The Seer (or The Celtic Sphinx)

A snippet from a NaNo WriMo story I've worked on.

"Alarin, I dreamt again... I saw a vision. I was standing at a fork in the road, and there were two paths. Each was one that I could take. Before each path there stood a man. I could have one or the other. Down one road lay a safe and happy life. Comfort and steadiness and a quiet death. Down the other was a harder life. Moving constantly, living over seas, danger at every turn. A flash, and it would change to a pilgrimage across America. I saw pieces of both men, and with the dream came the knowledge that I would know them when I spoke with them and looked into their eyes." Aillyn's eyes began to mist over as she continued.

"One stood golden, tawny skin and changing eyes. Looking into them, there was a ring of silver around greens of a summer forest mingled with flecks of molten gold. His voice filled my ears and it was gifted with music." She tucked her hair behind her ears and kept on.

"The other stood tall and sure. Hair and countenance dark and pale respectively. He smiled and his face held a gentleness that touched my heart. In his eyes, deep and brown as the new earth, lay a promise to be ever faithful. He held out his hand and vibrations filled the air. His fingers moved and invisible strings resonated in my mind. Such a turmoil I felt. My emotions all tangled up within one another. I knew it was not the time to choose, so I turned my back on them both and went back down the road from whence I came. As I walked, I awoke." Aillyn's eyes were wide and distant. At some point during her story she had set down her pool stick and picked up the 8-ball and was rolling it about.

"Aillyn-" Alarin closed his eyes and took a deep breath, pushing the air out slowly between his teeth. "Aillyn, I have to know... Was one of them me?" He stood and walked around the table that separated them. He grasped her shoulders and gently shook her, pulling her out of her reverie. Her eyes refocused and she finally noticed the tears glistening in his. She reached up and rested her hand on his cheek.

"Such beautiful eyes... So mercurial, so soulful." Sadness tugged at her heart when she didn't feel the shock she had been expecting.

"But not the eyes of one of them." Alarin's cheeks shone with tears as he searched Aillyn's face and saw his answer there. "I'm not one of them. I'm not one of your paths. I'm not part of your vision." His words rang with a dark finality as he stepped back and slid her trembling hand from his cheek.

"Alarin, I..." Aillyn sighed. "I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask for the visions or the feelings that I get around people. I didn't ask for any of it." Her whispered words fell into the silence, loud as cymbals to her ears. She stepped forward and reached for his hand.

"Don't Aillyn. Don't touch me. Right now all I want to do is hit something, and I don't want it to be you." Hot anger dried any un-shed tears he might have had and vibrated the air around him.

"I just want to hold you Alarin... Please?" This time he didn't stop her as she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist. He held himself perfectly still as she laid her head on his chest and clung to him. They stayed like that for a while, until she felt him start to push away. Panicking, not ready to let him go, she tightened her arms around him, squeezing as hard as she could; hoping that, if she could just hold on tight enough, hold on long enough, that he would never go.

Her skirt rustled as she moved closer to him. Looking up, she realized that he had dropped his walls into place. There was no reaching him. She closed her eyes in resignation. After all, it was her doing the breaking, not Alarin. She must be strong.

Putting a hand on either side of his face, Aillyn stood on tip toes and put her forehead to his. She opened her eyes and saw his resolve wavering. Knowing it would hurt, but that it was the only way, Aillyn gently pulled his face down to her level and laid her lips against his. The merest whisper of skin on skin and then she was backing away.

"I don't love you Alarin." She said it quickly, trying to ease the pain by getting it over with. "I trust you, and I love you in a way, but I don't love you as you love me. I see you as a friend who I am attracted to, who I have fun with. But you and I are too much alike, and yours aren't the eyes in my dream."

Seeing the look of anguish on Alarin's face, Aillyn turned and fled, leaving him alone in the arcade to work through what had just happened.