"A second chance" by Sabrina E G Withers

They faced each other through the rounded metal bars without a word. The wood of the door was filled with large iron bolts. Flames flickered, their light shining on the dry stone that the door was set into. Alagor stood tall, solidifying into his most common form that of a dark-skinned wise man whose skin was so dark that the white in his eyes set his onyx irises ablaze. Unconsciously, in turn, Zeraneth mirrored him in feminine form, her ebony hair flowing like water to her shoulders. There was the sense of something eternal about them both, and yet, Zeraneth’s face was now masked with sorrow.

“How could you believe the words? How could you let it happen and not once question?” Her voice was filled with such despair, as she asked herself why he had let it happen. Alagor’s chiselled face was still, like stone, as he listened to her, unyielding as the earth. “Why?” The power of her cry broke through to him in a way that her words could not. Eyeing her calmly he tried to explain how he felt.

“I need time to work through all that has happened. I can do nothing now.” His eyes conveyed what seemed like confusion at the state that he now was in.

“You will be fine, even if you do what I ask,” Zeraneth said fiercely, disturbed by his apparent lack of emotion. “Why can you not see. If only you had the Sight that this has cost us.” She reached up to the bars tentatively, her slender fingers upturned so that the tattoo on her palm was visible. “You are imprisoned in this place, please let me set you free.”

“My freedom does not matter. We do not matter!” He turned from her in protest not wishing to see the pain written on her face.

“If it does not matter then what does? Why do you not ask yourself if that is true,” Zeraneth asked, for once unable to understand the man before her. He turned his gaze back to her with a sigh.

”Our lives were never easy, Zeraneth. This pain,” he broke off not wanting to voice his thoughts so clearly. His broad shoulders sagged under some unknown weight.

“Our choices were always easy. It was always worth the pain we went though just to get the results. Why can you not believe that?” She asked as she drew herself up to her full height, her pride shining clearly in her eyes. “As long as the living exist, life will still give us each other.”

Alagor stepped back from the bars determined not to give way to her arguments.

”Why do you continue to torment me?” Alagor asked his words quietly pleading with her.

“We used to be limitless, timeless. Nothing was beyond our reach. What you were, I too was, not because I tried to be but because I had to be. We were one. True to our love and each other. We were even friends, something you seem not to retain. My image of our lives has changed.” She spread her arms wide allowing the light from the lanterns to flicker through the web like sleeves of her long flowing dress. “Why can we not recover our Sight, see as we did before. We are both imprisoned now. Let me undo what you have done, let me open the doorway to our power.”

“What matters power, why force me to face the pain for it? It has no worth!” Alagor roared but Zeraneth did not flinch away.

“Why can you not accept all that life has given to us?” Zeraneth whispered. Alagor moved closer to the bars, out of the darkness, until his face could be seen clearly. Zeraneth slowly took a step closer.

“It has given us nothing,” he spat and Zeraneth flinched. She stared deeply into his eyes trying to find one single speck of light. It broke her heart to find none.

“You have given up hope. It no longer shines in your eyes. This can not be. Please tell me it can not be. You were the one I trusted to stand firm. I put my faith in you when all was darkness.” Her words became bewildered as despair filled her.

“You have no reason to join with me.” His voice was softer as he tried to give her the chance to let him go.

“I have every reason. From the beginning until the end of time you will be my reason.”

“I,” he bellowed in a deep voice, forcing her to back away. “Do not matter!” A solitary tear fell down Zeraneth’s face as his words dealt her soul a mortal blow.

“How can you say you do not matter? When you matter to me. Have you not spent your hours contemplating that? Can you truly tear my heart away like this?”

“It is not easy for me to make this choice.” Alagor admitted. Zeraneth sunk listlessly to her knees, her head turned away from him.

“What is ever easy?” She said her tears flowing more freely now, like rivers forging down the mountain face.

“I would cause you more pain than ever before if all becomes as it once was!” He cried, his façade of rock crumbled into dust under her show of emotion. In desperation he reached out his hand between the bars. “I can not deem it worthy.”

She turned her gaze to him eyes afire with lighting.

“Who are you to make the choice for me? It is my pain. Why can you not accept that I can pay the price?” She demanded. His fingers stretched out to her for solace.

“It was my foolishness that brought us here. Why can not the pain be mine, and mine alone?” The desire in his voice to protect her was clear as the air between them. Zeraneth eyed his callused hand a long time before making any move. No matter what happened now, she knew in her heart that she could not deny him her presence. Reaching out, she took his hand in hers. With his steady strength he helped pull her to her feet and not letting go drew her up to the bars. Enfolding her other hand with his around the bars by his face, he stared lovingly into her eyes.

“As long as there is life in the universe,” Zeraneth whispered not tearing her gaze from his.

“Then we must take what it gives.” He pressed closer to the bars until they dug into his cheeks and slowly Zeraneth moved her face to his. The kiss was bittersweet for they both wished it could last forever but knew that it could not and from deep within her Zeraneth hoped, from the depths of her soul, that this meant that he would give her a second chance.