Metanoia (11 page)

“
Leyance,” she whispered.
Then she saw his cuts from the sparks. “Oh, God this looks bad.”
She took out a leaf, crushed it and, as he had done to her, and
cured his pain. Yet she feared that it was too late. “Leyance,
please wake up. Come on, you have to wake up now.” But Leyance
showed no signs of getting up. She felt for his pulse, but there
was none. He didn’t breathe either. “No, Leyance!” she cried and
started to try CPR on him. It did no good. “No! Oh, God, please!!!
Leyance, I love you. I do. I remember now. I’ve always loved you, I
just couldn’t admit it to myself. I tried to stay away just so I
could save you pain. I didn’t want your fiancé to come back and
find you in love with another woman. But don’t you see? I am that
other woman and I am your old fiancé. I remember who I was and I
was who you knew me to me. I can tell you now – I love you. But now
it’s too late – please, come back! Leyance!” She buried her head in
his chest as tears began to creep down her face. He never knew how
she truly felt. It was now too late. The man she loved was
dead.

She was interrupted by the sounds of battle
cries not too far away. Knowing she had to go but unwilling to
leave her love’s body behind, Gina dragged Leyance to a protected
doorway close to the fighting and jumped out and into the battle.
Kien, Elenzel, and Deseré all had three Übels each to fight and
were cut up badly. With Gina’s help, however, they were able to
defeat their enemies. That’s when the fireball came. A huge ball of
fire rolled down the hallway towards them as explosions could be
heard all around.

“
Get out! Hurry!” Gina
yelled.

“
Where’s Leyance?” Deseré
yelled.

“
I need you to help me get
him.” They ran to his spot, and Deseré saw the cause of Gina’s
tears, still on her face. Silently but swiftly, they lifted him and
ran out together. Kien and Elenzel met them around the corner. They
ran through the corridors, past the dark rooms, through the stone
doors and into the light of day. Just as they made their way out of
the gates, the huge fireball flew out of the open doors, smothering
everything in its path.

“
It’s all over,” Kien said.
“We did what we came to do. Didn’t we?” He turned to Gina. She
nodded and quietly sat down next to Leyance, his cold hand in hers.
Elenzel walked over to Kien as Deseré walked over to comfort
her.

“
I told him not to come,”
Gina whispered, staring at him.

“
We better make a
stretcher,” Elenzel told Kien. “She won’t leave without him.”
Together they left the girls and constructed a stretcher out of
branches and laid Leyance across it just as the sun went behind the
horizon. The day had ended.

Chapter 6

“Familiar Faces”

The journey back was a silent one. Gina never
left Leyance’s side even for a moment. She did not speak, nor eat,
nor sleep. At last, they returned to Nythagié. Fheyrhil was
awaiting their arrival. Gina was the first to emerge into his view,
head hung and staring at the ground. Elenzel led her, one arm
keeping her upright. Deseré and Kien came after, carrying the body
up the stairs and into the great hall. This sight did not surprise
Fheyrhil. He had already felt the sadness in Gina’s heart. Softly,
he approached her and wrapped his arms around her. Gina clung onto
him, crying into his shoulder.

“
It will be alright,
Regina,” he whispered. She looked up at him, eyes wet with salty
tears. “I have a feeling this is not the end.”

“
It is the end,” she
replied. “He’s gone. Nothing else matters.”

“
Hope is not all gone, my
dear. Come with me.” He led her up the stairs and to the hospital
wing. When she walked in, Gina saw Leyance lying on a bed. His cuts
were gone, and he was now dressed in white. She walked over to him,
leaned over and kissed his frosty lips. Fheyrhil walked over to the
nurse.

“
Is it as I suspected?” he
asked.

“
Yes, my lord, it is,” she
replied.

“
What is it? What’s wrong?”
Gina demanded. Fheyrhil smiled and walked over to her, placing his
hand tenderly on her shoulder.

