Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The flamechase journey is filled with death, whether or not it is I who sends them off to where the west wind blows, the flames of this everlasting journey burns away both enemies and allies alike, leaving behind a scent of ash. 

Yet even as blood and tears flood the cities of Amphoreus, love is never truly washed away. 

Oh comrades who never seem to tire of each other, sparring and bathing together like there’s no other.

Oh chronicler and scholar doomed from the start, yet nothing can stop a maiden’s heart.

Oh ruler and warrior with trust that transcends all, together an eternal song that enthralls.

Even among the titans, beings of such power, does love exist. Mnestia and Cerces’ famed love, the butterfly and the tree, beauty and nature, romance and reason, the two never not intertwined. 

Lady Aglaea has always put the flamechase first, above all else, though she is the demigod of romance. Adding on to the usual chatter and gossip surrounding you may expect for someone of her status, hushed whispers of Lady Aglaea’s love life does exist, for she is the demigod of romance after all. Though I certainly do not wish to pry into Lady Aglaea’s private matters, the only person I think could possibly be Lady Aglaea’s lover would be Professor Anaxagoras.

I only dare admit this in writing, for the golden threads would most certainly listen if I were to converse with the other chrysos heirs about this. Titans forbid Lady Tribios finds out. Do not get me wrong, Lady Tribios is the sweetest of all; however, what Lady Tribios knows, what Lady Aglaea knows. Discretion is not their forte. 

Why Professor Anaxagoras? Everyone thinks the two hate each other but to me they feel like Mnestia and Cerces, Romance and Reason. The professor would refuse to be the chosen heir of reason if it ever comes down to it, but his intellect and thinking is something even Cerces themself acknowledged, accepted into the grove despite being a heretic. Surely that's a sign of reason within him? 

Lady Aglaea and Professor Anaxagoras’ interactions create thunder and lightning, clashes that leave the other heirs ducking for cover. Even Lady Tribios is left a little helpless when with the two of them. Personally, I think it is simply our innate sense of being out of place when with them, our inability to slip between the two that makes them together so difficult to handle. But of course, that’s not to say they are easy to handle individually…… 

Most people have a suspicion that the professor likes it when someone challenges him. Who better challenges him than the leader of the flamechase herself? The antithesis of his ideas and beliefs? 

Lady Aglaea on the other hand, and I mean no disrespect, what with her decaying humanity and the dulling of her senses, the professor stimulates her emotions and thoughts with their contrasting viewpoints. In a way… the professor prolongs Lady Aglaea’s life… It is silly to say since demigods live such long lives, but death is not just the decay of the body, it is also the decay of the soul. 

Who’s to say love only has one form? Love varies with each person, and for Lady Aglaea and Professor Anaxagoras, perhaps the hatred between the two everyone else senses may just be a love only the two understand. 

Chapter Text

The dromas draped in finery went to Okhema again. Hah. Willingly entering the golden cocoon despite his constant grumbling about it. He should be grateful Agy hasn’t cut him down yet for what he has said, though I suppose she’s too kind to do that……

Aglaea has taken in another stray and this time it seems she’s forced the blasphemer to babysit with her. The little snow puppy’s got it good, with a sage of the grove as a father and the esteemed lady Goldweaver as a mother. Ooh, not to mention princess homebody as a sister. Hm… Think about how rich they are! Bartholos and I could never amass that much wealth, even with their vaults being so easy to plunder, they’ll just get rich again! Constantly robbing them wouldn’t be much fun. Those golden threads will catch me one way or another if I stick too close. Can’t let that happen lest Kephale falls! Nyahaha!

Ugh. I’ve been thinking about them for far too long now, thoughts of Aglaea and Anaxa flirting makes me shiver. Yuck! I bet princess homebody got new material about it in that notebook of hers. I’ll sneak a peek soon.

Must be nice though, being able to argue with Agy so freely… Hmph. Anyone with eyes can tell that one eyed dromas likes challenging Agy. Can’t say I don’t understand, but surely he could be less obvious about it. Heh. Then again, Aglaea is rather blind to his weird affections. So much for being the demigod of romance, am I right?

Chapter Text

…missed her again. Aglaea sighs, putting away her teleslate. The ever elusive demigod of trickery was within her reach just a mere blink ago, yet she has already left with a flip of a coin. Either my threads are already beginning to dull or Cifera has gotten even faster… 

“Is it not time for Phainon’s lesson? Or perhaps have I interrupted your daydreaming?”

