jeriendhal | WIP: The Last Story (completed)

This still needs to be edited, but it's done for now.

He drew in another breath, steeling himself for the next part of the story. “Then it came to pass that the grey grew thick in Maria’s hair, and her hands, which had painted such beauty, grew weak and unsteady. Death's curse, which had come as part of Death's gift, grew close to finishing its work.”

“Except...” Alisa prompted.

“Except,” Tez said, “that it came much later than any of us had expected. We knew from the curse's price that your mother's natural lifespan had been halved. No one, least of all Maria, had realized just how long her natural life would have been otherwise. She had hoped to live long enough to see her first child reach maturity, and they rest be raised by myself. But she received much, much more.”

Alisa chuckled softly. “Because her master was a tricksy fellow.”

“Yes, he was. We had assumed that bits of Maria that made her appear human, or more accurately humanoid had come from Men. What we figured out much later is that it actually came from Elf blood. There had been no mention of this even in the old man's most secret notes, for good reason. Any hint of such a perversion would have guaranteed that the elves would have hunted him down and granted him a slow and extremely painful death for such an affront. As it was, when the truth became known they had temerity to try and place the blame on Maria herself, and only my status as the Eldest saved her, and saved them from my wrath.”

“How old did she live, Father?” she asked, even though they both knew the answer to that question.

“Maria the Beast-Kin, once Maria the Slave, then Maria Freeman, then maker of the Maria-Born, Priestess of Thanatos, your mother, and my mate, lived for two hundred and seventy-three years,” Tez told her. “She not only saw you and your brothers and sisters grew to maturity, she saw her grandchildren be born, and great-grandchildren, and even great-great-grandchildren. It was a treasure well she valued well beyond the price she paid for it.”

“I know,” Alisa said softly. She smiled at him, a smile that bore none of her age within it, making her appear for just a moment like the young woman she once was. “Now tell the best part, please Father.”

“The best part, at least for me, was the very last gift she gave. For you see I am the Eldest of the Elves, and I have wandered in this world for over three hundred and fifty thousand years, cursed for reasons I have never been able to discern to be forever invisible to Thanatos. Fate and chance kept me alive, even when I tried to thwart them by attempting suicide, or in madness commit atrocities that would surely force someone, anyone, to finally destroy me.'

“But when Maria was on her deathbed, and I watched over her, I saw the last breath of life leave her body. And then I saw the Goddess of Death, who had been as invisible to me as I was to her, appear in our bedchamber and take up Maria's soul. And before they faded in my vision Maria's spirit whispered in Her ear, and Thanatos turned to me, saw my face for the first time, and simply said Eventually. And I knew, that someday, however far it may be in the future, that I would be relieved of the burden of immortality and find whatever fate or comfort there is to be found on the side from this mortal world. For that, I will be forever in your mother's debt, no matter how many year or millennia will separate us from the time we shared together.” He let out a soft sigh as he finished his tale.

“That was a good story, Father,” she said, the words ritual.

“All the better because it is true,” he answered, also in ritual.

She nodded, closing her eyes. Willing his hands not to shake, he petted her hair gently, until her breathing slowed and she fell into a deep sleep.

He took hold of her hand, counting breaths. On the twenty-third, he heard her throat catch, and the air leave her lungs in a slow rattle. Then the pulse underneath his fingers slowed, then stopped.

And she was gone.

Tez stared at the space above her for a long moment, but saw neither her spirit nor Thanatos to guide it onward. Nevertheless he whispered softly, “Safe passage, my daughter, I hope I will join you on that road soon.”

Then, feeling all the weight of his three hundred and fifty thousand years bearing down on his shoulders like a mountain, he forced himself to rise, checking his pocket watch. By his estimation his family's party should be just breaking up now, giving him perhaps twenty minutes before they would come home. Just enough time.

He bent over his daughter's shell and kissed her forehead briefly, then massaged her face, closing her lips and making it appear as if she was doing nothing more than napping still. He went upstairs to find Alisa's nurse asleep in a lounge chair beside his daughter's sick bed. After waking her, he curtly informed the young woman that her services were no longer acquired thankouverymuch, and she went scurrying on her way. He slipped into his bedchamber, taking a key from where it had been taped with adhesive to the underside of his dresser, then went back out into the garden. Under a large willow tree he found Maria's grave stone, half engulfed by the great tree's roots, and inscribed with just her name, the dates of her life, and the epitaph “Mother”.

Tez turned down the collar of his shirt, revealing the worn and discolored slave collar locked around it. He pulled up his long hair and inserted the key. The collar's well oiled lock opened and once and he removed the flexible steel band and balanced it carefully on top of the gravestone.

“Goodbye, Maria,” he said, then turned away from the marker, walking around the manor, down the walk and to the public road at the manor's border. In less than five minutes an electric trolley came rumbling down the tracks embedded in the road, stopping when he waved it down.

He dropped all the coins in his pocket into the pay box, taking his ticket and sitting in a wooden seat. He had a few paper bills left in his pocket, the clothes on his back and nothing else, having left his identification and wallet back in his room.. It would be enough though. When he had began this most recent passage of his life he's started with considerably less.

“Where are you going, sir?” the trolley driver asked, there being no one else in the car at the moment.

“The end of the line.”

The driver closed the doors, swung the drive control forward and the trolley began to rumble along again. “What's there for you?”

“I supposed I'll have to find out,” Tez replied. He closed his eyes and listened to the electric motors push them along, not looking back.

The End

Author's Note: There may be other Tez and Maria stories to be told yet, but thematically speaking this is The End. More imporantly, this is the last story I'm going to write before published the Unexpected Diversions omnibus, at least after I finish re-re-re-editing Andrea's Story

WIP: The Last Story (completed)

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