Closure

It was barely three days after the events at Andhaft's keep, which had changed Levinia's life forever. As the sun had risen on that day, the skies had seemed to reflect the state of her grieving heart. At the horizon, the radiant glowing orb in the east had cast its splendid rays far out across the earth, dispelling the vestigial murk of the night, which had fled before the power of the sun. The trees in the canyon were suffused with the steadily advancing sunbeams, which finally smiled upon the broken keep. However, directly above in the heavens were brooding grey clouds that almost certainly intended to unleash their millions of watery darts against the earth below. She had remembered lifting her head and looking at the sky, those few days back, inwardly commenting how hope and joy had blossomed in her heart due to the ordeal of her curse being broken, but had been drastically offset by Andhaft's sacrifice.

Remembering how he had smiled at her just before he died, she had cried afresh. And the skies wept with her. Unlike before, she had not wailed, or even made any sound, but just stood there, as her tears mingled with the rain and would be very difficult to notice. She had left the Mysterious Canyon behind that same day, but her grief continued. Somewhat expectedly, she felt she needed time to be alone, time to process the changes her body had undergone, time to come to terms with her grief, time to understand the strange events that had transpired that night. So, she had spent most of her time indoors and alone, but her mind kept wandering back to the keep, as though there was something that called her back.

There was no reason for her to return to the fortress. Most of it had been damaged by the coming of the Godling Dragon, and so she couldn't make it a base of operations, even if she had wanted to. Not that she even considered it, anyway. The place would remind her of Andhaft, and of Merise and Dorn and their treachery. For a moment, she had wondered whether Merise's story had not been just an attempt to rope another in with her crime, especially since he was unavailable to defend himself. But her point had a lot of merit: only one with a thorough understanding of the defenses of the keep could have disabled them quietly to permit the assailants to get in, and such a person was Dorn. Besides, people could lie with their mouths, but they almost never lied with their thoughts. It took power and conditioning for one to be capable of such a feat. Rather disappointing it was, but very likely, that Dorn had been in on the treachery all along. He had just been a better pretender than Merise.

Then she had remembered the voice that had spoken through Merise's mouth, and had unceremoniously killed her off. No doubt, it was the creature she had seen in the vision that she had experienced, when her body had dispelled the mutagens while she was unconscious. It had not said so, but she was very certain that that thing was one of her "people", one of those who had turned her into the strange deformity that she had had to struggle with for close to two decades. That creature bore no goodwill towards her; she remembered how it had always invaded her subconscious as she had learned to fight against the darkness in her dreams... if such could be called dreams. It had always mocked, told her that she would never escape her cage, and as she had gotten stronger, it had threatened and bullied. She also remembered how she had broken through the "walls" on the night of her release, and how it had tried to trap her soul, or worse. She had done nothing to it, but it had hunted her down like an animal and tried to kill her. But that was its mistake.

Levinia Arx Creuset was no prey. She had learned to become the hunter.

She was going to do some hunting of her own, and she was going to find this thing, wherever it had chosen to hide itself. Someone once said that everywhere could be easily accessed, once the path could be discovered. And Levinia was going to do just that, and perhaps even track down her "people"... or not. That would be dependent on whether they chose to let her be.

Earlier, it had been mentioned that she felt like there was something that demanded her attention in Andhadt's Keep, and that was why today, she stood facing the ruins of the fortress, with the wind whipping her traveling cloak around her shoulders. There was a sharp chill in the early morning air, even though the sun shone radiantly and cheerfully. The cold was what was left of the night, and soon it would be gone, and the sun would turn merciless, if the condition of the sky was anything to go by. The last time she had been here, the scenery had been so different. Now, the scars of battle were evident around the fortress, and vegetation, rock and building had been damaged by the battle. Levinia had also changed since that last time, too. Her self confidence was starting to take root, and she felt like her body was... lighter, more responsive. And of course, there was the issue of her new magic.

She glanced idly at the runes that floated around her torso. Naturally, they would be positioned around her arms, but she had clutched the cloak around her, and both arms were beneath it. There was a lot she was learning about her magic, just by practicing it, and while she had understood, from the time she had encountered that creature that had been bothering her dreams, that her magic seemed to be of the defensive sort, a lot could still be achieved by innovations and application.

