Chapter Text
They can hear the arguing through the portal as though through a pane of glass, the sounds of the ensuing argument and each clash of their weapons becoming distorted almost beyond recognition. Almost.
"They're fighting? Why are they fighting?" Sciel asks her, making Lune blink through her concentration. She can only get her ear so close to the portal before it begins to burn her.
"It's hard to make out," Lune answers, then closes her eyes to take in a deep breath. "They're fighting about us. About the Canvas. Verso's saying something about you, about grief making you see only walls."
Sciel turns wide eyes on her. "He's what? That's not… this isn't what I meant!"
"I think…" Lune has to gulp down rising bile to get the words out. "I think Verso is winning."
"He'll kill her," Sciel gasps. "He'll kill her. He'll kill all of us."
"I think that's the goal."
For a moment, the only response is an audible gasp.
Slowly, haltingly, Sciel begins, "Verso, he– he Gommaged her. Maelle. Maelle, he—"
Lune can't look, not when she sees Sciel's hand fly up to her mouth to hold in more sounds of fear. Her eyes are only for Sciel, watching as she steps back, seeing the expression on her face morph from horrified to angry to accepting in real time.
"We're going to be erased," Lune tells her, voice trembling. "Gommaged. After all this, after all the fighting and pushing and the…"
But she can't finish the sentence, not when Sciel's green eyes turn and meet hers. They're flashing, bright and brilliant and as lush as the plants she used to tend, the gardens and farms and greenhouses she will tend no more. They look wet but there are no tears yet, just wide-eyed understanding. Acceptance.
In an instant, without warning, Sciel's mouth is on hers, kissing her. It lasts just long enough for Lune to register it happening. As soon as she does, Sciel is pulling away again, the only remaining connection between them being their laced fingers. Lune isn't even sure when they got that way. She's too stunned to remember.
Their foreheads are almost touching when Sciel says to her, "I always had room in my heart for you and Pierre."
Then, faster than Lune can respond, the connection of their fingers breaks. Sciel disappears inside the portal, leaving Lune alone and barely breathing.
The Gommage begins for Sciel faster than it does for Lune, inside the portal. In the Heart of the Canvas, the petals that announce the woman's inevitable departure begin almost immediately. They finish soon after she reaches Verso. In less than a minute, there is no trace of her existence save the longing ache in Lune's heart.
When Verso's eyes turn her way apologetically, she sits to watch her own rose red petals begin to form and thinks only of how she didn't even get to tell Sciel I love you. She has since they met years ago, since they shared a quiet kiss in the dark of the night that both frightened and exhilarated Lune more than she could put into words.
There is nothing left to say now. There is only the waiting.