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Phainon doesn't know how to feel, looking down at Amphoreus like this. He'd dare to say that the planet is hideous; it's barely anything more than a floating hunk of metal by now, after all. Stelle had said that there'd been beautiful auroras surrounding the planet when she and Dan Heng had first flown by. Those are gone now, what with the Genius Society members' shutting down the scepter.
But at the end of the day, Amphoreus is still his home.
"Do you think it's possible for me to visit Amphoreus? Just one last time." He says. "I know it's selfish, but…" Phainon trails off.
Stelle twists her head and blinks. She's sitting on one of the car lounge sofas, with her cheek pressed up against the glass.
"We can ask." She answers.
"Would they agree?"
Stelle shrugs. "Maybe Madame Herta can preserve a small piece of data, like a momento. It can't hurt to ask." She slides off of the couch in one fluid movement, slumping down onto the floor like a lump of jelly.
Phainon wordlessly follows Stelle as she wanders around the Astral Express. Eventually the find Madame Herta in the main control room of the Express. Screwllum, Mr. Yang, and Himeko are all with her.
"Madame Herta," Stelle casually calls out. "Do you think that you could do us a favor?"
"Depends on the favor. Is it interesting?"
"Probably. Do you think you could boot up a simulation of a snippet of a loop or something?"
Herta scrunches up her nose. "A sim? What's the point of that? Almost all the core data has already been deconstructed, and we've gotten everything we can out of that sim already."
"Just think of it like a challenge." Stelle finally says. "Bringing nothing into something. I thought you were good at that sorta shit."
Herta purses her lips.
"We will only be able to work with what data we have left." Screwllum cuts in. "Much of the data in regards to characters and locations have already been deconstructed." He turns to face Phainon. "Your memories would be needed to act as a stabilizer as well." For an intellitron, Phainon has always found it unnerving how easily Screwllum tends to read human emotions.
Phainon sighs. "No, it's alright if it's too difficult."
Herta clicks her tongue. She waves Phainon off. "I can do you one better." She stomps over to the control panel and begins furiously punching something in.
Stelle leans over to whisper in Phainon's ear. "If you ever want her to try something, just suggest that perhaps she can't do it, since it's something no one's done before. She has a complex about that, I think."
"I can still hear you." Herta snaps at Stelle. She pulls something out of thin air; it looks like a memory crystal. It's small perhaps just over the size of a coin and around the width of a finger.
She tosses the crystal at Phainon, who catches easily. "Don't mention this to Polka, though." She says. "Nous knows what she'd do if she found out I'd extracted a piece of Irontomb like this."
Phainon wraps his fist around the stone. Its jagged edges dig into the flesh of his palm. "Thank you for indulging me." He says. Herta just grunts, and the next thing Phainon knows, the world has exploded into shards of glass around him.
The ocean water is cool when Phainon dips his feet into the surf. He's sat perched on the end of the small fishing pier in Aedes Elysiae. There's bells ringing in the breeze just behind, and Phainon has not been home in so, so, long.
The wooden pier creaks from behind Phainon, and Phainon turns around. Mydeimos stands awkwardly on the end of the pier by the shore, arms stiffly crossed in front of his chest. He looks out of place, here in Aedes Elysiae- all Kremnoan armor and princely nobility, a stark contrast against the soft country tones of Aedes Elysiae.
"Deliverer." Mydei greets.
"Mydei." Phainon glances over his shoulder to smile softly at Mydeimos. He scrambles to his feet, hurriedly slipping his shoes back on, and nearly tripping over his own feet in the process.
Mydei huffs, but there's a tinge of a laugh to the sound. "Don't look so surprised to see me."
"I didn't think you'd actually come." Phainon says. He stares up at Mydei with stars in his eyes, awestruck.
Mydei sniffs. "We made a deal."
"Yeah, we did." Phainon trails off for a moment. His eyes run over Mydei's figure, drinking in the color of his eyes, the way he holds his shoulders, the gold of his accessories, every last detail.
"Deliverer?"
Phainon shakes himself off like a dog. "Sorry," He laughs. "I got distracted for a moment." He swiftly steps forward, clasping a hand onto the crook of Mydei's arm and gently tugging him forward.
"My house is right next the pier." Phainon says. "We can grab some snacks for while I show you around the rest of the village." His grip slides down to wrap around Mydei's wrist as he leads the prince towards his home; Mydei doesn't resist.
Neither of his parents are home today; no one scolds him when Phainon nearly kicks down the flront door.Bbut when Phainon makes a beeline for the pantry, he is pleased to find a stack of honeycake crackers. He hands some to Mydei, who gingerly takes them.
Mydei chews on them for a moment in silence. "They're good." He finally says.
Phainon laughs. "I know right? The dessert breads from the Marmoreal Diner always remind me of these things." He pops one into his mouth. It crunches between his teeth, and holds just the faintest sweetness of sugar and wheat.
"Homemade food never fails to disappoint." Mydei nods. "If we get the chance, perhaps I could get the recipe off of your mother?"
