Fall From the Wire - Chapter 9

[lostwolf]

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8


Chapter 9.  Benediction

Unencumbered by Rose’s inadequate night vision, they made it to the entrance to the Underworld remarkably swiftly. The Doctor set her down and together they began to hunt for the garlands they were meant to retrieve.  It was the Doctor who spotted them, hanging from the hands of their statues.  As he reached to recover them, Rose admired the bonfire that burned before the portico, filling the air with delicious scents.  Rose realised that it was made of something like sandalwood or cedar-wood, the burning wood giving off enchanting vapours in the smoky whorls that danced and writhed in the night air.  It was only as she breathed the smoke in, feeling a luxurious warmth and peace spread through her, that it began to occur to her that perhaps its smell was not altogether benevolent.  By then it was too late, its soporific affects already dulling her senses, weakening her limbs and weighing her eyelids.  She tried to alert the Doctor to her plight, but no sound passed her lips as she sagged softly to the ground.

The Doctor spun in alarm, their garlands clutched in his free hand, as Rose suddenly became a dead weight against their bound hands.  She was slumped at his feet, head lolling against her chest uselessly, only her outstretched arm, tied to him, preventing her from falling fully to the damp ground. 

‘Rose?’

She didn’t respond and he knelt beside her frantically, becoming aware as he did so of the smoke surrounding them.  He cursed.  He should have known the quest would require more than simply taking a stroll in the dark.  Not waiting to rouse Rose, he lifted her into his arms, struggling to adapt to their tied hands without her to assist him.  Pulling her into a clumsy and somewhat awkward embrace, he moved them away from the fire, retracing his steps down the hillside as quickly as he dared.  As the aromatic smoke dispersed, to be replaced with clean night air, Rose began to stir and he drew to a halt, lowering them both to the ground.

‘Rose? Deep breaths. That’s it.  Feeling better?’

Rose nodded against the support of his arm. ‘They drugged the fire?’  She sounded so scandalised he had to laugh.

‘Yes, Rose, they did.  It is a quest, after all, they couldn’t make it too easy, could they?’

‘But that’s so unfair! To make it all that way only to be drugged by the light that guided us!’

He smiled. ‘I rather think that was the point.  The light wasn’t our goal, these were.’ He handed her the garlands, still discernable in the distant glow of the fire.  One of white roses the other of lilies.  ‘If a couple lingers too long, forgets their purpose and is seduced by the comfort of the fire then, unless one of them pulls them from the allure of rest, they sleep.  Metaphorically, death claims them and they fail in their quest.’ 

Rose huffed, ‘I wasn’t seduced, I was waiting for you to fetch the garlands.  Its hardly my fault if you took so long the smoke got to me.’  The Doctor smirked, draping the rose garland over her head, before lifting the garland of lilies over his own. 

‘Yep,’ he replied, popping the ‘p’ cheerfully, ‘definitely my fault.  Come on.  Time’s a wasting!’  Pulling her to her feet, he began to lead her down the hill.  The going seemed somewhat easier and Rose realised that the sky was beginning to lighten.

‘It’s nearly dawn,’ she whispered.

‘I know. Don’t worry, though, we’ll make it.  See, there’s the town now.’

As they rounded a bend the town came into sight, lit by a range of torches, flaring blue and yellow and green in the breeze.  They picked up their pace, their path now clearer in the glow cast by the torchlight, and within minutes they reached the outskirts of the town.  Rose felt excitement bubble within her as they followed the path of flaming torches back towards the centre of the town.  As they emerged into square a triumphant cheer went up and flowers cascaded down upon them, petals lining the path they were to tread.   They were the only couple to have made it back.

Beaming, the Hodegos appeared before them.  ‘Mr and Mrs Smith, isn’t it?  Congratulations!  You have completed the quest and returned bound together for all time, blessed in your union by the gods themselves.’  With a flourish, he released their bound hands, pulling the silken sash away and instead curling a chain a roses and lilies around them.  Reverently he led them towards the statues at the centre of the square. Kneeling before the statue of the Doctor and Rose, he drew a silver arrow with a golden tip from within his robes. 

‘Blessed be the Isaggelos and those that follow in their path. Let this arrow, a symbol of true love, be filled with the power of your grace, Koinonos Isotes, and grant this couple the benediction of your love.  Let their union be fruitful, their lives full and their devotion everlasting, unsullied for all eternity and pure even beyond death.  In your remembrance Phoses endures in peace and harmony and to you we pray. Grant this gift, Isaggelos, in the name of your love.’ As the Hodegos finished speaking the sun rose over the buildings, the first rays of its morning light striking the statues in the manner for which they had been designed.  The light refracted off the golden quiver that hung over the statue of Rose and hit the arrow in the Hodegos’s hands. He sighed. ‘Thank you, Isaggelos.’ He muttered, before rising to his feet.

‘And so, my children, it is done.  You are blessed of the Isaggelos.  May your love never die, for the grace of the Koinonos Isotes is now yours.’  Bowing to them, he placed the arrow over their flower bound hands, taking first Rose’s and then the Doctor’s free hand and placing them over the arrow, holding it in place.  He smiled at them one more time before turning to the gathered crowd.

‘Let the festivities begin!’  With a cheer, a band struck up and, laughing, the Phosians began to dance and chat and laugh.  Their festival had begun and there was much to celebrate.  In the midst if the cacophony and ferment only Rose and the Doctor stood immobile and silent.  Hands still clasped around the arrow, they did not move.  Then, slowly, as if afraid to break the spell that had been cast, the Doctor lowered his head and captured Rose’s mouth in a tender kiss. 

‘For all eternity.’ He whispered.

‘Even beyond death.’ She replied.


Chapter 10