Prompt# 228- boilerplate - Firelight cont. - Tekia - Original

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: Firelight cont.
Fandom: Original
Prompt: boilerplate
Warnings: none
Rating: PG
Summary: Julia’s magic gets her stuck in an unsavory position.
Hours later, Julia emerged from the cave and was startled to find that the sun had set and that the people that had been gathered at the cave’s opening were long gone. She took a deep breath of chilly air and forced open the portal. She felt a tremble in the earth at the motion, but ignored it.
It only had to last a few hours more, she thought.
She arrived in Meri’s house and heard a commotion in another room. She quickly rushed through the house and found Meri and Claudia together.
“Where could they have possibly gone,” Claudia was saying, panic in her voice. Just then, Meri saw her and Julia paused to drink in the sight of the man she truly did love. Somehow, she had expected him to have changed as she had changed in the past three years, but then she reminded herself that it had only been a few hours for him.
Claudia turned to see what Meri was staring at and a smile bloomed across her face. She rushed to Julia’s side.
“Lady! Where is the child? You must have her with you!”
Julia tore her eyes away from Claudia and forced a smile. “Dymitr has her. Don’t worry. I need to speak with Meri alone, please.”
Claudia’s eyes widened and she quickly bustled out of the room.
Meri didn’t move, so Julia made her way closer to him. She let her fingers brush over the arm of a lounge couch and she sank slowly to the plush cushion.
He finally broke the silence. “Where is Dymitr and Meria?”
“In my world.”
His jaw worked. “You promised not to leave.”
She shook her head. “I had to protect my daughter from the war that you insisted on making.”
He knelt before her and gathered her hands in his. “I have to protect my people.”
She looked into his eyes and finally decided to tell him everything. She started with her own knowledge of history and then with the events of her time here. She told him of the many lives she had lived here. She told him of the Night Terrors’ fears for this world, and of the events that were sure to unfold with his warpath.
Meri actually listened to her and his eyes widened as her story progressed, his grip on her hands tightened when she confessed that her life may be forfeit if she repeated the spell to take her back in time that far. He blanched when she confessed that Meria might even be forfeit.
“I don’t want you to do it.” He shook his head and then bowed it, putting his brow on her knees and hugging his arms around her waist. “We’ll go to your world and live there. Don’t take my heart from me.”
She started crying, hot tears falling from her eyes and splashing on her hands. She bought her hands up to cover her mouth and stall her sobs.
“You’d sacrifice your life for your people, but not something that you won’t remember?”
He shook his head. “No, not you, not us.”
She tilted her head up and tried to stop the tears. “You’re so stupid. You won’t remember this, and-”
“-and she’ll never be born. Your daughter will never be born. Can you live with that.” His blue, blue eyes searched her face and she closed her eyes rather than look at him.
“If there was a way for us to live and still save these people, I would take it.” She shook her head. “But I can’t find it.” She framed his face with her hands. “If it were there, I would take it.”
He cupped his hands over hers. “Juliana. Juliana. I would sacrifice this world for you.” He stared at her, his eyes bright with his own tears and, finally, he realized that her mind was set. She was going to do what she had to, to save everybody. He dropped his head to her lap again and held her tight. “I want to see my daughter again, Juliana. I want to be with my family.”
She nodded and let her fire awaken and engulf them and transport them. They were in her own house and Meria was sitting up in Julia’s bed, her blue eyes blinking tiredly up at them.
Meri gaped a moment at the drastic change in his daughter, but scooped her up into his arms without a hesitation. Meria giggled and hugged him back, saying, “Dads! Dads!”
Julia marveled that the little girl remembered him so clearly, but didn’t move from her spot at the edge of the bed. She watched Meri embrace Meria with tears in her eyes. Early morning sunlight was peeking through the blinds and there was the sound of bird songs creeping through the window.
They spent the day together. Julia called in to work, and let Meria stay home from her class. Dymitr bowed to Meri, but made no excuses as to why he so willingly took Julia away from that world and into this one. Meri asked for none.
That night, they laid together, holding each other close. As Meri sealed their lips together, his hands roamed her body, retracing her lines and worshiping her flesh. He broke the kiss as their bodies moved in rhythm and whispered against her lips, “I don’t want to forget you. I don’t want to live a life without you in it.”
Julia held him close and wished for her next life to be just like this one, only better. No wars to be fought, no secrets to be kept. She wished for Meri in her life, again, for as many agains as there ever were. That would be her wish, to have her family become the boilerplate text of her hectic, forever chaotic and changing template of reincarnation.
For them to be forever there, with her.
