18 A Heart that Longs for the past

"You are lighter."

"Are you surprised?"

"No."

Striding across a bridge of narrowing light Koel held Lyrea gently in his arms.

"Does it hurt?"

"It is not that kind of pain."

"I am sorry."

"Is it normal for demise to apologize to perfection?"

"It is not demise apologizing."

Using her remaining arm Lyrea stroked her palm across the cheek of Koel's face, "It is not only me who is lighter."

"Perhaps."

"What world do we visit next?"

"Where do you wish me to take you my dear?"

Closing her eyes Lyrea smiled and looked into the memory of what she had seen with Koel rather than the past that she had no need to see.

Oceanic worlds of storms that battered and frenzied incessantly, planes of existences where life was bartered and traded as forms shifted and switched bodies to live as another, as life could not be made anew. Ground that shrunk and pulsed like giant heartbeats, spreading itself out and drowning all others into silence.

Lyrea had seen so many things in all the worlds they traveled, watching as Koel delivered demise and left perfection in his wake but throughout all of that there was one place she wanted to go but knew would never happen.

"I would wish to visit the past, to know you before you were marked so."

Never pausing his steps, Koel walked on as he held Lyrea in his arms, cradling her, "then it will be so."

"Close your eyes and I will guide you back, go and journey as you wish whilst I walk, this particular path is a long one."

Closing her eyes Lyrea felt herself gently bob in Koel's arms as he guided her to sleep and sent her back, back to a time that even she could not see.

…

A gentle breeze swirled and tickled past the tip of Lyrea's nose, causing her to rouse and instinctively raise a hand, to brush away the fleeting feeling. Feeling the cool touch of her own skin Lyrea opened her eyes to see a hand whole and complete once again.

Sitting up Lyrea saw that it wasn't just her hands but her whole body that was whole again.

A temporary gift.

From above an easy sun let out its small rays of light that gently glistened and shone around Lyrea as she lay in a bed of grass, surrounded by a small creak of water that slowly rippled over soft rock and lapped at loose soil that guided it along.

It was a glade overrunning with peacefulness.

Leaning over her a smiling face interrupted Lyrea's stray thoughts as a shadow blocked out the sun from above.

"Hello."

A bright wide and innocent smile of a much younger Asmonon filled Lyrea's view.

With a proffered hand Asmonon gently guided Lyrea to her feet, giving her a confident and innocent gaze as he did so.

"My lady, you are perfection itself if I have ever seen it," dusting a stray piece of grass from Lyrea's side Asmonon continued his words as he circled around Lyrea slowly, "how is it you have come to be. I have studied the lands around here many times to see what secrets they hide but never have I seen someone so pure."

"It was gifted to me, by someone I hold dear."

Scratching his nose Asmonon pushed up his glasses as he pulled out a tiny leather bound book and started scrawling with his pen.

"To gift perfection. How can you give something that is inanimate and without substance which changes with each person's view?" Whipping his head up from the small book Asmonon fired an assortment of questions towards Lyrea as his love for learning overtook his tongue.

"Can I meet this fellow of yours? Does he live around here? Do you live here - no you cannot so he must not otherwise I would have long since studied you both, how perplexing that you show up here in such a secluded spot as well."

"I wish to ask you a question."

Pulled back from his mind Asmonon was pleasantly surprised, usually it was him that offered questions to others.

"Please do. It would be quite nice to be questioned for a change."

Peering down at this younger and slightly shorter figure than herself Lyrea found herself smiling.

"What comforts you the most out of all that you know?"

"Comfort… comfort, what kind of comfort are we talking of?"

"One that can help ease all sorrows."

Flicking through his small book Asmonon lost some of his cheery disposition as he settled on a page at the start of his book, one that he gently thumbed with care and tenderness.

"I don't know who you ask this for, but this is a song my mother used to sing to me before she passed. This is what comforts me more than any else."

"Can you teach me?"

"But I cannot sing."

Smiling Lyrea drew the young Asmonon into her embrace as she sat upon the ground once more, "no but it is the heart that sings, not the voice."

"You have a strange way of working your words."

"Blame the one who I follow."

Accompanied by the sounds of gently lapping water and the swaying of grass Lyrea held a small leather book as Asmonon gently hummed a little tune, a light airy tune that mellowed and flowed with the wind, one that gently guided Lyrea to sleep once more.

…

"If you wished for me to sing then you only had to ask."

"Then it wouldn't be the song it is."

Moving forward in Koel's arms once more Lyrea smiled as she looked up to the skeleton who refused to look down.

"Are you embarrassed?"

Jostled a little bit in Koel's grasp Lyrea felt a skeletal finger prod into her back causing her to jump a little with the coldness of it.

"I don't know what you mean."

With a smile Lyrea let Koel maintain his grasp on her as she gently sang a little song.

It was the least she could do for one such as Koel, for someone who had given so much and asked for so little.