Now it was known why the Addl’laen bore no leaf for the girl, Shannon, for she was many leaves in one, leaves that existed but represented no living creature. Rather, the presence of the White Leaves had represented the Powers, residing upon the Great Tree as the charms that bound them away. Regrown after their shedding, the Great Tree still didn’t have a leaf for Shannon. Rather, Shannon had a leaf for herself. And now it was known what her fate would be.
Thus, Deh Leccend came to her bidding as she extended a dainty hand by which to be gently escorted away. The Black Leaf did not disappoint, and his little figure guided her own away from Addl’laen, leaving the Elvine to its ruin. They would pass, as Deh Leccend had once told, to the highest point upon the earth, to stand against the coming of the sword of the star, Micqael, where he would descend.
In hope, Shannon, Lady White Leaves, would seek to prevent the awakening of Enfaeri his coming would wreak, which in turn would spawn the freedom of the waters and open the sky and earth to the others.
Thus, they would find the Himalayan range and its mammoth, sky scraping peak, forever daunting to even the most-hardy and practiced of climbers. Great Everest they would climb with the easy of Deh Leccend’s many gifts.
Stepping free of Addl’laen in the Dimensional Veil of the Leaf’s Edge, they would arrive nigh instantaneously to await the coming of the final day as the world’s people and countless animal creatures knew it.
Chapter 22
The eternally twilit world was vanquished as they descended to the human realm, which swiftly swirled into sight like filmed windblown steam in rewind. The dark was scored by the whispers of the lighter world, and in only a moment, it all came together and solidified.
Swiftly as that, Shannon found herself staring out at the greatness of some of the most inhospitable, yet utterly majestic mountains on the face of the earth. Neither the cold nor the thinness of the air of the greatest elevation in the land, reached out to her senses until the Black Leaf let her descend from the fringe of the Veil of the Leaf’s Edge entirely.
They stepped down from the doorstep and into the world as humanity knew it, and a rush of wind let her skin bubble with goose-bumps. In a wash, the heat of her body was swept away, and the Black Leaf felt it in more than her touch. A gasp the thinness of the air pressure stole her breath away like a shock. She was in danger immediately, but Deh moved to bring her close, sweeping his cloak as well as his magic about her with his gentle arms. A shield, the Black Leaf would bring her up to acclimation slowly, but Shannon ignored him. She couldn’t drag her glittering new eyes from the grandeur of the beauty she surveyed.
The world was quiet, and the rushing of the wind so high aloft felt distant somehow. Standing so far removed from everything, it was as if the whole of the world’s many life-forms had already abandoned the great mother, fleeing the coming of the Power, Micqael, the starfire sword. It was to be the end of the world, and the permeating silence, marred only by the sad rage of the wind, left it all feeling as desolate as it should.
In this predawn twilight, it was as if time had died along with everything else, and Shannon felt so alone, despite the Black Leaf’s moves to warm and comfort her.
“Come, Milady White Leaves.” He spoke gently, feeling her sadness.
“You must rest and keep warm. The cold up here will kill you if you resist me. You must let me grant you breath, for the elevation will rob you of your air. The pressure change may kill you as well.” He assured her, but Shannon was disconnected. She was so distant. The isolation up here had brought it about immediately, and it took her some time to respond to him. She just stared, White Leaves blowing wildly with the clumps of her hair.
“Milady White Leaves, please.” Deh tried again, pleading delicately. “I know the sorrow you would suffer, but you must sit with me and keep safe. It would make me suffer as you do, to see you come to harm.” His concerned brows finally drew her eyes.
“Alright, Deh.” She answered, lowering herself with him, letting him wrap her up with himself in his warming, elementally resistant cloak and the power of his magic. But over all, she fixed on the heat of his body so close, wrapping her up, touching all about her in a protector’s embrace.
“There.” He said. “That’s better, isn’t it?”
But Shannon didn’t respond, left to staring out at the world and feeling the rightness of his arms about her. The mountains sprawled wide and away before her as if to challenge her right to any embrace in this abysmal end. Like teeth, the Himalayas gnashed at her sense of companionship and forced her back to the brink of desolation. It took her several more moments to smile softly, sadly.
“Yes, Deh. Thank you.” Her sadness could not be masked, but then again, she didn’t even try to quiet it.
“Thanks are not necessary, Milady.” He smiled softly in return.
“Even so, Deh. Thank you for being with me here.” She at last let herself hug onto him in return for the warmth he offered.
“I don’t want to be alone, Deh.” She admitted, sad features unreadable as she nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck, hiding down within the veil of his long black silken hair and letting him delight at the soft touches of the White Leaves upon his face.
“I know, milady.” He answered softly, but he was smiling in full, watching the blossom of her truth dance upon his features and before his eyes.
“So, thank you for being here.” She thanked him again, and he finally responded properly.
