Summer Garden

Trei

He knew what he had to do now. Or pieces of it.

Sarin had given him everything he needed to know. Everything he needed to make sense of who he was, where he was, and what he could do. What it would take to solve this. He could solve this.

Trei sighed heavily, closing his eyes and letting go of the world around him. This was something that Astrian had attempted to teach him. A moment of clarity, of freedom and peace. He had to let go.

He let go of his mother, and his teacher.

He let go of his anger towards Vastras. The woman who had forged him as a weapon of war to complete the cycle of sin against the gods. He forgave her, pushing aside what he felt as irrelevant. It no longer mattered. None of that mattered anymore.

He let go of his grief for Summer. She had lived, he had loved, and she had died. There was nothing left anymore. The story was complete. He would remember her, but he couldn't afford to hold onto his past anymore. For the future to live, the past must lie. He let go of her smile. Of her hope.

Trei felt as if he were drifting, separated for reality. He was in nothing, and of nothing. He was fading to nothing, becoming one with the void.

He let go of Luna. Of the angry and adorable Fae who used to yell in frustration every time she had to speak to him. Of the dark warrior willing to do whatever it took. He let go of her small face framed by white hair. He let go of the memory, of watching her die. Watching her in her sister's arms, battered and broken, but without hate. She had found her peace before the end, after a life without it.

He let go of Astrian. Of the beautiful and intelligent woman, of the angry child. This was someone who had deserved their peace, but never found it. Her life ended in the same violence that had taken a charming equal and forced them into the body of a child. He could not afford to regret her life. He let her go, let go of the feeling that he needed to fix it, to make up for what had been done. He let go of his guilt.

"Really? You think it's just that easy?"

A voice jerked Trei upright, and he frowned. This was not the void, but it was a void. An endless white and formless world. Standing in front of him hands on her hips, was a pink-haired devil.

He sighed tiredly, "Yio. Did you realise you were next in line?"

"I'm not alone here, Trei." The fate scoffed, "We're all here. So you can tell us. So you can give up on all of us."

Trei stood up slowly, surrounded.

Summer, Luna, Astrian, Claven, Yio, Vastras, and his mother. They all stood around him, watching silently. Judging silently.

Trei felt nothing.

He was empty, as he stood and sighed heavily, taking Yio's hand. The fate blushed at the surprising touch, and Trei spoke quietly, "This is not reality. You are not Yio. These are not the women in my life. These are the echos. The things I have failed to forget. That's okay. I don't want to forget you Yio, nor any of the others. I am not forgetting you. For the future to exist, I need to come back to the present. To move beyond my past. I cannot change it. I would not change it. There has been hell and tribulations. Yet, I have adored the time I have spent with you and the rest."

Trei let go of her hand slowly, causing her to panic and reach for him, but she suddenly found herself out of reach and stumbled, as Trei turned away from her. "The past belongs to the past. The future to the future. The now, well that... That belongs to me."