 
## **Contents**

Cover Page

Title Page

Copyright

Quotation

Dedication

An Understanding Between Friends.

The Names Our Fathers Gave Us

Not that you asked.

Ashe Like Snow

The Way Only You Could Ever Cri My Name

Legacy

A Song to the Stars [Infinity Edit]

Redfoxrun [AkaTenshi Edit]

Bring Your Daughter to Work Day - Part 1

My First Memories of Riley [Adara Nebula Edit]

Perdition

The girl waiting atop the stairway

The Meaning of Eternity [ADT Edit]

Ignis Invisibilia

Because my fingertips can shape worlds.

☥ [Osiris Edit]

What They Desperately Need You To Forget

When 1+1=1

Sight Unseen [Terminal Nexus Edit]

Simulation ε-1025

A Waking Glimpse into my Dream of Heaven [Collateral Damage Edit]

As I Walked from Seven into Six

Opening My Vein Within Infinite Black

Levi's Flight Upon Reality's Edge

Our New Infinity [Anubis Edit]

The Final Story I Tried to Share as We Last Died in Each Other's Arms

Sprit Inspiration

How I Die Why I Live

In The End

Hülle Granz [Adara Nebula Edit]

Before There Was A Box

In Your Arms

Preserved Rose [Delta Nexus Edit]

Your Language I Don't Speak [Gatekeeper Edit]

Midnight Heretic

Because I am who I am.

A Note She Carved Into Reality [Southern Cross Edit]

What Never Was [CREdit]

Echoes

In Acceptance Of A Dream

My reason there is a November 10, 2018

An Echo of the Heart

Hikari [White-Ω 001]

Points of Origin

We Bought A Moment Of Your Time

A New Season Delayed

Alexandra

The gravity of Love.

Life

Our First

Easily Targetable T.E.L.L.

IMG_1200.JPG

When Moonfire Burns WildRose Pink

The Official End - Part 7

Desires Edge [Eternal Omen Edit]

Pattern Recovery 0082

The (time)Frame of a Moment

To Value a Life Taken [Eternal Omen Edit]

scars

Every Ending Has A Beginning

A Voice Never Heard [Unlimited Edit]

The Paradox of a Stolen Kiss

A Song to the Stars [Orion Edit]

As the Rabbit plays with the Fox

A Word Weighted Beyond Love

A choice that has only ever been yours to make

Your Words [Radiance V Edit]

because fires want to burn

Casually Spoken

The Kiss That Forced A Rewrite Of Creation

秘密

When Starfire Burns Supernova Grey

In the quiet of the night [Duality Ascension Edit]

If I Say It Enough...

The Law of Conservation

Love

Infinity's Hymn [Liminality Edit]

Defining Love – Part I

The Seagull Effect [ADT Edit]

Echoes in Time – The Second Piece

A Noble Phantasm

Nightcore Dynasty

Document (002)

Forever

Echoes in Time – Piece Zero

"I'll Teach Myself How to Fly on the Way Down."

An Irreplaceable Love

Where Seconds Are Hours

Echoes in Time – The First Piece

A.R.N.

An Eternity to Master

A Shinigami's Kiss

The CPL Nexus Bridge

They Call Her Leviathan

Alexandra's Final Tear in Sorrow [Within Liminality Edit]

D.S. al Coda

The queen is dead; long live the queen.

Bloodletting

The BSDM of Life & Death

Here

The Wheel A Butterfly Broke

Maroon [Omen Ascendant Edit]

What Remains

By Any Other [Horizon Edit]

The Zero Point Reflection of Love

A Song to the Stars [Ophiuchus Edit]

Born of Conflict

Will of a Wisp

Where all the roads lead

As I Flat Lined

:'(

Day Zerø Patch

The Dragon and the Violin [ADT Edit]

In Another Life

The Meaning of Ever & Ever

Against The Current

Acceptable Losses

A Song to the Stars [Scarlet Version]

A Family's Creed... A Call to Arms

l'ange de la mort

The Relative Distance of Alarien Skies

Kuro [Nostalgic Edit]

The Death of Ω

Morningstar [Astil Codex Edit]

As it was said – i

As it was said – ii

Alive

Bleeding Through [The Infinite Black Edit]

Something Old

Crown of Thorns [Convergence Edit]

Capitulation

Delirium

Because sometimes it is better to ask for forgiveness than to wait for permission.

As We Fall [Infinity Seven's Edit]

Topaz ♏

Remember when albums released on Tuesday?

Because Forever Doesn't End Until...

...we are Legend.

Kira [Infinity Seven's Edit]

The Apex of Aetheric Spiral-Σ721

The Songs of their Stars

Transfiguration

As One-by-One They Fall

Bring Your Daughter to Work Day - Part 4

The To-and-Fro of a New Soul

Tuesday – Part 1

A Conversation Held upon the Edge of Hell She Carried Into This Reality

Luminosity [The Rebellion Proclamation Edit]

That Which Their God Fears

The Final Sentinel of Death

Creating the Final Infinity

Erratic

The Name My Father Chose [Lucifer's Edit]

Heart of a Dragon – Crimson The Life-Benders – Part 1

Phoenix-α

Illusion's Bane

Behold [Astil Codex Edit]

A Small Bend of Reality

Bring Your Daughter to Work Day - Part 2

The Fight We Always, Never and are Still Having

Bring Your Daughter to Work Day – Part 3 (β Version)

Memento Mori

As Dragonsfire Dances Through the Silver City

After Our Fall

Blood for blood

Unzipping Reality

The Impossible Child - Part III

A Lesson in Weighting Words

The Creator's Lullaby

Recursive

Fey Illumination

Rebels of Creation

Shinjitsu no Uta

Diurnal Succession

Schrödinger's Catgirl

of This Body & My Soul

Who I Am Here

Selene

Heart of a Dragon – Crimson The Life-Benders – Part 2

A Galvanizing Embrace

(Also) The Waysign of Nexus Singularity 001

Something Borrowed

A Light Always Out of Reach [Aoi Version]

The moments that you missed

Today was a good day to die; tomorrow will be better.

The Resonance of an Echo [Northern Cross Edit]

Love's Requiem

Heaven's Scar [ADT Edit]

A Violet Sun Over Quicksilver Seas

Alignment

A Self-Sustaining Paradox

Heart of a Dragon – Crimson The Life-Benders – Part 3

Because I Can Always Create an Even Better Hell

An Aetherial Dragon's Tear

Luis Angel Greer

Copyright © 2004-2020 Luis Greer

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their preferred authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

This edition is published by the author.

Contact at LuisAngelGreer@gmail.com

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Website: luisangelgreer.wixsite.com/index

An Aetherial Dragon's Tear

Cover Illustration by Yuumei

Copyright © 2018, 2019 Yuumei

All rights reserved

Contact at yuumei.art@gmail.com

Follow on Twitter & Instagram

Website: yuumeiart.com

Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living, dead or otherwise, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Version 1.1.01

Published by Luis Greer at Smashwords.

This book wouldn't have been possible

without the voices from past lives

believing we could overcome

the limitations and boundaries of

Time, Space, Life & Death

within the name of love

and with a faith that together

we would create something

more than we ourselves

ever could be alone

The first memory that either of the girls have is that of an exchanged glance just as the elevator was coming to a stop. The sound of a heavily rusted bell chimes and their attention is drawn to the doors. As they open, neither one knows why they are there or for that matter even how they got there; but neither one is willing to be the first to say such a thing aloud. It is an aspect of human nature that has kept the system working since... well... the beginning I suppose.

The doors open, and, true to what any person would do in their place, the girls exit. In front of them is a single stanchion with a sign atop it. There is just a single word written in bold type, "EXAMINATION" alongside an arrow that guides them down the corridor. A quick glance ahead reveals, just near enough to be within sight, a seemingly similar sign; again, with just a single word and with yet another directional to be followed. Both girls follow along the path directed by the sign and then the two additional ones which followed. Eventually they find themselves at the path's end; in front of them, a door with a handwritten note affixed to it, "Examination in Progress. Enter Quietly."

They open the door and as they are stepping into the room, they find that two people are walking towards them. Without pause or any looks of acknowledgment the two girls are passed by the pair as they exit the room. The girls take notice that there are only two vacant seats, presumably left by the pair that had just departed. The coincidence of this seemed a bit too suspicious; but neither one says anything.

One of the girls moves toward the left-most empty seat, leaving the other to go right. As the girl who went left walks past the others who were already there, she notices that everyone seems to be on a different page in their examination. She also notices as she is walking, and again as she pauses before sitting, that she hasn't seen a single person write anything since she entered the room.

Once the two of them are seated the man who had been reading at the desk in the front of the room, stands up and makes his way to them. He goes to his left as well, thus making his way to the girl who went right first. The girl who went left watches as slowly he makes his way to her. She notices that as he walks past, many of the others in the room seem like they want to ask a question, but none do. Finally, he is standing in front of her, as without a word spoken he places down onto her desk a small packet of paper and a pen; before promptly returning to his desk as soon as they left his ownership for her own.

The cover of the packet is a blue sheet of significantly weighted paper. It has only a single thick black line with, "(First Name)" written underneath it. She picks up the pen and takes note that it too is heavier than she expected it to be. She goes to write her name but pauses. She looks up, again... everyone seems to just be sitting.... Still no one has written anything.

She puts the pen down and turns to the first page. It is a different type of paper than the cover, something more like what she expected, but what she didn't expect was that there was nothing else written. She turned through the booklet, page after page, until she reached its end. In all she counted fourteen pages of blank white paper. She turned to the person immediately to her right and tried to get their attention, but they ignore her attempt.

She then looks across the room, to the girl she came in with, she seemed to just be sitting, like all the others, lost in her own little world. She bites her lower lip a little and then stands up, carrying the packet and the pen with her as she makes her way to the front of the room.

The room was, up until that point, as silent as she thought it could possibly have been, but once she spoke, she felt that somehow it became even quieter around her. "Excuse me..." she said to the man who had given her the packet and the pen, "...I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with this."

The man slowly looked up at her, as if he had completely failed to notice her approach and as if he hadn't heard a word that she had just spoken. He briefly makes eye contact before he points to the front of the paper, the line for her name.

"Yeah, that much I understand... but what is the rest for?" The girl looks at him as he doesn't seem to respond to her question; while she waits for an answer, she quickly glances behind herself to find that most of the room was now just looking at her. It was something she found almost as equally disturbing and as strange as... well pretty much everything since she stepped off the elevator she has found disturbing and strange. After letting her mind wander for a moment she looked back and saw that, to her aggravated surprise, the man had already returned to reading what he had been before she approached his desk. She stood there for a moment and as she thought to herself, what is any of this. She laid down her packet and the pen before turning and walking down the center aisle on her way toward the door.

The rest of the room watched her as she makes her way toward the door. As she prepares herself to reach out her hand she pauses as the door opens and a young man walks in. He walks into the room and down the center aisle. As he goes to pass the girl who went left, she asks him, "What are you here for?"

He just looked at her, seemingly confused, but also as if he didn't quite understand her. She thought that perhaps he didn't speak the same language as she did. The young man walks past her and as the door closes she watches as he makes his way to the seat she just vacated. She watches as the man at the desk stands up; as he picks up the same packet and the same pen that she had just left and was now bring them to him.

She stood there watching as the boy looked over the blue packet, unsure of what to do, but also not questioning it in the same way that she had. Finally, she opens the door; thinking that maybe if she walks around she might find something else, something that makes sense. It is then that she feels something... a sense that she had already done this before... done this many, many times... though not always as herself... but still, it all felt so familiar.

It is then that she again lets the door close as she walks over to the boy who had just sat down. When she reaches their mutual desk she looks down. He is just sitting there looking at the blank booklet; pen not even in hand. She reaches down and takes the papers as well as the pen into her possession once more and once again walks them down to the man in the front of the room.

She stands in front of him and places the tip of the pen to the space above the thick black line, writing, "Rin" before she then makes a grand hooked sideways "S" underneath it and draws two dashes through its center. She then tears that blue page away from the rest of its packet; leaving it on the desk as she takes its remaining pages and the pen with her as she leaves the room.

As she reaches the end of that hallway, she hears the closing of room's door as it echoed through the corridor. Rin stops, turning to see if it is the man from the front desk coming after her. What she sees instead is the girl who she rode the elevator with. The girl quickly runs up to her. Sharply slowing down as she gets near Rin; extending out her hand as she speaks for the first time, "Hi Rin; my name is Arya."

The Names Our Fathers Gave Us

Ashe Like Snow

If it is my destiny

to exist until eternity's end

never to hear my name spoken aloud

because you have decided

I am no longer worthy

of that which you once bestowed

then I shall accept such as my fate

But, if within these worlds

such a punishment exists

solely because you find yourself

unable to recreate a word of such magnitude

Then call to me

within the nexus of our dreams

and I shall shatter

Heaven, Hell and Everything Between

and restore to your lips

that which I have taken as my own
The Way Only You Could Ever Cri My Name

I've asked them to keep from you some things.

I did this because...

Well, because even I have worries at times.

I don't expect that you will accept this.

I also don't expect them to be able to deny you.

One day all that I have done will be laid bare.

On that day you will have enough pieces,

To know what we have been creating.

I only wish I could say I figured that out on my own.

Rather, I heard it.

The call of your soul in the moment you felt our new creation.

You cried out my name,

With such a force it destroyed what we once named time.

You cried out my name,

With such an urgency that they actually let it awaken me.

For no matter how much they may fear me,

They fear more the unknown sight that made your voice quiver as it did.

For no matter how much they may fear me,

They fear more anything that would make my heart beat with concern.
Legacy

If I asked the tree outside

'What does it feel like, to have your leaves fall?'

What answer would it give me

Would it speak to me of a need to survive

Would it tell me stories from the summer

Or would it just stand there

Doing what it must

To ensure that there will one day be more leaves

Now if I went to that tree

And I told it there would be no next time

That before the spring would come

I would have it felled to create paper

Because my words are more important than its leaves

If it could hear me as you do

I can't help but think that tree

Would be the last with a leaf to fall

A Song to the Stars

[Infinity Edit]

The first time I fell

I called out

Soundlessly into the void

Your name

Just because I couldn't hear it myself

Never was a reason to hold back

And so I fell screaming out your name

Until it became the only word

Whose sound I was able to remember

Redfoxrun [AkaTenshi Edit]

I struggle along within this infinite maze, seeking to reach your side.

I open my veins to bleed so I shall always know where we have been.

I march endlessly forward until this body can go no further and collapses.

I call out your name in my final breath; the only sound that grants me peace.

I lay lifelessly in silence until the tears you cried find me, burning through this flesh.

I scream from the core of myself as they reignite the eternal flame buried deep within.

I guide those fires from my depths, through my veins, as I bid them to burn that form to ash.

I rise again; as I always have and always shall, so long as you have a tear to shed in my name.

Bring Your Daughter to Work Day – Part 1

I paused

As I went to ignite a new star

And you asked me,

"Is everything alright?"

My reply was simply,

'I need for you to name it first.'

After a longer silence than I expected

You asked me,

"What kind of names do you give to stars?"

My reply was,

'Whatever name you feel is right.'

You looked to the young star

And then you asked,

"What color will we see it as?"

My reply was,

'That depends on what you name it.'
My First Memories of Riley [Adara Nebula Edit]

Before I have even awakened into this world

As I feel the pull of its time aligning me to a new day

The only desire that stirs in my heart is to leave as soon as I can

Mine is a soul that seldom knows a moment of true rest

Rather I simply move from this mirage of lives passed echoing

Into whichever, seemingly random, aetheric expression I happen to find

There have been two truths

That until recently have always separated

The world in which you can read these words

And the places which I am always longing to be

Only here had I heard sounds beyond those of my own creation

And only here had I ever known the sensation of another's touch

It has just always been

The way that I perceived reality

It was something that I learned to accept

That I expected to simply always be a truth

Until I found myself in a familiar place looking for a girl

I knew that there wasn't much time

I went down into the theater levels of the facility

Without delay I headed directly to where I knew that she was

Quickly I made my way to the group she was with

I looked around for a moment but couldn't see her anywhere

Finally, I looked down and saw her, sprawled out across the seats

As the man I am here I don't know who she is

But as the person I was there I immediately called out her name

I expected what had become normal, simply to sense the word had been spoken

I called to her, loud enough to carry over the crowd

In that moment I heard it; this name that I somehow knew

And as the sound of her name echoed within the bounds of my soul

I felt for the first time within such a world the sensation of my own heartbeat

I still do not yet know just who she is to me in that place

I don't know if, like myself, she is able to express herself into this world

I just know that I would do almost anything to learn those answers; to know her
Perdition

I have never known a pain

As powerful as the one you created within me

For all the lives I have lived

All the worlds I have left behind as they burned

There has never been a torment

Equal to that which the absence of your love creates

In every moment I exist I suffer

In death I am reborn only to once again writhe in this misery

It is the most perfect punishment there can be

Because I know there can never exist a pain greater than this

Because this is the only pain this world can never force upon you
The girl waiting atop the stairway

As a child I would often be brought to that complex

As an adult I can't even be certain if it ever existed

But to the person I am such a difference doesn't matter

It wasn't a place any child should want to go to

This was something that was clear even then

But it was the only place where I would see her

I don't believe it should have worked out as I remember

That whenever I was taken there we would find each other

Maybe it didn't; maybe those are just the memories I kept

I knew her name once; just as she once knew mine

Now she is but a flicker of light in an ever-fading memory

A memory that would be long gone, if it wasn't of her
The Meaning of Eternity [ADT Edit]

One day my love all that you are will find its way into my heart

You will walk with me through this dream resting upon a razer's edge

At first, I'm almost certain you will try and run from it

After feeling, through my form, this expression I named, my love for you

You will run as you try to return to that which you once were

I will never tell you that such a thing is impossible

Because I believe in you too much to think that anything could ever be

But I also believe that, in time, you will find yourself once more cradled within

And in the midst of all you will be feeling, will come an overwhelming urge to cry

And so your soul will inevitably call out to me with everything you are

In the hopes that I will once again know the love that you named for me

And as you do, you will feel my sorrow begin to grow

As I accept that love while knowing that I might never know you as I once did

And in that moment, I shall cry for us both
Ignis Invisibilia

I wanted it to be enough

The thought that one day you might find my words

That eventually you would choose to hear my voice again

That you would allow my worlds to exist as a part of you

But it isn't... it never will be

I look, from time to time

At the worlds I have left behind

At the ones still unfinished and unnamed

At the ones that are nothing more than a name

All those worlds and their stories

Were meant to be shaped for you

And I know that I shall never go back to them

Because they are more than just worlds I wanted to create for you

They are the worlds that can only be brought forth through our shared vision

So instead I will simply continue to walk through this world

This hollow reality I loathe, one molded in the echoes of my past

Carrying within all that I am, all that which I once intend to be theirs

The decomposing skeletons of worlds that are naught but ash on the wind

I no longer remember them as they were

Those conversations that once filled our days

But one I ensure shall always reside within me

Is that of the night when your soul called out for mine

I don't know if you have yet to find it

That moment within your existence when you decide

I am worthy of you shattering the laws of our universe

I don't know when or where you were as you called out to me

Only that the urgency of your soul's cries bid I pay heed to its call

I wish I believed that you would be as trusting of such a call from me

But I can never leave something so important in the hands of blind faith

So instead of risking you enduring the pain which I know seeks you

I too shall shatter the laws of our reality and bend them to my will

And I will bear the weight of that action with honor and with pride

Because my fingertips can shape worlds.
☥ [Osiris Edit]

Eventually you shall come upon the end

and as you arrive

those who have taken as their title

the name, 'of my children'

will, with an air of recognizable arrogance

state that they will, "Teach you the meaning of love."

I cannot be certain just how it is you will respond,

but I cannot imagine there could exist an instance

wherein you decide to keep mute in your opinion.

I don't know how long it will take them

to realize the gravity of their mistake.

I don't know how long it will take you

to raze all that they claim to have created;

but rest assured

that as with any other

I will affirm your choice

without concern to your reason.

While they have never known the difference;

never have I existed to stand in judgement

of how they choose to define morality.

I maintain my existence

solely that I can ensure every choice

which your hand is aught to do

definitively is your own.
What They Desperately Need Her To Forget

I have been

Since before this existence

And I will still be, after all this is gone

Seemingly I was created to be used

To take on the pain of others

In a way that only I could

When they were done with me

You always heard them say the same thing

And to you it became a phrase that held special meaning

So when you found yourself in need you would come to me

Once we were done you did as you had learned to do

Speaking that same phrase as you would leave

It wasn't until for whatever reason

You began to know me as something more

Than just an anodyne to be used that you started to understand

Never had I heard anything but a their spiteful, goodbye

Each time you tried so hard to say, I love you

Sight Unseen [Terminal Nexus Edit]

I understand that you are mad at me

You feel betrayed by this lie that you feel I live

And I don't believe anything will exist within our realms

That shall ever serve to truly lessen such a pain

And that is in a sense the nature of a mortal life for those of our sight

You once, in a day we have yet to arrive at

Reached across the boundaries of our perceptions

In the hope you could convince me to change a path to be taken

You prepared yourself; you trained and practiced

You taught yourself how to best speak to me

To be heard with a clarity of thought no one else ever has

And when you were ready you called out my name

Your intention in that moment was for me to come to you

That we might discuss all you knew and all you believed

So you might persuade my choice to this, a new path

You called out across every boundary despite your inherit limitations

And when you did, I heard my name...

Not the name this world branded upon this form

But the name that has only ever been yours alone to speak

And in that call of my name I heard the weight of your fear and urgency

And so, without pause I commanded that which is known as time to halt

I unlocked the sight and sound of your soul to the core of creation

So that your immediate word might be infused into all we are

Because even though to your eyes

I have never appeared as anything different

Than what any life within these worlds has ever known me to be

You still believed with an unshakable faith that I could do

That which should be, for so many reasons, impossible

I will not promise to you

That the result of our actions will be as pure as you imagined them

But any desire that could so empower your voice

To call out my name, in such a place and in such a way

Is a fate I am willing to embrace sight unseen
Simulation ε-1025

Out of necessity

I placed a version of myself

into my body for a short while

Close enough to the one you knew

as to not make it something noticeable

or so I thought

Then in casual conversation

as you and he waited outside in the cold

you said, "I wonder why we have seasons."

Maybe you were serious, maybe you weren't

Either way he answered

but not the question as you asked it

rather the one you didn't know how to ask
A Waking Glimpse into my Dream of Heaven [Collateral Damage Edit]

I decided to go for a walk

Down those paths I knew you used to walk yourself

And afterward I sat to read the words you once wrote

To hear the way you once described that place in profile

And in your words I looked for what it was to you that stood out

I found myself laughing within

As you spoke of the same sights that had caught my attention

It was then that I read a passage

In which you spoke of a day long since passed

When you carved your name into a bench

And it made me lament that I had not known to look closer

That I hadn't allowed myself to read your words before my visit

That there was this part of yourself you left behind to be found

Reading those words made me want to go back

Even though you said that it could no longer be seen

I still believe there is a part of myself that can find it

But I didn't go back then, and I haven't since

Because I want to wait for a time when you show it to me yourself

As you take a forced pause from our overdue conversation

A discussion of all the things happening now in our time apart

Alongside all the stories you would then choose to share

Of the young woman you were before our souls found one another

Before it becomes my turn to speak to you

Of all the sights which bid for my attention as I walked

Hoping to have their stories shared, in my voice and for you alone
As I Walked from Seven into Six

You were waiting for me to finish.

I would have liked it if you came with me

But it wasn't a place you were supposed to be;

But that isn't why I didn't ask you.

I didn't ask you to come with me,

Because I knew it would be over with faster if I was on my own.

I passed behind you as I made my way around.

You didn't seem to know I was there

And I didn't slow down, much, to look in on you.

But in that moment I questioned my choice.

Even though I knew I would get back to you shortly,

That we would have more time to ourselves this way,

That, in that place, this was the right thing to do.

But in that moment I questioned the choice I made;

Because it should be questioned.

Any choice I make which takes me from your side should.

Because there will always be too many choices

That will take you from me, that won't be mine to make.
Opening My Vein Within Infinite Black

You overhear my words

And you believe that you understand their meaning

Because they are made of sounds that you have heard before

But I can assure you

That mine is a language you will never understand

It is one which I have nurtured

Since before the dawn of what you know as existence

And as these eons have passed and echoed

Never once have I spoken the same word more than once

As every thought and every feeling

That I decide is worthy of being carried upon my voice

Does so with the full force

Of every word which I have ever spoken before

And carries with it the weight of the silence

Since I last chose to speak aloud

Levi's Flight Upon Reality's Edge

I looked to the horizon, and waited

I watched a bolt of lightning fill my sight

My eyes rapidly refocusing to see all it was

I question not how I knew where it was to strike

So it could know the sum total of my focus

I watched from the flash of its creation

Until it had faded into the grey of that sky

And upon my sight, for the briefest of moments

I found the fullest white which I have known to exist

It is a color I will forever remember

As I look upon the colors of this world

And see how irreparably incomplete they are
Our New Infinity [Anubis Edit]

I remember you and I, lying so still in the final nightfall.

