The Rose & Crown

Chapter Twenty-One

A warm summer breeze welcomed him as he stepped onto the sandy beach and shut the door behind him. The rich aroma in the air filled his senses with the natural combination of sea salt and sweet nectar from the forest of blooming flowers just beyond the untouched soil. The sound of waves crashing upon the shoreline brought about a familiar sense of peace and serenity into his heavy hearts. Shielding his eyes from the light of the sun, he scanned the horizon until he came upon the presence of a familiar lifeform standing patiently at the shore's wake. As she stood with her back turned to him, her long black cloak flowed with the wind as if dancing to the rhythm of a melody only it could hear. Taking a deep breath, he urged himself forward and approached the visitor from behind. His boots left a trail of impressions in the sand from his beloved sanctuary towards his uncertainty. Finally reaching her, he took his place at her side and tucked his hands into his pockets as they looked towards the brilliant sight ahead. The sun's reflection upon the water's surface glistened in a million different places as if the ocean itself were attempting to imitate its impressive light.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" he declared as if in mid-conversation, taking the moment of temporary calm to breathe the fresh air around them as if it would be his last. "I used to come here whenever I had convinced myself the vast well of internal hope had finally dried up. Back when nothing seemed to make sense anymore." He paused as the memories of his past filtered into his thoughts. She remained quiet at his words, lost inside of her inner turmoil as if searching for answers within the seemingly endless horizon. "I used to think this place had a way of making you feel a hundred years younger. Sort of like regenerating without all the fuss. You could leave here feeling entirely brand new. Cleansed of a lifetime's worth of hatred and pain from your reflection. Not this face though, never this face. It's the eyebrows, they're much too cross." In her continued silence, he absent-mindedly dug the tip of his boot into the damp sand and watched as the air bubbles trapped beneath rose to the surface.

"How did you find me?" she finally spoke from behind her shaded mask, unwilling to abandon her outward gaze to glance in his direction.

"Oh, I'm really clever," he replied casually, keeping their conversation to a certain level of gentlemanly discretion.

"Whatever you have planned, it won't work," she insisted through the disguise in her voice.

"If you really believe that, then why did you come?"

She hesitated for a moment as if carefully considering her answer. "Curiosity, perhaps."

"Ah, yes. Of course." He glanced towards her, catching a glimpse of his reflection on the side of her face as he attempted to study what little she had to offer beyond her hidden expression. "Why the mask? Are you so ashamed of what you really are?"

She smirked at his question, reminding herself of his ability to shield his underlying intentions beneath his words. "We all wear masks, Doctor. Even you." She looked to him, finally acknowledging his presence beside her for the first time. "The Raven is not a face. It is but a concept defined and moulded over time. Faces change, as you know. But ideas are everlasting. Rid a world of one evil and another will soon rise in its place. It is an inevitability."

"Oh? And which are you? Evil or inevitable? There's a difference," he retorted, trying to break through her defences to reach her the only way he knew how. "You know what else is inevitable? Life. Like evil, life will always find a way to exist. You can't have one without the other, it doesn't work. It all comes down to how we as passengers in this universe are able to balance the two, no matter the path we have found ourselves on."

Quynn laughed quietly to herself, keeping her mother's words of wisdom fresh within her mind. "We make our own paths, Doctor. When it comes to the natural order of good versus evil, I was always taught one is better equipped at prevailing over the other."