Embers and Ashes

Chapter 12

(And here be fluf)

Melona

   “Eris common, let’s go!”, I protest as I wait impatiently at the front door of the manor. My thick scarlet wool jacket decorated in vibrant bellowing leaves dancing in invisible wind buttoned around me. Hand clad in fawn brown gloves to match my dress. Brown leather boots hidden under the skirts.

   “You are so impatient”, he sighs in pretend annoyance as he dawns on his own fine deep green coat.

   “I’m excited”, I grin and sway a bit. “This is my first outing. I’m going to burst at the seems if you don’t move any faster soon.”

   “You are intolerable”, he muses as goes to open the door, but I have him my the wrist cuffs and dragging him down the stairs.

   “Common!”, I beg nearly making him trip down the stone stairs.

   “Alright, alright”, he growls. Pulling his hand away to try and get me to let go. “Please calm down.”

   I hop on the spot like a child but I don’t care. He barely had the carriage door open before I had climb my way up and settled myself nicely in the seat.

   Eris just laughs softly and follows me in. Sitting opposite of me. 

   “You’re acting like a child.”

   I stick my tongue out at him playfully.

   “You know. I never got to ask what your favourite colour was?”, he hums thoughtfully. I pause in bouncing in my seat and look at him.

   “Purple. The deep plum kind”, I smile. “Somehow it’s both bold and comforting. Sweet and bitter, and I like to think it suits me well. Not very much of a big story behind it for me. I just love it. Since it’s a mixture between blue and red, purple to me is quiet and intellectually inclined as blue, but with passionate energy for the subjects that matter most to an individual.”

   “Plum”, he murmurs with a smirk. Letting the name of the small fruit roll off his tongue. “My little Plum.”

   “My Serpent”, I smile back and the two of paused for a moment. Looking at each other for the simply reason that we could and we could enjoy it.

   “No one is going to understand what the hell we are talking about”, Eris shakes his head.

   “Isn’t that the whole point?”, I offer.

   “Of curse”, he nods.

   I smiles and lean out to look out of the carriage as trees pass down the cobble stone drive. Quietly the mist creeping between trunks and into the fields of rye and wheat stocks as we pass. Already the field hands starting their collection of the years bounty. Thousands of miles of rows of pumpkins, squash, corn, and apple tree orchards.

   “Mother above”, I murmur. “It’s so beautiful here.”

   Eris looks out fondly at his chosen territory. A slice of peace cut off from the tyranny of the cities and noisy places in this court. Here there was plenty of food available and fae who only want a quiet existence.

   “It is. Sometimes I wish all of the Autumn Court was like this”, he sighs and sinks into his chair. “I think the world would be a better place if it were. I can’t stand all those pompous ideots who think they are so much more then they are. I hate being a part of it. Everyone trying to out do the other in materials and intelligences. As much as I enjoy conversation, there are just some that try too hard to look smarter then they are to impress others. It’s insufferable.”

   “It’s not much different everywhere else”, I sigh and smirk at him. “And don’t give me that. You love being that smartest person in the room you smug ideot.”

   “You’ve got me there”, he laughs smugly. “But only you would have the balls to call me out on it.” 

   “But I get what you are saying. In my court I never really had to try all that hard. I was the High Lords daughter. There’s not much higher I possibly could have gone, but I hated it when people would try to impress me with what they thought I wanted to hear”, I roll my eyes. “As arrogant as you are you’re very direct. Like Ash arrow to the gut subtle, but you always seem to cushion it with enough sugar and spice that no one can really figure out if you’re insulting them or complimenting them.”

   He simply grins. “It’s a gift.”

   “It’s a pain in the behind. It makes your mask very hard to crack”, I grumble.

   “You are a very different sort of creature aren’t you?”, he purrs.

   “Would you have any interest in me at all if I were like every other girl strutting to get your attention?”, I ask.

   “No”, he answers truthfully.

~

   The town is small with the wide cobble road winding through it over hills and valise. Each side having a walk way for people and carts. Small shops for clothing, butchers, bakeries, and markets with colourful over hanging tent cloths down alleyways.

   Everything road smells of chia, wool, spiced meats, baked nuts, and sweet buttery caramel. Stores cloaked with wards to keep the warmth tucked nicely inside allowing me to unbutton my jacket after exiting the cart. Grabbing onto Eris hand as fae quickly moved out of his way.

   In honestly I had expected there to be scampering and screams of horror coming from these people, but most lowered there head respectfully. Keeping out of his business, but not from terror. More of a light caution.

   The butcher even stepped out of his shop for a moment. A beefy stock of a fae with skin as rough as the grey stone under our feet, but as soft spoken as a morning breeze. All he asked was about when Eris wanted his next kill to be skinned and brought up to the manor.

   “You look shocked dear”, Eris hums and I try to shake it from my body.

   “Sorry, I thought there would be more running and screaming is all”, I point out and he nods in understanding.

  “That only happens in my father’s cities. Here in Embry, here I’ve made my name something a bit milder then what my father likes. Here I can do my best to make people lives easier. Be a part of these people as someone they can come to for advice and help. It started off as a self challenge, not to be my father, to be my own person. Here I can be the traveling wizard”, he smiles softly as he watches these people move about in their daily lives. “Here is where I don’t have to be the young god of chaos. I can just be Eris Vanserra. Not the war monger. Not my father’s assassin or dog. Simply a lord taking care of his territory.” 

   I listen to him as we walk down the side of the walkway. Content to cling to his arm as he rambles on. This odd sense of this being how everyday people feel. I feel like a girl who is spending her morning walking with her Beau. Not a princess forced into a marriage. I feel happy, and listening to him talk like this was something new. Something he’s hidden away from everyone else, all except for me.

    “I wish I could spend more time here”, he mutters.

    “You get shoved across the court fairly often, don’t you?”, I ask.

   He nods with a heavy sigh, “Off to do my fathers dirty work.”

   “. . . You know, you could start bringing me with you. Bring a bit of Embry with you?”, I offer gently.

   “I don’t want you to see me like that”, he grimaces. His faces twisting in agony. “It’s worse then what I did to Niran. So much worse.”

   “Eris”, I call softly. “I’m not afraid of the mask you were to protect yourself. Someday soon I will have to start wearing one too.”

   “You shouldn’t have to. I don’t want you to have to”, he squeezes me closer.

   “Unfortunately, it can’t be helped. . . Will you enjoy being around me any less because of it”, I ask.

   “No”, he answers. “I still don’t want you hurt.”

   “Again, that’s not something you can stop. What happens happens”, I sigh and run my hand over his arm to try and reassure him. “I am capable of defending myself. That way whatever happens to me is no one’s fault but who does the damage.”

   “You are a stubborn female”, he shakes his head but smiles.

   “You haven’t seen anything yet”, I grin cheekily.

   He just smiles and purchases a bag of roasted hazelnuts covered in cinnamon and sugar. We spend the next few minutes swatting at each other when the other tries to steel some from the other.

   “Aren’t you supposed to be rich enough to buy two bags?”, I pout.

   “Wasn’t sure how much you would be spending today. Wanted to make sure we don’t make a dent”, he teases. I stick out my tongue and his response was to playfully growl and snap his jaw.

   “Keep that pretty little tongue where it belongs or I’ll start putting it to good use”, he promises and I don’t think I’ve ever got so red so quickly.

    “Not as prude as you like to make us all think are you little one”, he smirks.

   “Shuddup”, I grumble and try to look away.

   “Now I’m curious. Where was it that you thought of licking me first?”, he murmurs with his hot breath in my ear.

   “Mother above, behave yourself ”, I protest as my skin squirms at the rather unladylike thoughts that appeared in my mind.

