Hooded Eagle - Part 1.A Saint Seiya fanfiction by Ariane Kovacevic, AKA Fuu-chan. Watching the two young men fighting in front of me, I sighed inaudibly and stood up from the piece of broken column which had served as my seat during the better part of the afternoon. Dismissing my movement, they kept on coming at each other with that same unreal elegance, and I smiled behind my mask, knowing the two were fully aware of the slightest of my movements. That was a good point for them, at least. As I reached the burnt sienna sand of the training arena, I told them, "Stop, that's enough." They both froze instantly, and turned towards me, bowing. I looked at them, noticing they had barely broken into a sweat despite the blazing heat of the afternoon's sun. They were really incredible.... At last, I stepped on the field, walking between the two of them and going towards the center, and then said, "Lune, step aside." He obeyed silently, and once he had reached one of the broken columns bordering the ring, I faced Merle and told him simply, "Now, attack." There was a flicker in the pale blue eyes, and for a fraction of a second he didn't react, as if hesitating. Then, he moved. I watched him coming, admiring the speed and perfection of each movement, and waited. I saw the blow coming from the left, and still didn't move. As it was about to strike me, his fist suddenly lost a part of the speed and strength he had initially put into it, and I felt a feral smile on my lips. A foolish mistake, Merle. A very foolish mistake.... Outside the field, Lune's eyes narrowed as he focused his whole self on me. I opened myself to the perception of the cosmo within me, allowing its bright light to flow freely through my body, and, in a lightning quick move, stepped aside, seized Merle's arms and twisted it, harshly throwing the young man on the ground. I stepped back, and waited for him to stand up. He shook his head slowly as if to clear it, and dusted a bit of the sand from his shirt. The expression on his face was carefully neutral, but I knew which emotion was lurking behind that mask: shame, and rightfully so. Sat on a broken column a few meters away, Lune was smiling. I noted that smile, as I had noted other things, and dismissed him. I focused on Merle again and snorted, telling him flatly, "Pathetic." He bowed his head, his shoulders slumped, but I went on, not in the slightest in the mood for mercy, "If you're going to attack someone, act as though you really meant it. When you fight an enemy, you're supposed to at least try to win. I thought that was an easy concept, but perhaps it's too difficult for you after all." "No, it's not that!" I grinned behind the mask, relieved to see the scorn in my voice had at last pushed him to react. Crossing my arms over my chest, I asked him, mocking, "Oh? And what is it then?" "I just...." He stopped himself abruptly, looking away and refusing to face me. I bowed my head slightly, feeling weariness come over me like a cloak of lead which kept pushing me down with more strength each time. I knew what Merle couldn't tell me. Damn it.... I looked up at the pure blue sky, and said coldly, "You're a fool, Merle. When I face you in the field, I'm an opponent, nothing more than that. It's neither your master nor a woman standing before you, it's an enemy. An enemy who will never hesitate to strike you down, and strike you down I will as long as you keep viewing me as something I'm not." I stared at him steadily. "Have you forgotten already? I'm not a woman anymore. I'm a Saint in the service of the Goddess Athena. You insult me when you stubbornly persist in considering me like a woman that you don't dare touch." As if by the simple fact of being a woman, I was somehow inferior.... Stupidity. This attitude had infuriated Shaina on many occasions, and I was beginning to understand her anger. Merle's face was still absolutely expressionless, but his eyes betrayed him. Their startingly pale blue colour had changed, they were dark now, clouded. As his heart was.... In a gentler voice, I told him, "You must get it through your head that an opponent is an opponent and nothing more. The shape, the age, the colour, the gender, all that doesn't matter. As long as you can't do that, you will know defeat." I let silence claim the place for a while, allowing some time for my words to sink in, and then smiled behind the mask. "Now, come." This time, there was no hesitation, and.... Quick. The sheer speed on the attack forced me to break my stance, and I struck in the same time he did. Hand caught fist, and I saw his left foot coming for my right side, in a slow motion. I waited, but he didn't slow down. So, this time he was trying for real.... Good. Tapping into my cosmo, I freed myself. The light flashing in Merle's eyes.... I