Tale of Destiny II: Syanda
Could there be any happier place than snuggled in the arms of her man? He was strong, gentle, and deep in her heart, Syanda knew that he loved her, loved fiercely.
Jayson was human, well.. mostly; he was in part, a relative of the Sun King, though the Sidhe True did not recognize any lessening of the blood under one quarter as even being changeling. But the Folk of the Land Under did not have such easy condemnations, her people, especially House Stalitite, judged a person on their individual worth. And to Syanda, her Jayson was worth so much..
Jayson was also the Heir of Corilaine, and to top that.. if anything else could..he was a Prince of distant Amber. He was also hers... Oh Calliope make that be true! Make him be hers!
He had an exquisite of face for a man, and seemed to her and her sisters to be made of shades of white and yellow gold mixed together. She, and many of her people had never seen a suface 'man' before.. He was not pale like the Moon Sidhe or exceedingly fair like the High Sidhe, but seemed to absorb the sun or a glowglobes light, and hold it, as if tightly embracing it, and leaking it out slowly.
Hadn't she been good for him? She knew that she was the first one who had ever been able to get close to him, she was the first one to win not only his physical love, but his honesty and his friendship. He had been so hurt inside, so numb that he had never really been able to feel it himself..like his spirit was disconnected from his body and his mind. It was a vain thought, a proud thought, but hadn't her simple and honest love healed that?
Now, they sat together, he holding her in his arms, not just lovers but friends, good friends.. He nuzzled her, and held her gently and for a moment there was nothing else she could desire.. she was a woman in love...
So why, with all this truth and beauty comprehended, did she feel so dismayed?
Did she make a mistake, allowing this man to become such a large part of her life. She missed him when he didn't call, and found herself trumping him more than she thought she would. She had silly little fantasies about bring him in to her House, about what a child of their's might look like. To have a child with Jayson?
She always chided herself, how could House Stalitite possibly afford him? She couldn't leave her family herself when they so depended on her. She had always dreamed that Jayson would just come to her, to stay forever, and that they would pay Queen Sand what they could and hope it was enough.
And then..
They were taking him away. He was going to Amber, to become the Ambassador to the great King on the Mountain. His Mother was sending him away, away from her, the one who loved him. Oh, he said that they would always be together united through the trumps like they were now.. but he was so busy now! He would be politicking, and traveling, and if not doing one thing than he would be doing another. How could it ever be anything but worse?
{Please Calliope! Please.. I beg you.. help me make him remember me, not to forget me.. to make him want to stay..} she wailed inside.
They sat together on a patch of soft moss, Jayson's back against a boulder, and she leaned back against him as he held her in his arms. It was a favorite spot of hers because the glow light struck the quartz deposits of this cavern would refract and relfect rainbow lights everywhere, and if one set the globe to slowly move an arc, it was a lovely lightshow.
"Syanda..? What's wrong dear?" he murmured, his warm and sweet on her neck (he always chewed mint leaves).
"I'm afraid.. I am afraid you'll forget all about me and not come back." she whispered, truthfully, sadly.
"Yes, I will.. don't be silly. Don't you know that I love you?" He bent forward and kissed her cheek, nipped at her ear gently.
"Do you?"
He stiffened, his arms around her, "Of course, I would think you'd know that.. Didn't I open my heart to you." He was quiet for a moment, than hesitantly he said, "Didn't I tell you that you are the only one I care enough to hurt about?"
"I'm just worried that it won't always be that way."
"I don't want it to be this way, Syanda, I really don't. But this trip to Amber.. well, it's important that I do this. Not just to my family and my people, but for myself. I'm not trying to hurt you.. It won't be forever, and I will trump you almost every day, and come back here when I can. It won't be fantastic, but we'll get through it, and things will go back to just the way they were before." He hugged her, "Who knows maybe better, becasue then I won't be needed by my Mother quite so badly."
{Oh Calliope!}
"Syanda, you do believe me don't you?"
And then the power came, she suddenly felt more than herself.. the rush of the grace from her beloved Muse.
"Yes, I can see it's important.. It's written in your face. I can see it, your face is full of beauty and grace, and.. a sort of nobility."
He blushed and started to protest, but she could feel the Making stirring in her, rising like a moment of passion.
"Sometimes, Jayson, I wish I could turn back time, to undo the past, and rewrite again, so that you could be with me always. I know that's selfish.. Or to take all the bad things in us, like my selfishness that makes me want to beg you to stay, and tilt my head so that some of it runs out."
He smiled, but a shadow in his eyes said that he was worried and concerned, puzzled at her pain?
"If I could, Syanda, I would tilt my head all the way forward so that all the evil would run out, and leave nothing but the very best for you."
"But I think the good would run out too... You know, it seems that when times are hard and lean, it always seems that people are always so much more wise and enlighted, and 'good' in the face of adversity. And when times are easy, and it seems like a golden age, then people are more base and savage, and the urge to personal selfishness grows. I want you to be happy, but I want you to remember that I want to make you happy."
He nodded, unsure of where she was going with this. "Yes.. I can see that. But Syanda? I am not sure if I can totally accept that prosperous times gives way to a dulling of the spirit; or that external suffering in the world engenders thoughts of grace and nobility."
She turned around to face him, sitting crosslegged before him. She brushed her silver ponytail behind her back, and locked her wide blue eyes with his. She took one of his generous nimble hands in her tiny one's and pulled it to her chest. She unbuttoned the top button of her blouse and slid his hand over her breast. She pressed it into her the soft swelling fullness, pushing her nipple into his palm as she grew excited with the Making about to be released. Crystal tears began to well up in her eyes, and she spoke the end of the Making.. he would remember this.. His eyes grew wide as he recieved it.
"Jayson, now that I have made the external world sweet to you, can you say that your thoughts are of grace and nobility?"
Tears began to well up in his own eyes, and he slowly withdrew his hand and put both of them on both of her shoulders, "Where did you learn this? Where did you learn this?"
He ended up conjuring a sheet, and made love very gently and tenderly in that secluded spot, to comfort both of them. Syanda knew he would remember...
Somewhere, far far away from the fields these two knew.. Calliope nodded. Let Morpheus's daughter vex, they could still move across a sea of waking dreams, and he would follow without pride. Nothing stayed their hand's, and they would not be denied