This is a continuation story for Escaflowne. It's a three part story that takes place 10, 21 and 28 years after the end of the TV series. The first part is a prologue to set the stage for the next two parts. The central characters after the prologue are OC, but many regular characters from the series also appear. Because of the prologue, the internal chapter numbers won't match the website chapter numbers, but I wanted to include the prologue as part of the story. The prologue is the longest chapter so far, so the next few shouldn't take as long to read. I hope you like it. –moms

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Disclaimer: The characters Van Fanel, Hitomi Kanzaki, Merle, Duke Chid, Allen Schezar, and other characters from Escaflowne are borrowed from the TV series The Vision of Escaflowne, created by Sunrise and directed by Kazuki Akane. The original characters of Yukari Fanel and Darvi were invented by me.

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Prologue: Memories of Gaia

Hitomi Kanzaki completed the customer's transaction without really thinking about it. The fashionably dressed woman was in a hurry and replied with a distracted nod to Hitomi's polite thanks. Hitomi sighed. The line of customers was long and there were still two hours left in the day. A new customer stepped up to her counter and Hitomi put on her usual courteous smile.

"Welcome to Sumotomi Bank. How may I assist you?"

She performed the new customer's transaction with only part of her mind. The rest was full of memories: memories of Van Fanel. Hitomi missed him. She had been so busy, those first years after returning from Gaia, completing her schooling that she hadn't had much time to think about it. But now, trapped by the repetitive tedium of her job at the bank, she found herself thinking of Van more and more.

And of how much she loved him.

She completed the transaction and smiled at the customer brightly. "Thank you for patronizing Sumotomi Bank. Please come again."

Hitomi greeted the next customer, but her thoughts were a lifetime away. As she logged yet another deposit, her mind's eye saw a green valley filled with the stone and wood buildings of an ancient city, surrounded by emerald green forests and sparkling blue streams. Fanelia. That's where she belonged.

On the train home that night, Hitomi wondered if Van still thought of her. She thought he did. She saw him in her dreams often and it felt like when they had been together. But the dreams weren't enough anymore. Now that she was a grown woman, she understood where their relationship could have gone, had she stayed with him. But that was ten years ago. She'd still been a child then, in many ways. She'd grown up a lot on Gaia, but only now, with a job and responsibilities, did she realize what she'd given up. And she didn't want to be alone anymore.

Back home, in her parent's house where she still lived, she stared out her bedroom window at the full moon and wished with all her heart that she could return to Gaia, to Van. But she had given Van her pendant, the key which linked her to Gaia. She had no way to get back.

"Oh, Van!" she sighed, "will I ever see you again?" She glanced at her Tarot cards. She hadn't touched them since returning from Gaia, but neither had she gotten rid of them. And she was too afraid to use them now. She did not want to find out she would die without ever seeing Van again. Painful as it was to live with uncertainty, certainty itself might be a death knell.

"Hitomi! Are you coming down to dinner?"

"Yes, Mother! I'll be right down!" Hitomi sighed again. It was probably foolish to sit around wishing, but she could not bring herself to let go.

As Hitomi settled onto her heels at the dinner table, Mrs. Kanzaki studied her face with concern. "Are you all right, Hitomi?"

"Yes, of course." Hitomi tried to smile.

Her mother signed sadly. "You've been remembering, haven't you?"

Hitomi was caught by surprise. "Oh! It's not that. I've been… My job…" she faltered to a stop, flushed, clutching her napkin in front of her.

Mrs. Kanzaki leaned forward and patted Hitomi's hand. "It's all right, dear. I understand. Your grandmother used to tell me how much she would have liked to return to that place."

Hitomi flushed deeper. "It's not just that. I met… people… there who came to mean very much to me." She bowed apologetically to her parents. "I want to go back to them!" she finished in a rush.

Mr. and Mrs. Kanzaki exchanged glances. They knew their daughter and they had always suspected something was holding her back from forming a relationship with someone.

"Is there a young man there you would like to see again?" Mrs. Kanzaki asked gently.

Unable to hold back, Hitomi dropped her face into her hands and began to weep. "I really do love him!" she cried. "But I wanted so much to come home and see my family and friends again. But now…" She continued to weep and her mother put an arm around her.

