Lucien, Elain, and Nuan winnow into the Day Court border, met by near-blinding streaks of gold sunshine as they walk up the small foothills towards the Palace, flanked by a few guards. Lucien holds Elain's hand and Nuan tosses him a smirk.
"You two are cute together, y'know."
"Are we?"
"Yes. Very much so." She turns her attention to Elain. "Thank you. For making him happy. For a while there I wasn't sure you two were going to come out of the other side of your grievances. But I'm glad you gave him a chance and it worked out. Luci deserves the happiness you give him, Elain."
A blush stains her cheeks as she nods politely. "Thanks. I was struggling for a while, and I didn't know what was going to happen either. But I can't be happier with who my mate is now. I know that we were chosen correctly for one another and we have a lot to look forward to in the future."
Lucien brings her hand to his mouth and kisses her knuckles, tossing her a smoldering glance, which only makes her blush more. "That we do, my Lady."
Nuan snorts and shakes her head, grinning from ear to ear for her friend.
Once they enter the open grand foyer, Helion comes sauntering out with Thea and Elior following, Briar close behind them, the latter three gossiping and chuckling.
Lucien flourishes a dramatic bow, the way he knows Helion will appreciate, being the jokester that he is. Elain curtsies and Nuan bows lightly.
Helion barks out a laugh and beckons them forward. "Lucien, how have you been? Cooled off those flames since the last visit?"
He clears his throat. "Yes. I—I apologize for my behavior last time. I was told some pertinent information that had been kept from me the entirety of my life and I got a bit upset that I was kept out of the loop."
Elain bites her lip and glances at him, not flinching away from the unblinking stares between them, and wonders for a moment if Helion knows now that Lucien knows about his mate bond with his mother.
Nuan, Thea, Elior, and Briar are silent, tense with the confrontation. Helion grips Lucien's shoulder, and still, he remains unshakeable.
"I believe that is a matter for us to discuss in private, no?", Helion nods to him in understanding.
Lucien lets out a huffed breath and nods. "Right. You're right. That isn't the business I am here for, but I would like a word before I take my leave if you'll oblige, Helion."
"I will."
"Briar", he grins, calling the young female forth. "I hope you had a lovely time in the Day Court. I certainly know that Thea and Eli had a great time getting to know you.
Briar smiles. "I had a great time. All of the Courts have been so inviting and I've made so many good friends. I hope I can visit everyone, or they can visit me wherever I land from time to time."
Thea hugs her tightly and Eli strokes her silky hair. "We will miss you so much girly."
She hugs back and sniffles, but grins. "I'll miss you both too."
"Both?", Helion whines.
"All", she laughs giving him a timid hug.
"Oh, come here you sweetheart." He wraps his huge arms around her and nearly crushes her to his chest.
"Oh! Helionnnn."
Lucien raises an eyebrow and Elain and Nuan chuckle at his antics.
"You'll suffocate the poor girl, let her be", Lucien snorts, gently shoving the large male's arm.
He lets her go and beams, tossing his curly black hair over his shoulder, the glow of his sunny aura encasing his golden-hued skin—ever the High Lord of the Court of Sunshine.
Helion nods to the giant sprawling white sofa that Lucien and Elain had lounged on last time.
"Nuan, I will be right back, and we can discuss your research and business at the library."
"Take your time", she bows.
Elain, Nuan, and Briar go over to the sofa and beckon Thea and Elior to join them. They oblige—with some drinks.
Helion motions to Lucien and he nods, following him down the sprawling gold and cream hall to an empty room.
The moment the door closes, Lucien crosses his arms and faces the towering male of muscle, unphased.
Helion lets out a breath, not in a joking mood for once. "You have something to say, or ask. So, go on fireling."
Lucien takes a deep breath to calm the inner fire threatening to burn again. "You're my mother's mate."
Not a question. No hesitancy. Simply a spoken fact.
Helion's face pales slightly and he cracks his fingers. "Yes."