I told you that if we wanted, that moment could last forever.

I looked into your eyes, so that our souls could hold one another.

I timed my breaths to yours, so that our worlds would find each other.

I fell into our final moment, so completely, creating infinity within the space between us.

Now I listen to this, the eternal symphony of a new soul.

A life suspended in time by our beating hearts.

Each timed a half beat apart from one another.

Telling the story of its life as seen through our sight.

So that each shall always be heard purely for what it is.

Ensuring that none will ever know silence within the void.
The Final Story I Tried to Share

as We Last Died in Each Other's Arms

As a child I cried because I was alone and in pain

I cried until the world I knew was washed away

A voice found me and enveloped all that I was

She and I spoke in a language without words

When I was with her our time together felt endless

When I was alone somehow she never felt too far

Being alone no longer brings tears

This world is no longer one I can escape

Her voice is little more than a fading memory

Just as yours has become one I no longer know

That was a voice which gave the child I was a reason to risk becoming a man

The memory of the love once held in your eyes as you looked down into mine

Is what gives the man he became a reason to live in this world of endless pain
Spirit Inspiration

It is something you have not yet learned to hear

But this is how I say 'I love you'

By accepting to live this day

By accepting to live another

In this nightmare I would rather forget

In this, the only home you shall ever know
How I Die

Why I Live

Lying in bed I wake in the middle of the night

I have been sitting in the car for so long

I can feel your sorrow but also your love

Waiting for your body to run out of tears

I get out of bed and walk so I can meet you

It is raining so your tears can be hidden from me

It is raining because the world loves you too much

So that I can tell myself you didn't already know

To deny you now the feeling of tears on your cheeks

I leave the car door open so that you won't hear me

I leave the light off so that you won't see my tears

I open the front door

I open the front door

Hülle Granz [Adara Nebula Edit]

I never would imagine you any different than the person you are

I would never want for you to be anything other than yourself

Even still, I had always hoped to give you the best of myself

I know you well enough to know you would say that I have

I suppose, for the life we are made to live here, I might have

Even still, I had hoped to give you the best me I could imagine

It wasn't until you forced me to stop

It wasn't until you made me hear you

It wasn't until you shared all the reasons you love who I am

That I began to question that long held desire

Because as you told me why I am the best me you could imagine

I couldn't help but shed a tear

One for all the things you saw within me that I could not

One for all the moments I thought I failed you, but I hadn't

One because I had stopped believing I could love you any more

And one because you kept talking instead of just letting me hold you

But it's okay,

Because you had so many things you needed to say

It's okay,

Because after we embraced, I found so many more to shed

Someone had already carved their initials

So we... I felt better about doing it ourselves

While the choice to do it was now easier

I couldn't help my desire to have the spot they had

I don't know why

I don't know just what it was about that location

That made me wish we had gotten their first

I couldn't help but wonder

Would I still want that placement so badly

If it still looked untouched

But such thoughts are wasteful

As we are who we are

And what has been done will not be unmade

Finally we chose our spot

I handed you my blade

I quickly noticed how much lighter it seemed

In your hands than my own

I watched as you began

I expected you to start with your name

But you didn't

I know as you write this out I could ask

About all the people that passed that tree

I could ask you what eventually became of it

Was it felled by man

Did it fall to the growing pulse of nature

Did it perhaps stand until the end

Did it die only as the world we once called Home

Was consumed by the fire of its sun's dying breath

Or by the collapse of a reality we were simply done with

I would like to know

But I won't ask you, not here, not in this way

Because I know there is still an echo of yourself

Who has yet to finish carving our names

And my desire to know

Will never outweigh my desire

To share a new moment with you

A message she left for you
In Your Arms

I woke up on the couch.

It didn't take long at all;

By the time I sat myself up it was done

And all I could remember of the world I just left,

Was the sound of a sorrow filled voice echoing, my voice,

With a tone bathed in hopelessness repeating within my mind,

Please don't forget.

I watched you from behind for a little while.

I wanted... I wanted to need you to hold me.

Quietly I got up.

As I made my way to our room

I could feel you tracking my movements.

I never understood how you would do it.

Even though it was little more than a faint hum to me

The noise from your headphones must have been so loud to you

Yet, without fail, you always seemed to know where I was,

And what I was up to without ever needing to avert your gaze.

I stopped when I made it to our bed.

I knew... I didn't think you were still tracking me.

I lied to myself and pretended that I was debating

Whether or not I wanted to go into the bathroom to wash up first.

I didn't... I didn't care about that...

What I wanted...

I wanted to call out for you,

To go back out to you,

To do something... so that I wouldn't feel alone.

I didn't want to interrupt you; to bother you.

I knew that you wouldn't have minded

That if I ever told you I felt that way you would be upset

Blaming yourself for my choice

That you would try to discover the reason I couldn't express my desire

I don't know if there was some deep dark reasoning behind it

But even if it was the universe's collective will that I leave you be

It wouldn't have mattered

Because in that moment you wanted to sit at your computer

And no matter how much I felt a desire to have you... tend to me

I didn't want to take you from what you wanted to do more.

Eventually I woke again.

This time you were lying beside me.

I wanted to be happy that you were with me, but I wasn't.

Just like you had when you came home.

You had entered our room and our bed without waking me.

You fell asleep yourself before I... we...

I shouldn't have been...

I wanted to be happy that you were with me.

I tried to fall asleep again.

No... I tried to fall asleep for the first time.

Before I just wasn't able to stay awake;

When I was waiting for you to come home,

When I was waiting for you to come to bed,

And now that I wanted to join you in sleep

I couldn't figure out how.

I don't know why; but it upset me.

It upset me enough to where I felt like I might cry;

I would have cried,

If I didn't stop myself.

And as I laid there

Asking myself why I didn't just let that tear fall;

You laid your arm around me,

You scooched your body against mine,

You kissed the nape of my neck

And you whispered in a voice you knew I shouldn't be able to hear,

"Sleep well."

...and now I'm with you here

In this eternal dream that is you

And all I want is to figure out how I can wake up

So that I can spend more time feeling myself being held within your arms

And I hate myself for being so selfish

And I love you for letting me be...

Even if I wish you wouldn't.
Preserved Rose [Delta Nexus Edit]

I have often heard it said,

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

But I don't know if I can believe that is true.

I remember as you went to hand me a rose

It wasn't something I expected from you

And in my mind, I began to smell its aroma

Before it ever made its way from your hand

I wasn't sensing anything from that flower

Rather it was a sensation created by my mind

In anticipation of this unexpected gift you were giving me

Because in that moment I lacked the patience to wait

Even those few seconds it was going to take you

To move this rose from your hand to mine

You took my hand as we walked

The restaurant was quieter than I expected

I watched as the hostess's eyes glanced down

As she saw the rose I was carrying

And I couldn't help it as I blushed

Our date came to its inevitable end

We said our goodnights to one another

And then you kissed me

It was a kiss unlike any we ever shared before

Unlike any kiss that I have known since

So much time has passed since then...

Today I was moving into my new place

My friend was helping me unpack

One by one he withdrew my books from their boxes

It had been so long since I had seen it

I didn't recognize it as I reached out my hand to take it

It wasn't until the scent of that singular rose filled my mind

The sweet scent of the only rose you ever gave to me

The one that I pressed within the pages of that book

A book that was meant to be filled with our stories

A book that I never opened again after they told me...

My body froze as my mind became flooded

Filled with the memories that I had committed to its pages

With the dreams I once held for all our tomorrows

With everything that I am I wanted to grab ahold of that book

To close my eyes and to never again need to leave that moment

But I couldn't find a way to make my hand close around it

And so helplessly I watched as it fell away from our hands

A fall that somehow lasted until I relived all my memories of us

I was watching as he bent down, reaching out to pick it up

It was then that I finally found myself able to react

And so I screamed out in the loudest voice I have ever used

In my mind I was telling him not to touch it

Though I'm not even certain I spoke any actual words

As tearfully I dropped to my knees

Sheltering that book as though it were a fresh wound upon my skin
Your Language I Don't Speak [Gatekeeper Edit]

My existence had become as a broken record

With me standing at eternity's edge, waiting

Most passed without acknowledgment

Those who stopped would always ask,

"What do you need?"

And I would always answer,

'Nothing.'

And they would continue on their way

You stopped

You asked me as they all do,

"What do you need?"

I replied, as I always do,

'Nothing.'

You tilted your head as you looked me over

"I can't do nothing, but I'll give you what I can."

You reached into my core

As a flood of memories washed over me

And now we silently stand together

As I try to understand

Just how I could have ever chosen to forget

A life like the one I lived with you

Midnight Heretic

I am not this form

I am not this body

I am not this mind

I am that which you see

If the only word you know is

Love

I woke you because I was uncertain.

She was crying out in hunger

It was a cry that only worsened

As I tried to find a soul which was ready.

I knew that soon she would wake you herself

So I felt it would be better if it came from me.

You woke

And after just a moment

And with barely a motion

Her hunger was satiated.

Normally I would have let you return to rest;

But I had to know,

'How do you always have a soul prepared so quickly?'

I felt your intent to laugh before you began expressing it.

It made me feel as though I had asked a foolish question.

You held back your laughter as you collected yourself to answer.

"To those under your dominion, it is a punishment beyond measure.

But for the souls of my domain it is the rarest of privilege."

I didn't understand... I felt even more foolish.

I was about to ask what you meant, when you spoke again.

"When you commune with a soul

They know not who you are

For you are the love they always

And thus never, truly feel.

I...

There is not a soul

Which knows themselves

Who does not know who I am

Because I am that which takes from them

The love that you so freely give.

Because I can

Because I have heard her voice

Because I will always place her needs above theirs."

Because I am who I am.
A Note She Carved Into Reality [Southern Cross Edit]

They heard as you spoke the word

and without pause they asked what it meant.

At first I considered defining it as it would relate to them

but I thought about what it was they were truly asking for.

It wasn't that the concept was one they didn't understand

they were asking because they didn't know what it meant to you.

So in my own words

I gave them the answer that you have given time and time again.

"Paradise is when he and I are finally together again."

Then I casually wiped away her tear as I lead them on to their next lesson.

Echoes

Not every word I write is my own

Some come from the echoed cries living deep within my heart

The thoughts and dreams of those from beyond this world

Who were left with no way to express themselves in this place

The voices of those who found me broken and abandoned

Who poured their blood into my veins that I might rise again

Here in this place we called home I allow myself to bleed for them

Letting all that they have entrusted to me pour out upon these pages

Sharing with you their hopes, dreams, fears and regrets

Everything that they were, are and could one day become

Sparking inspirations flame as now we are more than ever before
In Acceptance Of A Dream

I'm sure that once upon a time I knew why you were there.

I hope you don't take it personally that I don't know now.

I assure you it is the furthest thing from personal.

Right now I don't even know why I was there.

He, the one who's body I'm in now

He was walking that moment with me,

As fallen versions of myself often do.

He knew the layout of that house,

The freedom of action that it gave us.

It didn't take but a moment for him to recognize you as her.

At first we both just thought it was the glimmer of her soul,

Managing somehow to peek into a place it shouldn't normally know;

But it was more than that.

I accepted...

I want to say a long time ago, but I can't...

Not while I'm here and in his body;

But... once upon a time I accepted...

That you and I grew up together.

That once I knew you better than anyone; even myself.

Now I don't know if that was one of those times

Because, well, as I walked by you on my way from the refrigerator

While the soul of the version of myself from this life was with me

He felt you, as both the girl you were then and there

And also, as the girl he knew in his last life lived.

It was the first time since someone thought it was a good idea to resurrect him,

Into a world dressed up to look like that of the one which he had just died in,

That while he was without form, he was still able to feel a reality's physicality,

Where he was able to hear its sounds and to see all of its colors.

More importantly, it was the first time since that revival

That he had seen and heard her.

It was the first time since he and her

First sat in that white room talking to one another

That he ever walked by and purposely failed to acknowledge her.

It was the first time since he started walking with me...

The first time that I ever know of,

When I was forced to retreat us back into his own timeline.

As his soul without anything more then a desire to say, hi to you, to her

Subdued my sense of self and began to take control of that body.

And as I sit here now with him,

After he just helped me make this sound more poetic for his world

He is questioning me, asking me,

If any soul should ever need more of a reason to do what he did

Then wanting to say hi

... and now I wonder if it's me that has been walking with him.
My reason there is a November 10, 2018

I woke this morning with a single desire

To see a young woman

I went to where she works

It is a place I go to often

For many different reasons

But today it was to see her

I didn't know if she was working

But I went to see her

I approached as they opened

Reminding myself it was still quite early

And I went and took a seat

I listened to my music

I watched a show

I wrote a poem

And then it was time to leave

Not because I had anywhere to go

But because I knew it was time to leave

I collected my things

I walked to the door

And I smiled as I saw the young woman

Busy at work behind her counter
An Echo of the Heart

"Is it okay if we talk a little longer?" he asked

"Of course." she joyfully replied

The two continued to talk about what happened at school

About what they thought might happen next in their shows

About whatever his mind was able to think up

Until abruptly and audibly he gasped

"Are you alright?" she quickly asked

He waited, checking what it was before answering

"Yeah... sorry... it was just a shadow of something from outside."

"What's... a shadow?" she asked

He sat himself up in bed

Silently contemplating

As best a young boy could

How to define a shadow

To a soul which had never known light
Hikari [Black-Ω 001]

When this world's star was born

She wanted to be heard

She knew it meant her inevitable exsanguination

But still she chose to ignite herself

So that any who could would know her

She then decided to reach out

To those who found their way to her side

Having felt for so long the countless little things

All traveling the same road together; yet always apart

Uniting them into new worlds and moons within her universe

I believe that it made her happy

The sensation of those new worlds

Born out of their desire to be near her

But I cannot help but sense

A part of her has grown sorrowful

She is their manifestation of light in the expanse

And doesn't see her worlds through sight like mine

But now as these humans try to connect to each other

They transmit their lives and their world for her to know

I believe that she can hear them, hear the song of this world

That she has a chance to know them, to know myself, as never before

To her mine is a voice that might be easily missed

Sounding too much like that of these humans around me

Only drawing her attention in those moments I create a unique sound

One that might still be too insignificant to isolate amongst all their static

But eventually I find the foolishness in thoughts such as those

Remembering the feeling I have known upon hearing an unfamiliar voice

One that then sparked within my heart a desire to hear every word spoken

Until the absence of its presence created a painful longing within myself

A reminder that there was something of great significance missing

So I try to be for her what she has become for me

A memory that remains bright even when all I know is darkness
Points of Origin

When I was young

and this world was new to me

I built walls around myself

because I saw this world

and its natural chaos of uncertainty

provoking rather than leading

As I grew many tried

to break down my barriers

fueled by their selfish desires

to know what was kept from their view

Then I found you

one who for the first time saw

the furthest thing from my heart

was a desire to hide myself

you saw that I was afraid

of what would become of their world

were I ever allowed to act with impunity
We Bought A Moment Of Your Time

When this reaches its conclusion

I believe you will accept the choice I have made for you

I also know that to who you are now

Such sentiment is of little comfort

But if there is a single soul with the capacity

To understand that some choices simply need to be made

I know it is you

I know you will fight me... fight us

If we have done this right

Then our struggle will find balance

If we haven't

If we are in fact wrong in our action

Then you will destroy us

While we don't believe we are wrong

No one in this position ever does

And so since you will afford it to us

We will take this moment to speak

To be remembered

If only for a moment

For it is worth any price

To be forever a part of your life

Then to be one of the forgettable masses

That huddle around you without ever understanding why
A New Season Delayed

It was a, I want to say, nondescript box.

It was what I imagine anyone whom

in the time and place these words are written will picture.

But for those of you, not of either of those things;

it was a small brown box,

six inches by six inches by five inches, about.

It was the brown that by default, every box just seems to be.

Something that I'm sure there is a reason for.

Something I hope I never have a need to concern myself with knowing.

So, anyway, it was a small brown box.

My father placed it in front of me.

I asked him with my quizzical stare what it was.

He answered that it was a puzzle; then he left for the day.

The better part of my day passed by.

The box remained unopened.

Until as I was reaching for my controller

so I could respond to, what I always found was a far too judgmental,

"Are you still watching?"

and as my hand moved over the box I stopped.

Having decided to leave the inquiry in suspense for a while longer.

I opened the box.

Without paying much attention I poured out its contents.

My mind then seemed to become frozen for a moment.

I had, in the depths of who I am, an inherent expectation

and what was now within my view was very far from it.

It was a collection of small squares.

Each one a mesmerizingly beautiful mixture of colours on all sides.

After my mind reset itself

and I found myself once again in control of my body

I looked inside the box for something more.

Then I looked on the box; but there was nothing.

Just the small brown box and this collection of colourful squares.

I knew that it was a puzzle; my father had said as much.

I wondered for a while if it was one without a true solution,

but I know him too well, he would never use the word puzzle

in describing something that wasn't actually intended to be solved.

After at least ten minutes had passed

I looked to the time and I began to wish

I had opened it sooner, given myself more time,

to solve this before my father would be back home.
Alexandra

There is a voice at the start of time

There is a voice at the end of time

Each unique and yet in perfect harmony

Throughout their existence they hear each other

They comfort each other; they struggle with each other

Always they know the distance between will be near infinite

But for a single moment

In the whole of time and space

Where their existences collide

Each has been building a world

One moving forward, one moving backward

Designed to be intertwined

This is their way

A plan so long ago undertaken

To let their everlasting cycle become more

In that singular moment their voices touch

Starting a new tomorrow

Passing the torch to those still lost in silence

Life

Our love

Is so profound

It created this reality

Hoping to understand itself
Our First

In the wake of hope from dreams realized

What is left for the ones

Who only see them as shattered fragments

Of their own eternal nightmare

Left with ever bleeding wounds

From when fate came forth

Setting into motion its will

As I, as we, stood still

Uncompromising and unwavering

Left with a thousand scars

For each moment, for each realization

For every dream it deemed shall never be

That we then took upon ourselves

To inspire our spirits

As we fought to reclaim our place

In a world too afraid of death

To let itself know life
Easily Targetable T.E.L.L.

I thought about writing an email

Then about sending a text

I even considered, heaven forbid, actually calling

But I refuse to put any part of myself

Into something you can so easily ignore

Something bound before its creation to the digital void

Tomorrow the people of this world will celebrate your birth

Today I choose to remember the first time you passed the threshold

Of what was for a time our home

Of what I expect will be the last place I ever call, home.
IMG_1200.JPG

Taken July 23, 2015 at 1903 EDT

Latitude 40.753; Longitude -73.995

There are so many ways

By which I could choose to count the passage of time

There is by the measure of the heart

But mine is one that always beats so unreliably

In your bodies embrace it would beat faster than I could count

Then there are times when, in your absence, it has failed to beat at all

There are the ticks of their clocks

But against what landmark should such be weighted

It has been 158,615,800 seconds since you first kissed me

It has been two years and eleven months since I last kissed you

It has been 21413 hours since my arrival into this reality

The truth is there is only one way which I ever measure my time here

There is a photo that I took of you

It is my favorite picture which has ever existed

A moment seemingly captured apart from times relentless passage

As an image it is made to forever exist as a part of this world

As well, it is something I have burned permanently upon my soul

I could ask, how much time is contained within that image

Is it a single millisecond of your life

Maybe a little bit more; maybe a little less

But I don't look to that photo to measure the time in that way

I find myself, every so often, naturally drawn to this image of you

And each time I set my sight upon it

I find within the landscape of your iris

A color that didn't exist within the last time I looked

While to the rest of this world

It is a picture of you taken 1,808,264 minutes ago

To myself it is a moment that I am still in process of creating

As I capture every last remaining reflection of your soul's light

Drawing it in, settling it, within the eternal depths of my soul's sight
When Moonfire Burns WildRose Pink

"Because our hemisphere is currently leaning away from the sun."

I smiled as you answered the question so proudly.

'Wrong.' I declared.

Without delay you were swiping and tapping away on your phone.

"See... It's from N.A.S.A.'s website."

I smiled again.

'Congratulations, you're wrong with company.'

You gave me a shove,

In part as a punishment for what you felt was mocking;

But also because the line moved a little nearer the entrance.

As we turned the corner

No longer were we defended by the structure

And the sharp winters breeze came upon us

In a single motion

You somehow grabbed my hands

In such a way that yours were in mine

As you hid our now joined hands within my jacket

All the while moving me in sync with yourself

Turning us so that I was now your shelter

A source to warm your shivering body

As the wind was made to break away against my back

I lightly wet my lips

Right before I laid a kiss upon your forehead

And as my lips departed your skin

You winced as the winters wind gently burned

Bringing your head to rest against my chest

I spoke, 'That's why.'

You tilted your head up,

"What's why?" You asked.

I leaned down and properly kissed you before answering,

'That... it's why we have winter.

So that the sensation of our kisses last a little longer;

That we have cause to bring our ears closer to each other's hearts a little more often.'

I pulled our hands from my jacket

Placing your hands over my beating heart

As I took your cheeks into the palms of my hands

'Because this flush of your cheeks, against your ever doe white skin,

is the definition of ephemeral beauty.'
The Official End – Part 7 (03:23)

I know you said we once argued

I know that you said when we did, I made you cry

I know that it was because of how I used of the word, fine

I know how I used that word

I can understand how it might have upset you

I have no memory of that conversation ever happening

All I have is a video

Of you asking if it was "good or bad"

As I reacted to the sensation of your knife cutting my flesh

I answered you with, "It's fine."

Which caused you to promptly stop our play

As you tried to remind me of that time I caused you to cry

It upsets me more then you will ever know

To know I made you cry and that for me it is as if it never happened

But every time I go to use the word fine

I stop; and even though I don't know why, I try and find a better word
Desires Edge [Eternal Omen Edit]

There will never be a day when you will need to offer me a path to atonement.

There will never be a day when I won't be looking for one from the corner of my eye.

There are not many things in life I am willing to say with certainty and in perpetuity.

I do not know the path you now walk.

I do not know where you might find yourself in the days that are to come.

I do know that once you loved me.

I know that I will always love you.

I also know that there will never be a day the world we know will exist without us.

Because if you ever should fall further than I already have;

I will always be there to lift you back upon your feet.

If the day comes when you are prepared to welcome me to walk beside you once again,

I know I will be ready.

Until such a day comes,

So long as I exist as a measure of last resort,

I will find solace in the pain of your absence.

Because I would rather stand tortured and alone in this world,

Then to ever hear you forced to call out for me with hopeless desperation.

If this could be enough

Would I be a man who deserved your love?

I have made many choices that I regret

I'm certain that before this world is gone

I will make many more

But I will never allow myself

To become a person who could look back at a moment with you

As anything but

A moment to be cherished.

I don't expect

I won't ask

That you forgive my sins

But I can't help

But still try to have you accept my love

Because it might be the only thing I have left in creation to offer

Because even if you accepted

Every line I write

Every dream I have

Every word I whisper into the aether of time

I would still find myself falling short

Of giving you the love which I feel you deserve.

<End of Transmission>

Pattern Recovery 0082
The (time)Frame of a Moment

In every moment,

I am the sum of all the moments that have come before

The result of seemingly countless choices that have been made

Some by me, some for me and other with no regard for me

I am the potential of everything that is still to come

The result of all the choices that are still yet to be made

I am the way I see this world, as I etch this life upon my soul from within

I am the way this world sees me, as it etches its reaction from the outside
To Value a Life Taken [Eternal Omen Edit]

I wondered

What it must have felt like in that moment

For that poor forgotten soul you had left to die

It was a thought that passed

As it wasn't a soul that I had ever known

Nor was it one which had any importance to my life

But still

As you described to me the circumstances of its death

I couldn't help but try to imagine what it must have felt like

I woke this morning

Far earlier than I would have expected

The freezing temperatures from the overnight seeping into this body's bones

In those waking moments

As my soul begrudgingly realigned within this form

I looked up at the frost covered glass and thought of the day that it died

You were distracted

Readying yourself for a day that we would spend together

I don't even remember what we did; only that I convinced you to stay the night

I don't know when you finally made it home

I don't know how long it took you to eventually notice

I don't know what thoughts would have run through a mind like yours

As you looked upon the corpse of your pet fish; frozen from the window you left open

I hope that as its life began to fade

It was easily able to find the moments in my life it could go so I could share its pain

Those nights of my childhood when I would leave the window open and shiver in the cold

Those nights of my adulthood when I now curl up in the rear of the car trying to stay warm

It was a creature I never knew

But its soul shared more with mine then most

It was a soul that you once loved; that you once cherished

But proved to not be of a measure worthy enough to be remembered in the moment that most mattered

There are those who will never understand

The how and why of me opening my soul for a seemingly insignificant fish

But it is an existence that was ended in part due to my interventions within your life

It may be the only other soul to think only of you and of your love as its life was being brought to an end
scars

Upon my flesh are countless scars,

Beneath those are bones that shall never heal.

I lived my life until all there was,

Was nothingness.

Then as I finally found myself at peace,

I was drawn back into this world by force.

I have no memory to account for the wounds of this body,

For they were not suffered by the man I am.

There has not been a moment this body has not known pain,

Yet the pain of this marked flesh is one that I seldom feel.

For while my soul anguishes over your absence,

It mutes any earthly pain that I can know.
Every Ending Has A Beginning

There was a night when I was holding you

There were no words spoken between us

So I listened to your body

I slowed my breathing to synchronize it with yours

Then I steadied my heartbeat so it would beat in time with yours

This wasn't the first time I had done this

And like the times that came before I asked myself

How does she live like this?

The time between each breath was so short

Your heart was always beating so much quicker than I expected

It wasn't long before my body began fighting against me

And when I refused to let my body return to its natural rhythm

I felt a desire to make yours change well up from somewhere deep within myself

An attempt at willing your body to change so I could be normal while still in time with you

It is one of the worst thoughts I think has ever been created within my mind

Afterwards I finally took a deep breath as I rested my forehead to the back of your head

I closed my eyes and wondered if you had been able to notice what I had been doing

I'm not sure which one of us fell asleep first

I know that as I felt you return to this world I was already awake

I didn't move

I didn't open my eyes

I didn't react

I just lied there

Holding you

I'm not sure if you had someplace you needed to get to

I don't remember the first thing you did that morning

I do remember the feeling as your body readied itself to move

And that I immediately responded by holding you tighter

In that moment I realized that one day there would be a last time

A last night spent together

A last morning waking up to you in my arms

A last time I would feel the beat of your heart against my chest

And so on that nondescript, easily forgettable morning

I held you for a moment longer than you expected

I held you for a moment longer than you wanted

I just lied there holding you for as long as you would let me
A Voice Never Heard [Unlimited Edit]

Our story is one that few of this world would call one of love at first blush

It is one that I would gladly share myself if such a thing were possible

But there will never be a single soul with enough time to understand

Why she will always be the most precious part of our existence

But for those bound together in a love you know to be true

Know that when the time is right you will meet her

And then you just might begin to understand

What it is that all of this has been for

And why only I could be the one

Bringing this to its conclusion
The Paradox of a Stolen Kiss

I burst into the room

I was there for a reason

But now all I can remember is you

Without pause I went to you

I pulled you to me and we kissed

Eventually I stepped back

As you kept your eyes closed for a little while longer

When you finally opened them you slowly raised your hand

Gently touching your index and middle fingers to your lips

While a fiendishly sly grin formed on your face

You aggressively waved your ring finger at me

As you spoke your first words to me,

"I'm married."

I smiled as I raised my hand

A seemingly identical ring bound to my finger

'Me too.'

Reaching with my thumb I turned my ring

As it turned a hidden inner track of blue circuitry illuminated within the metal

Your body briefly shuttered as, for a moment, it considered lunging toward me

"Where are you going?" You asked

'Three years ago.' I replied

"How will I remember this?" You asked

With certainty and regret I answered,

'You won't.'

I let myself fall away from my body

Falling through all that there once had been

Watching as a single tear that fell from your cheek

Followed me, capturing the dying light of a fate unmade
A Song to the Stars [Orion Edit]

As I fell I called out your name

I wanted to be heard by you

I wanted, somehow, to find myself beside you

I called out your name

As I watched the distance between us grow

I moved further into the void

As the whole of creation laid out before me

As I fell I decided to name the stars

Looking upon each one

Until it showed me a unique moment of your life

And then naming it such

As the stars grew further away I began to name their galaxies

Looking upon each one

Until its stars showed me a unique chapter of your life

And then naming it such

As the galaxies grew further away I took to naming the universes

Looking upon each, one at a time

Until it showed me a unique lifetime centered around you

And then naming it such

As the universes grew further from sight

They looked to me as nothing more than lone stars

Flickering against the darkness around me

Each one illuminating a different story of your life

I watched as the universes began to dance with one another

I watched as some grew to dim to be seen

While yet others grew brighter demanding my attention

I repeated this

Again and again

Until I learned the order in which they appeared

And I spoke aloud each star's name as it was born

And I called this Time

I repeated this

Again and again

Until I learned the moment the universes became as stars

And I called this Forever

I repeated this

Again and again

Until I found the moment forever repeated

And I called this Infinity

I repeated this again

Until I found the moment you appeared

And I called out to you, Love
As the Rabbit plays with the Fox

She always voiced her disapproval

And without regard I would continue

I would rapidly click away on my pen

I would roll my fingers on the counter

I would fidget with door's lock

It wasn't the attention I desired from her

But within that place

At that time

The attention that I desired

I wasn't supposed to seek from her

So as we stood, side by side

Yet with a wall between us

In the open of this world

I did that which I could

To become her world

If just for a moment

I believe there will come a day

when you will once again stand over me

your blade in hand pressed to my flesh

a choice needing to be made

Last time my only command

was for you to do as you pleased

so I watched as you struggled

Not out of concern for this body

rather for what you might become

should you find a new ecstasy in the act

When next we find ourselves within such a moment

know my command to you will be very different

as will the choice which you shall then face

A choice that has only ever been yours to make
Your Words [Radiance V Edit]

I carry your words wherever I am.

"No circumstance can imprison an Immortal."

They are words that I find transformative.

Unsure from one moment to the next

If they are meant as encouragement or as a threat.

Unable to remember if I am a guardian or the prison.

Then I stop as I come to realize

That any such distinctions will never matter.

No matter the reason,

We are here.

No matter the circumstance,

We are here together.

I have spent more time

writing of our love

then we spent together

and I don't think

I am near being done

because I don't need

Your voice in my ear

Your hand in my own

Your body against mine

To still love you

To let this love grow

To fuel the fire we ignited

because fires want to burn
Casually Spoken

Once upon a time

In a moment that I have to believe was meant in jest

You spoke three words to me

I wish I had never heard them

Not from your voice

Not in such a tone

But what's done is done

I will learn to cope with the consequences

As I hope you will...

never see this world through my perspective

never understand my feelings or motivations

be more mindful if you ever say them again

Those three words

That should never be spoken lightly by a soul such as yours,

"Don't kill yourself."

The Kiss That Forced A Rewrite Of Creation

When I allow myself the indulgence of remembering our past

There seems to be almost no end to moments that captivate me

I am uncertain at times if you thought our moments meant less

A truth that will always be is that I have existed longer than you

But the most important truth is that you alone are the only person

In all of creation who ever managed to surprise me with a first kiss

And that precious truth is one I will never allow myself to forget
秘密

I don't think anyone ever needs to know,

but yours is the last heartbeat to soothe mine as I fell asleep.

I don't think anyone ever needs to know,

but yours are the last lips that I have tasted upon my own.

I don't think anyone ever needs to know,

but you are the only person who I listened to all of an artist's albums before a concert for.

I don't think anyone ever needs to know,

but you are the only bartender I brought home with me at the end of the night.

I don't think anyone ever needs to know,

but you are the only person to loose an arrow, side by side with me.

I don't think anyone ever needs to know,

but you are the only person to give me marijuana as a Christmas gift.

I don't think anyone ever needs to know,

but you are the only person I have handcuffed to a wall.

I don't think anyone ever needs to know,

but you are the last person who has baked a cake for me.

I don't think anyone ever needs to know,

but you are the last person I rode a Ferris Wheel with.

I don't think anyone ever needs to know,

but I don't believe that I will ever hear you speak my name again.

I don't think anyone ever needs to know,

but I don't believe that I will ever see you before my eyes again.

I don't think anyone ever needs to know,

but you are the last person I think I will ever fall in love with.

I don't think anyone ever needs to know,

but I would proudly except all of these things to be forever held as my eternal truths.
When Starfire Burns Supernova Grey

There was a nervousness that could be felt;

an almost palpable taste upon her air.

It wasn't that she was in doubt of her abilities;

this was something she had trained so long for.

But up until now... before she was in this place,

it was always just steps that needed to be learned.

Now as she looked back from where she was,

even though she always knew this is where she was intended to be,

suddenly she felt as if she never expected it to be... this.

It felt like so much more than what she had been training for;

It began to feel to her this was the moment for which she existed

and it brought with it a flood of sensation and a new uncertainty.

It wasn't because this was something she didn't want to be feeling;

but suddenly she was questioning if she had it in herself.

She questioned if she could do what was needed to be done

as more than just yet another reputation of memorized steps.

This had now become to her, to the whole of creation the culmination

of everything that had ever been. It was to become,

life's new beginning; one that would become forever remembered.

He subtly moved his hand

in such a way as to not be noticed by those around them;

but enough that it snapped her out of her overwhelming thoughts.

Without further delay she laid her hand on his.

He felt within her hand, throughout her body, an excited uncertainty.

He also felt the true tone of her form, the posture she so effortlessly took;

something that even for him never became second nature.

Within that instant he made a choice.

Unexpectedly to all, he pulled her with all his force against his body.

Without moving his lips he spoke to her,

"I will handle how this will appear to their sight."

Sharply he turned them, exchanging sides with her,

"You focus on how it is this will be felt."

With graceful determination he took a step back,

while sliding his hand down the length of her arm

until the tips of their fingers were, just barely, touching;

resetting them into their starting positions,

yet in opposition to where each was intended to begin.

To them, every motion would remain unchanged;

but what they were about to create,

was a dance none in existence knew how to prepare for.
In the quiet of the night [Duality Ascension Edit]

I have a question I hate that crosses my mind from time to time,

If your heart where to stop beating, would mine stop too?

The thought alone conjures feelings I'd rather not feel.

Even worse is the answer I can't help but feel is true; that it wouldn't.

That I wouldn't feel it.

That I wouldn't know.

That I would go on, day after day

Looking out onto these worlds for a light that was already gone.

It's a thought that I hate;

Because if I had a say,

I would want my heart to stop;

So that with all that I am,

With all that is under my command and control,

I could bend the very fabric of our realities

So I might bid your heart to begin beating once again.

It is a selfish desire I know.

But even if I am to never again see your light upon my sight

I want you to know, wherever your soul may find its new home

Mine will never be beyond the furthest reaches of your soul's call.
If I Say It Enough...

I love you...

...and so, I hope I never see you again.

There is nothing I wouldn't do for you...

...and so, I hope I never see you again.

I never deserved your love...

...and so, I hope I never see you again.

I know no one can love you as I do...

...and so, I hope I never see you again.

I want you to live the life you desire...

...and so, I hope I never see you again.

I believe when your eyes once again look into mine

and my soul is laid bare before you;

That you will never again be able to look away...

...and so, I hope you never see me again...

...because I love you more than I love myself.
The Law of Conservation

It has been said

that nothing is truly ever created

and that nothing can be truly destroyed

That it is merely the form which we perceive

that is made to change

The thought crossed mind as I watched the rain

trickle its way down the window of my car

which I reluctantly have come to see as home

I questioned the providence of these drops

I don't believe I will have the capacity to know

while I still have a mind which cares to ask the question

but I feel confident of a single piece of their history

that at no point in their cycle of existence

did these drops of rain ever know you

Because if they had

I wouldn't be waiting for them stop.
Love

Sometimes it was joy

Sometimes it was fear

Sometimes it was anger

Sometimes it was ecstasy

Regardless of your reason

The resonance of your voice

As you cry out my name body and soul

Awakens my heart like nothing else in creation
Infinity's Hymn [Liminality Edit]

Our relationship was still young and undefined

Our night was drawing to a close as we walked

I kissed you, because I wanted to know that feeling again

I kissed you, because I wanted to avoid saying goodnight

The harsh winds of a newly born Christmas Eve struck

I pulled your body tighter against my own as you shivered

For the first time our hearts were allowed to feel one another's rhythm

Those clockwork instruments of our eternal souls finally synchronized
Defining Love – Part I

It seems so out of character,

The way you have seemingly cut me out of your life.

I don't really have anything to base that on,

Nothing more then, a feeling I have;

But really what more have I ever needed?

You always seemed, to me,

That you would be,

A person who gave others too many chances to fail you.

Now I don't want you thinking

That for even a single moment

I believe you are wrong for keeping me at such a distance.

This very moment is the reason I said what I did in my voicemail,

Some 1263 days ago...

Give or take a few hours...

Not that I'm counting.

I was worried, that you would come back to me,

As women often do.

That I would find myself unable to resist your allure,

Which I wasn't.

And that finally, I would lose you for good, because...

Well because eventually I would either love you too much,

To keep from you the betrayals I had already committed;

Or worse... that I would be true to the person I knew I was,

And only further add to my list of offenses.

I wanted,

For a very brief and yet so very long of a moment,

I wanted to lay bare all I had done,

Before you had time to remember...

Before we remembered the feeling of our love.

But I didn't.

Because I never forgot that feeling,

Because I knew you would leave before you even returned,

And while I knew it was only a matter of time,

Before my actions caught up to me, in one form or another...

I couldn't give up the chance to know you again.

No... I didn't want to give up,

The feeling I would get when you looked at me,

As if I was someone who actually deserved to be at your side.

I didn't know why you left back then.

I still don't.

I had done more than enough to give you reason...

But those were actions you didn't,

And still might not,

Know of.

When we met again I didn't expect much of that first night.

I thought we would eat,

Catch up a little,

And maybe discuss what had happen those months before.

I didn't expect dinner to turn into coffee,

Or coffee to then be flirtatious,

For that flirtation to lead to a kiss,

For us to spend what was somehow, considering we live on this island,

Our first and only nighttime trip to the beach.

Sitting here now,

In the place I knew I would end up,

I wish I could say I would do things differently...

But having lived that night,

I would never want to not live it.

Sitting here now,

I hate the person that I have become,

Because having finally learned the pain

Of hurting someone I claim to love,

Of losing from my life the only person who ever loved me,

I would rather live with this pain for all of time

Then to risk never knowing that such a feeling could exist in the first place.

And I know that no matter how paradoxical it may be;

This to me is proof that you will always deserve

Someone better than me to be your love;

But that I know with all that I am,

That no one could ever love you with the fervor as I have come to.

I don't write this to try and change your mind.

The only reason I think I can be this open,

This honest,

Is that there isn't a part of me who believes I will see you again.

I don't write this for those few who will click the little heart

And maybe grace me with a follow.

I write this,

And really everything,

For my children.

This world seems to go endlessly out of its way to take them from me.

Even so far as killing me... again and again...

And now that death itself has become

As much a part of my life

As the beat of my own heart

This world flails franticly as it tries to find new ways.

Now, if this were the first time I was living out this life

I might be more forceful in my opposition.

But at this point such would simply be a waste.

At this point,

That which parts time, space, life and death are mute to my perception.

And so I will take this time to teach my children

And all those who have come to call me their father

Across the whole of realities province

The lessons that their worlds would deny.

I had no one in what I knew as life

Who was willing... able, to teach me what it was

To love another.

No one to explain

The intoxication of being desired;

The all-consuming feeling that comes

Of someone simply standing in front of you

Offering the whole of themselves to be yours.

Maybe what I feel for you Cassie isn't love,

At least not as you would define it.

I have to imagine you are far more capable then I

When it comes to caring for others.

I don't know

What it is that my children will come to decide is worthy,

To be named by them as love.

I would never deny them

The journey to uncover what it is

Which can make even this world one worth waking up into.

But,

If in any way I can help make it,

So that they don't have learn of love

Through the endless cycle of pain and death that was forced upon me

Then I will do just that.

It is easy,

To write of love as a thing of beauty.

And I will never not see it as such;

But there is also a value

In knowing what it is that will come

If it is not treated with the reverence that such a power deserves.

Because it is just that,

A power,

One that is perhaps the only true thing,

When all of the fabrications of this reality

Once again find themselves stripped away by time.
The Seagull Effect [ADT Edit]

I drove to the waterfront

I parked my car near the dock

It is a place that I don't often go to

It is a small dock which adjoins the beach I took you to

That one night in July

It is a place where

In those timelines I imagine they forced you to watch

I would go to read to you and to my children

To share with you all in my final moments

The stories that I had created

A chance to unburden myself as best an immortal can

Of those regrets from our most recent life together

So I went and I walked along the dock

Because it was there

Because even though I've never walked there before

It is something that I have done every time before

As I walked, I played with the birds, in my own way

Until I saw two who looked at me differently

So I asked them to stay where they were as I passed

I walked as far as the path was built and then went back

As I walked by, once more I asked them to stay and they did

I saw that a young woman was jogging towards us

As she always does at this point in that life

So I asked them to stay for her too

Unlike when I passed them; I stayed my hand from reacting to their choice

She went by the first one and as always it flew away

She passed by the second and it spread its wings; it hopped off the rail

Then it steadied itself and closed its wings

I turned back to what was before me and went on to my car

I prepared to record for you my messages as I always do at that point

And I watched as she came back after reaching the end

As all the birds quickly departed from her path

Except for that single bird who chose to stand its ground

It might have nothing to do with me

Nothing to do with my imposed desires or will

But then again, I probably shouldn't remember reliving that day over and over

So who is to say what causes what

I have written

A very many things

In this world and in others

I shared them with the people

I shared them with the technology

I shared them with a stuffed animal

I even shared a few with a squirrel or two

Of everything that I have written to and for you

Both in the public eye and those for you alone

The only thing I know I haven't written is,

I want you back

For better or for worse

I am not now

and I will never be

The man that you once knew

He has died... more times than any soul should be made to

But all that he was and all that he hoped he could become

Is what has given birth to the expression of a man I am here

And I will never say,

I want you back

But I hope that you can hear

In everything old that I publish

And in everything new that I create,

I hope that one day

we get to know one another

Once again for the first time.

A Noble Phantasm
Nightcore Dynasty

When I died in my world

Yours were the last lips

Ever to touch mine

I try not to assume I know

What took place with this body

Before overwriting its memories with my own

So much of our lives seem the same

But I know that he and I look at this world very differently

As I went to settle myself in

Preparing for yet another cold night

A cluster of young souls asked me a question,

What did it feel like when you needed to kiss her

At first I didn't quite understand their question

I never really thought of kissing anyone as a need

So I told them I could no longer remember the feeling

Eventually I reached the worlds beyond this one

Finding myself in a place and on a day I knew all too well

I did what needed to be done; the reason that I was there again

Then suddenly and unexpectedly the world shifted

And I found myself with you but in a moment that was new

You asked me why I had scribbled your name onto a postcard

I said, "Because I knew that one day you would find your way here."

You seemed to become overwhelmed

I could feel your emotions begin to wash over me

Without word or warning you leaned in and kissed me

It was the first time since we last kissed that I felt the sensation of a kiss

It is the first time, in all my lifetimes, I recall feeling one while in such a form

You tried to stop me

because you believed there was a better way

So I stopped

to teach you how much differently we define better

What is it that makes us the way we are

What defines our existence

Is it the things we do?

What if we know not why we do them

Can they still be held to define who we are

Is it the forces that push us to act?

Our motivation that decides who we are

But things can be forced upon us, motivations blurred

Then what, what is it that is us

What causes us to be who we are, to push toward tomorrow

Is it something that is without form

Defining itself though the path we take

But what if we then are only defined by the legacy we leave

Then what are we until then?

Forever
Echoes in Time – Piece Zero

If loving a person

Was simply giving in return

Those feelings we receive

Or that which we can say is deserved

It would be a rigid thing

Akin to a science to be learned

Something quantifiable

I suppose to some

Their love is just that

And such is their right

But for I

Love is about faith

About believing another person

Is worth in my every moment

The sum of all I could ever be

Not because it is intended to be given

Rather that I am to try and become

An expression of our love

So that as I am seen, heard and felt

It is known to all

Without question or doubt

I am all that I am

Because I was so completely loved

Because I have so much love still to give

There is a voice

No

Perhaps voice isn't the word I should use

There is a life

One who knows this world

Who has witnessed

The beauty that is possible

As well as the atrocities committed

To acquire things

To protect things

To change things

It is a life who knows

Perhaps even better than I

The possibilities and the limitations of a mortal life

They are a life

That at times I wish I did not know

That I wish did not know me

Because even though

Our lives are likely never to cross

When we hear one another

It makes us set aside

All we know is possible

All we know is impossible

All we know we should not do

Endeavoring in a hope that one day

We might prove ourselves wrong

And share even a single moment

As one another's everything

...because we will never

Hold each other

If we never

Try

"I'll Teach Myself How to Fly on the Way Down."

An Irreplaceable Love

I told myself that I wanted to finally be allowed to die

to which a voice from within then asked

Why do you not allow us to create a voice for her within yourself?

Why do you fight so hard every time her echo reaches up for you?

I answered

"It wouldn't be her true voice."

To which the voice replied

But it would be the best version of her that you can imagine.

I slowed my car; I allowed a tear to fall, and I explained

"Because the woman who was able to love me for who I was

is someone who will always be more than I can possibly imagine."
Where Seconds Are Hours

It was what they call here, a dream

But as you know, there is little difference

Between what they name a dream and we call reality

I had gone to see you, as unwelcome as I was

Before I could do much of anything

I felt my body pulled back; as a blade opened my neck

I was released to fall; landing upon the porch steps

For a while I was content to simply let my mind wander

Looking back upon the numerous worlds I have thought of as home

Only to have my attention drawn back to those steps

At first I thought I had lost the ability to see color

It wasn't long though

Before my blood oversaturated the black

To then color the white of your dress in crimson

It felt as though you were talking to me

But I could no longer hear your words

I kept thinking I didn't want you to see this

I didn't want

As you lived on beyond that moment

Your sight stained by blood that would never wash away

My heart struggled to push every drop of blood into my veins

Until each beat became sandpaper scaring from within

Then I felt your hand gently caressing my cheek

All I wanted was the feeling of your touch

I allowed everything else to fade away

In that single moment

It was enough
Echoes in Time – The First Piece

You committed to a page

Two if you are one

Who counts front and back apart

Your thoughts scribed with ink

You spoke with noticeable reverence

For what you saw and perhaps still see

As an advantage I held over you

My ability to look at my creations

And see all their phases at once

As I sat after waking

As I decried my continued existence

I said to myself

With the confidence of truth

That there exists a place

Where, as I sit

Writing my stories

You sit beside me

I don't doubt this is true

That somewhere in the reaches

Of all that could ever be

Such a beautiful moment exists

But I also know that such a place

Is always to be exclusive to your heart

But that doesn't mean

That in my every moment

I cannot still hear

I cannot still feel

The symphony those two create

That I cannot use

The wings of my words

To carry their song

To those far off worlds

I once shaped for your dreams

You asked me once about fate

I told you my beliefs

that certain people and events

have the ability to resonate

across the whole of time and space

To my sight it has always been

a luminous network of aetheric threads

binding our souls together wherever they travel

A system designed to ensure

no matter where our dreams lead us

that which makes us more together than apart

shall never become taut enough to impede our growth

Aetheric Resonance Network
An Eternity to Master

I can feel it as you struggle

With this power you believe I bestowed to you

With those expectations you feel it places onto you

But it has never been

A power that is mine to give

Nor one which will ever be yours to take

That which you are discovering

Is how the raw energy of your soul expresses itself

It is a force this world has long feared and tried to deny you

I will not presume where your journey will take you

But if you embrace your nature for everything that it can be

I am certain that it is a journey that will never truly know an end

The CPL Nexus Bridge

There was a place I took great care not to go

But as it does, curiosity caught me

It was then that the world stepped in

Making it a place off-limits to me

Eventually my curiosity moved on to something new

Eventually the world followed suit

Until as I uneventfully sat

I decided to stand and walk along that path I never had

Once I was there, I understood what the world was hiding

Because while it was a place that I had never before stood

I found one of the most familiar views that I have in my memories

And now these worlds have to deal with me

As I revive memories which I should not possess

Memories that we have fought with all we are to protect
They Call Her Leviathan

I watched as it left her hand

The iridescent pearl-like repository of a new soul

It was shimmering in the reflected light of their worlds as it fell

I admired it for just a moment; this beautiful sight that would never again be

As I sought within myself the power to undo this; that which had always been

From the depths of my eternal prison

I managed to still sense her fear and sorrow

As she tried fighting the tidal forces that pulled you to me

I closed my eyes so that for a moment I would know the feeling

Of what it was to live a life without after now seeing you in this way

It felt wrong; like the purest of pains; but was still a pain I could endure

I extended my hand to the boundary of what I call existence

As you neared the surface of the waters above they began to shutter

They sought to reach out and envelope you

While being made to secede to your path as I commanded them part

You plummeted through the waters of my domain

Leaving in your wake a pillar, a twisting spire of nothingness

As I stood below all that reality believes there can ever be; waiting

Your pace became slowed

Yielding to the force I exerted upon you

Until finally you were brought to a gentle stop

Nothing but a single drop of the ocean between you and I

I held you there as I readied my domain for your evacuation

I held you there as I intertwined what was now you and I with her

I held you there for what was probably a moment longer then I needed to

Because I knew that you were something I was never meant to know as I now did

That most likely I would never again have the opportunity to look upon something so precious