"We understand, dear," she said, tears springing into her eyes. "If you want to go back…"

"But I can't!" Hitomi wailed. She clutched at her mother's arm. "I gave him my pendant! I don't have any way to summon the pillar of light!"

Mrs. Kanzaki looked at her husband in confusion. He shook his head, equally bewildered. Hitomi continued to weep, clinging to her mother's arm.

"I'll never see him again! Never!"

Mrs. Kanzaki held her daughter close. "Remember what your grandmother told you," she whispered. "If you wish for something hard enough, it will come true."

"All I have done is wish," Hitomi whispered back. "If I wish any more, my heart will break." She rubbed a hand across her eyes. "Please forgive me, but I don't think I can eat any dinner tonight."

"Of course, dear," her mother replied gently. "Why don't you go to bed?"

"Yes, I think I will."

Hitomi returned to her room and stretched out on the bed with her clothes on, staring up at the ceiling. "Oh, Van! If I could have only one more wish in my life, I would wish to see your face again and hear your voice speaking my name." She closed her eyes and folded her hands over her breasts. She pictured Van in her mind, as she had last seen him, and wished with all her heart to be at his side again.

Because her eyes were closed, she did not see the glow beginning to surround her and fill the room with light. Only when it began to life her from the bed did she realize what was happening. Joy flooded through her and she began to weep with happiness. "Van! I'm coming back!"

- - - -

It was late at night, but Van was still up. He was tired, but the work never seemed to end. Years had passed since the end of the war, but the rebuilding still continued. He had focused initially on making the city habitable, but the surviving Samurai and nobility had insisted that he start rebuilding the castle, for his own protection. He had bowed to their wishes and then been overwhelmed by the myriad recommendations on what to build. The Samurai wanted a fortress. The nobility wanted something large and grandiose to impress the neighboring principalities. In the end, everyone had been happy except Van. The new castle was a massive construction of towers, aerial walkways, courtyards and gardens, solid enough to withstand a frontal assault from a guymelef, but beautiful enough to shelter the finest ladies. Faced with white limestone and accented with brightly colored tile and fluttering silk pennants, it was already the pride of Fanelia, even though many of her people were still living in tumbledown ruins.

It frustrated and embarrassed Van. So he sat up late, trying to figure out where to get the money to continue rebuilding the city. It had been foolish to let it all be spent on the castle and he was angry with himself. His father would never have allowed such a mistake.

"Lord Van!" The samurai knocked on the door and burst through it at the same time. "The sentries report seeing a pillar of light to the West!"

Van leaped to his feet, all traces of fatigue suddenly banished. "How far?!" His heart was pounding.

"In the forest just outside the city!"

"Get horses at once!" Van snatched up his sword and raced from the room, buckling the scabbard on as he ran. The samurai pounded on his heels, shouting for horses and an escort. Van rode out of the city with fifteen men, galloping up the slope into the forest beyond.

One of the sentries who had seen the pillar of light guided them, leading them unerringly to the spot where he had seen it land. Approaching a small clearing, they could all see the young woman standing in the moonlight, staring up at the sky with her hands clasped in front of her. Then her eyes dropped to regard them and Van's heart stopped. It was Hitomi. Her hair was longer and she had grown into a woman, but there was no mistaking her. He swung down from his horse and approached her slowly. She was beaming at him with a look of absolute joy.

"Van!" she exclaimed softly. "I wanted so much to see you again!"

"Hitomi!" Van embraced her. For that moment in time, nothing at all was wrong in the world.

She put her head on his shoulder. "I love you, Van," she whispered.

Van realized he had never kissed her. When she turned her face up to his, he didn't waste another second. He pressed his lips to hers warmly. She kissed him back with an intensity that warmed him to his toes. He drew his lips away and looked into her eyes. "I love you, too, Hitomi."

Her eyes were shining. "I came back to be with you," she said. "If… if you want me."

Want her? Van could not think of any adequate words to express how much he wanted her. So he kissed her again instead, long and deeply. When he pulled away a second time, there were tears in her eyes.

"I missed you so much! I have wished and wished to return to you, and tonight it finally came true!" She caressed his face with gentle fingers. "And I'm never going back."

Van just stood there and held her close until one of the samurai cleared his throat self-consciously. "We should return to the castle, my lord."