When she was sure Meri was deeply asleep, she crept out of bed and sat in the kitchen with a warm cup of tea in her hands. Soon, Dymitr joined her and she stared at him, hard.
“I don’t understand you. You’re not really here to ‘protect’ me from anything, are you?”
He regarded her though a steady gaze and nodded once. “You are correct.”
“Have I affected your life, as well?”
“Not in the way you’re implying, no.”
“Who are you?”
“I am chosen of water. The water is my blood, and water is the source of all life.” He shrugged. “I see what the water wants me to see.”
“But you know about me, don’t you? You know about the lives I’ve lived here and there and how I’ve tried, time and again to stop the magic from overflowing.”
He nodded. “All the elements know of your struggled to protect that world.”
“If they know, then why don’t they do something?”
“Is giving you powerful fire nothing? Is giving you supporting air, nothing?”
“Meri?”
Another nod. “Fire can not breath without air.”
She looked down into her teacup and stared at the dark liquid, wishing that the answers that came to her were more easily understood. Her nail picked at the paint on the side of the cup as she let her thoughts wander.
“Magic users take after their mother’s magic,” she said, nearly to herself. “My mother doesn’t have magic. Nobody in my family has magic.” She frowned. “Why am I gifted with this powerful magic? That makes no sense.”
Dymitr was shaking his head. “We get the type of magic from our mothers, but magic itself comes from the blood. What do you know of your father’s family?”
Julia looked up at him, startled. “My father’s family?” She bit her lip in thought. “His mother died before I was born, and his father still lives somewhere in Upper State New York. In a Home, if I’m not mistaken. Mother never let us get close to his family.” Her brow creased in thought. “I wonder why. I’ve never asked her before.”
“Maybe it was because your father’s side of the family was different than hers.” His brows were arched in question and Julia had no answers for that. She took a long drink of her tea and carefully set the cup aside.
“Maybe. I just don’t know.”
They sat in silence for a while before Julia returned to the problem at hand. “Why did the water send you to me?”
“Fire can get out of control. Is water not the best way to stop a fire?”
“Out of control? What do you fear me doing?” Her voice took on an panicky edge and he reached out to cover her hand with his own, larger one.
“I fear your death, Lady. You are my friend and you are dear to me. I don’t want to see you die.”
She cleared her throat and looked down at their hands. “I fear that I may not have an option. I’ve been told that every time I do this, I end up dead, one way or another.”
“You’ve only done this spell twice, perhaps there is something different you can do?”
She shook her head, tears filling her eyes. “I can’t learn anything new. I’m the only one that knows this spell that’s alive today. Maybe someone from the past could teach me, but to get that far back, I have to perform this spell and risk dying, still. It’s a vicious circle.”
“Do you know how you died the last times? Maybe you can find out and learn from your mistakes.”
She glanced up at him before looking off to the side in thought. “Maybe he’ll know. I’ll have to go back and ask him.” She noticed a smile playing on his lips. “What?”
“You’ve conquered your magic so much so that you can just jump between worlds like walking through a door.”
She shared a laugh with him, then finished her tea. “I’m going to bed. In the morning, I’ll go and ask him. We have got to figure something out.”

The next morning, Julia found Meri and Meria playing with her dolls in the living room, on the floor. She paused a moment to watch her giant Roman warrior with his petit daughter, a smile on her lips. She shook her head at the differences the worlds brought out in him. That was also something she would never understand.
She leaned against the doorframe and said, “Trajan.”
Meri froze a moment, then turned his head to look at her. His face was blank a moment longer, then he smiled fondly at her before standing and coming to pull her into his arms.
She could feel his heart pounding steadily away in his chest where she rested her head on him. She covered that spot with her hand and he covered her hand with his.
“Firefly, whatever you decide to do with this spell, I’ll go with you. When you go into the past, I will be by your side and help you with what must be done.”
Julia chocked on a sob and threw her arms around him, clutching him tight. A moment later, she felt two thin, small arms wrap around her knee. She pulled away long enough to lift Meria into her arms and enfolded her in their embrace.
Dymitr interrupted them when he walked in, but he quickly turned around and went into the other room when he saw them. It made Julia laugh, at which point Meria said, “I’m hungry, mama.”
“All right. Lets get some food in you.”
Julia made a full breakfast and set Meria down to eat while Dymitr and Meri caught up. To Meri, no time had passed, but he had missed so much. He found it hard to take his eyes off Meria, constantly amazed by how much she had grown.
After breakfast, Meria decided she wanted her dad to see her room, so she took his hand and walked away with him. Julia shared a look with Dymitr, then opened her portal into the other world.
