Intermezzo XIII - Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow

Reviewer's Comment (Rue - Official Intermezzo Reviewer)

Welcome one and all to the final intermezzo, Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow.

This is the most touching intermezzo yet, and it’s got plenty of sadness to go along with it. It is a bittersweet intermezzo, as well as foreboding. The very last and final session of the ‘Quest’ is next week everyone. Read the intermezzo, and for God’s sake, come to next week’s ‘Quest.’



Rue’s Rating – Five of Rue’s Tears out of Five.

Intermezzo

“Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.”

~Emily Dickinson.



Shandor could hear them outside. The Krats and stone-beasts were about to slaughter the group and the innocents in this house – unless he got the barrier up. He frantically tried to arrange the materials in the right way, but ended up screwing it u when he mixed up two ingredients that promptly lit themselves on fire, sprouted legs and ran around in circles until they were burnt up. He let out a disgruntled groaned began to get to work again before Ariea placed a hand on his shoulder, ‘Shandor, stop.’

‘Ariea, I can’t, we’ve got to get this barrier up now or we’re all goners.’

‘Shandor, please. It isn’t going to work.’ Ariea said desperately.

‘What do you mean?’ Shandor asked, pausing in his re-arrangement to look up at Ariea.

‘The barrier spell. It doesn’t go up in time. After the group are killed, they break inside. Francis is killed first, James and Peter, on Isabeth’s orders, tries to get Jeremiah, Sera, Timothy and Thomas out – but they are caught at the stairs. Isabeth fights desperately to save her grandchildren. She falls next.’ Ariea stated matter-of-factly in a glum voice.

‘How can you know?’ Shandor asked, letting the ingredient he as holding, a small feather, fall to the floor.

‘Because the spell didn’t work.’ Ariea muttered weakly, avoiding his gaze.

‘You said that.’ Shandor stated, taking a step towards her.

‘Not that spell. Your spell.’

‘I’m not following,’ Shandor said, beginning to frown.

‘The spell, the one to bring me back, didn’t work.’

‘But you’re standing right here.’ Shandor said, not understanding any of this.

‘Shandor, please, just listen. The spell you used was too powerful, it destroyed ‘Death’s’ shape instead of transferring my soul into it. But my soul was free and I managed to become corporeal again.’

‘So it worked? I mean, not as we planned, but it still worked, you’re back.’ Shandor said, a very uneasy feeling growing in his mind.

Ariea continued to look away, she said, ‘I could never work out why I wasn’t there.’

Shandor’s frown could not be any more pronounced, ‘Ariea...?’

Ariea looked at him, ‘Before I reformed, I got images of what was to come, but I wasn’t in them, then I started to get different images, of today. I couldn’t explain why I wasn’t in the first ones. But I understand that now.’

Shandor opened his mouth to ask for further explanation, but it hung there pointlessly with no sound emerging.

‘Shandor, I know why I won’t be there. I was never meant to be here. If you hadn’t brought me back, then it wouldn’t have happened like this. I have to fix it.’

‘Ariea?’ Shandor managed to squeak.

‘I can’t stay, sweetie, I can’t.’

Shandor looked at her as if she was mad. He took another step towards her, ‘Ariea, I don’t understand any of this, you are here now, that’s all that matters.’

Ariea shook her head solemnly, ‘I thought that as well, but not any more.’ She paused briefly before continuing, ‘Remember when you were bringing me back, and you were in that tower, and it began to fall. You jumped, you had no chance of surviving. I stopped you from dying then.’

Shandor just stared at her, unsure of what to say.

Ariea continues as if she was explaining her course of action to herself more than him, ‘Then when Richard came...’



“So we laugh, and we smile,
And we play our games of sweet denial,.
But don’t tell me we’re forgiven.
If we hold all our breath,
If we kneel right down and just repent,

Can’t tell me we’re forgiven.”

~The Calling, ‘We’re Forgiven’



‘Hello Ariea, we meet again.’ Richard smiled, appearing in a cloud of flame right before Ariea’s eyes.

‘I’m not frightened of you,’ Ariea stated, her voice quivering slightly.

‘Of course you’re not, dear, and that’s why you are out here while the rest of your band are trying to kill me and the others.’ Richard grinned, taking a step towards Ariea, who backed away.

