A ragged breath left me as my eyes fluttered open. Cool grass, damp to the touch, pressed flat beneath my hands as I stared up at the eternal blue above me.
I lay there a moment, letting the blades tickle between my fingers before I pushed myself up onto my elbows and took stock of myself. A sigh escaped me as I felt myself over; relief consumed me as I appeared uninjured, at least to my initial self-check-up.
My attention shifted back to the rolling green that stretched out as far as my eyes could see.
As my eyes drifted, I found a figure a couple of metres ahead of me. She was facing away from me, hunched over, her lilac hair sprawled, flowing unbound over her shoulders.
"Nimue?" I mouthed, my eyes narrowing in confusion. "Oh right, of course she'd be here; this is Avalon…"
An awkward laugh escaped me as, whilst brushing loose grass from my palms, I climbed to my feet.
I crossed the field towards her, stalks parting and springing back with each step, the hush of Avalon swallowing the sound of my footsteps until I was close enough to reach out and touch her shoulder.
"Nimue?" I called, my voice slicing through the calm as I tapped her shoulder.
Startled, she jumped out of her skin as a yelp escaped her. Nimue spun to face me, both of her hands pressed to her chest as she dragged in a breath.
"Lias!" she exhaled, looking up at me over her shoulder. "You could have warned me before creeping up like that."
"Sorry, sorry," I waved as I neared her.
She sniffled as she rubbed at her eyes. Her cheeks were damp and her nose a faint shade of pink where she'd clearly been scrubbing at it with her sleeve.
I stopped mid-step, my hand falling back to my side.
"Hey," I said, the teasing edge gone from my voice. "What's the matter? Are you okay?"
Her head snapped away as she snorted in a way one would have expected from an old man, not a girl… however old she was.
I lowered myself and sat at her side. My eyes never left her as her form retched with each breath she took.
"I'm fine," she muttered, wiping her nose again with the back of her wrist, the sound of it thoroughly undignified for someone who always presented herself so elegantly.
"You don't sound so."
"I said I'm fine, Lias." She hugged her knees tight to her chest. Her chin dropped to rest against them as she stared at her feet.
With a tired breath, I reached to my side and plucked a blade of green free. I spun it in my right hand, weaving it between my fingers.
"I've had one hell of a day," I said, my eyes dropping to my hands as I tied the lamina into a knot. "There was so much blood, Nimue, so much death, destruction…" I continued as I ripped another blade from the soil.
"I killed so many without so much as a second thought." My hands tensed, and I ripped the blade in two. "I heard voices or maybe a single voice, or… I don't know, but it- he- they-" A shallow breath left me. "It helped me kill so many mages, so many monsters… but it also helped me heal so many people hurt by them and…"
My hands found my face as I flopped backwards onto the soft green. I extended my right arm high towards Avalon's sky as my eyes narrowed at the same blue.
"I just, uhh I don't know…"
My arm fell back to the grass, the weight of it dragging my hand back down towards the green.
"I don't know what's going on anymore," I thought aloud, my words barely audible.
With a heavy breath, I turned to the side. Nimue's eyes met my own.
They were still stained red but were far steadier than when I first sat beside her.
"You don't have to know," she said quietly.
"I suppose…" I exhaled before hoisting myself upright. "Alright, your turn," I said. "What's actually wrong? And don't tell me you're fine, because you're clearly not fine."
She held my gaze for a moment, then let out a breath that seemed to take some of the tension in her shoulders with it.
"I'm sorry," she said softly, her eyes drifting back to the distant horizon.
"Nimue?" I shifted closer, our knees now touching.
"I can't feel you."
"What?" I sounded, my head tilting as though I were a dog.
"I can't feel you." She echoed, turning to face me.
"I don't know what that means…" I smiled as I scratched at my cheek. "But I'm here right now."
I reached for her hand and took it in my own. I placed it on my cheek, letting its faint warmth settle against me.
"And for the next however long Avalon permits me to stay, I will."
She huffed out a breath that almost sounded like a laugh.
Nimue's eyes drifted away from me as her hand fell, returning to its twin as they bundled around her knees.
My eyes followed her own towards the softening horizon. Blue bled red as the eternal garden's sun began to fall beyond the green.
"Huh," I said, "The sun's setting; I didn't know Avalon had a day-night cycle."
"It doesn't," she said surprisingly evenly for someone who'd just been crying.
I glanced sideways at her. The light caught the wet track still drying along her jaw.
"So why now?" I asked, gesturing to the ever-sinking star.
She didn't look at me. Her fingers curled into the grass, pulling up small clumps and letting them scatter loose from her palm.
"Because you're leaving."
"I'm not leaving," I said, frowning. "I'm sitting right here."
She shook her head, her lilac hair shaking with the movement. "Not yet." Nimue pivoted her body, turning to face me with her now glassy eyes. "But you will. Soon. And when you do, I won't be able to feel you anymore."
"What?" I sounded on reflex, sitting up straighter. "What do you mean, you won't be able to feel me? Could you always feel me? Why is returning back to, to… whatever my world's called different now?"
She took a moment, looking at her hands before settling back to sit on her heels.
"I've always been able to feel you even if just a little bit at times, even before you were born into that world."
