CoH CoS (Chapter 25)

“Love…”

The word was soft, but warm and inviting. Damien slowly opened his eyes. She smiled at him. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. His hand slowly came up and touched her face. He closed his eyes and cried. She held him gently. Sobs shook his body. Tears slipped down his face like a fountain. She ran her fingers through his hair slowly, soothingly. Finally the sobs lessened, and then stopped.

He spoke, still in her arms. “I’m dreaming aren’t I?”

She sighed softly, an almost musical sound. “Yes you are love, it was the only way I could see you.”

“Why did you wait this long?”

“I tried before, but I couldn’t reach you until you used the life spell. You know…none of them thought you could do it. They didn’t think you had the power. I think you scared them when you did it. They are re-evaluating you once again. But I knew, I knew that you could do it. Everyone was scared when they heard your voice like thunder here. But I felt such joy to hear you again.”

“Will you see me again?”

“I don’t know. I’m going to try. I don’t know if the Wall will let me. But I will try. But for now, we must say goodbye. I can hear them calling you.”

“I don’t want to go. I want to stay here with you.”

“As I with you, but you must go. Until the next time my love.”

Meanwhile…

At the start of Damien’s dream his life signs flatlined. Artemis gasped and grabbed Chip’s arm pointing. Chip calmly looked at another monitor.

“It’s alright, just give him a minute.”

“But his lifelines have flatlined. Doesn’t that mean he’s dead?”

Chip smiled softly, “Haven’t looked into Elysian physical makeup much have we Mistress?”

“Not really.”

“Elysians all have two lifelines. Their physical lifeline. The one that is measured by the hearbeat. The one that went flat right now. But their second, and most important one is their aural lifeline. Which, if you see this monitor is just fine. A little high, which suggets alot of emotion or brain activity going on inside, but still doing quite well. The aural lifeline can sustain the body for days even if the heart stops. If you’ve seen the Knight battle life meters, there’s two lines. A Knight is only truly dead if both his lines are flat.”

Suddenly, Damien gasped out a long breath and opened his eyes. His heart meter started moving toward normal levels again. Chip leaned over him.

“Damien, can you hear me?”

Damien, still breathing deeply, nodded.

“Do you know where you are?”

Damien spoke this time, his voice tired and hushed, “Medical.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Tired.”

“I bet. Just rest here some more. After that you can try some food and then some more rest.”

Damien just put his head back down and closed his eyes, nodding again. Chip checked a few more things before nodding to himself and turning to everyone there.

“Alright, out. He needs rest. You can visit him later.”

Damien slept, but this time there was only the darkness of sleep to greet him.

 

-Damien