Her eyes were red and hollow from her attempts to keep her tears at bay. The Ellimist said nothing as he stood (floated? wafted?) in silence before her.

"I won't remember him?"

"No, it will be like your encounter with the Skirt Na never happened."

Loren buried her face in her hands. To lose him like this? Anything she asked of the Ellimist, any choice seemed hideous to her. Unthinkable.

"What about..?" She almost couldn't bear to speak of- It wasn't fair... Not now, not yet, she couldn't...

"Your child will survive. He will go on to play a crucial part in the coming conflicts. He will still be yours... And Elfangor's."

Loren sniffed and dashed away her tears, rising to her feet to look the Ellimist in the eye. His face, alien still, but strangely almost human-like in the way he smiled at her, so warmly. It made her want to rage at him, pound him with her fists.

"Did he..?" She swallowed, "Did he know about him?" Or her, but Loren had a feeling...

The Ellimist's gaze was expressionless. Then again, that didn't really mean anything looking at an alien.

"Do you really want to know?"

Did she? Did she want to know if Elfangor knew he had a child and left them anyway?

Come on, Loren! What sort of question was that? Elfangor would do his duty, he would do right by everyone else before he ever thought of himself. It was one of the reasons she loved him.

"I have one condition..." She said softly.

"Yes?"

"You can pretty much do anything right? You can rewrite history however you want?"

"It doesn't quite-"

"I want Elfangor to leave his child a letter. Something for him to find, to explain..." The burning in her throat cut her off as she swallowed. Explaining what? How could you explain their lives to anyone else? All the horror and beauty they had seen together? How could a little child ever hope to understand what had taken his father away?

Loren didn't bother to stop the tears from flowing now, dribbling down her cheeks and soaking her shirt. War was always stealing her family away. She hated it. She was sick of it. Sick to death of it.

"... Explaining a little of what's happened. Why he doesn't have a father," Loren took a deep breath, what else she wanted was easy, "I don't want my history to be with anyone else. Don't you dare stick me with anyone else."

"Done. You are ready now?"

Loren closed her eyes and nodded, letting her hand come to rest on her belly.

Give 'em hell, Elfangor.

Then Loren as she knew herself ceased to exist.

END