Andarin: The Mountains: Where secrets reveal themselves....

This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face.
The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown.:
The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout 'Save Us!'...:

...and I'll look down, and whisper, 'No'"
Nicodemus was not one for random mind intrusions. He had never used his ability of mind-reading upon those he knew did not want or expect it. The only time in his long life as a Scholar that he had ever used this power was in play or in knowing that the other expected it. He would never intrude on the personal feelings of others, because he believed that the mind was a sacred place. If you couldn’t be safe to think what you wanted without secrecy, what kind of world would this be? Nicodemus smiles at the thought. Unless it was really bad and the thoughts were malicious and evil there was no need to toy with the thoughts of others.

Andraste groans from his back, because these days it seemed that she grew more and more lethargic. Nicodemus knows why. He thinks of it often, and the other night….he had Dreamed of it. The man moves more slowly with the knowledge, not of how it would happen, but simply that it was happening. Right now. A slow, labored sigh escapes from his dry lips, and he leans heavily into a sudden burst of fire from his side.

But Nieve’s thoughts are flung upon him, and Knight doubted that she even noticed it. Thoughts sometimes did this to him, forced upon him by his ability to hear them they came to him in screams, and it was then that he really knew that they wanted him to hear them. He sighs once more, his face downcast with the burden of it all. “You never know how strong you are….“ He pauses, his eyes digging deeply into her own. “Until being strong is the only choice that you have.” Andraste groans in agony from his back. “Remember that, little one.”

His eyes pull from hers after a while, having heard her words and now looking thoughtfully into the sky. He opens and closes his mouth a few times before deciding upon the right way to tell her, the secret that had been given to him the other night in his Dreams. The secret that the Elementals had woven for him to make not so secret anymore. When he looks to her again there are tears welling in his eyes, because he sees them that he cherished so much in these years upon the Element. And he sees them writhing in pain…some devoured whole. Skylar and Formaldehyde, his beloved daughter and her beloved, Tristan and Decemburary, his newly found son and his too young grand-child. It was all so sudden, and the thought of losing them when things had just begun to get better….it broke him.

“Nieve…” Suddenly he is frantic, though unlike most others would in such a state he remained still, the only hint that this was hysteria in his shaking tone of voice. “You….they….don’t have much time.” His voice shakes even more. “Tell the other Gaurdians….tell them all. The Element isn’t long for this world…and the Keepers will be here soon.”

As soon as it had come, his hysteria was quelled, because now he knows his quote had need. Strong was the only choice that he had. “I won’t let you get hurt…” He sighs. “I won’t let anyone ….”

But his voice trails, because somehow he knows that he will fail once again. Somehow he knows that he couldn’t save them all….

KNIGHT
**NICODEMUS**

Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It's us. Only us.

FIRE III LIGHTNING III

Emissary of Andarin, Phoenixsong, Iriase, and Kaikua'ana

Picture and HTML Copyright to Romance 2009