Was It Always This Way

Love brings us together.

The light burnt my eyes as it swept through the clearing. This wasn't any normal kind of light- this was magical light. It was the light of blinding, burning and searing pain that was the mark of the bad ones- the people of the red star. My best friend, Kabira, stood beside me. I panicked. Kabira had no practice- no experience and I had no power- or so everyone thought. At that moment my rage and my impulse to protect my friends transformed me. I shot up into the air.


Turning slowly I came down to the ground. My midnight blue hair was now ankle length and was held back with a silver circlet. My sapphire eyes were framed by silver and midnight blue marks and my feet were bare, my lips almost black. My skin glistened and sparkled. I wore light midnight blue trousers that were tight from their place low on my hips to mid thigh and then flowy and see through until they reached my ankles where they cinched once more. I wore a midnight blue pheasant top with laces and from my shoulders hung two strips of light blue cloth that came to my wrists and attached to a blue vine that crawled up my arms. Unlike most of my race I did not have wings yet I could still fly.

I swirled slowly up once more until I hovered where the blinding light began to fade. A man from the light swirled up until he reached where I hovered. Most unusually for his race he had long black here that was pulled back in a low ponytail by a gold ribbon. He wore a white shirt that did up with laces rather than buttons, much like the ones of the old times and long white trousers that fitted his legs perfectly melding to the skin. He had huge golden wings that sprouted from his shoulders and had gold marks around is piercing opal eyes. My heart fluttered.

I looked at him almost as closely as he looked at me. I smiled. He looked up at my face and smiled back. I raised an eyebrow and although I was hovering high above the ground I still stood with my hands on my hips, one hip thrust out and my head cocked- in other words my normal stance.

I snapped myself out of my temporarily dazed state and glared at him. A silver glow started coming from me. It started as trickles of silver dust coming from my fingertips and the markings around my eyes and it became a silver glow spreading out, never ending, never tiring, with me in its centre. He started emitting his own gold glow.

Just as I began to prepare to push my silver energy in a hostile form towards him a thought resounded in my head.
 

Can you hear me?

I was so shocked I could hardly breathe.

Yes, came my feeble reply.

Do you know what this means?

I think so but who are you?

Glowing gold...

I realised that the thoughts in my head were coming from the man in front of me, the man who I was going to destroy with my hostile energy. I let go of that hostility and saw him do the same. Now that we were soul mates we would never be able to hurt each other again.

We're soul mates.

My voice trembles.

Yes,comes his reply.

Right there, in the middle of the sky we drift towards each other, our glows now the soft intensity of your aura when your in the deepest of loves imaginable, and I fold into his comforting embrace. A sense of belonging washes over me and my body goes limp.

Can I mark you?

Yes.

We pull apart and I lean back in his arms. He presses his lips to my bare stomach and dark blue marks with  gold streaks in them appear in an intricate pattern across it and onto my back. The silver streaks around my eyes and my silver circlet turn a glistening gold. The same markings on my stomach appear on his right arm and the gold marks around his head were joined by dark blue ones. 

We swirled softly back down to the ground in a tight embrace. When we reached the ground we were in the middle of a battle. I clenched his hand tightly.

Reo, what do we do?

I know, Lakeisha, we will be okay.

And our people?

We and they.

I twirl to the side as a light fae barrels towards us in a glow of silver light. 

Why don't you climb on my shoulders to try and find out where the elders are- that's the best place to target?

His suggestion is a good one and I nod my agreement before climbing up onto his shoulders.

You didn't have to climb, Keisha, I would've lifted you.

I know.

This sharing thoughts thing was very useful.

I looked around and saw the elders battling it out on the other side of the clearing.

'Over there,' I shout over the noise as I point in the direction of the elders. 

He lifts me off his shoulders and we take off and fly where it is easier to navigate. When we are in between the elders we float softly down. He lands first and I slide into his arms. He sets me down lightly on the ground.

'Lakeisha,' one of the light  fae elders says curiously.

'Yes,' I say. I have to fight the urge to bow my head.

Of course you do, my little flame, your such a goody two shoes.

Hey, I'm pretty good. There are many of my race who fall to their knees in the presence of one fae elder let alone the  all 20- dark and light alike.

I'm just teasing.

I know.

The elders brows furrow even more as I stand their as impassive as ever. Reo can sense how much I am struggling and reaches to draw me into his arms. The light fae elders move to stop him but I blink and a glowing silver wall stops them in their tracks.

'Lakeisha,' the elders say hesitantly,' is that you.'

I simply nod in response.

As Reo draws me into a hug once more my body goes limp and he holds me tighter to stop me falling. In doing so his shirt sleeves slide up his arms and if it wasn't obvious from the markings on my stomach and the change to the markings around both of our eyes it was now obvious that we were soul mates and that we had bound- a light fae bonding with a dark fae, it was unheard of. 

All the elders, dark and light alike gasped in shock.

I think we shocked them, love.

I'm sure we did.

Always have a response, don't you?

Not always.

Really?

Really.

I realised that I had just proved him right by responding. I ducked my head and he smiled.

We pulled away and faced the elders. All of a sudden we were targets. The dark fae aimed their energy at me and the light at Reo. We joined hands and in what was later told as the most pure show of love and freedom we pushed a blue and gold energy towards the elders and we didn't stop there. We kept pushing it outwards until the entire clearing was bathed in the blue-gold glow. It was breathtaking but we didn't have much time and we held it there whilst we aimed shots of pure, undiluted magic of the kind that hadn't been seen for centuries elsewhere. My dark blue and gold energy swirled towards the fae in the clearing, calming them in an instant and his shot towards the expanse of light that only the dark fae and me could see through. It went out in an instant. If I had not of calmed the fae havoc would have occurred now that everyone could see but even as my magic wore off the lesson never did. And anyway, we now had bigger problems to deal with.

From the forest emerged a man flanked by a woman and another man. They all wore red cloaks with cowled hoods. Immolators. They were staring straight at me.