She knew? Why didn't she-
"But now you feel so distant." She stretched a hand towards me before it fell back to her. "It's like you've always been in the same room as me, but now it feels a door has not just been slammed closed between us, but you're not even in the same building as me."
"I see…" I exhaled. "If you've always been able to feel- sense me, then what's changed… ohh… shit…"
My hands slapped against my forehead as I looked to the grass between us.
"That portal the ginger boy carrying Elijah ran through, Fuck where do you think it took me? Do you think I'm now in some other, other world?"
"I don't think that's the case, as Avalon is an extradimensional realm that shouldn't be affected by shifting between different realities. Otherwise you wouldn't share this connection with me, with Avalon, due to both of our souls originating from a parallel reality."
"Do you have any theories as to why then?" I prodded, crawling a stride towards her.
She shook her head as it snapped towards the indigo sky that crowned Avalon's twilight.
"Nimue?"
"I don't…" she said, still facing the sky. "Only a feeling. And feelings aren't proof of anything."
"Since when has that stopped you?" I offered a half-smile, hoping to coax one out of her in return.
It didn't work. Her jaw tightened, the muscle along it flexing before her head dropped back down to look at me.
"It's wrong, Lias." Her voice had lost the steadiness from before, cracking as she said my name. "Wherever it is you're going, whatever's pulling you there, it doesn't feel like anywhere I've seen or felt or experienced or, or, or anything! It's just wrong!"
"Okay, okay," I smiled, trying to calm her down. "Whatever's waiting on the other side of that door for me, I'll face it, so don't go burdening yourself for my sake."
Her head snapped back to me.
"But-"
"No buts, ifs or maybes." I cut her off as I continued. "You may be older than me, but that doesn't make you wholly responsible for my actions. I chose to go through that portal; I chose to go after Elijah as I would for you or any other member of my family. Do you trust me?"
"Of course I do, Lias, but I can't feel you, so you won't be able to feel me. For the first time in nearly a decade, you won't have me; you won't have Avalon. Neither of us will be there to help you, to talk with you, to fight with you."
I won't have Avalon?
Nimue was one thing, but Avalon? My power, My Magic, everything I had spent my life practising…
My breathing grew ragged as a smile crept onto my lips.
"I know… Isn't it exciting?" I smiled.
"What?" She sounded, her eyes narrowing as though I had insulted her.
"I'm not excited about not being able to talk with you, but what will I be like without Avalon's constant crutch? How will my mana develop without its interference? Will I be like my brother and gain access to all four elements? Maybe I'll be like Ellie and be able to manipulate pure mana."
She smiled at me before stifling a laugh.
"What's so funny?" I asked, tilting my head.
"Nothing, Lias… I'm just glad you're not scared."
"I am…" I admitted. "If you can't reach me, then how will anyone else?"
She smiled a solemn smile at me as she took both my hands in her own.
"Even if I'm not there with you in person, you'll never be alone. I have been with you since before you were born, and I will be until the day you die." She said, smiling softly the entire way through.
"Nimue-"
Her grip tightened, nails pressing small crescents into my skin. "All I ask is that you stay safe and grow strong, so strong that you make me and Avalon look weak!"
My mouth twitched into a half-baked smile as my head slumped. "I promise-"
The remainder of the sun sank beneath the horizon, bathing Avalon in dark as its first night began. Once tall and proud wildflowers began to wilt, growing darker in colour as their heads grew heavy and shattered.
"Grow strong," she said, her fingers tensing around my own.
"I will, I promise, I will."
"Good, I wish you luck then, Elias," Her hands slipped through my own as she faded beyond me, and I was left sitting alone in the dark. A smile tugged at my lips as Avalon, too, let go of me.
---
Pt Pt Pt Pt Pt
"Uhh," I groaned as I swiped at the falling raindrops.
Pt Pt Pt Pt Pt
My eyes flickered open, guided to the grey of the clouds that stretched eternal in the high sky above the dark trees that flanked either side of me. My back sank deeper into wet earth as I let myself go still, listening to the rain hiss through leaves.
I curled onto my side, arms wrapping tight around myself.
"I'm cold."
Hello everyone, Rius here 😊
Sorry for not writing a post for a while, but I thought it best to do one now, as this chapter marks the end of Book 1.
I'd like to thank you all for reading Fated Heirs up to this point, but I would like to begin by apologising for the upload slots I have missed over the past few months. (I had planned to release this chapter 3 weeks ago lol)
I could make excuses for my tardiness, and I will.
I do chalk this up to a number of factors, but the most prominent being burnout. I do attribute it as the primary cause due to constantly writing for both Uni and for Fated Heirs almost daily since November.
So because of this, I will be taking a 6-week, 2-month break, or at least until I start back at Uni again, to relax, plan and write without a deadline constantly looming over me.
I want to write at least half of Book 2 over this break so I can enjoy a nice upload buffer as I move into my third and final year.
Please feel free to leave a review if you have, or haven't, enjoyed up to this point in the story, as I kind of want to have a rating out of 5 shown for the story. It doesn't need to be anything fancy, but I'd appreciate it nonetheless; praise me, criticise me, both are welcome.
Oh, I plan to start playing Limbus Company soon, so if anyone has any advice, I'd more than welcome it. I'd also take any other game recommendations for me to play.
If you have any questions for me about myself, Fated Heirs or anything else, don't feel shy to ask!
Thank you all for reading!
Rius Out.