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cygna_himeNaNo 8.2, 1492 word.
* * *
Pol Gin sat on his golden throne for a long hour after Mar Ter had departed, staring into nothingness and thinking none could say what thoughts dark or light. He remained there long, and would, perhaps, have stayed sunk into his brown study longer still, had it not been that he was interrupted. The source of his interruption was a small brown packet, while was slid into the room on a trickle of soil and gravel that glided around the door with the package, dropped it neatly at his feet, and retreated with the same quiet clatter the way it had come. Startled, Pol Gin bent to pick it up, grunting at the unexpected weight.
The message was a stone tablet, carved in which was a letter of sorts, written in runes more perfect than any made by chisel or knife. The handwriting, for it was handwriting, was no less sharp and angular, but also perfect in its own timeless way. The communication was brief:
She is awake. Come at once.
-TL
The words seemed to awaken Pol Gin from whatever gloomy contemplations he had been entertaining. With a shake of his fair head, he gestured at the tablet, and it melted in his hands into a swirl of sparks. He stood, brushing his clothing clean of whatever specks of dirt had been left on them by the tablet or its delivery, and walked with even, measured steps to the door. There he paused for the barest fraction of a second, the loose tail of his hair flicked itself to encircle him, and he dissipated into a dance of sunbeams on the floor.
The underground chamber into which the lights entered was much the same as it had always been. Pol Gin appeared as he stepped over the threshold, as was his wont. The walls were looming above him, glowering with an air of deep suspicion, but his only response was an easy smile and a courtly bow to the tall woman who awaited him, glowering no less darkly than her creations.
“A good evening to you, Ten Lan,” he said. “Does your sister await us within?”
“No. She is not here.”
“What pressing need drives her away? For I must tell you, it was my dearest hope to see both of you, as you are so little among us.”
“I sent her away.” Ten Lan looked forbidding. “She was not happy.”
“Really? I cannot imagine what could disturb her, living in such a place as this.”
If Ten Lan heard the barely-perceptible barb in Pol Gin’s words, she gave no sign. “Fan is awake. This worries her. She does not think clearly.”
“I am, then, sorry that she does not have the same determination as her sister,” replied Pol Gin. “Would it, then, be too much to ask that I be permitted to see what I believe you requested my presence in order to show me?”
“Come.” Without another word, Ten Lan turned and strode off down the hallways, leaving Pol Gin to follow her or not, as he chose. He followed, trailing her easily through her own passages and those made by her sister, until they stood outside a blank stone wall. “Here.”
"Here?" Pol Gin raised his eyebrows inquisitively. "I see nothing in this passage save stone, which is hardly a matter to note in your home, where everything seems to be either stone or earth. I was under the impression that I was here to see something out of the ordinary."
"Fool. You were here before. It was not like this then. Fan is inside. I have sealed the door." Ten Lan gestured, and the wall before which the two Bai Dan stood trembled as if in an earthquake. "Do you wish to see her?"
"I...yes, I suppose so." Pol Gin shifted minutely in a barely visible display of discomfort. "Yes. That would be the best thing, without a doubt."
"Good." Ten Lan faced the stone wall that had been the door and placed her hands together, slowly pulling them apart to the accompaniment of the creak and groan of sliding rock. With the sound of mountains rising, the wall parted to reveal the door once again. Within was nothing but shadows, clustered around a silent figure slumped against the wall.
"Fan..." Pol Gin said in the ghost of a whisper as he stepped forward into the room.
“I will leave you with her,” Ten Lan said, a ghost of a harsh smile on her face. “Send for me when you wish to be let out.” With a quiet grunt of effort, she brought the stone walls together again with a crunch. Pol Gin was left alone with his elder sister.
He said nothing for a long minute, attempting to find his voice and annoyed with his own weakness. Finally he said, voice raspy and mouth dry, “Hello, Fan.”
“Gin?” The huddled woman barely raised her head. “Is it you?”
“Yes, it is I.” He tried to keep his breaths even. “Does that surprise you so much as that?”
She shuddered. “Yes—no, I cannot say…Oh, Gin, why? Why have you done this?”
“Because,” he began, and was surprised at how simple it was to say, “I hate you. You and yours, since the first children were born. Did it never occur to you, never, that they were my children as well as yours? That perhaps, just perhaps, someone other than yourself might want to raise them? What, Fan, just what would it take to make you realize that they are my children, my sons and daughters, at least as much as they are yours?
“This is not your world alone, sister dearest, and neither you nor anyone else can simply take what you want from it without consequences. Since you insisted on raising…your…children by yourself, in your way and your way only, until they were grown, now that they are I think it only fitting to make a chance for myself. I am their father, Fan, and they are your children no longer.