“You are most welcome, milady White Leaves.” Deh Leccend felt her sorrow and loneliness, yet he did not share it any longer. He’d become as she’d made him. He was a happy soul now. He knew emotions of love and joy and hope. The least he could do now was comfort her and help her hold her head high in the coming of the final day of all life as everyone knew it. She huddled in and hugged him closer for his strength and kindness.
“I don’t want to be the last one, Deh.” She sniffled, and he could feel her tears upon his skin. He knew exactly how she felt. He hadn’t wanted to be the last Black Leaf either. But, he was. There was no changing what was already done, thanks to her. Thus, he reasoned, he was not the last one. Not entirely. He had she the White Leaves, and she had him.
“I know, milady.” He responded gently again. “I reason Edelwizir, the Shadow hadn’t wanted to be the last of his kin. I reckon the Otherkin wouldn’t relish it any greater than he. Even I did not want to be the last Black Leaf.”
He said it certainly, letting her realize what she’d done by making him so. Shannon withdrew from his neck, moving to stare into his wet ashen gaze with the terrible realization settling down upon her shoulders.
“Oh, I am sorry, Deh!” She tried as her sorrow thickened, but he shushed her gently, smiling lightly in the face of dark times and her choices made.
“I know you are, milady, but you do not need to be.” His grin doubled.
“For I am not alone, and neither are you. I have you, my White Leaves. I have a purpose, and someone who cares about me enough to wish me wellness and who gives me nothing but hope and happiness and love. Someone who cares enough to want me to neither perish, or be the last.” He let his smile fade a bit.
“I have you, milady. Firea’csweise, the White Leaves. And you, have me. We are not truly alone, even if all of our kin are lain wasted in our failures to prevent this coming end.” He tried to smile brighter for her, but she merely sniffled and wiped at her tears.
“Even if we are not the same kin, nor people, milady, I would tell you that we as the last, shall never be alone with each other.” He glanced away, to the slow coming of dawn in the furthest reaches of the eastern horizon. It was but beginning to lighten in wake of his silence, and his black gaze found her once again for he could feel her need for him to speak. She was finding strength in him once again, and it was odd, for she was now the one who needed to be strong. She had to be, for everyone’s sake.
“I would not wish to be among many Black Leaves in wake of losing your presen
ce in my life.” He admitted, pulling her close again, but Shannon resisted lightly, needing to see his eyes as tears leaked from her own.
“You asked me once, what I would say if you asked me if you were beautiful, and I told you that you were. Such is the truth, milady. You are more gorgeous than the sun and all of Addl’laen’s twilight. Verily, the Great Tree herself pales before your ivory, my White Leaves.” He smirked.
“And though we may not be kin as closely as it feels, I would tell you that you have given me back my furies, only to take them away again and leave me with love. And now, I can only say that I love you, milady White Leaves, for all that you are and all that you’ve done. When the world falls away, I will still love you, even if we fail to put back the Powers with your foliage.”
Shannon was thoroughly in tears, moved more deeply than she had any right to be by his sensitive, well thought words. She felt his truth, and knew his love, and rejoiced within her sadness, sniffling back against her tears. She burrowed away in his neck again, hugging him close so as to have him never leave, taking in his scent and feel as though she might never have him stay forever more within her presence.
“And I love you too, Deh.” She answered him and all of his elaborately place words with nothing more than simplicity. It had once been a statement she found over-used by mankind, but now she felt she knew the truth of such a statement and all that it was worth. Deh Leccend hugged her back, cradling her up with his immunity to the obviously frigid, airless elements. Shannon merely cried on him for a time, but they were now tears of happiness, oddly wrought of the sorrow she felt coming in the end of time.
“I would have you dry your tears, milady White Leaves.” He said, gently rubbing the soft curve of her coiled back, like caring for a delicate child who’d injured herself with too much rough-housing. “For we still have hope and time before the power Micquael comes to earth. I would have you enjoy what beauty there is, while it exists, and be contented within it for so long as it has existed already.”
He sighed.
“If it is to be the end indeed, and we are destined to fail, then we may as well see and exist and experience what is while we can. If in the end, it turns out we are but helpless in the face of the end, then what we do with our time here before it comes, may also be without purpose or point, unless we chose to give it one.” And as he trickled off, Shannon the White Leaves knew he was right. He somehow knew exactly what to say. Even if they failed, then it was likely fate that had made it so. There was not much more that they could do, other than enjoy what was left of their time.
Suddenly, Shannon realized, she was enjoying what was left of time being in Deh Leccend’s great presence. There was no other way she could see which would leave her, even in death at the end of this all, as happy as she was with his sure feel and protection wrapped warmly about her. She bit back the last of her sniffles, feeling and hearing their solitude in the world.
“I am happiest now, with you, Deh.” She admitted, pulling back slightly to give him a certain look. “And if we are to fail, as our fate, I should tell you I am happy here with you. Whatever comes, I think I have found the meaning here within our last minutes in your touch, Deh.”
She smiled weakly, and he smiled back.
