The light was nearly blinding, but Alena could still see the faint outline of Rhode as the rod around their wrists tightened.
It felt almost like being hurled into a typhoon, wind screaming past her ears and water ripping at her skin.
Heat unlike any other seared her wrist, making her gasp and look up at Damari with single minded fear, she had never experienced anything like it before.
She saw the same wild and unconstrained fear reflected in his eyes and it caused hers to grow, her sense of hopelessness becoming greater by the second.
Rhode released their wrists and her body shook in the green hew of the lamps in the room as she raised her hands above her head and whispered. "Zâragon ōl freithen!"
Color exploded everywhere, vibrant fireworks of fuchsia, burgundy and ochre surrounding the room, their sparks spiraling in a whirl wind of water and fire.
Chancing another look to Damari, Alena felt drawn to him, unwillingly wanting to be closer to him; as close as she could possibly be.
When her eyes met his again her body jerked and her vision narrowed to that of a tunnel, before zooming ahead of her at the speed of light.
Laughter filtered into her ears as two girls skipped into sight, the skirts of their dresses brushing across the tops of the grass.
Both children were frail in figure, but one possessed black hair while the others was so blonde it was almost white.
They frolicked in the field with flowers in their fists as they ran past a house with a horse tied to its waiting post.
The sun shone down on their pale skin, unrelenting in its intensity as the girls giggled and ran back to their house.
"Father! Look at the flowers we picked for Mother! Do you think she'll like them?"
An older man stood next to the golden skinned side of the palomino as his daughters ran to him, his brown hair graying and slight wrinkles showing in the corner of his eyes when he smiled.
"I'm sure she will love them, my darlings," he said with a gentle spoken smile. "What a perfect gift from the perfect daughters."
While the two turned to smile at the praise, their father came around from the side of the horse and with a playful growl picked them both off the ground, tossing them over his shoulders as he made his way back to the house.
"Now, I wonder where my two little girls went," He questioned suspiciously, purposely swinging them back and forth as he went. "I could have sworn I saw them just now."
"Father, we're behind you!" The blonde haired girl squealed, laughing and hitting her small fists against the wall of her father's back. "Can't you hear us!?"
"Those girls." He chuckled. "Well I suppose that means no supper for them tonight."
"Father!" They both shouted in protest. "We're right here! We want supper!"
He sat them both down at the door with wide eyes, appearing stunned. "There you are! I thought I'd lost you."
They all stood in silence before their father burst into laughter and ruffled their hair. "Don't worry, my girls, I knew you were there. Now hop on inside for your mother and show her your gifts."
His grin set them alight with excitement as they rushed inside, eager to give their mother the flowers that were plentiful in abundance outside.
Their father shook his head with a grin, patting the palomino once before heading back inside.
"I'll never be able to tell where my Klari and Alena get their rambunctiousness, it certainly wasn't from me."
His work roughened chuckle reached Alena, echoing in her ears with a finality that made her choke.
That's...me? And my..family?
Before she could return back to the memory, she was whipped into another, this time the feeling more like that of time rewinding instead of a deadly typhoon, except she was outside a house on the mountainside.
Rain poured down from the skies and pummeled itself against the thick shingles of the home, the faint flicker of lights reflecting through the windows.
Almost as if she were looking through a lens, the picture zoomed into the house and became clearer, where a family sat next to a fireplace and ate their dinner in their laps.
It seemed to be some type of rice with meat that Alena was unfamiliar with, but as soon as her eyes fell onto the hunched over frame of a younger looking Damari, who ate with a vengeance of someone who hasn't eaten in days, she knew it didn't matter what it was or how it tasted.
They were grateful to be eating.
A younger Rayen sat cross legged next to Kaiya, her expression relaxed as she watched her daughter eat with gusto.
Damari paid no attention to his sister as he ate, the rice barely making it from the spoon to his mouth as he stared up at his father with complete trust and adoration.
"Tell us again how the pirates nearly got away with the ship, Father!" he whispered in awe, his eyes glittering as he listened to his hero speak of his adventures.