“They are mine.” Pol Gin stopped abruptly in his tirade, aware that he had said a great deal more than he had intended to say. Sei Fan was looking at him, her face hidden by shadows despite the incongruous absence of her long hair, and he could not see her expression. It had always been so, from their earliest youth; of all on the earth, mortal or not, Sei Fan was the only being Pol Gin could not read.
“I see,” was her only reply.
Pol Gin did not growl at her, but his immaculately groomed hair swayed, just a little, in a nonexistant breeze. “If, then, you have nothing else you wish to say to me, I must be on my way. There are other matters to which I must attend.”
“No!” Sei Fan did not scream, she had never screamed, and so what Pol Gin heard could not possibly be a scream. “Please, Gin, don’t leave me here! It’s so close, so confined here, I can’t breathe! Please, Gin, let me go!”
“I’m afraid that would not be feasible, Fan. Do you believe I know you so poorly as to suppose you would not return directly to smothering the children in your precious maternal comfort? This is my only chance, Fan, mine, and no one will take it away from me. You least of all.”
She started to her knees, catching hold of the edge of his tunic as he turned to summon Ten Lan. “Please, Gin! I know there was love between us once. For the sake of that love, will you not let me go?”
Pol Gin half-turned his head, looking at her in profile. “You can say that even now, even to me?” his voice was disgusted. “There is nothing between us any longer; you destroyed it with your own capable hands. Goodbye, Fan.” A spark dancing through the still air brought Ten Lan striding back. Pol Gin left the cell without a backward glance, and stood in silence while she closed the stone again.
“Finished?” she asked with a hint of malice, eyes glittering.
“For the present moment, at least. I doubt keeping her controlled will present any great difficulty. She is, indeed, quite weak now, and will continue so for some time. I appreciate your assistance, Lan. You have been most helpful.”
Ten Lan laughed grimly. “The price was good. We are no fools.”
“Certainly not,” Pol Gin agreed. With a fascimile of his usual smirk, he bowed deeply. “And so, with my thanks and my promise to repay you, I must depart. I wish you and your sister a very good night.” He vanished, once more, in a swirl of light, leaving Ten Lan to look after him, her face twisted into an expression of disgust.
“I would keep you too, Pol Gin, if I had not given my word.”
* * *
I am so not where I want to be--yay for loooong weekends! Unyay for homework. But NaNo must come first. Grades can be fixed.
* * *
Pol Gin sat on his golden throne for a long hour after Mar Ter had departed, staring into nothingness and thinking none could say what thoughts dark or light. He remained there long, and would, perhaps, have stayed sunk into his brown study longer still, had it not been that he was interrupted. The source of his interruption was a small brown packet, while was slid into the room on a trickle of soil and gravel that glided around the door with the package, dropped it neatly at his feet, and retreated with the same quiet clatter the way it had come. Startled, Pol Gin bent to pick it up, grunting at the unexpected weight.
The message was a stone tablet, carved in which was a letter of sorts, written in runes more perfect than any made by chisel or knife. The handwriting, for it was handwriting, was no less sharp and angular, but also perfect in its own timeless way. The communication was brief:
She is awake. Come at once.
-TL
The words seemed to awaken Pol Gin from whatever gloomy contemplations he had been entertaining. With a shake of his fair head, he gestured at the tablet, and it melted in his hands into a swirl of sparks. He stood, brushing his clothing clean of whatever specks of dirt had been left on them by the tablet or its delivery, and walked with even, measured steps to the door. There he paused for the barest fraction of a second, the loose tail of his hair flicked itself to encircle him, and he dissipated into a dance of sunbeams on the floor.
The underground chamber into which the lights entered was much the same as it had always been. Pol Gin appeared as he stepped over the threshold, as was his wont. The walls were looming above him, glowering with an air of deep suspicion, but his only response was an easy smile and a courtly bow to the tall woman who awaited him, glowering no less darkly than her creations.
“A good evening to you, Ten Lan,” he said. “Does your sister await us within?”
“No. She is not here.”
“What pressing need drives her away? For I must tell you, it was my dearest hope to see both of you, as you are so little among us.”
“I sent her away.” Ten Lan looked forbidding. “She was not happy.”
“Really? I cannot imagine what could disturb her, living in such a place as this.”
If Ten Lan heard the barely-perceptible barb in Pol Gin’s words, she gave no sign. “Fan is awake. This worries her. She does not think clearly.”
“I am, then, sorry that she does not have the same determination as her sister,” replied Pol Gin. “Would it, then, be too much to ask that I be permitted to see what I believe you requested my presence in order to show me?”
“Come.” Without another word, Ten Lan turned and strode off down the hallways, leaving Pol Gin to follow her or not, as he chose. He followed, trailing her easily through her own passages and those made by her sister, until they stood outside a blank stone wall. “Here.”
