A/N: So, this is based on the Greek myth of Eurydice and Orpheus: Orpheus, a young lyre-player is deeply in love with the nymph Eurydice and together they live happily. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes with the death of Eurydice, who, trying to escape from a lustful satyr (Aristaeus), is bit by a viper. Orpheus loses himself in mourning and grieving, but receives help from the Gods -they've missed listening to his joyful music- who urge him to seek Hades, the King of the Underworld. Orpheus is asked by Hades and Persephone to play them a song. Moved by the nostalgic tune, they allow Eurydice to return to the upper world, under one condition; Orpheus will walk ahead of her and he won't look behind him to see if she follows, or else Eurydice will remain in the Underworld. Eurydice, in the form of a shadow, walked behind him, yet Orpheus couldn't hear her footsteps and thought Hades had deceived him. Once he reached the top, Orpheus turned around to look at her, only for Eurydice to be sucked into the Underworld once again. Orpheus, in his severe depression, turns into a misogynist thus enraging all the women in Thrace, including the Maenads, the loyal followers of Dionysus. The Maenads mutilated him, each torn limb thrown in the shores of the river Evros. The Muses gathered his members, but his head and lyre were taken away by the currents, reaching Lesbos. The locals buried his head, while the Muses took his lyre and turned it into a constellation.
There are many different alterations of the myth and honestly, I just want you to know some basic facts about them; if you're interested you can PM me and I'll gladly respond to you!
"Eurydice, dying now a second time, uttered no complaint against her husband. What was there to complain of, but that she had been loved?"
-Ovid
Farewell
(For this fic, I recommend you listen to "Poet and The Muse" by Poets of the Fall.)
ooo
Music calmed him, his perfect stance loosening, his perfect face cracking with emotions each time his fingertips brushed with divine deftness the strings of his gilded lyre*. And he crooned his lyrical tunes, the sweetest noise he had ever heard.
He loved music because music was his.
He never listened to what others said, blabbering about, conspicuous hushes behind palms, how the Gods had endowed such a blessing to someone so-
He didn't care what they called him.
Their opinions weren't of import to his ears anyway -what did they even know about music?
Until he met her, his beautiful Muse, his Yui, Shu never cared for anyone.
She had swayed her way into his life like a gentle breeze; her kindness had hit him like the roaring wind.
Like a nymph, she danced to the sounds of nature, her bare feet bearing a carefree elegance to every clumsy step.
She dwelled in the land, in the wilderness and slept in an oak bed* with pillows of fresh flowery and yet her giggles reminded him of cascades.
He had resented her, envying the freedom of her limbs and how careless was her laughter. He despised how she hummed his songs as she gathered her flowers, her mind and body lost in a blissful reverie. He loathed how she made her flimsy gown twirl in the air, her ringlets bouncing with an ethereal grace every time she moved.
He had hated her, for she never surrendered to his demands to be left alone. In every path he took, she would follow behind with a glowing face, her lashes touching her flushed cheeks and her lips smiling like a lovesick fool.
They were walking in a silent pathway one evening with a starry sky when they had been suddenly approached by the cries and screams for help from a hamlet in close proximity and soon, they discovered the smoke and flames.
With blank eyes, Shu had watched in silence how the gluttonous red devoured the houses and the woods, the pyres enveloping the village in a stygian* feast. Sweat had covered his burning forehead, his pulsing heart producing deafening beats in his ears, his hands that protected his lyre trembling along with his body.
Behind him, the girl was crying in agony, praying for the father of the skies* to help; heavy rainfall broke through the tempestuous clouds, bringing the catharsis.
He didn't see nor feel nor hear the change in the atmosphere, the smoke engulfing all his senses and leaving him standing frozen in his spot.
His body vibrated thunderously, as the sense to hear properly his surroundings abruptly plummed him with the piercing shouts of his name.
"Shu! Shu!"
His heart played its own music, the notes scattered carelessly and unceremoniously, the beat lost in an intricate web; then it hit the crescendo, his heartbeat quickening, accelerating, pounding with such force that terrorised his body, his vision... slowly... blackening...
The warmth of fervent sun rays greeted him, the sudden light blinding him with an intense whiteness; he let out a hoarse groan, his palm cradling automatically his frowning forehead.
A hearty giggle followed, the sound similar to the soft ting of his fingers on the strings, as a foreign set of smooth hands roved his head and neck until they landed on his chest.
His eyes opened again with a protesting grudge, aquamarine widening at the smiling pair of melting, pink irises. His vision was still rather blurry and he had to blink repeatedly before remaining still and calm, tiredly scrutinising the merry girl with the sunlit eyes. Had she always radiated such warmth? She sat beside him, her figure outlined by the flaming ball resting behind the mountaintops; he remembered the fire of the previous night and his fist gripped leisurely on her wrist in fear the sun would smoulder and eat her.
They had never talked about the fire, instead, they had continued travelling -side by side.
He didn't speak much most of the time, allowing the girl to chatter freely, describing her interests. She loved nature, he learned one day as they strolled through a bluebell pathway, her slender fingers twirling nervously a stray, shimmering curl. He also learned why her feet shied away from the protection of shoes: "how could I feel the soil, the roots of trees and flowers that grow and bloom, then?"
He was mesmerised by her and he hadn't comprehended when that had happened; he realised it during an affluent festivity, as he sang the tune he had just composed, a piece evoking the sublime beauty of nature, the perfect completion the lonely soul felt while gazing at the crocus and lily flowers.
She taught him what freedom was and she hadn't use any needless words; her movements and gentle gestures spoke through her. She would take his hand and they would dance, barefoot of course, and for the first time in his life, Shu felt the earth, the pebbles, the water, the leaves. She had inspired him with a new air of freshness, his fingers itching to touch the lyre, his voice moaning to sing of nature, to sing of her, Yui.
He wasn't the best lyre-player anymore and she wasn't the girl everyone desired to attain.
Just Shu and Yui. Yui and Shu.
They married during the flourishing Spring when the wilderness was lush and the grass cool and green. The ceremony was small, consisting of close relatives and the few friends they had made along the way. Yui was dressed in her finest, ribbons hanging from buds and jewels circling her arms and legs in golden bracelets. A flimsy stole and a crown of natural aromas shrouded her face, Shu longing to bask in the pink gleam of her eyes.
They couldn't be any happier and content. Every time they held hands, the sun shone even brighter, every time they embraced, the earth would shake, every time they only lied on the ground, their bodies bathing in the moonlight, their life didn't need anything else.
Shu was watching lovingly Yui partaking with some loosely-dressed women in a fluid dance*, as he devoted her a special serenade when he saw them, his father and his brothers.
Except for Subaru, his youngest sibling and Edgar, his closest friend, the rest of his family had not received an invitation to their wedding.
But Yui had seemed so elated when they introduced themselves and Shu couldn't bring himself to sadden her by forbidding them entrance.
Shu knew his family. He knew how they would mask their disappointment and how they would cruelly later reveal their displeasure. They were crude people, yes; but, they were wealthy too. The rich strangers that came to their house, their palace of gold and crimson, they would never wish to see beneath the surface, to learn the horrific truths that lied under the barrels of red wine.
Shu had instructed Yui to be careful with them, nonetheless. Warning her of his mischievous blood-brother, Reiji, the sinister Ayato, the salacious Laito and the unbalanced Kanato. With a swift glance at his side, Subaru and Edgar kept an eye on Yui as well.
Shu resumed watching Yui giggle gleefully as she and her companions danced; his fingers almost twitched on the strings of his lyre when Ayato and Laito approached their female group.
His father had made a toast, "To the newlyweds!"
"To the newlyweds!" had repeated the crowd, although small they had managed to block his view, his eyes missing Yui, who in her haste she drifted further and further away from a green-eyed man.
Yui's cold body was found under the setting sun, her ankles gravely punctured and bitten by vipers.