struck his leg with a backhanded blow, pushing him back and unbalancing him in the same time. He went down, rolling on the side and coming back up in a fraction of a second, ready for an attack. I nodded at him, waving to indicate the fight was over and relaxing my own stance. Walking back towards Lune, I absentmindedly ran my fingers through my hair, reviewing the whole session in my mind. When I reached Lune's side, I turned to face both him and Merle, and told them, "That's it for today. Merle, that last attack was much more like it." He bowed his head slightly, and made to leave with Lune, when I added, "There's just one other thing, and it concerns the both of you." They stopped and turned back towards me. "Holding back is a mistake." Surprise marked itself on Merle's face, while Lune's emerald eyes narrowed, focusing on me. I smiled, adding, "You both do, even when you fight each other. Don't think I'm unaware of it. I hold back because I'm teaching you and because fighting you with all my strength would be pointless, but you mustn't." There was a long moment of silence, and then eventually Lune bowed, and replied with a charming smile, "Alas, we've been found out. Forgive us, Lady Marin, we were merely trying to perfect a few moves on our own." I cut him off. "Secrets, Lune?" I walked towards them, and whispered as I passed them by, "Beware that if it becomes too obvious, people might stop considering you as mere apprentices." There was no answer to my words, not that I had expected any. Leaving the two young men to reflect on what I told them, I started climbing up the great Stairs. Behind me, the sun was setting. "Hey, Merle!" The young man turned his head on the right, just in time to take a moist towel full in the face, and as he reached out to take it away, he heard Lune's laughter resounding in the air close to him. "Goddess, but what could distract you so?" The young man didn't reply, absentmindedly applying the wet towel on the sides of his neck, focused on the disappearing shape of Aquila Marin, high up the the great Stairs. "Ah, I see." There was laughter in Lune's voice, a laughter which Merle knew very well, even though he had never been able to determine whether it contained mockery and scorn or not. Merle finished towelling his face, and then said softly in the waning light of the day, "She's found us out...." Lune snorted beside him. "Of course she's found us out." Merle looked at his friend, and saw both amusement and disdain shining in the pure green eyes as Lune went on, "She's no fool." Lune's eyes suddenly focused on Aquila Marin's tiny silhouette, up in the distance, and he added softly, "She's known for quite a while...." Lune suddenly stared back at the other with a knowing smile on his lips, adding in a confiding tone, "You wouldn't act like a besotted fool around her if she wasn't sharp and intelligent enough to notice things most of the others don't even suspect," Lune's smile changed ever so slightly as he concluded, "and I wouldn't spend my time listening to her and watching her." Merle didn't reply anything, didn't react at his friend's words. He wasn't one for speeches or arguments. Besides, he didn't care what Lune said. He knew the other's honeyed tongue and talent for word games. To say anything would simply have meant to give Lune a weapon to use against him. He had learnt long ago to keep his peace, even when Lune's words stang or infuriated him. Not only did the redhead have a knack for verbal duels, but he also had strength and power to back up what he said. And what was more.... "She's found us out, but what she has felt is only what we've allowed her to perceive...." Merle didn't even hear Lune's soft whisper. He had forgotten all about his friend's presence beside him when his eyes had focused again on the higher levels of the Sanctuary, where Aquila Marin had now disappeared as she did every night. Where he couldn't go. Even though he couldn't see her anymore, he could still feel her presence on top of the peak, where it was said the Altar of Athena itself was. Oh yes, he could feel her like a shining star in the dim light of dusk, just like he had on that day, years ago.... It was a mistake to have come here. Even though the spectacle before their eyes was a fascinating one, Merle knew with an absolute certainty they should never have come to this place. He pulled silently at Lune's sleeve, but the other didn't even turn towards him. He pulled again, a bit harder, and this time Lune whispered, "Stop it, Merle, I'm busy." Biting his lower lip, Merle thought that his friend was sometimes completely crazy. They were bound to get into deep trouble if they stayed here any longer, so he gripped Lune's left arm and whispered almost inaudibly, "We have to go, it's too dangerous...." Lune