"Why did you never tell me? Do you honestly think that in all my years of being an emissary and gods only knows what else throughout my life, that I would let information like that slip? Especially if it puts my mother in more danger than she already is in just being with Beron? What do you take me for? A child? An idiot? Or just a liability to the safety of you both?"
Helion steps forward to clutch his shoulder and Lucien evades his gesture of good faith. "Tell me."
"I've loved her for longer than you have been alive, Lucien. Ultimately, she chose Beron. You know that story."
"Not in full. Not nearly in full, clearly. I only know that's why Beron despises you so much. He sees you as a threat. And I never knew why because I know that neither you nor my mother would be so foolish to put your very lives on the line for a good lay. But it was the mate bond. Does Beron know?", he spits angrily.
"Don't speak about your mother like that, boy", he growls a bit. "Listen. No. Beron does not know about the bond. Only about—"
"The affair."
"Yes."
"That she got beaten to a pulp for", Lucien says lowly, baring his teeth. "Because you couldn't control your fucking mate bond. But maybe you simply didn't try because I know what it's like to want someone who doesn't want you or that you can't have, and yet I had enough self-control to not put Elain in any more peril. No matter how much it fucking killed me or hurt me or tried to rip me apart from the inside out. I still stayed away because it was what was best for her, Helion. You claim you love my mother and yet you put her in danger, allowing the affair to happen and continue as long as it did."
"I was stupid. You're right. And I regret every single ounce of pain that she went through because of it. But I don't regret her, and I don't regret that small amount of time we did have and I never will. Especially if it's the only time we will ever have. I get why you are angry for her, and I don't blame you. I'm glad you are protective over her even if you can't see her, which is another tragedy. Because I think you and the eldest are the only boys she truly loves. The only decent ones of the horrid bunch."
Lucien scoffs. "Does Eris know?"
Helion's jaw ticks.
"Of fucking course he does! What the fuck! Just another thing he's fucking lied about and kept from me", Lucien scrubs his hands down his face.
"He figured it out on his own and asked when he was here on business over two centuries ago. He already knew the answer, like you."
"Decent is a huge overstatement for Eris."
"That's between you two."
"And ever since?"
"Ever since what?"
"You...and my mother. Has anything...transpired?"
"What? Gods no. He hurt her enough the first time. Not to mention she's on a pretty short leash because of it, even five centuries later. But I need you to know, Lucien, that she knew the risk. I reminded her of the risk many times. I was worried about her safety. But your mother wanted our time together just as much as I craved it. I swear to you."
"Why didn't you kill him? You weren't High Lord then. Your brother was."
"Because if I had, you know it would have been spun to have been connected to my brother. You can't simply kill a fellow High Lord, and it could have had severe repercussions for this Court and all the innocents that reside within it. I wanted to tear his throat out with my talons, and I had half the nerve to do it, too. But I couldn't cause that kind of strife for my family or your mother."
Lucien sighs and shakes his head. "You really love her?"
"With every fiber of my being."
Lucien meets his amber-brown eyes and chews his lip. "Then I'm sorry. I—I can't imagine waiting that long for Elain...and you're still waiting."
Helion pulls him into a hug and claps his back. "Well, she got two good sons out of her tragic existence, Lucien. She is abundantly proud of you both, I could see it in her eyes Under the Mountain when she looked at you, and at the meeting when Eris agreed to take the faebane antidote despite your father. You two are lights in her darkness, however far away you are. Remember that."
Lucien takes a shaking breath. "I wish I could have been there just to see her, assess..."
"She was okay. Physically. That day, anyway. Would hardly look at me, but I know that's her tactic to keep us both safe, even if I can handle myself. She is valiant and loving, and stronger than any female I've ever known, even if she is stuck between a rock and a hard place. She does what little she can do. I know it..."
He steps back and sniffs, straightening his back. "I know she does. I like to think that Eris tells her what she needs to know without putting her in more danger."
"Like what?", his brow furrows.
Lucien swallows. "Nothing. I—I said too much."
"Your brother finally has a plan to take out the old fucker, doesn't he?"
"I wouldn't say a plan, but...a hope."
"That's all we can have, I suppose."
"Sorry again, for the er...", he motions his hand out.
"Don't worry about it, fireling. I'm glad you know. I wish everything wasn't so complicated, that he was out of the picture long ago. That...I don't know—that maybe your other brothers could've had a chance at being decent too."
Lucien scoffs. "They got the poison genes. They crave violence and love causing pain. It would be better to put them down with him like the dogs they are. And I say that knowing that there is no redemption for them. Their DNA is tarnished beyond repair. How I somehow escaped that, I will never know. I have a heart like my mother I suppose. And maybe, in some ways, Eris may too. But he acted too late, and he proved centuries ago that he isn't the brother I grew up with as a little kid. He closed off—became Beron's mold of what an heir should be. Stopped smiling, talking, or showing any sort of emotion at all. Like a shell. He's been that evil shell for so long, I don't know if he will be able to shed it when the time comes."
"I think he does what he can to survive there. Just as your mother does. Just as you tried to do...but remember, Lucien, you got out. Chased out, but ultimately being banned from there freed you."
Lucien glances at the ground and remembers a time when he was young that he walked into Beron beating his eldest brother. And another when he was a target of his father's rage when Eris was home and he had taken the blame, that same emotionless guise on his face, and had gotten beaten...for him.
"I know. There's just so much bad blood and history, and pain. So much that I don't know if we are reparable if the opportunity ever arises." Lucien glances out the window and shakes his head. "I don't know why I'm rambling to you. Apologies, High Lord."
Helion chuckles lightly and claps his shoulder. "It's alright. Sometimes it's good to vent. I hope everything works out. For us all."
Lucien nods and looks out at the horizon of the Day Court, seeing a multitude of different colored glimmering wards and spells around different homes and businesses.
"Hm."
"What?", Helion looks out the window as well.
"Nothing. Just...the people here are very cautious with all their wards. A habit they picked up since...the attack, I assume?"
"Cautious?"
"There must be at least two dozen overlapping wards and spells on this block of homes alone", he points over to a village on the right.
Helion looks at him with awe. "I knew your special eye assisted you magically, but seeing all at the same time like I can? That's some powerful magic. How was it infused, and when? I don't want to say I'd be bitter about someone stealing and using a bit of my magic without my permission, but...maybe a little. I wouldn't dare take it from you though. You're a good male."
Lucien looks confused. "Oh...I—I don't know really. It just started a while after it was er, installed." He looks a bit uneasy talking about the loss of his eye.
"Nuan made it, didn't she? I hope she didn't come here to steal what isn't hers", he grumbles.
"What? No. Nuan would never steal. Ever. I've known her for a very very long time. She is one of the most honest people I know."
"Then how is your eye infused with my magic?"
"I-I don't know. I've never thought about it actually."
"Well, it's either magic or blood and we—", his sentence cuts off and he goes a bit rigid. "Excuse me. I forgot I had some business to attend to. It will only take a moment." Helion rushes out of the room and Lucien looks after him confused. Though, the male is known to be eccentric.
Taking one last look over the view of the horizon, Lucien puts his hands in his pockets and returns to the foyer, joining the others on the sofa and being dragged into their silly conversations.
.
.
.
Helion rushes into his study and locks the door, leaning on his desk heavily, his head hung and his hands trembling. "Okay…get it together. You knew it was possible. You just never thought it could be...oh gods. Oh, gods. He's your son."
Sinking into his chair he rests his face in his hands, thinking back to his time with Aurelia.
{Beautiful laughter is heard through the private bedchamber as the beautiful redhead delivers the final blow to his face with her pillow.
"Hey!"
"That's what you get for even joking about that!", Aurelia gapes, then fake pouts, sinking into the plush bed, and tugging the sheet over her bare body.
Helion pulls her close as she settles onto his chest, lazily drawing shapes on it. "Well, if we could find a way to get rid of him, we could be happy. You know I'd treat your sons like my own. We could make sure they aren't rotted by him, Aurie. I love you. And if we were blessed to have our own children, we could be one huge happy family, right here. Where you belong. Next to me. We would have the biggest family of all the Courts. You are very fertile, my love. But that's not why I love you. I'd love you and your sons regardless. You just lost your sisters, and my brother is in shambles. We need this. Us. I want to be the arms that comfort you. Now and forever more."
Aurelia sighs and nuzzles his neck, a solemn expression crossing her face from her lost sisters. "I hope you know that...with you, it's pure love and pleasure. With him...", she trails off and whispers. "...it's like a chore, and it feels dirty and wrong, and I just lay there and say what he wants to hear. It's an obligation. But not with you, Helion. Never with you."
She tears up and he can't help but grasp her face in his large hands, kissing her deeply. That's when they both gasp, feeling the unfamiliar tugs in their centers, binding them to each other.
"Oh gods, Aurie", he grins.
Tears spill down her cheeks and she sits up, looking like she was struck.
"Aurie?", his face falls and he leans over, taking her hand. "We're mates."
"I know. But I'm still married, Helion. Beron won't care, he'll never let me go. He cares too much about reputation. He would never let me make a fool of him. Ever. This isn't a good thing. We should have stopped this weeks ago", she chokes out. "But I'm in love with you, and I wish I could be happy about it. But I'm just scared."
Grabbing the sheet, she wraps it around her and gets up. "I have to leave."
"What?", he gently grabs her wrist and brings her to sit on his lap, trailing his thumb over her lower lip. "Please don't leave like this. I love you. I love you so much, I—"
"Love doesn't matter. Don't you see that? It doesn't matter whether we are in love, or if we are mates, or any of our stupid, silly dreams that will never come true. We are fools, Helion. Fools to think that this would work out. I want you as much as you want me, but I am wed."
Helion sets his jaw, pain in his expression. "Then you tell me this was a mistake, and I'll let you go."
"Helion..."
"Say it."
Her lip trembles and she wraps her arms around his neck. "I can't", her voice cracks. "Because it's not. It's everything I ever wanted, being here with you. But even you knew it couldn't last. And now with this bond...we can't be seen in proximity to one another, people will scent it and that will cause war. I don't...I don't want a war over me", she begins to sob. "I can't...I can't. I need to get home to the boys. I'm sorry."
"Me too", he whispers, his voice wavering, slowly loosening his grip to let her go if that was her choice.
Hours later when she had kissed him senseless, he thought for a fleeting moment that she would stay and fight—until she had gazed into his eyes with the most love he's ever witnessed, and winnowed away as she had never been there. That's when he finally realized just how much pain Tilion was in from losing Lucilia. Pain that brought warrior brothers to their knees, heaving sobs. No longer males, but puddles of grief. }
He hadn't seen her again in private since, and the not knowing had torn him up. Nearly a year later the Autumn Court announced the birth of their seventh son. Lucien Vanserra. Named after the Lady's twin sister, Lucilia.
Helion had many fleeting thoughts of maybes and what-ifs, but refused to feel yet another loss when he had no proof. Not that knowing would do anything but get the child murdered by Beron anyway.
When Amarantha killed his brother, along with Eirwen and Nostrus, he had to force himself to focus on integrating as the new High Lord. Something he never imagined, wanted, or needed to deal with through the immense pain rocking through his soul like the oceans to the West. The two people that he loved more than the world itself, were now gone to him.
Centuries later when the heir of Autumn had grown to be slightly more open, he had informed Helion that his mother hadn't forsaken him when it was demanded of her. Instead, when an informant had told her husband about the affair, and he had asked her, she admitted her love for him. Eris said that he had beaten her to the cusp of death for daring to be an adulteress. Then had set the strict stipulations she was to live by from then on.
He has still yet to have a conversation with her since she left his balcony that day. Now there is little doubt. Lucien is not Beron's kin. He is his. His son. His son that has gone through unbearable pain and torment of his own. Things that could have been prevented or changed if he had fought harder. Wiping his face he fixes his toga and forces a neutral look onto his face, heading back down to the foyer where everyone has gathered.
