InThe Dark Corner

No Author's Notes for this fic. Just that you keep an open mind, some people feel like a part of them is missing, and this is what I believe to be gone.

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In the dark corner, of the dark room, with dark shadows, a window that looks out into the darkness. You see a girl; she is a pale shadow herself, her skin as white and pure as moonlight, her hair a black cloud - shrouding her, keeping her from the world. It only makes her wispy white rags stand out more; you stare in shock as she looks up from her spot on the floor with her knees drawn to her. You are even more shocked by her eyes. They are like the tears of a Goddess; they bear little resemblance to humans. Just a blank field of incandescent blue-white. "W-who a-a-re...y-you?"

You feel the intense need to kneel before her, show her respect, and hide the pity that you once were feeling for her. Your fear seems to dissipate as you stare into her eyes; sorrow-filled fields of turquoise-silver blue. Her voice does not have a halting quality, like you half expected, instead it feels like music caressing your skin, entering your mind, and making you close your eyes as you ride out the wave of hope it causes.

"I am what once was, what will be again, and what is now..." This cryptic comment would normally have confused you, but with the odd feelings it induced in you, you find yourself understanding it. Suddenly you make the connections, the dark abode, the shrouding hair, the tear-eyes, the wispy rags. She is so familiar to you that you wonder how you couldn't have recognized her. you understand fully now, why you wanted to respect her, and you feel yourself kneeling on the cold wooden flooring of the dark stone palace in the middle of a dark dreary no where.

"L-lady Sorrow..." She stands up from her position, and you feel your eyes drawn to her, despite you feeling as if this would be a sacrilege. "You came here seeking, Child, have you yet found?" You feel yourself begin to shudder slightly, as her voice fills you again. But it gives you assurance, the determination and will to go on. You realize you have found what would complete you. "Lady...Sorrow...I have come seeking, and I have found."

You are awed by her presence, as she moved closer to you, seeming to fill the cold - dark - room, rather more than her slight gaunt frame really could. "You were never seeking, Child, I was always there with you... you have already recognized me as Lady Sorrow, that is but one of my names, Son." She has placed a pale hand on your shoulder, and it feels hot and cold at the same time, incandescent heat, and pale ice. You shiver again.

"I know that now...Lady-" She smiles at you, she smiles at you! "Son, you are indeed The One, Chosen of Shadow, Born of Sorrow, Keeper of Hope, and you are going to mend this torn land.” She pulls you up from your spot on the floor; you don't even notice that splinters have lodged themselves into your pants and knees. She raises you to her height, and looks at you, the smile is gone, but you are only for her tear-eyes. She suddenly opens her mouth, and emits a piercing sound, like a directed bell-tone.

In a split-second two other beings appear behind her. One, a similarly dark-haired boy, but his skin had a translucent silver sheen to it, it was even more deathly pale than Lady Sorrow's, but seemed to be almost darker than black. You felt yourself gazing at his eyes, and are similarly lost in his, they are a black space, but with silver-white veins running through it, like mini-spider webs. You immediately feel a kinship with him, and feel yourself taking one step towards him, when your attention is drawn to the fiery being that appeared also behind Lady Sorrow.

You know who this one is, "Lady Hope," you say as you feel yourself bowing for her too, but with not the same respect as Lady Sorrow, and you don't feel the same drawing that you do with Shadow. There is no extra special draw in Lady Hope's bright yellow-green orbs, which have a faint golden hue binding all of the color in the shape of human eyes. You feel yourself drawn to the awesome presence of Shadow yet again, though. Something about him...

"Before, Born of Sorrow, you go to him, you must fulfill your duty as Keeper of Hope. You have already suffered penance to claim me as Sire." You feel yourself coerced to look at Lady Hope, not like Shadow, but a different calmer bond. "I am known as Lady Hope, but to those that keep me, those that truly do, know me by a different name, one that you will whisper to me.” Lady Hope’s voice wasn’t at all like Lady Sorrow’s; it was dainty and chirpy, like a sparrow caught in a giant hall, as if Lady Hope was eternally in a blissful mood.

You begin to feel that your entire world has become Lady Hope - no, Sasytina - but there is always some corner of you that knows where Shadow is. "Lady Hope... I-I know you as Sasytina." There is a clicking sound, something being fit into place after being so long broken, Sasytina smiles before there is a screeching sound and her body transforms from its human form before your eyes and becomes just a floating miasma of yellow, orange, and red dust-like particles. With great golden disks placed in their midst, presumably her eyes.