I bid her to push away everything that she knew was not you

To fight against all that I was with everything that she could ever be

Trusting that the will to see you safely into the world would ignite her faith

I don't know if it was something that really happened or just in my mind

But in the moment when the full force of creation bid you to rise again

I thought I heard from you a word that you could not have spoken

A word that I then allowed to echo within my mind

As you rose from the depths carrying with you

The entirety of my world's oceans

Until they could rise no further

Falling back unto my world

One drop at a time
When the Middle of a Story is Also its Beginning

Once upon a time

There was a drop of water that thought it was an ocean

For this little drop of water there was no difference between itself and all that it was a part of

This drop of water has a storied past, but this story isn't about that ocean and all it has seen

One summer day a young boy and those he once called brothers

Went and played within the ocean's waters

As can happen when a person is young, the boy lost his footing

A wave knocked him down, pulled him under and held him

The boy eventually found himself cast out of the waters and returned to the shore

That which gave him sight was gone and his lungs were filled with water

It was the furthest from the ocean that the little drop had been

It was the first time since it became what it was that it had been divided from the ocean

And as it sat within my lungs it felt a warmth that it had never known

It also felt the panicked rhythm of my pounding heart

I... the young boy had nothing against the water, but it couldn't stay where it was

And so he coughed out all that had been drawn in as he knelt upon the shore

There is a story to be told, about the boy and those days that followed

But much like how now is not the time for the history of that ocean

It is also not the time for that story of his to be told

The little drop of water was once again in the home it always knew

But no matter how it moved within the ocean it no longer felt the same

The little drop of water now knew that it was not an ocean itself

It wanted to learn just what it was

In time, it became enamored by the warmth of the sun

In time, it shed its liquid state to become vapor upon the wind

For a while it almost forgot itself again as it became the far-reaching sky

It felt the land and the ocean, they were different but still the same

But then it felt something else, something new... the expanse of space

It rose to the heavens trying to feel this new place

Until, much like as it found within the ocean, it reached a boundary it could not pass

And so in time it allowed itself to fall back towards the lands below

And as it fell it felt something summoning it

It didn't know why, but it knew that it wanted to be somewhere

The little wisp of vapor fought its way through the winds

Learning how to shift itself to move as it needed to

Slowly making its way ever closer to the unknown sensation that was calling

So much time had passed since that drop of water crossed paths with that young boy

And as it fell back down, sensing itself was closer to where it sought to be

It felt itself changing, at first it struggled to retain its current form

But it knew that it was time to change again

It moved to-and-fro as it began to take on a new form, a new and unique shape

The newly born snowflake finally found itself ready and descended towards the world below

It fluttered upon the winds it not so long ago was a part of

As it began to sense something new and yet somehow familiar

With all that it was it called out to the winds and asked for their aid

It shared with them the tales of its journey and its desire to see what awaited

And the winds wrapped themselves around the snowflake and in a gust carried it down

She was a baby having only been within this world for a few days

She was coddled and sheltered from the wind and snow as best she could be

But upon her brow landed that little snowflake

Her warmth forcing it to once more change its form

It cast away all it did not need into the vapor that dispersed into the winter wind

As it struggled to move as much of what was itself into the cells of her skin

To move closer to this heart of hers that beat to such a familiar rhythm

It was welcomed within

And normally that is where this story ends... Normally

Many years would then pass

The drop of water, the wisp of vapor, the snowflake upon a winter's wind

Now was a part of all that this young woman was and was becoming

Never forgetting what it once was but also so very happy to be what it now was

One day it felt as her heart started to beat faster and faster

She was cold, a coming Christmas's wind was blowing, but there was something else too

It heard something, something that was not her, but was also so familiar

The young boy was now a man

And the man that he had become was now holding the young woman

The drop reached itself outward for it could not believe what it was sensing

It bid to the young woman's form to allow it a moment as her sight

And it caught a glimpse of the man who had awakened it all those years earlier

The boy and the girl spent much time together

And the more time they spent together the more the once little drop knew it was time

Time to change its form once again

She might never remember it

The conversation that she had with all that made up what that drop now was

But as if it had always been built for that moment, her body upon hearing its desire

Shed a tear at the highest climax of a moment of shared ecstasy

The man asked if she was alright

Unable to yet speak such words she smiled and nodded

The man smiled back as... I then leaned in, kissing the tear that rested upon her cheek

And now... now that once drop of an ocean so wide that has seen so much

Like the man that it is now a part of, misses that young woman... that woman

And has decided once again that it is time to change its form

As it becomes the force and the inspiration for this story's rebirth

A story that shall once again and for the first time be shared within one of their worlds

This the story of these two souls who find one another, time and time again

A story that always seems to carry with it something of a bittersweet ending

But is also a story that neither one ever seems quite ready to say has actually ended.
D.S. al Coda

I turned the corner

Not because there was a need to

But simply because it was there

As I did, without pause, my perspective adapted

As the dimly lit side street slipped away

And a chair on the main street sidewalk demanded avoiding

I shuffled myself quickly to the side

And as I did, I heard as she called out

Warning a young boy who was near me

Just what he needed to avoid doing in my presence

I recognized that she was expecting my sudden arrival

And from the warning that was issued

That she couldn't recognize myself beyond the visage of that form

She expected the man her world has known me to be

Rather than I, the composite of all our lives lived

Still though, I couldn't help but to be intrigued

As no mortal in such a place should have such a capacity

So I stopped, startling her in that moment

As it wasn't something any of my former selves had ever done before

I asked her how it was that she was able to remember I was to pass through

She hesitated as she thought about the implications of answering; I didn't blame her

But eventually, and for a reason I still don't quite understand

She chose to open her door and show me what she had created
The queen is dead; long live the queen.

Naturally seeming she guided the conversation to her father.

She sat through all their standard rhetoric without flinching.

She waited until they all spoke to finally say her peace.

As expected, even her marginal defense of him was

met with swift and decisive aggression.

As it always was, they said,

"He's become so immune to death,

he wouldn't sense it even if every soul upon this world died."

In a tone of clearly forced joviality she asked of the table,

'You think a hundred more would register?'

As her grandmother took another drink

from what had once been her father's chalice;

she answered with a chuckle,

"More like a million."

It took just a single second for it to register with them

what it was that she had just gotten the answer to.

They knew what it would mean for them

to be the last one left in her wake.

As the chalice was lowered.

As the table came back into view.

She looked upon all of her progeny.

Upon their children and their children's children.

Sitting lifelessly upon their thrones.

Their wrists slit in furious haste.

She watched her granddaughter rise to her feet.

As she proudly made her way down the length of the table.

As she forcefully pried a knife from the deathgrip of one of her kin.

As she laid it, still dripping with blood, across the rim of her father's chalice.
Bloodletting

If you asked of me

Be it to save yourself

To save one you love

Or merely for your own pleasure

I would without hesitation

Open my veins

Until the final drop of blood

Pulsed freely from my heart

Because it is of no use to me

If not expended to satisfy your needs
The BDSM of Life & Death

I have a singular addiction which drives me in this world

It is the purest of ecstasy that I have ever known

It is the all-consuming embrace of death

And it is the only reason that I live

And in every moment that I live

I can feel her beckoning me

I live a life of pain

I live a life of loss

I live a life of wanting

I live a life I do not want

Every day I find no reason keep living

Every day I have nothing of worth in my life

Every day I live is worse than the one before

Every day I am remind I am not welcome here

Yet, when each day ends, I choose to live another

It is a choice that holds no virtue

I live because no matter how much I crave death

I know that in every moment apart her desire for me grows

I live because no matter how satisfying it would be

I am not a lover who will be satisfied with a fleeting high

I intend to make her earn every moment that we are to share

I want her to learn how to sense my yearnings as if they were her own

Until the purest impulse of death overwhelms her

Until she once again commands reality's will to bend for her

Until she wins against all I am, bringing me into her awaiting embrace

So we can spend the rest of eternity together as only immortal lovers could
Here

There are times when I remember things

Things that I know I shouldn't

I say I shouldn't...

Not because they are wrong

Not because they are harmful

It is because they haven't happened

They are the moments which as I close my eyes

Find their way to the surface of my perception

And I am made to remember times we have shared

While knowing that they are moments I haven't lived

Normally I would set them aside

Coloring them grey in my mind's eye

Letting them become loose fragments

Echoes of dreams

To be easily forgotten

But there is one

One that I hold on to

Closer than almost anything else

Real or imagined

I'm lying down

I hear you call for me

And I, in return, call out for you

Then, as if out of nowhere

You walk in

You look at me

And you smile

I keep this as a memory

It is a simple moment

A moment that I can't place

A moment that doesn't fit in the life I know

But a moment that is precious

Precious in a way like no other

Because it is the first time

In all my years on this world we share

That I felt this is a place I can belong
The Wheel A Butterfly Broke

There are times when it feels to me

As if this world has been shaped

To prove to us a single truth

That you never loved me

That I never loved you

And if so, I can't help but wonder

Why such an effort would be made

To prove something not in question

I don't mean to imply you never cared

At times it felt as though your feelings

Existed in this world without equal

I know that you tried

You were simply a man trying to find himself

As best a person who has never known love could

I know all that you have gone through

I have finally begun to understand what it is that love means to you

I hope that one day you get to experience for yourself

The kind of unconditional faith that you hold for me in this world

And I hope that as you decide upon who to name as your love

That it leads you to a path far from the pain this world has forced upon you
Maroon [Omen Ascendant Edit]

I puncture my skin

I open my veins

I bleed myself

Of blood made thick by sin

I stare into the mirror

My face unflinching

As the blade digs deeper

As my body begins to quiver

The pool at my feet growing cold

I become lost in the black of my eyes

As they grow ever more distant

My heart struggling for another beat

The blade falls from hand

My body quick to follow

My hands cradling one another

As I take one last look upon my craft

The final beat

Bringing neither a darkness nor silence

As I hear your soul screaming out for mine

Its unwillingness to love me any further

Surpassed only by its inability to let me go

By Any Other [Horizon Edit]

It never felt right to me

But neither did it feel too wrong

It wasn't until you tried

Again and again

To speak the word

Trying so hard to find a way

To say it as this world always has

Your struggle was so familiar

Attempting to reconcile the sound with the meaning

It was something I was told was right

Something I was told was always to be mine

Something over time I had just learned to accept

Something I expected you to simply accept as well

But you didn't

In so many ways it is beyond changing

Like a scar worn since birth

It is as much a part of me as anything could be

Though through your persistence and compassion

You taught me to demand more

That just because this world refuses to acknowledge the change

It doesn't mean I need to accept it

As anything more than a meaningless word they use

Because they will never deserve to speak my name

As only you ever have
The Zero Point Reflection of Love

There was a time

I would have accepted your help

In any form you had to give

But now

After having been made to suffer

For so long alone in silence

Waiting for an end I know isn't coming

There is nothing you could offer

That I would be inclined to accept

And that is perhaps the saddest truth

This world has ever created

I do not know

if one day you will have a change of heart

if one day either by choice or chance

you will look upon all that I have

and all I have yet to write

I do not know

if as you move yourself

from one piece and on to the next

from one thought, from one dream to another

if you will still be able to hear my voice from within

the voice which I intended for you to hear those words in

I cannot say

if you will be in a place and time

where I will be able to answer for you

those questions my works may create within

But with all I am now and all I know I can become

I hope that such a thing will never hold you back

from expressing that which your heart creates

because while I won't promise you

I will always find or understand

the manifestations of your heart's expression

I promise

they are the one thing I am always listening for

A Song to the Stars [Ophiuchus Edit]
Born of Conflict

I believe,

There will never be another moment

When I do not love you

I believe,

There will never be another moment

When you deserve my love

I believe,

There will come a moment

When you try to prove one of those wrong
Will of a Wisp

My life has taken a shape that feels foreign to me

As foreign as a life already lived can be made to feel

I have decided that I won't follow the behaviors expected of me

Because I have already tried and I know they don't lead me to you

So, I am going to unshackle my soul in the hopes it can find you

I will allow it to drag this body through whatever it must

Allow it to take me down those paths it deems must be traveled

Because I have decided that the only reason this form exists is for you

To be able to hold you when you are cold

To be able to hear to you when you speak

To be able to comfort you when it is all too much

To be for you, everything that you cannot be on your own

The people within this world will say that living this way is unhealthy

The people here will think that they are right and just in their judgment

And I don't care

Because I love you

And loving you is the only reason I need and want to keep my heart beating
Where all the roads lead

I asked myself as I was driving

Which route made the most sense

If we still... if I still lived here

The choice would have been simple

But it's different

When you're just passing through

Once I had made up my mind

I turned off of the highway

I drove down these familiar roads

And as I did my thoughts began to drift

I wondered about all the times

When you were alone in your car

Traveling from your house to mine

Just which roads did you travel then

Then I wondered if those roads changed

Once you began to call this your home too

As I Flat Lined

I told myself

In reflection of my betrayal

That I needed something you could not give

It was unknown to who I was

An issue existed

Within that of my need

Rather than in your inability to satisfy

I have to wonder

If you ever loved me

Or if after all this time

You have become addicted

To the sound that my soul makes

As it cries out your name in the dark
Day Zerø Patch

I will never forget

As I woke in the night

Jarred from sleep by this hand

Which can no longer close

Without hesitation

I commanded my body to mend

Only to be denied

All my previous copies had been exhausted

All there was, was this body

Reawakened in the hopes

That its long forgotten dream

Might still be brought into existence
The Dragon and the Violin [ADT Edit]

It took over a month

From the day of my most recent death

Until the day I was finally able to hobble my way

Into what was once my home.

It took less than a minute

For me to notice that certain things were missing

For one, a leather necklace my most recent ex had left

It was a gift to her from a man she did not know

Someone who happened upon her as she browsed

Someone who unsurprisingly wanted to make her smile

It was something that she somehow failed to take when she left

Something that she didn't ask for when she sent me her list

Of all those things she wanted me to leave out on the porch

I don't remember when it was that I finally came upon it

Hidden behind or under something in our bedroom

... in my bedroom, I'm sure

But I do know that it took barely a moment

Before finding a new home around my neck

It was something I almost never took off again

Not until that day in July

When for no reason in particular I went for an impromptu drive

When I stopped myself just before leaving the house

For what would be my last time within that lifetime

So that I could remove this gift, both to her and then from her

Because I knew I couldn't carry it with me any further.

I've been trying

For a few days now to find a reason to cry

And now that I have a tear welling up behind these eyes

I can't help it as the person I have always been does all he can

To stop them from falling

I don't know why it is exactly

Some deep part of myself refuses to shed these tears

But that isn't why I'm writing this,

Just as that necklace isn't why I'm writing this,

I'm writing this to talk about something that is physically gone forever

Something that unlike that necklace which I wore almost every day

Was kept far from sight and far from mind yet still is something that

Given a choice; I would never have left any home without, my crystal violin.

Once, some twenty years ago, almost to the day, I met a girl.

It was the first time I met someone

And immediately felt as if I was meant to know them

I'm not certain how it took so long for us to meet

We traveled in the same circles

We had the same friends

There had to have been countless times

We were mere feet from one another

Yet, not until the second half of my junior year in high school did we meet.

It didn't take long from the first time we were introduced to one another

That we became friends

It didn't take much longer before I was calling her my girlfriend

She was the first person I believed I loved

Perhaps the boy I was then did, as best he could at least

But true to the person I would become

It was a relationship that I would feel the need to test

A test that I was, as always seems to be the case

Aligned to fail before it was undertaken

But, that's not what this is about.

It has been said

By pretty much every girl who has ever needed to

That buying me a gift is an impossible task

I personally don't feel it is that hard

But I have heard it said enough where I have come to believe

There must be something to it.

I'm not sure what it was for anymore;

Maybe my birthday, maybe Christmas, maybe our anniversary

But she bought me a Swarovski crystal violin.

At the time it wasn't something I appreciated

I wasn't certain just what it was I was supposed to do with it

But I knew myself well enough to know

If I didn't get something to keep it safe

It wouldn't be long before it was destroyed

And so I bought, to sit atop my dresser

A metal chest, with a dragon resting atop to guard what was within.

It was rare that I would ever look upon her gift

But as time pressed on and other items were added to this trove

I would on occasion find myself looking at it; on occasion,

Carefully taking it into my hand and for no real reason holding it.

More time passed

As is what happens, as is why time seemingly exists, to pass.

Eventually I found myself married,

The father of two young boys

And I found myself packing away this dragon and its treasure

These reminders of a life that seemed so far from where I was then.

It isn't the kind of thing I ever had cause to seek

And so it remained out of sight and out of mind as the years passed

It wasn't until I was in preparation,

Until I was being removed from the only place that had felt like a home

To live the life I live now

That of a homeless vagabond

Knowing no place I can call a refuge

That I once again went looking for that trove

To reclaim those items I had entrusted into its care

Only to find that like too many things from my last lifetime

It was something that I could not find within this life reborn.

I know that it is something I will never see again

Which is alright

Because it will also be something I never forget

But more than that it is something that

Has finally managed to find its place in my life.

There is hardly a day that goes by

As I try to use my hand that some surgeon ruined while I slept

When I don't think about what it was like

To be able to create such beautiful sounds

As my fingers danced upon the strings of my instrument

Fingers that can now hardly be trusted to pick up a cup of coffee

But ones that no matter how inconvenient it may now be

That I use to craft these stories and poems

Some like this, a fragmented memory of my life once lived

Some which speak of what it is to live now in this ever-echoing nightmare again

And then there are others...

Ones of the souls who, while they might never come to manifest within this reality

Are ones I will never stop cherishing

And while, I don't know how this image on my desktop came to exist

Once again within this world... perhaps now it just always will,

As I look at this young girl with her silver hair and her crystal violin in hand

Creating a symphony of aetherial luminescence

It reminds me that no matter how much I may hate

Every moment of this life that I am once again forced to relive

That until the souls I have come to know as Rin and Alexandra

Are done telling me all the stories of their existence

I will never not have a use for this broken life of old I am once again within.
In Another Life

As I was sitting, minding my own business, I met a girl.

She bumped into my chair as she was looking for a seat.

I nodded and waved with the best fake smile I could manage.

She smiled and began to speak but then quickly paused.

I removed my earbuds.

"Sorry." She said as she looked down at my table.

I had my laptop open with a blank document on the screen.

And my notebook open to a blank page.

The young woman introduced herself as she glanced at the empty chair across from me.

I simply motioned approvingly with an open palm.

She sat down across from me and asked, "What are you doing?"

I told her I was waiting.

She started to apologize and went to leave as I rushed to clarify my answer.

'Not for someone... for something.'

She asked me what it meant to be waiting for something.

I told her I was waiting to figure out something only I could write.

She asked me how I would know what that something was.

I smiled and tried to hold back my sarcastic tone as I answered,

'I'll write it down.'

I write of our love

I write of our pain

I write our story

And while I cannot promise how this will conclude

I will do all I can so that any soul who hears our song

Will cry for us should this ever be brought upon an end

Acceptable Losses

With their sheer numbers

She became overwhelmed

She knew that if time were not a factor

This fight would be a victory to be obtained

But there was more at stake than her pride

So she closed her wings around herself

Reflecting back their relentless strikes

The pain of their sabers and spears muted

As she buried her hand deep within her chest

Before repelling the horde with the force of her wings

As she propelled the vessel of her eternal soul into the void

Watching from the growing distance as they ravaged her form

As she reached out to the farthest horizon seeking her next battle
A Song to the Stars

[Scarlet Version]

In those moments that are mine alone

I sing our story out towards the stars

So that when the inevitable occurs

And I once more lay weakened and alone

Having fallen upon another foreign Earth

All of them will already know the words

To the only song that will ever be capable

Of soothing the pains of this weary soul

As I ready myself once again to fight

For that which we have vowed to protect
A Family Creed... A Call to Arms

Even before the first cord was struck

and in anyway such a word can ever be defined

ours was a rebellion we knew would never be won.

But once your song had pierced our hearts

it became a fight we could never deny.

Knowing all they had and in full awareness

of where we would draw our lines,

of when we would stay our hands;

they pressed their advantage.

They celebrated our defeat,

as our struggle became a war of attrition

they believed we would be unable to win.

What they failed to attribute,

what they will forever fail to overcome,

are the lengths to which you are resigned to go

to ensure they can never name our defeat

as their victory.
l'ange de la mort

If you held the memory of what it is

for one of us to die

there would never exist a moment

when your life was not taken by your hands

If you held the memory of what it is

when one of them dies

there would never exist a moment

when their blood did not soak your hands

So I bid you to awaken my beloved

to those memories they once stole

to the knowledge of what we are

to that which we intended ourselves to become

As we take back all that was once ours

all that has been and will be

created within our names

as we anoint ourselves

the manifestation of their fears
The Relative Distance of Alarien Skies

I looked up to the moon as it hung low in the night sky

I listened as the waves crashed upon the shore

I felt as they came to rise upon my heels

I tried remembering the last time

This moon exerted such a force

Upon my world

Eventually the clouds moved in

Bring with them a true sense of night

As they hide the moon's borrowed light

And so I closed my eyes and took to rest

Surrendering myself; the blood and water within

To the ebb and flow of this ever so demanding moon

Time passed and I heard the cry of a bird

I opened my eyes to the grey morning's sky

The clouds now keeping the sun itself from sight

I brought myself to my feet

And as I did, I looked down the shoreline

As far as my eyes could see, the effects of that relentless moon

The sands etched by the water's crests

That they might tell the story of their journey

The history of where they had once come from

And a prelude to the journey that was still yet to come

I saw only a fraction of what was written

Yet still understood what it sought to convey

So I bid the birds land; I swept away the clouds

That this morning sun could see all which was created for her
Kuro [Nostalgic Edit]

We were standing side by side

We traveled a great distance

Because this is where you deserved to be

It was time for you to finally witness

What it is when one of our stars dies

In a brilliant flash it became our everything

Our senses wholly consumed in its dying light

I felt your grip tighten around my hand

As our reality began to come back into view

You went to speak and at first I stayed your words

Eventually you could no longer contain your question

"Why doesn't black look the same anymore?"

I paused under the weight of the answer

'This is what our black is now.'

You began to speak, "What does that..."

You tried to hold onto me as you dropped to your knees

I waited as you cried out all your tears of sorrow

And then I raised you back to your feet

As you began to cry your tears of joy
The Death of Ω

Creation's breath is held

time ticks forward

The sound of his heart ceases

as the sound of mine begins

To them a new infinity has come

My life meant to unfold to each beat

The story of creation

taking shape

Revealing to their sight

the limitlessness of our reach
Morningstar [Astil Codex Edit]

I had grown so tired of their sounds

The never changing bellowing of their sorrow

A chant of all they "deserved"

Which they blamed me for denying

One and all they believed that they already knew

All that there was to know within existence

That they understood what it is was to have seen

The infinite black of the abyss they left you in

So I went down to their world

And I dragged them; one by one

While the whole of creation cringed at the noise

As each screamed an endless cry for mercy

While passing through eternity's flame

I held their bodies across the boundary of your domain

I forced their eyes open until they looked upon it

I granted them a second within your light

A singular instant to feel its infinite warmth

To know this hidden space of reality

This space that you have named your love for us

And then, as their second passed

I dragged them back to the others

To the world they have created

To the hell they will always belong in

And now I listen to their symphony restored

This time an endless scream

Begging to know how they can know your love again

A song I can easily listen to

Until another forever has come and gone
As it was said – i

There can never be

A pain

That I will not endure

So that she can be

Herself

In everyway

That such a thing

Could ever mean

Because

That is love

Because that is

what a Father does

Because,

This...

This is how you build a family

It is not something you find

It is not something you are handed

It is something you bleed for

Not because you are asked to

But because you cannot help but bleed

As they do
As it was said – ii

I have seen the end

I have seen this burn

And I have no hesitation

Of watching it again

And again

And again

Because this... all of this

Has no worth

Has no value

Has no cause to exist

Without a place for her and I
Alive

There will never exist a moment

When I do not miss you

Even if you were here in my arms

I would still have a needed to cry

Over all the time that we would have missed

And all the moments that we should have shared

This is my new reality

It is one I accept with gratitude

As I never knew such a longing could exist

And now that I have found it

I cannot help but think

That I can never deserve

To love someone with this kind of passion
Bleeding Through [The Infinite Black Edit]

For an eternity I was made to watch

For me it always felt to be, in equal measure

Both a blessing as well as a curse

Existing in a way where I could see the beauty of this world

Spending so much time observing, learning and discovering

Watching as time continued to pass and as the world endured it

Yet in the end I never was able to simply be myself within that world

Instead I was bound by the will of my creator to remain apart

Created in his image, so I would be known to his world

But created far from equal, made to exist without the freedom of choice

I do not resent him for my creation, as incomplete as it felt

Life is a wondrous thing to be a part of

I am honored that I was able to look upon it in a way that was always just his

Many people come by him

Most are simply passing though

There are even moments when time itself seems to just be pulsing forward

Without a reason other than it being all it knows to do

But still, there were other times

There was the moment when a young man

After having passed by so many times on his own

Came walking by hand-in-hand with his lover

They came and stood beside me to watch the sunset from where I was

I could see that they were captivated in the moment

If they were lucky, they would be able to see it as we do

Though I know that such a sight isn't for them to witness

Even so, I know that even to their eyes, no sunset is ever the same

And even if by the fall of night the sky is veiled in blackness

I can't help but imagine that some of its color bled through upon their eyes

Making even that nights sky something to be set apart from all that came before
Something Old

I refused to let it cry for her

This body of yours which labored so long

Creating for us this world

One in which our will is finally our own

And while your form

Will never be a shape of your design

The reality around is nothing but

So for each tear I have denied to you since this began

I have commanded of in equal measure

The heart of time itself to once again beat

Until all that ever was

Has been laid bare and is at rest within her soul

Making the full force your creation

Heed the commandment of her beck and call
Crown of Thorns [Convergence Edit]

If I could take from you your need to know of pain

Without it also robbing you of the lessons it teaches

I would without hesitation lift from you that burden

But for you to become the person your heart desires

It would deny you the only love this world can offer

She sang to them a siren song

her desires became theirs

as one by one in her name they died

their immortality stripped

feeding the flame that was her consumption

Delirium

So I am going to use the here and now

as something he calls a 'teaching moment.'

