Sitting here with you has been magical, really, but… Well, I’m getting a bit bored. How about we go wreck some stuff?

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 1st Generation
Characters: Naomi Artysair
Race: Halfling – Elf (moon) / Human
Age: 88, physically about 26
Current residence: Atheria City, Eresiel
Final Word Count: 792 words
 

---

I didn’t exactly have many friends while I was growing up. I suppose that it can’t be that much of a surprise, I was the lone heir to a throne that seemed to be part of a failing world, so to speak. A daughter, to add insult to injury, born of a pure-blooded moon elf and a human. I know that the union between my parents wasn’t something that was accepted by most, but they were strong, and they were doing the best they could for the kingdom.

It still fell to pieces, by no fault of theirs, and certainly by no fault of mine, either. I ran away after I’d been told that I was to marry someone who, back then, had been almost twice my age. I couldn’t do it. Fate, of course, had other ideas in mind but that is for another time altogether.

There aren’t many things that I’ve been able to salvage from the old kingdom but there still are a few precious items that I now have in my possession or that I’ve handed down to my children. It felt fitting, even though they knew nothing about the place that I had called home as a child.

I’ve been having strange dreams lately. They’re hardly distressing, but they are on the edge of the stranger side of things as I don’t recall the faces being shown to me in these dreams. I know of the study that supposedly claims that all faces we see in our dreams are faces of people we’ve seen at least once in our lives, but I’ve seen so many before I came here that somehow, I doubt I would be able to remember them all.

Yet, the people in these dreams, they aren’t unlike me. They have the features of my father, the elegant traits that I’ve always associated with that of elves of all sorts, and that is where the line grows hazy. While I saw plenty as I grew up, I still was limited on the number of people I did ever get to see, I mean, I was barely allowed to spend time outside of the castle, I had plenty of room in the courtyard but I still knew, at least by looks, most of the servants and, well, most of them were humans. My father had always been peculiar about this, and I always wonder why he made an exception for my mother. I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t, but that’s one of those things I never understood. I could ramble on for hours about this old life of mine, from all of the little things that I know were wrong in the slave-versus-servant behaviour and the rest, but I don’t know that anyone would truly care to listen.

In the recent dreams, the person that comes to me has a face that rings no bells at all. Her features are as delicate as I’ve always known them to be for people on my father’s side of the line, her looks are youthful but there is something about the way she acts that make me believe she’s older than she seems which, again, something that holds no surprise for me, not really.

In the latest dream of the series, we are settled at a table, talking about… something that I don’t know about. As I come into the dream—the first proper memory of it—we are settled at the table, and she tells me that sitting there with me is always magical. Something that pleases me, of course, I do like making sure my guests are well taken care of.

She keeps on, however, telling me that she’s getting a bit bored. That makes everything else crumble. How can I be a good host if she’s bored? I don’t exactly have much time to spend on that, as her eyes go mischievous, and she asks me whether or not we should go and wreck stuff. I sort of startle awake at that point. I know that it’s not much of a dream, more of a snippet really, but it has become a repetitive portion of my nights and it leaves a strange taste in my mouth.

I’m well aware that I’ve never had any kind of discussion with the likes of her, especially not in the room that we seem to be in. I just don’t know what to make of what my mind is doing, right now. These strange snippets of dreams, they make no sense. I understand that they don’t have to make sense, but I’d still like for my mind to do what it does best and stay on a good path, at this point. Is that too much to ask for?

I don’t know if this was a misunderstanding or not, but it’s hard to look over it.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 1st Generation
Characters: Naomi Artysair
Race: Halfling – Elf (moon) / Human
Age: 87, physically about 26
Final Word Count: 734 words
 

---

The last memory I have of my mother is not a happy one. I wish things would have turned out differently but they didn’t. There’s certainly no turning back time now and, even before the world ended, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have been able to take back the hurtful words we said to one another before I packed up what little I could of my things and ran off, never to come back.

She’d been the one to give me the news about me betrothal and, I do remember, on that particular day, I already hadn’t been feeling well. There had been a bug going around and quite a few people had already fallen ill to it and, silly little me, I’d been pretty sure to be safe from that but no. Not even close.

I was feeling pretty crappy when she came into my room and my mother, she was this sweet woman, I could never be mad at her, not for long periods of time, was just the messenger. She looked downright unhappy as she knocked on my door and I thought that this was about the one thing we’d half-argued about just a few hours earlier. I’d been ready to apologize to her right there and then but the look on her face made my pause.