“
He is not dead, Regina. I
suspected that he had been hit with the Vice’s ‘lightning’, which
stuns a person into a death-like state. This means he looks and
appears dead but is not so in actuality. In this state, life signs
cannot be detected. The heart rate has been substantially lowered
but still keeps the person alive. The same goes for the breathing:
Leyance breathes only enough to supply him with the minimal amount
of oxygen that his body so desperately needs. His body has simply
been magically altered. It is a ploy to make the victim’s own
people the actual murderers when they bury him alive. So, you see,
he lives still. Something that evil cannot simply destroy through a
kind of magic; hate is not powerful enough for that. In plain
terms, when speaking of killing you and Leyance, he was bluffing.”
Gina’s heart lifted and a smile escaped her lips.

“
Are you sure?” she asked,
praying it was so.

“
Yes. Leyance is not dead.”
She didn’t know what to say. Complete and utter joy filled her
heart. She wanted to shout out in joy. Ecstatically, Gina hugged
Fheyrhil and kissed him on the cheek. Next, it was the nurse’s turn
to receive a hug. The poor nurse didn’t know what to do as the
queen grabbed her and swung her around in the air. Finally, Gina
turned back and ran to Leyance, throwing her arms around
him.

“
When will he wake up?” she
asked, smiling brightly.

“
That I cannot tell, Your
Majesty,” the nurse responded. “It may take quite a long while.
Once he does awake, though, he will need to have a long period of
healing. This kind of injury cannot be cured even through our
medicine. He must heal the old fashioned way. He must heal by
time.”

“
Then I will never leave
his side until he awakes,” she said, looking at Leyance.

“
Your training…” Fheyrhil
began.

“
I will not leave him,” she
stated again, turning to face him.

“…
will have to wait,” he
finished, smiling. She returned the smile and turned back to
Leyance.

A bed was set up next to Leyance for Gina.
She kept her vow and never left his side. Gina was there when his
heart started beating normally, when his breathing continued as
before, when his color returned to his face, when his skin warmed.
Always. She refused to leave him. Weeks past and still he had not
awakened. Every night she dreamed she was with him, that they
walked together, that they laughed, that they kissed.

When Leyance finally opened his eyes, his
first sight was of Gina, asleep next to him, her arm across
him.

“
Gina,” he whispered. It
was a quiet whisper, but his voice alone was enough to wake her.
Her eyelids flashed open, and she sat up quickly.

“
Leyance!” she cried. She
hugged him and held him in her arms, and he returned the embrace.
“I dreamed that you woke up. We had fallen asleep in each other’s
arms and then you woke up.”

“
I know,” he replied. He
pulled her away a little to look in her eyes. For once, she did not
pull away. “I had every dream you had while I slept. We were
communicating the whole time. I saw all the dreams, all the walks,
all the hugs, all the kisses, everything.” He smiled, and she
smiled back.

“
Then maybe you know what
I’m going to do next,” she teased. She leaned against him and
pulled his lips to her. They kissed as they lay in dawn’s light.
When they separated briefly, Gina looked into his eyes.

“
For the first time,” she
said, “I’m not going to pull away. I never will again. I remember,
Leyance, not all yet, but most. One thing I remember above all else
is something I’ve felt for a long time.” She held him tighter and
kissed his forehead. “I love you, Leyance. I always have and always
will.” He smiled and kissed her.

A month had past since Leyance had awoken and
it had been a month of bliss. Gina had now fully adapted to her new
life and enjoyed spending time with the man she loved. He still lay
in the hospital wing but was awake and healing quickly. She’d rush
through training and other duties so she could visit Leyance
everyday. He could be wheeled around Nythagié in a wheelchair so
Gina often did just that, showing him the beauty of the city. This
is where they were currently, traveling down a path gazing at the
setting sun. Many Nythagiéns were out enjoying the atmosphere as
well. Suddenly, a girl with red hair ran up to Gina and
Leyance.

“
Well, you two are looking
well,” she said smiling.

“
Oh, my God! April! What
are you doing here?” Gina stammered. April smiled.