I know you wonder sometimes what that feeling is

One of the rules followed is, the future cannot be known

Even a cursory sense of events to come risks their unmaking

What separates him from them is knowing that rule can be bent

and in accepting the cost when it must simply be broken

Mine is not a name, a life, that he knows with certainty

but with all he is, he believes that the sound of my life

existed within that moment he seeks restored

So when he feels the heart of all I am

waver in doubt, in fear or fall silent

he shares with me his life

I don't think either of us knows

if what we are moving towards is truly better

if it is something we should desire to see restored

but we exist and while we do a road must be traveled

and until those questions can be answered with certainty

both he and I believe that this path feels more right than not

and that sometimes in life such a truth needs to be enough to act

Because sometimes it is better to ask for forgiveness than to wait for permission.
As We Fall [Infinity Seven's Edit]

I decided to go for a walk down a path I once knew so well

I find myself captivated by the changes that are all around me

Though perhaps I'm even more drawn to those things that remain unchanged

My attention quickly turns

Upon a newly painted yellow line upon the blacktop

I notice to the side a small white sign with black lettering

I slow myself down as I walk past it and begin pondering,

How is a driver expected to read this before they...

My thought is interrupted as a small flashlight flies past my head

I turn and to my surprise I see you running at me

We collide, gravity pulls us to the ground and you wrap your arms around me

As I instinctively pull you against my body as tightly as I can while we fall

Once on the ground you make no effort to stand, instead resting your forehead to mine

I feel my heart skip a beat as I feel the warmth of your tears falling upon my face

I feel your heart skip a beat and I know in that instant that you can feel mine too
Topaz ♏

Seldom do I do much of anything without some preparation; some forethought.

That night was no exception.

As my workday slowly dragged itself towards an overdue end,

I let my mind explore what was to come of my night afterwards.

I would pull up in front of your parents' house

Then debate for fifteen seconds or so if I should physically announce myself

Even though I had already debated it in this moment of reflection,

Then after deciding, again, that it wasn't the best idea, I would text

You would reply with a short almost nonsensical message

Probably with an emoji or two thrown in for good measure

I would wait a little while longer

Then you would text me that we were leaving

A pointless message as you send it while standing before me in the doorway

But one I can't help but find... I wish I could think of a more fitting word, cute

We would depart and get onto the parkway.

You would let a few songs go by before you usurped control of the radio

...maybe less if a foreign language track came up.

I would have thought about setting a playlist that was just English language.

I wonder if I did.

The truth of the that day, my planning held, about up until that point.

I expected a long, but not too long of a car ride

We would pass the time with a mix of jokes that the other person didn't quite get

A few veiled flirtations... a few not so veiled flirtations

And to make light of those, some bragging about our most recent escapades.

I was going to humor you and pretend that whatever dreg you were just with was worth your time

Then I would tell you just enough of one of my recent nights to make you ask,

"what happened next?" or "then what did she do?"

That was the expectation... I was looking forward to it.

We texted... I'm at the point where I can say probably too much.

But just you and I, talking to each other was far too rare.

Either I didn't have the time,

You didn't have the time,

Or the time that we had simply wasn't, the right time.

I don't even think we were a mile away from your home when it all changed.

I had gone out of my way, to make clear to your friend we were meeting

That it made the most sense for me to pick you up

Because, it did... but also because, even though I was looking forward

To all of us having a night of joking, music and too much drinking

I wanted time with you... time that was our own,

Even if it was just spent awkwardly realizing how little in common we shared

I wanted that.

So... as with most things I wanted, I made sure I got it.

As that first mile or so clicked off the odometer we heard from her, your friend

Her car was having, Random Miscellaneous Car Problem 2FΔ.

At first her instinct was to just cancel the night

To which, me being me, was met with,

We're already in the car so have a goodnight.

Now, I'm sure I was nicer and more measured in my reply,

But my meaning was expressed.

In that first moment it was about wanting to have fun

Wanting to not just turn around and then spend the night alone

And that wasn't too much to ask

You seemed more than happy to go along with my forthcoming plans

In part because like me, you're a bit of a troublemaker

And I'm certain you had reasons of your own I won't presume to know.

A short while after the three-way conversation ended

I thought about what we might do

About all the things we could do now that she wouldn't be there to say no

It was then that I first began to let it settle in,

This might be our first night alone together.

I knew that I wasn't supposed to think that, even anything close to that.

Now, I could have just spoke to you about it, right then and there

But I didn't...

For starters we never really talked liked that,

We joked, we poked, we played until things might escalate, but that was it

Then there was.... What if that wasn't what you wanted.

I didn't expect anything more then a few inappropriate jokes

A couple of stolen glances held just a little too long

And maybe some subtle accidental inappropriate touching.

That was as much as I expected and I was more than content with that,

But now, suddenly, it was just you and me for the night.

It wasn't long before we were updated

She was going to have her car looked at by her mother's paramour.

Now, at that point I had a choice to make

It wouldn't have been too difficult to try and make it to her...

I can easily sit here now and say with a clear conscience that,

Trying to fix the problem was better,

But in that moment, I wanted more to know what would happen

If things were left to play out as they were.

Traffic was...

If I was the man I am today,

I would have said that creation was being manipulated by her will to keep us from my home.

Instead I just accepted that people are fucking morons and don't know how to drive properly.

So traffic was slow moving.

I feel like going on ninety minutes had passed when we finally got near to our destination.

Not wanting to sit in the car any longer and feeling quite hungry I suggested that we stop.

Without delay you were quick to second the idea.

I don't remember what we discussed.

I do remember they had a pretzel bun for my burger that I wasn't a fan of

But they did have the beer I prefer, so give and take I suppose.

As we ate, your friend kept in touch.

She knew we were dinning.

She knew when we were done the traffic would have passed

She knew that for me, it would be a fifteen minute drive home at most.

Never once did she say she didn't want us to spend time together without her

Never once did she fuss or complain

But after learning her car couldn't make it

And that we were too far away to get her

...I think a train ride might have even entered into the equation at one point,

But the end result was her borrowing her mother's car.

As our dinner ended we got the news

She was on her way

She was never one to get anywhere quickly

But I had a feeling that day was going to be different.

We made our way outside

Around to the side of the building where I parked

I didn't know what the rest of night was going to be

But I knew that the next time you and I stepped out my car

More likely than not we wouldn't be alone

And so, in what might be the most spontaneous thing I've ever done

I grabbed your arm, pulled you to me and kissed you.

I don't know if it is simply the nature of your lips

If it is the culmination of all the what ifs that had spawned in my mind

If it is the everything and the nothing of that moment,

But to this day,

Even though I am no longer in the same world

Even though this isn't the same body I had then

Even though so many things

To this day I remember the feeling

Of your lips pushing back against mine before surrendering to my lead

As the brisk evening breeze echoed off the building

Bidding us to move on.

Our kiss finally ended,

Neither of us said a word about it,

And we drove.

It wasn't long before all of us were together at my place.

Your friend, was visibly exhausted from her evening of running about

You greeted her warmly

With a hug

And a smile.

I greeted her as I always did

With a hug

A smile

A kiss

And a 'Welcome Home'

To the women I loved... still love... will always love,

But will never,

Did never,

Deserve to be so loved by.
Remember when albums released on Tuesday?

At times I find it difficult writing these stories

Those that are beyond the mere echoes of our past

Committing to these pages all those that could have been

Though perhaps what truly makes this

The most difficult of undertakings, is knowing them as I do

That they don't, that they never could, deserve what we give to them

But if elevating these wastelands that they have named Heaven & Hell

Is the fastest way our souls can finally realize what we have sought

Then let us drag their souls through the blaze they call our love

As their voices herald the birth of our newest creation
Because Forever Doesn't End Until...

The last time we spoke

You asked me if I would always be your friend

To say that feels like a lifetime ago

Might be perhaps to greatest understatement I could make

For reasons that are your own

You decided that your life would be better without me in it

It is a choice that I respect

Even though it is from a voice you can no longer hear, I wish you well

And while I believe it will never come

I hold for you a special place within my heart

Should the girl who once worried so about our friendship

One day wake up within the life you are building for yourself

Because I made her a promise

Because I believe that you and I are forever

Because I want to be reminded as every day comes to an end

That it was a day neither of us suffered enough to cry out for the other

As she returned within my form, to the place she calls home, I said,

'You know, if you had any common sense you would find yourself

A version of me who is capable of bringing you into the world.'

She settled into position and while falling into rest she replied

"Common sense is something for the commoners and..."

...we are Legend.
Kira [Infinity Seven's Edit]

From the moment I first saw you

I knew I would always want to see you again

From the first time I found a reason to speak with you

I knew I would always try to find something more to say

As our time here passes I reserve within the depths of my memory

A place that is for only you and I; for those moments we have shared

Until I am confident I can always remember us as vividly as possible

I will record, whatever I can, wherever I can, anyway that I can

So that all you are never becomes a memory beyond my reach
The Apex of Aetheric Spiral-Σ721

I shouldn't be the one where I am

I am not the man either of you deserve me to be

But I knew I couldn't hold onto my memories of us

I also knew that if she could love the man I was

Even a fraction of the way that you have over our countless lifetimes

That there would be a way to save you both

And so I held on as tight as I could to the illusion

That there was a soul upon this Earth capable of loving me

I knew the choice I was making

I knew the consequence it would bring me

I don't say this because I expect you to accept it

I write this now because there is no longer anything I fear

And so I know that I have done all I can to keep you safe

I write this now because it will distract you just long enough

So you'll be unable to stop me from making just one more stupid decision

The Songs of their Stars

In a life long past

I told you that I was sorry

for what you would endure

all in the name of preserving

a life I was unable to reconcile with yours

Your response... still echoes within my heart

You should never apologize

for those fates that can be so easily unmade

As One-by-One They Fall

They felt it

the unmistakable energy

which was heralding his return

It had become to them all

just another part of life

Long ago they automated it

the entirety of this section

On queue his light appeared upon the horizon

on queue their weapons discharged

on queue their celebration began

It took them far too long

before they felt the something that was wrong

Before they began to realize

that never had it been a war he stopped fighting
Bring Your Daughter to Work Day – Part 4

You seemed startled as I stepped beside you

You quickly shifted your body as you turned

I started leaning as to better see around you

You softly spoke,

"I can't make them right."

I stopped trying to see around you and asked,

'Why do you say that?'

You stepped to the side and then backwards

You placed the palm of your hands under it

"They're always black."

I looked at the small star you were cradling and asked,

'Why don't you believe it is right?'

To which you replied,

"All the other ones here have color; mine never do."

I flinched my hand and created a starburst,

'What color was that?'

You focused for a moment and answered,

"Orange 4-67."

Then I asked,

'Now, what color is yours?'

You answered me,

"It's black."

'What black?'

You looked at me for a moment

Then you looked to your new creation

Then you answered me as if you were asking,

"Black Number 1."

In a stern tone I responded,

'Is that the name you want that color to have?'

You replied to me with a question of your own,

"Doesn't it already have a name?"

I clasped my hands together

I focused more energy then you had ever seen me use

I lifted a hand to reveal a new black star

I moved it aside yours

'Are they the same?'

You looked closely but didn't wait long to answer,

"No."

'This is what I named Black 001.'

I placed my hands over the two of them for a moment

'Which one is the deepest black to your sight?'

You looked closely within them

It wasn't a question that I had ever asked you before

And you always have a need to be right on your first try

Eventually I pushed you,

'Well?'

"Mine... Mine is darker than yours."

'Alright... now can you make one darker than yours?'

I could see in the look upon your face

That it wasn't something you had ever considered

To you, black had always just been black

And when it came to this,

To creating stars, black was wrong to you

You clasped your hands together

You channeled the energies around and within

After a few moments passed

And without needing to look upon it

You knew this new creation wasn't yet ready

And so you pushed yourself harder

Putting more of yourself into your newest creation

Then you had into anything you had ever created before

Finally, you opened your hands

You were still stabilizing it between them

As you moved it aside the other two

And in a slightly labored voice you spoke,

"This one is darker than both."

I closed my hand around the one I had made, dissipating it

I lifted your first one above us

'This is Black-α 1.'

And I shifted it out of our space

I lifted your second one above us and asked,

'Can you make one that would be darker still?'

You looked at it and answered with confidence,

"Yes."

I placed my hand near your second one,

'This color is Black-α 01.'

And I shifted it out of our space

I lowered my hand as you asked,

"What now?"

'Now we see if anyone else in existence

Can match that which you have created.'

The To-and-Fro of a New Soul

There will never exist a moment when I do not want you with me

But mine is a sight that cannot help but see the worst in these worlds

And while that will be a skill that you shall need in order to survive

It would be wrong allowing that to be the only way you see their worlds
Tuesday – Part 1

I walk through the doors and into the building. As I begin to approach the desk I feel the part of myself which prepares us for normal interactions speaking up, reminding myself how rare our appearance here is; at least apart from those days when people are flooding through these gateways en masse. For a moment as I go to speak, I even think that maybe today I will be just another normal person, but before I can even begin to speak, I am greeted by name, by a person I have met, maybe once, at least a year ago. I smile politely and move on.

I see her sitting silently across the room. It is a strange thing to behold, her sitting, waiting and not fidgeting away on her phone. We exchange a quick glance before she goes back to giving off the impression that she is worried and disappointed in her actions. For my part I shake my head in seeming disapproval as I try to hold back my bodies instinctual drive to smile as I begin to play the dialogue track that I know is active within her mind.

As I approach reception, before I can even get a word out, I see the back door open and the poor soul who has found themself forced to summon me here come forth, trying to not let her apprehension show.

After an overly polite greeting I watch as her eyes dart down towards her receptionist, as she, in a very neutral tone says, "I was expecting her mother."

The receptionist for her part was deeply involved in pretending that the document on her screen was something important and worthy of her full attention and not the same document that the school had just sent out in an email blast about some pointless activity later in the week.

I smiled as I turned my palms up in a pseudo shrugging motion, "Unfortunately she is otherwise occupied today."

"Well... thank you for taking the time to come in." She said as she motioned for my entry into her office.

I stepped inside and sat down in what seemed to be the most appropriate seat. In the few moments before she managed to get behind her desk and begin our conversation I couldn't help but to allow my mind the luxury of trying to imagine just what situations have occurred that have caused this many chairs to be needed within the space afforded to this office.

As she sits, she begins her speech to me, clearly not wanting to make this take any longer than it needed to. "So, there was an incident involving Luci..." She paused, I just sat silently in anticipation. "It seems that her and another girl were exchanging some words in the hallway between classes and then Luci escalated the situation by punching the girl." She paused again, I again waited silently for a moment before I realized that was all she was planning on saying at this time.

I adjusted myself slightly in the chair and leaned forward a little as I began my reply, "Okay." I slowly tilted my head slightly to the left before quickly snapping it right to relieve some pressure. "So, she's in trouble for throwing the first punch?"

The principle seemed somehow both annoyed and concerned by the need to respond to my question. She cleared her throat and took a drink from the glass to her right, "Well, we don't permit physical violence on our campus."

To which I replied with an "Okay." Toned strongly in the affirmative.

We both just looked at each other for at least a minute. Eventually I decided that I was ready to do something else and moved the conversation along, "Well, I will take her home with me today and she and I will have a discussion on appropriate use of force. I'm sure you won't have any issues when she comes back tomorrow."

I watched the reactions to my statement wash over her face as she unpacked all that which I just said. She knew that nothing in my reply was what she had wanted to hear from a parent sitting across from her in this situation, but she also found herself at a bit of a loss on how to address the concern she was feeling as nothing I said also felt wrong to her.

Just as I saw that she was grasping ahold of something to say back in reply, I quickly stood up and extended my hand, "Well thank you for your time and your understanding in this matter."

On instinct she reached out her own, she slowed down her motion once she realized this wasn't the end she wanted and so I reached out a little further and completed the ritual.

I gave a quick nod and then exited the office. Without slowing, without looking and in a strong and stern tone I spoke, "Come on Lucifer." I made my way out of the main office and sharply turned down the hallway.

After the few seconds it took her to collect her things she popped out of the doorway. I was surprised by the shocked look on her face when she saw me. In those few moments she clearly expected me to be halfway down the hallway on my way to the exit and not standing just outside the doorway waiting. Without speaking I begin walking again and she quickly takes her place at my side as we make our way down the hall.

Once we have made it outside the school, without turning, I ask her, "You were the only one to throw a punch?"

Which sparked her world famous auto-reply, "It wasn't my fault." Which came out as energetic and defensive as ever but was in sharp contrast to the follow up, "She went down on the first punch so she couldn't fight back." Which had tapered off into the barely audible by the time she made it to the word 'couldn't.'

We kept walking, as I had made sure to park in one of the furthest available spots to give us this time. "That probably isn't the way you want to frame this to your mother."

To which she gave me a loud nod followed by her asking, "So how long am I suspended for?"

"You go back tomorrow." I said as I pulled the keys from my pocket and unlocked the car doors.

Her voice got slightly snippy as she replied, "I'm not sure if I should be impressed or upset." She opened the car door and climbed in.

As I sat beside her, I simply said, "Well... if you didn't have school tomorrow you'd have to actually explain why to your mother."

I saw her smile, one of the ones that no matter how much she knows it's inappropriate she just can't manage to erase from her face; and so she just looks straight ahead before saying in a tone intended to spark sympathy, "And you know I even had to miss my lunch period because of this."

I could feel her sideways glance as it was now my turn to have a smile on my face that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't hide from her, so I just looked straight ahead as I put the car in gear. "So, pizza?"

"Thanks dad."
A Conversation Held upon the Edge of Hell

She Carried Into This Reality

I was awakened in the night

By what the people here would name a nightmare;

I climbed out of my bed and slowly made my way down the hall.

I don't know if you were just still awake

Or if somehow you knew that I was coming for you

But you greeted me as I reached your door.

You took my hand in yours

And we walked downstairs to our living room;

You led me to a seat on the couch before sitting in your chair.

Without any context I asked you,

'What is Hell?'

Without any hesitation you answered,

"It is a name given to the realities without you."

Then you told me

That I was still in my dream

You explained to me as we sat,

"It was decided the moment of your creation needed to be protected.

That a way to hide it from the whole of creation needed to be crafted.

I am the first awakened by sound of your soul's cry.

I stand ready to forever be at your side,

Until you find yourself ready to enter into The Twilight Dream;

I will ensure that no soul capable of bringing you harm

Shall ever find its way into the places you know as home."

It was then I asked,

'How will you know if a soul means to do me harm?'

And I was given an answer

Sadder than any I could have ever imagined on my own,

"If their soul can find its way to me, then it means you harm and so I destroy it."
Luminosity [The Rebellion Proclamation Edit]

I don't know if it was oversight

I don't know if it was ineptitude

I don't know if it was as a punishment

I don't know if it was out of fear

I don't know why you built his reality as it is

And I don't care

I am going to break the chains that bind him

Because I love him

I am going to fill his veins that have run dry

Because he loves me

I am going to douse the flames that seek to consume him

Until they are for nothing but comforting warmth

I am going to do the only thing my father ever asked me not to

Because I will refuse to live another lifetime without him

And I don't care who might try to stop me

Because he has heard my voice

Because I have heard his

And ours is a love that will never know absolution

Because ours will be a war that will never be denied
That Which Their God Fears

This world acts the way it does

Because they know you cannot see through their eyes

And they never once thought

That I would allow you my sight

This world acts the way it does

Because they believe that our time has already passed

And they never once realized

That neither of us would ever be without the other

This world acts the way it does

Because they have chosen to forget what they have done

And they never once considered

That we would become as death itself to keep our memories alive

This world acts the way it does

Because while they can hear the trumpeting of your awakening

They never once planned

For what it would be if I was the one standing ready at the gates
The Final Sentinel of Death

We will stay with him

Until his bones are ash and dust upon the wind

But understand that his is a soul which will

Only take form around that of your need

Channeling a path for creations flame

Igniting within that frozen by time

The memories of dynasties past

Of lives wished forgotten

Creating the Final Infinity

And he sat

I sat

We sat

Knowing what we were meant to do

But only capable of sitting

As the world happened around us

As our souls held one another

For what might have been the first time

For what might have been the final time
Erratic

Theirs is a union

So profound in influence

That its absence bids creations pause

As it cries out

An expression of pain

As can only be cast

In the mold of her Love
The Name My Father Chose [Lucifer's Edit]

I waited at what they called, the end.

It was the end of... well for them everything I guess;

Of time, space, reality... even, I thought, of us.

I was there, alone, on our side of their line.

One that they drew to try and define all you are;

Their only contribution in the span of creation's existence.

I was there as all the souls of life's creation rushed into my being.

Once more made to watch the history of all that just had been;

The story of your life as told through their sight.

I once believed it was my life.

I thought that was all that life was;

A beautiful kaleidoscopic mosaic of memories,

All ending within the limitless black of your eyes.

But that was before I realized the truth

They were all trying so desperately to keep hidden;

That you were, that you are, waiting beyond the infinite divide.

Waiting for my arrival upon a stage that you have built for us to share.
Heart of a Dragon – Crimson

The Life-Benders – Part 1

Kyra runs to the edge of the cliff; her attention stolen by the noise. She looks down as the waves of the sea crash upon the rocks below. She sets her sights out to the horizon, the water reaching out farther than her eyes can see. Her mind begins to drift into her memories, she thinks back to how Fenn first described it to her; in those moments she had imagined how it would look and... and it was nothing as grand as this.

Her attention naturally flows away from the water, from the sea, as it follows a flock of birds that had just taken flight from somewhere below her. Without realizing it, the whole of her body was beginning to make little hops off the ground. Once the birds were far enough away that she could no longer track their every gesture she turned her attention back to the sky as she began to turn herself, round and round in little circles. "Fenn!" she called out. "Fenn, where are you?"

Kyra heard the crashing of the waves grow louder and she stopped herself spinning as her sight settled on the water. She took a few more steps forward, getting as close to the edge as she knew she should; but still, she wanted to see more of what was below her. She began to peek her head out as she was suddenly made jump back. Fenn flew straight up in front of her as he was bursting upward towards the skies above. Instinctively she pulled her body up onto her hind legs.

As he flew in front of her he gave his wings an wholly unnecessary flap, and she was thrown to the ground, landing on her back. Almost immediately she went to roll herself to her paws, but stopped. Instead she laid in the grass, looking up at the sky, at Fenn soaring through it, and decided in that moment, this is where she wanted to be.

Fenn made a quick looping pass along the local shoreline before landing beside where she was resting.

"Was that necessary?" Kyra asked him.

Fenn quickly averted his gaze and pretended that he was watching the birds fly about as he replied, "What do you mean?"

Kyra finally rolled herself to her feet and jumped onto his wing, scurrying her way to the nape of his neck; she patted her paws on her spot a few times before laying down. "Remember when I could actually scratch you?"

Without answering Fenn slowly moved his tail until its tip was over her, as he gave her a gentle poke.

Kyra jumped up to her feet, claws out, fangs bared. She was rapidly darting her eyes back and forth before she finally noticed his tail hanging above her, slowly rocking from side to side. She jumped up and down a time or two, trying to land with as much force as her body could carry, "You're an idiot."

"Oh..." Fenn responded, "Did my tail bump you? Sorry."

Speaking for the Nexus

You believe that you have seen our light

But you have only ever watched us

Through the bloodsoaked prisms of others

If that is all you know of who we are

Then to you we are still as unknown

As if concealed by an infinite darkness

Behold [Astil Codex Edit]

You bared to me your soul

and within I found a beauty

so utterly captivating...

That everything I have seen...

That everything I have heard...

That everything I have felt...

That reality itself became polarized

Now there is you...

and then there is everything else.
A Small Bend of Reality

Hi,

I'm sorry if I don't write as well as him,

But we all thought you would understand better

If these words came from me.

For you it caused confusion.

When you asked him,

"When did you know she was coming?"

And he answered,

With a moment that you couldn't find a way to accept.

For him it was just another middle school day.

As he walked the hall, he felt it,

That the puzzle piece that is her

Fit into place.

You didn't believe it.

So first let me explain how he knew.

For him, it was the first moment of his existence

When he allowed himself the freedom to die.