"Here?" Pol Gin raised his eyebrows inquisitively. "I see nothing in this passage save stone, which is hardly a matter to note in your home, where everything seems to be either stone or earth. I was under the impression that I was here to see something out of the ordinary."
"Fool. You were here before. It was not like this then. Fan is inside. I have sealed the door." Ten Lan gestured, and the wall before which the two Bai Dan stood trembled as if in an earthquake. "Do you wish to see her?"
"I...yes, I suppose so." Pol Gin shifted minutely in a barely visible display of discomfort. "Yes. That would be the best thing, without a doubt."
"Good." Ten Lan faced the stone wall that had been the door and placed her hands together, slowly pulling them apart to the accompaniment of the creak and groan of sliding rock. With the sound of mountains rising, the wall parted to reveal the door once again. Within was nothing but shadows, clustered around a silent figure slumped against the wall.
"Fan..." Pol Gin said in the ghost of a whisper as he stepped forward into the room.
“I will leave you with her,” Ten Lan said, a ghost of a harsh smile on her face. “Send for me when you wish to be let out.” With a quiet grunt of effort, she brought the stone walls together again with a crunch. Pol Gin was left alone with his elder sister.
He said nothing for a long minute, attempting to find his voice and annoyed with his own weakness. Finally he said, voice raspy and mouth dry, “Hello, Fan.”
“Gin?” The huddled woman barely raised her head. “Is it you?”
“Yes, it is I.” He tried to keep his breaths even. “Does that surprise you so much as that?”
She shuddered. “Yes—no, I cannot say…Oh, Gin, why? Why have you done this?”
“Because,” he began, and was surprised at how simple it was to say, “I hate you. You and yours, since the first children were born. Did it never occur to you, never, that they were my children as well as yours? That perhaps, just perhaps, someone other than yourself might want to raise them? What, Fan, just what would it take to make you realize that they are my children, my sons and daughters, at least as much as they are yours?
“This is not your world alone, sister dearest, and neither you nor anyone else can simply take what you want from it without consequences. Since you insisted on raising…your…children by yourself, in your way and your way only, until they were grown, now that they are I think it only fitting to make a chance for myself. I am their father, Fan, and they are your children no longer.
“They are mine.” Pol Gin stopped abruptly in his tirade, aware that he had said a great deal more than he had intended to say. Sei Fan was looking at him, her face hidden by shadows despite the incongruous absence of her long hair, and he could not see her expression. It had always been so, from their earliest youth; of all on the earth, mortal or not, Sei Fan was the only being Pol Gin could not read.
“I see,” was her only reply.
Pol Gin did not growl at her, but his immaculately groomed hair swayed, just a little, in a nonexistant breeze. “If, then, you have nothing else you wish to say to me, I must be on my way. There are other matters to which I must attend.”
“No!” Sei Fan did not scream, she had never screamed, and so what Pol Gin heard could not possibly be a scream. “Please, Gin, don’t leave me here! It’s so close, so confined here, I can’t breathe! Please, Gin, let me go!”
“I’m afraid that would not be feasible, Fan. Do you believe I know you so poorly as to suppose you would not return directly to smothering the children in your precious maternal comfort? This is my only chance, Fan, mine, and no one will take it away from me. You least of all.”
She started to her knees, catching hold of the edge of his tunic as he turned to summon Ten Lan. “Please, Gin! I know there was love between us once. For the sake of that love, will you not let me go?”
Pol Gin half-turned his head, looking at her in profile. “You can say that even now, even to me?” his voice was disgusted. “There is nothing between us any longer; you destroyed it with your own capable hands. Goodbye, Fan.” A spark dancing through the still air brought Ten Lan striding back. Pol Gin left the cell without a backward glance, and stood in silence while she closed the stone again.
“Finished?” she asked with a hint of malice, eyes glittering.
“For the present moment, at least. I doubt keeping her controlled will present any great difficulty. She is, indeed, quite weak now, and will continue so for some time. I appreciate your assistance, Lan. You have been most helpful.”
Ten Lan laughed grimly. “The price was good. We are no fools.”
“Certainly not,” Pol Gin agreed. With a fascimile of his usual smirk, he bowed deeply. “And so, with my thanks and my promise to repay you, I must depart. I wish you and your sister a very good night.” He vanished, once more, in a swirl of light, leaving Ten Lan to look after him, her face twisted into an expression of disgust.
“I would keep you too, Pol Gin, if I had not given my word.”
* * *
I am so not where I want to be--yay for loooong weekends! Unyay for homework. But NaNo must come first. Grades can be fixed.
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Date: 2004-11-24 10:38 am (UTC)