I’d even practised it all in my head, how I hadn’t been sure whether or not the whole thing had been a misunderstanding or not, but it had been hard to ignore and overlook it all and I’d felt as though she’d used me for some verbal target practice but the more I’d thought about it, the more I’d realized that I’d been in the wrong but yeah, I just… I swallowed all that down at the look on her face when she came into my room.

The first words out of her mouth were a stern, ‘I think you should sit down.’ Starting conversations like that had never been a good sign for me so it only made me angrier and between that and my unsettled stomach, I wasn’t in a good place.

I remained standing as she told me all that had been recently decided, that I’d be married off, that he was, Moon forbid, seventeen years older than I was, that it was for the good of the kingdom. She was laying it on thick because I realize now that she was just trying to get all of it across to me in one shot so I would have all of the ugly facts at once and not just keep on discovering more tidbits that had been kept from me.

Of course, I blew up.

I was tired, I was in pain, I had been moments from asking forgiveness from her for our earlier arguments but all of it just came to a screeching halt as I started yelling at her. I told her how much I hated her and my father, I told her about how much I hated this whole life and how I hated that the kingdom came first and all in all, it was ugly. I’m not going to lie. Thinking back now, it just wasn’t right that I reacted this way but things were mostly out of my control at that point, I’d needed and out and my mother was the recipient, no matter how much I regret it now, there’s no turning back time.

She remained pretty stoic through my whole tirade. By the time I was done, I remember just giving me this tired look and I felt the hot anger just drain right out of me. I did apologize, it was a meek and tired thing and I think it was so soft she potentially didn’t even hear me. After a few moments of silent staring, she turned and walked out of my room, her head held high.

I packed up some meagre belongings and I left. I couldn’t do it.

All I have now, all of those things I have of my family and my home, they’re things I went to get after all was said and done; after I was married, before I had kids and a little after I had kids. The kingdom had fallen—not simply through my leaving—but it had fallen. All I have are these memories and the old items that I’ve managed to salvage.

You’re not nearly as alone as you make yourself out to be.

 
Timeline/World: Atheria – 1st Generation
Characters: Naomi Artysair
Race: Halfling – Elf (moon) / Human
Age: 86, physically about 26
Final Word Count: 584 words
 

---

I still remember my parents telling me that I was being set up to be married into another royal family. I think that was one of the worst things I could have had to deal with. I was young, I had big dreams, I had hopes and while I hadn’t yet ‘picked’ someone I fancied, I didn’t want to be married to some boorish (he’s not, trust me) idiot (also not) I didn’t know.

What if he was ugly, gross, old, immature, a danger to my sanity? Of course, he’s none of those things and that’s a funny enough thing but I’ll get to that.

I ran off, what else could I do?

I still remember my mother’s words; they were running through my head as I struggled to survive being out in a world I’d never seen before in my life. I remember how she told me that I wasn’t as alone as I was making myself out to be. I wasn’t the only one ‘nudged’ into an arranged marriage. Everyone in the royal kingdoms married for ties, not for love. That hadn’t been helpful at all; I knew how miserable my mother was with my father. She hid it well in public but behind closed doors was something else entirely.

I’m not even sure how I survived as long as I did only to end up meeting up with the man I did eventually bind my soul to. It took us years and several kids (six, to be exact) before we both realized that we’d more or less done exactly what had been expected of us, but not quite how it had been. It was while we were going through an old chest of my items that we found out the startling truth of things.

He was the man I’d been set up to marry.

I suppose that life can take many turns, I’m not going to deny that. I’m still pretty sure that the marriage would have failed and done so miserably if it had happened the way it had first been set out. I was a willful teen back then and I probably would have done anything and everything in my power to ruin everything, I can’t help it. I needed my freedom and I was absolutely dead set on believing that this would rip it right out of my hands.

There might also be the points that my parents never should have told me that he was seventeen years older than me. In my mind, at the time, it was as though they were forcing me to marry some old man who only had the barest of times left on this planet before he was gone—I might have had a flair for the dramatic back then, maybe just a little.

That age gap didn’t bother me when I first met him without knowing that he had been meant as my betrothed. He looked no older than I felt and while it didn’t click upon that first meeting, there was a connection there, it was hard to deny. Age doesn’t matter when you’re falling in love with someone. Age will matter if you’re being forced into that marriage, however.

Now that we also get to live forever, who cares what age you are? As they say, you’re as young as your heart is and my heart is in his hands from now until the very end of things. My heart, my soul, my everything. I wouldn’t change a thing.

What, am I not good enough?