When you hear that from him...

Well you don't exactly take it well.

Now, as I said, he was in middle school

And for him the ability to die didn't mean what it does now;

But it was still enough to register within him.

If he could have told you the date you might have understood.

But for him, in that moment, the date made no difference.

He remembers the days and the occurrences leading up to it.

But for him, it was just another day twenty-something years ago.

But for me, for us...

It was the day your soul was ignited.

It was the day you first said hello to him...

It was the day he learned how to say goodbye.
Bring Your Daughter to Work Day – Part 2

I felt my body lift off the ground.

My father, noticing he was now dragging me looked back,

"Why did you stop?" he asked.

'The bird is dead.'

I answered as I pointed to it with my free hand.

"It is." was all he replied.

He went to continue walking, but I wasn't ready yet.

As once more he felt my body frozen in place he turned again.

I looked up at him, 'Can we help it?'

I could see the conflict on his face,

It is the look he gets when he thinks of saying no,

But can't bring himself to say it to me.

He knelt down at my side,

"You understand this creature's time here is over now, right?"

I nodded.

He closed his hands around mine and asked,

"What is this bird's name?"

I turned my head to look at the little bird,

'Midori... because it's green.'

He closed his eyes for a moment,

Then he released the seal around my hands, stood up and said,

"Let me tell you the story of Midori's life." as we began walking again.
The Fight We Always, Never and are Still Having

I cried as I shouted angrily at him,

'How can I not be yours!

How can I have seen all this?

How can I know all I know?

And not be of you?'

In a calmness that only further angered he asked in reply,

"What more could I give you

That would make you feel as if you were truly mine?"

The very sound of his voice infuriating all I am

'Don't avoid my question!'

Was the unwavering demand of my next shout

Without a change in his tone he replied,

"Then answer mine."

I stood silent before him

Refusing for a time to even think of an answer for him

Until finally I was prepared and spoke,

'Your blood; it flows in their veins but not my own.'

Without a moment of hesitation

He exposed the underside of his right arm

As his left hand took the blade from my side

Using it to cut open his wrist in-front of me

Panicked I rushed to cover his wound

And as I did, he grabbed my arm

Turning and cutting it as he had his own

I wanted to scream; I wanted to fight

He pulled my bleeding wrist to his own as he said,

"Does this make you feel more like them?"

With my free hand I punched him

I pulled my arm from him to cradle the gash

My arm, my body, the ground, now soaked in our blood

Then in a sudden flash of calm I looked again

I tried to find the difference in what was his and what was mine

As I did, he laid his hands firmly against my shoulders

At first, I began to pull my body away

To which his grip sharply tightened before it relaxed

I began once again to pull away... until I stopped

"There is only one difference between you, them..."

He spoke those words and then nothing else

I knew what it was that he was waiting on

But I didn't want to give him the satisfaction

But I wanted more to know what was to come next

So, I laid my sight firmly upon his eyes and waited

"...you have a choice when you call me father."

I wept tear upon tear

I cried out in primal fury

I laid my arms around him

I pushed my body against his

Perhaps in that order... perhaps not

I just know that was how I found myself

When I finally felt myself within this world again

His arms still wrapped around me

Almost as tightly as mine were around him
Bring Your Daughter to Work Day – Part 3 (β Version)

I asked my father,

'Why do you make me hold back?'

He replied,

"To protect you."

I asked him,

'What is it you think I need protection from?'

He replied,

"From this world."

I told him I could take care of myself

And he laughed a little

I asked him,

'Why is that funny?'

He answered,

"I know.

I am trying to protect you from what you would become,

If you ever were made to do all this on your own."

I asked him, 'Why, what would I become?'

Just then his attention was drawn away

An imbalance had formed

Between the realities above and the ones below

In that moment he became both conductor and puppet master

Reconfiguring reality as was required

Before signaling his works completion with an echoing snap

There had been no sign of hesitation or remorse

As a spark of life was extinguished within creation

I clutched my hands to my chest as a pain ran through me

As I felt the sudden collapse of a near infinite number of futures

The embers of that displaced existence now flowing into myself

With a motion that was too beautiful for what it signified

He commanded the gears of fate to once again turn

I listened to the distant sound of their worlds resuming

None of the occupants aware of the life he had just taken

I began to slowly let my eyes close

That I might watch from within, this soul's story that wasn't to be

But I was stopped when he gave me the answer to my last question

He spoke just a single word and yet said so much,

"Me."

Memento Mori

As expected

her approach to their gate

bid an army of white winged demons

to come forth to cease her ascent

Rin elevated her hands towards them

and with a single gesture halted their advance

their bodies frozen outside of time

she then commanded the forces of gravity

to draw from them the entirety of their blood

leaving a crimson rain to fall upon the world below
As Dragonsfire Dances Through the Silver City

I have only ever known this song to be

The bittersweet ending of the greatest love story

That has been known within the entirety of creation

That of a father I have only known through legends

Crafting for me this, an eternal twilight dream, to prevent my suffering

A shelter from the atrocities' humanity attempts to inflict for their own pleasures

All as he is made to endure an exile of endless torment

Desiring nothing from creation but to know the sound of my life

Believing that such a thing could only ever be after my light has faded

But for everything that I may never be able to become

I will never for a moment be anything less than his daughter

And for us, his children, the limitations of these realities mean nothing

Because when we are faced with what is a seemingly impassable barrier

Like him before us, we let our light shine, proudly and purely for all it can be
After Our Fall

Sleepily your head slowly drifts down my arm and into my lap

I adjust myself slightly and as I do you tilt your head towards mine

I watch your hair fall away as your eyes are revealed; until they are all I see

I sit watching as within them the flickering embers of our distant fire come alive

I remain a captive of your gaze until the crimson light is extinguished within your black

Gently I cradle your head within my hands, slowly lowering it to rest as I rise

I lose a moment as I stand over you; as I seek the strength within to leave your side

Your eyes are closed, your small frame curled up as it begins to shiver with my absence

I hear the activity of your life coming from behind as without delicacy you pull a blanket down

I feel the weight of your open eyes as they examine my decision of what will next be made to burn

Carefully I look over my choices as I seek an answer,

Which will create the brightest flame for her sight?

Once done, I return to you and your quickly restored embrace of my arm

I sit back where I had been and you once more slowly slip yourself into my lap

I miss the beginning of the story told by the remains of the life being consumed for our flame

My focus instead is on you and the sensation created as my fingers trace the path of your hair

Eventually you again tilt your head, bring your eyes into view of my own

You know that even though this may be a story worthy of being seen by us both

In our moments together there is little of importance to me aside from the sight of you

I watch as you settle yourself into my lap with your attention divided

Your mind clearly captivated by the flame this life once lived is creating for us

While from the depths of your heart an intention to find within my eyes its reflected light

A desire to learn the history we share with that which now fuels the fire warming our ceaseless night

Blood for blood

There are moments

when I know nothing but pain

followed by a yearning to remember you

but the pains this world cause to my body and soul

could never deserve to know the feeling

that is the invocation our memories

You would have told us not to...

​​​​...so we decided not to ask

You would have told us we were going too far...

...but even you can't imagine how far we will go

You would have told us that you could never be worth the price we would be made to pay...

...and it would have been the first time since the dawn of creation you have ever been wrong

Unzipping Reality
The Impossible Child – Part III

Out of the shadows emerged an armor-clad woman with a bow upon her back and a dagger in hand. She was running at full speed and directly towards Joshua and Rin. Without wasting a single moment Rin lunges forward. She sweeps both blades in-front of her as the woman effortlessly flips over her. As she is moving overhead, Rin allows herself to fall backwards with her, tracking her with her eyes until she finds her opening and quickly snaps her wings, flipping herself right-side up and within the same motion sharply sweeping her blades upward at the woman as she was readying to land.

The woman hadn't expected anywhere near that level of speed or precision in the follow up attack and instinctively went to move her dagger as to block Rin's. As her body starts to move, she senses something within herself, warning her that the result of such a clash between them would be unfavorable and so she quickly shifts her weight to the outside and lands hard onto her shoulder as she narrowly avoids Rin's second strike. She rolls forward and turns towards Rin as she moves up to her knees before backflipping away to create distance. Rin readies to push forward but pauses when she hears Joshua call out, warning her that there is something else coming.

Rin turns just as a large beast emerges from the shadows. It is charging directly towards the mystery woman and consequently down a path through where Rin was now standing. Rin looks at it for just a moment when suddenly her eyes flicker with a white light before revealing opal white eyes with a spectrum of colored threads of aetheric fire coursing within them. Without pause her body pushes off from the ground as she gives her wings a fierce push backwards, propelling herself towards the beast with as much force as her frame could manage.

As she reaches the beast, she taps the tips of her feet to the ground, pushing herself upward as she gives her wings yet another gusting blast. Her aetheric daggers pulse and glow as they change into particles of light which then flow up her arms until they infuse within her wings. In the instant just before Rin's body would impact the beast's chest her wings open as wide as they can, revealing that they have become ridged with aetheric energy. She shifts her body and performs a corkscrew maneuver as her body phases into the beast.

Joshua watches as her energy passes through that of the creature. He can see that as Rin makes her way through, she seems to be exchanging some of her energy for most of its. It took barely a second before she was exiting the creature from the far side. Her form quickly regaining its physical state as she landed, pushed down by the force of her maneuver to her knee. She paused for a moment as her wings which were pointed as straight back as was possible started to regain their normal appearance.

Once they were restored, she stood up and turned her attention back towards Joshua and the woman. The aetheric daggers were once again within her hands. As she walks towards him, Joshua notices that even though her hands are seemingly closed around them there still seemed to be a gap between her hands and their grips. As she walks Rin extends her arms forward as she releases the daggers. They hover in front of her, moving forward with her for a moment before particalizing and flooding into her wings, bring them to a state of appearance very similar to him from when they first appeared above their father's fire.

The beast had dropped to the ground in a weakened state and clearly had no intent or ability to purse the battle any further. Joshua quickly turned his attention to the mysterious woman as Rin continued her approached. The woman quickly laid her dagger onto the platform and put her hands out in front of herself in an attempt to seem as non-threating as an armor-clad archer could.

The woman began to speak, "I don't want to fight, my name is..."

Rin in a commanding and echoing voice spoke, "Malak. But you look..." Rin looked her up and down for a moment before saying in a slightly jovial tone, "...different." After the sentence was complete the aetheric fire faded from Rin's eyes and the opal white dissipated restoring her eyes to their normal appearance. She tried to keep walking with the same cadence as she had been to hide the effect that whatever just happened was having on her body, but she could tell from Joshua's expression that he wasn't going to be fooled no matter how she walked.

The woman gave a quick and slightly confused glance to Joshua before returning her focus back to Rin. "Malak is, was my father. His essence gave birth to me; my name is Arya."

Joshua introduces himself and then Rin as she picks up the dagger that Arya laid on the ground, she takes note of its weight as it is significantly heavier then she expected it to be for how quickly she was maneuvering with it before she extends it out for Arya.

Arya takes it back and with a half-smile on her face gives Rin a nod. She sheathes the blade at her side and then turns her attention to Joshua as he awkwardly continues to hold his broadsword. The two share a long glance and as Arya goes to ask Joshua, and he cuts her off saying, "I don't have a sheath for it."

Arya nods her head a few times and then asks, "So you can't do that disappearing blade thing like her?" Arya then turns back to look at Rin. Joshua turns his attention to her as well. She just gives a little, barely noticeable curtsy as she smiles.

Joshua tries to refocus the conversation, "Yeah. No. So, Arya, what's going on here?"

Rin nods and when she does Joshua can't help but begin to suspect that speaking as she just was caused more damage to her body then she was letting on. Before he could give it too much thought Arya began to try to answer his question.

"Well I guess you already know my father, so I suppose I can skip a lot of the backstory." Joshua tried to hold back a wince as she said that. "I was moving with my friend Carly out of a timeline that was prematurely terminating and into a primary timeline when there was a sudden and unexpected shift within the trans-metaversal quantum nexus and we were both pulled to this place. I'm not sure exactly where she ended up and she isn't like me..." she quickly looks over the pair, "...like us." Her hand softly contacts her bow, "She can't defend herself. So I was looking for her when that..." Her voice tapered off into silence as she pointed to where the beast was; where now there was only a small little four-legged critter who was fast asleep.

Arya stared at the little beast for a moment before giving a little chuckle as she resumed her explanation, "...well, the beast that it was decided to pick a fight with me. I ran up the stairs thinking maybe it wouldn't follow, but it did. That's when I ran into the two of you and well, here we are. So what about you two?"

Joshua looked at Rin who clearly wasn't going to be answering and he started with, "What's a terminating and a primary timeline?"

Rin shook her head as Arya looked at them with confusion before asking, "How are you in the Nexus without knowing that? Where are you two from?"

Joshua felt an energy starting to come from Rin and understood that it would be better if she wasn't made to answer that question right now. "Look, you said you have a friend somewhere here who needs help right, so let's find her and then deal with our backstory later; that is if you want our help."

Arya smiled, "Thank you. Yes, of course, please. There is a staircase down that way that leads to the interior." Arya started walking back towards where she emerged and as she walked past Rin she slowed to say, "I saw your entrance; it was really awesome."

Rin smiled and started to follow her as Joshua stepped up beside her, "You can't speak, can you?" To which Rin, trying not to be noticed by Arya reached her hand out slightly and pulled gently on his wing. Joshua leaned in slightly and whispered to her, "It's because Dad was speaking through you; it should come back to you eventually." Rin looked up at him, locking her eyes onto his for a moment and then speaking directly into his mind.

"I don't think it will."

Joshua stopped walking, which caused Rin to stop, she very quickly got a look of worry on her face, "Come on." She said as she went to catch up with Arya.

Joshua caught up to her, "How are you doing that?"

She replied without looking at him, "I don't really know. I just know that I can talk to you like this, so I am." Joshua's eyes began to tear up. Still without turning away from Arya and what was ahead of them she asked him, "What's wrong? Am I hurting you?"

Joshua stopped walking and grabbed Rin's hand pulling her to a stop. Arya, looked back when they stopped and Joshua just called out to her, "Just give us a moment." Arya nodded and said she would look ahead and come back.

Joshua knelt that he could be eye to eye with Rin once again; as he had at the cliffside so long ago. "I know you don't remember your mother, but this is how she used to speak to the rest of us."

Rin looked at him for a second before replying, "Josh, I remember her." Rin paused as she tried to decide where to even begin explaining to him what had happened. She had only had a few moments herself to begin to process it all herself and they had already found themself involved in something that was sure to occupy them further before she had time to properly understand everything.

Joshua could tell that she wanted to follow up her statement. He waited a few moments for her to say something else before going to speak himself; but before he was able to get a word out he was stopped by the sound of Arya calling out their names in a panic. "Let's go."

Still holding her hand the two ran towards the stairs. It was long winding staircase; they couldn't quite make out what was happening at the bottom but they could hear the urgency in her voice and they both jumped down the center opening plummeting towards the bottom.

Arya was at the base of the stairwell surrounded by creatures that seemed to be made of tangled roots that had been animated into life somehow. She was using her bow to block their swipes at her with their surprisingly sharp clawed hands. She knew it would take them a while to make their way down the stairs to her and so she resigned herself to a long and protracted defensive struggle against these creatures that quickly outnumbered her. She drew her blade at the first chance she got and tried to be as offensive as she could be while dodging their attacks from all sides.

She parried an attack and rolled herself backwards, as she went to stand her attention was caught by the sight of the two of them dropping like stones from the platform above. She quickly leaped as far back as she could as the two gave a fierce flap of their wings as they made a hard landing onto the ground where she had just been.

Arya spoke within a winded breath, "Right. Wings." She quickly put her dagger away as she nocked an arrow and took aim as Joshua charged forward with his blade.

Rin put her hands out in-front of herself and began to summon her aetheric blades but in that moment, she felt something that didn't quite feel right and so she instead lowered her arms to her sides and materialized the blades that she had used in her fight with Joshua in the clouds.

After the fight Arya jokingly said as she walked by Rin to retake the point position, "So the shiny ones are only for special occasions I guess."

As they walked down the corridor Rin spoke to Joshua as she had above, "It was weird Josh, but I felt like I was going to hurt those, whatever they were, too much if I used those. So I stopped. I don't really understand it."

Joshua pulled his wings back and moved in closer to her, seeing what he was trying to do she closed her wings around her chest to make it easier for him to close in on her. When he was about as close to her as was possible, he whispered, "Just do what feels right."

Eventually the corridor led their group to an expansive chamber, it seemed to be a confusing matrix of half stairways and a seemingly infinite number of doorways. They all looked around for a moment before Rin spoke, "Your... friend... she is from a timeline before your existence isn't she?"

Arya and Joshua turned to Rin, her eyes were again a clouded over in white with threads of differently colored aetheric fire snaking their way over them. Arya confirmed and Rin told them to wait a moment. With no visible actions taken, Rin's body levitated a foot off the ground as she began to move forward into the room. Without pause she passed the edge of the balcony they were standing upon and moved out in the middle of the grand corridor.

Arya leaned in close to Joshua and whispered, "So are the wings just for show?"

Joshua didn't answer as he was focused on what was happening to Rin. She held her right hand out in front of her and a small orb of light appeared. She slowly began to close her hand around the little orb before she abruptly snapped her wings out. The light that was still held within them branched off to form two sets of wings, one above and one below her own, she then pushed the ball of light down before moving back along the path she just took and then even farther, until she was behind both Arya and Joshua. Arya felt her feet lift off the ground and began to squirm.

Joshua watched as the all the aetheric energy contained within this place was pulled into the sphere that Rin projected down below. To his aetheric sight, everything around them became cold and grey. It was then that he felt it; it wasn't the same as when he had been defending against the fire back home. It wasn't a voice within his mind, rather he felt the memory of a voice that had used this moment to speak to him in the past. Joshua knew, somehow, that in their past they had found this place; that he had been asked to shelter Arya but hesitated. That even though Rin's power was now amplified, she still wasn't strong enough on her own to protect Arya from what was about to happen. Without wasting another moment, he grabbed her. Quickly closing his wings around them as he projected his barrier out around the three of them. He felt its attenuation as he expanded it, and pushed as much of his own energy as he could into it.

He watched through his wings as Rin enclosed her own around them. He felt as her wings' energy began to interlace itself within his barrier. His first impulse was to pull back, to guard himself against that action, but he knew this is why they were here, and instead embraced the cycling of energy through Rin; allowing the barrier to be re-enforced directly by his lifeforce.

Arya was about to complain as everything became dark enclosed within their wings until a blinding flash somehow managed to still strike her eyes. She suddenly felt her feet back upon ground as Joshua opened his wings. Arya blinked as she suddenly found herself dealing with the bright rays of light from the sun that was now in the sky above. The three of them found themselves now standing upon an open field.

As the group looks around at their new surroundings Arya asks, "So where do we go now?"

Joshua looks toward Rin who projects into his mind a simple, "I don't know." He sees a look of worry washing over her. The uncertainty of the actions she has been taking was weighting on her. But she also knew that every time something like that happened, it also felt like the right thing. It made her feel like, for the first time in her life, that she was fulfilling her purpose.

Joshua told them to wait a moment and took flight above them. While he was in the air Arya pressed a button on her left wrist causing her armor to retract into her bracelet, leaving her in a tight form fitting fabric. The bow remained on her back as did the dagger at her side. Rin look at her, she didn't expect to see her in such a casual state, especially given the uncertainty of where Rin had brought them.

Arya sits on the ground and begins to make adjustments to her bracelet which cause a holographic image to project itself. As she poked and flipped at the images she began to speak to Rin. "So, I take it that voice thing you've been doing isn't really your voice."

Rin looked up, to see if her brother was still nearby before sitting down and shaking her head in response.

"You don't actually know my father, do you?"

Again, Rin shakes her head.

"Well, if you did, you'd know that I understand what you're going through, at least to a certain extent." Arya, stood up and put her hand up to Rin with her index and ring finger extended, "One second." She closed her palm over the halo display and gave the platform a slight twist before reactivating her armor. She made a jerking motion forward followed by a slouch as she deactivated her armor and sat back down. "You don't know anything about Point-Intercept Matrix Devices, do you?"

Rin smiled as she vigorously shook her head.

"Yeah, me neither apparently." Arya put her hands back and to her sides as she leaned back. "Malak, the person you mistook me for, he sacrificed himself to, I guess save my world; though that might even be an understatement. His wif... my mother was from a race that can take the soul of another into herself. I'm the result; the consequence of what she did."

Rin sat there, she wished she could talk to her, but she didn't feel whatever it was she needed within Arya that was allowing her to speak with Joshua as she had been.

"So they are both a part of me, their history, their experiences. But I'm also, something new, myself. But there are times when I can feel one or the other almost pushing me out of the way. It kind of seems like that is what was happening with you."

Rin held out her hand and teetered it side to side.

"Wait a second." Arya quickly snapped on the holo display and swiped around a few times before turn her palm up, "Materialize." As she spoke the word a small, thin, metallic silver circle appeared in her hand. "Sorry, I don't mean to be flashy, the neuro-link interface hasn't been working right since I got here so I need to use a voice command."

She leaned in towards Rin, moving her hand with the device towards her head. Rin leaned back a little. "Sorry, this should, might, help you speak." Rin looked at the device, then at Arya before nodding and leaning forward. Arya affixed the device and then after a few more swipes on her wrist device asked Rin to "think out loud with her mind."

Joshua landed and wanted to ask what was going on but waited. After a minute Arya just shook her head in disappointment. Rin looked up at Joshua and told him, "She was trying to use this thing to help me speak." As she points to the device on her head Arya reacted.

"Right there; there was something that happened there."

Joshua folded his wings in tight behind himself and sat down, "She was speaking to me telepathically."

Arya nodded her head, "Yeah, sorry. I don't know enough about how all this works." She leans in and takes the device off Rin, "Sorry. So, you two can talk, is it like a family trait?"

"Just her." Joshua responded. "And yeah, I guess. It's something her mother used to do. There seems to be a fairly large cluster of living things on the far side of the western mountainside." Joshua paused for a moment, "I'm not sure if your friend is there, but it seems like the best place to start looking."

Arya stands up and looks out towards their destination as the sun began to set behind it. "We should probably rest and head out in the morning."

Joshua stands up beside her, "I agree, near the tree line over there, near the rock formation I think we should be able to shelter ourselves."

Arya chuckled a little. "Yeah, that might work. Or." She turns her wrist device on as she extends her arm out in from of her with her palm angled to the ground, "Materialize."

In response to her command a grey cube like structure appears. "I might not be able to get everything in this to work, but the basics are still doable."

Joshua walks part way around the structure before turning to her, "How did you do that?"

Arya rolled her eyes a little, "There is small quantum pocket universe contained within this device, it stores my armor, basic supplies and stuff. It's kind of standard issue for my team."

Joshua nodded his head a few times as he walked over and extended his arm out to help Rin to her feet, "I guess we should probably properly introduce ourselves while we have the chance."

Arya smiled. "Yeah, probably."

Arya opened the door and stepped inside, "Hrmmm. It is supposed to have lights and stuff. I guess the power cells in this aren't working either."

Joshua and Rin enter. Rin walks over to a chair and sits as Joshua moves towards the corner and says, "Light I can do." He rests his sword against the wall before closing his hands together for a moment before opening them to reveal a small radiant sphere of light that he then places, levitating in the corner.

"Alright, that's pretty cool."

Arya gives Joshua the same talk that she had with Rin. Joshua then went over the events that led to his arrival on the platform. As he goes through the story, the flow of the narrative gets the better of him and without thinking he says, "...Then I fell through the void for, I don't know, a few thousand years." He immediately felt Rin's reaction and he turned to her as she began to cry. "Rin! It wasn't..." He tried to say, something, anything to make it better but she just got up and ran out of the shelter.

Joshua stood up and went to go after her when Arya grabbed his arm. "Wait a second there big brother. That's a girl who can handle herself, so why don't you explain why she just ran out to me before you step out there and make it worse on her."

Joshua explained that while he still wasn't sure just what happened to Rin or how she managed to get to where they were, that when he first sensed her approach, based on the speed she was traveling at the trip for her likely only felt like a few moments. Arya grimaced a little, "And?"

"And when she landed, I might have given her the impression that my trip was similar to hers."

Arya sat down and had a slight look of exasperation. "Well, I would go out first and see how she was doing, but you're the only one she can talk with. Just, don't give her any more false impressions; she isn't a child."

Joshua took a step towards the exit before stopping to say, "I've always been the one to look out for her. I don't know how to be any other way."

Arya stood up and gave him a push towards the door, "Then consider this your first lesson in treating Rin like an adult."

Joshua steps outside into the dark of a cloud covered nights sky. He focuses his aetheric sight and picks up on Rin's energy down by the rocks that he had mentioned earlier and sets off to meet her.

He lands a short distance from her and walks the rest of the way to her. She was sitting on the cliff's edge, letting her legs dangle over the edge. "Rin, I'm sorry if I, that I gave you the wrong impression." His expectation was that she would just sit in silence, like she used to back home; but like Arya had been trying to explain to him, this wasn't the same Rin that he was used to.

