The Plane’s Children – Chapter Sixteen – Emersli1

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Quicksilver and Morningstar had been back in the settlement for many cycles.

When Tony died, he and Alone had returned to the upper Plane to take up their lives there.  They would only be returned to a life on the lower Plane if their people had a need for what only they could do.  For the most part, their place was among their people on the upper Plane.

They lived in the little dwelling on the edge of the settlement, set back under the eaves of the forest.  And every cycle they made the three-day journey to the Heart of the Forest to commune with the Plane.  They were no longer the only ones who did this, and the Plane rejoiced to have a stronger connection with their children again.

Some older children had even begun to come to the Plane for their Name.

Life moved on and the children of both planes changed and grew. 

Becoming Day was always a joyous event.

All the people gathered to witness the new children come to join them from within the Plane.  Quicksilver loved Becoming Day.   Having been an unwelcome and uncelebrated child, and being at heart a merry and fun-loving soul, he absolutely loved the celebration of new life.

He stood now with his mate and waited eagerly for his first glimpse of the children.  

Suddenly, they began to appear.  Small beings formed of light, coalescing into the physical forms they would grow with and wear until they rejoined the Plane.  Not counting their otherselves of course.

As the children formed, adults moved out of the welcoming crowd to each child.

It had taken a long time for Fidget to be able to attend a Becoming Day.  Grief for their lost child had nearly overwhelmed them, but they had endured.  Though it must be said the experience had changed them.  Indeed, they had often considered going to the Plane and requesting a new Name.  Once they had been almost constantly in motion.  Now, they lived mostly in stillness.

Suddenly, the bittersweet emotions of watching the children become were pushed aside as a call rose within them.

No.  No.  They could not go out there to face another child.  They were broken, and had nothing to offer a young, new being.  And yet, their feet were moving.

The child was small, with bouncy black curls and light brown skin.  Fidget stopped in front of them, still fearful and uncertain.  Until the child looked up at them.  In shock, Fidget knelt down and hesitantly reached out.

The child giggled and fell into their arms as though they had been made to be there.  And Fidget knew.  With awe and joy and thanksgiving … Fidget knew.  This was their child.  Their child that was, here again on the Plane.  Hidden had come back.  

They didn’t look the same.  They might be different, as Fidget themself was different.  But their child had been restored to them.

With an overjoyed cry, Fidget swung the child up in a swirling arc and joined the dance springing up around them.

Their child had come home.

Quicksilver had never felt the call before, so he might be excused for not immediately recognizing it.  He just knew he needed to get a better look at one of the children.  The one over there, with the bright blue eyes and long light brown hair.

The child had a light inside them that called to him, and he responded.  Reached out for that light.  The little one merrily ran to him and jumped into his arms, laughing in delight as the light within them flickered in time with their giggles.

Quicksilver didn’t know.  Couldn’t recognize.  But standing over to one side … someone else knew.  Steadfast watched, and recognized the bright, enduring spirit of their crossmate returned to the Plane.

The quiet grief they had carried alone slowly began to ease.  In the absence of Shadow they had often felt as though they were the only one left who remembered Flicker.  And they bore that burden with the constancy that was their defining trait.  But now, looking at the group around them, they realized that they had never truly been alone.

Many recognized the soul in the new little child, and joined the dance with Quicksilver, delighting in the return of one of their own.  One they had remembered.  Steadfast felt ashamed.  They had treated Morningstar badly, and never apologized.  They had believed their people had forgotten.  They had gotten so lost in their own grief they had never noticed anyone else’s.

They would do better.

Joining the dance around Quicksilver, Steadfast suddenly released a joyful bellow.  Sage heard, and rejoiced to see their child finally look up and realize that they were not alone.  To see them truly interacting with the people as a sibling again.  And their heart sang with happiness.

Morningstar had been watching and mentally rearranging the furniture in the small dwelling, planning which crafter to approach for a child’s bed, when something caught their attention.

There in the back.  The last of the children to form.

Something drew Morningstar over.  A call they had not felt in many, many cycles.

They had never told Tony, but once upon a time it had been Alone who had sheltered Shadow.

When Alone could not heal Flicker, they felt they had failed their child.  When Shadow chose to leave, not in quiet joy for a life fully accomplished but in desperate grief for a loss they did not know how to bear, Alone had felt that failure magnify.

And Morningstar had carried that failure, keeping it tucked away, as they knew their spiritmate and siblings would not agree that they should carry it.  But often it felt as though it was all they had left of their child, as though to let it go would be truly letting go of their child.  And that they could not do.  Would never do.

But now.

The child was slender, with silver hair and eyes the color of the water at the edge of the Plane, a shifting silver grey.  They were shy, peeking up through their hair as Morningstar stopped in front of them.  Morningstar reached out and laid one careful hand along the child’s face.  The shock of it rocked them to the core.

One tear slowly ran down the side of their face, and the child reached up for it … brushing it away.  This child, this seemingly new little person … this was the child they had mourned.  That they had carried in their heart quietly for many cycles.  This little spirit had been Shadow.

Morningstar couldn’t wait to see who their child would grow to be, as they all grew and changed throughout their lives, but at the core of it … this child would always be Shadow.  Their beloved child.

With a wild cry of gladness, they scooped up the little body and joined the dance.

Much later, sitting on the commons with two tired out little bodies between them on the soft grass, Quicksilver looked at Morningstar.  “I guess it’s a good thing we have those two empty rooms.”

Morningstar smiled, thinking of the way the two little souls had clung together as the dance had spun around them.  “I do not think they will want to be separated.  At least not yet.  Maybe one day.”

“You may be right.”  He sighed in contentment, looking over the tired bodies of his people … his tribe.

He looked up to the stars.

And thanked the One for the place he had been brought to, the companionship and completeness.  The beloved spiritmate who had waited through many lifetimes just for him.  For all of it, Quicksilver thanked the One.

And the One saw that it was good.  Maybe in the future, one of Their children would again choose such evil that Quicksilver and Morningstar would be called to be Their hands and feet in the lower Plane again.

But for now, it was good.