The Dark Rose

By darkmagickwillow

Copyright © May 2003

Chapter 23 (Together in the Light)

A familiar voice from behind startled Willow out of her reverie. "Do you trust me?" Tara asked.

Willow turned to see Tara standing behind her like an angel, serene even in midst of the firestorm. Her vision blurred with tears. After she had lost all hope, this happened. She had so many questions to ask Tara, but she had something more important to do first. Willow took Tara's hands in hers and said, "I love you."

Blue eyes met green for the first time.

Tara's heart swelled as she heard those words and stared into eyes she had only seen in her dreams. "I love you," she returned in a soft voice.

Every last vestige of darkness had fled from Willow's eyes. They were a vivid living green as they looked back at Tara, verdant as leaves in the height of summer, sharing nothing with the cold emerald green of the firestorm that raged around the two of them. Tara found Willow's eyes beautiful, even more so than she remembered from her dreams, and as she looked into them she felt her fears fly away as if they had never been.

Just minutes ago, Tara had been so afraid that she would find Willow too late. Images from her visions had flashed through her head as she ran as fast as she could through the cold, dark tunnels, following her sense of Willow's presence. She had seen the moment where the two of them faced the storm of emerald flame together over as she ran. Willow needed her to make it through the fires of the Heart.

Tara's own heart was still pounding painfully and her side ached from running, but she had arrived just in time. Entering the cavern, she had been confronted with a conflagration of such intensity that the air seared her lungs and it felt as if her skin would blacken from the heat. The crackling of the green flames drowned out any other sounds she might have heard.

Then she saw Willow in the center of it all, looking tiny within her silvery shields as she defied the colossal might of the tempest of emerald flame that raged around her. Tara hadn't hesitated. She had run straight into the firestorm. Willow's shields had opened to her, welcoming her and protecting her as if they were her own, letting her walk through the fiery inferno unscathed.

Willow had looked desperate and determined when Tara had first seen her, but the joy that had appeared on her face as she turned and saw Tara was like the sun emerging from behind a cloud. Tara was still dazzled by the brightness of her joy.

She could see in Willow's eyes, so alive and loving now without the inky blackness, that Willow was seeing her at last for who she was and accepted her without reservation. She felt her own heart swell with brightness as she looked into Willow's green eyes, wide with the joy of seeing her. Her flesh felt transparent, the light of her heart shining through unhindered by secrets kept or feelings withheld out of fear. They would talk after this, but her heart was content, knowing the answer to her question at last.

When Willow's green eyes met Tara's blue ones, it felt like she was seeing Tara for the first time. In a way she was. She was seeing Tara as she really was, her vision unclouded by the darkness and fears of the past. Tara was who she was, not simply a reflection of the past, but a person who still shared that past with Willow through some miracle she couldn't explain. Tara's cerulean eyes were as clear as the sky, promising her a future that would be as joyful as her time with Tara in the past had been.

Willow accepted Tara's return as a gift of grace. It was not something she ever could have deserved, but it was a gift that she could accept now and cherish without reservation. She could see in those eyes that Tara was offering her everything. All she could do was to give Tara everything she was in return. It didn't feel like enough, but she would do everything she could to show Tara how much she loved her.

There was magic in the world, and it was more than just spells. It underlay every breath and every thought. Life was a miracle beyond comprehension. Love had overcome time and death to meet her here when she had no hope remaining. Tara embodied that magic. It was there in her eyes and her smile. In every small touch. In every whispered word of devotion.

They embraced, heedless of the inferno surrounding them, and as they kissed, the shimmering shield surrounding them grew effulgent with a brilliant white light. A sea of white energies slowly but surely expanded from the sphere of force, pushing away the gales of emerald fire that surrounded them.

Each time a tongue or flare of flame touched the bright sea, it was simply extinguished. The hurricane of cold flame raged and howled against the growing brightness, but its savage fury could not stop the bright energies that steadily forced the storm back towards its source.

They could feel the power flowing between them, growing stronger as it passed from one witch to the other with each synchronized beat of their hearts. While they hadn't yet had time to talk, they could feel that the barriers between them had fallen. There were no more secrets withheld. There were no more dark magicks blocking the connection between them. The flow of force and magic between them before had been a trickle compared to this unconstrained torrent of feeling and power they shared now. The magic felt effortless as they forced back the corrupt power of the Heart.

