Ilfin 3
Sighing,
Enris took her fraught hands into his and led her to a seat. “Sit.” She did,
reluctantly, and he then hunkered before her still holding her hands. “We went
to a place where the path is cosmic and the air is made of stardust. I know how
that sounds, but that is the best description I am able to offer you. It isn’t
a space of either the living or the dead; it simply is. That is where Iliri
chose to stay. Do you know who she is?”
“My
twin,” Iniri whispered.
“Indeed.
You were healthy when born, but she was weak. She actually ceased breathing and
everyone thought she had died, including our father. The decision was made to
never speak of it, for everyone knows a twin birth has its own set of rules and
no one desired to burden you with those.”
Releasing
her hands, Enris rose. Inhaling deeply, he stretched before taking the seat
beside hers.
“I was
seven at the time and snuck into the birthing chamber. Mother was asleep and
you were nestled in beside her and I sort of looked at you two for a while
wondering how my life was going to change. As I was about to leave, I saw
movement in the next chamber.” Enris swallowed and rubbed at his cheeks
convulsively. “I found Uncle Lorn bending over a crib. There was another baby
and he took her into his arms and breathed
on her. Then he saw me and told me to meet my little sister before she went to
the otherworld.”
“By
the stars,” Iniri said.
Elbows
on knees, Enris hung his head and spoke from that lowered position. “I don’t
know what Lorn did, but I was the only one who could see Iliri. She did not
die, but she was also not alive. I saw her; I spoke to her all through the days
of our childhood. Then she vanished and Lorn told me it was all in my
imagination. Time went by and I accepted that, until the invasion of Massin
began. We arrived during the third battle, the one Massinians mark as the final
battle of so-called ancient empires three thousand years ago, although there
were more battles than history here tells of. Inside Arc Iliri returned, and we
fought together. She was quite something in battle, I tell you. Everyone died
there, as you know, and that was the last time I saw her.”
Mirlin
leaned forward. “She was real?”
Enris
nodded. “And everyone saw her; I was not delusional. I think it was all right
for her to take on form far from Makaran and that is why she was real for Arc,
but elsewhere no one is able to see her.”
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