Until the Sea Remembers

In Cyrene's sunlit mountain halls,
Where seabirds cried above the walls,
Two hearts set forth with eager grace,
To chase the edge of every place.

The Outriders became their home,
Across wild lands and seas they'd roam,
With compass, ship, and hopes to spare,
No distant shore too far to dare.

Together every rank they'd climb,
Counting adventures, not the time.
A promise forged through storm and flame,
One future held, one family name.

Then silence fell.

A single night.

A closing eye.

A fading light.

And twenty years were swept away,
Like driftwood on a restless bay.

I awoke where seasons passed,
To find ny world a ghostly cast.
The streets remained, the harbor too,
Yet every cherished face I knew

Lay wrapped in slumber's quiet keep,
Far beyond my reach in sleep.
My comrades all, chiseled stones,
Preserved like stories left untold.

And Vaela.

Faithful still.

Unmoved by time.

Unbent by will.

The ring unclaimed, the vow broken,
Twenty years of silence spoken.

I walk the docks at eventide,
With memory pacing at my side.
The gulls still wheel, the waters gleam,
As if the years were but a dream.

Yet every wave that meets the shore
Whispers of what was before.
Of hunts once shared and oceans crossed,
Of all that slumber's grasp has lost.

The sea wind sighs against my face,
An old companion's brief embrace.
It asks me softly where I'll go,
And only I can truly know.

Should I remain where echoes stay,
A lonely man in yesterday?

Or close my eyes and drift once more,
Toward sleeping hearts on some far shore?

The stars emerge above the foam,
Like lanterns calling to a sailors' home.
And in their distant silver gleam,
I see the shape of every dream.

Not ended.

Waiting.

Still held fast.

Beyond the years that slipped and passed.

For love that twenty years can keep

May yet endure another sleep.

Penned by my hand on the 17th of Chronos, in the year 1007 AF.