|
|
(Color scheme changed for easier viewing)
Name: Magelet
Rating: PG to PG13, not sure yet.
Type: Romance, Drama.
Disclaimer: Nothing Atlantis is mine, however I do own Aura.
Summery: It's been a year since Milo and Kida have married. Much
has changed. Milo leaves, and a new secret is uncovered, and a
new character is introduced.
Milo stared at his new surroundings. He tucked some of his brown
hair out of his eyes and walked into the ever darkening tunnel.
His blue crystal glowed brighter and brighter, lighting his way.
He'd left Atlantis after she'd died. Love had come and gone, and
now he was doomed to live alone. He appointed someone new to
rule, telling her to take care of his daughter, and then took his
leave. It had only been a year, but nothing mattered to him
anymore.
"Kida…" he murmured, closing his eyes. A wet tear
slid down his pale cheek, leaving a wet river of pale cream where
there had been gray. He was completely covered in dust, sick with
hunger, and much thinner than when he'd started. His wife, his
first love, he'd never thought anything could hurt so much…
I fell hard onto the stone floor. My long blonde hair flew wildly
around me, my skin splattered with my own blood. I cried out and
grasped the dagger in my shoulder with my free hand. In my other
hand was a crystal, indenting in the skin and in some parts
drawing blood from the sharp edges.
My whole body cried out for water, food and rest, but still I
ran. My heart pumped in my chest like a heavy drum, and I was
forced to slow the sprint to a run, fear keeping me from stopping
completely. 'Keep moving!' My mind screamed. I had to protect the
crystal, it was all I had left of…
"Kida…" she whispered. Tears blinded me, and I
fell. I looked down at the crystal in my hand and felt more tears
well up.
It was a beautiful stone, glittering and casting rainbows on the
dark cavern walls. It was the one thing left of Kida, and I
wasn't going to let it die along with her. White light glowed all
around me, then everything went black…
Milo saw the light, and the crowd. They looked Atlantean, but
different. Their skin was white, instead of brown, but other than
that they were Atlantean. Around their necks glowed crystals,
similar to the blue one he wore, only white. He saw a girl glow
brighter than anything he'd ever seen, and then fall to the soft
mud at her feet.
Acting purely on instinct, he ran to her and lifted her into his
arms before the others could see what was happening. They, it
seems, were temporarily blinded. The girl was surprisingly light,
quite thin like she hadn't eaten anything in days. She had a deep
wound in her shoulder, the hilt of a dagger was sticking out, and
her creamy skin was splattered with silver blood.
'Wait a second, silver blood?' his mind questioned. He walked a
little ways, and then found a cave to rest in. He ripped his blue
tunic to bandage the girl's small shoulder, carefully pulling the
sharp blade from the torn flesh. She moaned painfully, but didn't
open her eyes.
Her hand was clasped in a fist, as if protecting something. He
didn't notice until he was done fixing up her shoulder.
Carefully, Milo opened her small hand and saw a shimmering
crystal. His eyes widened and stared, little rainbows glimmered
all around the cave, and the stone seemed to be the source of the
light. The girl's eyes opened, slowly at first, and then she
leaped away from him.
"Who are you?" she asked. Her English was abrupt, like
one who'd never spoken it before, yet there it was on her velvet
voice.
"Milo Thatch. What's your name?" he replied.
"Aura…I don't have two names, only one. What did you do
to my shoulder?" she asked.
Her eyes were blue, like Kida's had been. Her hair was blonde,
gold actually, like sunlight with moonlight swimming throughout
it. Her skin was like cream, soft and pale. Her skin tone was
darker than his, but at the same time she seemed to radiate
white.
I stared at the young man before me. He wasn't much of a young
man anymore. He looked about thirty-something. Thirty two or
three I suppose. I looked at Milo Thatch, two names…how odd.
I've never needed to know more than one. Something cold stung my
hand, and I looked down at the mysterious crystal. >Her<
crystal. Kida's stone would be safe, no matter what.
"Are you all right? You do not look very good." I
murmured, seeing Milo Thatch lean against the wall. I got up and
reached out to feel his forehead. My hand no sooner touched his
skin when I felt strange energy. My fingers felt the sweat in his
hair, and the heat from his flesh.