‘I’m not frightened...’ Ariea said pitifully.

‘I believe you’ve said that before. Who are you trying to convince, me or you?’

Ariea felt a tingling, burning sensation in her hands, she looked at Richard, rage consuming her vision, ‘You.’

Richard grinned, before he was suddenly knocked backwards by a tendril of golden-white energy. He stumbled into the wall behind him, ‘What...’

‘I’m not scared of you, but you should be of me. And my friends.’

‘What are you?’ Richard asked, his cocky manner completely lost.

‘I’m more powerful than you.’

Richard disappeared, reappeared behind her and grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up, ‘That so? Are you willing to be more powerful than me in front of lover-boy?’

Ariea tried to look at Richard, who was grinning broadly now. Her face fell and she looked at the ground.

‘Exactly what I thought.’



‘I can’t stay.’ Ariea stated with an air of finality. She waited a few seconds and heard the battle outside, ‘Shandor, you know I can’t stay. Please, I can save us today. But only if you allow me.’

Shandor found there was suddenly a complete lack of air in the room. And a floor. He was going to collapse, ‘Gods, Ariea, how can you ask me that?’

Ariea gulped and looked grimly at Shandor, ‘Because it would be the right thing to do... Gods, I don’t want to go Shandor.’ She nearly burst into tears and rushed to hug him, whimpering softly, ‘I don’t want to go.’

‘Then don’t, we can find another way.’ Shandor replied desperately.

Ariea shook her head, stepping away, brushing away a tear, ‘There is no other way. Please Shandor.’

Shandor looked down at their feet that had suddenly become much more important to look at.

‘Sweetie, we don’t have much time.’

‘Will you...’ Shandor braved, looking up at Ariea jerkily and unsteadily, ‘Will you… die?’

She shook her head and gave a sniffle, ‘I’ll be safe.’

Shandor closed his eyes and looked down, giving his silent agreement with the action.

Ariea hugged him again and closed her eyes, ‘Thank you…’ she breathed, suddenly being lifted into the air. Her legs had faded into golden-white tendrils of light. She reached forward and placed a hand, which was already to take the same path as the legs, on Shandor’s chest.

Shandor’s eyes closed in a moment of pain, then his eyes rolled backwards, overcome by the same overwhelming fatigue. The beautifully warm feeling bathing him, healing him and scars – the tattoo from the Death-Bringers fading to nothing. The last thing he saw was his golden angel leaving.



"And it was in the early spring,

When flowers bloom and robins sing,

She went away.

And honey, I miss you.

And I'm being good,

And I'd love to be with you.

If only I could.”

~Russell Bobby, ‘Honey’



Faelnon had just left Shandor’s rooftop. Shandor was there, quietly meditating, surrounded by the plants Ariea loved. He had lost touch with meditation over the years, never finding time for it. It didn’t seem like time mattered very much at the present moment.

He wasn’t sure how long he sat there - hours, probably. He was sure Ariea hadn’t meant it, in that final brief second when they were connected he must have seen it. The End of the World, well, to be more precise, what is coming. Most of it was just still images, but he saw deaths, and he saw things he didn’t want to.

Finally, he got up, left the candle burning and the plants where they were and strode down the rooftops of the ‘train thinking to himself.

‘You okay?’ A familiar voice queried.
Shandor nodded vaguely and turned to face Rilnae.

‘You made the right call, I know that sounds harsh, and you won’t believe me, but you did. Ariea’s safe and sound.’

Shandor frowned suddenly and looked at her, ‘You can talk to her?’
Rilnae nodded slowly, ‘Apparently, my powers change on the different planes, and where she is, I can take corporeal form.’

‘Could you tell her something?’

‘Of course,’

‘Tell her I miss her.’

Rilnae looked down, back up and smiled bitter-sweetly, ‘She knows.’
‘And that I love her.’

‘She knows that, too.’

Shandor nodded slowly, he turned away, took a step back up the ‘train, then paused and half-turned to look at her, ‘Will I live to see heaven?’
Rilnae looked into Shandor’s eyes and noted the deadly serious tone in them, ‘She’ll be waiting for you.’

Shandor, comforted by that statement, turned away and took off up the ‘train.

‘And from the looks of things,’ Rilnae stated to herself solemnly, ‘She won’t have to wait long.’