Bryony looked puzzled for a moment. “Oh that asshole? He was not Zanar but more of a trouble maker. Zanar was the one before him. No one really knew what happened to him but Kalyani had lost everything in a fire and someone killed her horse. I had given her that horse as a present so call me a bit miffed. Silver steeds are rare to come by in pristine colors. If she is thinking about him I know where she went.” 

She smiled a bit as they walked. “I was born within the first century of Rosenites existing. I’m very old but I tend not to act my age. Being around all the young oracles and teaching them is what I do best. Kalyani must have not told you much about me. While Willow is the Matron Mother the first of the Rosenites… I suppose that would make me the Matron Oracle. I was the first one to be born and die to ascend with the spirits. 

Angela smiled when they began to speak. “Think nothing of it. You saved Kalyani and that makes Bryony and I at least a little more even. I tend to help all who come through my gates but you helped someone that is like family. Family is important.” Thinking about his coat she nodded. “We have it and one of my clergy members will give it to you.”  Reaching over the goddess’s patted his head. “Carry on, Bryony please show him the temple.”

Sighing a bit. Bryony looked rather annoyed. “I hate being ordered around by you. I was going to do it anyways.” Angela looked amused but Bryony took Sebastian’s arm in hers. When they got out of the courtyard there was a look on the oracle’s face. “Well, you remember meeting the girl last night? She is  normally with Angela. That is Iva and the man’s daughter who she was picking for. Angela had originally made a deal to expand his life as  he wished to have a baby. Angela got pregnant and the two of them gradually over the course of her pregnancy came to care for each other. When Iva was born the deal, he reminded her, had to be sealed. She let his illness consume him after he named the girl Iva or Life. Angela was never the same after that. It took her a while to regain herself and take care of the little girl. Iva is too much like her mother even if Angela refuses to admit she was ever a trouble maker. I remember the goddess being born and her trying to neglect her lessons early on, just like Iva does now.”

After he got dressed they moved on.

Thinking for a moment she laughed. “Kalyani told Angela that you would be able to see the library. Let’s start there.” She pulled him along until she opened a mahogany door. The room opened up to a glistening cave. Bookshelves levitated over water and tiny jeweled fish swam in the water. “Welcome to the library.” Bryony stepped onto the invisible floor and smiled over at a teenager in the corner with purple hair. “That is Angela’s daughter Sapphire.” The girl shyly looked up over the book she was reading with a wave.

“The library here has many books that Angela hunted for. We can take our time here, if you wish.”

There it was, that question of ascension again. When Bryony spoke of her own, however, Sebastian's inquiry became much more introspective. Did he, too have it within himself to become something else? If death and rebirth were a part of that, he would have nothing to do with it. He did not wish to feel the River's cold embrace again until it was ready to take him.
Sebastian studied Bryony carefully as she spoke, and he also thought of Angela. Did the soul become stronger with such a long existence, or did it become stagnant to a degree? He supposed being cursed with having the memory of every life lived was very much the same thing as having lived a long one. That, for the most part answered his question.

Ironically, despite the uncanny similarities that Sebastian knew lay in the past compared to what he had experienced now, he was not a very strong believer in fate. He could not help but feel its pull, though, as he listened to Bryony speak. He realized, as he laced up his tunic, that he wanted to hear the colorful and storied past of just about every Rosenite name he would hear. The unseen threads that connected people and places were not accidents, nor imaginary. He could not help but feel that crossing paths with Kalyani was for good reason. He just didn't know what the reason was yet, other than the intense sensation of synchronicity; that, yes, this was exactly where he was supposed to be at this exact time.

The library only intensified these feelings.

Sebastian smiled and waved back to Sapphire as they entered. He remembered a time being that reserved, nose constantly stuck in a book. The only thing that had really changed was his freedom of expression. He jumped a bit as his hand went down, and he unconsciously reached it towards Bryony's hand. He had been so distracted in listening and following that he had not realized that they now stood upon nothingness…solid nothingness. With fish beneath. Lowering to his hands and knees, he looked at the colorful fish with a sort of child-like wonder. Having been at the Mage Academy for some time, he had a familiarity with enchantments. This had never really desensitized him to the miracles that were possible; in fact, he thought that people took a lot of "mundane" things for granted. Airship travel, for instance.

