Distinct sounds of following footsteps sliding along the gravel behind her, propelled another burst of speed from her legs. Below Talgira, from the mountains summit, dark grassy plains waved in the distance, and a fierce grind of determination set in her jaw. Whatever the destination she was close and yet—the Sanguine closed in on her quicker than before.
I could feel the call of Sheol already gripping the thundering of her heart despite the rising hope it carried, skipping a beat at the sight of a stone circle set in the middle of the long grassy plains ahead. Jumping more than fifty feet, she slid down the rest of the stoney terrain, entering the grasses of the circle with gasping breaths and an aching body, cuts and bruises healing quickly as she slowed to a stop.
The ground was lush with soft moss speckled with tiny white flowers, and in the center was an ash tree sapling, its leaves waving softly in greeting by our distressed entrance. Suddenly sluggish with denial that I could not comprehend, her feet dragged across the mossy grounds to the sapling. Its long knife-like leaflets opposing each other, grew outward and then nestled together to form a diamond shaped cradle meant for an infant. Curling upwards, the ash tree hummed, a soothing safe sound that beckoned for her to bring the babe forward.
Her armstightened. Holding the sweet faeling closer to her pounding heart for just one more second, one more moment for him to feel love.
"One marks the last beat of their heart as true death," Talgira whispered in my mind as we watched the faeling being laid within the cradle, the ash sapling covering the tiny bundle devotedly. "But that was not the case for me. My true death was the moment I laid little Ikelos within this circle, knowing that saving him would eventually cultivate the monster in my daughter, a monster that would fracture our world."
"Ikelos," I whispered back. I had never known Deirdre's son’s name. I knew she held bitterness within her heart at the loss of him but she had never spoken his name nor what he looked like…who his father was. I had always assumed it was too painful.
Talgira’s tears splattered on the long leaflets like the beginning of a great rainfall, reflected in the sorrow gripping her chest. A sorrow that I felt every painful inch of, the small scattered drops glowing like crystals under the bright moonbeam that suddenly descended upon the circle. Ikelos' face turned sleepily towards it, his beautiful innocence striking, just like my Riella.
Hastily Talgira started to mutter, an incantation that was foreign to my ears but laced heavily with the ancient fae language. Trembling hands pulled out from her pocket a polished peridot stone, the bright lime green color illuminating Ikelos' dark black curls. Woven around the glowing stone was a thick cord of leather and despite her shaking and the ritualistic murmurings whispering across her lips, she managed to tie it deftly around the babe's wrist, then secured one of the same onto her own.
"Vita et Mors." Life and Death.
Her words carried around the stone pillared circle, swirling, whispering, louder and louder—a bright flash and then the faeling disappeared, leaving behind an empty cradle of leaves.
Her anguish became my anguish.
The storm of Talgira’s tears opened up and her body collapsed to her knees, deep dark clouds rolled over the three moons cutting out all light as she heaved with the deep darkness of grief, fists digging and twisting into her stomach if only to feel something physical to the gutting agony within.
"Vita et Mors." The whisper was wrenched again from her lips and I stared through her tears as the ash sapling unwrapped its leaves,revealing another child, almost identical to little Ikelos but paler, a sickness wracking its body.
Rising she plucked the child from the ash tree, holding it just as dearly to her shattered heart.
"I am not proud of what I have done," Talgira confessed brokenly.
I stared at the sleeping child, a newfound horror filling the grief I was still choking on.
"You couldn't have…you didn't. A changeling enchantment! Jar said you were good, he said you were a kind generous fae."
"I was a mother! A grandmother!" Talgira cried back to me but I could hear her pain, the doubt of if she had done the right thing. "I searched the sight so many nights…too many nights to find another solution. Making Ikelos a changeling on Earth was the only way."
She smoothed back the child's curls before whispering to his soft pale cheek. "I am sorry little one. May the goddess guide you back to the light."
My own mind was sick, revolted by what I was seeing. “You sacrificed the human child instead, took him from his family.”
"He was terminal," she attempted to explain, "this day was the babe's death day, he died in my arms before the blood fae ever got to us. In turn, his parents, in the human world, experienced a true miracle, an answer to their prayers. Their son would seem to suddenly be cured and my little Ikelos would live to dream on with those who would cherish his life."
True to her word, the soft rattling breath of the sweet babe left its tiny mouth and my internal self wept for his soul as the memory of Talgira’s tired body stumbled from the circle, tears still streaming down our face, too tired to run, too stubborn to give up.
"What was his name?" I choked.
"Ezra," she whispered knowingly.
I reeled inside, wishing she would look back down at his pale face and dark curls, so that I could memorize his sweetness forever as was his due. His life helped save a future, and it would seem, made my daughter possible. "He was my name sake? But how?"
"Your father is more powerful than you give him credit for," Talgira said sadly. "He had already seen this poor soul’s fate well before you were born. When he met with your mother he told her that if he were to ever have a child, boy or girl, they would bear the name Ezra, in honor of a soul that changed the world. I think he knew even then…that this was the path you would be led to. That you would fight to honor the babe."
"He was right," I whispered, as she clutched the lifeless infant in her arms. "I will stop this cycle, once and for all."
Talgira screamed and I suddenly felt the horrid searing burn wrap around her ankle, a sickening hunger suctioning and pulling her downward into the tall grasses. Contorting, Talgira’s ankle snapped to prevent the crushing fall on the sweet lifeless babe, and she groaned as the pain flared up her leg.
Pain I experienced every moment along with her.
Then they were there, dark hair, deep burning red eyes, dark brown skin swathed in white and black, layered upon their body. The perfect camouflage for a frozen tundra but blatant upon the soft greens of the grasslands, even as the dark continued to blanket the valley.
