The Never Forgiven

Chapter 8

~Aurora~

I sat at my desk, my hand once again manipulating my quill dipped in ink across papers and expired treaties and alliance papers. I signed my name, one by one and wrote comments of disapproval and approval of those past contracts.

I then hear a step of a foot behind me and the faint scent of old lavender behind me.

"And here you are again... hunched over all those finished contracts...searching with the eyes and shoulders of a crow."
Orpheus' voice said behind me. I set the quill down calmly.

"There's a decency called knocking, Orpheus."

"Hm. Seems communication doesn't work too well between us, does it?"
He countered in an icy tone. My jaw clenched.

"You're pathetic, dwelling on the past in which couldn't be controlled. Again, i'm not the enemy here. maybe you should focus more on them who did the wrong, and not me who remains tormented by your pathetic growling."
I said back in the same icy tone before standing. He was standing in from of the desk now, looking at me with that purple gaze of his.
He truly did look different. He looked tired... and mature. 

"I'm going to take a walk now. If you would like to join, do so without any whining of how i 'must have' betrayed you. Perhaps you could be a bit more enlightened in all that I did and have done in these past 3 centuries."

His purple gazed glared at me as I grabbed my cloak and began exiting the room. After a moment he followed me out with a smug face, keeping silent behind me as we left the manors interior. Soon we reached a path outside that let to a brilliant forest garden, roses and lilies scattered about with many other flowers. It seemed like the place was enchanted, the plants having been their for.. centuries. I stopped at a small deck in which a small lake rested beneath, the garden surrounding the lake with tall trees all towering above as if trying to keep the place a secret. It was more of a swamp, really. The air was thick with water and held a warm temperature to it that allowed clouds of fog to rest within the trees above the water.

"Impressive"

Orpheus said, finally breaking the silence between us.

"It was all a matter of luck, really. I did not construct any of the places in which I stay in now. They were all abandoned and broken--just as I was-- and rebuilt."

Orpheus kept silent to my comment and simply gazed out a the beautiful swampland and the wooden path that led around it.

"Feels strange, doesn't it? Allies once again standing beside each other."
I said calmly, though i knew that he'd probably react smugly to this. 

"Yes I suppose it does feel strange. We were separated unnecessarily."
He commented back, seeming to have calmed down now. 

Perhaps the truth finally got to his thick skull.

"Did you truly bury me beside that cave of yours, Aurora?"
He asked, his voice softer now and his tone a bit gentler. It reminded me more of the old Orpheus I knew.

"Yes. Once I had healed enough I took it upon myself to find your body out there in the battlefield. Few of your men were alive but I aided them too and informed them of your death. We who were left held a small ceremony for you beside that tree near the cave. That is why I brought you there for our little mind game. It was in hopes that you would somehow recognize it."

He gave a nod as he listened. 

"That must be why I had a whole army to return to. They became high generals and leaders of a newly created army over two centuries and when I returned they immediately accepted me as their leader... only without much explanation. They didn't give you any men?"

I shook my head. 

"No. They were their own army and I had told them myself I wanted to go alone."

He nodded in understanding.

Finally...

"But the question I still have for you... How did you manage to return from the underworld?"

My question lingered... his thoughts seeming to be clouded by anger once again.