MOTHER! NO! the inhuman scream tore through the tableau from the level of the treetops, as a wind buffeted them.
...
Garek had seen Salem, Queen of the Grimm. He had felt her Power, heard her mocking laughter, experienced her pitiless resolve.
He opened his eyes to see Salem, mother of Selene, devastated by knowledge.
"No…" She whispered quietly, eyes closing and blade wavering at his chest.
"Garek! Mother hold your strike!" His eyes were drawn upward to the sight of a pale cloaked figure, leaping from the back of her hovering Nevermore, and falling to Remnant like an avenging angel. He prayed his instruction on aura had been enough, but needn't have worried, as Salem, with a gesture, caused her Grimm to literally pile themselves into a slope beneath her, to deflect and cushion her fall.
Salem would not allow harm to come to her only daughter.
She could not. Not again.
Selene struck the pile of Grimm, slid, and rolled gracelessly. She was unarmed, save for her own terror and fury as she righted herself and ran forward.
No Grimm hampered her path.
Salem's arm bearing the sword fell.
Ruined. Everything ruined.
She could have ordered her Grimm to restrain Selene.
She could have continued to end Garek's existence.
But why? What purpose would this serve now. Selene would know. That was what had mattered. That she not know his true fate.
Her daughter, Selene.
Selene, who placed her body between Garek and her own mother. Eyes wide with anger and fear. Teeth bared against the one who bore her.
"You must not, mother! It was my fault! Mine! I… I seduced him! You will punish me!"
Salem lowered her head, dropped the blade entirely, and clenched her hands. Ruined. Ruined.
Garek stood, wavering on his feet, unable to believe he still drew breath. Might yet live. Salem seemed to shrink before her daughter's wrath, and he dared hope. Around him, Grimm shifted warily. Above him, Blackfeather continued to hover, strong wingbeats rhythmically sweeping the clearing with gusts of air. Garek imagined the nevermore would continue to do so, until it collapsed from exhaustion or Selene ordered it otherwise.
"I will not punish you, daughter. It was never my intent."
"Then why? Why!? You do not think this punishment? I am sorry! I am sorry I hid him from you. But I would have told you…"
Salem laughed again. Not mocking this time, but quiet and sad. "I told your… I told him that such was not my concern. It mattered not what intimacies you shared or withheld."
"Then what. What could cause you to consider…" her eyes took in the scene. "You would have murdered him, and pretended it as his heroic defense." Her eyes narrowed. "How did you know?"
"You are my daughter. I noted the change in your…. behavior. It was too sudden, and too soon after your forays. I was suspicious. And so I had you watched." Scarlet eyes full of pain raised to regard them both. "Garek was the name you whispered. The name of a man." Bitterly. "I am no fool, daughter. I know what these things signify."
"But here?"
"I had Blackfeather followed when he delivered your letter."
Selene's pale face should not have been able to become paler.
"My fault," Selene whispered. "Mine."
"It would have happened regardless. If not this time, then the next."
"This is why Blackfeather led me astray for so long. He kept… he kept diverting. I could not understand why," she whispered.
"I had words with him before you departed." Salem considered. "How did you bid him disobey me?"
Selene's eyes become flat as she gazed at her mother. "I threatened to leap from him into the sea, and drown myself if he did not take me where I wished."
"You… threatened him."
"More than that. It was not working. And so I did." Garek noted, for the first time, that Selene's clothing was damp, and she was shaking with the cold, and had the faint smell of ocean about her.
Something akin to pride flashed across the Queen's face. "You... Yes, that would force him." She peered upward. "You will not be punished, Blackfeather. Go and take your rest."
A soft warble from above as the Nevermore sought Selene's approval as well. Selene nodded, and the Nevermore beat powerfully west toward the larger clearing.
"You saved me," Garek croaked.
Selene turned slightly, giving him a glance full of emotion. "I saved us both." She turned a glare back to Salem. "Mother misjudges me."
"I have."
There was a long pause.
Selene's eyes filled. "I hate you, mother" Selene whispered, voice cracking.