"Ah, perhaps." Phainon nibbles on another cracker.
Mydei glances curiously around Phainon's house. The prince's eyes are darting from the various decorations Phainon's mother had put up, to the pieces of furniture his father had built.
"I know our house is a bit small," Phainon laughs sheepishly.
"It's cozy." Mydei slowly blinks. "You grew up here." He tilts his head, glancing around. "It feels… homey."
Phainon's smile softens. "It is." Mydei's eyes are still unfocused; he gazes around Phainon's childhood home as if in a trance. Phainon lets the prince have his moment for a little bit longer.
"We had this fluffy white dog that we called Snowy." Phainon continues. He ignores Mydei's snort of laughter. "Maybe we'll be able to see him wandering around."
"Maybe." Mydei huffs out a laugh. "I'll be sure to pet him if we see him, then."
Snacks acquired, they wander back outside into the center of the village.
"That's the schoolhouse." Phainon points at the wooden structure when they pass by it. "All of the village kids would go their for lessons, until we were either old enough to leave the village, or old enough to work in the fields full time."
"I'm sure you were a model student." Mydei says sarcastically.
Phainon just laughs. "Even Professor Anaxa would disagree with you. I could never pay attention as a kid. Ms. Pythias was always scolding me for sneaking out to train or just to simply skip class."
Mydei hums. "The only lessons I had ever received were from Krateros. They were useful, but I never had any classmates properly."
"Ah well," Phainon shrugs stiffly. "I think the Grove was a better example of a proper class and lecture hall, and all that."
"I never did get the chance to attend any of Anaxa's lectures." Mydei murmurs. His gaze is fixed on the old schoolhouse again; he's staring right past Phainon's shoulder, unmoving as if he's become stuck in place.
"Ah, enough about school." Phainon takes Mydei by the shoulders and spins him around back onto the path, ignroing Mydei's 'HKS' of protest. He continues pushing Mydei along the path until Mydei swats at Phainon's hands.
"I can walk." Mydei snaps out, but his tone barely has any bite to it.
"But I'm the one who knows my way around." Phainon whines, but he lets his hands fall to his sides and keeps in pace with Mydei.
They stop at the small dock by the pond. Cyrene's swing is slowly waving back and forth in the wind, as if the ghost of a child is still rocking back and forth
"This was our hideout." Phainon says. "If we weren't off playing in the fields, then Cyrene and I would be here. She'd do her tarot readings here for the villagers all the time too."
"Were they accurate?"
Phainon snorts. "Not really. If someone didn't like their fortune, Cyrene would always just let them redraw the card. To be fair, our audience was mostly just a bunch of children."
Mydei huffs out a small laugh. "Cyrene sounds like a pleasant person."
"She's the best." Phainon agrees easily. He reaches over to tug lightly on Mydei's arm. "C'mon, I've got one more place to show you. Maybe there'll be people there."
Mydei easily follows as Phainon leads them through the courtyard and down a trodden dirt path. They come to a stop just in front of a small tree hollow.
"This is the entrance to the fairy grove." Phainon motions to the tree.
Mydei blinks. "Fairies?"
"Like Mem?" Phainon offers.
"The little pink thing that followed Stelle around? That was a fairy?"
"Yup." Phainon laughs as he leans down to peer into the grove entrance. "I think I might've outgrown this entrance, though." He sighs, and crouches down onto his hands and knees. Mydei raises a single eyebrow at Phainon.
"It's part of the process." Phainon whines, even as he slowly scoots himself into the tree hollow. He hears Mydei huff from behind him, but there's also the sound of rustling fabric as Mydei lowers himself to the ground as well. Phainon huffs smugly in satisfaction.
The Membrance Maze hasn't changed much from Phainon's memories either. The air smells of damp forest and leaves, and there's the faint sound of bells chiming in the wind ringing through the hollow.
"It's usually prettier than this." Phainon says, when Mydei climbs to his feet by his side. "The fairies always like putting on music and dance festivals, and we'd exchange stories with each other all the time." And now that he mentions it, the maze is oddly empty. There's not a single fairies to be seen. The entire hollow is devoid of their usual bright shades; the only spots of color to be seen are in the wind chimes, which hang limply from their strings, unmoving.
"They must be rather… cute, then." Mydei says, glancing around. "If they all look like Mem."
"They are." Phainon laughs, despite the uneasiness rising in his chest. "Maybe they'll come back some other time." He smiles again, this time smaller. "Or maybe we just grew up. Cyrene used to say that only people with a childlike innocence would be able to get in here."
"Well you managed to crawl in quite easily." Mydei jabs.
"Oi, you followed me in here too."
Mydei snorts out loud at that, then turns his head to smile into his fist. His shoulders shake with laughter, and Phainon watches on.
"Cyrene and I would play hide and seek out in the wheat fields a bunch as kids." Phainon says, when Mydei finally calms down. "Galba would scold us every single time for running through the crops." He motions with his arms over his head. "I was pretty short as a kid, so all the wheat would go straight over my head. Cyrene used to joke that if I wasn't careful the fields would swallow me right up."