She arrived right outside the cave and the people there once again stared at her in awe, silent.
She gave a tiny wave and one of the young women stood and approached. She spoke to her in her own language, which left Julia shaking her head in confusion. She held up her hands, palms out to show she couldn’t understand, shrugging. Then he was there, speaking for her and making an opening for her to join him in the darkness of the back reaches of the cave.
They returned to the fire pit and sat around it while the fire burnt merrily. The fire was larger this time, having more fuel to eat at. She could now clearly see the wall behind him and smiled when she realized that he had drawn her with her family.
She opened conversation with him by asking, “How did I die?”
He blinked in befuddlement a moment before answering, “The first time? You had to prove to them that you would not return to this world. You had to convince the fire mages that no fire must enter this world, including you. Of course, in that world, in that time, magic was being hunted. You were killed by humans who feared the power magic gave us.”
Julia covered her face with her hands and shuddered. She couldn’t remember dying, but the knowledge that she did die in such a way was terror inducing. After a moment, she removed her hands and took a calming breath.
“That’s when your father saved my soul?”
He nodded. “He couldn’t let you go like that. You were too important to him. And to us.”
“How did I die the second time?”
“You went back to give them the warning against coming to the north. To keep them away from us. Once again, you had to prove that no fire can go onto our world and had to stay behind. Once again, you were hunted down by humans that feared magic.”
“It’s not the spell that kills me, but the time. I have to stay there, to give them reason to stay, and that is my doom.” She picked up a stick and poked at the fire. “I can go back and stay there and die.” She tossed the stick into the fire. “I have Meri this time. He might be able to protect me, but he too has magic and will be hunted just as I will be.”
“Will be? You plan on doing it again, do you?”
“What other choice do I have?”
Silence descended upon them in the darkness as they both thought about their positions. Julia made a frustrated noise and slapped her hand against her thigh. “If only there was another world I could just put the humans on.”
He looked up sharply from where he had begun grinding more powder. His eyes were wide and glistened in the firelight. “In all the times you and I have sat here before this fire, never have we thought of that.” He stood quickly, pulling her to her feet with him. “Come, we’ll cast a spell to find another world for the us to live on. The humans can have this world, as their magic is weaker than our own.”
“Our magic?”
He blanched and quickly turned away, reaching for tools. “I misspoke. My people’s magic.”
She walked around him. “You never misspeak. You speak in riddles and you speak in circles, but never misspeak. Now, our magic?”
“Julia, you are powerful. You have been blessed by the elements. Leave it at that.”
“Why should I? You keep secrets from me. Tell me what you meant. Our magic? Am I of your race as well?” Her eyes widened. “We’re related, aren’t we?”
He stopped gathering his tools and sighed heavily. He didn’t turn around to look at her when he nodded. “Yes, Julia. I told you, your father’s family is of magic. Your father’s family has magic for blood.”
Julia walked around so she could see his face, although the fire made a shadow of deep black across his face. “You’re-”
“Your uncle,” he finished. “My brother was your father.”
Julia’s eyes widened and she searched his features for something familiar. His hair was dark brown, tinted red in the firelight. His eyes were brown, and his nose was thick. Her father had brown hair and dark eyes. He was tall, broad of shoulder, but that was all she could find similar in the men.
“My grandfather,” she began and he nodded.
“Is your guardian. Is the protector of your soul, despite your mother’s attempts to the contrary.”
She shook her head and wondered once more why her mother kept them so far apart. “But, he’s alive in my world.”
“To better watch over you, I suppose.” He put his tools in a satchel and slung it over his shoulder. “You are important to him.”
She felt guilty now. She hadn’t known her father’s family at all, and as she aged, she had never made the attempt to get to know them. To see him.
She closed her eyes and wondered if in her next life she would be closer to him. When they lived again.
They left the cave and he spoke with his people a moment as Julia watched on. It hit her then, that she was a part of this tribe as well. He had said that she was a part of this world as much as they were, but she had assumed that was because of her involvement. It was also because of the people.
He led the way into a forest, and then into a clearing. Once in a clearing, he nodded and dropped his satchel on the ground. “This will work.”
“For what?”
“For you to cast your spell.”
She stepped up next to him and frowned at where he was shoving twigs and fallen leaves out of the way. “We haven’t made a plan yet. You can’t expect me to do the spell without a plan.”
He looked up at her as he knelt to open his satchel. “When do you ever really have a plan?”
She made a face, then dropped down to the ground. “Okay, tell me what we’re doing.”
