The Last Mission of Captain Catoriel -a Nightingale postscript

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The Last Mission of Captain Catoriel
-a Nightingale postscript

Author's note: when I finished The Nightingale some years ago, I promised to add a little more to the story, to tell what happened finally to Sasha. I didn't realize I had let so much time go by before I posted this. This isn't a stand alone story, though. It must be read with The Nightingale to, well, make sense. The song Gale sings is called Dante's Prayer, by Loreena Mckennitt. Listen to it here, it's wonderful. Better yet, have it playing when Gale sings in the story.

 
 
The Last Mission of Captain Catoriel
by armond
  
Yule

1.

"Stupid healers, what do they know?"

She pulled her wool shawl tighter; Goddess but it was cold! But she would not fail in her mission; she would see them one last time.

Sasha shuffled her tired bones as fast as she could. Which was quicker than a turtle. Just.

Thirty more steps and I'll be there.

She was not that old, barely in her sixties. It was the miles not the years. Too many reckless charges. Too many nights sleeping on rock hard ground. Meg warned her of this. She could even hear her words with the old Arch Priestess in her head, its echo a cherished memory of the long dead woman:

"Everything has a price, gel. It rains here, because it doesn't rain there. The farmer who fails to save the harvest in the summer, starves in Winter's wind. If you push yourself beyond reason now, you'll pay for it later, granddaughter."

Sasha remembered smiling craftily at the cranky gray-haired beloved ‘grandmother’ who was the only mother she'd known. The young priestess who gathered up a babe abandoned on the Temple steps, and claimed her as her own without a moments' hesitation.

"But Meg, don't you always say 'let go and let Goddess?"

"Nothing could be truer," Meg had answered, unfazed by Sasha throwing her own words at her. ''Yet She also does not suffer fools."

Sasha remembered her response was a petulant shrug.

"Now it hurts to shrug at all,” she said aloud, before clamping her hand over her own mouth.

Goddess! She did not want to alert the healers and nurses in the infirmary that she’d made a mad dash to the Temple gardens! Sasha stood still as she could and listened. In the distance, below Temple Hill, the Yuletide celebration finished hours ago, and the festival lights were dim; Anuvar was finally at peace.

As peaceful as the great city got at this wee hour, anyway,’ Sasha thought. She imagined the occasional reveler or two still combing the market district for one last open tavern, one last wassail bowl, perhaps, but otherwise Anuvar slept.

Closer by, the Temple of the Goddess stood silent. The Yule rituals and chants welcoming the sun’s rebirth had been said and sung. Sasha imagined all the priestesses snug in their beds, and the only sound in the entire grand building of worship would be the hiss of the silver-white altar flames. The pure color it ever burned since Gale sang away their doom those many years ago.

"Ah my Gale," she sighed, "everything has a price indeed."

Sasha rolled her eyes, at herself, for she had spoken aloud again, albeit softly. Listening once more, she heard no sounds from the direction she had come; she reckoned she had a good thirty minutes before the night nurse made her next rounds. Encouraged by the quiet, Sasha resolved to pick up her pace. The healers were sure to order her tied to her bed after this escapade, so she at least ought to make it to the damn garden before they nabbed her.

Soon enough, her hobbles moved her to the bench she sought. The one in front of the fountain at the garden's heart. The one with the statues. She collapsed onto the stone bench, her joints protesting when she did. Still, she smiled happily through her pain, because she was with her girls.

"Tanya! Gale!"

She smiled every time she saw them. No, cried. No, she did both, and laughed at herself in the doing.

For there the stood, Tanya, Sasha's silver haired poet, holding a scroll for Gale to read. And Gale, Sasha's doe-eyed nightingale, with her hand affectionately on Tanya's shoulder, was singing, of course. Singing away floods, sickness, drought and violence. Singing to the Goddess to save their island home.

"They look so lovely," Sasha sighed, with boundless love, pride and loneliness all jumbled together.

Of course, it didn't happen this way at all.

At the hour of doom, Gale, anointed with special oils, and drugged with powerful herbs from the Anatol Isles to alter her perceptions, sang alone before the statute of the Goddess. Sang herself out, and nearly died to save the island.