Tch. “Anaxa,”

“Anaxagoras.”

“I sent you a message. Have you not checked your teleslate?” Aglaea huffs.

“Your message was less than informative. ‘The white haired puppy is in the room with purple blossoms’ is hardly proper instructions.” Anaxa crosses his arms with an annoying smile. 

Aglaea pinches the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes as she does so. 

Anaxa says something snide. Aglaea ignores the mint haired man. 

She must’ve entrusted the task of informing the blasphemer to a garmentmaker who speaks in riddles. Not uncommon among her garmentmakers but still a mistake on her part. Should she apologise? What a hassle. 

“I apologise for the… confusing message, it was not my intention to waste your time,” Aglaea starts.

“You are forgiven, I managed to see the dromas while finding you. Therefore, it was a worthwhile walk despite the inconvenience.” Anaxa replies cooly. 

“...Phainon is in the library. The winding vines on the walls outside are teeming with purple blossoms.” Aglaea wills her fists to relax lest she ends up punching Anaxa.

“I’ll be off then, to teach your dearest chrysos heir.” Anaxa’s clothes make a slight ruffling sound as he turns around swiftly. 

How annoying. Aglaea sends a golden thread to tail the scholar, to ensure that the blasphemer arrives at his destination and the lesson goes smoothly.

“If you wish to observe the lesson, simply ask and I will allow you to sit in. Let’s not play around with threads, shall we?” Anaxa swats his hand lightly at the thread floating near him, not stopping nor turning around to address Aglaea. She forces a smile, gritting her teeth to stop herself from clicking her tongue. 

“Very well.” Aglaea recalls her golden thread. 

The clicking of heels on the marble floor following Anaxa makes him smile, just a little. 

The two walk in silence, Aglaea trailing behind Anaxa a few armlengths away. The door to the library is already open when they arrive, soft chatter floating out into the open hallway.

A mop of white hair sits on a chair, swinging his legs. Castorice sits next to Phainon, seemingly chatting about the newly born chimera. Phainon notices the two entering and rushes towards Anaxa with his workbook, starting a debate with his professor. Aglaea sits next to Castorice, as close as she can without making Castorice uncomfortable.

“Castorice, you’ve returned from Aidonia?” A golden thread brushes against a stray hair on Castorice’s face.

“I… I did not find anything this time either… My apologies, Lady Aglaea.” Castorice fidgets with her hands. 

“No need to worry, there is still much to investigate. We will find Thanatos.” Aglaea smiles gently and Castorice relaxes into her seat, having sat up straighter when Aglaea and Anaxa entered.

The lesson goes smoothly, as smooth as it can be with Aglaea and Anaxa arguing once every few minutes like divorced parents. Phainon runs off when he is dismissed, Castorice trailing behind him, watching over the rambunctious child. 

“Was the lesson satisfactory, Lady Aglaea?” Anaxa packs away his writing tools. 

“I was the one who entrusted you with Phainon's education. I would not let a fool who would give an unsatisfactory lesson to be Phainon’s teacher.” Aglaea pushes in the chairs with her threads. Anaxa chuckles. 

“Aglaea, dear Aglaea, I did not know you thought so highly of me.” 

“...interpret my words as you wish.”

The two exit the library together, greeted by a garmentmaker holding a scroll. Aglaea takes the scroll wordlessly, and the garmentmaker bows and retreats into the shadows. 

“...It seems I will be unable to attend Phainon’s next lesson in person. I will station a garmentmaker in the library, will that be alright with you?” Aglaea says.

“I would rather have your little threads snooping around than an eyesore of a garmentmaker prancing about in one of my classes.” Anaxa says.

“A word of caution, a garmentmaker would be less invasive than my threads.”

“I have stated my preference.”

“Foolish stubborn dromas.”

“You know very well that is only a compliment.”

Aglaea scoffs and walks away without another word. The dromas draped in finery wins today’s battle?

Chapter Text

‘Dromas draped in finery’ is what most would call one of the sages of the Grove, Anaxagoras. It is a term of insult yet the professor takes pride in such a title. Could one interpret ‘finery’ as in perhaps… Gold? Beauty? A certain romance? Teehee, a joke, a joke. We have been noticing some things is all. 