turned towards Merle and sighed. "Oh, lighten up." He grinned. "We're teenagers, it's only natural for us to come here and have a look." Merle looked beyond his friend and the thorny bush hiding them to the training field down the hill on which they had established their watching post. On it, a feverish activity reigned. At first glance, it was exactly like any of the other training areas scattered over the Holy Ground of the Sanctuary, but when one looked at it, one quickly saw the difference. The apprentices training here were all women. No, not women, girls who fought like men, struck at each other, kicked and punched each other like boys. Girls who were harshly thrown down on the ground when they couldn't manage to avoid or defend against an attack. Before they had discovered this place, Merle had always thought the Santucary to be the domain of men, but Lune's curiosity had made them find this place, and Merle's world had changed. Oh, women were not unheard of in the Sanctuary, but they were not seen walking among the male apprentices. In fact, they had been forbidden to enter the Sacred Domain until recently, when the law had been changed to tolerate them. In all his years spent here, Merle had never seen one. He had ended up considering the female Saints as a myth kept alive to feed teenagers' fantasies, until he and Lune had stumbled upon this place. Since that day, they had come back every time they could. They had come back to watch those girls who hid their faces behind blind masks. They had come back to watch them fight. They were good, there was no denying that. There was a strange determination in the way they fought, a dedication that was rarely seen among the young male apprentices. What was also fascinating was these girls' apparent total lack of emotions. No matter how hard they were struck, how hard they fell, none of them ever cried or complained.... "I'm curious to hear your excuse for being on forbidden ground, boys." Merle froze when he heard the voice, but Lune calmly turned to face its owner. Merle distincly saw his friend open his mouth, likely to deliver one of the honey-sweet answers he had mastered the art of making, and then close it before he had had the time to utter the slightest sound. Reluctantly, Merle also turned to face the voice's owner. The one who had come upon them unexpectedly was a young woman, almost still a girl. Judging from her size, her body and the sound of her voice she had to be a few years younger than they were, and still there was no denying she had a commanding presence. She was a half-head smaller than they, the hair cascading down her back to reach her shoulderblades a red as fiery as Lune's, and like for all the other girls, her face was covered by a blind silver mask. Her arms were crossed on her chest, and everything in her stance indicated self-assurance as well as what might have been amusement. Eventually, Lune recovered enough to stand and face her. Merle imitated him, wondering what his friend would come up with to get them out of this trouble. Lune flashed a smile to the masked girl and bowed, saying, "I fear we have no excuse, my Lady, none but the hunger for knowledge. The way you fight seems somehow different from the way we were taught, so here we've come, simply in the hope to learn more...." The girl didn't react, certainly unmoved by Lune's pretty speech, and Merle dimly wondered how many pieces she was going to cut the both of them into when she'd have had enough of listening to Lune's banter. Suddenly, Merle saw Lune stepping towards the girl, still talking. "And also, I have to admit that I've always been curious to know," Lune reached the young woman, who hadn't moved an inch, "to see what kind of face is hidden behind one of those masks." Lune's right hand shot out in a move almost too quick for the eye to see, and.... Light. Blinding. Once the light's radiance allowed Merle to see what was around him again, his heart skipped a beat. Lune was on his knees before the young woman, his face an expressionless mask which meant pain. She seemed not to have moved at all, but Lune was pressing a hand against his left side as if he had been hit there. And for him to have to make a visible effort to hide pain.... She had struck him, in a fraction of a second, right before his fingers had reached her mask. Forcing his memory to focus on that split second in which everything had happened, Merle saw in his mind's eye the unbelievable speed she had used. She had waited, he knew she had deliberately waited until the last possible moment before reacting. But why? "Presumption was your first mistake, boy." The mockery in her voice was obvious. "But your underestimating an opponent you didn't even know was your undoing. Pride is a good thing, but too much of