Nocturne

🌓 Chapter Seventeen ~ Elios 🌗

Elios felt the moment Aurora touched Chrysos' hilt with a bright clarity like a ripple in a sea of stars. He smiled up at the sun with an expression like a california poppy opening in the morning light of the rising dawn sun. His walking stick pressed comfortably into his hand as he leaned into it, his entire self, body and mind, pausing in his walk to think about and appreciate this exact instance, this moment when everything changed.

There was something quite different about this moment, he noticed. Something strange, something beautiful, something free.

He felt as if he were different too. Perhaps, he dared hope, he'd finally fulfilled his purpose. Ever since the day he was placed in the arms of his adoptive parents, he had felt he had some debt to pay, something that he owed. To Sol, to his parents, to the strange, unknown woman in white who had given him to them. And in some strange way, he felt he owed it to Luna- though he kept that particular thought safely hidden away!

The desire to repay the universe for some great boon it had given him was a strange one, he knew. Where it came from was a mystery, and likely would always be. But it had driven him, and driven Elios to this point, and for that he was grateful. Every single sleepless night and nervous childhood conversation with his parents had lead him to this day, walking away from the palace as if a weight had been lifted from his soul. Which it had.

He had thought that serving as Sol's High Priest would fulfill that need for evening and repayment, but it never had. He had believed that helping the little brave Lunar girl begin the quest for the Restoration of Artemis would be an adequate restitution, but it seemed that by itself it hadn't been.

No, the thing that had freed him at last was the very opposite. He'd given up his role, his profession, his title and his place, to someone far more talented than he was, someone even more worthy.

Beginning to walk again, something felt lighter inside of him. His walking stick tapped a joyous rhythm against the pale cobblestones, the shadows of the city growing longer and more spindly as he crossed into the outer edges of the city, where the newer additions attempted to house Apollo's growing population.

Elios winced as he heard a crash from somewhere far away, and smoke and ash billowed upwards. But after a quick pause, he continued onwards. The collapse of these younger towers of white wood was painfully common.

Perhaps, if he had been younger and more fit, he would have held on to his position, to his name. Perhaps he would have been right to do so. But for now, he thought as he walked towards the sunlit walls of the city, for now it was enough to trust that Sol and the ancient spirits would guide the young Aurora.

Elios had given her all the tools that she would need, and if she needed him he would be there, always, just where he'd always been and would always be until the day he died.

Some rational part of his brain worried and fretted in a deep recess of his mind, but they were covered by another part of Elios' brain, the stronger part, the part he had spent his whole life training, the part that had felt torn wide ever since he could remember. The part of Elios that heard the gods was finally content. This was right. He'd chosen right. And his debt was paid.

Chest heaving as he pulled himself up those last few steps to the top of the great iridescent wall of Apollo, Elios leaned on his stick more than ever, but he didn't mind. When he finally reached the top it was all worth it.

Thighs aching, the old man leaned against the battlements. Soft golden light bathed him as he stared up into the pristine blue. "Such a beautiful spring day," he murmured to himself. A small flock of birds wound their way across the sun.

He hummed to himself, a quiet susurration to the world that enfolded him so beautifully and majestically. Purpose fulfilled now, he realized, he could finally rest.