Page 1 of Dark Fae's Destiny

1

GOODBYE

Quinn, Lucca, and I stand on the grand black and white promenade in Livorno, ready to say goodbye. The moon shines above us in the Twilight Realm; beneath a sky full of stars, the waves crash upon the rocky shore.

The singing of countless Sirens fills the night. Because the person we honor this evening was one of them when he died. Returned from his un-death as a Vampire-Siren just a week ago, Arturos Morregain met his true death with a living heart, and blood beating through his veins. His kin welcome him now.

As we commit his body to the ocean beneath the stars.

Dressed in draping silk and seaweed fronds, with long strings of pearls over our chic clothing, we wear our finest for him tonight. My Dark Fae Master Quindici DaPonti, my Dark once-Summer Fae Prince Lucca Bellari, and I all hold hands now as we bow our heads for our fallen friend.

Laid out on a bier of seaweed, pearls, and thousands of seashells stacked intricately to make a low bed, Arturos is dressed similarly for his final send-off. A beautiful crown of seashells and pearls, woven with silver, seaweed, and gold graces his brow.

A massive pearl shines, luminous between his brows. His dark lashes will never open again, but it’s as if I can see his beautiful darkwater eyes shining with that pearl beneath the stars.

The Siren music crests; far out in the ocean, I see a deep wave of Night magic with watery tentacles roil. The Vampire-Siren Queen Luliana Ouros waits in the deeps to take Arturos out to sea.

Coiling through the water in her tremendous Siren-Dragon form, the Queen of the Dark Haven of the Deep is unique in her power. Though she is long dead, she can still become her dragon. Her scales and watery fins glimmer opal and black in the night, the same colors seething through her watery Night power as she waits for our ceremony.

Quinn, Lucca, and I can’t dive beneath the sea like she can to visit the place she’s picked out for Arturos’ tomb. Thus, we say our goodbyes here on the shore before she takes him to those endless deeps.

To lay entombed in a pearlescent shell of her magic beneath the sea.

Forever.

“We say goodbye to a dear friend tonight,” Quinn begins now, taking up our informal eulogy as the Siren song crests. “He was like a brother to me, really, though we never shared blood of any kind. Infuriating, upright, loyal; Arturos was everything I could have ever wished for in family. He strayed from his loyalty because of a deep loneliness in his heart, then gave his everything to make amends. Now, he shall be with his true family, evermore beneath the sea. Though his found family above the waves will miss him dearly.”

We listen to the Siren-song surge, far out in the waves that crash upon the rocks. Arturos had been a Vampire, but he died a Siren; his people wait with Luliana now to take him home to have their own ceremony for him.

As Quinn finishes, he takes one draping string of pearls and seaweed off from his neck, placing it upon Arturos. Clasped in his dead hands, Arturos’ heart is with him. Though torn from his chest in a terrible strike from the Gold Eyes, it has been saved to be entombed with him. Quinn wraps his pearl garland lovingly around that heart now.

Kissing his fingertips, he places them upon that beautiful organ which has forever ceased to beat.

“I didn’t know him long.” Lucca takes over our eulogy now as Quinn says goodbye. “But it was clear Arturos was a prince of his kind. Strong, thoughtful, bold, he never shied away from danger, always running towards it to save an ally or a friend. Long have the Morregains been Kings and Queens of the seas; now we return a lost monarch to them, as kingly a man as anyone could ever hope for. I forgive him his faults, and the loneliness that drove him to side with our enemy. Because he showed his true colors in the end. He died a savior, for all of us.”

As the Siren-song in the waves crests again, full of sadness, boldness, and woe, Lucca repeats Quinn’s gesture with a garland of pearls from his neck. He doesn’t kiss his fingers, but gives Arturos’ shoulder a squeeze like warriors do when welcoming their brethren home.

As Lucca finishes, I know it’s my turn. I don’t know what to say, even though I’ve rehearsed countless options for this moment in the past few days.

“I loved Arturos,” I say now, baring my deepest, truth-telling heart as a low hum of the Music of the Spheres chimes inside me, moving all around me in the darkness. “Like Lucca, we didn’t know each other long… but something about him touched my heart right from the first. I could say he was noble, brave, etcetera. But what I really want to say is… I loved him and he loved me. Though we were never meant for each other.”

Quinn glances over and squeezes my hand, then threads his fingers through mine. Through our Dark Fae bonds to one another, I can feel how much he loved Arturos also, though they were never lovers in truth.

But Arturos and I could have been lovers; I feel that knowledge move through me now as those ephemeral harmonies of the Music stir me, and my Animante Dark Fae aura curls around me.

Dark, oilslick rainbows with shimmers of silver and gold light, my power mourns for Arturos as much as I do. My Fae wings unfurl from my spine, cascading across the promenade and the sandy rocks nearby.

“I want to let him go.” I gaze at his beautiful face, so somber yet still so impossibly handsome, even in death. “I want to set him free. And myself, somehow… though I don’t know how.”

“Just say goodbye, from your heart.” Quinn’s voice is quiet to not break the sad peace of the moment. “Just say goodbye, Ariana… he will hear it. Wherever he is.”

As Quinn speaks, I know he is right.

My deepest truth-reading power sings, knowing this is how the final tale of mortals goes.

“Goodbye,” I whisper, as waves crash all around me from the ocean and the singing of the Sirens sweeps my ears. My soul is filled with their song and our loss; blinking my lashes, I cry as my heart seizes for Arturos.

It’s a beautiful moment; tender and sad. As Quinn squeezes my hand again, and Lucca does also on my other side, I know we’re finally ready. We stand back from the lovely bier of shells, pearls, and seaweed, and let Luliana sweep the ocean in. She does it in a slow, gentle tide; as Arturos floats up from the bier, her dark waters roll out, claiming him.

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