Tale of Black Hope

Esper and I got along famously in the months after the events of my birthday. We confided in each other about everything. I even told her about the dream that I had still not questioned my parents about. Though it was months ago it remained vivid in my memory, the only detail missing being my true mother's face, hidden beneath the cloak. She told me that she often dreamed of her father, who died of illness when she was too young to fully remember. We came to empathize and understand each other more and more.

But one day during the next summer, she disappeared. She and her mother were both gone, their home abandoned, and without a word to anypony. Her family was not as wealthy as mine and they had few possessions, many of which were left behind. I kept visiting on her namesake, wishing and praying she'd return. No other in the town gave it much thought or care. My routine visits to the abandoned home became a temporal marker for some. My parents worried for my sake but I only thought of Esper, When my mind din't fall back upon the dream of course.

By the time I turned eleven I decided to let go and focus more on my studies. I continued to feel haunted, especially after I stopped visiting. It was as though I were being punished with cold judging glares from eyes unseen. I always felt like Esper was sitting just out of sight, in the distance, around the corner, just to my side and out of my view, but always just as far from reach.

When my parents finally decided to confess my adoption to me shortly after I turned twelve, I met the topic with relative apathy. They were baffled by my foreknowledge. I told them of of my dream. Since Esper's disappearance, it had begun reoccurring. Sometime I would hear singing. The voice was often my true mother's but other times there were two male voices together that I never recognized. But it was always the same song, one I couldn't understand.

"Canta per me ne addio
quel dolce suono
de' passati giorni
mi sempre rammenta"

In so many ways I could not understand this beautiful song. The singing voices sound free and aloof, strong and proud, yet also, some how at the same time, full of sorrow and regret.

la vita dell'amore
dilette del cor mio
o felice, tu anima mia
canta addagio...

I had dreamt this song so many times that I began to learn it.

tempra la cetra e canta
il inno di morte
a noi si schiude il ciel
volano al raggio

I began to believe that the song might be the most important thing of my life.

la vita dell'amore
dilette del cor mio
o felice, tu anima mia
canta addio...

But I still needed to translate it somehow, and discover its meaning. I came to believe that I could not do it alone. This belief was more of a refusal to go without the one mare I trusted to be with me every step of the way. That in itself would be a journey.