There is another sound, much like the bell-tone of Lady Sorrow's, and the cloud that is Sasytina rushes towards you, into you. You feel nothing. Not pain, nor hurt, nor healing. Yet there seems to be a white - almost clear - band of something developing on the outside of your hands, arms, and you look closer. It appears like a band of light, surrounding your entire body in a warm yellow glow. You feel a presence in you, a corner of your Self that was empty for so long, feels filled. You look closer at your hand at the band of light surrounding you, and you see it begins to flare; it goes so bright it forces you to look away for but a moment. :That was the correct choice, Little One, you are now the Keeper of Hope.:

You instinctively look at your lower chest, and there is the slight form of a stylized half-sun and rays just above your belly-button. Now you become aware of the other two, Lady Sorrow - no, Arvyta - and Shadow, the one that you are drawn too, his name is Juisive. You turn to Arvyta first, you feel more yourself with the addition of Sasytina's presence in you, more in control, and for once, almost... happy...

"Arvyta, Sasytina has allowed me to bear her mark and her presence, I formally request that I be finally recognized as the Son of Sorrow." You stare in-fixed at her tear-eyes, feeling yourself comparing them to Juisive's. "There is no reason to compare; there are two quite different Bonds between me and you, Son, and you and him."

You see her turn to Juisive...and again the puzzle unravels itself for you in startling clarity, you turn to face Juisive, and really look at him for the first time. It is as you thought; this is the one you have always had a dream - nightmare - about. "Y-you...forgive me...Juisive, I-I..." You dimly are aware of Arvyta moving back from her position, leaving you two relatively alone. Your heart beats faster as he approaches you.

"Chosen of Shadow, your title with me is simply love, or friend, which ever you require most at the time." Tears of relief begin to slip from your eyes, and it is strange for you. You've never cried but for sorrow...the sorrow...at lost life. How could the very tears that expressed such pain represent such happiness? This thought makes you look book at Arvyta, with her tear-eyes... if there is more than one meaning of a tear drop, is there more than one meaning of sorrow? "There is always more than one meaning, love," you feel hot-cold lips press onto yours, and the feeling is much different from when you had been kissed before by...It. This felt right, and you could feel yourself melt into the body of Juisive, a perfect meld.

A slight chuckle brings you out of the overwhelming embrace, "Now, now, Juisive, you have all the time in the world with the Son of Sorrow; you must let him merge with me before you." You felt and saw Arvyta's transformation into a blue and white mist-cloud. Her 'eyes' were shown as disks that looked carved from the very moon itself. You feel and hear the distinctive bell-tone and the slight popping noise of something set to right, and then this cloud - Arvyta - rushes towards you.

The melding takes less time with Arvyta, and when it is complete, there is a new layer of the something surrounding you, only this one is a layer of silver-blue pulsating light. Instinctively you know now that your eyes are no longer a soulless gray, but the very tear-eyes of Arvyta herself. She has left her mark on you’re, and now comes Juisive's... and you crave and fear his the most.

"You know our Bond will take place differently, you will not be wholly encompassing me, you will merely hold a part of me so that I will always be with you and know where you are." You wonder briefly what this means, but don't have time before the comforting presence of Juisive seems to disappear, and you begin to panic. But you soon realize when you feel - not hear or see - a chuckle in the first plane of reality.

You look more closely at the spot that Juisive’s human-form had been... And see that Juisive's true form only seems to disappear amongst all the shadows of the room, as it was the color of a shadow itself. Brown, black, gray, and a dark, dark blue. His 'eyes' where nothing but disks of black. You hear the bell-tone again, but this time you see, feel, and hear it. The cloud of shadow-mist moves into you. You don't feel overcrowded, with all the presences, at all, instead you feel...full, complete, whole... after so long.

You feel a patterned itchiness along the right side of your face, arm, and just body, all the way to your waist. And when you look down, what can be seen between your wanderer armor and that part of you is covered in a dark-grey colored tattoo of swirling abstract designs. The entirety of the pattern pulsates, fades at times, times when you feel the Touch of Juisive more, and then the times where it fully manifests on your skin, the times when you Sense the presence of Juisive more.

:We are...: Sasytina. Hope. Faith.

:We were...: Arvyta. Sorrow. Suffering.

:We will be...: Juisive. Shadows. Hidden.

You add your voice to the old beings; you are them as much as they are you now.

:...And we have come to heal.: Hope - Faith - Sorrow - Suffering - Shadows - Hidden - Love.

--Fin