"I-I'm fine." He said. He >actually< backed away
from my touch, something that has >never< happened. I shook
my head at him, and pressed his shoulders to the cave walls. He
was much taller than I, skinny as a pole and his hair was brown
with blonde highlights to it
"Please, Milo Thatch, I need to take care of you." I
said.
He looked as though he was going to argue with me, but his sudden
loss of consciousness stopped him. I gathered the thin male into
my arms and tried to soothe this high fever, but with no water,
no food and no herbs I was pretty lost. Years of practicing under
the High Priestess came back to me. Yes, it's true, I'm a Mage.
My people were strong in the arts of natural manipulation, and
studying under the High Priestess Aphrodite made my heart swell
with pride.
We were not Atlantean, we had our own culture and our own ways,
and we called ourselves Mages. We are keepers of light, keepers
of darkness, and of course keepers of the elements. I closed my
eyes and clutched my crystal until my knuckles went white. I knew
light was glowing all around, and that my energy was going into
this man.
"W-what a-are you doing?" he asked sleepily. He was
fine now, his fever broken and his exhaustion gone. I smiled, and
leaned back against the rock wall. >He< was fine, but now I
had to sleep off the effects of a healing spell.
"You're fine now, Milo Thatch. Rest, for a while. I need to
sleep, if you're not here when I wake up, I'll understand."
I said. I shifted my weight into a more comfortable position, and
shut my eyes.
She was asleep within moments. Milo was surprised, he felt
renewed and strong again. The blue crystal at his neck felt warm
and new against his skin, and he knew it had something to do with
Aura. He watched her sleep and wondered who she was, and how
she'd gotten these powers.
Her long, soft hair framed her face making her appear ethereal,
while her white skin glimmered gold in the firelight. There was
only one torch, a stick really, shoved into the soft earth and
kept lit with some unknown power.
She was beautiful, even in his heartbroken state he could see
that, and it only deepened his pain. How could he do that to
Kida?! He touched the glowing stone around his neck, and laid
back against the rock wall. He didn't know anything about her,
yet something about her was…intriguing.
The girl slept for hours, and never once did she move unless it
was to intake breath. Her whole body seemed to be regenerating,
taking in light, earth, air, fire, and water as one. The
firelight dimmed down to a small ember, leaving Milo alone in the
darkness to think. His crystal glowed and illuminated the small
room, making everything bluish gray, and somehow bright and dim
at the same time.
The crystal itself dimmed as he dozed, though what was keeping
him there he didn't know. He shut his eyes and dreamed of being
with Kida again, of taking Crystal for walks through the gardens,
and of teaching his lovely wife how to read Atlantean. When he
woke, he had to blink back the tears that threatened to fall.
"A dream…" he whispered.
He didn't know how long he'd been sleeping, but looking around at
his surroundings he saw that things were moved. There was a small
bundle of food by his hand, a shawl draped around his thin
shoulders, and a clay pot with fresh water waiting for him. Aura
was leaning against the wall on the far side of the cavern,
holding the crystal with her head down.
The fire was smoldering again, illuminating her face. He could
see glistening rivers on her cheeks, silver tears dropping onto
the dank floor, and the crystal glimmering in the light. That
crystal was an ever-present force with her. She held onto it as
though it was the last thing she had left of some unknown past,
some undiscovered world that she'd had to leave behind.
Her clothes had changed. She had been wearing a black skirt with
a black tie top, much like Kida's outfit, but now she wore a
black tunic, purple leggings, and leather boots. Her hair was
freshly washed and combed, and tied in a thick braid down her
back.
"You're awake." She said, smiling. She used one of the
sleeves of her tunic to wipe her face, and then knelt in front of
him. "I have some friends on the outside of the colony who
gave me some fresh water and some food. There's a brook not far
from here if you wish to clean up, and I can shift you some new
cloths if you like."
"Just what exactly are you?" he demanded.
"My people were once Atlantean, prospering from the blue
light like all of the others. Then the Great Wave came. It all
but swallowed up our city, and those of us who were outside of
the blue light were left to drown. That was when a wonderful
thing happened. I'm not exactly sure what, but the light was so
bright, and the stars themselves wept for us. I think that's how
our crystals were formed, and that's how we came to be." she
said, slowly. "Our blood turned silver, and a white crystal
to guard us glowed like the stars that created them. Our skin and
hair changed and we became our own people, separate from the
Atlanteans, yet the same in heritage."
