Epilogue #2
“I don’t wanna go to school,” the boy pouted, his eyes immediately welling up with more tears. “I want to see more magic!”
“Did you know Nazra teaches all about magic in school?”
Minato immediately turned to Eiri again. “Really? Can she teach me how to do it?”
“Not a lot of us have magic, but you don’t have to have it to learn about it. And you know what?”
“What?”
“Even if you don’t have magic yourself, you can learn about it and help mages find ways to use their gifts.”
Minato narrowed his eyes, skepticism all over his tiny face. “But I wanna do neat magic.”
Here, Eiri floundered. He didn’t spend much time around children and never quite knew how to interact with them, but even he knew that telling Minato he could do magic someday was irresponsible, at best.
“You can still be pretty neat even without magic,” Syrus said, smoothly sliding into the conversation. “I can’t do any magic at all and I think I’m kind of neat, right?”
“You are!” Minato assured him, then paused, turning that new twist over in his head. “Well, if I can’t do magic, then I wanna fight like you, Syrus!”
“Now that I can teach you. When you’re a little older,” Syrus added hastily when Minato immediately got a gleam in his eye. “Part of being a fighter is learning, though, which means…” He raised an eyebrow, prompting the boy to finish.
“Which means I have to go to school,” Minato groaned. “Alright, I’ll go. You promised, though. You gotta teach me soon!”
“I promise.” Syrus smiled warmly and Minato threw his arms around Syrus’ waist, hugging him tight. He shocked Eiri by doing the same to him, squeezing him in a big hug before letting go and running back toward the school, his scraped up knee all but forgotten.
“Thank you for that. I’m not great with children,” Eiri said when they were alone.
“I think you were handling it fairly well.” Syrus held out his hand and Eiri took it without hesitating, helping Syrus get up. He heard the faint creak of his husband’s knees as he rose and shook his head.
“How long did he trick you into sitting there on the ground with him?”
“At least twenty minutes,” Syrus admitted sheepishly. He stretched his arms up over his head, working out the kinks, and Eiri allowed himself a few moments to just look at Syrus.
Being on the island agreed with him. He’d taken to Canjiri clothing surprisingly well, swapped out his somber, stiff Vaetrean clothing for looser pants and flowing shirts in bright colors.
Today he wore a deep orange tunic that set off his dark skin perfectly.
They spent most of their time out under the sun and Syrus had taken on a healthy glow.
He smiled more, the tension he’d carried for as long as Eiri had known him beginning to melt away.
The smile he gave Eiri when he straightened knocked the breath from his chest and, for a moment, it felt like time had stopped.
It was a smile he’d seen before, since the day Syrus had told him he loved him.
Soft and tender, Syrus reserved it solely for Eiri.
Just like he’d promised, he never pressured Eiri to say the words in return, seemingly content to go on exactly as they were.
They were building a good life together, a happy one, forging their future in a way Eiri had never thought would be possible.
Things would change once the Vaetrean mining expeditions began arriving in earnest, beyond the exploratory parties that came now, and Syrus had to step into his new position, but even with the added pressure, Eiri knew beyond a doubt that they would get through it together.
It hit him in a slow-rolling wave. Standing under the hot summer sun with Syrus smiling at him like he was the center of his world, Eiri realized something he should have figured out a long time ago.
It had crept up on him, its roots digging deeper with each soft morning, every meal shared, every night spent pushing each other to the heights of pleasure.
“Do you want to have lunch at home? I promised to meet with the council later this afternoon and—”
“I love you.”
The realization blindsided Eiri and the words burst free in that moment before he could reorder his thoughts.
He hadn’t imagined how he would tell Syrus how he felt, if he could ever be sure enough of his feelings to even do so, but if he had, it wouldn’t have been like this. He didn’t take them back, though.
Biting his lip, he watched as Syrus floundered for a moment, blinking as the words sank in.
When Syrus smiled again, there was no doubt in Eiri’s mind. No one had ever looked at him like Syrus did now, and when his lips met Eiri’s, it felt like coming home. He wrapped his arms around Syrus, holding him close, pouring all this newly acknowledged love into their kiss.
Somehow, despite all the odds against them, Syrus and Eiri had worked through a lifetime of deeply entrenched prejudices and ancient rivalries to find their way to each other.
They’d weathered the treacherous tides and come out the other side, battered but still standing together.
Now they were here, with their whole lives stretching out ahead of them, and for the first time in longer than he could remember, that future was one filled with hope.
No matter what came their way, he knew they would keep walking together into whatever waited for them.
No going back.
To be continued in Ellis and Xan’s story…
If you enjoyed reading about Eiri and Syrus and are curious about the raid that started it all, make sure to check out Dust to Ash!
A soldier on a mission. A survivor with a secret.
In the icy mountains of the north, rumors are spreading.
There are whispers of fighters from the isolated kingdom of Sarkhyr appearing in the south for the first time in over a hundred years.
When a group of soldiers is attacked, Theodric Rhoan’s reconnaissance team is sent to gather information.
What they find instead is something they never could have imagined.
Deep in the Morehan Forest, a manor that shouldn’t exist burns to the ground, leaving one lone survivor.
Severely injured and unable to speak, Ishaan brings more questions than answers and shrouds his secrets in a haze of lies.
A twist of fate throws him into Theodric’s path, binding them together even as an unseen enemy threatens to tear them apart.
When a brutal attack splinters the team and leaves one of them at the mercy of a ruthless mage, Theodric and Ishaan must find a way to survive and get back to each other.
With enemies closing in, difficult choices are made and secrets are revealed that have the power to change the world… or burn it down to ashes.