Leon chuckled and pretended to shush Damari. "Now what did I tell you about saying such things around your mother? She may very well faint from shock don't you think?"
Rayen shrieked and ran over to Kaiya, clutching her hand and hopping up and down on her toes, her meal quickly forgotten.
"Mama! You can't faint! Father needs to tell the story! He's even said he's seen mermaids before!"
"Not mermaids, Ray," Damari shouted, "haven't you been listening to Father! They're called sirens!"
"Sirens, Mermaids, what's the difference." Rayen grumbled, turning back to her bowl to finish the remainder of her meat.
Kaiya grabbed a hold of Rayen and tugged her up into her arms. "There is a big difference between mermaids and sirens, Ray, that can be tell tale signs if you ever encounter one."
The little girl's eyes widened as she looked at her mother and cut her gaze back to her father.
"Is that true, Father? There's a difference?"
"A big one, just like your mother said, Rayen, one that could potentially save your life."
Damari held onto every word as Leon spoke. "Mermaids are beautiful, that much is true, but a siren, a siren is a woman with ice for a heart. Rarely is there a chance when you can melt through that frozen exterior and find the true creature beneath. A soul that has long been broken, chained and controlled, hidden by beauty, but still deadly underneath."
"But if one let you come back to us, Father, then how come other sirens aren't like that one?" Rayen asked, picking at the small pieces of rice that clung to the sides of the clay bowl.
A frown tugged at Leon's features, the same blonde hair that Alena remembered sticking to his forehead with the slick sweat and salt from the sea air.
"Not everyone is the same, Ray, some are kind while others are not, and in my case, this woman was kind enough to allow me to come back to you all."
"I would have shot her clean through." Damari hissed, holding a make believe pistol in his hand as he danced around the room, ignoring his dinner much like his sister. "No one comes between me and my family."
"Woah, woah hold it up there, mister." Kaiya said, pulling Damari aside and handing him his half eaten meal. "Just because you can hurt someone doesn't mean you can, regardless of who or what they are."
"She could have been dangerous for all Father knew, Mother." Damari replied, the same know it all attitude that Alena saw daily reflecting in his pale yet electrifying eyes.
"Yes, she could have, but she wasn't and we aren't the ones to judge a person based on their past."
Damari crossed his arms and wiggled out of his mother's grip to move closer to his father. "How are you you suppose to judge people then?"
Kaiya quirked a brow at her son. "You judge people by how they act now, how they carry themselves forward and choose to live. Everyone has a choice. No matter how far someone has gone down the wrong path there is never a time when they are too late to turn back."
Rayen smiled brightly and scooted up next to her mother. "I agree with you, Mother, everyone can change who they are no matter what."
Kaiya smiled warmly at Rayen and gave her a swift hug while Leon nodded towards them two.
"Your mother is right, Son. Everyone has a choice, and a simple act of kindness can make all the difference in a life."
"But what if they don't want to turn back, what if they want to keep going on the path they're going?"
Holding Damari's hand, he leaned forward onto his knees. "Then that is when you have to be the man in that situation and respect their decision."
"But you can't just stand around and do nothing!" Damari protested angrily. "Then who will save them from themselves?!"
A pain-filled grimace crossed Leon's face. "Sometimes people don't want to be saved, Damari, no matter how badly you may beg and plead for them to understand, they will want to survive on their own."
Damari grumbled to himself and sat back down on the floor next to his sister, hurrying to eat the remains so that he could visit one of his Father's ships before bedtime.
Kaiya and Leon stepped away from the two, standing in the doorway to still keep a watchful eye on their children.
"Leon," Kaiya whispered, jerking slightly as her hand fell to her stomach momentarily before looking back up at her husband, "how will Damari survive these next few months without you? You know how much him and Rayen look up to you."
He was silent as he watched Damari dump the remaining rice in his bowl on Rayen's unsuspecting head, laughing loudly before running out of the room to avoid her angry squeal. "I don't know, Kaiya. I have failed so much as a father already--"
"Don't you dare say that for one second," she argued fiercely, "you have done a fine job of being a father and providing for this family. Don't ever doubt that."