“
I’m not the only one,” she
said. She turned to look down the road. “Jacinda, Calypso! Over
here, it’s Gina!” Sure enough, Gina’s old friends came running
up.

“
Cassie! Jessica! Oh, my
God! It’s so good to see you guys! Wait, I don’t get it. What are
you doing here?” Gina asked confused. Cassie turned to
Leyance.

“
You mean you didn’t tell
her?” she asked.

“
I guess it slipped my
mind,” he smiled. “I wanted it to be a surprise. I wanted to see
her happy face when she suddenly saw you three.”

“
Wait, back up. Tell me
what?” Gina stammered.

“
We’re Nythagiéns! We
always were. We were your best friends when you lived here before,”
Jessica explained. “When we discovered that you had been sent to
another world, we came after you. We all promised to stay there
with you and keep an eye on you until you returned here. We all
looked about high school age, so we had to wait until then to meet
up with you. We changed our names too in order to fit in better,
but we kept the first letter. April is really Alvina, Cassie is
Calypso, and I’m Jacinda.”

“
Why didn’t you tell
me?”

“
I know you were into all
those mythology books, but would you really have believed us? I
don’t think so!” Calypso answered. “Plus, if you did, then you
would want to come here before the time was right.”

“
Well, why weren’t you
three here when I first came? It would have made adjusting much
easier,” Gina stated.

“
Sorry about that,” Alvina
answered. “We wanted to, we really did, but we had major damage
control to do back there. I mean, come on, there were Übels all
over a school! No one there knew what these creatures were. We had
to mix potions to make them forget what had happened so they
wouldn’t all go insane!”

“
Yeah, but we came as soon
as we could!” Calypso added.

“
Which didn’t end up being
very soon, but we tried!” Jacinda finished.

“
Well, I’m glad you’re here
now. I missed you guys so much!” Gina exclaimed. They all hugged as
Leyance watched on smiling. Alvina saw this.

“
Oh, right. Sorry. We got
to go,” she stated. Then she whispered into Leyance’s ear. “She’s
all yours. Fheyrhil told us. Good luck, not that you need it!” With
that, she turned and joined the others walking down the
road.

“
I can’t believe they were
Nythagiéns the whole time! They knew I’d love to be someone special
like that, but they never told me! Never even hinted at it,” Gina
stated.

“
Well, it’s a good thing
they didn’t say anything,” Leyance countered. “If they had, things
probably wouldn’t have turned out the same.”

“
I suppose so. Everything
happens for a reason right?”

“
Absolutely.”

That night eerie dreams
plagued Gina’s peaceful slumber.
The cold
earth chilled Gina’s bare feet as she ran down the hidden path to
the safety of her private hideaway. She tugged a white blanket
tighter around her to keep the cold away. Run as she could, the
path kept getting further and further, her destination seeming that
it would never be reached. When she finally got to the clearing, an
odd sight presented itself to her. A golden mirror levitated above
her favorite sitting rock. Gina cautiously climbed up to it and
gazed in. For awhile she could see nothing, not even her own
reflection. Then the moon came out from behind a cloud and Gina
could see her reflection, but it wasn’t Gina. Physically, she
looked the same, but her eyes shown nothing but pure malice. Her
eyes were dark and deep, and she was dressed in all black. The
sight frightened Gina. She tried to look away but couldn’t. The
face in the mirror still glared back at her. The longer the sight
held her gaze, the more Gina yearned to be free from its power. She
feared being sucked into the mirror and becoming that evil being
she saw within. Then, suddenly, the mirror vanished and Gina was
once again alone in the darkness.

The next day Gina awoke bright and early. As
was now a routine activity, she prepared for training and walked to
the field, but no one was there. All that waited for her was a
familiar crystal rose and a note.

Dearest Gina,

I thought you might need a fun break. I know
you’ve been working quite hard recently, especially considering
you’ve been taking care of me. So, I wanted to give you a little
gift of thanks: a little game. Follow the clues to a surprise. Love
you and good luck.

Leyance

Clue 1 – I love watching you sleep with help
from “just a little trick I know.”