it will turn you into the worst fool." She shook her head. "Remember it when next we meet." That said, she turned away and started walking down the hill towards the training field as if two young men had never been there. Lune stood, gingerly massaging his left side, his being wholly focused on the girl's back. Tense, as if ready to start after her.... "I'd advise you against trying anything like challenging her again." Lune froze, and then forecfully relaxed, shrugging and turning to face the newcomer. "I suppose you're right. I made a mistake, and I have to accept that, even if it's hard to be shown so harshly that I've been a fool." Merle snorted inwardly, thinking it was so like Lune to shrug off his anger so easily, and also faced the one who had joined the scene, bowing slightly. "You two have no business being here, you're lucky she was the one who found you spying on the girls' training field. Things might not have gone so easily for you otherwise." Merle stared steadily at the young man in front of him, and asked, "Who was she?" The man's deep dark blue eyes left the both of them to focus on the now faraway woman, and he replied, "She is Aquila Marin, one of the strongest of the Silver Saints, and you should thank her for having stopped you before you so much as touched her mask. Don't you know the Law regarding the female Saints?" The man's usually kind eyes were clouded. Lune shook his head, shrugging in ignorance. "No sir, we don't. As a matter of fact, nobody has cared to teach us anything for a few weeks, or rather," Lune's lips curled up in a smile which held more than a bit of contempt in it, "we haven't found anyone here who still had anything worthwhile to teach us." The man suddenly focused back on them, and laughed gently. "This must be remedied." His eyes suddenly settled on Merle as he said, "Such potential cannot be allowed to go to waste." There was something strange in the way the man was watching them both, Merle distantly knew it, *felt* it. There was some kind of...kinship, yes that had to be it. The man became serious again as he added, "Anyway, know that if by some incredible stroke of luck you had succeeded in unmasking her, none of you would have left this place alive. Heed my words and never come back here again. Some games are much too dangerous to be played." As he made to turn away, Lune unexpectedly bowed to him, saying repectfully, "Thank you for your advice, and for your intervention, Aioria." The man stopped for a second and chuckled, nodding, "I was right about you. There's no need to thank me." That said, he walked away as silently and quickly as he had come. "Do you think he really came here on purpose and somehow intervened on our behalf?" Lune grinned, as if happy all of a sudden. "Of course. Why do you think the girl let us off so easily?" Merle nodded slowly, forced to acknowledge there was a certain logic to Lune's words, and then found himself staring back at the training field down the hill, where he could see the red-haired girl busy sternly explaining a movement to a young apprentice. He barely felt Lune's hand pressing his left shoulder as the other said, "We should leave now, or we'll really be in trouble." Merle nodded absentmindedly, unable to tear himself from the vision of the young woman below. "Did you feel the light when she struck at you? She shines so brightly...." Lune stared at his unmoving friend for a few seconds, and then chuckled softly, replying, "Yes, it's true. The light shining within her is very bright indeed, but let me tell you a secret...." That made Merle turn towards him at last, and Lune faced the way Aioria had gone, adding, "His light shines even brighter." His voice reduced to the faintest whisper. "Oh yes, much, so very much brighter...." As they were leaving the part of the Sanctuary that was forbidden to men, Merle thought that Lune was both right and wrong. He had heard the longing in Lune's voice, and he understood it. If truth be told, he could feel it inside him as well, but it didn't burn him like it did Lune. Yes, Aioria's light shone bright, like the most radiant of stars you always see first when you look up at the night sky; certainly the young woman's couldn't help but to be weaker, and yet.... And yet it was different, her light was like...like Merle's very own star, yes, like this star he'd found for himself as a young child and towards which his eyes were drawn whenever he was alone at night.... It was really getting late. Lune stifled a weary yawn, and exited the small house he shared with Merle on one of the lower levels of the Sanctuary. He didn't have to go far to find his friend. Sure enough, Merle was still in the same spot, lost in half-contemplation, half-daydream, his eyes focused on the Temple of Athena. Following