Dust In The Wind
"Lady?" There were as many tears in Paul's voice as there were staining
his face. "I…" He was forced to pause and swallow back his own
grief before he faced hers. "My lord has fallen," he said, falling
back on archaic speech patterns because he couldn't bring himself to simply
say, "Jack's dead." That was too final. It sliced his heart too deeply.
Lady Abigail Roxton didn't rise from the chair that was essentially a throne. "I know. I felt it." Her whisper was too loud against the stone walls.
Paul swallowed again. He wanted to throw himself against her and wail for their mutual loss. "I'm sorry, my Liege. There was a wind vortex; I could not… not gather his dust." He pulled himself painfully erect. "I took his killer myself. I promise you he will scream for as long as my lord walked the Earth." He knelt before her and held out a trembling fist. Wrapped around his fingers, its ivory beads still stained with Jack's blood was his lord's rosary. "He tossed me this before…" Paul couldn't say it. "It is all we have left."
He dropped the rosary into her lap, careful that it not touch her skin. He stared at his unburned fingers, his own Redemption as great a miracle as any Paul had ever heard of. He watched the smoke curl upward as her hand closed about it and the gold crucifix burned into her palm, incense for an unfeeling God. Wordless, she rose and glided past him, even her long skirts quiet with the silence of the ancient Undead. He laid his head on the seat of Jack's throne and allow his grief free reign. If she would not cry, he would do it for her.
Baby stared out into the darkness of a still unfamiliar night. She had ruled in this place for half a millennia with Jack Niemczyk at her side just as he had been for the two millennia before they had ever set foot on this small bastion of humanity lost in the void of space. It still felt alien. The globe of Earth spun beneath them, blue and white and scorched by the apocalypse they had not been able to completely hold back. The evil had been destroyed but the world was devastated. There were now only these artificial worlds sustained by science and magic, waiting for the planet to heal itself so these seeds of humanity could be replanted. So close. Only a few more years, a century at the most and they would be able to return.
She clutched the image of Jack's faith more tightly and blood dripped slowly from her burn onto the flags of the floor. She thought of the humans living in this eternal night, locked away in the caverns dug deep in their asteroid just as hundreds of their brethren were lock away in the depths of other asteroids, all guarded by what was left of the family. The Redeemed were sworn to protect mankind until they could be returned to Earth. The Unforgiven were not bound by such oaths. She could leave now, rejoin René, her private oath to Jack fulfilled. She had stayed with him, ruled as his queen for the centuries they'd been here because it was his wish. What did she care for the humans on this near barren rock? There were just as many in René's kingdom, in Jean's, in Wesley's. There were more than enough to repopulate the world when the time came. They knew she would leave now that Jack was gone. Some tyrant or cultist would step into the vacancy she left. It would be just like it had always been; the strong ruled and the weak were ground beneath the wheels of a conquering army. It was the way of the world they all longed to return to.
Three more drops of her blood joined those already on the floor. René would welcome her. His love had not diminished. She wouldn't be alone. There was no need for her to ever be alone. René was only a thought away. She could walk away with no guilt. There was nothing for her here any longer.
A seventh drop of blood splashed onto the stones. "Tell the people that I will take up Jack's oath. Let them know that nothing's changed. He…" A single tear appeared in the corner of her eye and remained there, unfallen. "He promised to protect them. I'll do it in his place."
Paul rose shakily from where he knelt. "Yes, Liege." He didn't make the least effort to hide his tears, simply signaled his minions to carry their queen's message out into the tunnels.
She stood unmoving, uncaring of the passage of time as the planet turned beneath her. Hours passed but Paul allowed no one to come near her. Finally, she opened her hand and stared at the unmarked flesh and the holy relic lying cool and peaceful against her skin.
Paul gasped. "Lady! You're Redeemed!"
She let the rosary slide from her hand and puddle on the floor, the ivory lying against her dried blood as pale as her fingers against the tuscan of her dress. "It wasn't worth Jack's life." She looked out at the void of space, ignoring the night dark disc of the Earth. "But at least when the time comes, when Jack's oath is fulfilled, I can join him."
She watched the stars spin in a friendless sky. A few years, less than a century and she'd be able to join Jack. And that was all that mattered.
~Fin~