Love Can Save {An Aphmau Fanfiction}

Aphmau

The setting sun was gorgeous on the Capital Island, the rays melting into the water on the horizon, painting the ocean like an oil picture. The trees cast long shadows over the uneven ground, and if I were younger, I may have been on edge. As it were, all of my attention was on the patch of flowers before me, trying to discern if any of them were the flower I was so desperately searching for. With a groan, I pushed up from my knees, brushing the dirt off of my pants and continuing on my walk through the woods.

Four long months had passed since Dante's scouting mission had returned, and we had heard nothing from Tu'la since then. Lucinda had told me that Hyria was doing everything she could to stall them, but her magic couldn't last forever. If only I were still Lady Irene. Then I might have the power to force them away, to scare them off of attacking the people I love.

That was the thought that had been plaguing me daily. I had none of the powers I used to before my daughter's birth, so how could I still call myself Irene? I didn't blame Alina; how could I? But I wished that the powers I had just begun to understand would come back to me. If there was going to be a war, then I wanted those abilities back. I dreaded the thought of losing friends simply because the ability to heal had deserted me.

These evening walks through the forest had become something of a habit of mine. I truly believed that I had scoured every inch of the island, and yet I had found nothing that resembled the flower that could mend the broken fragments of our lives. The last remaining rays of sun were enough to tell me that it was time to head home, and yet I couldn't help but wander farther along the trail. The long branches and brambles reached for my pant legs, and it took a great deal of self-restraint to not tear Aaron's sword from its sheath and start shearing away the offending brush.

I paused in my journey, a sudden thought popping up in the forefront of my mind. Perhaps it's called the moonflower because it can only be found at night. It certainly would make sense, and it would explain why I haven't found it before. That clearing halfway up the mountain was teaming with residual magick; it might be there. Or maybe...

It all suddenly seemed too simple. It all made sense. I turned my back on the forest and tore down the path, headed straight back for the little village that I had watched grow into a city. People still wandered the streets, and I forced myself to travel at a steady pace, not wanting to draw any unnecessary attention to myself. Laurance passed by me, Thalia at his side as they talked, not even noticing who it was they passed as they held each other's gaze in what looked like serious conversation. I smiled at their retreating backs and almost ran straight into Garroth.

"My lady!" He exclaimed, grabbing my elbow to keep my back and the stones from acquainting. "I apologize! I didn't see you there." I laughed, smiling up at him even as my mind drifted far away. "Is everything alright?"

"Are you doing anything right now?" He shook his head with a slight frown. "Good." I grabbed his hand and started pulling him along with me through the slowly emptying streets.

"Aphmau, may I ask what...?" I glanced back at him, still smiling at the knowledge burning in my heart.

"I think I know where to find the moonflower."

XXX

It took twenty minutes for Garroth and I to travel from the Island to the outskirts of Phoenix Drop, each one longer than the last. We had been delayed for a few minutes by familiar faces and guards, all wondering what Garroth and I were doing out, wandering the woods at this late hour. Yet finally we managed to find ourselves just a few minutes from the huge site where an explosion had rocked Phoenix Drop years ago.

Garroth slipped his hand into mine, squeezing tightly in a display of silent comfort. This place gave him just as bad flashbacks as it did for me. It was here that he had watched an almost total stranger sacrifice himself, blowing Garroth's own little brother up in the process. And it was here that I had fallen to my knees and screamed for the man, the friend, the love I had just lost. Even now, the glimpses through the trees caused my eyes and nose to burn. I held on tightly to Garroth, knowing that although there was nothing to fear in the forest around us, it was the demons running loose in my head that scared me.

"You truly think it will be here?" His whispered voice seemed loud in the night, and I had to bite down my impulse to shush him.

"It's the only place I can think of. But then again, I might not be as quick on the uptake as I like to think. After all, it's taken me... almost seven months? Yeah, about seven months to figure out that the moonflower probably only blooms in the moonlight." I shook my head in slight disgust, looking down at my feet and seeing a few brambles still trailing from the cuffs of my pants.

"You've had other things to occupy your attention," he reminded me gently, supporting me as I raised one leg to pick the brambles off. "Aaron will find no cause to blame you for being more concerned about an impending war than a seemingly hopeless search for a flower."

"But what if I blame myself?" The words were gone on the wind as soon as I spoke them, and I realized I had spoken straight from my heart, no thought at all but into the sentence. Garroth squeezed my hand tighter, but his next words faded into a sharp inhalation. I glanced up quizzically and found his attention locked on something in front of us, a silver glow reflecting in his blue eyes...

I tore my gaze from him to find the strangest sight I had ever seen. In the heart of the devastation, long glowing tendrils snaked up towards the sky and around a brilliant flower, its petals open to the night sky. It was if the very stars themselves were falling to the earth, the moonflower soaking up all of their ethereal light.

I took a dazed step forward, pulling away from Garroth and starting into the hole. Even as my eyes closed, the flower was still ingrained in my vision with its silver gleam. My blood sang, pounding in my veins with each step closer I took.

After lots of slipping and sliding down the hill of rubble, I found myself kneeling in front of this beautiful flower, the flower that could make my heart whole again. The petals were perhaps the softest thing I had ever touched, the stem firm under my fingertips. I inhaled deeply, unable to name the scent but knowing it like I knew my own heart. I wrapped my shaking hands around the stem and pulled the flower to me, praising every deity above for this moment, this single moment that I had been searching for these past eight months.