Naxy has come to Okhema again, uncomfortable whispers always following behind him, yet he always strides forward with confidence and pride. He has been frequenting the city as of late, no doubt because of little Snowy Agy has taken in. Phainon of Aedes Elysiae. Agy has high hopes for him, the future leader of the flamechase journey when our time has come to leave towards where the west wind blows. Which is why! Agy has entrusted one of THE MOST important tasks of education to her trusted chrysos heir, Naxy. They squabble every time they meet, but we can tell they’re having fun. It is almost akin to our little fights over the smallest of things, we aren’t actually upset or mad, it’s just a way of playing! 

Truth be told, we have been worried about Agy for a long time. Ever since Agy has taken up the mantle as leader of the flamechase, she has been getting more and more closed off. Our little hands and short arms and legs cannot reach her like when she was young anymore. The Imperator had her Dux Gladiorum during her reign, the two having unbreakable trust in each other and impeccable teamwork. The Imperator could always rely on Hysilens even in the most dire and dark situations. Though we may be Agy’s teacher, and we are closer with each other than anyone else, our relationship just isn’t the same as the Imperator and her Gladiorum. We are unable to support Agy in the way she truly needs. Each of our little flames bring warmth, but like Agy, we too are fading over time, there is only so much we can do to warm her heart while it still beats and glows through the divinity. 

This is where Naxy comes in! Like how Agy is preparing for her departure by raising an heir, we too have been doing our own little preparations for tomorrow! As the demigod of romance, surely there must be some romance in Agy’s life, right? So, we tried several times over the years to introduce people, good companions, to Agy. Though, of course, as you’d imagine…… Agy either dismissed these attempts of matchmaking or drove off anyone interested. Which is okay! We know romance cannot be forced…… Admittedly, our attempts were probably seen as a sort of childish whim, it’s only natural for people in general to not take us so seriously. Sometimes, even Agy herself is not exempt from treating us like a child at times. Anaxagoras of the Grove, however, treated us quite differently in our first meeting. 

Agy’s threads detected a surge of something in the Grove and sent us and Cassie to investigate. Our search lead us to someone under one of the sage’s care, hidden away in a corner of the Grove. The young man or maybe boy, having only recently lost an eye, questioned our prophecies right on the get go. How interesting! Cassie at the time did not take what he said lightly and cautiously took a step forward, Agy’s orders to protect us of course. The sage, his parent perhaps, on the other hand, looked like he was going to go bald on the spot. While we would not ever doubt our prophecies, Naxy’s intellect is truly one of a kind. We knew from that first meeting that he would be a major influence on Amphoreus’ fate, as well as a major influence on the Chrysos heirs themselves. Especially on Agy! After all, without Naxy, perhaps… Aglaea would not have been able to persist for so long. Cliché as it is, the heirs of Mnestia and Cerces are drawn to each other like butterflies to flowers and scholars to the forbidden. 

When Naxy became a sage and started getting even more attention with his blasphemy, Agy took action to officially recruit this child of Cerces into the flamechase journey. We were sent again to find him, though obviously we were turned away. Trianne specifically was sent to “retrieve” him the second time, under Agy’s request of course, and was to no surprise turned away. What Agy doesn’t know from these two rejections, was that we purposefully let Naxy off easily. Our little meddling came to fruition when Agy decided to find him herself, with some persuasion and instigating on our side hehe. Thus! The beautiful romance between the two began! Well…… not really! But! Progress! For once, Agy seems almost… more light? Her pallor became a little more rosy rather than pale, her expression a little more motivated and determined, her dresses… she created a few new outfits after having not touched a measuring tape in a few decades…… Our intuition was correct, not to place him on a pedestal, but, Naxy is truly an important existence.

Back to the present, Agy has surprisingly boldly asked Naxy to be Phainon’s teacher. She has also brought up asking him to teach other Chrysos heirs, starting with Cassie. To be honest, we do feel like she’s also doing this just to be petty and create annoyances and inconveniences for Naxy as well… though can’t we imagine that perhaps maybe Agy just wants to see him more? But we know, the most reasonable, logical and straightforward reason for asking Naxy to teach is because he is the heir of Reason, future bearer of Cerces’ coreflame, reason personified, intellect boundless. It’s not like Naxy would refuse Agy anyways, no matter how prickly or stubborn he may act.

(the rest of the text along with the date under it has melted away on the wet paper.)

Chapter Text

“Dear Lady Goldweaver Aglaea,

Your butterflies have been much too present in the Grove as of late, especially near the corridors and branches around my office. Your spying has become much too obvious and a huge eyesore. Please recall them or at the very least relocate them from their current premises. If you decide not to deign me a proper response within a week, I will-”

A series of knocks echoes into Anaxa’s office, a familiar pattern of three sharp short knocks in quick succession and one last heavier and resolute knock. Hyacine’s twintails bounce into the room without waiting for Anaxa’s response. 

