Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
She’d slept again after Boreus had prevented the rupture. Autumn had slept again, exhausted and hurting with the intensity of the emotions that had exploded in her veins. She knew she had to take Auster his food and pick up his letters, but she didn’t have to do it right now.
Boreus was holding her, and the world was soft and fuzzy, just like Solace. Who was purring in her ear where he was curled at her back with his head on her shoulder. The world wasn’t right, but this was. There was still pain and betrayal to work through, but this was right, and she could rest.
When she woke, when the world was sharp again, she sat up and came face to face with one of the Unseen. She wasn’t sure how it had gotten all the way out here, but she stood and nodded to it.
“Are we called?” Autumn asked. The Unseen was fuzzy around the edges, like a sending rather than it actually being here, and that was when she saw the door in the air and the halls of the Bastion beyond.
Autumn knelt and kissed Boreus on the cheek. “We’re being summoned, love.”
He woke, rising as she did and looked at the doorway. “Let’s see what they want.”
They followed the unseen back into the Bastion, back to their rooms where they washed and changed their clothes before the unseen herded them to the throne room, where the Highest were waiting.
All five of them, staring down at Autumn with no small amount of relief. Light, in particular, looking back and forth between Autumn and Boreus.
“You rocked the Mountain.” Intellect broke the silence. “I am glad to see you alive.”
“Boreus wouldn’t let me go,” Autumn said quietly. “He is the reason I am still standing.”
“Good,” Light nodded at Boreus. “And your retinue?”
“I have not seen him in two days.” Autumn replied. “I leave him food and pick up the letters he is to do as penance.”
“Letters?” Light looked perplexed. “Why are you having him write letters?”
“To force him to consider the consequences of his actions.” Autumn said smoothly. “He wounded two people I love, and though I would not see him harmed, since he is under my protection, I will have him face what he could have done.”
“That is sound,” Love said slowly. “Perhaps this way he will be able to come to terms with what will be needed for him to be forgiven.”
“If he can be forgiven,” Light looked back to Autumn, a question in her eyes.
“I am not the person to ask,” Autumn raised her hands. “I do not claim my feelings matter to him at all. He wounded Boreus and Eleni, and I will mind them all until they can come back to equilibrium.”
“You claim nothing for yourself?” Light asked, looking slightly startled.
Autumn shook her head. “He never cared for me, but I cared for all of them. So I will help them, and he will never see me as anything but someone keeping Eleni from him.” She stuffed the pain of that back down. “He still writes to Eleni, but she does not want to read the letters.”
Light nodded, looking troubled. “I will leave you to handle it as you think best. I did not banish him, since you will still need him to save Skirion.”
Autumn nodded, “yes.” She bowed to them. “With your permission, Highest, I will return to my duties.”
Light nodded, “You will return in three days’ time for an update.”
“Yes, Highest,” Autumn turned and left the throne room.
Boreus hurried after her and took her hand. “What would you like to do now?”
“I should take the East Wind his food and pick up his letters.” Autumn sighed. “He is my responsibility, so until the Highest remove him from my service, I will do my best to ensure that he is taken care of.”
“You have far too large a heart, my love.” Boreus pulled her into his arms. “I will go with you.”
“Alright,” Autumn nodded. “I have to go and pick up his food and his paper. Even if no one is reading the letters, it is a good exercise for him.”
They picked up the basket that the unseen had left for her, along with the stack of paper and a fresh pen before they left the Bastion and headed down the slope to the villa.
The villa was dim, all the windows open, but no lights burning, and it took Boreus a moment to find Auster slumped on the couch. He could have been asleep, but as soon as Autumn crossed into the room, he was on his feet.
And then he was on his knees.
“East Wind,” Autumn moved past him and put the basket on the table alongside the paper. “I have come to pick up your letters.”
“Why do you never take yours?” He asked, sounding lost. “I write them for you, and you leave them behind.”
She shook her head. “You do not owe me your words, East Wind. I mean nothing to you, so your platitudes mean nothing to me.”
“That’s not true,” he said. “I didn’t want to remember, but I do. How you would sing to us in the moonlight. I wanted only Eleni, so I refused to see that you were in every move she made. You were the only reason that she lived, and?—”
“And you tried to kill me.” Autumn kept her voice even and slow. “Knowing I meant nothing to you, knowing that if you killed me, Eleni would die, you still tried to kill me.”
“I did,” he looked up at her helplessly and Autumn felt Eleni shudder. “I wanted her back, wanted things to be as they were before I was a coward. I wanted a chance to ask her forgiveness and now I have nothing.”
“You have your life.” Autumn said. “It is up to you what you do with it from here.”