Aurix the Bold

Aurix and Nyx walked together, alone among the flowers and bones of the dead on the Ixian Plain. He was sad to see her go. Godling or no, she’d been with him from the beginning, and he loved her, but he knew it was the right thing for her to do.

“Where will you go after?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Perhaps beyond the seas.”

“So you won’t return, then?”

She put her hand on his shoulder. Her eyes reminded him of just how interconnected everything really was. “There are others that will need a bit of the divine, but never count it out, Aurix. I do enjoy weddings.” She winked at him.

Aurix flushed and quickly changed the subject. “You’ll make sure…?”

“Yes. They won’t be found again unless they are needed. Are you certain you don’t wish to keep any of them? You’ve earned that right.”

“I’m sure. No one needs that much power, or even the temptation of it.”

Iryk had already set off to return Xandra’s Tear to the Wraithwood, where it would manifest new generations of Rilx. He had promised to return to serve as Alexa’s regent, but Aurix thought Inanna might also have more than a little to do with his decision to return to Glynn. Though some of the Rilx had chosen to stay in the capital city to support Alexa, most had grown accustomed to their lives in the forest and returned there to live out the rest of their days.

Nyx had agreed to hide the rest of the Relics again before she moved on.

“What will you do, Aurix?” she asked him.

“I’d first like to give Shlee a proper burial, then return to Dren to see Jilly and Brill.” He frowned. “That won’t be an easy conversation.”

“Your uncle will forgive you. He’s a good man. He must be to tolerate your aunt.”

Aurix grinned. “Love is blind, they say.”

“And deaf, apparently. I could hear that woman snoring clear over in the stable.”

That set Aurix into hysterics for a full minute. Nyx laughed with him.

“What you’ve done for Valeria cannot be measured, Aurix. You’ve put things right once more.”

“I didn’t do it alone,” he said.

“You did what mattered most. You cared beyond yourself.”

They walked in silence for a few moments, remembering those who had fallen there to Xu’ul and the Sword of Cleaving.

“None of this needed to happen,” Aurix said

“Sadly, it did. Sometimes terrible things must happen for better things to be.”

“Shlee said that to me more than once.”

“He was no foon, that one. A bit crazy, perhaps, but no foon.”

Aurix stopped and turned to her, his eyes filling with tears. “Thank you, Nyx.”

She dipped her head. “Of course.” She opened her arms to him and hugged him for a long moment. “Your parents would be proud of the valiant young man you’ve become. This I know.”

For a second, Aurix could feel them both in the Godling’s grasp.

Nyx stepped back and put her hands gently on both of his shoulders. She looked on him with admiration for another few seconds, and then nodded once. “I think all will be well with you.”

“I’ll miss you,” Aurix said.

“And I you, bold one.” She released him and began to walk away, but then gasped and stopped suddenly. She crouched down amid the sea of red flowers and turned back to him.

“You did this, didn’t you? In the Nexus?”

Aurix grinned at her.

A single tiny green shoot had pushed its way up from the tainted soil. Its bloom was as white as snow.

THE END