“You are going to take all of my people from this world and put us on another one. It’s so simple, I don’t see why none of us didn’t think of it before.”
“Occam’s Razor?”
He gave her a confused look before continuing. “The only thing is, you have to find another world for us. And make a portal large enough to encompass the whole of our population.”
Julia blanched. “So, like, the whole of the northern hemisphere. You’re people have spread far and wide in the north! There’s no way I can do that!”
“I believe you can.”
“Won’t that much fire magic be detrimental to the world’s health?”
“For a while, but when we’re all gone, it will recover. There will be no fire magic here.” He paused to give her a look she couldn’t read. “Which will make it so that you and your family may return her at will. Without fear of our beadledom fear caused by too much magic in this world.”
Julia worried her bottom lip and carded a hand through her hair, thinking frantically. His idea was perfect. No more going into the past and risking her life, no more dying and this circle of death and reincarnation would finally end. But…
“How? How am I supposed to find a new world?”
“The same way our ancestors did.” He rolled out a took kit and several heavy stones tumbled to the ground. The stones were all black and shiny, worn smooth by a river bed and handling. He picked them up and handed them over to her. They were solid in her hands, heavy and there. She rolled them between her fingers as he spoke.
“Toss them to the ground, here, and I will read them.”
She dropped them and the four small, black stones clashed against each other before coming to rest between the two of them. He leaned over and intently read the stones. She couldn’t see anything in them, merely stones and the reflection of the early sun on them.
After a moment, he pointed. “Here, this is our new world.” She looked at one of the stones that had landed closer to her than him and frowned. “How do you know?”
His eyes flicked to hers a moment. “It is written in the stones,” he said, unhelpfully.
She rolled her eyes as he gathered the stones back into a pouch. “None of this makes any sense. What are we doing?”
“This portal will require both of our magicks put together. We will make a portal that will reach out into the ianthine sky between day and space. We will make the portal incalescent and powerful and all consuming. Between the two of us, our magic will reach all of my people and save us all.”
Julia took a deep breath and stood as he stood. “You know what you’re doing?”
“We learn as we go. Now, begin the spell, but go slowly.”
Julia nodded and he began to walk away from her. She carefully wove the spell, making her motions exaggerated and overblown. She lit her fingers and they bust into flame and steamed in the moist air. Water began to bead on her face and arms and robe and she felt foolish, creating a history of a whole race while wearing a robe and slippers.
He finally stopped a ways away from her and turned to face her, his hands making the same spell. She lipped the words once before she spoke the words out loud, piercing the air around them and weaving the spell with both words and motions.
They fell into step with each other and soon were at the same word, the same motion and the spell around them began to form. There was no fire this time and that began to worry Julia until she looked up into the sky and noticed the ring of fire high up, so far away that she could only see the thin line of it, glowing like an aurora.
The spell was working! She smiled and finished the spell and felt the magic draining from her in a way she had never felt before. The magic tugged at her and forced her to her knees and, once there, she felt the shaking of the ground. Around them, the trees erupted into flames and the grass curled in the throes of death.
There was heat unlike any she had known before, but she didn’t fear it, as fire was her element. She didn’t breath in the smoke, but gasped the flames themselves and breathed fire. Julia was afraid, but then he was there, hovering over her and touching her back with his calming touch.
“This fire is only the portal, but that fire there is the agony of the world. We are far enough away from the humans that they will never know of the tohubohu of our actions.”
Julia shook her head. “How will we know if everybody makes it through?”
“Summon your mate. His air can tell us. He can read the air and direct us to those that are waiting.”
Julia swallowed hard, wondering if she could produce another portal after that massive one. She nodded once and wove a second spell, taking her time with this one as well, as most of her energy was focused on upholding the large portal.
When the second portal finally opened, it was smaller than usual, but she could see Meri through it, holding their daughter in his lap and watching her brush the hair of a doll. When the portal appeared in the other world, his eyes widened and he carefully stood with Meria in his arms. His lips moved in a shout that Julia couldn’t hear over the roar of fire and soon Dymitr appeared in the doorway, rushed and panic in his eyes.
Julia beckoned them forth with a wave of her hand and Meria instantly started to struggle in her father’s arms, wanting her mother. Dymitr stepped forward and went willingly into the fire, never thinking twice. He ducked through the portal and came to stand beside Juila, his dark eyes on her face. She smiled up at him and they both ignored the fire surrounding them. Meri hugged Meria close a moment longer, and then followed.
Meria giggled and reached for the flames and the man beside Julia watched her with awe. It was then she realized that he hadn’t seen Meria in just as long as Meri hadn’t.