"Did die, in a way," Sasha reminded herself, "for that which had been Orlando in her died as she slipped into a coma after singing.”

No it didn't happen the way the statues depicted at all. In fact, the only time Tanya had met the 'great' troubadour Orlando, was a crisp Samhain eve, when Tanya was with Sasha. Orlando had stolen a kiss from Sasha and in return she kicked him in the balls.

"Hahaha! Oh Gale! Even after your transformation, I don't think you ever sang as high as when I did that!"

Anuvar's mayor proposed a towering statue of Gale to honor what she had done; it was to be a wonder of the world. Virgin white marble, in the middle of the civic center, hundreds of feet tall, with arms majestically outstretched to the Goddess.

Her little nightingale would have none of that. When Gale saw they were determined to do some foolishness, whether she wished it or no, she told them the Goddess wanted two statues, of her with the Moon Temple's Poet Laureate, Priestess Aeliana. And when the mayor had the temerity to ask why Tanya should be so honored, Sasha still laughed at her lover's response to him:

"Because, ya know, honored Sir, the lyrics came from somewhere. I didn't just fart the words out my ass!"

Sasha shivered with laughter that turned slowly into sobs. Goddess she missed them! Her years with each were the best of her life; glorious love-filled times. But so short! So short!

Slowly her sobs lessened, as the fatigue from 'great escape' overcame her, and soon she softly dosed where she sat.

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2.

"Stubborn stubborn Sasha, why do you fight so hard, still? Let go, lover."

Where a moment before was stone, now stood two women, one tall and fair, with silver-blonde hair, the other petite and curvy, with rich black curls, each dressed in the purple Temple robes.

"I hear the people now say 'stubborn as Captain Catoriel,' instead of 'hard headed as a mule,' the second woman said. She to whom birds would flock and sing.

On cue, there was a fluttering of wings, as nightingales filled the barren trees around the fountain.

"Sshh guys," Gale whispered to the birds as she and Tanya climbed from the fountain. "On my signal."

The fluttering stopped and after Tanya and Gale wrung what water they could from the hem of their robes, they sat on the stone bench on either side of the sleeping elderly woman.

"She's still so fierce," Tanya said, "even as her body is failing, her spirit battles on."

"Yes!" Gale answered, “it's like her expression is saying, 'screw you, death,' or something like that."

"And that," giggled Tanya, “is why I write the words instead of you."

Gale stuck out her tongue, and brought her hand to the dosing woman's face. Almost touching it, she first ran a finger along the deep wrinkles and lines etched in Sasha's face, and then gently stroked Sasha’s faded copper hair.

“She's been alone for so long, so long, Tanya.”

“Let's bring her home then,” the poet said. “Time for the nightingale to sing.

Gale gave a nod to the trees, and her birds softly sang. And so did she:

When the dark wood fell before me
And all the paths were overgrown
When the priests of pride say there is no other way
I tilled the sorrows of stone

It was decades since the people of Anuvar heard the her voice, and many now doubted the legend could be true. A single voice could sing away a flood? A plague? The stuff of good stories only.

But this longest night of the year, this night of rebirth, this Yule, they heard. For when Gale sang, she was Her voice. Her purest notes drifted into the dreams of the people throughout the isle. And they were filled with longing. The next day would see the temples of Anuvar full with worshipers spilling onto the streets, and priestesses would hear of the wondrous dreams the people had.

I did not believe because I could not see
Though you came to me in the night
When the dawn seemed forever lost
You showed me your love in the light of the stars

Sasha stirred. Her eyes popped open and her heart sped. For it was Gale! Oh Goddess it was her!

Then the mountain rose before me
By the deep well of desire
From the fountain of forgiveness
Beyond the ice and fire

Sitting beside her, alive! Alive, and singing to her as she had all those many years ago. Sasha tried as hard as she could not to move an inch, for if this was a dream, she wanted nothing to end it. But when she felt a squeeze on her hand, she had to turn to see, and when she did, her mouth dropped open.

Tanya!!!

The silver-haired woman smiled mischievously, gently closed Sasha's gaping mouth with her slender index finger, and turned Sasha's face back to Gale.