He continued living with an ache in his heart and guilt clouding his mind, the lone traveller chasing party after party, yet all the tunes he played and the songs he sang were slow and melancholic.
Now, the wealthy ones still gossiped behind palms, the news of the charismatic musician reaching every ear, as their wine-scented mouths beseeched him on their knees, pleading for the revival of his old songs, the ones where the notes chimed like the wind, the ones that brought an ecstasy to their gatherings.
Once, he tried to regain his passionate music, only resulting in a woman's youthful laugh to flow in the air, causing him to lose his tempo, a crow-like cry strumming from his fingers.
Karlheinz was undeniably mad beneath that collected veneer he had sported when one, plump noble had informed him of his son's deplorable acts.
Gold had slanted like glass shards, his lips thin, yet curving upwards. He glanced to the side where his second eldest stood, wearing a similar expression.
There was no moon gleaming in the sky tonight, only the purple galaxy and the stars.
Under their light lied the verdant vastness, sans for the glimmer of a blue lagoon and the two silhouettes dancing by.
Both unshod, a pair of sheet-white feet on top of another, an arm possessively tightened around a slender waist, the other hand cupping a smaller palm, as a weightless head of blonde curls was nestled in his chest; his mouth hummed the music.
"Are you happy, Shu?"
"What a foolish question you're asking, you bothersome thing..."
She giggled, dryly.
"If I was so bothersome, you wouldn't have done what you did... would you?"
Sensing the strain in her limbs, he stroked soothing circles on her back.
"Do you regret it?"
"I'm not capable of offering you my warmth anymore..."
"Idiot... You can't see me nor can you move as freely as you used to anymore either, but that doesn't stop from anything, right?"
"I suppose."
As Shu finished murmuring, he cradled Yui in his arms, motioning to sit on the cool grass.
"Say, do you think we will be missed up there, Shu?"
"I don't know... nor do I really care. But you, little girl, you had quite the epilogue, don't you think?"
"Oh, being chased down by my husband's brother and ultimately embracing death by the venomous bite of a viper and all of that in my wedding day to the love of my life! Please, don't remind me! What about you, Shu, do you think you had a fitting end?"
"More like, I was forced upon one... not that I regret it. They did push me to the edge, but it was my choice to lie next to you."
The remained as they were for a while, undisturbed by the buzzing sounds of the cicadas.
"Hey, Shu?"
"Hm?"
"We had quite the tragedy, didn't we? The lonely maiden that was swept off her feet by a kind prince with a shining lyre!"
"Or, the lonely maiden that decided to experiment with the kind prince's lyre and created such a ruckus that woke him from his sleep."
They shared a laugh.
"I was lonely too, you know..."
"Yeah, I do. We saved each other from our loneliness, huh?"
"It seems like we did."
ooo
A/N: Well, crap. I did it. Kill me, love me, hate me, I really don't care. Just review me cause I need motivation.
The title, Farewell, refers to a line from Ovid's Metamorphoses concerning Eurydice's second death (it's also the continuation of the quote from above):
"She spoke a last 'farewell' that, now, scarcely reached his ears, and turned again towards that same place."
*gilded lyre: Appollo gave Orpheus a golden lyre.
*oak bed: Some believe Eurydice was an oak nymph (hamadryad?). Also, I wanted to portray her potential relationship with the wilderness and the land, so I made Yui experiencing the sublime of nature.
*the father of the skies: Zeus, God of thunder.
*stygian flames: Stygian means infernal, but I wanted to preserve the roots of the original myth which is set in Ancient Greece. Styx is the chthonic goddess and personification of the river Styx, which is said to be the portal to the Underworld.
*loosely-dressed women in a fluid dance: Ovid says that Eurydice died not because she was being hunted down by the satyr, but because she had danced with naiads in her wedding. As naiads are nymphs found near bodies of fresh water, I chose 'fluid' as an adjective to 'dance' in order to give the impression of their closeness to streaming water.
Please, if you want to learn more about the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, but other myths from Ancient Greece you can always PM me!
