The festival was the highlight of his year, he left the familiar walls of the temple and sailed across the deep blue Hellespont to the bright lights of the city he had spent so many nights admiring from the window in his bedchamber.

His face remained a neutral mask, but as he approached the shoreline, and the sounds of cheering and music built up from a faint and distant hum to an explosion of drums, lutes and dancing feet.

His duty was to oversee the offerings to Aphrodite, to convey the people's prayers and requests to the goddess of love and beauty. But if during the process he ended up enjoying himself, surely that couldn't be helped. A city official met him at the docks and lead him into the city streets. The statue of Aphrodite that he'd be stationed at was already draped in flowers and brightly coloured banners. Rows of incense were burning at the statues base. As a priest of Aphrodite he'd grown up surrounded by images of his patron goddess, but the way this statue looked tonight, covered in offerings and surrounded by adorations, he felt best captured the spirit of the lady of doves.

As soon as he took his place at Aphrodites feet, people began swarming towards the priest. He pulled the fabric of his hood further down, hoping the shadows it cast would conceal the scaring on his face. No one at the temple had ever poked fun or made cruel comments about his appearance but he couldn't silence his own insecurities when they whispered about the irony of a scared Servant of a beauty goddess.

The prayers were the usual, requests for love and beauty, but he he collected each offering with a sagely visage. Between each worshipper he would look out at the crowd, throngs of people drinking and dancing like wood nymphs. Then out of the corner of his eyes he caught a flash of gold.

On impulse he turned around to search out the flash, the tight packs of people made it hard to pick out anyone in particular, but he kept seeing that glimpse of gold coming in and out of his sight, he stretched as far as he could without moving from his spot. Eventually he got a clear view, a group of girls joined by the hands were spinning around in a circle, the flash of gold he'd been following was the firelight reflecting of the blonde hair of one of the dancing maids. She was waring a flowing white dress and gold jewellery jangled around her limbs and neck, her hair seemed like it had been done up in braids but a long night of dancing had begun to shake it lose. At some point she must have felt his eyes on her because she let go of her friends hands and went still, she turned to look at him.

Golden gaze met hetrochromic eyes. And the world narrowed down to two people. He couldn't tell how long the two of them stood like that, but when the corners of her mouth lifted up into a small smile he felt his face heat up like he was sitting in front of a fire, he ducked his head down, unfamiliar with the emotion blooming to life in his chest. When he lifted his eyes again she was gone from her spot. He searched the crowd for a few minutes but he couldn't find that flash of gold. He resigned himself to the anticlimax and continued on with his work.

He had just offered his blessings to a newly married couple, and when he turned to the next person in line his vision was invaded by a familiar sight, she smiled at him again just like before, and it was even more beautiful up close.

"Have you come to make an offering?" The words fell out of his mouth automatically. What in the underworld was wrong with him?

She let out an airy giggle at his words, "Well I suppose it would be rude of me to take up your time without offering up something." She reached up a hand and tugged a large golden comb from her hair, the blonde tresses fell dramatically around her shoulders, the handle of the comb was decorated with flower patterns and amber stones, she held it out for him to take, their fingers brushed when he reached for it, and if either were slow to come apart no one made note of it.

"I remember seeing you at the last festival." She said when they finally separated, "Is it the only time you come into the city?"

He nodded "The rest of the time I carry out my duties in the temple. But I can see the city from my window."

A whimsical look came over her face, "I find myself looking to the temple often, from the beech, even though it's so far away I've always thought it was a beautiful building. Practically invisible at night though." She added that last bit with a chuckle.

"Perhaps if it were lit up like this city." He replied with a dry laugh.

The two of them made idle chatter until the other worshippers could be held back no longer. The golden maid was pushed away and swallowed into the mass of people.

The priest was forced to see to the others, he looked out for a flash of gold for the rest of the night but he did not see her again.

That night, after he'd returned to the temple and retired to his bedchamber he leaned his head out the window and looked to the city. It was still shining like a firefly though he could no longer hear the music. Fleetingly he remembered the girl and her words about the temple being invisible in the dark. For reasons he could not quite explain he lit a lantern and set it up in his window. And as he fell asleep that night he imagined a golden haired maid looking across the Hellespont and seeing the far off light.

He was woken from his slumber when he heard heavy breathing and the sound of dripping water. He opened his eyes and shot up in bed when he saw the sight in front of him. Perched on the window and dripping wet from the neck down, her hair and dress were somehow mostly dry but stuck down with damp where they touched her skin. The lantern he had set in the window was the sole source of illumination in the room but their eyes found each other's without problem.

"How?" He asked breathlessly,

"I swam." She responded in between her pants for breath,

"Across the Hellespont. In the dark."

"I saw your light." She leaned in towards his lantern, "And... I couldn't explain it if you gave me all the words in a library, but I realised something."

"What?"

"I never got your name."

And with that the strings of fate that had been looping around the priest of Aphrodite and the doomed youth went taught, pulling them together and holding them in place.

He pulled the covers from his bed crawled towards where she was leaning into the room. "Shouto." He told her.

This time the smile on her face rivalled the lantern for brightness. "Mami" She replied.

He held out his hand to bring her inside, and she linked their fingers together.

He touched her hand; in touching it she

trembled:

Love deeply grounded hardly is

disassembled.

These lovers parlèd by the touch of hands;

True love is mute, and oft amazèd stands.

Thus while dumb signs their yielding

hearts entangled,

The air with sparks of living fire was spangled.

XxxxXxxxX

For another month their nights consisted of that routine, he would light the lantern in his window and then sit on the ledge listening to the waves splashing against the rocks beneath the temple walls, then he would hear the sound of the water breaking, the slaps of wet skin against rock as Mami scaled her way up the rock face, now that Shouto knew to wait for her he would lean out the window and stretch out his hands in the darkness until he could feel her sea soaked palms grasping onto his. And it didn't matter how many times he pulled her onto the window ledge, that first moment where she came into the lanterns light, her mouth an open smile and her eyes shining with an anticipation for their meetings that matched his own.

"Like Aphrodite she emerges." He whispered, it had become something of a joke in lieu of a greeting for them, and it never failed to make her laugh.

Once she was inside he would wrap his blanket around the both of them, he would rub his hands up and down her forearms to try and bring the heat back to her body. They would spend the night like that with their sides pressed together, whispering conversations about trivial things from their days or saying nothing at all, simply lying in amicable silence, simply taking pleasure in each other's company.

And sometimes they took pleasure in other ways.

One dawn, when the stars had started to disappear from the sky, they were reluctant to move from the warm space they had made on his bed, he was playing with strands of her gleaming hair while she took note of the time, knowing if she waited any later to leave one of them was likely to be caught.

"Do you think Aphrodite minds? Having to share you with me?" She asked absentmindedly as she sat up.

Shouto wrapped an arm around her shoulders and nuzzled his head against her neck, "I think it would be very against her nature for a goddess of love to take issue with us."

"And even if she did, the night hides so many things." Mami responded with a hint of melancholy as she swung her legs over the window ledge.

Shouto grabbed onto her wrists before she could fully jump out, he pressed their foreheads together and held her gaze like something fragile and still blooming.

"I'd spend every minute with you if I could." He told her, voice filled with conviction.

The sight of how her eyelids dropped slightly as she smiled was one he made sure to memorise. They pressed their lips together into one long lasting goodbye kiss before she dropped out of his sight until the sun sunk beneath the horizon once more.

XxxxXxxxX

Once she returned to the shore line, Mami was always careful to make sure she swam to and from an rocky enclosure that hid her from immediate view. She snuck back into her house before sunrise, securing a few hours of sleep for herself. Then she woke her little sister Nagisa and fixed breakfast for the both of them. She hugged her sister before sending her off to school, promising to swipe some cheese from the tavern kitchen for dinner, she made this promise so that she could see her sister smiling like it was her birthday before she left for work.

XxxxXxxxX

The fisherman that delivered the temples food warned the attending priestess that a terrible storm was coming. That priestess then gave that warning to the rest of the tables inhabitants. Unbeknownst to the rest of them Shouto lowered his head to hide how he was gnawing on his lower lip, he decided he shouldn't put his lantern out that night, he was sure that Mami wouldn't try to swim across the Hellespont during a storm, but just to be sure he would remove the light she used to guide her way in the dark.

XxxxXxxxX

The sand swallowed her feet as she tried to drag her way across the beech it was the only place where she wasn't surrounded by people asking if there was anything that they could do for her, if she was okay.