suit, Lune looked up at the stars and smiled. In a way, he could understand Merle's fascination with the sight and feeling of what was up there. Lune himself had to admit that the sensation of Aquila Marin's cosmo was like a beacon fire which couldn't help but draw their attention. They were not many, those who could feel her presence up there, night after night. She wasn't trying to be conspicuous, on the contrary, but there was no way for her to hide her presence completely to those whose perceptions were sharp enough. And the Goddess knew that his and Merle's were.... But when one focused one's attention towards the great Stairs, one could feel things much more fascinating than Aquila Marin's cosmo. Oh yes.... The Presences.... Their Light.... For how many years had Lune been drawn towards them? He'd have been unable to tell. All he knew was that the very feeling of them stayed with him night and day, haunted him.... Shaking his head, he freed himself from the trance, and joined Merle's side. The other didn't move, even though Lune knew his presence had been noticed. Why should Merle have reacted? Lune was his friend, the only person he truly trusted beside Aquila Marin.... Lune refrained the urge to laugh out loud in the night. Kind and trusting Merle.... Secretive, silent.... Lune whispered softly, "I think the time has come at last." Beside him, Merle suddenly tensed, and then asked, "Time? But time for what?" Merle's eyes were still focused on the Temple of Athena, and on the person who kept watch there every night. Lune looked up at the shining constellations in the sky and smiled, replying, "Time for many things, my friend. Time to bare hearts, time to gain the names we lack, time for truth..." Lune stared at his friend, adding in a whisper, "time to free the eagle from its hood." That won him Merle's full attention. The young man turned sharply towards Lune. The pale blue eyes were wide, a transparent mirror for the emotions warring in his soul. After a moment of silence, Merle eventually shook his head. "No. You know we have no right to go up the great Stairs. Besides," he bowed his head, "they don't need us." "Oh come, Merle!" Surprised by the unveiled irritation in Lune's voice, the other looked up and was trapped by the light shining in the emerald eyes. "Everyone in the Sanctuary knows that neither Athena, nor the Gold Saints are coming back. The only ones left to defend the power sleeping in the Sacred Domain are Ophiuchus Shaina and Aquila Marin, and you say they don't need us?" Merle looked away, unable to confront the flames burning in Lune's eyes, and whispered, "Rumors, Lune, there's nothing--" "Enough with convenient ignorance, will you?!" Lune reached out to his friend, and gripped his left arm, hard. "You *know*, we both felt it on that night." Lune felt the young man shivering under his fingers, and smiled. "We both woke up that time with the same fire burning us inside, with the same devouring flames raging in our souls. We both felt that pain, that cry of grief rising up to the stars. Would you dare deny it?" "No." Lune's smile widened as he heard the faint whisper, and he released his hold on his friend's arm. "Good." Opening himself fully to the feeling of the Sacred Light surrounding the higher levels of the Sanctuary, Lune added in an almost inaudible voice, "They're not coming back, any of them. We felt them all die, we felt the Gold Saints' light drown in the darkness and Athena's life fading as her blood spilled on her own altar. They're gone, forever." There was nobody left, Lune knew this just as he knew himself...just as he knew what had to be done. Eventually, he tore himself from the sight of the starlight illuminating the Great Stairs and walked away. Merle distantly felt his companion going back to the small house they shared, likely to get a bit of sleep, but didn't move from where he was. He had heard every word Lune had said. He had heard and understood. He knew the terrible truth as well as his friend, but unlike him, he doubted. He didn't have Lune's absolute assurance. He wasn't sure...or rather, there was only one thing he was certain of. Night after night, Aquila Marin went up the Great Stairs to keep watch on the Sanctuary, alone. Night after night she went, and drove herself to exhaustion, lost her strength, lost the light shining within her bit by bit. This, Merle knew and felt as if he had been the one whose self was being torn away form him a little more each time. Ever since that terrible night, since the Gold Saints had disappeared, she had started to.... Die. There's a faint sound nearby. Even though it's nothing more than the faintest of whispers, the little girl can hear it clearly. The silence of the night is so deep, so terrrible.... She's one with it, she's one with the