Approaching the lowest cliff-face in Fornstrand, David untied his boots and left them in the sand. This place was special to him. He'd always come here to clear his mind and find peace. It was also where he'd met his first love, a peasant girl who could understand him and treated him no differently when he revealed that he was the Marquis. He'd lost her when a raid of monsters attacked Athlum. David had been powerless to stop the raid due to an agreement with Athlum's sovereign state, Celapaleis, which forbade the use of his Remnants without prior approval. By the time he'd been granted that permission, she had been slain, though the city-state of Athlum was saved. David had avoided coming to Fornstrand for years. He always believed her spirit remained there, where they were happiest, and he wished to fulfill his promise of gaining Athlums freedom before returning to her. When that day finally came he returned, with Rush in tow, to celebrate his accomplishment with her and finally tell her what he didn't so long ago, that he'd loved her. A lot had happened since that day. The threat of the Conqueror had passed and with him went the Remnants that had been both a burden and a boon. However, in exchange David had lost someone else precious to him. Rush. It was Rush's self-sacrifice that had ultimately saved the world. David had little time to mourn following the war, as his duty as Marquis and Chairman of the Congress put him to work making sense of a world without Remnants. At last he'd finally managed to sneak away. But in that moment of calm, as he sat there on the cliff-side contemplating dipping his feet into the cool water, all the memories of the past few months came rushing back to him. The storm of emotions in his heart reflected the perpetually ominous clouds of Fornstrand and he could no longer hold back the tears. --- I put this idea on the backburner sometime last year, but finally decided to finish it for the dazaholics Weekly Themed Feature Challenge over at Deviant ARt, Ocean's of Calm. I did a lot more postwork on this one than I normally do. I had partially finished texturing the coat last year, but there was still more that had to be done to make it recognizable. A lot of Darren Hayes and X-Japan went into the making of this image. <3 Setup and Rendered in DAZ Studio 4.12. Postwork in Photoshop Elements 8.0