She reached for her daughter and gave her over to him. He held her tenderly as Julia stepped closer to Meri to be heard over the fire. “Can you feel the Night Terrors?”
He shook his head and her very own Night Terror came closer. “My people appear red to the air. Humans appear blue. Send your air out to find the stragglers and we will send the fire after them.”
Meri looked like he wanted to disagree with the man, to refuse him, but Julia touched a hand to his arm and Meria was smiling in the man’s arms. Meri had never met a Night Terror before and this man wasn’t what he expected. After a moment, Meri nodded once and closed his eyes. He threw his arms wide and the flames around them died down as the wind picked up, then flared higher, hotter than ever. Meria touched the flames and they danced on her fingers and the earth under their feet trembled.
Julia clutched to Meri’s arm to stay upright and Dymitr had suddenly been soaked with water, his hair heavy in his eyes. His fingers dripped water as he waved his hands and rain began to pour on the forest around them, steaming and making the air thick with fog.
Her uncle gave Meria back to Julia and came to stand at Meri’s side. Meri’s eyes were closed and he gave a small start when he touched his hand to Meri’s. Blue eyes slowly slid open to stare distrustfully at the man as he closed his eyes and his magic followed the air of Meri’s.
The two of them searched the world for his people and directed the portal to them, to take them up and spirit them away. The full weight of the portal was resting on Juila’s magic and she let the smaller portal collapse and fell to her knees once again, focusing all she could on upholding that one. Meria touched her cool palms to her mother’s face and began babbling in baby talk, speaking so fast that Julia didn’t have the time or focus to understand her.
What she did understand, was that Meria was giving her magic. Her eyes opened and she looked at her daughter with a fond smile. So, this had forced the magic out of her.
Meria’s eyes were as blue as her father’s and they were solemn as they gazed into Julia’s. Julia’s heart broke for her and she hoped that when this was all over, Meria wouldn’t remember a thing of it. Wouldn’t be harmed by this memory.
Their magic flared and held the portal and Meri found all Night Terrors in the world and their own Night Terror swallowed them up through the portal.
Finally, he gave the word, and it was over. Meri dropped to the ground beside them, panting with the effort and through the clogged air. Julia reached for him as the portal around them fell from the sky and burnt away.
Rain fell heavily now, dowsing the fire, but it still wasn’t enough. Julia and the Neanderthal both reached for the fire and pulled it away from its feast. They were both weakened and it took much effort, but Meria played with the fire as if it were her best friend, pulling the fire to herself and extinguishing the flames.
Dymitr focused on making the clouds form and pour out their rain and soon had them all soaked.
Julia sighed and leaned against Meri’s strong shoulder.
“This world is safe, Meri. Your people will no longer be hunted by your Night Terrors. Your daughter will be safe in this world.”
Meri was weak from the magic and could only nod as he drooped next to her. Dymitr finally let go of his control of the rain and let nature take over. He turned to the Night Terror as the man also slouched on the ground beside them.
Said man was sitting with his eyes closed and breathing steadily, trying to calm his magic as the earth around them suffered terribly. The ground still trembled and fire still raged further away from them.
“The world will be safe, but it will take time for it to recover from our magic, Julia.”
She nodded and broke away from her family to crawl closer to the man she had come to rely so heavily upon. She gathered his face in her hands and waited until his eyes had opened. “I have never learned your name, Uncle.”
His lips quirked a moment before his closed his eyes tiredly. “Julius, my mother named me Julius.”
Julia’s eyes widened and her mouth worked a moment in silence before he shook his head. “Your father gave you my name, little Julia. Your father knew, but he didn’t understand what he knew.”
Strangely, Julia understood and nodded. Yes, her father knew, but he couldn’t know what he knew. Just as she had known all along that this man was somehow a part of her life. Forever.
She took a deep breath and breathed fire, she opened a portal and they could see the new world through the portal. The both of them looked into this new world and marveled at the beauty.
“My people are nomadic and have no real home, Julia. We don’t mind moving on where the hunt takes us. It is how we have always lived. Feel no sorrow for our deportation.”
She nodded and together, they stood, arms clasped. He looked down at her and brushed her hair out of her face. “Little Julia, as you brought us hope, you have now saved us from ourselves. Your humans will never know, but my people always will. You stopped the repetition of our lives and freed us from repeating our mistakes one more time. Forever, we are grateful.”
Tears were now spilling down Julia’s cheeks and she wiped them away. “We’ll see each other again, uncle. Our worlds are only a portal away.”
He smiled, pressed a kiss to her brow, then turned to the portal, to his new home.