Foreshadowing and Flashbacks Abound

As Rena caught the eye of the human with the emerald eyes, her whole world tipped.  There was only one man she had met in her long lifetime that had such stark green emerald eyes as Blaine had.  She felt rooted, frozen to the spot she was in on the dancefloor as the floor felt like it had fallen away.  She was deaf to Val's words as he called to her from a distant, far shore.  She was so certain she would never see that man again, after suffering such heartache as she had.

Tears fell silently from her eyes, falling unnoticed down her face as she fell from memory to another; all the heartache crashing back into her like a tidal wave.  Blaine's face swam into her mind even as everything went dark around her and her body began to fall.  Guests gasped and shouted as Valerian moved like lightening to catch his baby sister before she became injured from fainting.

Val frowned as his eyes moved over toward the balcony to where Rena had been staring before she fainted.  He knew of only one person who could shake his sister's composure like that.  Part of him felt rage knowing that Blaine had snuck into the ball, while the other part of him hoped beyond hope that maybe that meant that Thanerick had also shown up and he could finally be reunited with his love after all those years.  

While he would love to reunite with his love and act as though those five long years hadn't happened; Val worried about what the human princes coming back to the Southern Realm meant for their kingdom.  It did not bode well for Valerian, after the hell he and Thane had suffered at the hands of Dorian; he shuddered at the thought of what the blatant insubordination would bring.

Oh but how he missed his Thane, his beautiful prince.  Val chuckled as he carried Rena from the ballroom and into an empty dressing room so she could have privacy.

Val rememebered catching the eye of Thanerick at a ball similar to the one he had left.  Thane's eyes shining from behind a golden eagle mask.  A stark difference to Val's peacock one.  It felt like a whole lifetime had gone by since those happy days.  Dark had become Val's days after Dorian found Val and Thane and discovered their secret relationship.  Val's thoughts turned dark as he recalled the healers and their 'healing fires' that scored his flesh to "cure" him of his impurities.  His punishment was nowhere near as horrible as Thane's however.  He hadn't heard anything of Thane after Dorian had ordered Thanerick taken from Valerian, until Rena ran into his room in tears followed by Sandrine carrying Thane in her arms; unconscious and in need of rapid healing.

They had taken Thane to the healers of the Valkyrie kingdom, he had needed to stay in bed under strict care for dehydration and injuries gained from being flayed by a cat-o-nine tails.  Dorian had thrown Thane into a stockade for days after making sure he was whipped for his odd afflictions.

Val still bore the scars from the healers' fires, and he knew Thane still unfortunately bore the scars on his wrists and back from his own tortuous hell.  Rena moaned in Val's arms as he laid her down gently on a chaise, he worried that she wouldn't come out of whatever fit this was for days.  After Blaine broke her completely, Rena had stopped everything in her life.  As if she had stopped time itself in her own workings, even leaving her apprenticeship as a healer to rot as she chose to stay in her chambers.

Five years, Val thought darkly; it had been five years, but for his baby sister it was still a fresh wound that had been recently cut.