The Devotion of The Sun

Chapter Eight

:!:Recap:!:

"Hide this under your bed, they won't check yours," he instructs and she complies. "We need to leave once the sun has risen, maybe in one week on the holy day, that way everyone will be in one place and there will be less eyes,"

✩.･*:｡>──── ⋆☀︎⋆ ────<.•*:｡✩

He looks towards the window, it's already dark out, 'it's likely Alice won't get dinner tonight either,' "we should get to sleep, just in case father gets drunk tonight..." she nods.

He goes to his bed, getting under the blankets, and she does the same. . .

Milo wakes up to the feeling of Lenore kissing his cheek and getting out of bed. "Good morning," he says sleepily.

"Good morning, Milo," she smiles, "I have to go investigate something, I'll be back soon,"

"What happened?"

"I noticed lilies that were grown far earlier than they should be, and they aren't ones that you grew..." she says as she gently moves his hair out of his face. "I have to make sure that there aren't any spirits nearby,"

"Ok, but please be careful," he says as he sits up, she smiles widely.

"I will," she gently kisses his forehead before leaving the room.

'She's been kissing me a lot lately,' he smiles softly, 'it's nice,' he slowly gets up. He sleepily gets changed and then heads to his work room, where he sews. 'It seems Lenore ripped yet another dress,' he picks it up, and he brings it to the table, where he pins the rip closed.

He carefully sews it, repairing the dress. 'Lenore doesnt like wearing pants... but... maybe I can make her a pair of flowy pants, wide leg, her main complaint about pants was the flowy-ness.' he thinks about it. He goes towards the piles of fabric before searching for the perfect fabric for these pants.

As he finds a long sheet of muted green soft stretchy fabric, Lenore finds the spirit in question.

"You were by him, were you not?" she scowls at her, crossing her arms.

"I was, just for a moment though... Tell me nightshade born, that man... he's a solar spirit... isn't he?"

Lenore pauses, "my name is Lenore, not nightshade born, it's a name he has given me," she changes the topic.

"What is his name?"

"Milo, and that's all you need to know about him,"

"But why? Don't you know that if he is truly a solar spirit then he should be at the heart, where he'll have community... not alone with you," her words hit a nerve.

"You're naive." Lenore says with a glare. "How many forest spirit women want children?" 'Milo is a solar spirit, and in legend it's said that solar spirits are the only ones able to give children to forest spirits, if all female forest spirits found him... I'm sure they'd take him from me out of their own selfish greed to become a mother.' it angers Lenore as she thinks about it.

"What is your point?"

"My point is that it's likely they will use him in order to become mothers, against his will," forest spirits have heavy motherly instincts, it's a trait passed down from the goddess of nature, ava. The mother. "Milo belongs with me, the mother led him to me years ago, back when we were children, and she's kept him isolated from everyone but me, it's clear, isn't it? I'm the one mother approves of,"

"That doesn't make sense though, why would she choose you to be his partner when your horns haven't even grown in completely, or have they already stopped growing?" she hits another nerve.

"My horns don't mean anything,"

"I wouldn't say that, the mother had two large antlers, not two nubs, I don't think she meant you to become his partner. I think she meant to make you his guard dog," Lily smirks mockingly.

"I will become his partner, and I'll fucking kill you if you try to take my place with him," she threatens. "He loves me, I know he does, and soon he's going to place his mark on me so we can be together forever, so don't get in our way,"

"Wow... you're quite delusional, maybe those human books on how to know if a spirit is insane is right, you have the rings in your eyes and all."

Lenore's hands shake, she wants to kill her, but she holds herself back. 'If I come back home drenched in blood... what would Milo say...' "he'll hate you when I tell him all about you, Milo loves me, he will believe me no matter how many lies I tell,"

"Sure, whatever you say then, I'm sure he loves you, and I'm sure he's impressed by how pathetically small your horns are as well," her words are drenched in sarcasm. "Keep telling yourself that," she walks away as spiked roots rise around the other trees.

'Calm down, calm down, calm down,' her veins slowly turn black. 'I need to get back home, back to Milo,'

While she walks back through the forest, Milo reads through the grimoire. 'To give orbs of warm light to others, first summon the orb, then carefully place it in their hands, and if they wish to absorb it they need to bring it close to their chest. They will then be able to conjure a limited amount of orbs. This only works for forest beings, since their temperature is so low the light doesn't burn them.'

He reads through all the things he can do with a small ball of light, including changing the color, size, brightness. his mind wanders as he looks at the page, 'I wonder how Alice and Lucas are doing... if father dared to hurt either of them I'll tear him apart...'

The door opens interrupting his thoughts, "welcome home," he looks over at Lenore and he takes notice of her veins. "Lenore," he gets up and rushes to her. "Are you alright? How do you fee-" she presses her lips against his, immediately his face burns a hundred times redder.

She slowly pulls away, her tension eases upon seeing how flustered he is, his brows are slightly raised, his face is bright red, his lips are parted ever so slightly. "Milo," she gazes into his eyes. "Do you... do you think my horns look pathetic?"

Her question distracts him from the fact that she just kissed him. "No, why? What happened nora?" he says as she looks away from him, he cups the side of her face, making her look back up at him. "... Lenore..." the worry in his voice is evident.