Only here could she shriek and wail and let the floods of tears leave what we're sure to be permanent stains on her face.

It had been such a normal day until one of the school children had burst into the tavern, bodily pulling Mami from her work and screaming that she needed to come right away, she'd come along out of concern but it wasn't until she heard him say Nagisa's name that she began to run. With her heart hammering against her ribs.

Nagisa. Sweet Nagisa. Her beloved little sister.

They had been playing in the yard outside the schoolhouse, racing to see who could climb to the top of the tree fastest. She'd been doing quite well apparently. She'd climbed onto a branch that couldn't take her weight. She'd let go of the trunk to reach the branch above her. The branch had snapped. She'd hit the ground head first.

Her skin was already going cold by the time Mami got there. Her pallor now matching the paleness of her hair.

Her eyes hurt from crying. Her throat hurt from screaming. Her heart ached from shattering.

Finally she fell to her knees and curled up on herself, not caring about the indignity of her appearance, or how the soles of her feet were burning from the hot sand.

When she finally raised her head to gulp in some stale air, her vision took in the Hellespont. The sun was starting to set but she could still see the temple on the other side of the water. The night before she had been so content, so happy broken off from the rest of the world in Shouto's room, lying in each others embrace. And in that moment all Mami wanted was to return to that feeling of warmth and contentment, nothing would ever be okay again but if she could just grab hold of a little bit of that feeling then maybe she could bring herself to getting back up again. And maybe the tears wouldn't sting her eyes so much is she were crying on Shouto's shoulder.

Before she knew it she was wading into the water, normally she would be careful not to be seen, she would wrap her dress around her head in a make-shift turban to keep it from getting soaked. But she didn't care about any of that now, the light from the sun was starting to fade already but she would be half way there by the time it got dark and then Shouto would light his lantern for her and she would follow that glow in the distance.

I want to see you, I want to see you she thought as the water came up to her neck and she began to swim.

XxxxXxxxX

Both robbed of air, we

both lie in one ground,

Both whom one fire had

burnt, one water

drowned.

XxxxXxxxX

The following week he sailed across the Hellespont with a fellow Priestess, after the storm had finally passed and it had been made safe to sail again they had received word from the city, there had been the death of a family during the turbulence of weather, and they had been asked to preside over the funeral. Apparently the eldest was known to favour Aphrodite in her prayers.

When they arrived at the city Shouto only needed to look around to see how important this family must have been, all those around him were mourning and broken hearted, even id they did not outright show their grief you could see it in their eyes being slightly dimmer, their bodies being slightly slower and hunched over.

A red headed girl around his age meet them at the funeral grounds, she had been a friend of the family and had arranged everything.

"The village had been in such disarray after the storm... And we didn't even find her body till a few days ago." She broke off into hitched breaths that were trying to conceal sobs. "They have everything now, their best clothes, and a coin for the ferryman. It shouldn't be to late right?" The girl asked desperately.

Midnight placed a calm hand on her shoulder and reassured the girl that her friends souls would not find themselves lost due to ill timing, "You've done well by them." She assured with a smile.

While they were talking Shouto had walked forward towards the bodies, to get a look at them before he and Midnight started the rites. From where he had entered he could see that both had died young, though one was very tiny in comparison to the other. As he approached though was when he started to see their features beneath the burial shrouds, closed eyes and lips in a flat line, you could almost tell yourself they were sleeping.

The smaller one had been dressed in a fur cloak despite the warm weather, clearly a favourite piece of clothing, the elder had been dressed in a flowing white dress and gold jewellery. Just like the night he'd first seen her.

Shouto didn't know how long he stood there staring at the bodies of the girl he'd loved and her little sister. He barely felt it as Midnight pushed him from place to place around the burial site, and later he would thank years of repetition for allowing his tongue to take over and recite the rites for him while his mind whirled and a grieving voice bemoaned, how? how? how did this happen?

If any of the other priests and priestesses noticed anything about his behaviour from that day onward they said nothing.

But after they returned from the city that day he never went back there, not for weddings, or festivals. He didn't want to see the place she had lived and the mourning faces of all the people who'd gotten to have more time with her than he did. He kept his window locked shut day and night.

XxxxXxxxX

O It lies not in our power

to love or hate

For will in us is overruled

by fate.