"So why'd you leave? And why were they chasing you?"
"Since her majesty died, all treaties between the Atlanteans
and the Mages have gone sour and there is a war brewing. Someone
wants to keep me from my mission. I'm to stop such a thing."
"How?"
"By finding the source of our power. I cannot reveal much of
my mission, so be content with knowing that."
"But why would Atlantis want to make war on the Mages?"
"I do not know." She replied, shaking her head. She
placed her crystal in a small, black pouch around her neck, and
leaned against the stone wall. She'd gotten up while she told her
story, pacing out of worry and fear. Now she looked at him.
"Milo Thatch…that name is familiar." Her eyes
widened and she stared at him. Here gaze was frightening to
behold because while her eyes were two seas of emotion, her face
betrayed nothing.
"What do you mean?" he demanded, crossing his arms. He
hadn't wanted to have to explain himself to the girl, but it
appeared that he was going to have to.
"Kida told me about you. You saved Atlantis." She said,
smiling.
I stared at him, eyes growing wide. He was the outsider who'd
saved Atlantis, who'd married Kida, and fathered Princess
Crystal. I poked him absently, failing to notice the blue tattoo
in the shape of a star on his shoulder. My empathic sense told me
that he was surprised, it doesn't usually flare up like that so
he must've been feeling strong emotions of surprise and fear. I
also picked up on overwhelming sadness at the mention of Kida.
This did not help my (already sour) mood.
"How do you know Kida?!" he demanded. I arched an
eyebrow at him, he'd been doing an awful lot of demanding lately
and I wasn't happy about it.
"She and I knew each other." he was startled. His
lovely brown eyes widened, and he stood up. The thin man began
pacing back and fourth, fear knitting his eyebrows together, and
loosing all of the color in his face. He looked afraid of me, of
Kida's memory, of everything having to do with us.
"How'd you know her?" he asked.
His expression was softer now, like he was talking to a child, or
someone who couldn't grasp the concept of death. 'Let him think
I'm stupid. When we go to the surface world, we'll see who's the
stupid one.' I thought, venomously.
"She and I were friends back when we were all one people.
She and I…we were closer than sisters right up until she
died." I did not tell him that she'd given me the crystal in
the pouch, or that I'd long ago shattered the crystal gift the
stars had cried for me. I didn't tell him that Kida and I met
frequently in the Tween World, where spirits come to visit the
living, or that she'd guided me to him.
Perhaps I should have, but I didn't. This man (who in my opinion
is still a boy in many ways) asked far to many questions. He
didn't know my people, yet I could see that he was already
passing judgment on them. I knew he'd be on the side of Atlantis,
because of Kida and Crystal, but that didn't mean that I had to
like it.
I pressed a hand against the walls, the cold rock startling me
back to reality. I blinked once, twice, no three times, and then
rubbed my forehead. I was forcing the gift up, and it was making
my head throb. I sensed that he was…well angry. The man with
the blue crystal looked at me, arched an eyebrow and shook his
head.
"What's wrong now?" I demanded.
"Nothing." he said. He shook his head again, as if
trying to clear his thoughts, and then sighed. "I guess we'd
better get going."
"Going?" I asked.
"You said you needed to get to the surface, right? I'm the
guy to take you." he said. I shook my head and sipped some
water from the clay pot. He extended a hand in my direction, and
I took it. Somewhere in the back of my mind I must have wanted to
take it, because I forced myself towards him and smiled slightly.
I noticed something. He wasn't wearing any shoes. When my fingers
laced with his, I felt the prickling sensation of some of the
material on my robe change into boots for him. His eyes widened
when I thrust the boots into his thin, well-muscled arms and
shrugged. The tunic had been calve-length, but now it was knee
length.
"I can manipulate my surroundings. That's how I healed
you." I said. I was wringing my hands, with a look of almost
fear. I'm not sure what I was afraid about, if it was he'd not
accept my gift, or be intimidated by my power…
I didn't tell him about my empathic sense, and I suppose it's
better that way. It only worked in extreme circumstances, usually
not at all, so I didn't even consider it a power. It was just
something I could do when I concentrated hard enough and when it
was intense enough. Something that gave me a headache, or rather
a migraine, and something I didn't like to do. (Though it was
something I found myself doing an awful lot with this guy.)
