Anew

"And the world fell away as they danced. But each of them thought of another as they moved."

​

The sun was setting as she laid with half of her body slouched over the unread and unwritten letters. Not a very proper place to be resting her exhausted body, but she had not yet mustered the amount of energy nor the strength to lift herself off of the papers and the desk she and they both were on. Closing her eyes, she settled further into her creaking desk chair, mumbling the words of, "I will only rest for a short time," before the heavy blanket of sleep overtook her.


As her eye opened again, she found herself elsewhere than where she laid her head down moments ago.

Gone from her sight was the wood of her desk and beneath her body, in its place was… nothingness as she found herself standing upright in a crowded ballroom. The push and pull of the mingling guests shifted her about as she attempted to blink her confusion away and gather herself.

Raising a hand to her face, she rubbed absently at her cheek, feeling the familiar rise of her scars beneath her fingertips. Not even dreams, it seems, could remove her injuries. A sad little chuckle escaped her as settled her hand to her side, flexing her fingers gently as she turned her head in the direction of voices drawing nearer.

It was not her voice that drew her in, no. It was her eyes and her hair. Black as a raven's wing and silky to the eye and touch. A crow would most certainly be a better animal to describe her, though. A scavenger, but intelligent. She knew how to survive and she knew how to abuse the system she had been placed in at birth. And her eyes, they were eyes of a woman who knew secrets that could tear down even the proudest of men and women. The path on which she walked was a battlefield and she knew just how to play it. With pursed lips and a determined expression, she was a rare treasure with her dark eyes and hair as black. Like a crow amongst swans, she stood out amongst the sea of blonde locks and eyes of green and blue.

And the moment those eyes were set upon her, she knew within her heart of hearts she was lost. At least, when the original memory took place. But now, as the woman she would later call a lover, drew closer and closer, all she felt was sadness and there was an emptiness to her heart.

"So you are the one they call, the Bull. I can understand now why that is. But let us hope you are not as clumsy as your namesake."​

Her voice, which once caused her heart to soar, reached her ears and her own body moved on its own as her hand outstretched to offer itself to the approaching woman.

The raven-haired woman chuckled and took the offered hand as the duo stepped out onto the floor. The orchestra sliding into a waltz as the two began to dance, the steps coming easily to both of them.

"I believe this is one thing that I do miss, now that I am gone."

"You're real then?"

"Only as long as you hold onto my memory, dear Bull."

"Then you are as real as this dream is."​

A chuckle escaped her companion as they continued their steps in the dance. First breaking away from each other before rejoining before long and the other spoke again.

"You've changed. And yet you are still holding onto the pain of the past. The grudges, the memories. All of it, you're keeping it within yourself."
​

As her words settled within her, the other felt a cold pressure over her heart and looked down to her dance partner.
Something seemed suddenly off about the other, but she could not quite place it. And yet there was a cold chill settling around the two of them. She paid it no mind, not yet at least.

"It will make you rot from within and you will become a husk if your former self. Is that truly what you want? To become what I was when I lived?"

"What would you have me do then?"​

They paused in their dance and the curious feeling of something being off finally all made sense as she settled her singular eye on her companion.

The woman she had once loved and had sworn to protect had physically changed to what she last remembered her looking like: a shade of her former self. With pale and almost corpse-like skin, she stared up at her with glowing blue eyes and darkened eye whites.

"Forgive yourself for your past deeds. Let go of who you once were. Start anew."​

As those words reached her ears, she felt the sudden lack of pressure on her hands and watched as the woman she once loved slowly began to crumble and turn to ash. Her final words whispering through her ears,

"And above all else, forgiveness is the key."​

Her eye opened at the sound of birds chirping outside her window and blinked her singular eye slowly. She grinned as she sat upwards in her chair, rubbing at the back of her neck, but pausing at the gritty feeling upon her fingertips.

Squinting, she eyed her hands which were now covered in a thin line of what appeared to be dust and rubbed her hands off onto her shirt. A few muttered words escaped her as she rose and moved towards the window, unlocking it and opening it as she watched the sun crawl further and further into the sky.

The words of her twice dead lover hummed in her mind and well, she was not about to ignore good advice when it came to her. Especially in the form of that particular woman.

She would do as she instructed. She would let go. She would start anew.