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me

The ocean of souls. The ocean of Her. Sasha remembered.

The night before Gale sang away the disasters that beset Anuvar, Sasha had a dream. It had been many terrible months since Tanya’s death, it was the lowest time of her life, and the famed swordswoman roamed the isle seeking vengeance. Seeking death. Sasha’s heart was stone and her dreams were dead. Yet that night, with her arms wrapped around a shivering Gale, she dreamed. Because her nightingale sang her to sleep.

She dreamed of Tanya, standing with her on a hill by the sea. An infinite horizon of blue.

We look upon the ocean of Her,” Tanya had said, and Sasha saw a trail of lights, like flickering candles, walking on the white sandy beach into the shimmering water. And Sasha could see it in her face, Tanya longed to join them.

And now, on this Yuletide night, as Gale’s song flowed on, pure and clear, Sasha felt that longing too! O the sea pulled her now!

Breathe life into this feeble heart
Lift this mortal veil of fear
Take these crumbled hopes, etched with tears
We'll rise above these earthly cares

Gale’s voice filled Sasha as never before. Years ago, the two traveled to the ends of the isle together, -a glorious time- until the song of the Goddess carried Gale away. And no matter how many times she’d heard her lover sing, Sasha was always enthralled. Yet now, at last she fully understood Gale’s words on their first Beltane together:

When I sang at the Altar, I was filled with music, with the songs of each and every soul. Not living or dead, all of them. They became a chorus, singing together. Became Her voice. Became Her. It overwhelmed me. Dissolved me. After I returned ...I can still hear the ocean of Her…

The ocean of Her. Sasha finally, finally heard the Lady calling,

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless

Please remember me

Please remember me

Please remember me...

As Gale's final notes drifted up into the cold starry Yuletide night, there was profound and utter silence, as the world strained to listen, wanting to hear every single vibration of Her.

Until finally, Tanya, very softly, said, "and that is why you sing the words instead of me."

Sasha dared to breath. "This is a dream?"

"You always ask the same thing," Tanya laughed, "and the answer is always the same. Yes, it's a dream, my stubborn Captain, and it is also more real than anything you've known."

Tanya and Gale then attacked and hugged the bewitched woman, kissing her cheeks, musing her hair. Sasha's tears of loneliness, so long kept in check by the Captain's iron will, flowed.

"But why are you here now? This night?" Sasha tried to piece it together, speaking through hiccupped sobs. "Because you wrote that Yule song, Tanya? For Gale to sing... Because the people needed to hear?"

"I hope they heard. I pray they did..."

Gale’s glistening eyes showed how deep ran her desire to bring souls closer to the Lady. Sasha marveled still at how different Gale was than the old Orlando, who only sang for earthly rewards.

"...but no. This song was just for you, my love."

"Just for me?” Sasha's famous stubbornness stepped front and center then. “Really? And why would that be so?"

"Because it was the only way to break through your stubborn walls and get you to let go," Tanya patted Sasha's knee. "For it is time; one last mission for the legendary Captain Sasha Catoriel of the elite Moon Temple Guard."

“A mission?” Sasha laughed. "As you can see, my mission days are over. This old soldier can barely shuffle to the privy these days."

"Um, Sasha? I don't mean to be bossy, since, ya know, that's your job," Gale giggled, hopping to her feet. She grabbed Sasha's hand and yanked her to her feet. "But I think you'll find you are feeling much better."

Sasha started to groan, anticipating the screaming her joints would surely make. She blinked in surprise when there was none. Looking down, she saw her shawl and infirmary nightgown gone, replaced by her ceremonial Moon Temple Guard uniform, with purple cape flowing behind her and famous saber belted at her side.

Those were the least of her changes. Her body was now the same age as when she and Gale traveled the isle, and her hair was lustrous copper.

"I'm... young again!"

"So no more whining," Tanya said. "Shall we?"

Sasha nodded dreamily and, with Tanya’s arm wrapped around her left elbow, and Gale's around her right. She took a few steps and halted.

"But won't this cause a stir? World famous statues go missing and all that?"

"Oh it will cause a stir," Tanya giggled, "take a look."