"This is amazing," Sebastian mused ecstatically as he arose and ran his hand over the pristine bindings of several titles. "I could spend weeks in here. Many of these books I know, but there are many more that I don't, or have only heard of."
His autumn gaze traveled and lingered on each floating floating shelf as he sauntered about, but he turned on his heel to face Bryony before he was done browsing. "I would very much like to sit here for a time…but first, are there any good open-air places off the temple? My body feels right stiff, and could use some training. There is a regimen that I always stick to."

Bryony was entertained by the human and watched him get down to look at the fish. “I agree, I had never seen anything like this in my entire life before Angela made this place.” She went over to a chair and sat down while he looked around. “I have spent weeks in here, trust me, it’s a lot more than you would expect. She has old maps and scrolls as well towards the back that the children can’t reach. You would probably be interested in those the most.”

She leaned in the chair and crossed her legs. “Well, I do suppose I know one location. Sapphire, is the worrisome one there?”

The purple haired child looked over the book. Her name came full circle as eyes of sapphire stared from Sebastian to Bryony. “Probably not, Drae came home. She is probably forcing him into Mother’s dresses.”

Bryony chuckled a bit. “I will have to give Drae my apologies.” Hopping up out of the chair she immediately took Sebastian’s arm and led him to a set of giant mahogany doors. “These doors have the cycle of life carved into them. Angela has seen both sides. Long ago she was once the Goddess of Death though that was never her official title. Now that she practically gives life to things, it is interesting how it all comes together… The doors are what she has experienced on both sides of the coin.”

She took the rings on either door and pulled on them. They were surprisingly light as she flung them open. Colored lights filled the hallway. “This bridge of glass takes us out to the courtyard you seek.” She walked across the glass easily enough even though the gorge below clearly made her agitated. “For someone who doesn’t like being off the ground she certainly likes her bridges.”

Once they got to the large courtyard of sprawling green grass she looked up at the red maple and smiled. “The tree is blossoming. Angela has it cycle through stages.” There were giant purple lily-like flowers blooming all over the tree. In the center was a statue of a man. There were flowers placed at the bottom and in vases around him. “That’s Iva’s father. This is one of her father places. Though since she has met Drae she got rather attached to her new father figure.”

Sebastian tried to imagine what all of the women he had met thus far would be like in the same room together. Two alone were enough to be hysterical to watch. He, too, chuckled and shook his head at the prospect of some poor boyo being forced to play dress-up for Iva. His grin lingered when the Oracle led him along once more.
Her general ease with physical contact was something new to him, something he had to stifle a reaction to initially. Now, walking arm-in-arm with Bryony seemed quite natural.

The lights that danced before Sebastian's eyes were what gave him vertigo. He had no trouble at all with crossing the glass bridge. "Symbolism can be a powerful thing," he observed as they walked over the gorge. "With all that I've seen thus far, it would not surprise me if Angela has appreciation for such subtleties in every minute aspect of this place."
His thoughtful expression turned to a slight smirk at Bryony's comment about the dizzying height. He sensed her discomfort, and a wicked thought came to mind. He kept it to himself for now. "Rather exhilarating, I think," he commented while staring directly downward.

Being able to accomplish a transversal without too much effort tended to defeat the fear of heights in a person. He had put the mettle of his abilities to the test once before, when he had come across an adversary he could not conquer during shady dealings in Hoja Mesto. He had been forced to run…starting from high rooftops, through the jungles of a central garden, and through residences, all the while avoiding a supernatural pursuer who could keep up with ease. It strained his mind and body to the limit, and gave him a very healthy dose of confidence in the end.

Following Bryony to the end of the bridge, Sebastian let her arm go to stop and admire the whole of the courtyard, and looked up at the tree. "Gorgeous," he said after a long while. His eyes had rested on Bryony herself before he spoke, but her gaze had been elsewhere. Stepping forward, he feigned a slip upon the glass, tumbling over the rail quite suddenly, and over the edge. "Oh dear," were his last words, a hint of sarcasm in his tone, before disappearing into the gorge.