“I am glad for it.” He said, letting her nuzzle close again within his warmth, and he fell silent, as together they would rest there before the impending breaking of the world. Words did not need to be voiced, for everything was already felt. They would succeed, or they would fail, and that was all there was to it. But in either case, they had found happiness within one another’s hearts, spanning across the races, from the most extremely mortal, to the outright immortal since before the dawn of time. If only the rest of humanity could have seen them. If only the Elves could have felt what they felt in their unity. Racial barriers would have melted beneath the truth of what not only tolerance, but love and compassion for your fellows really meant.
They would remain bound together within Deh Leccend’s darkness, Shannon hiding while the Black Leaf stared eastward waiting for the rising of the coming dawn.
When at last it came, Deh Leccend stirred his throat, bringing up his voice, cutting away the feelings of solitude they shared as a pair.
“He is coming.” The Black Leaf announced in low tones, speaking on her ear with his chin tucked, but his dark eyes didn’t leave the horizon’s blinding sun until she stirred, lifting her White Leaved head and turning to face it. Her gaze found nothing there, and she looked up to him, drawing his eyes.
“How do you know, Deh?” She asked softly, almost afraid to find out.
“I can see him.” He answered, gaze flitting away from her pretty features to find the sun again. He did not squint against its glare, for he did not suffer the hindrances of the mortals.
“How long do we have?” Shannon the White Leaves had to ask, biting her lower lip in fearful anticipation. She regretted having asked, but still she had to know. There was nothing she could do to retract the question, and even with foresight she would have ended up asking at any rate.
“When the sun is highest, his alighting here will come.” Deh Leccend’s features were grim and hardened. Shannon was quiet for a time, breathless and flushed with the cold air upon her cheeks and lips.
“Can you describe him for me?” She then asked, deciding she had better know what he looks like when he comes, although she realized Micqaael likely wouldn’t be like anything she’d ever seen before. Certainly, mistaking him for anything else was unlikely, and he was probably going to be impossible to miss.
“Why?” The Black Leaf asked flatly. “It won’t make any difference what form he takes, milady White Leaves.” He made it a point to tell her what she already knew, as if testing whether she knew this for fact.
“Humor me, would you, Deh?” She said affectionately, pulling his cloak closer for warmth, and convincing him to just tell it. The sky was clear for as far as the eye could see, and the sun’s kiss was heated on her frame, but still, the moment and their location made it cold despite what warmth the pressing of Deh Leccend’s frame offered. She glanced away from his face, and she could already see the snows beginning to melt. She bit back her voice, for seeing this, she was afraid. Trying to be bold like Deh, Shannon failed. Her breath shuddered with the anticipation. Trying to shed her fear of what he could see was hopeless if she couldn’t picture it.
“Very well.” He answered with a smile. “I shall tell you of the Celestine sun-shard.”
“Thank you.” She said meekly.
“Micqael, the starfire sword, stands tall.” He fixed the sun with his gaze again. “His physical frame is lean, almost gaunt, but this is irrelevant to what he is and what strength his power possesses. He looks like part of the Elvine, but his eyes are those born of the sun.”
“What does that mean?” She asked, silver gaze dragging back his black eyes.
“They are flame and light.” He answered with a futile little sardonic smile.
“Upon his back sprouts six wings. Two, the smallest and lowest, are flame. Two, the uppermost are what your kin call angelic, glorious white and featherine. And two, the largest, are wrought of chords and rays of light, and unfurl to the length of great clouds and beyond.” He said, hesitating as he turned back to the sun, staring into its blinding rising as it climbed away from the horizon.
“His dome is wreathed in light and his hair is white and can veil a mountain.” Deh Leccend trailed off. That was about all that he needed to say, really, for it left her quiet. For a time, Shannon tried to envision the coming of the first Power, trying to see him as great and terrible, but she failed in silence. She continuously envisioned him as glorious, like an angel from the Bible.
“What else?” She asked, clinging to his slim arm for strengthening her resolve.
“He carries the sword.” Deh Leccend answered once more. “Its size and strength and make have no discernible look, for it is wrought of light and can take any form and any size o
r any power he wishes. He has no equal in that blade.”
He sounded frightened. Shannon could feel it in his voice. He feared to combat this titanic entity.
“And his mind?” She asked, amplifying the Black Leaf’s fears.
“He has no mercy, nor compassion. He is the greatest of the powers. He has no ambition, nor remorse, and does only things that grant him glee and the use of his inexhaustible, insatiable power. It is all that drives him.” He tried to answer plainly, but the fear was still there, hiding beneath his tough exterior.
“But it is not overcoming him that worries me.” He halted slowly, addressing what she could feel within him. Deh Leccend could already feel the heat of the rising day. In wake of Micqael’s coming, the sun’s intensity was already building. The world could feel the coming of the shard of starfire, and Shannon picked up on it soon enough, watching the snows melt more rapidly around them, and feeling warm without chill as she sat wrapped up within Deh Leccend.
E.L.F. - White Leaves Page 30