Beauty and the...Time Master?

[Celegwen]

"You know about our ability, Tai," Tak'karan said from atop the seal brown mare. The horse pawed at the ground impatiently, but her rider was able to keep her calm easily.

Taiga, sitting atop her massive eight-legged stallion, huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, looking at her brother doubtfully. "Look," she started, her cloak waving in the icy winds. "I'm not saying you're wrong, okay? But Taz, this is a wasteland. No! This is a cursed wasteland!" She shook her head with a sigh. "I just don't want you to have come all the way out here for nothing."

The tall man chuckled, his breath visible. He rubbed his arms briefly with gloves hands and pulled his cloak up, not bothering to lift his hood since the winds would easily blow it down again. "Then don't let that be," he said, a slight shudder to his voice. It was freezing with ice everywhere and a flurry in the sharp winds.

"Fine," the girl sighed, dismounting from Kaeligar's back gently. "This had better work because you tore me away from important stuff."

"Tai!" Tak'karan spat, growing increasingly annoyed with his sister's continuous complaints. "Do you not care at all about your purpose on this earth? It's to help people and preserve your element. This opportunity is both. So stop bitching!"

[Celegwen]

Taiga rolled her eyes, turning her back on her brother and gripping her staff in both hands. "It's Fell, Taz," she said warily. "You realize what this could do to the world as we know it, right?"

Tak'karan simply shook his head. "You know I see time," he said. "As long as you don't disrupt this place entirely, nothing will change. I've seen every possible outcome."

"Show off," she mumbled, to which Tak'karan lightly smirked. The ice girl approached a hill with what looked like a thick pole sticking out of the ice and  started dragging her staff in the snow, creating a crack in the ice as she walked. The horses started to get nervous, but Tak'karan kept them both relaxed, allowing Taiga to continue what she was doing.

She circled her staff around the pole three times, kneeling down and pressing her hand on the ice. Little by little, the ice began to shift and break, revealing the top of a tower. A relieved smile crossed the man's face, as the tower's roof came completely into view. Taiga held onto the pole to steady herself, while she continued to hold her hand out, furthering the descent of the ice.

Eventually, a barred window emerged from the ice, then a smaller window further down the tower. "Stop!" Tak'karan called to Taiga. The ice stopped shifting, but the girl had to keep her position to prevent it from rising again.

[Celegwen]

"What do you mean stop?" Taiga called back to him. "Aren't we - sorry, I - digging this fucker out?"

Tak'karan shot her a silencing look, then shook his head. "You just uncovered a glass window," he said. "I should be able to get through there and figure out what to do. Just hold the ice where it is."

That would be no problem for the girl, so she gave him a short nod.

Tak'karan dismounted from the horse and slowly approached the tower. Though he could remember his lives and most of the people in them, it was difficult to determine who it was that he was feeling. Not only that, but in his infinite visions of past, present, and future, Fell had always been a blank piece he couldn't read.

The man put his hands on the frame of the window, careful to avoid the glass. The window was high up, so he couldn't knock away all of the broken pieces, but he just silently hoped he would be agile enough to get away without any scrapes.

He failed.

With a stifled groan, Tak'karan gripped his forearm and winced, as a large shard of colorful glass sliced through his shirt to his skin. Reaching into his satchel, the man took of a small pouch of violet berries and a small pouch of yellow powder. He crushed a berry and dipped it into the powder, then rubbed it over his small injury to stop the bleeding and speed up healing. The man had a solution for anything in that damned satchel.

[Celegwen]

Standing up, Tak'karan felt an eerie sensation wash over him, and flashes started to come to him, giving him a small headache. These flashes were foreign though, things he had never seen... Or rather, things he had forgotten.

At the moment, he was standing on in the middle of a staircase of the tower, but he felt like he needed to look around more to understand what he was seeing.

He walked down the stairs carefully, as it was darker than Soreyn could conceivably control. At that moment, he wished he had brought Lacey along with Taiga so he could have a little light while he walked. His hand ran along the wall as he descended the stairs, then he felt a something metal on the wall with a wooden stick in it. "A torch," he mumbled, taking hold of the stick. Reaching into his satchel, he felt around for a metal tin. Opening it, Tak'karan took a pinch of the dusty contents and flicked it at the torch, which immediately ignited.

The man smirked, closing the tin and continuing with more confidence in his footing. Everything he saw seemed to stir hidden memories. The dark corridors were suddenly bright and decorated lavishly. The rusted candelabras shone from the small flames and the sunlight. The shattered windows were in perfect order and reflected all different colors and patterns. The dusty throne room had an older man standing in front of a new throne with people standing and conversing together. The dirty kitchens were filled with sweet smells. And the ballroom... The empty and haunted ballroom came to life with music and dancing.

As Tak'karan walked through into the ballroom, the only real light being cast from his torch, he smiled and looked around him at the ghosts - figments of his memories - all surrounding him. And then, he saw himself... The man approached the spectral projection of his memory, as the image danced with a supernaturally beautiful...