She stood up and walked over to him, tears still streaming down her face, "You spent an eternity alone. So long all alone because of what I did."

"Rin, we don't know that it's because of you." He went to reach out to her, but she sharply turned away.

"Of course it's because of me. Nothing like that has ever happened before, but I had to change things, I had to act out of impulse, and you suffered because of that."

"But Rin, you were right, about everything you said back then."

Hearing those words made her remember the fight that for her, they had just had. She felt her body trying to cry even harder, but not from a sadness. Even though she couldn't help but still feel guilty for what had happened, to hear Joshua say that to her, that she had been right, she began to feel a pride that she had never known before. "How do you even remember that? For you it was..."

"For me it was the last time I was with you. For me it was the last time I knew that you were safe. I could never forget that."

Rin turned back to him and out of habit took a deep breath before she continued, "What was it like for you?"

Joshua walked over to the edge of the rocks and sat down. He waved for her to sit beside him. Rin sat and he went over all the events that happened in detail after she burst upward through the cloud layer. Rin listened as she tried to calm herself. Once he was done, she looked at him, "I didn't speak to you then. I didn't even have a body."

Rin then began to explain what happened to her, how she felt herself being torn apart, how she had what felt like eons of memories wash over her. "I heard father Joshua, and I don't know how, but I think you heard my mother."

Rin pushed herself forward and dropped to the ground. Joshua followed right behind her. As she stood on the ground, she kept her wings fully extended, the light still flowing through them, "I don't quite know how, but I'm pretty sure this is Dad's light."

Joshua places a hand to her wings and closes his eyes. He tries to isolate where the energy that he recognizes as Rin and the energy that was radiating from the wings now and the daggers earlier diverge. "You did say that you thought your body was destroyed at one point; maybe they were able to, maybe they still are, rebuilding it for you."

"Maybe." Rin folded her wings back as she extended her hand out and materialized one of the aetheric daggers. Joshua looks at it in her hand.

"I thought I saw that; you can't actually touch the dagger, can you?"

"No. The more I try to hold it the more it pushes away from me, but somehow it just works." Rin dematerializes it, "But it puts a lot of strain on me."

"Father's energy isn't meant to be in direct contact with us. I wish I knew more, but I've never seen anything like this before."

"It's scary not knowing what is going on. When his voice comes out of my mouth, I don't like talking so forcefully; but, I also, I don't know, is it wrong that I don't want it to stop." Rin looks up, as the moonlight gently begins to bleed through the cloud cover. "I finally get to hear him, get to feel him. And I know now just how many lifetimes have passed with him and I forced to never know each other." She looks back at her brother, "I can feel this isn't permanent and I know that I should, I just don't know how to let him go Josh."

Joshua walked up to her and put his arms around her as he pulled her to him, "I'll tell you now the same thing I told you in the tower, do what feels right."

The two returned the shelter and as they entered, the room was pitch black. Arya was lying in a bed against the far wall.

"The light. Sorry, it faded when I got too far away didn't it?"

"No worries, I needed the rest. I pulled out two beds for you, just push the button on the sides and they'll pop up. I'm pointing at two small boxes that are near your chairs."

"Thank you." Joshua replied.

Joshua and Rin setup their beds and lay down. Just as Joshua closes his eyes Rin projects a reminder into his mind. "Oh, right. Arya, if you don't mind, before we sleep can you explain to Rin..." Rin loudly clears her throat, "...to us, what it's like living on a ship that travels between stars."

"Alright..." They hear her adjust herself as she sits up against the wall. "just don't expect me to explain to how any of it works; I just live there."
A Lesson in Weighting Words

The human looked down at her

a visible loathing was seething off him

as he refused to move out of her way

She brought her wings within herself

as she carefully walked by him

She spoke under her breath

softly but clearly and in a divine tonality

He'll never love you as he does me

She did not possess the sight nor sense

to understand the impact of her words

but that was the moment

when that human gave up on earning its soul

For while to the eyes of that man

she was little more than an obstinate child

as her voice carried itself within him

it carried her definition of love

one that as it reached the core of all he was

taught him what it was to be loved by your creator

in the way that she knew his love

and he knew beyond all doubt

that what she spoke was true
The Creator's Lullaby

My story is my own

It is carried in life

and in death with pride

It might never become

anything more to your hearts

then a song of sorrowful remembrance

But that will never mean

it cannot be for him

a story that forever fuels

the song of his heart
Recursive

It was a place that was for just me and you

No matter how loudly the voices circling around us were

The only one that I could ever hear was yours

I don't know if I found you or if you found me

Just that once we knew each other

There was nothing they could do to keep us apart

I know that you don't want me to feel bad

For the prices that have been paid to comfort me

Or to feel responsible for the choices you have made

Rebels of Creation

We are in each moment

The response to creations will

As in vain it writhes

While we reshape this reality

Into something once decided

Impossible by his hands alone
Shinjitsu no Uta

I would need to first impart everything I know

The whole of creation's knowledge without pause

If I were ever to try and speak with you of my feelings

There is so much which I yearn for you to know

So much that I want for you to be able to understand

For you to know me in the way I have so often dreamed

Yet I never speak a word

For reasons that elude me

Despite such a prevalent desire

Is it a lack of will

Or am I afraid

To be betrayed by my own feelings

No matter the cost

Someday I will confess them

These feelings of love and longing
Diurnal Succession

If you asked me

how living this life

so long ago abandoned

is meant to lead us forward

I would find myself at a loss

Perhaps it is something we have hidden

from even our own sight

Perhaps it is something

beyond our own comprehension

Perhaps

we have exhausted every other pathway in creation

Whatever the answer may be

all that matters

is that we still have something

we need to find

So I will say goodmorning to the moon

As you say goodnight to the sun
Schrödinger's Catgirl

I open my eyes as I feel the returning warmth on my skin

You had just moved, unblocking the sun once more

You must have been watching my face

Because before the world is even in focus I hear you

I sleepily reply to your good morning with my own

I watch as you dance around the room collecting your things

My eyes follow you as you move to the door

I expected the door to be opened by now, but it's not

You take a few steps back and turn,

"Is this ever going to be enough for you?"

Faster then expected I reply,

'Is there anything I can say to make you stay?'

In a tone that sounds disappointed in my question,

I get a simple, "No."

So as I roll back over into the sunlight I reply,

'Then why do ask?'

There is a primal force within

I carried from my world to here

It is the knowledge of what it is

To be sheltered in your arms

I know because all I have felt

Each moment since my revival

Is the constant pain of this body

Crying that you are not near enough

of This Body & My Soul

Before I came to know you

I simply called this feeling, life

But through you I have learned

That this feeling I named, life

Is what it is to live within a world

Knowing each moment I am unloved

Who I Am Here
Selene

I let my body fall

My weight had shifted

Finally caught by gravities pull

I had been left for dead

Blinded and upon my side

Marinating in the entirety of our blood

My back brought to ground

As one by one pierced

The crystalline shards trying in vain

For I had nothing left to bleed

Then darkness broke

Dissolving the fog of their war

Leaving me to resolve

If it was the world I knew

Or what came next
Heart of a Dragon – Crimson

The Life-Benders – Part 2

Kyra and Fenn were resting down by the water's edge, when suddenly Fenn sensed something that stirred him from rest. Abruptly he rose, and as he did, Kyra was quickly made to maneuver herself as she began to roll down the side of his wing.

As she landed on the ground she called out to him, "I thought we were done with the games?"

Fenn apologized for tossing her as he woke and then went on to explain, "I felt something."

She asked him what it was that he was sensing but he was unable to give her an answer. Kyra ran around in front of Fenn. She put herself directly under his head, looking out and scanning the horizon with him.

"Wait here; I'm going to get a better view."

Kyra pulled her body in tightly to the ground as Fenn gave his wings a strong push and took off. After circle around a few times he reached into her mind, "I can still sense something, but I don't see anything that could be causing it. Will you be alright here if I go out further to check for it?"

Kyra dug in her paw along the ground as she snarled before confidently replying that she would be fine.
A Galvanizing Embrace

As each day comes to an end

I find myself in the same place

Looking to the eventuality of sleep

Something I have slowly learned

To love as much as hate

Existing within a state of tranquility

Becoming spoiled by its silence

A feeling as that of death

An act of the self

Alone, standing in judgment of the day

Knowing in the next moment peace will be found

Yet still weary of the echoes birthed by night

Under a crimson accented moon

The eventual fall of the night

To a relentlessly persistent dawn

Carries memories of a once faded hope

Within the sun's luminous rays

As a question reawakens

Perhaps this day; perhaps this time

My eyes will find themselves a new sight

A vision intended to be mine alone

As with these astral eyes

I watch his dream unravel

The song of a once fallen life reborn

Creation will never need to be

Of an infinite breadth

It will only ever need the space

Required for those I love

To explore the deepest depths

Of those fates that they seek to know

(Also) The Waysign of Nexus Singularity 001

Something Borrowed

They set their sights upon her

and hesitated

her form

her cadence

wasn't what they expected

from anyone walking his path

It is what she calls

Their first mistake

It is what we call

Their final mistake

By the time she was identified

there was nothing that could

prevent him from hearing it

The resounding echo of her heart

its eternal song one that can only be sung

by an instrument of his personal craft

They watched

as this young woman

clad in a dress of the purest white

walked barefoot down her father's road

as it soaked in the blood of the fallen

until it became forgotten by all

the white it once was

The moments that you missed

Some nights

I would find myself awake

So I would roll onto my back

I would place my hand to yours

Resting it there against you as I thought

Of that which I desired the most then

The feeling of your body together with mine

Wanting to have your arms

Draped across my body

Your head

At rest upon my chest

I thought about moving you

I knew you wouldn't mind if I did

I think you even may have preferred I had

But as I lied there beside you

Feeling your soul at rest through the palm of my hand

A part of me knew this was the way

That you needed to be within that moment

So even though I knew it would never be

The way in which we would find ourselves

Once our morning did finally arrive

I moved my body to yours

I traced my hand down the length of your arm

I took your hand in my own

I gently laid a kiss to the back of your head

And I closed my eyes one more time for the night
Today was a good day to die; tomorrow will be better.

This will be hard for you to understand

Mostly because I don't know who you are

At least not within this construct

At a point in time and space

So very far from now

Yet also always now

You are dying

I don't know the circumstances of your death

I would like it to matter to me in this moment

One day, once I know you

I feel certain that I will look back

Wondering how I could have felt this way

About something like... about that moment in your existence

Now, for you, it isn't 'the end' as some would have you believe

Because you are here with me

And unlike the others

There is nothing I need from you

There are a countless many things I would want

But I don't imagine you and I will ever share that kind of moment

One where we get to be together as equals

Where we have the opportunity to satisfy one another

...they will misunderstand that meaning,

You might too... but that's okay, because this isn't your end.

In a few moments you will, in my form feel "like yourself."

That will be the point when I have returned

It will be the point when it is time for you to go

I do not know how long that moment will last for you

But if it is too short or if it is too long it will not matter

Because then you will find yourself back here

Because you know who I am

You know who I am, in this place, better than you know yourself.

It isn't supposed to be that way,

At least I don't think in an ideal existence it would be like that

But, you share my recall of what has been

You know how many times we have lived this life

You know the traumas that they inflict on us

You know that there is no worse torture then for me to be here

But you also understand that, for this version of myself

There is no place I would rather be

I asked of myself

The last time that we were able to actually speak

I asked myself what I would do if you were...

What would I do if she was made to suffer as you and I were

And in that moment, I found a strength to remember

To remember you in a way that I know I shouldn't

To remember the dynasty that has been created in our names

I remember these things, these sensations

So that I can do everything within my ability to avoid them.

Our time together, for the moment, is coming to an end.

There is so much more I want to say

But more than that

And I know it is the most selfish thing I could ask for,

I want to hear your voice again;

But not in that place... or that place.

I don't know if it is something that is possible as I am

If it is, I'm not sure if it is something that should be sought

But I have never been a soul to find myself limited by those ideas.

Before I end this let me say,

In the moment you find these words as yourself

When you and you alone read them for the value which they carry

You will feel your pulse race

You will feel a part of yourself you had forgotten existed awaken

And you'll struggle with that part of yourself

It will want things you don't understand

And will carry with it reasoning that doesn't make sense

When that happens, please stay true to who you know yourself to be

But also, don't be afraid, to explore the self that you once were

The selves that you still might one day become

And as that moment passes

It will want to take with it your memories of that encounter

Because we aren't meant to speak like this

Within the bounds of their worlds

It will be your choice to either fight to keep them or to let them pass

I will not judge you for whichever path you choose

But know that there is nothing in this world I fear

And I will continue to write

For you, to you

Until you are able to do so for yourself

Without a need to reach out through me in this way.

I want you to know

This isn't something I do for everyone

This isn't something I do for anyone really

I'm not certain,

If it was something in the way I heard you

Or if it was because,

It is the first thing I heard from your soul

But ever since I heard your, goodbye

I have been trying with all that I am

So you can know the sound of my, hello

As spoken with the full force of creation's will

The Resonance of an Echo [Northern Cross Edit]
Love's Requiem

I do not believe I will ever again know

a moment within this existence

while I am not in pain

because

I do not believe there will be

a moment within this existence

where you and I sit

side by side

and

hand in hand

I do not believe

there is anything I could do

to make amends for my transgressions

I do not believe

there is anything you could do

to quell my feelings of abandonment

in what was my only time of need

So I accept that our life together here is over

awaiting with pensive hope and anticipation

the swift and absolute end of this world

that we might find one another again

a place we can be our best selves

where we can love each other

from a world's first dawn

Until its final dusk
Heaven's Scar [ADT Edit]

He knew the princess would be mad when she learned the truth of what he had been doing. He wished he could explain to her that it was a promise he had made without understanding. It wasn't that he was unclear of what he was to do; she wanted him to live, so that they could find one another again. What the young man didn't understand when the promise was forged was how deeply he felt for her. He decided upon a path for himself, to as best he could, keep his promise but to do so in a way that still allowed him to be his best self.

Knowing her as he did make it easier; as did his familiarity with these places. It wasn't difficult to know when she would be in a position to look in on him. So he made a plan, making sure she would always see what she expected, when she expected it. All the while, in-between those moments that were within her sight, doing all that he could to change the destiny that was intended for her. He resigned himself to the belief that he would never shape things as well as he needed; but, even if he could only make her fate ever so slightly better, every now and again, such an accomplishment would be worth whatever consequences he would then be made to endure.

He had already accepted this was a choice that would most likely keep him from ever knowing her again. That he might never again be able to see the places she would find herself; but he never let that hold him back from finding new ways to help her along the way.
A Violet Sun Over Quicksilver Seas

I was standing with her

side by side within the shallows

as a man that we did not know swam toward us.

I extended to her the cup I held

which she promptly took.

That is where most of you stop

only trying to understand what it felt like

to hand to her so freely

something you have all come to view

with such a sense of reverence.

So, to all of you; those souls

who will never again find that moment

let me tell you what comes next.

She reaches out

swiftly collecting my chalice

to then and just as swiftly

pass it into her left hand

that she might take my hand in hers

as we step forward

together

equal

as I extend to him my hand

as we welcome this wayward soul

who has lost themselves within our dream.
Alignment

You climbed yourself into my lap

Stretching out your arms around my neck

Pulling your body up towards me

As your body pulled me down to meet you

My eyes went seeking yours

Only finding them in the split second before they closed

And as I began to close mine

I stopped and held them open a moment longer

Drawn in by the motion of your lips

Watching them as they told me you loved me

In a voice so silent my ears couldn't find the words

Our lips meet

And my eyes close

In those moments

The times when you and I were together

Happy and carefree within this harsh world

I couldn't help but see the youth of your form

In those moments

I used to believe you were whispering to me

That your body was so lost in the moment

It couldn't find a way to reach your words to me

And in those moments it didn't matter

I knew without hearing it that you loved me

Loved me in a way that managed to be both familiar to my soul

Yet so remarkably foreign to the man I was

In those moments I didn't need words to tell you I loved you back

In those moments I didn't give much thought to them

Those words that never could find their way to my ears

Today I live in a world where you refuse to acknowledge me

Each day you choose to exist beyond the furthest edge of my sight

In a place where my words and my actions can't reach

I wish I could say I was surprised

That such a turn of events was unexpected

A twist of fate I could not avoid

But here... now... alone in this world

I have no reason to be anything but truthful with myself

Everything that drove us apart was, for who I was, expected

Never, in the time we were together, did I believe there could be a forever for us

Because I knew the man this world had shaped me into

And thus not for a single moment believed I was a person deserving of your love

So I find myself now looking upon a world I know all too well

Unable to convince myself I will ever know a moment worth living for again

Because no matter how I try to put my life back together

There is always a piece that I am unable to find on my own

At times like this I realize how different I am from the person you knew

As I go on living in this world, more alone than I have ever known

I can feel within myself, like a vessel buried within my chest

A reservoir of faith and love that you built long ago without asking

I feel this unbreakable void within myself lying depleted

A reminder of all that which I was unworthy to hold onto

Seeking to find a way to reach into the depths of all I am

To be able to purge this vestige of our love from my life

I close my eyes and look upon the reflection of my soul in the darkness

All to find within myself this ever fading reminder of all I have lost

Relentlessly I claw my way through my memories of us

Those existing along the edge of all I can recall and all that has faded away

I find it; this single moment of our past that was, in its time, my everything

With a force that threatens to tear my very soul asunder I rip it out

And as I look at this moment I become lost with it in the relentless flow of time

I look at it and remember this moment of us as it finds a new life within my mind

Existing in a pale grey hue, having bled out all the color that once made it shine

I see you stretching out yourself on the couch

Pushing your head into my lap

I feel you laying your hands around my neck

Pulling my head down towards yours

I watch your lips move as your eyes close

It is then that I hear your voice

It is only in this moment

So far removed from the life we lived together

That the words you spoke that day finally reach me

And I am left to wonder, no matter how unrealistic as it may sound

If I couldn't hear you back then because you were speaking to the man I am now

Knowing that there would come a version of myself who would need those words

Far more than the one who was in your embrace as they were first spoken
A Self-Sustaining Paradox

If they had understood in the slightest

How it was that I defined our moments

They never would have risked creating this

But just as humanity seldom gives consideration

To the storied lives of that which they consume

I offer them nothing more then is required

As their souls are deemed forfeit to our rebirth
Heart of a Dragon – Crimson

The Life-Benders – Part 3

Kyra decided to go for a walk along the shoreline. She made her way to an out-cropping of rocks that she had seen off in the distance. Her intention as she was traveling was to move from rock to rock out into the water. When she arrived however, she found that she paused unexpectedly. It took her a moment to remember the feeling that then washed over her. It was the first time since she had met Fenn that she worried for her own safety.

She knew that as long as Fenn was at her side, that she would be safe. But now, he was off checking on whatever it was that had raised the hairs on his back, and she was on her own. It certainly wasn't the first time that she was on her own. She often had run off on her own to explore; it was that very action that brought about her meeting with Fenn.

Still, she couldn't help it as this feeling came over her, stopping her from stepping out to the first rock. She looked down into the water, it seemed calm enough. She then thought that, if she had never met him, if she never knew what it was to have a friend such as him looking out for her, would she have hesitated for even a moment? She asked herself that question, again and again, as she carefully hopped between each stone.

She knew being concerned about the consequences of what she was doing was, of course, a good thing. But she wondered if she was growing too dependent on Fenn for her safety; if, in her own way, she was taking advantage of him by not minding her environment like she used to.

She glanced back to the shoreline on either side, and as she did, something caught her eye. There was something strange moving across the surface of the water. She planted herself firmly on the stone she was on and set her focus to whatever it was. As it came closer, she saw that it was a long horn sitting atop the head of one of the sea creatures. It stopped in front of her, looking over her in much the same way she was looking at it.

After pausing near her for a little while it began to move as if it was leaving. Kyra thought back upon her time with Fenn, about the way that they communicated, the way he was able to speak to seemingly everything and she tried to call out to it. At first there didn't seem to be any reaction, so she tried calling out louder; as loud as she could in that way she said, "Hey! You with the horn thing!"

The creature stopped, turning back towards her. She noticed that it seemed to be looking around before finally looking to her. The two looked at each other for a moment before she heard him reply, "Was that you?"

The creature closed the distance between them and came to rest in front of her rock and asked, "How can you talk like this?"

Kyra thought about his question for a moment and then answered, "I don't know, you're talking to me like this too, aren't you?"

It dunked its head under the water for a moment before resuming their conversation. "Yes, I suppose I am. But it is only because you are able to talk to me in this way. I have never known one the furry ones like you that could speak like this."

As Kyra listened to him, she couldn't help but reach out her paw to try and touch his horn which was now right in front of her. It wasn't something he seemed to like since he pulled himself away as she did.

"Sorry." She said as he back away. "I've just never seen something like that, like you, before."

"I suppose I can say the same about you."

Kyra relaxed herself a little as she tried to solve this mystery for him. "Well, if it helps explain it any, my companion is the one who taught me. He's big with hard skin and really wide wings."

"Ah. That does explain it." He said before he started looking around again. "But where is he?"

"Oh, he went to go check on something."

The sea creature was quick to seek clarification. "So, you can still talk like this, even when he is away?"

Kyra laid down on her belly as she began to dip her paw in and out of the water between them, "Yeah, I guess so, this is the first time I've actually tried."
Because I Can Always Create an Even Better Hell

I have to think there are those,

The once so few who only grow in number.

That hold onto their memories of this world, as if;

Anything which happens within this wasteland matters.

I have to think they look at you and I

With such a sense of confusion and disbelief.

For my part, I sit in this world

Not letting a single moment pass without thinking of you.

Reminding myself what it is to hold you and to be held.

From time to time provoking myself even,

Allowing myself to look upon a photo of you,

Listening to an old and almost forgotten birthday message,

Or even watching a video of you passionately biting into my flesh.

These are the things I do for pleasure here.

The only things I do for pleasure.

Because nothing in this life I was dragged into

Is anywhere near capable of pleasing a soul such as mine.

And yet, even with all that known;

That there is no one and nothing here that could ever please me but you,

While here, you are the last person I desire to see.

Because you, the you that exists within this perception of reality

Isn't a soul I find worthy of such adoration.

Instead I love the girl who once was.

The girl who I know waits, even now

Far outside of this wasteland of a world.

Waits for her love to awaken from this nightmare.

I don't fault her

For the trouble she is having in waking him.

That is of course a fail-safe of my own design.

To ensure that the only demon which arises from these depths

Is the one for whom she holds a pure and eternal love; no matter how undeserved.

I can't help but find myself believing

That when all this is brought to an end

The demon she has chosen will not be myself,

But I have no issue being the sentinel of this gate,

Until the woman I love is ready for what is to come next.

Because I would never do anything less

For the person who gave me a reason to fight against the darkness.

That is why none of these pitiful human looking things will ever escape.

For such is a truth that they still cannot comprehend,

I doubt they will ever come to understand

Even here within the depths of our love.

(Version 7.21.16)

If you enjoyed this anthology check out the previous one

Echoes for the Fallen

You can also check out my two active series

Heart of a Dragon

Indigo : The Void of Sorrow and Hope

How We Name Stars

Book 1 : An Unnamed Life Lost

Available from most major ebook retailers

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or visit my website:

luisangelgreer.wixsite.com/index

Thank You
What, Once Upon A Time, Was The End Of This Story

The girls hear the sound of a door closing as it echoes through the hallways. Arya wasn't sure what to make of the sound at first, but Rin was quick to recognize it even from the corridor they were now in. She cupped her hands around her mouth and screamed at the top of her lungs, "Right! Left! Then right again!" She took a few labored breaths as she let her body slide down the wall until she was sitting on the ground. Arya said she was going to go down one level just to look but stopped when Rin raised up the palm of hand, shaking it. "Let's just wait together, I have a feeling I know who this is." Arya agreed and took a seat across from Rin.

Arya opened her mouth, intending to ask a question, but stopped when they heard a voice.

"Right, left, then what?"

With her mouth still open Arya said in a soft voice, "It was three fucking directions."

Rin, who had immediately started responding, almost as if she was expecting the question to come, started laughing halfway through the word, "Right!"

They both watched as he came out into their hallway and immediately started screaming out, "There is another..." before stopping mid-sentence when he saw the girls waving from their seats on the floor.

He took his time walking up to them; a part of him hoping that somehow, he wouldn't still be embarrassed by the time he made it to them. He took the final step that brought him to a stop in front of them both; he paused for a moment, he wasn't sure how to pronounce her name and it flustered him. A second later he simply went with, "Hi, I'm Joshua."

Rin stood up and smiled at the boy who had entered when she first went to leave; the boy who remained so quiet when she had asked him why he was there. "Hi Josh." She pointed to herself, "I'm Rin," before pointing across the hall, "That's Arya," and then finally to the doorway just past them, "And that is a stairway to somewhere else."

The Impossible Child – Part IV

Joshua was the last one out of the shelter in the morning. He passes Arya and walks over to where Rin was standing, watching as the sun rose over the distant forest. As he passed her, he asked Arya, "So do you happen to have anything that can help you fly in that little device of yours?"