"You're right," Van answered, but it was so hard to let go of Hitomi even for the short instant of time it took to mount his horse and then pull her up in front of him. Hitomi wrapped her arms around him and leaned against him as they returned to the castle. Van's heart was singing. He had not ever let himself wish for Hitomi's return, for fear his desire would draw her away from a happy life. But now she was here, returned to him by her own choice. She was his and his life was suddenly whole. Everything was going to be all right.

- - - -

Everything was not all right. Merle hissed angrily and her tail bushed out when she saw Hitomi.

"What is she doing here?! We don't need her!"

Hitomi clasped her hands together in front of her waist and bowed slightly. "Hello, Merle. It's good to see you again."

"Hmph!" Merle hissed back.

"I wanted to be with Van," Hitomi continued, "so I came back."

Merle waved her hands in the air. "Van is King of Fanelia!" He's too important to take up with… with… some common girl from the Mystic Moon!"

"Like my father had no business taking up with a Draconian?" Van replied evenly.

Merle whirled toward him. "That's different! Draconians are…"

"From the Mystic Moon," Van interrupted her. He continued quickly before she could start up again. "I'm going to marry Hitomi, Merle. That's final."

Hitomi gasped and turned to face him with a wide smile. "Really?"

"If you'll have me."

"Oh, yes!" Hitomi flung herself into his arms and buried her face in the unruly mass of his black hair. "That's why I came back," she whispered in his ear.

"We'll get married as soon as it can be arranged."

Merle stared at them, her face flushed with jealous fury. "Fine! Go ahead and marry her, then! See if I care!" She bounded away, dropping to all fours as she dashed up the hallway.

Van stared after her sadly. "I was hoping she'd grow up a little since she became a mother."

Hitomi stiffened in surprise. "Merle is a mother?!" She leaned back to stare at him in shock.

"Yes, she has a two-year-old son."

"How?"

Van grinned. "The usual way." At Hitomi's glare, he continued. "After you left, she got angry with me for continuing to think about you, and she went to live with her own people for a while. When she came back, she had a little boy."

"Who is the father?"

"I don't know. She never told me. I don't think she wants me to know."

"Oh."

Van pulled her close again. "But now we have to make plans. I've waited ten years for this. I'm not waiting another moment longer than I have to."

- - - - - - - -

Of course, kings don't get married every day, and Van's wishes were apparently the last thing on the list when it came to planning a royal wedding. Despite his threats, cajoling and tantrums, the wedding plans were unequivocally removed from his grasp and placed in the charge of his Seneschal. Hitomi would have found it all quite amusing if it hadn't been her wedding that was endlessly postponed by countless details that could not be ignored. And of course, there were all the young noblewomen anxious to become the best friend of the new queen. They wouldn't leave her alone, which made it difficult to sneak off and look for Van. All she wanted was to be alone with him and that became more and more impossible every day.

In fact, the only time she could be alone at all was at night, when she shooed all the handmaidens out of her room so she could sleep. But she didn't sleep. Mostly, she lay in bed and thought about Van.

"Hitomi?"

Hitomi say up with a start. "Who's there?"

"It's me." Van appeared at the foot of her bed. "I wanted to talk to you."

"What about?" She leaned forward, unconsciously allowing the blanket to fall to her waist.

"Nothing in particular." He climbed onto the bed. "We just never get to be alone." He crawled up and sat next to her.

"I know. It's as if they don't want us to be alone together."

"They don't."

Hitomi was surprised. "Why not?"

"So I can't do this." Van put his arms around her and kissed her. He leaned forward, pushing her gently down into her pillows, his mouth pressed firmly against hers.

Hitomi hesitated only for an instant, and then she wrapped her arms around Van's neck and kissed back.

- - - - - - - -

Hitomi was blissfully happy. She didn't care now how long it took them to plan and hold the wedding. She had what she wanted. Van loved her and he'd spent the whole night proving it. Of course, everyone knew he'd spent the night with her, but they all pretended they didn't.

Except for Merle, who was even more catty than usual. But thankfully, she avoided Hitomi most of the time.

Hitomi doubted Van would be allowed to get away with sneaking into her room a second time, but it didn't matter. Soon enough, they would be married, and then they could spend every night together. Hitomi smiled whenever she thought about her future. Being queen was secondary. Being Van's wife and the mother of his children was the most important thing in the world to her now. In two worlds.