Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Boreus wasn’t going to punch Auster in the face. He wasn’t; he was going to attempt to explain what had happened over the last two years, and he wasn’t going to punch the idiot he loved.
“Auster,” Boreus demanded. “Look at me and stop imagining killing Autumn.”
“Is that what it calls itself?” Auster looked back at him, glaring at Boreus. “What hold does it have on you? Do you need help to break it and save Eleni?”
“I love her,” Boreus spread his hands. “Come and sit, and I will do my best to explain.”
Boreus was no teller of tales, but Auster had never been one to enjoy a fluffed-out story. So Boreus kept the tale down to what had happened. Telling his partner how cruel he’d been, how he’d been forgiven, and how Autumn and Eleni had become one.
Auster’s face went from horrified to puzzled and back again. “So Autumn, that’s what you call it, is wearing Eleni? How do we get her back?”
“Other way around,” Boreus retorted. “Eleni was the invader, shoved into Autumn and then she was left in the mortal world. Where we met her as our priestess.”
“Why have I never seen what you say I should have seen?” Auster asked. “You say Autumn would come out, but there was only ever Eleni.”
“You would remember if you hadn’t driven her away by threatening her life, idiot.” Boreus knocked him on the head. “I know this is difficult, but I want you to look at her. Really look at her, and I promise you will see that as much as you love Eleni, you love Autumn as well.”
“The Highest called her Compassion,” Auster rubbed the top of his head and glared at Boreus. “What name is it actually going by?”
“She,” Boreus glared back. “Call her Autumn for now. Once we go back, once we reach equilibrium with Skirion, then she will go to the summit as Compassion to act as advisor alongside Chaos.”
“I don’t like this,” Auster said. “But I will try to see what you do.”
“Good,” Boreus said. “She does not expect forgiveness for her actions in the mortal world. She no longer thinks we love her, so it will be down to you to re-prove it to her.”
“I do not love whatever is wearing Eleni.” Auster said stubbornly. “But I will speak with it-her and try to learn her again.”
Boreus glared at him again. “You are going to have to do considerably better than that.”
“I have said I will try.” Auster dodged Boreus’ hand as it came down on his head again. “I do not trust this, or it, but I trust you, and so I will try.”
“I suppose that is good enough for now.” Boreus dropped his hand back to his side.
“I will fetch her. This is where we plan to build our home, but if you would prefer, there is a grove of olive trees directly down the slope with a little villa in it that the Highest have given us permission to rest in if we do not feel like returning to the Bastion.”
“Alright,” Auster nodded, and Boreus left him there to move down the slope to the spring. Autumn was sitting on the edge there, looking down into the water with tears on her face.
“I knew he would not love me,” she looked up at him, wiping at her cheeks. “That is his right, and I will simply help him re-find his place on the Mountain before I fade from him.”
“Don’t be so hasty, my love,” Boreus sat down on the edge of the spring with her. “I have told him our story, and he says he will try to see what I did.”
“It will take time, if it happens at all.” Autumn wiped at her cheeks again. “In the meantime, we need to figure out how to save Skirion.”
“We have to find equilibrium here first,” Boreus pulled her into his arms. “We will not be able to save Skirion if we are not all in sync.”
She cuddled into his chest with a soul-deep sigh. “I will figure out how to get there. Figure out how to save Skirion, and figure out how to stay out of his way while he finds balance again.”
“Or we could go talk to him?” Boreus wrapped her tighter in his arms until she relaxed against him. “I know you remember how mercurial he can be, and we do not know what he went through in Charan.”
“I know,” she said, peeking up at him from the safety of his arms. “I owe it to him to try and explain what happened to me, but I do not wish to force my presence on him.”
“Come, love,” he rose and helped her up to stand in the circle of his arms. “We will go and begin, it will not happen in a day, it may not even happen in a week, but as long as we stay, it will happen.”
She nodded slowly. “All we can do is try, I suppose.”
Boreus took Autumn’s hand and they walked back up the slope to where he had left Auster. Who wasn’t there. There was a flattened trail of footprints in the grass leading off down the slope, towards the olive grove.
Boreus looked up at the sun where it was just setting a toe on the horizon and smiled. “Perhaps we will begin in the morning. I know you remember how much Auster loves breakfast, we will bring him food in the morning and we will talk to him then.”
Autumn nodded, shame and relief in her expression. “I suppose it is for the best that we are still sleeping in the Bastion then.”
They crossed over the slope, back to the Bastion, Boreus keeping a very tight eye on the way she was feeling. She wasn’t giving up, there was an edge of determination to the sorrow that he could feel in her and it made him smile.
They were going to get through this, and for the rest of his existence, he would never tell her that Auster had wanted to cut her down. That would wound her deeply, so he would never allow the words to be uttered.
They dined, talking idly about what they needed to do the next day. Autumn had been summoned to the summit in the morning by way of a letter next to her plate. Apparently they were going to have to push back their breakfast plans.
All would be well, they just had to figure this out.