cold stone under her. She's one with the darkness surrounding her, she's fear, she's nothing but fear. "Hey! Look here!" No! No, she hasn't heard the voice. No, there's nobody else but her. She hugs herself tighter, wishing the stone could somehow swallow her and hide her in the dark forever. The sounds grow closer, and the little girl turns her face towards the hard stone, as if that could make her invisible. "What are you doing here? It's a dangerous place you know." The voice is both astonished and gentle, but the little girl doesn't hear it. She doesn't hear anything. She's not here anymore, no. She's far away, where nobody will ever find her, she's.... Something touches her hair, and she tenses as another voice asks softly, "Why are you here?" She doesn't reply, what could she tell them anyway? She feels tears coming to her eyes as fingers stroke her hair, and the voice goes on, "All those people searching the Sanctuary, it's you they're after, isn't it?" "Don't tell them I'm here, please...." At her faint whisper, the fingers stop stroking her hair for a few seconds, and then start again. "No, no we won't tell them, if you tell us why you've come to this place." There's something like satisfaction or laughter in the voice, but it doesn't matter to the little girl. Nothing matters, nothing but never to be found, so she tells the voices, "I tried to run away, but I lost my way so I decided to hide here." Silence comes back around her, but she can still feel the fingers gently playing with her hair. They haven't left, she hasn't given them what they want. She wants to be left alone, she wants to be in the dark, she wants.... "They asked me to do something...something I cannot do. I.... I...." Sobs suddenly choke her. She can't speak about this, she can't, she-- "Stop it, you're hurting her!" The little girl starts as she hears that other voice, full of kindness and anguish, but it fades into silence almost at once. She feels hot, salty tears running down her cheeks as she goes on in a toneless voice, "I'm not strong enough to be what they ask. If only I could be like the stars shining in the sky, if only I could touch them, feel their light, perhaps I could...." She suddenly hears herself laughing weakly through her tears. "But I can't. They're too far away, the stars are too small. I can't reach them, nobody will ever give me their light...." There's a faint sigh close to her, and one of the voices replies softly, "I understand. But you know...." The voice poses for a few seconds, while the fingers keep stroking her hair as if they were absentmindedly telling beads, and then resumes, "Sooner or later, they'll find you." The little girl closes her eyes tightly shut, as if that could somehow undo the words she just heard, and the truth in them. Eventually, she says, "Then I'll run, I'll find a place where no light, no stars can betray me. I'll find a place where there is only darkness, and I'll stay there until it has drowned me...until I die." Suddenly, the fingers let go of her hair, and she hears a faint sound as the owners of the two voices stand and start walking away. "We can't just leave her here, there must be something we can do--" That voice is cut off by the other who replies in a tone full of scorn, "Oh, but if you want to do something, then why don't *you* give her the stars' light?" Mocking laughter rises in the night's silence, and then eventually fades. They're gone, yes they're gone at last. The little girl is alone again. Alone with the night, with the dark. With fear. It's good. She has wished so hard for the stars, she has wished so fervently for their light, but she knows she will never reach them. She knows she will never feel their light shining in her heart. She knows nobody will ever give them to her. She knows and accepts this. So better to stay here. In the dark. Pain. Breathing heavily, I brought my right fist against my chest, focusing on the sensation to master the rising tide of emotions within. I bit my lower lip, closing my eyes, and thought it had been a mistake to come here. I hadn't won anything; all that Star Hill had given me was half-forgotten ghosts of the past for which I had no use. At last, the haunting, blurred images retreated in the shadows, and I walked back from the altar of foretellings. I should never have come to this holy place, I should never have tried to use the power sleeping here, I knew it was not for such as I. I was lucky my reaction had caused me to bang my fist against one of the marble columns, tearing me from the waking dream I had drowned into. What had I hoped for in coming here? Answers? But I knew all the answers already. Reassurance? I knew there was no knowledge to be gained. I knew how things stood and what was required of me, but.... A part of me found