Exhaustion seeped into his smile, but as he tugged Kaiya to his side and gave her a quick kiss to the neck causing her to giggle, Alena could see how much he truly loved and appreciated his family.
But how could someone so loving cause Damari to abandon the thoughts of love?
She intended to move closer to the couple when she felt her mind shift like a rope, tugging her back to the present.
Her world tipped sideways and she felt her body being thrown back; back into the seat besides Bea with a jolt, the chair solidifying beneath her body.
Never had anything like this ever happened to her, she'd never seen anything in the past or anything possibly close to it and now that she had, she had so many questions.
Questions that she knew couldn't be answered unless she went back into the past.
Looking towards Rhode, she saw that her eyes had lost their glow and she stood fairly straight and at attention, waiting for any type of indication that she was okay.
The Queen had come up behind Alena in concern and set her hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right, dear? Oh I do hope you are I would hate for anything to have happened to you two."
"I'm..I'm all right, your Majesty, just dazed a little is all."
"Well," The Queen said expectantly, "what happened?"
Alena looked at her with befuddlement. "What do you mean what happened? Surely you must have wondered where I was."
Now it was Amphitrite's turn to appear confused. "Where you were? Dear, you were here the whole time, not more than a minute has passed."
"But-- but that's not possible!"
"What happened to you?" Rhode asked, watching Damari to see that he had begun to shake his head like he had woken up from a dream.
"I..I was in the past.." Alena murmured, puzzling over the new information she had uncovered, "and it wasn't just Damari's past I saw, but mine as well."
"You saw your past?" Bea asked as she gingerly helped Alena from her seat, escorting her to the bed where she sat with a heavy thump.
Her thoughts were all in a jumble, Alena couldn't think straight, it was like she were in a bee's nest; so much activity all going on at one time it was difficult to keep track of.
"I think you both should lay down," Amphitrite said reassuringly, helping Rhode carry Damari over to the other side of the bed. "You two have experienced something far beyond all of our knowledge and I think it best if you two stay close tonight. Perhaps it will settle the restlessness you both are having."
But Alena was barely listening to one word that the Queen was saying, her eyes beginning to droop from exhaustion that settled over her muscles first and then spread out through her limbs, pulling her under its thick blanket of comfort.
"The bond is stabilized for now," Rhode replied, adjusting the covers around Damari as he unconsciously snuggled deeper into the mattress. "You two need to stay close as my mother has said, it will aid in the process and I believe tonight will be the worst it will ever be."
"What...What is that..s-s-supposed..to m-mean?" Alena slurred, her syllables linking themselves together without her consent as she tried to find a comfortable spot on the bed, not caring or really registering that she was sharing a bed with Damari.
"It means that your minds aren't fully bonded yet, your bodies may be marked, yes," Rhode stated fully, holding Damari's arm up to show a spiral of silver curling around his wrist, "but your minds haven't had the time yet to fully merge together. You're only in the first stage of the bonding, and in order to get through tonight you'll need each other."
"B-but I...I don't..don't need anybody...a-anybody."
Rhode looked to Amphitrite with concern but the Queen gestured towards the door, where Bea stood already prepared to depart with the ceremonial box in tow.
Alena moaned with pain as what felt like a hot lance laced itself through her mind, images flashed and flew and she no longer could tell whether she was awake or asleep.
Her body began to relax and she could hear a similar groan of pain, which only caused the ache in her to grow, the distress from that call was too much, putting so much pressure on her brain that she could do nothing but do what she could to ease the person's suffering.
Her hand flexed out and caught onto flesh, and the instant Alena felt that smooth, warm and reassuring skin against her own, she knew she had to be closer.
Every movement felt like fire, but the closer she came to that thing that she couldn't describe, the heat, her protection, the pain lessened in its intensity.
Soon, however, the exhaustion became too much, the tiniest of movements proving too challenging for her sleep deprived body and as she drifted to sleep with memories in her mind and thoughts that weren't her own, Alena remembered one thing before the darkness swept over her in its calming waves.
The piercing blue gaze of not one, but two men as they looked out to sea.
~*~*~*~