EDIT: Remember Me was originally a songfic—but due to the new and in my opinion very controversial policy that has been sprung on us by Fanfiction-dot-net, I've had to replace it with a version edited to remove the lyrics. The original version is available at my Valdemar fic archive, Mystery Vale, the link to which is at the bottom of my profile. Feel free to browse over and read it the way it was supposed to be, and I apologize for the inconvenience.

Disclaimer: Valdemar & concepts belong to Mercedes Lackey alone. The lyrics are from Taking Over Me by Evanescence. This story belongs to Senashenta.

Original Characters: Nori Ronan, Cicelia Ronan & Companion Zivanka.

Notes: Uhm... this kind of just struck me a couple of days ago. I'm not sure why. Hopefully it turned out alright, even if it is a little short. Oh, and the reference at the very beginning here is to Companion Tavi and Dash, who are characters from Furious Angel by etcetera-cat. Furious Angel is an amazing One-Shot, and among my favorites of hers, so go and read it if you haven't already.

There are also references to Companion Angeni & Tarak (from Midwinter Mirage) and Companion Aysel & Meena (from Mirrors). They probably don't all take place in the same time, but I don't care. :p lol.

Remember Me

I think I was six the first time I saw you, standing outside the Temple after services, waiting patiently. The snow was falling, just a bit, and there was some across your back and haunches, shining in the winter sunlight, and your eyes were the deepest shade of sapphire I could ever have imagined.

You had come for Dash that day, but the memory of you stayed with me even after you had left.

You haunted my dreams after that: dreams that were full of blue light, and love, and righteous retribution. Dreams that were full of the feel of justice. They were dreams that set the course for the rest of my life, though I always tried not to dream them—they reminded me of that day, that wonderful, terrible day, when you entered my life, and then left it just as quickly.

I tried to move on, and live my life, but despite my youth I knew—deep down inside of me, I knew—that I had lost something. My dreams were evidence of that, reminding me always of the beauty—devotion—magic—love you possessed, but chose to share with someone else, even though I didn't really understand what was going on.

The next time I saw you I was ten. I remember because it was my birthing day, and Mother had taken me to the cobbler to get new soles put on my shoes, and you were in the streets when we got there, looking around as if you were searching for someone.

For just a moment, you looked at me—

And then your crystal gaze moved on.

You were searching for Tarak that morning, on the day of my birthing, and you carried him off, right past my nose, leaving me with both hope and sadness renewed. The dreams started again after that, and in the back of my mind I made a promise—

I would find you.

Some day, I would find you.

Most children dream of being Heralds, and having a Companion of their own, but by the time others my age were reaching that point in the growth of their imaginations, I had already been wishing for it for years.

I didn't understand it. My heart was telling me I wanted to be with you—needed to be with you, even, but I didn't know why. There was just something in the fluid grace of your body and the wonder of your eyes that struck me to the core, and wouldn't release me.

It was like a spell had been cast, to trap me forever in the washing tides of your eternal gaze. I was dreaming of shining silver and sapphire, breathing the scent of fresh grass, living in the hope of some day seeing you—just once more—even for only a moment.

It was four years before I saw you again, and I was fourteen then.

I was with my sister at the Midsummer Faire in Haven, and you were walking down the middle of the street, riderless and all but glowing in the summer heat. Your tack was spotless, blue and silver, and the bells on your reigns jingled cheerfully in perfect sync with the chime of your hooves on the road.

Cicelia pointed and laughed. She wanted to touch you, but I wouldn't let her.

Deep down, I wanted to do exactly the same thing—but somehow, it seemed wrong. You weren't mine and I could feel it. After a timeless moment I was proven right—the crowd parted before you as you headed toward one of the vendor stalls, and gently nosed the back of a girl who was buying a new scarf.

She turned—

And—

My breath caught in my throat and choked me as she turned around to meet your eyes—to meet her destiny.

I took Cicelia by the hand, and we went home.

Sometimes, in my dreams, you came and talked with me. It was a strange kind of talking, without moving mouths or sound, but the words were layered with more love and comfort than I had ever felt in my entire brief existence. You would touch my cheek with your nose, and lay your head across my shoulder, and I would hug you tightly and vow never to let go.

You never said so, but I knew you loved me, then, and I was happy.

My entire life, I had looked for you, but every time I saw you was all to brief. You were there, though, somewhere. You were hiding from me, somewhere that was deep and dark, and where I couldn't go—not yet, anyway.

Searching made me tired. So tired that it was hard for me to go on, and sometimes I could do little more than lie in bed and dream—hope—wish—cry—my family worried about me during those days, but I couldn't tell them what was wrong. They would never understand the hurt I was going through.

Yes, you hurt me.

Each time I saw you cut me to ribbons inside.

When I was fifteen, I started having nightmares.

They were terrible dreams, devoid of life and love, and the warm sapphire I had come to cherish dared not bring hope to them. They were dreams where I stood in a barren landscape, surrounded by fallen soldiers from every nation I had ever heard of and looked everywhere for a part of me that I simply could not find.

I was grown in those dreams, a man in all respects, and held a sword in my hand as if it were a lifeline. It may have been attached to my palm, for all that I cared to wonder. The blade was stained with blood, which dripped to the ground beneath it with a hollow sound that seemed to echo everywhere.

You weren't with me in those dreams, and I was afraid.

My parents sent me to live with my aunt and uncle shortly before my sixteenth birthing day. They said it was to teach me the ways of city life, but I know the real reason: they were afraid of me... or, perhaps, they were afraid for me.

The nightmares I had been having were worse—terrible—and I woke screaming more nights than not. Cicelia was frightened of me, and I had heard the neighbors whispering when they thought I couldn't hear—or, when they didn't care if I did: they said I was cursed, or possessed by a demon.

I wasn't sure they were entirely wrong...

The blue dreams were rare and few, then, but on the nights that I didn't wake shivering in fear, you tried to console me. Your voice was comforting and warm, and stole the breath from me without pain or death. It felt as if I was forever holding my breath when you were near, but somehow I was never the worse for it...

:It will be alright, Nori.: You would say, and your eyes conveyed a sadness that I didn't understand. You would rest your head across my shoulder, then, and I would cry into the softness of your mane. :It will be alright.:

The next time that I saw you, I was sixteen years old, and had been living with my aunt and uncle for nearly four months. My Mother and Father had not come to visit me in Haven, and they had not allowed my sister to, either. I was lonely, and afraid, haunted by the nightmare images that flooded my sleep every night.

I was in the market, buying eggs to take home with me to my aunt. My eyes were red and sunken, and I knew how I looked... the people around me were wary when I passed, and tried not to get too close to me when I moved.

You appeared from nowhere, slipping through the crowds with unearthly grace, and I heard the bells from your bridle before I even saw you.

You were looking—searching—

My heart began to break once more, and I turned to look back at the merchant stall.

Then something bumped into my back, and I whirled to meet your beautiful, radiant blue eyes—

I stood frozen, when you touched me, unable to move—

—unable to breathe—

My dreams whirled through my head, painful in their fury, and I closed my eyes to block out the tears that were welling in my eyes and threatening to spill down my already harried cheeks. I clenched my hands into fists, certain that I was dreaming—that I was insane—that I was—

Gently, you pressed your nose into my cheek, and then laid your head across my shoulder—

:My name is Zivanka...: you whispered into my mind, and suddenly I was crying, and I didn't care. I threw my arms around your neck and sobbed into your mane. I didn't care about the other people, or about the rest of the world. I didn't care about anything but you—

And just like in my dreams, you murmured comforts through the torture of my existence.

:It will be alright now, Chosen. It will be alright.: