couldn't stand to see anyone hurt. Do you understand?"

"Completely. It's one of many things I adore about you." Korah admitted and began listening again. Hours had passed since he began to tell Korah what exactly he had been holding for far too long. As the time passed the words kept coming and coming and Lief felt like he was weaving a spell, or chanting an incantation, and he was reaching the end of his tale--or the last five, long, years anyhow, and couldn't help but to smile. It felt magnificent.

"I found myself sitting under a tree nearly seven months ago, Korah. I was looking for an artifact I possess called the Philosophers Stone. It's a sort of enchanted looking-glass, but it has some kind of a soul all its own. I can't make it work. It was found below the Hallowed Dunes, and I had been searching astrally for it.

"Then you and Elle found me in the Hallowed Dunes, and you know what's happened since then." Lief finished and felt intense waves of anxiety flow through his body in unwelcome waves and he began to sweat in the cool evening air.

"It's okay; that's over now, Leif. You can't run from me--"

"---And never would Korah. I'm done with running, but it's all that I know how to do. I'm frightened, Love. Terrified. And terrific at the same time, if you can believe that.

"And have every right to be, I assure you. But I have many ideas, and only ask that you allow me to help you or you would have wasted your breath this entire afternoon."

Lief felt offended, but only for a moment; it wasn't real fear, of course. He simply didn't know what to do but trusted that Korah would protect him, as he would protect the mage should he come into danger. "What are these ideas?"

"I won't tell you, not tonight, Lief," Korah said.

Lief, unhurt and quite comfortable in the cool air under the tree could wait a few hours to hear what Korah's ideas were and made an oath to himself to listen as objectively as possible.

"The night is still young, Lief." Korah grinned and began to pack their belongings together.

"Is it, now?" Lief asked, smiling.

"It is, dear," Korah began, and helped Lief Starchaser to his feet. They were both stiff from many hours of lounging, so they stretched in silence and headed down the hill and into the central sector of Oasis--New Utopia--and walked in long, rested strides.