   “Absolutely not”, he coos and takes my hand up to his lips. Soft skin brushing over the back of my palm before he pulls away as if nothing had happened. “There is a dressing shop down the street. Maybe you should get some more wardrobe. Especially nightgowns.”

   I swat his chest.

   “For warmth, not for that sort of thing”, he chuckles. “Not that I don’t enjoy those linen dresses that show you off to me so wonderfully. Especially when you stand next to fire light and I can see all of you.”

   “Stop it”, I gasp and hide away in the hood of my coat. “There are people listening.”

   “Prude”, he smirks.

    “Snake”, I grumble as he leads me into one of the many dress stores.

   The young women there excitedly showing me the best their shop had to offer. Tops, shirts, boots, and many other knickknack that any female would enjoy. Yes, including nightgowns.

   Seeing me with Eris they had suggested of course some scantly cladding undergarments that I refused maybe a bit too obviously. The two only smile like they knew a secret I didn’t and wink as they bring me some nightgowns of thicker materials. Even some leggings for those colder nights.

   Eris didn’t at all seem to be in any sort of hurry. Once in a while making suggestions with choosing colours and complementing shapes. He even bout a me a dozen pairs of pants, and I mean real pants. Along with wrap around skirts that where easily removed. When I gave him the questioning look as to his motives, he very seriously looked me dead in the eyes and firmly says,“ Incase, you need to run. . . For any reason.”

   It went like this for hours and the two of us seemed to relax into the normalcy of it all. Shop after shop, still we never really bout anything but the clothing.

   And a tiny pumpkin. It’s so tiny and fit perfectly in my hands with it’s lovely orange colour.

   “It’s a bit small to be made into a meal”, Eris muses.

   “I will name him Pie and put him on my nightstand”, I beam lovingly at the tiny thing.

   “It will rot”, he points out and to remind him what he is dealing with I boop his nose with a small spark of my healing. “Oh, right.”

   I won in this conversation.

   “Thank you for this Eris”, I hum as I watch the sun start to dip down over the hills and the streets begin to radiate with twinkling fae lights made by street lamp Faeries.

   “Well, I don’t want you getting board and wandering off”, he smiles as he walks beside me with his hands behind his back. “And I did tell you that you aren’t a prisoner in my home Melona. I. . . I am afraid of you going out on your own, but I understand the need to be alone. Another trait I get from my mother I suppose. I don’t want to take that away from you, but I can’t pretend that it doesn’t worry me as much as it does finding my mother wondering down empty halls like some wraith. Not that you need to consider me in that, I just. . .”

   I settle my hand in his. Giving it a gentle squeeze. “Whatever happens happens.”

   He sighs deeply and in slight frustration. “One day, if all this goes right, one day I wont have to worry about these sorts of things.”

   “Until then how about we try to find a way to deal with all of it?”, I say softly. “Together.”

   “I. . . I don’t want to be my father”, he mutters with grit teeth as if the words hurt.

   “I know”, I smile. “And I don’t think you are anything like him, and you never will as long as you don’t let him win.”  

   “You have no idea the value of those words”, he pauses and watches me.

  “I’m sure you’ll find a good payment for them later”, I smile and lead him along the walkway.

   That’s when I spotted it off in the distance. Off on top a grassy hill lit by pail lights stood a small temple. Humble and simple, but none the less beautiful.

   I tug at Eris jacket and look up at him with round hopeful eyes. “Please, just a couple prayers, I promise.”

   “Alright, just. . . don’t bother praying for me”, he sighs.

   Oh, but I did.

   I prayed for him. For him to be at peace with what he has had to go through, and what he continues to suffer. I pray that my affection would be enough. Enough to give him the strength and will power to continue. To try and be a better male.

   When I was younger I learnt the hard way that you cannot change someone for what or who they were. It simply didn’t work that way, but I can see the softer parts of Eris, and it gives me a bit of hope that if he wanted to be different badly enough, he could be.

   I prayed for him at the feet of a barren temple where the mother could hear under the skirts of the night sky.