“Professor, have you eaten yet? I have brought dinner for the two of us.” Hyacine places a hot bowl of nutrition onto Anaxa’s desk, not without quickly tidying up the papers and items on it first, the not so little Ica flying off with a nice stack of papers and books on its back. 

“No, Hyacine, I have not eaten, but I have no appetite. Not with all the bugs around,” Anaxa pinches the bridge of his nose, waving his other hand to the unfinished letter on his desk, “I will eat once that woman retrieves her spy creatures.” 

Hyacine leans over the desk to read the letter, hiding a small laugh before gently pushing it away, replacing the space it occupied with dinner. “You can write your threats to Lady Aglaea later. By the time Lady Aglaea receives and reads your letter, you would be dead from starvation.”

Anaxa side eyes the warm bowl with slight apprehension and disdain before pushing it away slowly towards Hyacine. “I appreciate your concern, Hyacinthia, but I can keep myself alive just fine.”

Hyacine puts her arms on her hips as if admonishing a child. “Professor, your version of ‘keeping myself alive’ is to sustain yourself with less than nutritious food due to its convenience or with alchemical methods,” she pushes the bowl back towards Anaxa, “This, will last you far longer than whatever you end up choosing to eat and will make up for the nutrition you are lacking right now.”

Letting out a quiet and short maniacal laugh, Anaxa stands up, walking towards the door. “I will eat it later, Hyacine.”

Hyacine stares at his escaping figure with an exasperated expression on her face. 

Anaxa strides through the winding hallways of the great tree Cerces, without any particular destination in mind. Gold flickers between leaves, he decides to spare it no attention. Hyacine is sweet but her nutritional concoctions are getting out of hand. A dromas grunt from his teleslate calls out to him, informing him of the arrival of a message. Anaxa sighs and doesn’t bother taking the device out, already knowing it’s most likely Hyacine nagging him to eat her food once he goes back. Gold flickers in his peripheral again and this time, he reaches out to grab the little nymph, only to come into contact with a semi-solid, golden hand. 

“...Aglaea.” 

“Hello, Anaxa. You look thin.”

Anaxa represses his surprise and puts on a smug looking smirk. “To what do I owe for this personal visit from the Lady Goldweaver? Have you not seen enough of me already from your bug spies?”

Though Aglaea’s smile was as cold and closed off as usual, a hint of amusement can be picked up, irking Anaxa. “Do not flatter yourself, my duties do not preside over only Okhema.”

“Hah! How could I ever forget, you like being privy to every single thing, regardless of people’s privacy.” 

Anaxa rubs his eyes. Aglaea stands watching, silently. He sighs.

“Why are you here, dear Aglaea? It is unlike you to come to the Grove personally, even if just in nymph form.”

“The threads and nymphs foretell tragedy upon the Grove. You will do well to prepare for the coming tide.” 

Peeking a glance at that woman, Anaxa finds her expression unreadable. But what's new about that? A bout of fatigue washes through his body as he takes in the news. The alchemical arrays he wrote down over the past three days holed up in his room has yet to satisfy him. There’s less time than I thought. I suppose I’ll have to improvise if necessary when the black tide comes. Aglaea stares at Anaxa wordlessly as he stills to gather his thoughts. 

“How kind of you to bring me this news personally, but I did not need your prophecy, oh demigod of Romance,” Anaxa turns around sharply to return to his office, “Do rid the Grove of your nymphs. Leave your golden influence in that golden cocoon city.” 

Aglaea gives no response and he turns around to find the remaining specks of blue from the nymphs’ dissipation. 

“That woman… Always trying to do too much.”

Hyacine has left when Anaxa returns to his office, his dinner waiting for him patiently in the middle of his desk. He scrutinises it and hesitantly spoons a bite into his mouth. Instant regret takes over and the bowl disappears with a slight glow on the table. Books and papers return to the desk, though there seems to be a certain unfinished letter missing. Anaxa gives a glare to the barely hidden nymph on top of his bookshelf. Gold flickers in his peripheral and the letter filled with loving words is stuck on his door. Cursive in gold adorns the paper below his ink scrawl. 

‘How unfortunate. Mnestia’s nymphs simply love cerces’ tree a little too much.’

Hyacine’s bowl returns to the desk, weaved back into existence with a gold flourish. 

That woman is more stubborn than a dromas.