Eladrin

Ben Hardy

Aurora nodded as he spoke. It was odd, almost uncomfortable to stand there with the eladrin. Because while the elve had very much wanted to maintain a cordial relationship with Farenduil’s son, that had never been up completely to her. He’d been cold, distant and resentful; it was something that Aurora couldn’t blame him for at all. She would have been the same if not much, much worse.

The way Aurora described it sounded... Intimate, because if nothing else it was obvious that the chancellor and Farenduil had been spending a great deal of time together. Obviously, this irked him the wrong way, but he hadn't come here to start yet another fight, and he especially hadn't come here to talk about.... Aurora and Farenduil in a car together. Micah could feel his body tensing in a reflexive response to the daydream-like quality that had overtaken Aurora's features for a moment. He'd spent too much energy tearing into her, blaming her for everything instead of seeing the chancellor for what she was. They all had their damage, and they all made mistakes. Micah had made his share.

He takes a second, leans against the blonde's side as he looks off into the water and it's not really something he thinks about, grand romantic gestures. Probably because he'd never really seen them at home for any sort of milestone. His dad had brought home flowers a couple of times, his parents had gone out for anniversaries, that was the extent of it. Idly, Emory takes one of Micah's hands in his, tangles their fingers together as he tries to think on it. A whole year already, they'd come a long ways, they deserved to celebrate something. "We could get away for a bit, hole up in a cabin. Spend a day at the bath house maybe." He wondered how their one tentacled friend was doing, if maybe they'd be up for a round two. What said romance like double teaming someone with your significant other? "I could use the R&R."

"There's a cabin right there Em," Micah said as he pointed behind them, Flora was big on maintaining their we live in an enchanted forest aesthetic, but he smirked, knowing full well what the witch had meant. Bathhouse with the Beast could be fun; that had been a good time, that was almost two years ago now. "Crazy how time flies." Here they were, getting older every day. Nothing was slowing down for them; it was full steam ahead; immortality hadn't really sunk in yet, but in a decade or two, the fact that he wasn't changing was going to make that factor a bit more real. "If you wanted some braiding to decompress, all you had to do was ask." It's mostly a joke because he hasn't done anything like that since- well, not for a few months anyway.

At that question, Micah just laughed, "I bet Em would love that, but no, no, I'm not looking to take over." There was a folder in his bag that he'd been carrying around with him, ideas, plans, possibilities. He knew many of their suppliers firsthand, he had a good relationship with the customers here, and the eladrin had a good mind for what people wanted and the mystical world. "I want a loan... or to see if you're interested in investing? All in One has all the raw ingredients, everything a witch or hipster could want to make their tonics and whatever else, Çiçek has potions for whatever people need to heal them, but there's nothing... fun about either. I'm good friends with Flora, I'm an eladrin, I want to open an apothecary in Lupercal; tonics to put a smile on people's faces, business between Rome, the lycans, and the elves. Ever since-" Micah thought briefly of his time in The End, his body decimated and worked to the bone to constantly transmute materials. "I can make just about anything; I want to do something good with my life that'll make people happy. I just," Back to sheepish, because at the end of the day, he was still asking for money here. "I just need a hand. My credit score is kind of nonexistent."

Lupercalia was going on and Aurora would stop by only for the finale. It would be wise to see who would be next to lead their wolven neighbors. But the Chancellor currently busied herself in Nighthaven, speaking to the elves that were intent on bringing in old tomes and ancient books salvaged from the former Winter Court of the Otherworld. Warriors intent on facing dangers out there to retrieve their history. Already looking rather worried as she watched them ride away, the same expression on Aurora's face only took on a new hint of shock as she turned to notice the blonde eladrin approach.

"Yeah... yeah that sounds like her." Micah conceded as he worried his hand at the back of his neck. He had every faith that his sister would be back at some point, she was just the kind of person who couldn't stay away. Anyways, the two of them had a lot of time now, forever, some might say. That was something that the young eladrin was still wrapping his mind around, forever and immortality, but he had no real frame of mind for it yet. In a few decades, it'd start to really sink in, but now he had bigger problems, he was still reeling from the events of the end, his slip-ups afterward, and why he'd come to stand in front of Aurora now.

"It's one year for us." Micah thought it was worth pointing out, he hadn't planned anything big or extravagant or anything like that. Truthfully, he wasn't sure if Emory was even the type or if he wanted to keep things more subtle or nonchalant. "Did you want to do anything?" Just coming right out and asking seemed like the thing to do because while the two of them had had their fights, they had stayed together consistently throughout. Officially, committedly, and publically, and that alone was a record for them. "Like, you know, to celebrate or is Lubefest going to be enough?"

Abel basically already had a foot out the door already when Micah had stopped him in his tracks. Maybe he could have chosen a better time to have this conversation but they were already here so there was no turning back now."You've run this shop for as long as I've known you; you're the sovereign of your coven now." These were just statements and weren't really questions, but Micah was getting to it. "You'd consider yourself a success, right? Like you're, you know, well off now and everything?" He didn't want to pry, but it seemed like Abel was doing pretty good for himself.

✿*° ‘° ･

Zahrya was such a nut, but in his heart, he was just someone who cared very deeply for his people and was incredibly passionate. Micah didn't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater here but as powerful and frightening as Zahrya's mood swings could be, the eladrin never felt like he was in any danger around him. "There's a lot of kids out there without a good home." Micah pointed out as he thought about the orphans that Emma had wanted to wrangle, there were formerly faimen children all over the world that had awoken to immortality. "Eladrins that are probably in a lot of danger now, we could use help tracking them down." He gestured, "Bringing them here."

Rainer had watched many people question their place in the world, questioning the outcomes of decisions made by themselves and others. It was difficult to not ask the 'what if?' questions. There was were so many paths laid out before each of them, it was natural to wonder what had laid in wait down the ones they hadn't traveled. "Does it matter?" He asked, tilting his head. "You can drive yourself mad with all that wondering. But what will it do you?" He looked down the street the two of them walked, watching the different people interacting, living. "Despite it all, you're alive. You survived, you're here. Emory is here." He thought again of Yihdra, of Marisol. How he'd loved and lost two incredible women. Yet here he stood, alone. "Isn't that enough?"

If only. Rainer was right; it should be. Micah should have been standing on the rooftops, singing at the top of his lungs. Something inherently defective in his brain kept him from being especially happy about how things had turned out. Emory was talking about the next steps, and Micah was trying to get into that mindset, too, but it was hard when he felt so far behind. Everyone seemed to know what to say, what to do, and how to act. Rainer had been through this sort of hell more than once, apparently; yet Micah found himself stuck in the same place, struggling to move forward. When they talked about how the strong would survive, Micah assumed that meant physical. It never occurred to him that life and trauma had their own way of weeding out the people who could stiffen their upper lip and trudge forward from everyone else. People like him who stayed sat in the same place while the rest of the world kept moving forward. Micah still felt paralyzed; he had fallen into old habits to take comfort, and there was a part of him that wondered if he'd ever be like everyone else. If it was even possible for him to just learn to brush it off and keep his head up. "Well, I'm immortal now so I guess I have to figure it out."