Sasha turned back, blinked several times, and then laughed.

"That's perfect!"

Sasha could only gaze a few moments in amusement and wonder, for the longing was too strong. Which gave her a moment's pause.

"I want to fly to the sea, I feel Her call so strongly! How did you, ever come back from that to see me, Tanya, and how did you," Sasha pointed at Gale, "stay with me as long as you did?"

Tanya rolled her eyes, grabbed Sasha's face and kissed her hard. She stepped aside to let Gale cut in, who on tiptoes, wrapped her lips around Sasha's for a long wet kiss. Between the two kisses, Sasha was quickly a hot moaning mess.

“Because, we love you beyond life, beyond death,” Tanya said.

“Your soul sings to us across the veil,” Gale added. “Let's go to Her, lover. Let's see what happens next!”

“Yes!” Sasha's body was already young, but now the world weariness slipped from her soul. Laughing like a child, she grabbed the hands of her lovers and ran. Bright lights skimming over the land, racing to the blue moonlit sea.

birds-2.jpg

3.

Captain Sasha Catoriel of the elite Moon Temple Guard would forever have a place in the stories of Anuvar. Her legendary feats and battles, her famous stubbornness, her bittersweet loves. Yet perhaps it was her passing that would be remembered most of all through the ages. For one night, legend has it, her lovers came from beyond death to take the old captain away. There was no one who witnessed it, true, yet how else to explain what was left when the old woman vanished?

Where once were two stone statues, now were three, for a new statue, Captain Catoriel in battle leathers with saber at her side and braided hair down her back, stood smiling before the figures of the poet and singer.

the end.

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Comments

Armond

You write beautiful stories, I'm thinking Tanya might not be the only poet here!

thank you :)

thank you :)

*sniff*

Darn it it is too early in the morning to be crying.

sorry!

It's never good to start the day all sniffly. I should put a warning on my stories, like a Kleenex emoticon, maybe.

Armond, you have stock in Kleenex... You MUST have

Here I have the beginnings of a likely nasty cold and you have to make me cry all the more.

It was a great tale and this epilog was so worthy of it.

John in Wauwatosa

John in Wauwatosa

Satisfying Epilogue

I have always enjoyed your stories and am beyond happy that you are writing again! Also coming up with such a great epilogue to one of my favorite stories just means that today has been a great day.

thank you!

I'm glad you liked it. I'm very fond of the characters in this story. They speak very clearly for themselves, and it's my job to write down accurately what they are telling me.

And I am writing again. Many new stories. And finishing a few old ones too.

-a

Thank you, Armond

Armond you have truly made my night, I was so happy to see something new from you that words fail me. I have reread your stories so often that I did not even have to read Nightingale again as it really does sing to me. Your latest offering was short but oh so sweet and everything I've come to expect from you over the years and I loved how you put a delicate period on three of our favorite magical characters. Now if I may be so bold as to ask for a similar treatment to one of my all time fav's The Summerland Path you will have my undying gratitude forever.

Armond

I seriously like your work. This last one, had me crying because it was so powerful and touching.
So very happy you're back writing!
Hugs
Grover

Grover!

I always love hearing from you!

Awesome!

Awesome!

In your own unique style, you have a gift to tell fascinating, beautiful stories. Thank you for sharing this epilogue.

thank you!

It was my pleasure. Sorry it took me so long to post it.

-a

Loved, loved, LOVED!

The original was always one of my favourite stories ever so this followup is very much welcomed. Next time, however, include a tissue warning!! **hugs**

thank you, Heather!

I'm very glad to hear you liked it!

-a

excelent !

glad I found this.

DogSig.png

This was so well done!

Armond,
I should have commented two years ago when you published this. It's a real challenge to add an epilogue that's dated decades into the future. But you did it so well. You made it alive and fun. Thank you!
Jim

"The Call"

Aljan Darkmoon's picture

This story soooo reminds me of The Call from the The Twilight Zone (1985) TV series. I cry whenever I see that one, too, as it resonates with my own loneliness. :"(

Tremendous! (again)

I loved this story the first time, and I loved it again! Thank you, Armond, for writing the sequel that needed to be written!