it harder and harder to live with it, that part of me doubted, a little more each day. That part of me feared.... Grieved.... I shook my head slowly, starting down the stairs. I was tired, exhausted even, and I didn't make sense anymore. Shaina had been right, I was a fool. Instead of wearing myself out standing watch every night, I should have taken the rest I needed, worked on my focus, on freeing the emotions which were choking my heart even now. I knew my duty. And I had failed it. I stumbled on one of the steps, regaining my balance at the last moment, and wondered if there was an end to those stairs. Eventually, I resumed walking, barely conscious of the hard stone beneath my feet. Oh Goddess, I was so tired. So very much tired.... Sounds. So faint.... Muffled by the mist which always shrouded the mountains right before sunrise.... Steps, close. Close.... A light, shining like dawn. Golden.... Radiant and beautiful.... Warm.... So warm.... This light.... I knew it, I knew it as I knew myself. I.... A human shape, there in front of me. Walking towards me. I.... Winning free of the trance which had claimed me, I slowly stepped towards him. I couldn't feel the ground beneath my feet anymore, I couldn't hear the sound of my breathing, I couldn't feel my heartbeats, everything had vanished. Everything but him. He was the only thing which truly existed in the ethereal unreality of the coming of dawn. I stopped right in front of him, hesitating, but none of this was real, none of this was possible. None of this was true. It was only a dream.... I snuggled up to him, resting my head against his chest, and felt tears burning my eyes. I knew I should never have done such a thing, I knew I had no right to do such a thing, but.... Who would ever know? This was a dream, nothing but a dream.... "Aioria...." I distinctly felt him tensing against me as he whispered back, "Marin, I...." I hugged him tight, cutting him off. "Please...please, don't say anything. I know I shouldn't, not even in a dream, but...." I bit my lower lip, unable to go on, overwhelmed by emotions I had kept inside for too long, by a grief which held no meaning, couldn't have meaning. There was a short moment of utter silence, and then his arms came around me, gently holding me close. Silent sobs I could no longer hold back shook my whole body, and suddenly I felt the beautiful golden light shining around me, gentle and warm. His light.... I closed my eyes, holding on to the sensation for dear life, knowing it wouldn't last, knowing this was nothing but a fantasy of my mind, an illusion. A lie. I had leant my face against his chest, but what my cheeks felt wasn't the fabric of his shirt, oh no. What my cheeks felt was.... I chuckled bitterly, and whispered in the silence, "Must that thing hold me even in my dreams? Must I wear this mask and feel its cold silver against my skin even here?" He didn't say anything, but then there was nothing to be said. Nothing. Nothing.... Nothing. Soft fabric, right under my neck. Lying.... I.... Suddenly, my eyes managed to focus again on my surroundings, and I recognized the inside of my own house, down the lower levels of the Sanctuary. I was lying in my bed, and there was a blanket covering me. But I.... I froze as I felt a presence, very close, and my heart skipped a beat as I realized what had happened when I had come back from Star Hill. That had been no dream. Someone had met me down the stairs, but I had been so confused by the nightmarish vision I had experienced, and so exhausted that reality had lost its grip on me, its solidity. It had become blurred, like a dream, and I.... I had.... There was the faintest of sounds as the one who had brought me back here and had watched over my sleep started walking away. When I heard the door close, I took off the mask covering my face, and whispered in the shadows: "Thank you." Marin's faint whisper reached Merle even through the door's thick wood frame, and he stopped for a moment, looking up. The light of the rising sun was about to reach beyond the high peaks. He watched it in silence, not deigning to protect his eyes from its blinding radiance, and then eventually resumed his walk. She knew. She had remembered.... And yet she hadn't said anything. Just "thank you". Nothing but that. Nothing.... But what he had seen, felt.... Getting a firm grip on his emotions, he walked on. More than anything Lune might have said, this night's events had moved him to reconsider his opinion. Lune was right, everything had been changed on the day the Gold Saints and Athena had died. Nothing could ever be the same. Merle closed his eyes, hearing Aquila Marin's voice echoing in his heart. Must that thing hold me even in my dreams? End of Part 1.
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