Imogen
Kryamn Forest
The Fae traveled in silence by Cazimir's side as they headed toward Fairhavest. Occasionally he shifted on the horse's back as the steed walked through the rough terrain, making it difficult to balance. Imogen was right there each time he shifted, ready to steady him again without saying a word. Words; something the two of them would no longer need now that they were mentally linked. Imogen glanced at the man's worried face, there were feelings of conflict written all over it. The girl's brow furrowed, she didn't like seeing Cazimir like that and her curiousity as to what was wrong was beginning to itch. She sighed slightly and peeled her gaze off of him until it came, his voice in her head calling her name. How it echoed through her mind brought an immediate smile to her face until... "I.... killed my mother."
Blank. And then self-hatred and pain. So much pain.
The feelings now suffocating Imogen were not her own, they belonged to Cazimir. How... she wondered silently to herself, confused as to how Cazimir was projecting his feelings onto her and his thoughts without her tapping into him. It didn't matter, what came next made the Fae's heart stop beating. "Every person I've ever cared for, every person I've ever treasured... I killed them all." Imogen stopped moving, though she didn't do it purposefully. The dread that she felt was physically holding her back or at least that's what it felt like. Years and years of tragedy, years and years of unknowing, the yearning for revenge, the longing to want to put an end to it all, nightmare upon nightmare... until finally, "they were memories. It was real. I was the one who killed them all along." Imogen's feet found their way to the ground, pressing against the cold Earth as she stood still, almost lifeless, looking aimlessly ahead in a daze like trance.
Hopelessness. Helplessness. Despair. Defeat.
Imogen was being drowned in the array of dreadful feelings. Her heart was sickened with the heavy punishment that Cazimir had felt his entire life; a curse. A curse to kill anyone that you ever care about. To be alone, so.. so... alone. Imogen's eyes widened only slightly, her memory being jolted in every direction and it was hard to discern which were hers and which were his. The two of them were connected on a level beyond a simple mind link that allowed Cazimir to summon Imogen's name; they were talking to each other, they were sharing feelings, they were sharing memories... but how? How? To be alone, so... so... alone. A vision of a baby that could only be no more than a few months old was nestled in a basket tucked away in a bush, crying. Alone, so.. so... alone. Around the neck of the baby was a white opal necklace and the girl was wrapped tightly in a blanket. Inside the basket was a note... Imogen.
Tears started to trickle down the Fae's face at Cazimir's familiar feeling of loneliness. She was alone like he was, but he had chosen to numb himself, he had chosen to devoid himself of all feeling in an attempt to escape his cruel fate. He thought himself a monster... but that is not what she saw. Cazimir... she thought, the tears rolling off her cheeks. Imogen had felt it all, every last feeling of sorrow that he hid so very well. There was so much good in him that he no longer could see, that he no longer could feel... but she could. She could see the tender, kind, and loving man. She felt it in the way he kissed her, how he longed to feel again; how he longed to not be afraid anymore. Everything made sense now, it all connected. Exhaustion. He was exhausted with how he has been forced to live his life. No more... she thought, knowing she had to change it.
"Imo... you are... too easy to fall in love with." His words lingered in her mind like the red coloured leaves do at the end of Fall. In.. love? It was in that moment that her memory snapped back to the premonition she had earlier of the two of them in the future. Lovers... we were lovers. The memory flashed before her eyes as if she was living it; the feelings of happiness, bliss, love... We kissed. The image of the two of them embraced in a kiss, pulling their faces apart and their lips mouthing the words to each other. I love you. I love you too. Imogen could feel and see the memory clear as day and then she realized; the two of them were connected so deeply that Cazimir must've seen it. You must've felt it.
The Fae forced her wings to move and she ascended from the ground taking off toward Cazimir again. As she approached his horse she slowed, allowing herself to mount the horse behind him. Her arms snaked their way around his torso and she squeezed him against her, her face burrowing into his back as tears fell from her eyes. We bleed the same... there's no changing it now. I felt what it is to be who you are Cazimir and you're wrong. I'll teach you to feel again... to not numb it all. You don't have to feel scared and alone anymore... If I die so that you can feel, then that's OK, but you must've felt it. You must've... there's nothing to worry about it. It will be OK, I promise... just don't go.