[Celegwen]

"Ilona," he whispered, watching the image fade before his eyes. Tak'karan took a few steps back, running his fingers through his dark hair. "Ilona, fuck! How could I not remember her!"

Turning on his heel, the man sprinted back the way he came, black cloak flying behind him as he ran. Tak'karan reached the staircase in which he had began his little trip and bounded up it, easily taking two steps at a time until he reached the top of the staircase to a small floor with two doors on it.

Though he consciously knew which door the princess was behind, Tak'karan felt himself drawn towards the other one. Why? Perhaps it was just his own nerves gettin the best of him. Imagine that... An ancient time being getting nervous over seeing an old friend...

Fighting through the feeling, he tried the door to find it unlocked. Tak'karan took a small breath and stepped inside, the dreary room coming to life just as all the rest of the castle did. Only that time, the memory stirred wasn't a magical or wondrous memory. Tak'karan was thrown back into the memory of putting the shining princess into what was never supposed to be an eternal sleep. He remembered how her skin felt as cold as ice, as though the life had been drained from her.

Shaking the memory away, the man walked forward, seeing the princess' still form on her bed. Tak'karan looked around at the once beautiful decor and frowned, approaching Ilona's bed and pulling back the disintegrating drapes to sit on the side of it.

"Been a while," he said softly.

[Celegwen]

He wasn't sure exactly what he could do. When he got the feeling that someone he knew before was nearby, he never thought of those circumstances.

Tak'karan rubbed his hand through his hair again, not able to tear his eyes away from the beautiful creature lying on the bed. She looked like a statue, perfectly preserved and ready for display in some manor or estate.

Reaching towards her, he stroked the backs of his fingers down her cheek and smiled softly. "I'm sorry," he whispered to her. "It was never supposed to be like this." Taking her hand, Tak'karan gently kissed it, then placed it back over her body. "I'm going to help you, though."

He stood up and placed the torch in a sconce and whipped off his cloak, carefully moving her body so that she was laying on the black fabric. Tak'karan took his satchel off, digging through until he found a small glass vile filled with a glowing green liquid. He never knew what it was, so he never touched it until now. As his memories returned to him, so did the process of putting Ilona into the state she still was.

"Please," he whispered, "still work." Opening the small vile, he covered the top with his thumb and turned it upside down, so a small amount would get into his thumb. He then ran his thumb over her forehead, repeated the process, and ran his thumb down her neck. Bringing the vile up to his mouth, giving a grimace at the anticipation of the awful taste of the contents, Tak'karan threw back the liquid like it was a shot of alcohol. Luckily, he had a canteen of ale to wash the taste down.

Tucking the canteen and empty vile back into his satchel, he sat on the bed again, looking over her still body. "Okay, Princess," he whispered to her, moving a piece of her flaxen hair away from her face. "Show me you're still in there." He slowly leaned forward, closing his eyes and touching his lips with her icy ones.



@DragonSong Let me know if you want me to change anything. Otherwise, you're up!

[DragonSong]

It was an eternity.

She bid her mother a tearful goodnight-- tearful on the queen's part, as of course Ilona knew she had to face her fate unflinchingly-- and she laid down on the bed, closed her eyes, and then she was lost.

It wasn't like normal sleep. It was deeper, darker, endless. She may have dreamed, or she may have simply...seen. She wasn't sure which. A spattering of images managed to worm their way into the thick blackness that surrounded her. Sometimes she stood on the high wall that surrounded the castle proper, looking out over her home as the world burned. Sometimes she was running, a great, dark wave swallowing up the world behind her. Sometimes she sat at her mother's knee, eyes closed as the queen hummed absently and ran a comb through her hair.

But most often she simply...existed. Floated in the endless nothingness of sleep.

It was eternity.

And yet it was an instant. She felt the magic wash over her, closed her eyes-- and then she opened them again, looking up into a face that was far too close to her own.

Ilona's eyes blew wide and she drew in a startled breath. An action motivated purely by instinct, which turned the odd, unexpected kiss into something a little more intimate as her lips parted and she gasped.

Thoroughly shocked, the princess quickly jerked her head to the side and tried to roll away. Only to find that her body rebelled. She seemed too weak to move properly. Panting rather as she looked up at the stranger, she opened her mouth to-- well, to asking something, anything any one of the hundreds of questions spinning through her suddenly conscious mind.

Who are you? What are you doing here? Is it over, has the plague gone? Where are my parents? How long has it been? Why is it so godsdamned cold in here? Am I safe? Am I cured?

Her mouth opened, but no sound emerged, other than a cracked, rattling groan. Her throat felt dry as a desert.

Coughing, Ilona finally found the strength to curl in on herself. Dust billowed up around her from the sheets that had gone so long undisturbed. Shivers wracked her frame, fingers and toes tingling as feeling gradually began to return to her extremities.

"Wh..." She coughed, clenched her eyes shut, and drew in another rasping, scratchy breath. "What...happened...?"

[Celegwen]

"Hey, hey, hey," Tak'karan whispered, pressing his hands on her shoulders as a way to relax her even if just slightly. The girl's startled reaction was more than expected, but he wasn't sure how to answer the question she croaked out. "Just take a minute, your grace," he said, trying to brush aside her question. "There will be time for that. Take a minute to compose yourself."

