Chapter 17: Aolis

I knew she wouldn’t come. I knew it, and yet, my heart aches that she doesn’t want me, that she isn’t here.

I lay in my bed, knowing that tomorrow, I’ll be leaving for Eventide. I close my eyes and steel myself for what is to come. Lorelai is a good woman. She is strong, beautiful, her people love her and she will make a good queen.

I try to keep her in my head, but it’s Lily’s face that keeps pushing its way in. Finally, I get up. I won’t get any sleep tonight.

I go walking in the woods, my place of solace and peace. The stars in the sky are shining brightly tonight, as if they are mocking me and my pain. I pass the axolytol pool, glowing in the moonlight with all the different colors of the animals sleeping in the pond.

As I get deeper into the woods, I hear more shuffling sounds, startled animals bolting away from me. We have deer here, similar to humans, but our deer are more majestic. The leader of our herd is the Ceryneian Hind, the deer of the humans’ Greek mythology. She h