Sebastian closed his eyes, and spanned his arms out as he fell head-first. He did not let himself descend for long. Mere seconds. Just long enough to feel the velocity of the fall…the wind billowing through his tunic.
Opening his eyes, he concentrated on the space above him, willing himself forward. It was much the same sensation, mentally, as moving an external object with the mind. It took a few quick efforts for him to gain height, and to redirect the kinetic energy. He had found out the hard way that if he let himself fall for too long and Blink carelessly, that his body would still feel the impact of the distance traveled. He was much more adept at it now. He managed to make it to the exact point he had purposely flipped over, vaulting himself over the rail and onto the bridge once more. "Exhilarating indeed," he repeated with a wry little smirk.

With that bit of mischief out of his system, Sebastian sauntered across the grass towards the statue. He took in the many carefully arranged bouquets, and the sheer detail and care that went into maintaining the shrine. "How often is it that a deity loves?" he asked while sitting cross-legged beneath the maple. "What happens to the realm when they experience such a loss? They seem very closely tied together…one affecting the other."

Bryony smiled towards him. “She always has been detailed. Even when she was a full time herbalist, she measured everything and the detail of her potions were unmatched. They were potent and people bought many from the Academy. Til this day they use her recipe.

Her eyes followed him as he went over the edge. She crossed her arms and came over and looked over the edge. “Oh dear my ass.” She chuckled a bit. When he showed back up she slapped the back of his head. “I’m sure it was. Is it as good as sex though?” It was an off handed comment to throw the man off. She got close to him. “Must have felt so good.” She got close to him, almost too close. Their faces almost touching as she backed him off the edge and watched him fall again. “Oh dear,” she echoed his words.

When he showed back up they continued their little adventure. “Angela has loved three times truly. At least here in this world. When timedeath occurred she was married twice over on the plane Daeluin. Here was only three. Wyatt, her first husband, married to her at sixteen. He died when she ascended, she also killed their daughter Lyre. That was when she took up the mantle of death in her sorrow. The second time was five years ago with Iva’s father. Then there is Drae. Each time she lost someone I swear even the plants were sad.”

Bryony frowned. “Angela is a far braver woman than I. I lost someone a long time ago and I have never trusted anyone else not to die. It’s a long lonely road when you want to avoid everyone that could even get remotely attached to you. Even when you want to find someone and you remain scared because that is the last way the world can truly hurt you.”

Sebastian's smirk became laughter when Bryony smacked the back of his head. This was short-lived though, following her comment. The way her voice purred as she came near..eyes locked, her sensuous lips inches from his…it caused gooseflesh to ripple in a wave up his entire body. His own lips unconsciously parted. "I…uhm…" he stammered. It was such a sudden advancement that it caught him entirely off guard. His reaction to plummeting over the edge this time was definitely genuine.
The second fall was not nearly as long as the first; but this time, he found himself out of breath after the ascent. His heart was still thundering rapturously in his chest. He shook his head at Bryony and waggled a finger at her chastisingly, wordlessly voicing a "touché" at her response to his mischief.

It did not take long for Sebastian to settle down, and he listened to Bryony as intently as ever after his questions.
"DaeLuin," he repeated, his accent playing over its pronunciation. He furrowed his brow. "I know of it, but not from stories. I'd heard rumors of people coming through portals from a place with that name, among others. I was not one of them. I've seen it in dreams, though."

Sebastian tilted his head, mulling over what she confessed about intimacy to him. "I share that sentiment, but in a different way."
He rose to his feet, and began pacing about, throwing his arms out and backward, twisting, and lunging in several directions to warm his muscles up. He breathed in deeply, letting the air expand his chest, held it, then slowly released it. Squeezing every last bit of air out with his abdominal muscles, he contracted them further, envisioning touching his belly to his spine, then relaxed. He repeated this breathing exercise once more, but with tensed outward arm movement.
"I've never been too worried about my own emotional well-being. It's anyone I become involved with's safety that I've always been concerned about."

Sebastian sighed heavily, pausing in his exercises. With the way Bryony was looking at him, he realized that this statement probably needed some elaboration.

"Taking work sometimes has me dealing with some less-than-savory people. But…" he began, sitting across from her. "It is myself that is the reason for hesitation. There are parts to me that I have never understood, you see. I've seen more places than DaeLuin in dreams…and nightmares. Most I would not care to revisit."
He huffed as he lay back onto the soft grass. He let out a small laugh as he paused.
"You said before that spirits told you things about me. They've spoken to me for as long as I can remember, and beyond. I have these dreams that seem like other people's memories, and yet…I've always been sure they were real. Always been sure they were my own."

He plucked a blade of grass and rolled it between his thumb and forefinger thoughtfully. "Am I sounding crazy yet?"

It was fun to watch the human squirm. A chuckle left her lips as she watched teleport back up to her. The touche that left his lips made it even more entertaining. At least the man could play her game. “Aye, portals. Long ago, many people ended up there from here. We traveled the world of DaeLuin until finally the day came when the portals swallowed us whole once more and brought us home.” 

Listening in to him as he stopped his exercises she gave him a small smile. “You are not crazy at all.” She came forward to him and touched him lightly on his forehead. “I too fear for everyone around. The spirit ever whispering to me.” She drew herself in and lightly connected their lips but not in the intimate way. No, this was something else. It the powerhouse where mana could exit in a more powerful way.

”Do you hear it?” Her voice flooded his mind before countless others. They all were whispering the fates of many people. His, Angela’s, but they were more of what could be, not would be. 

There was that child’s voice again from Angela’s trial. Da? Then it vanished into the sea of other voices.

Another voice came. I miss you. Tell her I miss her.

Bryony ended up there as she withdrew. “His voice is a constant one. I never thought he would become one with the spirit line and talk to me constantly. I don’t want someone that I love and cherish to think they have to benefit me even in their death.” She remained close to him. “Thousand years go by and my head no long remembers what he looks like on its own.” There was sadness in her voice now. “Yet, his voice remains with me because he willed it to that hard.”

She collapsed to the ground to sit and held onto her glaive tightly. “I’ve wanted to die before because my heart felt wrecked. Time doesn’t heal everything and I would give anything to have gone back and change what happened. We could have raised Kalyani together and maybe had our own children.” She shook her head. “The Oracle blood is a curse and a blessing. To know you have the power to change the future but not your own is… terrifying.”

Just when Sebastian thought he was getting very mixed signals - that Bryony was now being serious with her intimacy, his eyes widened, pupils dilating, before they fluttered closed.
As their lips touched, he felt, saw, and heard everything that he could when he did not put his psyche on constant guard…and then some. It was a swirling abyss of voices, faces, and feelings. There were several that stood out. He could hear his parents, distantly. He mostly heard the voices that surrounded Bryony; though, he half-expected to be subjected to the people he knew only in dreams.

When Bryony pulled away, Sebastian's eyes remained closed for a time. He softly touched at his lips, the imprint of hers lingering like white hot fire. The emotions of what just transpired also still lingered, clouding his thoughts. Being empathic as he was, he felt the anguish and love of the last and strongest voice as the vision faded. He felt everything as if it were his own. He had to resist the urge to take the Oracle up in his arms himself and embrace her as a familiar lover. Taking a deep breath, his eyes slowly opened again. Still lying on the grass, the sky reflected deeply in his fiery autumn irises as tears began to well. He blinked several times and wiped them away with his sleeve.

Sebastian offered Bryony a comforting smile after she spoke. "You can't hide away for fear of hurt forever, though," he told her. "That's just life. As an Oracle, I should think you would understand this better than most. Life is full of the the dark and the light, the good times and the bad. I think we have a sort of need for the bad times, to know and appreciate the good that life has to offer."

He sat up, and took her hand in his. "Life is also a delicate balance of holding on and letting go. If I've learned anything from my direct experiences with those that have passed, it's that they wish their loved ones the best. They also want to move on, but sometimes they can't. Love is a wonderful and powerful thing…but it can also be a force that binds things down where they shouldn't be."

Bash got to his feet and paced about the flora-filled balcony. He looked up to the tree before them. For a moment, his eyes played tricks on him. He swore that he could see the gnarled, blackened branches of the trees in his nightmares, reaching towards a silently stormy sky. In that moment, he imagined that awful, dying sun again, and the dark tendrils that spanned through the clouds towards him, beckoning.
He chuckled to himself, and looked to the ground. "You would think I could take my own words to heart," he mused to her bitterly. "If I knew what it was I had to let go of, I would be rid of it in a heart beat. Not even knowing who, or what you are can be damning. Not knowing if feeling like you're a good person is real, or just a dream…no…a wish. A mask, rather, to conceal a monster that you are not even fully conscious of."

Looking over his shoulder at Bryony, Sebastian, despite his somber words, was still smiling. "What is one to do when their past will always dictate their future?"

Bryony’s ever moving ocean eyes stared at him for a moment as he touched his lips. It had been a long time since she had shown someone just what she went through on a daily basis. She could tell it effected him as well. 

Listening to his words she gave him a sad smile. He was right and that much was true. “I remember his voice all too well. The fact that he chose to stay as a spirit and guide me… Tells me all too much how he felt when he died. It’s hard when I hear him everyday and wake up… The spot next to me is empty and I remember what happened. Even after all these centuries it just hasn’t gone away. I expect his face to be next to me even if I can’t remember what he looks like.”

She watched him get up and she put her fingers through her long raven hair. “We both have said the same thing to someone. I have told Kalyani and now you are telling me. Either we don’t learn easily or we are much too stubborn and afraid.”

Getting up she made her way over to him and gave him a smile back. “What I see for you… is not your past. You have a future that only you can write if you will it. Change the outcome of whatever path you think you are on and grab hold of the new fate string. Everyone has multiple endings but it is how you decide it is going to be that determines it. I know that I can’t see my end but I can see the past… I can see your future and it looks nothing like your past. Like the multiple pasts.” She gave him a smile as she tried to understand everything she seen.

She came around him and put her hands on his cheeks. “You can be whatever person you want to be. Starting right now decide and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. If you want to do good than do good. You have self doubt and I think that is what you need to let go.”

She covered his eyes with her hand. “Even if it were a mask of what could be… A lover that breathes life into you can change that. It’s a very lonely road and I think you understand that as well as I do.”

Bryony's hands on his face made his pulse quicken again. Her talk of taking a lover felt more than a little suggestive, as her body moved closer to his. He bit at the inside of his lip until he could almost feel it bleed. The tension of the moment was palpable. One could almost reach out and touch it…

Palpable, but fleeting.

"Sometimes choices are already made," Sebastian said somewhat tersely, taking a step back from Bryony. "It is only left up to us to understand them." He shook his head. "Good is what I aim to do, but only so much can be accomplished on a sinking ship. I'll not take anymore down with me."

"…Sebastian?"

One of the clergy had come, bearing his jacket. He thanked them profusely for its return, then turned back to Bryony. His fingers traced the hole where the dagger had punctured thoughtfully. "Length of one's life can change perspective. As can the knowledge of what happens after death. Loneliness was never a void I was meant to fill."
Sebastian closed his eyes, letting out a deep sigh. He needed to ground himself. Everything was still so erratic in his mind and heart after that vision.
Cracking his neck to release tension, Sebastian dropped his coat on the ground, and kicked off his boots. He started to unlace the collar of his tunic. "I need…a moment. Can I meet you in the library? I remember where to go."


Though not entirely certain of what had just happened, he felt he needed to space himself a bit. It was entirely possible that he was reading into things too much, as he was often prone to do. It could have been an entirely innocent gesture with words of encouragement. Sebastian could not help but feel there was something behind them though. He wasn't daft, after all. His empathy extended to the living as well; he'd had a hunch about it since she first began walking with him. He had been stabbed, and wound up in everyone's lap here unintentionally. That was all. There was no intent on making such intimate connections…he had not ridden in here on some steed, sporting armor, looking to sweep a near immortal off her feet.

Perhaps when evening came, he would simply take his leave. Lingering to let the picture she had begun to paint of him in her mind be complete would only make things worse, in the end.