33 Risen#re

Lucian felt lost in his thoughts, as he remembered the life of Killian, of the time that Katerina accepted him, when no one else did.

He thought of all the time they spent together, wrapped in each other's arms and they would, slowly whisper their secrets, and their fears to each-other.

Most of all was when they'd share their stories with each-other, they were both so extremely old, she was older though, the eternals reincarnation process was different from his, he would go to sleep for ages before returning, while for them the time lost was the journey from one plain to the next.

He remembered every shared story, and every time they cried about the hardships they had faced to grow stronger.

There were so many good memories, most of all was when she gave birth to their daughter Ella.

But then there was that one memory that turned all those moments of joy into a living hell, he felt his eyes well up with tears as he looked at her but just a quickly he hardened his heart as he looked at her.

Katerina breathed out softly, as she looked at a version of the man she had loved like no other before.

A hint of a warm smile formed on her lips as she looked at Lucian, but a look of solemn calmness replaced the look on her face as she gazed at him.

"For you not to attack me on sight, you can't be one of the normal versions of yourself, you must be either Kallidin or Lucian," she stated in a knowing tone.

"But based on those eyes, I can only assume that you're Lucian, the one who was two, the one that has two voices in his head," she said in a matter of fact tone.

Lucian couldn't help but lower his gaze, she truly knew him better than anyone else.

"That was a very long time ago," he muttered looking away from her.

"The reason that I do not attack you on sight is simple, Killian got what he deserved for what he did to our daughter," he uttered a truth that made Katerina's eyes widen.

She could hardly believe what she was hearing, this man who she knew to be boundlessly proud and arrogant, acknowledged that he was the one who wronged their daughter.

'No, that isn't right,' she realised, 'He speaks of the actions of his other selves as if they have nothing to do with him.'

"But I will never forgive you for what you did to our daughter!", he said in a powerful tone.

He stepped closer to her with that fury she knew so well, burning in his eyes, that same fire he held as a fourth-grade immortal, that same fire that burnt gods to nothing.

He reached forward to wrap his hands around her throat, as he grew closer the threads of fate that always clung to her skin seemed to hesitate, as if uncertain if protecting Katerina was the right thing to do, or if allowing the man it revered to touch her sacred skin was allowed.

"You will suffer miserably for what you did to her!" he shouted and closed his hands around her neck.

But as he did he felt himself choke instead, it was the protection of a diviner, those that were not on their same life level, could not cause them any physical harm, and any harm they tried to inflict on a diviner would be reflected back to them.

Of course, there were two exceptions to the rule that Lucian knew of, however, he couldn't meet the requirements for either exception currently.

He could feel the tightness around his throat growing stronger with each passing second as he looked into her eyes, he saw a growing anger reflected in her eyes.

Katerina felt anger, anger that she had long forgotten how to feel, it was his fault it was all his fault that she had to harm her daughter.

But most of all she felt pity for him, he was truly delusional truly so very insane,

He pinned the blame of his actions, onto another version of himself, how psychotic could he be, how dare he act like his other selves were not him, she herself had lived a hundred different lives, but never would she use such a weak excuse to justify the things she had done.

She looked into his eyes that were now blood shot and his entire face had gone purple, he knew that he wasn't causing her any harm yet still he continued.

A thundering sound echoed in the room as she slapped him, Lucian was lifted of his feet and sent flying across the room.

'That's right she's an immortal,' he thought as he felt his jaw hanging loosely, he quickly snapped it back in place and glared at her.

"How dare you blame what happened on me!" she shouted furiously, completely loosing her calm exterior, "YOU cursed our daughter, YOU cursed her to a fate even worse than your own," she emphasised on the word you, not giving him the chance to excuse himself, by saying that it was another one of his selves.

"I had no choice!" he roared back at her, "If I didn't she would have left me, and when she came to hear what the world called what they thought of me she would have hated me!"

"I couldn't allow that to happen, after all I went through to create her, how could I allow her to hate me!" he cried out to justify his actions.

"So you took away her choice in the matter," Katerina spat coldly, " And so you killed the god of emotion and used his essence to create an unbreakable compulsion, compelling her into loving only us and to hate all other things in creation, you selfish dog!" she spat out in anger.

"Was I to watch her venture into the world, and let the world tell her about the atrocities they believed I committed and then they would convince her of the monster that they believed me to be?!" he shouted back in anger.

"You were never a monster…" Katerina said closing her eyes as two streaks of tears rolled down her sacred face, "… not until the day you cursed our child that you swore to protect!"

Lucian climbed to his feet in a fit of anger, how could she not understand why he did it, that child was the only person in the existence that would never hate him, even Katerina was afflicted by the desire that all immortals held to cause him unimaginable pain and suffering.

He would never forget about what Vincent had done to him in his fifth life.

Just as he was about to rush back up to her, a voice sounded in the room, a small voice, a child's voice, a voice that he thought he'd never hear again.

He stumbled to the ground as he looked around for the source with shaking eyes.

Katherina looked at the little wisp of a wisp of a soul and started, "No Ella, I told you not yet!" she shouted, but it was to late, because at that moment the little wisp came rushing up to Lucian shining brightly with the colour of joy.

"Papa!" the wisp cried out wiggling around as if drunk, "Papa, you look so different, so, so, so different, but-but-but I know I can tell it's you, it's in your eyes Papa, and your soul, you can't keep hiding from me, mama says that you won't forgive her, but look papa I'm fine, I'm super okay, so we can all be together again," the wisp spoke energetically with unbridled joy.

Lucian trembled uncontrollably as he looked at the bright bundle of joy, hovering in front of him, he clamped a hand over his mouth as his eyes leaked burning hot tears.

But they weren't tears of joy, no they were tears of absolutely fury, how could he not feel anger at the sight of this, the soul that he had created specially, was almost extinguished, it hardly even qualified to be called a wisp.

He had found his daughter, but her time was drawing to it's end, she was running on her last sparks what was there to be joyous about, "KATHERINA, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER!" he roared losing all reason and charged directly at her.

But as he reached her he felt himself get smashed into the ground.

Katerina looked at him coldly, "I did what I had to cure our daughter of the curse you placed on her, because of you, I can't allow her to undergo true reincarnation, but I've found a solution to break your compulsion, however as it's creator you know that for anyone other than myself it is completely impossible, even for me, I have just barely a chance," she spat at him.

"Stop Fighting!", a small voice shrieked beside them, "You promised that you wouldn't make me cry, and if you keep fighting you're going to break your promise," the little voice sobbed and popped up between them.

"Papa, please, you can see it to can't you," Ella said softly, the bright light around her dimmed revealing how truly small her soul had become.

"Can we just be a family, I've wanted to see you for so long papa, b-b-but it's been so long we don't have much time, s-s-so please don't throw it away," the little wisp cried out and darted to Lucians chest