She walked towards the lone walkway that led to the wooden doors, which had been covered with scratch marks. She remembered how Dorn had fooled around, and gotten Beira pissed enough to nearly ax him to death. She smiled slightly, then darkened considerably. If he was also willing to have her killed for that thing that had touted itself as a god, had those daggers he threw back then meant to test Beira's strength, as he had claimed? Or had he been really trying to kill them?

The walkway. She looked into the deep, narrow gorge that served as a natural moat for the keep as she walked across the stone bridge. Even during the day, its depths were indiscernible. "A good place for monstrosities to hide," she thought as she reached the massive double doors that protected the keep. Normally, the doors would have been closed, or slightly open to permit one or two persons to get in at once, but now they had been destroyed. The first door had been knocked clean off its hinges, while much of the second was nowhere to be found; only remnants of broken wood scattered across the walkway and the courtyard beyond were testaments to its previous existence.

The keep was more or less as Beira and herself had left it. She considered that her mentor was not with her today, but she needed a bit of closure, and that meant solitude. Of course, her mentor had respected her wishes, but as usual, let her know that she was only a request away. She smiled slightly, grateful that their paths had crossed that strange Winter holiday. It had been because of Beira and Andhaft that she had lived to see this day, and for them, she was thankful. The thought passed her mind that this place might not be safe for her to be in, but she had learned a lot from her mentor in the little time they had interacted. Besides, she couldn't keep hiding behind Beira when things went wrong. She had to be able to look out for herself.

She glanced about at the rubble and the bones strewn about the courtyard. Most of the bones were massive, having belonged to the Godling Dragon. The only other bones left probably belonged to some smaller monstrosity. She found it a bit strange that the flesh had so quickly decayed, but then, it was that sickly, strange flesh that she had worn not up to four days ago. Beira had given her the details of the battle, and explained how the colossal beast had materialized from the sludgy stuff her body had ejected, along with all the corpses of those pale things that had attacked them. That would explain why there were not more corpses in the courtyard.

Picking her way among the massive bones, Levinia made her way to the laboratory, the place where she had nearly died, but had been reborn. It had been very much thrashed up, the roof torn and discarded by the dragon she had somehow slain. Beira had done most of the work, but somehow, it had fallen to her to deal the finishing blow. She turned back and glanced at its heavy skull, then moved on. Walking further into the ruins, her steps pensive, she passed by many rooms she remembered, and many others she had not had reason to explore. She paused by the rummery, as she remembered how everything started, and she wondered if there wasn't any Pixie Ale left in there. Normally, there should have been, seeing as it had been the most brewed substance in Andhaft's Keep. With a shake of her head, she passed by the room. It would be utter insanity to get herself drunk in a place with potential hostiles.

Finally, she came to the lowest chamber, which was deep in the earth like a sort of basement. Here she stood for a while before three graves which had been cut out of the stone floor. Beira had helped her make the graves, and there she had buried the three denizens of the keep, even though two of them had wanted her dead. She would have liked to take something along with her, at least to remember Andhaft by, but his sword, which would have been the best memento, had been destroyed in the Godling Dragon's attack. Its hilt, which was mostly all that was left, had been used as a makeshift tombstone.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you. I keep running that event in my head, and I keep thinking that I could have, but I watched you slip away. Would you have been angry with me if I had succeeded? Who wouldn't like to see the results of their work?"

She sniffed and paused in her whispering. She was not going to cry today. She had done enough of that when he died. Instead, she would make her promises on his grave, to show how important they were to her, and her passion to ensure that she would stand by them.

"I might have liked to swear that I'll find the person responsible for your death and take vengeance for your sake, but you probably wouldn't approve. Instead, I'll make this promise: as far as I ever can, I will not let someone I hold dear die in my arms ever again. I will master this magic, and be the best of a healer I can be. It's just a pity you..." she broke away, forcing the tears away. "I hope not all old people like feeling like dying or something," she muttered.

She stayed in the burial room for about an hour longer, doing some soul searching and setting some priorities. Finally, she rose to her feet, for she had been kneeling. "Goodbye, Andhaft. Rest well."

She left the dark room behind and returned to the light and the air above. Perhaps the first thing she would seek out would be a good blade. Every hunter needed a good weapon. Or, she would focus on improving her magic and making it a force to reckon with. Or, she would do both.