Summer Garden

Alphege

The elf spun in horror as she saw the mortals disappearing around her. Fading to dust and ash. Souls called out, hands raised in terror, begging for mercy as the wind washed them away. She saw their auras turn dark, magic flowing through them like a poison. Eating away at what made them... Alive.

Alphege shivered as she felt a desperate hand crumble as it tried to grab her wrist, turning so she didn't have to watch those eyes as everything inside them died. As the sins of humanity were washed away. The elf felt tears streaming down her face as those who had been her enemy vanished as if they had never existed in the first place.
She'd never felt for humanity.

She hated what they were, and what they represented. The sins of the original people, repeated time after time. The endless cycle of stupidity that was found in their short lives, their short civilisations. The empires rose and fell, committing the same atrocities, over and over again. No man was free of guilt, nor of sin. They were the corrupted people. They were everything that an elf was not.

She'd never felt for humanity, before this moment.

She saw the sins washed away, like so many of her ancestors had wished. Had even tried to do. To wipe the slate clean in a single brutal wave. To erase what humanity was. To take souls and turn them against each other. To burn them out, preventing their return into the cycle of life and death in the world.

Alphege fell to her knees, one hand over Trei's chest, as she watched the army around her dying. She could see through the cloud of dust, to the one who had summoned this heretical power. This horror from a time when even Elfkind had yet to attain civilised behaviour.

It was the power that all Guardians stood over.

The balance of life and death.

Alphege looked in pity at the white-haired Fae. Her aura was blank and empty. A shattered illusion, giving way to an empty soul.

Tiny claws dug into her arms, and Alphege looked down at the terrified Faeling. She hadn't the heart to push her away, nor the bravery to smile. The child could see what was happening as clearly as herself. Could feel what had been done.

Luna fell to the ground, holding a dying Fae, silently.

Alphege didn't approach. She didn't know what to say or do. Rendi had served his mistress faithfully. In return, she'd eaten his soul to commit an atrocity the likes of which had never taken place before. Nobody had ever managed to use this dark magic. Never had so many souls been wiped out. Never.

The elf breathed in carefully, steadying her breathing.

And it was all for nothing, in the end.

The Faeling looked up at her, cooing, and Alphege looked down at Trei's body. She hadn't just stood by his side and defended him for the purposeless aching in her heart. There was a chance, though a small one. It required the Fates be on her side, but she had a feeling that they would be.

"Astrian, step back, please." Alphege whispered, and the Faeling protested, grabbing her arm tighter. She smiled at the child, "It'll be okay. Well, it won't be as bad. You need to trust me. You know you can trust me."

The Faeling stepped half a foot backwards and crossed her arms, pouting.

Alphege placed both hands around Trei's cold chin, and smiled sadly, tears falling from her eyes, "Rise."

She leaned in, praying with all her might.

Her lips met his, and she felt a spark move between them.

Alphege gasped, holding her chest, and fell to the ground beside him, twitching and spasming. Her heart had stopped beating. Her lungs had stopped breathing. Her head was getting darker, quieter.

She prayed. The fates had to hear her. Had to listen.

She would pay the cost, any cost.

If this was her death, so be it!

Yet, if she were to die, then the Fates must keep their word. They must accept her offering. Trei had to live!

A rough hand grabbed hers as her eyes rolled back into her head, as Alphege felt blood beginning to froth out of her mouth. She could hear Luna dimly, complaining openly
 that Alphege had done exactly what Summer had done. That she'd gone and kissed him.

Interesting jealousy from a woman had managed to sleep with one of her true loves.

The Faeling was screaming angrily, and hissing. The raw emotion of a child. An unfair existence.

A hand slapped her face.

Alphege coughed violently, finding herself on hands and knees.

She looked up with an ashen face at the pink-haired woman standing over her. It wasn't the goddess. It was another of the sisters.

"You really think you get to dictate terms to us, elf?"

Alphege clenched her fists, bowing her head, coughing blood on the ground, "Trei must live."

"So you'll give your immortal soul, for his. Is that it?" The fate demanded, kicking her in the chest. "Is your soul worth one tenth of the godmaker?"

The elf pushed herself back onto hands and knees painfully, "Trei must live."

She felt a hand grasp her hair, yanking her neck backwards, forcing her to look into a pair of black eyes. Black and endless, like Trei's. They lacked his compassion, lacked his understanding. Yet they were like his. "Trei. Must. Live."

The fate sighed, wiping some blood off the elf's chin, and then rubbing it between her fingers, "Is your soul really worth as much as his? You're just an elf. He isn't."
Alphege glared, "I was Guardian. I am not just an elf. I don't offer just my soul."

The fate paused, her face becoming gentler, "You offer your soul. You offer the power forbidden to all from the creation of this new world, when the peoples of this world sought to destroy the gods. You offer all of this, for him?"

"Trei must live." Alphege cried, almost stamping her foot, "He has to. He has to."

The fate sighed heavily, "I don't even know if I have the power to bring him back, elf."

She dropped her, pacing, "I would bring him back in a heartbeat, elf. I am Yio. I love Trei every much as you. I have had to watch him die, right here, right now, in every timeline. I can't stop it. I've tried, time and time again, and I fail."

"Together." Alphege whispered timidly, holding out her hand, "Take me power. Take my life."

Yio gestured to a scene nearby. Luna was shaking Alphege's body angrily, standing over Trei, whilst the Faeling wrapped herself around him. "Life and death are unbalanced, or have you already forgotten? Somebody else beat you to the punchline. The sacrifice of one life may never again save another."

Alphege shrugged, "I have... I have to try."

"Why?" Yio asked quizzically, "Did Trei ever care about you?"

The elf shrugged pathetically. He probably hadn't.

"From the shores, hidden by ancient mists." Alphege said stubbornly, "Born aloft by an Elfin kiss. Clear the way, and lead you home, to eternal bliss."

Yio grinned, "That's the right answer, little guardian. Leave it to me."