They turned as one to look at the growing sea of light, never letting go of each other's hands. The eclat of their magic grew and grew until the icy tempest of emerald might was confined to a small sphere around the Master, who was desperately hurling bolts of green energies to ward off the advance of the white brilliance. His frenzied battling scorched the air with the fiery cold of the Heart's power, but it could not touch the immaculate purity of the white magic that simply accepted the blows without slowing its expansion.

The Master clenched both hands around the Heart, demanding ever more power of it to save himself. The gem's radiance throbbed like the beating of a savage heart, but its master was only capable of channeling a small fraction of its energy.

As he drew more and more power in ever more desperate attempts to ward off his doom, he visibly aged. The weight of corruption stooped him, curving his spine as his vertebrae softened with age. Age and rot gnawed at his bones, twisting his limbs until he could barely move. His remaining eye grew rheumy and his skin became spotted and wrinkled. Even immortal flesh was not immune to the corruption of the Heart.

Patches of skin began falling away, exposing pale bone and rotten tissue underneath, but still he held onto the icy fire of the gem with all his rapidly fading strength as if it would be his salvation. He almost couldn't hold on to the Heart with his gnarled and palsied hands, but with a final shriek of fury he called for the full puissance of the Heart of Corruption.

The Heart answered his call. He screamed silently, his fangs bared in a horrifying grimace, as cold, dead light filled him until it burst forth from his mouth. His flesh became incandescent as the gelid emerald fire consumed him from within. His brightness grew until they could no longer look at him. Then he collapsed into ash, completely consumed by the fires of the Heart.

The great gem fell to the ground by itself, its chain melted away in the final throes of the cataclysm that annihilated its master. It rolled slowly on the floor, its prodigious fury dwindling to mere embers of green inside the stone.

Willow and Tara extended their opposite unclasped hands, each one filled with a brilliant, pure light. Together, they wrapped the Heart in layer after layer of protective spells, forming a cocoon of gossamer magics around it so they could carry it safely home to be removed from this world. The beat of corruption's Heart momentarily stilled, they looked into each other's eyes again and smiled, exhausted but still glowing with the joy of their togetherness.

"How did you find me?" Willow asked when they finally had time for words.

"I followed my heart," Tara said quietly, squeezing Willow's hand for emphasis. She hadn't let go of Willow's hand since she had taken it in hers, and she never wanted to let go of her again.

Willow couldn't help but smile at Tara's response, but then a shadow fell over her face. She wished that she had followed her heart, but she had fled from it only to discover in the depths of the darkness that no amount of running would let you escape from your own heart. Not that she wanted to escape now, but she'd been so afraid before. "Tara, I'm sorry-" she began.

Tara put a gentle finger to Willow's lips, forestalling her apology. She didn't want to lose that joy in Willow's face because of the mistakes of the past. They had both made mistakes in coming to this place in their separate ways, but now they were together, and having learned from the past could finally put it behind them. "I'm sorry too, love," she said. "But let's not make tonight about what we did wrong. We found each other and that's what matters."

Willow instinctively wanted to protest. Her mind had already worked out so many scenarios that were better than what had happened. She had made too many mistakes. Then she looked into the pure love shining forth from Tara's face, and found that the darkness of her worries and self-recrimination could not survive in that light. Tara accepted her, mistakes and all.

"I'll always find you," Willow promised, her smile bright with the joy of that promise fulfilled. Her quest was complete. She had found Tara. Even though she had lost herself in the solitary darkness of her grief for so many long years, she had found Tara once more, and in her Willow had found herself again. Everything had changed, but nothing was lost any longer.

"Ready to go home?" Tara asked, her voice wavering with exhaustion she felt. Her face had a soft glow that hadn't abated, and her eyes shined with openness and trust as she regarded Willow.

"Yes," Willow said simply. But her heart was already home. She was tired though, and this dark cavern wasn't the place to celebrate her reunion with Tara even if its walls were still bright with the purity of their conjoined light. She reached down to pick up the chrysalis of enchantments that held the Heart and smiled up at Tara, "Home sounds perfect."

Hand in hand, they walked out of the darkness together.

Continued...