Forgiveness

Her eyes fluttered. They did not open, just fluttered as if they might open at any minute and through the city tremors were felt, not physical, earth shaking tremors, but the kind of thing that makes your skin crawl in the middle of the night. The tremor that you feel deep in your bowels when you think you are being watched as you take that shortcut home in the early dark hours of the morning.

She mumbles in her sleep and things start to happen around her. Wood that has long since rotted starts to come back to live. Paint that has peeled seems to repair itself. Where once the marble in the entrance hall was cracked it is now whole and gleaming, water starts to run in weed choked fountains and the creature at her feet raises its head for the first time in 2,000 years.

Many of the city inhabitants stop and raise their heads to scent the wind. They are all predators in one form or another and none of them are used to having their domain challenged by something they can not immediately dispose of. Most of the elders do not believe what they are feeling. It can't be true. It is nothing more then a shadow of past glory coming to haunt them on this cold winter night. She can not return. Her sleep is that of true death they are sure. But then again, a small voice in the back of their brains nag, perhaps it is so. Stranger things have happened. After all, they exist do they not? And their eyes turn to the mansion that stands in the center of the city. Surprise crosses their faces as they realize that it is no longer dark. Then they feel the impossible. They felt the shadow of the passing of the black hearted one, the one that has a heart so cold as to even make them turn away in horror and fear.

He stops dead in the middle of the street lifts his head to the moon and smiles; he has heard his name spoken. His face muscles scream in protest at this harsh treatment. He has not smiled in centuries. She is waking. He can hear the slightest whisper of her on the wind and can smell the tiniest trace of her perfume lingering somewhere near by. It has been a long time since her felt her at all. But now, perhaps his long, lonely wait is over, perhaps she has finally returned to him. Moving with a speed that even the eldest of the city could not match, he races for the mansion.

Caine enters the grounds of the mansion and is greeted by a sight. Things are coming alive again. The mansion is repairing itself. He does not let himself get his hopes up. She has done this before. Somehow, even in the unreachable deeps of her sleep she has never let the mansion total crumble around her. From time to time she has come close to waking and repaired it. Although, he admits to himself, she has never repaired it this much.

When he enters the mansion he knows she will finally wake this night. The marble has been healed. He stops for a moment remembering how it became cracked to begin with. The terrible argument they had. The horrible things he said to her. And finally, looking into her eyes and seeing a coldness that he had never seen before. Looking down Caine can almost see the exact spot where the tear had fallen. The first and only tear he had ever seen her shed. Pain filled his heart again, he stood as he had stood on that night watching the tear slide down her cheek and telling her that he would never return to her. The sound as the tear hit the floor and the marble cracked open. He knew it was the sound of her heart breaking, watching as she slowly turned away and walked into the main throne room and sat down on her throne. He turned then to look into the throne room. His eyes take in everything at once. She is there on her throne in her place of power, looking out across millennia's of time with the cool look of a queen that will let nothing, absolutely nothing stand in the way of what is best for her kingdom. No, wait, he is seeing her as he last saw her, when he had turned his back on her and walked out the door. Now she sits with her eyes closed.

Every other part of the mansion is bright and shining, almost as if it had just been built, however, this one room is dark, save for the moon shining through the glass doors leading to the gardens. The moon is shining in on her. Exactly like it had the night he had left. But her eyes are still closed. They have not opened. She still sits on her throne as if she were a living statue. Her flesh looking tanned and feeling warm to the touch, her hair and nails growing as if in death, and her face as cold as ever. He suddenly realizes that something is different. The creature at her feet has moved. He is sure of it. The creature was lying at her feet, now its massive head lies on top of her feet and he can see the dust moving around it as it breaths. Yes, he knows tonight with be the end of his wait. Tonight she will wake.

The others are coming, he can feel them. They will be here soon, even now he knows he only has a few minutes at best with her alone and still her eyes are closed. He wants her first moments to be with him, he does not want to share her with the other citizens of this god forsaken place. He steps into the throne room and her eyes flutter. As he draws closer to her he sees more and more activity, until finally he stands before her. Caine can see that she has drawn breath and the dust is starting to move around her, yet her eyes have still not opened. Her hair starts to move as it once did, as if it has a mind of its own, and her eyes remain closed. Caine stands before her and the great creature at her feet looks up at him, its eyes open and aware. He is again surprised at the resemblance to a lion that the creature has and wonders, not for the first time, if it is not somehow related to the great cats. As the two predators start at each other, Caine hears the others outside the doors and knows that his time is passing and their will come soon, much sooner then he would like.

"I should have known that she would not even give me this, I deserve no better from her I guess." He says and everything stops. The fountains in the garden stop flowing; the lights in the other rooms start to darken, and the beast beginning to growl deep in its throat. With the pain and frustration of years driving him, Caine steps forward and slaps the cold, lifeless face of his Empress. The beast roars and launches itself to protect its mistress. And again everything stops. The beast is hung in middle air. Caine can no longer hear the others outside. It is if they have been frozen.

It is then that Caine understands what he has not understood for centuries. He kneels down and takes her hand and tries to bring it to his forehead, it will not move. Signing deeply he places his forehead on her hand.

"Forgive me…"

Empress Lionness opens her eyes and life flows again. The mansion is instantly alive and the great beast completes it leap with no prey to fall upon. The citizens of the city look in the doorway of the throne room and see a sight that they never thought possible. Caine BlackHeart is kneeling in from of her and her eyes are open and shining with a fire that both terrifies them as well as warms the deepest most secret places with in…..