358: Clarity: Part Two

by Vedek Jariel Camen
80621.0200
Following Part One
Soundtrack: To Where You Are by Josh Groban

-=Current Time: Aboard the Sylph Vessel=-


The Luminary had seen enough.

"See what you've done! The one called Camen only loves her more, not less."

The Luminary pushed the healer aside, with a mere thought, and prepared to intervene in Camen's memories herself.

"When he understands the depth of his pain, he will no longer wish to be with the one called Liis anymore. Then the healing will truly begin."

-=Alternate Timeline, concurrent with Undone Part 4=-


The Kai felt dizziness strike him, suddenly, and completely. He slammed his hands down on the table to steady himself. The men around him stopped arguing, and turned towards Kai Jariel.

"Kai, are you all right?" One of the men asked. Another stood up, and wrapped his arm around the Kai's shoulders.

Camen felt a stabbing pain. Pure despair gripped him. Instinctively, his hand flew to his chest to cover his heart. There he felt the metal of Liis' earring press against his chest. It was still there, right where he had left it a few days earlier during his argument with Fleur.

The pain subsided, and he drew Liis's earring out of his pocket.

The men around him looked on, perplexed.

"Something is wrong. Horribly wrong. None of this is right."

-=Flash=-


“The Jariel is free.” The Prophet spoke to him.

“Free of what?” Camen asked.

“Free of worry, at last you can devote yourself only to us.”

“Something has happened to her, hasn’t it?” Camen asked.

“Kai Jariel is free, and will now lead Bajor to greatness.”


-=Flash=-



The vision over, Camen reached up to his ear, and unclasped the earring of the Kai. He removed his head coverings, and set them down on the table next to the earring.

He stood up, clutching Liis's earring in his hand.

"I'm sorry. I just can't do this anymore."

Without another word he left the room and returned to his quarters of residence and locked the door.

Accessing his personal computer, he brought up information on Earth, specifically weather conditions in County Cork, Ireland. It took a few moments for the subspace information to transmit. His heart stopped when he saw the enormity of the storm covering the small town.

"No."

He switched off the viewer, and took a piece of paper and old fashioned fountain pen into his hands, to write a brief message.

Fleur, please find true love. You have been a dear wife. All my possessions are yours to do with as you see fit.

He set the paper aside on his desk, and stepped to the replicator, and touched the pad. The replicator prompted him for several passwords and confirmations for what he was ordering. Finally satisfied, a glass of liquid appeared before him.

"Computer, open my personal file and play song Liis One."

He stared into the glass, as the haunting music began to fill the room.

Liis would never forgive him, if she knew what he considered now. He swore he could almost here her voice begging him to live, and telling him she would wait.

He closed his eyes, and he lifted the glass. Before it reached his lips, and pulled his arm back and threw it across the room. The glass shattered, much like his heart, into thousands of shards of what it once was. He grabbed the letter he wrote Fleur, tore it to pieces and burned what was left of it over the candles in the room.

He climbed into bed. He was tired, so tired.

As the music ended, Camen drifted away with it...

-=Flash=-


He found himself in familiar surroundings. The orphanage in Altaan Province where he and Liis had grown up.

He walked down the path to the door. There was no one else in sight, it was so quiet.

He pressed his hand to the large wooden handle and pushed the great door open. Inside was a woman with long dark hair he had seen in his dreams all his life. He stepped inside, and up behind her.

"Liis."

Slowly she turned. Her face was sad, until she looked into his eyes. Then, a smile slowly spread out across her lips.

"Camen."

He held out his arms, and slowly and softly, she nestled into them. They embraced. Then she drew back, and took his face in her hands.

“Live for me Camen, and I will live in you. I promise, I will be here for you, waiting.”

He pressed his lips to hers, and their surroundings faded to nothing.

-=Current Time: Aboard the Sylph Vessel=-


The Luminary seethed with fury.

Camen was never supposed to see what his people would have called the afterlife. He was only supposed to know the pain of her death. Someone had allowed him access to memories he was not to see.

Someone would be punished.

-=Current Time: USS Serendipity=-


Camen shook as sobs coursed through his body. He became too weak to stand, and lowered himself to the floor. His guilt tore at him from the inside out. He had been such a fool to doubt her, question her.

His memories had simply run out at the point, with him holding her in his arms in some other place. If what Keiran had said was true, that reality likely ended at that point, when O’Sullivan traveled back to correct timeline.

He scrambled to his feet... and ran. His feet pounded against the deck, as he skidded to a stop at the door to their quarters. The door opened, to reveal empty rooms.

*No.* He thought.

He dove for the computer, and requested her location.

^The Captain is in Sickbay.^

As soon as he heard the word sickbay, he ran back out the door.

*************************
Jariel Camen
Ship's Chaplain
USS Serendipity