Mydei just squints at Phainon, then shrugs. "I wasn't exactly tall in my childhood either. Granted that may have been due to the malnutrition…"
Phainon winces. "Yeah, I mean, uh-"
Mydei snorts. "Deliverer, it's fine. We both know my childhood was fucked up." Phainon wilts, falling quiet with a whine.
"It would've been way better if you'd been here with us." He says quietly.
"I think it would've been great too." Mydei says. "Your village is beautiful. But if I'd grown up here, would the two of us still have been us?"
"Of course." Phainon says without missing a beat. "I'm Phainon and you're Mydei and we're each other's precious people. Nothing is ever going to change that."
Mydei just turns to Phainon with a small smile. "Perhaps. But we both know that strife can not be torn from my blood. I do not think I would have fit in here, amongst these villagers and fairies." He draws in a deep breath, eyes sliding shut. "It would have been a nice childhood, though."
"Yes." Phainon says, with his hands clenched at his sides. "It would have."
By the time they make back out of the Membrance Maze, the sun has already started to set.
"To think that it's the end of the day already." Mydei says. He's a few paces ahead of Phainon, already setting off in the direction of the docks they had started at.
"We can keep going." Phainon tries. "The stars are beautiful at night."
"I'm sure they are." Mydei agrees. "I'd always wanted to see at least one of the Flamechaser's homelands. Thank you for showing me."
"Of course." Phainon says. "I always wanted to show you around too."
Mydei barks out a laugh, but it sounds off to Phainon's ears. Phainon's smile goes tense on his face.
"Ah, but now I really do regret not being able to show you around Castrum Kremnos properly." Mydei sighs. "We never did get the chance to visit my library."
Phainon freezes in his tracks, all earlier elation gone like a whisp in the wind. A choked laugh bubbles out of him, unbidden. "Mydei?"
Mydei glances over his shoulder to meet Phainon's eye. When he smiles, it's terribly sad.
"We both know why there isn't anyone else in this village." Mydei dips his head in Phainon's direction. He turns back around, fixing his eyes on the horizon. The sunset paints him in even richer shades of red and gold. Phainon can't tear his gaze away.
"I don't even know if I'm real." Mydei continues. And that does nothing but break Phainon's heart.
"You are real." Phainon says desperately. "You're Mydei. You've always been Mydei."
"I am dead." Mydei corrects. "I was gone. And so was Aedes Elysiae. Perhaps both me and this place are just pieces of your own memories now." A choked whine crawls its way up Phainon's throat. Mydei's lips thin out and his shoulders slump at the noise.
"Deliverer," Mydeimos says. "What happened to you?"
"Everyone was gone." Phainon starts. "And then there was me."
The entire sordid tale spills out of him. The truth of the world. All 33 million cycles of tragedy. The blood on his hands. The ending that Phainon has found himself on.
"You've suffered a lot, haven't you?" Mydeimos says. They're sitting on the edge of the pier, back where they started. There is softness in Mydei's face that Phainon had only gotten to see in Mydei's most tender moments in life. "But you succeeded. It wasn't for nothing."
"I succeeded." Phainon repeats, but it's halfhearted. "I managed to save them, at least." Then, after a moment, quieter. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you."
Mydei lets out a sigh. "It wasn't your fault."
"How could you say that?" Phainon's voice cracks. "Who else would've known-"
Mydei presses his hands over Phainon's lips, silencing him. "It wasn't your fault." He repeats. Phainon wants to cry.
"I love you." He says instead, words muffled by Mydei's hands.
Mydei smiles softly. It's a painful expression to look at. "I loved you too." He slides his hands to the side to cup Phainon's jaw. Phainon leans into the touch. "You were wonderful."
"Mydei."
Mydei just huffs out a quiet laugh. He pulls his hands away; Phainon finds himself leaning in, chasing after that touch, chasing after a ghost. Mydei twists his mother's ring off his finger. He presses the signet ring into Phainon's palm and slowly curls Phainon's fingers around the ring. Phainon can still feel Mydei's warmth seeping from the ring in his hand. Mydei squeezes Phainon's hand in his grip.
"You went through so much to return this to me." Mydei leans forward. Their faces are close enough now that Phainon can see nothing but Mydei's soft, soft gaze. "I'll have to trouble you to hold onto it for just a bit longer, though."
"Mydei." Phainon chokes out. There's a vice around his heart. His eyes burn with unshed tears. Aedes Elysiae is burning around him, and there is no returning to this idyllic past.
"Go with the dawn, Deliverer." Mydei smiles. He leans forward, bumping his forehead against Phainon's, noses brushing, and closes his eyes. "May eternal victory be with you."
The signet ring is ice-cold against his palm when Phainon opens his eyes. He squeezes his fist; the metal digs into his skin. There's not a drop of warmth left on its surface.