#anywhere

Connor is watching, wide eyed and curious.

The doorway?

"I smelt people going that way." He nods. "But when we go forward we come back. It's tricking us."

"Maybe tricking my nose, too though." He admits. "I smell SYLVI."

The thread pulls towards the doorway that the cat is faced away from...

She follows the thread. "Magic, yeah. Smart nose, Connor."

Brow furrow.

They approach the same entrance yet again.

And she turns... back to the door like the cat's.

Connor blinks, and turns around as well. He actually spins three times.

The thread wriggles in her grasp!

She steps through... backwards...

Connor follows...

And they are in a hallway. With a Medieval Urn, and a Grecian Tapestry.

Wait a minute.... Yes!

NEW HALLWAY

And, they hear talking.

Nadeen's voice.... "The difference between a maze and a labyrinth."

Just around the corner!

A brief grin of triumph, and Dagmar leads Connor towards the voices.

(TO <#C016M445SMU|>!)

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A field of flowers extends as far as the eye can see. Soft birdsong, and the whisper of wind through the trees. Aiden reclines on a grassy hummock, and his lady is nestled by his side.

Nadeen curls closer. There was something bothering her, but it doesn't seem to be present right now.

"I... want to stay here" She admits snuggling

Quiet bliss. They could just stay here. The flowers are sweet, the sun is warm.

Was there something else they needed to do?

"And I with you, my love. I cannot remember when last we have had a moment just for one another."

"I... " A realization, there IS something, isn't there? "It has been too long"

Calming, almost numbing. They watch the breeze die down, and the flowers slowly stop moving. "Too long." He agrees, his voice soft and sleepy.

"Can't remember the last time..." She savors the words "Can't remember..." A thought "Remember.. " she grips him, by the shoulders pulling him up right "Aiden... you must remember. You must strive to recall"

As Nadeen sits up, she realizes that they are entwined - not just in each other's arms, but with vines! Vines craw over her legs, winding around her waist. They pin Aiden to the ground, and are starting to wind around his throat as well.

The vines are around Nadeen as well... she has one hand left free.

She draws her sword "You will not SLAY HIM!" And the sword bares its blade and flashes! Like the whitest field of snow, with the brightest sun reflected upon it all over!

If she can also cut vines free, so much the better!

The light FLASHES and there is a SHRIEK! Blade bared and vines fall away in pieces! Aiden collapses, stunned, as the vines wither and pull loose from him.

Her blade is a mighty force, and her righteous anger even more brilliant to behold.

As she slices, she finds something beneath the earth that was reaching up from where it was buried. It wasn't a hummock of grass, but a mound... a woman is there, her skin pale - also entwined tightly with vines.

Nadeen knows this face now as well as her own, as she beholds Dahlia.

And she hacks the vines loose from Dahlia, "For the love we share , you must break free of the lies...."

SHe tries not to hurt the woman, just the constraints "He needs to know the truth, he needs restoration, and dammit woman, he needs your forgivness so he can forgive himself!"

"Connor is here..." She adds "If there's anything pure in this world that deserves to have that purity recognized, remembered, it's that boy!" A slash at another vine "By both of you!"

THen, once Dahlia is clear free, she pulls her up with a hand by taking that of the woman fallen, long gone but still here "Up, come up..."

Nadeen realizes that she is herself again. She can still remember what she saw, but it's faded, vague... more memories of what she was once told, then what she lived herself.

As Nadeen cuts her free, Dahlia's eyes open, and green eyes gaze into Nadeen's own icy blue ones. No violent green anger here, just soft, sad eyes... the same eyes Connor has.

"Nadeen?" Aiden asks.

Dahlia looks to Nadeen for permission, longing to reach for him.

"He needs you one last time... I'm sorry... You have to help him forgive himself" She nods

"I'm here, Aiden, we both are"

Dahlia bows low to Nadeen, and then crouches, reaching to take Aiden's hands.

They clasp hands, and... he Remembers.

Nadeen can see it in his eyes, the widening, the joy, and the pain. Oh, the pain. He embraces Dahlia, and weeps bitterly.

Nadeen swallows. She aches to help him, to be the one who can comfort. It's not envy, not just envy, he hurts, and she wonders how to make it better, but he must feel it to be free of it, if he can handle it

Dahlia holds him softly, then offers a hand to Nadeen. "My love would have died for me. He must live, for you. And for our son."

Nadeen takes the hand "As long as he lives," A look at her "I'll give him all the love I can, and I shall look out for him"

"And Connor, you must know, he is loved by so many now. Dahlia, Gerd, Dagmar, there is.. so much love for him"

Dahlia listens to this, and tears run down her own cheeks. These, happy ones.

"He's a fine young lad, a squire now, and a leader among childlings"

Her grip remains warm and tight

"My Connor. He knows that he is loved, for his nature is such that all will love him." Dahlia says.

"Go, Nadeen Dancingsnow. Hold him and keep him. Know that the pain he sought to avoid has returned to him now. I fear, all the stronger for having been bottled."

She draws back from Aiden, and places his hand into Nadeen's.

As the field of flowers dissolves around them, she hears a last whisper. "He must be forgiven, and he must forgive himself."