The Marechal Chronicles: Volume V, The Tower of the Alchemist by Aimélie Aames Page B

showed no fear when the mysterious woman came out from the trees while his fellows cowered then ran away.
    Her power was unmistakable. It rose up and rolled off her shoulders like mist upon the calm waters of an early morning lake.  The man felt it and saw it, but the beauty of the goddess trumped all else.
    The lines of her face were that of perfection.  Her hair fell in long loose rings like darkness before the storm.  He saw danger in her eyes that sparkled of both ice and fire, and in their depths he saw that part of her which tipped the balance of her image from mere perfection over and into a thing of beauty absolute.
    He saw the taint of sadness and the touch of resignation.  She was beautiful as the wellspring of her own tragic solitude, and the man knew love in the moment he first beheld her.
    All thoughts of the hunt fled him, and what came to replace them were thoughts of holding the being before him in his arms and murmuring into her ears that he would never, ever leave her … that she would never be alone again.
    And in that moment, Lys read all that passed behind the man's shining eyes and saw the smile that came to his lips as his bow fell to the ground.
    He took a step toward her and the sword at his side came unbelted to fall down as the quiver of arrows upon his back slipped free to join it.
    The man took no notice as his affairs drifted away like the faint smoke of a dying fire, and the goddess did not refuse him as he closed the distance between them.
    The clouds darkened overhead, and Lys spoke in a voice of thunder and told the man that she could destroy him.
    The man replied that he did not doubt her, yet her beauty left him without choice and he dared lift a hand to caress her cheek.
    All fell to a perfect silence.  Not a thing made a sound, no creature drew breath.
    Then the goddess reached up to the hand at her cheek and she held it in her own.
    I could destroy you, she repeated.
    I could love you, the man answered.
    And that was all the answer she required as the notion of her unending solitude began to tatter like a banner flown too long in a war that had forgotten its reason for being.
    The existence of the goddess filled with the color of that man's eyes, her spirit taking on his love for her like a clear carafe filling full of golden wine.
    Hand in hand, the two regained the interior of the valley and the man knew no fear when he saw the array of strange creatures waiting within.  And Lys spoke to her beasts and told them that nothing would change and they would want for nothing as before.
    But among them, there was one who knew her promises were false and that the man would change everything forever more.
    And that one watched Lys and the man in the time that followed, and he could not see how love filled her eyes or how joy held the two lovers in peace and contentment.  That one saw where the other beasts were blind, and he knew that soon his goddess would linger more and more in the company of her man and the beasts of the vale would be forgotten.
    That one was born under a dark moon, and the shadow cast upon his soul had shown itself in his color for he was as black as coal and his eyes blood red and his black heart knew jealousy worse than any hatred he had felt before his time in the valley of the goddess.
    And the day came, as he knew it would, for him to seize his chance.  Lys and the man had stolen away from the beasts as they did more and more often.  They had walked to a quiet meadow and lay down upon its soft flowers.  Then the goddess told the man that she would rise into the sky above and make of herself a flower more beautiful than any the man had ever seen.  His answer was laughter as he told her that she had always been and would ever be the most beautiful flower he had ever seen.
    Lys smiled at her man and the winds came to buoy her up far overhead, then her form dissolved into colors of rich gold and yellow while the sky was bright, cloudless, making an azure field