Prologue

Time has a funny way of keeping one locked in a moment, doesn't it? And memories, memories, they always have the audacity to pull up certain tangents that were otherwise thought long forgotten or shoved.

Pit bottom, into the deepest crevices of our minds. Doesn't it? Doesn't it?

Loralie sat opposite the youthful looking boy opposite her, he had an elegant stance to him. All black, all smooth and carved liked the ivory, he had the makings of a god indeed. A quiet and impatient one. His brows furrowed in slight annoyance, "Why are we back at this, again?"

Loralie had a gentle air around her that carried the entire weight of the people's attention on her. She was even more graceful than the one opposite her. She had a light, intangible and whimsical air around her that made the flowers blushed shamefully against her beauty.

Loralie's lip arched into a slight smile, "Sign it and we'll be done with this. It's all a pretense, isn't it? Like puppets, we played into Fate's very own hands. I really have to talk to them about meddling into our lives."

"I'm glad they did. Otherwise, our paths would never have crossed, Lola, and you know that."

Lo. La. The pet names, and Loralie had a brief moment of hesitation, but it was a slight one that held for a fraction of a second. There, that moment.

Her smile turned into a gentle yet firm one, almost as though she were admonishing a young boy, "There, now. Sign it before I send my entire army on you. And you know what that means, doesn't it?"

Ivor nodded mechanically, almost as though he were restraining his anger. Sighing, he took the pen and signed the papers. It glistened, and then burned into flames. Like the lives that they once had, like the dream they once stepped into and out of.