Timeline/World: Atheria 1st Generation
Characters: Naomi Artysair
Race: Halfling – Elf (moon) / Human
Age: 84, physically about 26
Final Word Count: 566 words

---

During the big break, I asked myself that question so very often. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the reasons that had torn us apart. It didn’t make sense. We were so close, we were just right, so why had he left, why the army, when at that point and not before? I couldn’t understand, so I did the only thing I thought would make sense—thinking about it now, that one decision made no sense whatsoever but it was the only way to be close to him—I joined the army as well.

It was hellish and not even because I was a woman. I’m not the only one who joined then, there was a surprisingly large influx of women at that point and I never asked to know why; it didn’t really matter. It made my life just a little bit easier since I had so many others, like me, who were just trying to get through.

No, what worked against me was my height, my slim built. I was made wiry in some way but I didn’t really have the muscle tone I could have had. Of course, that changed with all of the training, the running through the mud, the being yelled at that I wasn’t good enough—you name it. It likely happened but it helped shape me into what I am now, in some way.

I’m still small and slim, that hasn’t changed, by that point I’d long since been done growing up but I did get a little wiry, there are muscles in this body that have been worked on to a fine point that I’d never thought would even get their use. I wasn’t a spoiled-princess type before, I really wasn’t but I wasn’t as physically able as I am now and for that I’m grateful, it’s the only thing I’m grateful for.

That and the fact that in the long run, due to things that I wish hadn’t happened but did, I managed to get back to him, to see him, talk to him, dig up what I could of old memories so that we could come back home together.

Would I do the whole foolish thing again if I had to? I would. It was hard on the body and on the mind; it was hard on my soul. So often I just wanted to quit and stop and only my need to be with him, my love for him, kept me going. He was worth all of that hell and he still is absolutely worth that hell. Nothing will change as far as that is concerned. So yes, if I had to go through all of it again to get him to my side once more I would.

Now though, with the world as it is and how little not-quite city as peaceful as it gets, I just cherish every day, I tell him I love him, I tell him how much he means to me. I’ve learned to not take anything for granted though I don’t know that I really did take anything for granted before. Not anything that had to do with him. We were together, we were strong and perfect—in my eyes if in no one else’s—and the breakaway should never have happened but it did and I think it just strengthened our bond, in the end.

Craze

Timeline/World: Atheria 1st Generation
Characters: Naomi Artysair
Race: Halfing – Elf (moon) / Human
Age: 84, physically 26
Final Word Count: 538 words

---

I try not to think back on what happened almost fifty years ago, but now and again, the memories just sort of come about on their own and refuse to leave. Some memories are crisp and clear as day, others are so confused and blurry that they make me want to rip my hair out by the roots. It’s the blurry memories I wish I could recall better. I feel as though it would help me shed more light onto whatever it is that did happen to tear our whole world apart.

The vast majority of us went out own way. Why? I know the logical and used explanation is that Bao Lan’s brother manipulated all of us but I just long to know more about this particular departure craze. All of us, even those with the stronger minds, they were all swept up into this thing that destroyed so much.

Hearts were broken, lives were lost. Some who had been with us then were gone from us forever and no amount of trying to find them before the world ended would have brought them back.

I landed my sorry ass in the army. The army, really? I hate that thing. I know I did it with hopes of sticking close to him, despite that my mind was telling me I was supposed to go off on my own. I couldn’t. Dealing with the uniforms and the rest of it all was a better option than being completely apart from him.

I suppose, in a way, I was one of the lucky ones. Able to somewhat bypass whatever was being done to us so I could stay as close as I could manage. It wasn’t very close, considering I barely ever saw more than just a glimpse of him in those years from hell, until others had started to come back. Just then, it was as if the spell was broken, the desperate need for apart was gone but it had done its damage.

So many walking on eggshells around others, around those they had loved for what felt like an eternity. Sure, over the years, things settled again and we had quite the baby boom but a small, tiny little part of me remained terrified it would happen again. That strings would once more be pulled and we would all drift away back into nothing.

That fear settled mostly when we were forwarded those hundred years, as the world died. What were the chances that this beast, this evil man who had torn our lives apart would have survived and lived long enough to come back to haunt us? I admit, I do not speak much to Bao Lan. It is not out of resentment, but simply because our paths do not cross. I do not know of her being, of her make.

I have no way of knowing if she, like a good few of us, would have survived a longer lifespan without the shields as they surround us, so perhaps there is a meagre chance of her brother coming back but we are stronger now, we will fight if it does, this I am certain of.
If he still lives, he will not have us.