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Elrena liked early mornings in Radiant Garden the best. Central Square, normally bustling with people, was deserted. With nobody around, the morning air was cool and still. Elrena liked it this way, when the world was quiet and empty.
She’d arrived a little early and sat down at her usual bench to wait. They could have used any world as their rendezvous point, but he suggested Radiant Garden and Elrena didn’t care enough to object. He never said so, but Elrena suspected that the jewel toned blues and purples of the buildings, and the clockwork castle that towered above were what attracted him. Perhaps they reminded him as well of the world they’d known in another time, another life.
She crossed her legs and leaned back to look up at the sky, letting out a sigh. She didn’t even know why she’d agreed to these little meetups. It’s not like they were friends, not really. They’d worked together, that’s all. He hadn’t even mourned her when she died. Not that she really cared.
Elrena wasn’t like the others. She never had been. The others had goals, and dreams, and ambitions. They had people they wanted to protect. When Elrena thought back, even through the memories that were now returning to her, she found nothing like that in her heart.
That suited her fine, though. A heart was too much trouble. Someone like her didn’t need one. If ever a person had been perfectly suited to becoming a Nobody, it was Elrena. Darkness might have been cold and cruel. It would cut you if it could.
But so could she.
Elrena tipped her head back down and looked around the square. The denizens of Radiant Garden were starting to roam the streets and open their stores, their chatter and footsteps shattering her beautiful silence. Somewhere, she heard a clock chiming the hour. He was late, again. Who did he think he was, making her wait for him?
It was just like him to be late on purpose, to make a dramatic entrance. He had always been theatrical in his enigma. He was elegant, inscrutable, and poised, while she was volatile and stormy. They had nothing in common, so she still didn’t know why she’d willingly played a part in his plans. It wasn’t for the power. Truthfully, Elrena didn’t give a damn about power. She just wanted to be left alone, in peace.
So why did she follow him? She couldn’t understand it, until she’d woken up, recompleted, and suddenly found herself with a heart full of fractured memories from a lifetime ago. They were disordered in her mind, a jumble of puzzle pieces that wouldn’t fit together. But even though she couldn’t put the full picture together, she saw him there. Sometimes in one memory, sometimes in another. All this time, a bond had been buried in her heart.
At the very least, working with him had given her some kind of direction. And there had been something like enjoyment in working closely with someone else. Making plans and keeping secrets...it had almost made her feel close to another person. What surprised her most though, was that the feeling was not entirely unfamiliar. It made her wonder if she had felt that kind of partnership before. If she had, it was buried in the morass of shattered memories that she was still trying to piece together.
There was still no sign of him anywhere in the square. The minute hand on the clock in a store window had already crept several inches down the clock face. She was really going to let him have it if he didn’t show up in the next–
“Hello there.”
His voice sounded from behind her. Elrena sat up and turned her head, her eyes narrowed. “About time you showed up.”
“Why, did you wait long?” His voice was smoothly contrite, so practiced that she knew he was teasing her. It made her groan.
“Ugh. Like you don’t know that you kept me waiting for twenty minutes.” She stood up and tilted her head. “Are we going, or what?”
He inclined his head and gestured her forward in an ironic bow. “Ladies first.”
“Keep that attitude up and one of these days I’m not going to show up,” she warned him as they set off towards the Fountain Court.
“And I’ll be absolutely devastated,” he said easily, hands in his pockets as he strolled along. His airy confidence in her continued attendance was infuriating, but she bit her reply in half. Getting her temper up was just one of the ways he liked to needle her, and she wasn’t about to rise to the bait so easily. And she had to admit, snapping at people wasn’t as much fun as it used to be.
They met up in Radiant Garden frequently these days. Mostly just to talk, turning over the fragments of memory they shared, trying to make sense of things. He would tell her about dreams he had, where he saw a girl in white, with long orange hair. He could never see her face clearly, and he didn’t know who she was. But it seemed like she was calling for him with a voice he could not hear, reaching for him with a hand he could not feel. Whenever he spoke of her, Elrena couldn’t help feeling she knew this girl too.
Slowly, excruciatingly, they were lining up the pieces. Sometimes the memory of a place, or a phrase would come back. Sometimes it would be a face, or a voice. Sometimes it was just a feeling. Looking at her empty hands, Elrena remembered the constant presence of a warm, soft weight in her arms. A comforting brush of fuzz against her face. She knew it was something that had been important to her, but what was it?
When memory failed, they just sat together in silence, trying to reassure each other with their presence that they were here. She’d catch him looking at her intently, as if he’d find the answer to his dreams in her eyes. Worse, sometimes she’d catch herself doing the same to him. Searching him for things she couldn’t even remember, but knew were missing. It was the worst part about having a heart again; everything insisted on being felt. The burgeoning emotions she had once suppressed rose stubbornly to the surface again and again, no matter how many stones she tried to tie to them, and she was forced to face them.
She didn’t feel ready to give up all her secrets just yet. But...maybe that would change, the more time they spent together. Elrena didn’t know if they were really friends or not, but she couldn’t deny the connection between their hearts. Their memories were the chain that linked them; the proof of their existence.
Her and Lauriam, the last of the Dandelions.