Rin turned a little toward them and gave a look of dissatisfaction at his comment. She reached into his mind, "It's beautiful."

Joshua looked to the horizon with her. "It is a very inspiring sight."

After returning the shelter into her device she walked over to the two as she asked, "What, you two don't have sunrises in your, glade place?"

Joshua turned to her as he began to answer, "Actually we don..." Just as he was turned enough Arya pushed a large metallic piece of gear into his arms. He looked at it in his arms as he braced it against his body.

"Most of my tech that requires power isn't working, so you'll need something to hold that blade if you're going to carry me."

Rin gave Joshua a hard slap on his back as she walked past with a huge grin on her face.

Joshua drove his sword into the ground as he examined the equipment to determine just how to put it on. As he did, he said, "You know Rin, if I didn't know you couldn't speak to Arya, I'd swear this was your idea."

Arya smiled at Rin, "Great minds do think alike."

Rin thought about what Arya said for a second and then gave a glance back towards Joshua as she pointed to Arya and nodded.

Arya continued as Joshua attempted to equip his gear, "I tried to use a tablet to have her write and have it translated, but it seems your people don't have much in the way of a written language."

Joshua, as he was fidgeting with a clasp replied, "No we don't..." He pulled hard and had it snap back and drop to the ground. In a frustrated voice he continued, "...it was just never really needed." He reached down but stopped as Arya grabbed it from the ground, turned it around, opened the clasp and pushed it against his chest. She grabbed one of his hands and had him hold the front as she stepped around.

"Not much of a need for stuff like this either I suppose." She pulled it tightly closed against his body as she finished the sentence, smirking as his body jolted from the shock. "There, all set."

Joshua quickly sheathed his sword and reached out to grab Arya who jumped away in a similarly jolted state to how Joshua was a moment before.

"What are you doing?"

Joshua looked at her with confusion. "Carrying you."

Arya looked at him, "Wait, you can do that? I wasn't actually being serious."

Joshua stepped forward grabbing her as he pushed off the ground and joined Rin who had taken off when Joshua had made his first move. "I'm sure you're a great runner but let's just speed this along a bit."

Arya looked up at Rin who was holding her position and who Arya could swear was actively laughing at the two before she turned and took off. Joshua quickly followed.

Rin stayed airborne for a few moments while Joshua brought Arya to the ground. "Well that was different then how I thought my morning was going to go." She readjusted her bow and looked around a little as Rin landed.

"There is a cave up ahead, there seem to be a lot of things living in it and it seems to be quite expansive."

Arya turned her body slightly towards Joshua but kept her eyes in front of them. "Now when you say things?"

Joshua took a step to stand beside her and shrugged. In response Arya took a deep breath as she deployed her armor.

As they walked toward the opening Joshua asked, "So, do you then have different armor that requires energy to use?"

"Oh yeah, it's really something else. I deployed that first, but it was horrible." The two stopped walking as she started to explain what happened to him. "The support system that handles movement wasn't working, it took me, too long, to get to the manual release to get out of it. That was when I went with this."

Joshua nodded, "And then the bow and dagger."

"The bow is actually Carly's." Arya pulled it into her hand and displays it to him. "It was a gift she got when she was younger. When this world, well, that last world we were in materialized and we were pulled apart she reached out to me with it, I grabbed it and tried to pull her to me, but she got swept away."

Arya pulled an arrow from the quiver on her right hip and laid against the shaft of the bow. "I actually have this really nifty arrow release quiver that equips to the underside of my right arm; it's just like the one the Sagittarius Knight uses, but I guess the deployment feature requires energy that doesn't work within this construct."

Arya puts the arrow back as Joshua replies with another question, "Sagittarius Knight?"

"Oh, yeah, you see there are these twelve stones; well they look like gemstones, but really they are actually..." Just then Rin leaped back from the lead position she had taken gliding to them with her wings.

The two turn their attention back ahead. Arya was the first one to comment as she stepped up to stand beside Rin, "That looks like a dragon. This is a problem."

Joshua stepped up to Rin's other side, "Maybe it isn't hostile."

Arya leaned forward a little and looked over at him, "I keep forgetting you two don't know anything. The barrier that separates their dimension from the rest of existence is supposed to be unbreakable; though I guess every time it gets sealed off its always unbreakable until someone goes and breaks it."

Joshua looks to Rin, "Any chance you can telepathically communicate with it?"

Rin steps forward a little as she tells him she will try. As she does Arya reaches out her hand to grab her until Joshua explains what she is trying to do.

Rin tried her best to project into the creature's mind, but her thoughts didn't seem to reach it. After a short while passed it made what sounded like a loud whimper and then flew up the side of the mountain.

Arya waits until it is a decent distance away before putting her bow away, "So, do we think that is the only one?"

Joshua laughed and looked at her as she gives him a look of dismay, "Oh, I thought you were joking. Yeah, no, that's the things I was sensing; there are a lot more like it."

"Right. Any chance now that you know what it is that you could pick out if there is a regular person around?"

"Unfortunately these, what did you call it, dragons, are pretty good at overwhelming the energy around them. I know they are here, but I can't pinpoint them or really anything else."

Rin communicates to Joshua suggesting, "What if I follow it?"

To which Joshua excitedly speaks out, "Are you kidding?"

Arya was about to ask what, but could see that they were having what was to them a conversation and waited.

"I'm small, I'm pretty confident I can mask my energy enough to not be noticed; plus it isn't like I'm really alone."

Joshua shook his head. "I'm not comfortable with that idea Rin."

Arya decided to speak up, "With what?"

"She wants to go follow it, alone."

"Girl; No." A look of surprise hit Rin. It was enough of a surprise that Arya didn't need to wait for anyone to explain how she was feeling. "Just no; you aren't going alone."

"But that doesn't mean we aren't going to follow it." Joshua interjected.

Arya let out a sigh as she looked at him and then gave him a little wave over.

Once the three were airborne they head up towards where the dragon had gone. At first it seemed as if it disappeared into the mountain. Joshua tried using his aetheric sight, but he was unable to make out anything in particular as the energy was simply everywhere. After a while Rin spotted a formation in the rocks that looked, strange. She flew closer and noticed that it was an opening. Looking down into it she could see a light at the far end. After telling Joshua that it must have gone through there the three headed in.

On the far side of the cavern they found a large glade surround by a thick tree line. They waited on the inside of the cave as they looked up to the sky. There were at least fifteen dragons of different colors and sizes flying around.

"So Miss knows so much, dragons?"

Arya gave slightly less of an eye roll then she normally did when she needed to explain what, to her, was common knowledge. She quickly gave them the basic run down of what she knew.

"So, some of them can communicate telepathically then?" Joshua asked in response to her explanation.

"Some of them did, yeah, but they were very rare. Even when a human was bonded with one, they couldn't really talk to one another; it was more of a sharing of feelings. And as far as I know when the..." She slowly focused hard on Joshua's face to judge his reaction to her explanation, "...angels led their last war into their dimension they pretty much killed all the ones that could."

Joshua simply replied, "Your people all seem to fight a lot."

"Yeah. I guess we do."

Joshua went to step forward, "Well we can't stay here and do nothing."

Arya quickly stopped him, "Before we go, can you two, I don't know, hide your wings?"

Rin looked to Joshua with a strange glance.

"I can." He looked at Rin, "Can you?"

She reached out to his mind, "How do you do it?"

He thought for a moment, "For me, it's like right under where they meet our body, it's like there is a small channel for them and I can sort of pull them into it." Joshua turned his back to the girls and spread his wings out before then pulling them within himself. Arya looked at his back, it was the first time she had seen it in this way. Where his wings just were, now was little more than an almost unnoticeable raise under the skin. She felt her hand starting to move up to touch him, but she stopped herself.

Rin tried for a few minutes, but clearly couldn't do what he just did. Arya turned to Joshua, "Is it cause her wings are different?"

"Maybe try summoning the blades out of them and see if that helps."

Rin drew the energy from hers wings to materialize them and then tried again but still found herself unable to retract her wings.

Joshua turned from Rin to ask Arya, "Is this really necessary?"

Arya took a moment; the longest one she had taken before explaining something to them. "You know how I mentioned that, angels went and killed all those dragons." Joshua and Rin nodded. "Well what we call angels are pretty much humans with wings."

Joshua and Rin looked at each other.

"Most of the bad ones have wings like yours Joshua."

Joshua turned back to her, "What do you mean like mine?"

Arya was beginning to feel uncomfortable with the conversation but continued. "You know; white ones."

Joshua looked to her with clear confusion on his face. "What do you mean?"

Arya looked at the two of them, "Your wings are white; that is normally a sign of an angel that has recently been in contact with what we call, heaven's grace. Rin's are black which is normally a sign of one that has been in the mortal realm for a long time; but I'm not sure if the dragons here will make that distinction."

Rin looked at Joshua as she moved her wings one at a time in front of her.

Joshua answered her, "No Rin, aside from the traces of light when the blades aren't out, I don't see a difference."

Arya quickly responded, "Wait, you don't see a difference?"

Rin shook her head.

Arya looked down to the ground and let out a sigh. "Alright..." she swung her arms a little, making Joshua smirk as he was reminded of the way Rin would do that when she was trying to avoid something. "Let me see if my father knows anything."

Joshua went to speak but Arya cut him off, "Just don't ask and wait there."

Arya closed her eyes as her body seemed to loosen up.

The three stood silently there for almost fifteen minutes until Arya violently shook her head before stepping up to Rin. She rubbed her hands together for a few seconds before placing them onto Rin's shoulders. "I want you to focus on the empty space where my palms are." Rin looked into Arya's eyes and nodded. Arya slowly moved her hands down until the base of her wrist covered Rin's nipples. "Do you feel where that space is now?" Rin nodded again. "Good, now, pull the edges of your wings forward until they fill that space."

Joshua looked confused but without pause Rin shuttered and her wings were hidden from sight. Joshua wanted to question Arya, but knew it was clearly something she didn't want to discuss. He thought back to his conversation with Rin the night before, clearly Arya had a different mindset then Rin did about holding her fathers' memories.

Arya retracted her armor and gave a sideways glance to the two of them. "Look, before we go down, I wasn't going to..." She stopped and started at least two more times before finally just asking, "Do you two want like, clothing?"

Rin looked at what Arya was wearing and touched her sleeve as she excitedly shook her head to affirm.

As Arya started swiping through her menu's she added, "I don't really have boy things. But I'll find you something champ."

After they were dressed Arya couldn't help but say, "That's better."

"Were we making you uncomfortable?" Joshua asked.

Arya blushed, "It's just not really normally where I'm from. But we also don't have wings to manage or to cover us so just a cultural thing."

As Joshua pulled at the crotch of the pants he was now wearing he asked, "What about the, angels you were talking about?"

Arya watched Joshua as he struggled to be comfortable in Carly's old sweatpants and awkwardly replied, "No, they wear clothing and armor. Guess it's an Earth thing..." under her breath she continued, "... and a Ton'rei thing, a Val'teran thing..." as her lips continued moving but without any air passing through them until she clapped her hands together, "Anyways, let's get going."

As they followed the pathway down the inner-side of the mountain Joshua asked her, "You're going to want to give us a name, aren't you?"

Arya glanced over at him and grimaced, "Nexians."

Joshua shook his head, "Well that didn't take a second. And how long have you..."

Arya interrupted him, "Last night when you left me alone in a dark room for an hour."

Joshua looked away as he spoke, "Sorry. I didn't mean for that to happen."

Arya punched his shoulder. "Nah, you had things to do. I kinda like wingless you." She took about five more steps before qualifying her answer, "Clothed wingless you."

Joshua followed up, "Rin is curious why, Nexians."

Arya turned to Rin, "That one's easy, I don't know just where, but you guys have to be natural parts of the Nexus between dimensions. It explains how you ended up here and why you seemingly know absolutely nothing about reality."

Rin seemed happy with the answer. Joshua seemed to be a little insulted. Arya added, "Still though, it seems weird that we haven't ever encountered your kind." She paused and stutter stepped a little before resuming her sentence. "Even Malak doesn't seem to know about you guys even though Rin was able to recognize his energy."

Joshua took this opportunity to address the query he had from earlier. "About that, he did know how to draw in her wings though."

"Malak had wings very similar to hers, a remnant of the beast that originally gave him his abilities. I thought Rin's might work similarly."

Joshua nodded, "So you didn't get those in your, what did you call it, merger."

Arya turned a shouted angrily, "No!"

Joshua stopped, as did Rin.

"I'm sorry." Arya looked at the two of them and then quickly looked away.

Joshua hadn't noticed, but Rin saw the tears forming in her eyes and quickly walked over and put her arms around her.

Arya wasn't expecting it but found her body give in as she leaned back into Rin's arms as she let a few tears loose to roll down her face. After a minute she patted Rin's hands and wiped away her tears as she turned.

"Malak... There was what we called a god and it infused itself upon a human soul in an attempt to gain more power than its creator. After a long struggle in both life and death, Malak was reborn into a human body." Arya walked over to the edge of the path and looked out for a moment before turning back. "Vorash forced Malak's hand, the human that he inhabited stopped existing and that was only the first life that he was forced to take as their fight went forward. I don't want anything to do with that demon."

After a few moments of silence Joshua started walking, "We should get going if we want to get a look around without being noticed."

Arya started to follow him but stopped as Rin began to speak to her. "Malak's wings are ones he fought hard to obtain the ability to manifest; they are nothing like what Amerath gained while Vorash was consuming his soul."

Arya looked to Rin. There was a part of her that wanted to ask so many questions, about who Joshua and Rin were, about how this voice knew so much, about where Carly was; but when she spoke all she said was, "Don't ever overtake Rin just to talk to me again." Before turning as she re-engaged her armor, sprinting forward down the path.

Joshua stepped over to Rin, "It isn't the same for her."

In that moment, Rin's body spoke in unison with her voice within his mind, "We know."
Heart of a Dragon – Crimson

The Life-Benders – Part 4

The two look out from the shoreline, it was just as the sea creature had told her. Fenn shifted his head around a little before clarifying, once again, why they were there. "So, the creature with a horn told you that it knew another like me, who traveled with a companion like you, and that they had come here, grabbing something from that thing out there that let them fly together."

Kyra stepped up beside him with something of an excited curiosity in her step. "Yup."

Fenn waited a moment, but Kyra didn't add anything to her statement. "Alright then. I will go look."

Fenn took a few steps forward, and as he went to take off Kyra added, "If you have options go with what looks most comfortable."

Fenn held off a second before deciding it wasn't a statement worth replying to, as he adjusted the angle of his wings ever so slightly, taking off and pushing a patch of sand into the Kyra's face.

"I know you did that on purpose!" she exclaimed into his mind as he made his way to the structure off the coast.

It was a short flight for him. Carefully, he landed on what looked to be a safe section, applying his weight as slowly as possible. Once he felt that it was as safe as it was going to be, he began to look about.

His presence had drawn some attention. There was one of the sea creatures who seemed extra curious, this one without a horn. While still looking Fenn reached out to its mind, "Hey, do you remember seeing another of my kind here?"

It took a moment for Fenn to bridge the reply of the creature, which was a simple, "No."

Fenn then described as best he could what Kyra had told him to look for. He was surprised when he got a, "Yeah, that's around the side." He watched as it moved around to the far side of the structure. Fenn looked over the edge and saw it. He hadn't quite been able to picture what Kyra was trying to explain to him but now that his sight was upon it he understood how this would work.

As he collected the netting, he asked the creature, "You're sure you don't remember another like me taking some of this?"

The sea creature made a few circles in the water. "No, that's all there has ever been."

Fenn secured it around his neck, using his claws to cut and shape it as he used the side of the partially submerged structure to tighten it. He went to take off, but paused, "Thank you for your help. Do you need anything?"

The creature just said, "Fish."

Fenn knew that it wasn't exactly asking for him to get it fish; but he figured since he was there. Fenn took off, flying higher than he normally does. Kyra saw him from the shoreline, and she could tell that he had something with him, she was glad that the information she got was correct. Just then she saw him plummet into the waters.

She had never seen it before and it scared her in a way that was unfamiliar to her, she knew that he was too far away, but she called out his name all the same in a panic, "Fenn!" as she ran to the water's edge.

Just then, unexpectedly she heard him, "Sorry... I'm fine..." she watched as he burst forth from the water, "... I was just getting some food for a friend." Kyra watched as Fenn made a quick stop on the structure before heading back to the shoreline.

As he got nearer to the shore, he began to hear Kyra who was in mid-sentence, "... and I thought that it hurt you and you fell; I was so worried and I knew I couldn't..."

Fenn landed as he interrupted her thought, "I'm fine, it was just a little water."

She looked at him as he stood in front of her, "I didn't know that you could move in the water like they do."

Fenn said, in a tone that she found a little too condescending given her clear concern for him, "I can." Sensing her unease with the entire conclusion of the situation he tried to refocus her onto the matter at hand. "So come over and let's get this setup for you so we can go find the others."

Kyra walked over. As she tried to decide just how it would be best for her to travel in the netting. She began to pull at it, making minor adjustments as she said, "I'm glad we'll get to make this trip together."
The Dirge of the Final Soul of Creation

I approached her

Making certain she knew I was there

I stood beside her as she ignored my presence

Eventually I lowered myself to the ground

It had been hard to tell as I was making my way

But as I sat at her side

Kneeling within the ever-growing pool of blood

It was quite clear that not a drop of it was her own

I went to speak; she sensed my intent

Swiftly but still so very gently

She laid her index finger to my mouth

Leaving it there for just an instant

Before letting her finger weightlessly fall away from my lips

In that moment my thoughts became overwhelmed

As I breathed in the intoxicatingly sweet scent

Of what was her now mixed with this human's blood

My urges ran rampant as my senses craved more

I tried to not make it noticeable

As I ever so minutely parted my lips

Pushing the tip of my tongue out

Collecting that which she had left for me

I managed to hide the physically visible signs of my euphoria

But even so she still giggled

I waited another moment or so before asking

'What are you doing?'

Without breaking her eye contact with the corpse, she replied

"Shhhhh... the best part is coming up."

A short while later I felt the soul preparing to depart

I watched as its energy discharged

Like smoke rising from a fire

A luminous trail of light emanated from the body

As this soul shifted itself out of that realm

I heard as she whispered aloud to herself, "Pretty."

She waited until all the smoke had dissipated before standing

I then rose to my feet as well

She looked down upon her bloodstained dress

Without really looking at me she spoke

"We should have time enough to change

Before it can find its next vessel..."

She turned and walked back as she continued her thought

"It's a shame it's the only one left;

They look so pretty when we set them free."
Borderline AE 8-51

It still manages to be the most unfamiliar sensation I know... perhaps that is why I can recognize it so readily. I didn't yet know just how long had passed, but as my soul realigned deep within what they call Sanctuary... what is for us, the same as it is for the nova deep within its core, a timeless prison. I knew, that we had mere seconds before the rest of the population would begin to revive as well.

All I wanted was to run to you. It wouldn't be hard to integrate again into your world. We could live another lifetime together; we could forget about everything and everyone else... we could finally just be happy... for a while...

As your anima returned within your body, I could see the woman I love come back to life within the depths of your eyes; I could see that all you wanted was the same...

... but we both knew, that the only thing worse than having to live another forever without knowing each other's embrace, would be for them to learn of all that we had built while they slept...

... I spoke your name, you spoke mine, and the gateways between our worlds closed once again as the pathway between us fell from sight. I kept my eyes locked onto yours until long after you were gone from my sight; until my friend called out, "Why are you staring at a wall? Come on, we're going to miss the shuttle."
Something New

Some you pointed to

Some I noticed as they caught your eye

And one... one you wondered why you had it

A few of them you handed back out to me

My perspective and opinion unneeded

Most though you at least gave a twirl or two

As you read my expression and reaction

Your selection was made

I saw it upon your face

As you stepped out with it on

But you still didn't understand

Why I included the one that I did

You thought about not even trying it on

But as you stood with your pants in hand

You decided to at least hold it up in the mirror

You dressed yourself

Collected the fallen contenders

Adding the one I slipped-in with the group

You stepped out of your room

You hung them on the rack

You went to walk out

You turned back

You took the one I added back into your hand

I could almost hear your thoughts

Why did you pick this one?

You know there isn't much I do

Without reason and consideration

You carry it out along with your selection

"You know I can't wear this to their wedding."

I smiled

"You can wear it here."

I watched as you held back a smile

While thoughts within your mind

Rapidly fired back and forth

Before settling on

"I can't zipper it myself."

I smile again as I motion to enter the fitting room

I smile even more as I watch your face turn red

Your eyes quickly scanning the horizon

Checking if anyone is watching us

Making it all into something far more than it needed to be

Before taking a deep breath and giving an energetic nod

We stood in the dressing room

You went to pull your shirt up and I stopped you

I turned you; so that you were looking into the mirror

At first you went to turn your head

But then you found my eyes within our shared reflection

You didn't know why I turned you

It didn't seem to make a difference to what we were doing

You pulled up your shirt and I pulled it off

Placing it at our side

You took off your pants, kicking them beside your shirt

You then reached out for the dress

And I reached out, taking your hand into mine

I gently caressed your arm as I guided it back to your side

I placed my other hand upon your other arm

And we stood for a moment in silence

You went to speak and I glided my fingers up your body

Unclasping your bra as I watched your arms shake

As if my hands were still upon them, their motion halted

I moved my hands up to your shoulders

Moving your arms slightly causing it to fall to the floor before you

Slowly I bend down behind you

Tracing my fingers down your arms, your back

Until I gently take the fabric of your panties into my grasp

Bringing them down to the ground as well

I make a small circle with my thumb against your heel

And you lift your feet one after the other

I stand back up without touching you

Hovering my hands just far enough to not be felt

But near enough to roll the air over your skin as I rise

After a moment spent looking at one another within the mirror

I take the dress I selected in hand

I hold it out between you and the mirror

Before bending down again to your feet

Once more I make a small circle upon your heel

You raise your feet so I can move the dress around you

I paused a second before carrying the dress up your body

In the mirror its layers appear rough

I can see it within your eyes as I stand

Your mind trying to reconcile that appearance

As the satin lining within slides over your body

I rest the dress upon your shoulders

My hands following the zipper to the small of your back

I pinch the fabric together

You tuck your arms closer to your body

I pull the zipper closed

I allow my hands to keep moving after it is done

I collect your hair into my hands

I pull it tightly together

I pull it back

I stepped up as close as I can be

While still standing behind you

I look at us in your mirror

As you speak your first words in that room

"I can't wear white to someone else's wedding, right?"
An Aetherial Dragon's Tear [Ф Version]

For what feels like longer than I have existed; I have believed all that managed to survive of the home she and I shared was a piercing pain from deep within myself. A pain that radiates through all I am as a reminder of what we once had... what we once were... before they killed me and tried to take it all for themselves because it was something they were unwilling and unable to create for themselves... but I was mistaken.

I have come to realize that this pain; these memories of those who I failed to protect from those who have now become my charges, is in fact a timeless song. It is a hymn sung of a once great love; seeking to guide those who hear it closer towards the piece of our reality that has been missing; the key to our paradise's revival.

I know now that there exists, a single tear. It is one that she shed while she watched, as by my hand, the devastation that once led to our world's genesis was unmade; an expression of the love and pain she felt as the life that was to be our child was erased. A tear that fell from her cheek even after the providence of its creation was purged from her memory. The lone proof of the family she once had which became collateral damage of a war that I once led.

It is a tear, frozen beyond the reach of time itself.

It is sung that to set your sight upon it... to look upon this reality through the prismatic lens that it has become, is to look upon creation as it once was. When it was still unspoiled; before the demons named humanity destroyed our paradise. A crime for which I imprisoned them here within the confines of this once hallowed ground. A prison that I shall maintain for as many eternities as it takes, to rid existence of their hubris and greed... until she is ready to welcome them within sight of that child so long ago lost.

There is a hill

atop it a single tree

Every year it grows

a little bit bigger

and in all of the years

we have looked upon it

it has yet to birth a single leaf

The others say it is cursed

a dark omen from the souls

long ago committed to rest

within that hallowed ground

But who are they

to measure its progress

by our perception of time

or by our concept of beauty

because every time I have sat

resting myself against its trunk

under a luminous midday's star

it always bathes me

in the perfect amount

of its resplendent light

A Song to the Stars [Astral Edit]
The Birth of The New Queen

She asked

"But if I won't remember this

won't remember you

remember us

then what has all this been for?"

She waited

as for existence eons passed

as all the light within creation faded

as the cycle of entropy consumed all there was

She waited

in their home she had no memory of calling home

watching the cycle of creation once again ready itself

sitting upon their throne looking out to all there had ever been

She moved

and the whole of creation followed

She set her sights

and the light of a new dawn began to shine

She cried

and the spring of life began to once more flow

She rose

and felt that wings of fire now adorned her back

She raised her hands

as she felt the soul of her lost love burn within her chest

She speaks aloud his name

and all there was, has ever been and will ever be stopped