We walked in silence up the dark cavern, never once talking
unless it was about directions. I could feel Kida's presence
around us, it was in the crystal, in his crystal, in his heart,
and in my blood. We were of the same blood, yet mine was silver
and her's was crimson. I touched my wrist, where the gray veins
shimmered underneath my near transparent skin. It almost glowed
with the pewter liquid it held. It had always been like that, yet
it unnerved me.
A long time passed. We saw with the blue light of Milo's crystal,
the light was near gray, he looked tired and heartsick. I wanted
to breathe in his hurt and flush it out through a blast of magic.
I wanted to help him, free his heart so he could find happiness
with his daughter and the rest of Atlantis. I wanted to…but
I didn't. I couldn't.
My power didn't stem that far, and my heart couldn't take any
more sadness. I couldn't take anymore of this silence. The
silence was beginning to get loud and weigh down on my ears. I
wanted to stop it, make it go away. I hummed a song that Kida and
I had taught each other.
"That's pretty. Where'd you learn it?" he asked. I
doubt he was really interested in the song, but it >was<
conversation. His head was down, his glasses reflected the blue
light and hid his eyes, and his hair flopped down by his temples.
He really did have a nice profile…
"A friend of mine taught it to me." I murmured. He
looked at me from under his hair and arched an eyebrow.
"Kida?" he asked. I didn't respond, so he let it go. We
walked in silence until we came to a tunnel. "This is new…"
"You mean you didn't do this?" I asked.
"No. This was done with something very hot…" he
said. He touched the walls scorched from some unknown force, and
shook his head. "It's below the Atlantean capabilities, but
much more sophisticated than anything I've ever seen." I
shook my head and stomped forward.
"Well whatever it is, I'm not waiting for you to check it
out." I said.
Inside the cavern it was even darker than it had been outside.
The tunnel we'd been tromping through was more than a mile high
and half a mile wide. It had stalactites and dripping of small
streams and all sorts of things that I'd grown up seeing. I'd
lived in those caves, lived and loved and memorized each stone
and each trickle of water. Milo wasn't showing me anything new,
but he'd once lived on the surface.
Then again, so had I. I frequently went to the surface for things
like fresh water and food. My people had the short end of the
stick, we lived in onyx caves below the Heart of Atlantis. I led
the scavenging crew up to the surface. The only reason I was
letting Milo come with me was because Kida had told me to.
She'd told me that I needed him, that we were going to need each
other and that he would be my rock, as I was his. The idea that
this thin, slip of a boy, hardly old enough to read Atlantean
could be my rock… Why a rock, anyway? Why not something
pretty, like a gem, or a tree or a star or…something that
wasn't a rock.
I shut my eyes, feeling my way with my feet, and just absorbed
the things around me. The sound of breath being drawn, the feel
of the hard rock under my feet, the chill in the air, all of it
flowed through me as though something unknown were about to
happen. I suppose that's logical, though. I mean, who knows
what's >going< to happen…
They were silent. Milo's thoughts were occupied with things he
was ashamed to even dream of, and while his face seemed to grow
pinker by the moment, Aura seemed to grow whiter. He was thinking
about Aura, about how wonderful she was, and how beautiful, and
how much he wished he'd found her before he'd found Kida.
Every time there was so much as a whisper of Kida's memory he'd
feel tears in the back of his eyes, and he was ashamed. He was
ashamed because he was starting to like this girl, and to him
this couldn't be good. He'd thought he was going to spend the
rest of his life with Kida, not dreaming of a stubborn,
head-strong, willful, abrupt, and downright >stupid< blonde
girl.
It wasn't her words that showed him these qualities, but her
actions. The way she was ignorant to things concerning war, other
than the fact that she needed to stop it. The way she didn't seem
to care that much that Kida was dead, or that he was hurting. The
way she was even ignorant to the extent of her own powers, was
all far too much for him.
He was also angry with Kida. He'd told her everything there was
to know, he'd shared with her the deepest parts of his soul and
she'd not even told him about her closest friend. He was her
>husband< he should know these things! Maybe she'd known
this would happen, that he would begin to like Aura, and that was
why she'd not told him.
"Aura?" he murmured. He looked at her, seemingly
glowing in the dim light, and felt the flush rise up in his
cheeks again.
"Yes, Milo Thatch?" she replied.