The man held her eyes, careful not to let himself look at her inappropriately, as her dress wasn't the most modest and the last thing he wanted to do was offend her.

He moved forward slightly, taking his hands off of her shoulders and positioning himself to help her sit up, if she would let him. "Listen, I need to know what you remember, okay?" He knelt on the floor next to her bed. "Do you remember your name and who you are? How about my name?"

Tak'karan wouldn't be offended if she didn't remember him, as she endured quite a long stress - though she was asleep - but he secretly hoped the memory of her father's advisor and one of her friends was still somewhere in her mind. He also secretly felt guilty that he didn't remember her at first, despite it being three lifetimes in his past.

[DragonSong]

"I..." She swallowed against her sandpaper throat. "I..."

Her eyes kept flickering around the room, trying to understand. It was so dark, dusty. Abandoned.

Oh gods.

"I...am..." She swallowed again. "My name is Ilona Anastazia Corvinus, third of her name, crown princess to--"

Her voice choked off and her eyes widened. What...? Her home, the name of her home-- it was there, it was in her mind, she could feel it, but she couldn't speak it.

Clearly scared, she turned to her rescuer, lips parted slightly as her breath started to come faster and sharper. "I can't-- I don't-- what happened?!"

[Celegwen]

Out of pure instinct, Tak'karan sat back on the bed, placing his hands over hers. "Breathe, your grace," he said to her, cutting off her sputtering. "Look at me."

The pale yellow in his eyes were wispy and fluid, almost hypnotic without holding the power of true hypnotism. Tak'karan looked directly into her eyes, trying to get her to just focus on one thing.

"Ilo-" He caught himself before he finished. If she didn't recognize him, but remembered - mostly - who she was, it was realistic to expect she could get offended by not being addressed properly. "Your grace, I'm going to say some things, and I want you to tell me if any of it means anything to you, okay?" He pursed his lips momentarily. "Magic, curse, cure, time... Uh, fencing, grandmother, Lord Tak'karan, beastspeak..."

[DragonSong]

The princess bit her lip, struggling to focus on his voice, on the words he spoke. "I-- I..." She swallowed, closing her eyes. "Yes, I know, I-I understand, Taz, I--"

Her eyes widened, head snapping up to look at him. "You...how do I know that name? I don't understand, there was a plan--"

Once again she cut herself off, this time with a sharp gasp. "My parents! Master Eyman, Shiira-- what happened? Are they alright?" She tried to stand and her eyes darted around the room...and finally seemed to notice the layers upon layers of dust, cobwebs, threadbare cloth and rotting wood.

Her legs shook and she collapsed back to the bed. "How...how long was I...?"

[Celegwen]

When she said his nickname, a slightly relieved smile crossed his lips, though it was short-lived when things started flooding back to her mind. "I need you to focus, Ilona," he said, not caring if she wasn't okay with being addressed by her name. Even if she snapped at him, it would get her onto a singular thought.

Tak'karan never wanted to be the one to tell her what had happened, as he had promised her everything would be alright. As a master of time, he technically could travel back to when they put her to sleep and tell them everything, but that was against everything he believed was right.

She collapsed back to the bed, and he was able to easily catch her, gently lowering her to a seated position again. "Millennia," he whispered, pursing his lips sadly. Tak'karan lifted his first two fingers and moved them close to her temple. "Trust me..."

If she allowed him to touch her, her memories would all return. The man was holding onto his memories with her in the kingdom, and though there were some holes, she would have nearly everything brought back for her.

[DragonSong]

Her mind exploded with light and sound, and she pitched forward, curving in on herself with an agonized cry. She jerked away from the mage's touch, whimpering.

"No," she whispered, clutching at her head. "No no no no no, you're lying. It can't be true, it can't no no..."

[Celegwen]

The man took his hand back when the awakened princess jerked away from him. He watched her, feeling the same pain as she did to a lesser severity, as he had also experienced the disturbing memories while giving them back to her.

Tak'karan pursed his lips, sinking to his knees on the ground in front of her. "Ilona," he whispered, quickly taking her hands and gently squeezing them. "Ilona, listen to me. You have to breathe. I can explain everything, but I need you to calm down and take a moment, okay?"

With a sharp breath, the time elemental sat back on the bed, wrapping his large arm around her petite body with a soft embrace that he hoped she would accept.

[DragonSong]

“They’re gone.”

It was the only thought in her head, the only words she could form. Memories so distant they felt like dreams swirled at the edges of her vision and she felt her eyes burn with the threat of tears.

A princess never shows her fears. A princess doesn’t cry.

But what did it matter, if anyone who ever might have cared had been dead for thousands of years.

Pitching forward again, Ilona pressed a hand to her mouth in an effort to stifle a sharp, keening wail. “They’re gone, they’re gone, they’re all gone!” Sobbing quietly, she curled her body in on itself, raising her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs. Her whole body shaking, she found herself leaning against the elemental’s side, ragged breaths muffled into her knees as she hid her face against them.