Garek had seen a Salem terrifying. He'd seen a Salem devastated. Now he saw one broken.
Again. Again. Again.
Salem made an away motion, and the Grimm began to move, collecting the bodies in their jaws and leaving the clearing. Heading west. Leaving only the three.
"What now?" Garek rasped.
Salem laughed bitterly. "Now? My daughter has chosen. I am broken, but I will not repeat the mistakes of the past. And I would not leave her at the mercies of my enemies thus." She made another gesture, and Garek gasped. Selene's hair shifted to a soft auburn, her skin flushed with color. Selene held her hands up before her face, then turned to face him. Blue eyes on white sclera, wide in shock.
"It is not your true form. But it will protect you from those who would see you as little more than a threat to be removed, or a leverage against me." She turned to Garek. "You will protect her?"
"I… I will."
"Do so, or I will destroy you."
He did not doubt it, but, "I would die before her, you would have no need."
"Yes. Yes, I believe you would."
"Mother… you… why?"
"Because I feared this day. I have lost, daughter. Again and again. I sought to prevent that. I should have grown wiser, by now." She lowered her head, and then raised it. Her face was resigned. Her arms folded and her hands into the sleeves of her robes. "No, the lonely girl in the tower does not receive her happy ending. There is no ending. And no happiness."
Her words struck a chord in Garek. One from his childhood. A cherished story, read by his mother. His eyes widened. Salem was old, Selene had said. At least hundreds of years old. "The Girl. The Girl in the Tower. That was you."
"You are perceptive, Little Huntsman. I have lived the equivalent of too many lifetimes to count. Without cease. Without rest. I have lost all that I love, more than once." She turned eyes full of pain to her daughter. "I would ask you to forgive me for my desperation in attempting to hold on to that love, and yet again lose it. But I cannot demand your forgiveness for my betrayal. I accept this."
Selene was silent. He could feel her shaking against him, betrayal and fear for what her mother had been prepared to do… would have done without her intervention, warring against a lifetime with the woman who bore and raised her.
"You're making a mistake." To everyone's shock, it was Garek who spoke those words.
"I have made many mistakes, faunus. How do you find this to be one."
"You tried to… you turned Selene into yourself, another lonely girl in her tower."
Eyes hardened and he felt a momentary panic, an instant of Power crackle, "You dare to…" Salem stilled and closed her eyes, seeking control. As she opened them, there was awareness there. " "No. I… Curse the Brothers I…" Inhuman lungs took a deep breath. "In my fear, I became my father." Her mocking laughter returned, aimed yet again at herself. "The irony is a welcome pain. I can still find new ways to add to their curse. But how does this matter now? It is done."
"Because the opposite is a mistake too. You would drive your daughter out? Deprive her of her family?"
"Drive? I would not. Could not." Salem's eyes caught her daughter's for a moment, returned to his. "She loathes me, and with cause."
"Is this how you think? Do you understand us so poorly?" He turned Selene toward him. "Look at me, Selene. I am here, I breathe. I know you are hurt. Betrayed. But you have not lost me. Tell me, in a month, two months, three, will you hate your mother? Wish to never see her again?"
"I… I do not know. I am hurt. Angry."
He glanced back to Salem. "You see? The future is in doubt. You don't know the choices she will make. This is your assumption."
"You do not understand. My enemies. They would use her. Threaten her. I could not bear it."
"You mean the Huntsmen."
"It goes deeper than that."
"Then explain."
"To you? Who are you, little Huntsman? You would dip your toe into forces you could not comprehend. Into a war that would tear you to atoms."
"Apparently, I should already be dead. I have nothing to lose now, and everything to gain."
Salem stood very still. There was surprise writ on her features.
Selene grasped his shoulder. "Garek, what are you doing?" Selene breathed, dragging his attention back to her.
"I'm listening to the Girl in the Tower, Selene. Before we make a decision that can't be taken back."
Selene's false blue eyes widened. She nodded, and he continued.
"Queen S-
"Call me Salem. I am not your Queen, and I was going to kill you."
"Salem then. Would you turn her back? I prefer to see her as she is." Red irises narrowed. Salem gestured, and Selene's appearance shifted yet again, to the woman he had first met.
"Thank you," Selene said softly, and embraced him. Then turned back to Salem. "Thank you, Mother."
"What do you propose?"
"That we don't force a decision in a moment of grief and anger. That we… take time to listen."
"You counsel patience." Salem made a most uncharacteristic sound. "You who have such short lives will school me in this. The irony grows." Eyes flicked between the two. "Very well. I… we will defer this decision." Salem turned her gaze back to her daughter. "I… regret my actions. They were born of fear and past loss." She gestured to Garek. "I give my vow that I will allow no harm to him."
"Good. I would not forgive it."
"And what would you do now?"
"Return home, Mother. I will spend some time with my… with Garek. And then I will return to you. And we will speak further. You will explain yourself, and I will listen."
Scarlet eyes met scarlet. Slowly, Salem nodded. There was pain there, but it was tempered. "I will await you, daughter. Garek, I find you intriguing. Perhaps we will speak at some point as well."
"I suspect that will be unavoidable." He nodded. "I thank you for not flaying the flesh from my bones, it might have made things more complicated."
If he had not seen Salem, Queen of the Grimmlands, snort as she turned away, he would never have believed it.
They stood still, watching, until Salem was well and truly out of sight, standing next to their tent with hands clasped.
They waited another half hour after that, unmoved.
And another.
With a broken sob, Selene collapsed, and Garek's legs betrayed him as well. They fell to the packed earth, broken puppets with strings cut. Reduced to wordless cries. Pain. Relief. Sorrow. Disbelief. They clung to each other, fearing that which had not happened. Feeling the loss that was within a hair's breadth of occurring. They lay there, upon the firm loamy soil, until their limbs regained enough strength to bear them again and the emotions that washed over them slowed.
It may have taken hours. It was impossible to measure.
After, they made their way to the still burning fire, and sat quietly on the familiar log, hands entwined and one of her legs draped over his.
"I almost lost you," she whispered, cupping his face.
"You saved me."
She shook her head. "I was terrified."
"You saved me, it's okay." Gold eyes met scarlet, and he kissed her gently.
She pulled back. "I believe I love you."
"I would hope so. You threw yourself off a Nevermore for me." He laughed gently. "Though a little ocean water never killed anyone."
"I do not know how to swim."
Garek's golden eyes widened, and his face bleached almost as white as hers, spots standing out in stark relief. "You fucking what?"
"There are no pools at Mother's home." She smiled grimly. "At least, not the kind you would swim in."
"You… "
"I was terrified of dying. But I was more terrified of losing you. I knew something was wrong. Something horrible. I needed Blackfeather to listen. He had to listen to me."
"My gods. You are insane. And incredible." He kissed her again, pulled back and gazed wonderingly at her.
"I love you." She said simply. "And could you… after what you have suffered… would you…"
"Love you? I do." Impending death has a way of focusing he mind.
She leaned in, tilting her face slightly. Her paperwhite skin beautiful against the starlight. He kissed her again, more deeply, like a man who had nearly died in a desert drinking upon finding an oasis.
They both gasped as they parted, and he felt a familiar surge.
Scarlet eyes met his, and she smiled, and then giggled. "You realize, of course, lover of mine." Her finger traced a pattern on the back of his hand. "That we have six days until your crabby fishermen return to collect you."
"Hmm… yes. I suppose we do."
"And I am now free to stay as long as I like, and to return home as and when I wish."
A warmth spread through him.
"And it appears our previous… self-imposed rules never actually applied."
Garek swallowed through a throat suddenly tight, as Selene stood, drawing him upward with one pale hand and toward the tent.
For the second time that day, a pale woman led him gently to his doom.
This time, he had no regrets.
[A/N] And thus the opening arc of this story is complete, and a new arc begins next chapter. Look boys and girls, we have a ship! What course shall we chart? As Tyrian might say, "Oh my my my my this will be interesting! Has anyone asked what year this is set in, relative to the events in Volume 1 !?." *manic laughter and bloodshed ensues*.