"You said that…that the stars cried your people
crystals. Why don't you have one?"
The words left his lips before he could stop them. He'd not known
what to talk about, so he, stupidly, spoke the first thing that
entered his mind. It was true, her crystal wasn't white like the
others. The crystal was pink, glowing, glimmering and pink. She
stopped dead in her tracks, eyes widening and showing her
surprise. She played with a lock of her hair and then began
walking again.
"No reason." She replied. Milo looked at her again,
this time with raised eyebrows and a half-smile. She wasn't going
to tell him, but he wasn't angry about it. He'd been angry with
Kida for keeping secrets, yet he wasn't angry at Aura. She was
nothing >but< secrets, yet there was no anger in him for
her. "Look ahead, Milo Thatch! Light!"
It was true, there >was< light. Bright, yellow sunlight!
They'd reached the surface in record time! He'd been lost in
thought, not noticing the passage of time or the need for rest.
The Atlantean crystal had done that. He'd long ago forgotten
time, but not hunger or thirst. His throat was parched, his
stomach growling, and by the look on his companion's face she was
in similar condition.
"Are you hungry?" he asked.
"Not now, Milo Thatch. I have to get to the power
source." She murmured.
I went to the surface, almost flying as I ran. I could here Milo
Thatch try to catch up with me, but he wasn't built for running.
Even in Atlantis I knew he'd not exerted himself much, he was a
scholar, not a warrior. I burst through what felt like millions
of miles of water and crystal and then I burst through.
Light surrounded me, blinding me and making me smile. I felt it
wash over me like fluid or air, and then floated up to the sky.
'I've not flown in such a very long time.' I thought. The idea
that I was defying gravity didn't seem to bother me right then
and there. I mean, I was flying!
"Aurora!" cried out the sky.
"My lady!" called the moon.
"Your Majesty!" the sun whispered. I bowed to them all,
paying homage to my celestial makers, and smiled. The wind picked
up, blowing my hair in my eyes, making me smile all the brighter.
I held my crystal high above me, and as if on cue, it began to
glow. It floated over me for a moment before gold light wrapped
around it. It was as if the thing >knew< what I wanted and
was compensating. The gold light turned to gold metal, and it
suspended itself by a black cord.
I floated gracefully back down to the ground, directly in front
of Milo. I don't know why, but he looked prepared to catch me or
something. I opened my eyes, (I was almost positive that they
were glowing) and smiled.
"What are you looking at, Milo Thatch?" I asked. He
shrugged, and took my hand.
"We'd better get you someplace safe." He murmured. I
smiled again, and followed him into a cave. "When you broke
through the hole began closing, I had to sprint to keep up, and
very nearly got stuck down there." he was saying.
"Why?" I asked.
"I was hoping you could tell me."
They walked into a dark cave, being led by their crystals. It was
as though the crystals themselves knew where and what they were
doing. The pink stone shimmered, and cast rainbows onto the
cavern walls, while Milo's crystal cast blue shadows upon
everything. There had been no glowing or shadows or rainbows for
a while, though it wasn't unnatural for them to be doing so. The
light was getting hard to bear, for both the human and Mage eyes
alike.
"Where do we go now?" he asked. The blonde paused for a
long time, and then smiled.
"Well, we >have< to go back, we'll just have to find
another way to get there." She said. "I need to think
for a bit. I'll be in deep meditation for a while, so I suggest
you sleep now, Milo Thatch."
She sat down, back against the wall, and shut her eyes. Long,
black eyelashes curtained her large blue eyes, and a small smile
danced upon her red lips. Her eyelids were quaking, like she was
seeing things that no one else could.
I felt my body go numb, my whole body seemed heavy and
unnecessary. Blood, muscle, and even my very skin that held me
there seemed to be weighing me down. I floated easily away from
my body, up into the Tween World. Kida was waiting for me,
looking every bit as royal and beautiful as she'd been in life.
Her hair was down, moving in soft wonderful wind, and her gown
was blowing around her like a cloud. She extended a hand for me
to take, offering me the same serenity that she was saturated
with.
"Aurora, you look wonderful." She said. Her voice
seemed to have an echo, like the clouds and sky were magnifying
her voice for the universe to hear.
"As do you, Kidagakash." I replied.
End of Chapter One!
Comments for Magelet? Send them to her!
Back to Fanfics