They all look up and he forces a smile. "You all act like some big secret is being revealed." Internally he cringes at the irony, his gaze automatically going to Luc—to his son. It may have lingered too long as he took in his features, what is him, and what is Aurelia, until Lucien makes a face.
"Helion? You're looking at me like I'm a ghost. What's wrong?"
"Hm? Oh...nothing I just have a lot on my mind.
"Right...well we should get going. Elain, Briar."
Elain digs her nails into his arms and he flinches a bit, looking over at her.
Helion looks worried. "Is she okay? Her eyes..."
"Oh gods, it's a vision."
Elain begins whimpering and writhing like she's in pain, then screams. Something horrified and pained.
"Elain!" Lucien pats her cheek. "Elain! Come back, sunshine. I'm here."
Briar takes her hand gently. "Elain, we are here. You're safe. Come back to us." Briar's hands glow a soft golden-blue hue and Elain gasps as if coming up from underwater, her eyes fading back to her original brown, as she looks at Lucien hauntedly before breaking down into sobs and hugging him tightly.
Lucien wraps his arms around her, letting go of his question to Briar. Elain is his priority right now. "Elain...I got you. What happened?"
"Y-you have to go. You have to go!", she exclaims in a panic, tugging him to stand up.
Lucien looks utterly confused and concerned. "Go? Go where?"
"D-Dawn. Dawn. Eris. He's—he's dead, Lucien." Tears fall down her face. "It's so bad. He's so bloody I—"
The color drains from his face and he cups her face. "Dawn?"
"Mor...she found him. Um...it's all in pieces but maybe there's a healer there. He was so bloody", she trembles.
Nuan is up like a bullet and looks very pale, her eyes misty. "I'll do my research another time. I'll go with you, Lucien."
Elain sniffles. "What about Briar? She has to be dropped off in Spring? Maybe I can do that. You two go. Go, I'll figure it out."
"El...", Lucien tears up and holds her shoulders.
"He's your brother", she sniffles. "Go. I can do this."
He looks into her eyes for a second before grabbing Nuan's arm and winnowing out. Helion swallows hard and has tea brought out for them.
Briar hugs Elain gently. "I can't imagine how seeing all those things affect you. I'm so sorry. But I'm here...if you'd like a friend."
Elain sniffles and nods, wiping her face. "Thank you. I can winnow I just...I don't have a lot of practice. So let me calm down for a minute."
"Take all the time you need", she says softly, squeezing her hand.
.
.
.
"No!", a grief-stricken shriek rings out from the top floor of the Forest House, followed by loud sobs. Aurelia falls to her knees and screams in pain, her second eldest having come and told her about the demise of the heir, and how he was going to get the position he deserves. He had promptly left when she started crying, sending a nasty snarl to her.
"No! No!", she breaks down, unable to keep herself quiet. Not anymore. Not after this. He had a plan. He had so much hope. He was going to have a good life. He had a daughter to live for. Information he only told her in private recently.
Curling up on the floor of the bedroom she despises, she continues to shake and sob, letting out a bloodcurdling scream that holds every moment of pain, loss, and unfairness she has ever faced in her life, her fists balling.
Crying never changed anything. No once. But anger—anger changes things. That is what she needs to tap into. She's been weak, and at the expense of her sons. One of the only sons she could truly love, however horrible it was to face that truth. Beron must have found out something. He won't get away with this. He won't get away with slaughtering another one of their children. Not now, not ever. She's been weak, too weak. She stood by the first time, when she felt she had no choice. When it was her innocent daughter, born three minutes before Eris. Now she knows that she has been living a fucking excuse. She does have a choice. And it took her losing another of the most important people in her life to realize it. He won't get away with this.
Her inner fire ignites in her palms the more enraged she gets, and flickers of it appear in her irises, an orange sheen to her vision; magic she hasn't summoned in what feels like forever.
But perhaps it's time that her dear husband is reminded that one of the reasons she was chosen for a High Lord was because she is equally as powerful.