the herbal blend steams. she sits cross-legged on a pillow, hands numbly holding a mug too hot to touch. her gaze is empty, shoulders drawn. her black cloak has slipped off one side; her skin prickles with gooseflesh when the door to the shop opens, brushing the cold over her. 

she looks up. another of pacifidlog's residents plucks off gloves and shoves them into his coat pocket. he finds a seat. freya goes back to her staring. 

the dragonfruit is sweet and lovely on her tongue, though it scalds her. she welcomes the warmth, and the pain. 

with the border down, her dragons have been able to fan out into further waters. they don't prefer living off fish, but she does not believe she will find any sanction with the league anytime soon. despite how justified her cause. 

nails scratch the bar. she touches the glass bottle at her neck. the black scale shimmers over her cream sweater. she takes another sip with a grimace. 

more cold sweeps over her shoulder and she finally has the sense to draw the cloak up and around herself. but her fingers freeze; the mug in her free hand nearly slips from her grasp. she recovers, sets it down, and closes her eyes. 

i am freya morningstar. my father gifted me my salamence when i took the family name. my mother was a prolific archer.

"isn't that the old champion?" she is startled out of her grounding exercise by the furtive whisper. she stands suddenly, turns, and the shock on her face is riddled with confusion and disbelief, with a weary wariness plagued by too much disappointment. 

she does not trust herself. she does not trust this.

she forgets about the rest of the world. "who are you?"

ALEXANDER STONE

☉

he steps forward and she has no response. storm meets an achingly familiar green. she realizes suddenly, with a sudden intake of breath, that she had forgotten to breathe. in her periphery, a flygon's wings flutter.

this must be a lie. 

or she's finally lost it. an ugly laugh crawls its way out of her throat and she draws her cloak around herself, saying as much, saying, "i've finally lost it. that's it. i've finally lost it."

several pairs of eyes stare them down. someone has their phone out. she crosses the rest of the distance and she stares hard at him, mouth a thin line. 

she flinches at the apology.

"you're not...him. you can't be him. no. no." she ducks her head, leaving the quiet onlookers behind. stands outside the threshold and stares at the flygon. recognizes the nick on the membrane of her left wing. unmistakably viphi. 

the floating town's sidewalks cannot hold the weight of a salamence of lyune's size. but near the shore as they are, he can stand at full height in the surf. so he does now, waves lapping at his underbelly. his wings unfurl and smoke curls from his nostrils as his forked tongue tastes his mistress's distress. 

she mounts and she waits. "take me back," she calls to him, for surely he's followed. "if it's really you, take me back to where you found me."

where you begged me to come make a difference and i didn't and you left and i let you die. 

ALEXANDER STONE

☉

it's true. it's true and it hurts. it's true and it might kill her. how many times she's said she won't come back to this island, she's lost count. it's different than when he last saw it. hell, it's different since she last saw it. 

that almost-kiss on the beach, his likeness fading like a ghost come dawn. 

grass has since grown over the scorch marks that once marred the earth. beach grass bobs at the lapping shore. even what remains of the dilapidated shed, burned down as it was, are overgrown with what the piteous island has to offer. 

she looks into lyune's eyes as she dismounts and she asks him silently for answers, of which he has few. his tongue forks. he raises his head. his tail curls and he steps forward. metal clinks; alexander's mechanism helps furl his wings.

he brings his snout down to the man, tongue flicking, and then closes his eyes in a bow. 

freya crumples.

"i've said goodbye to you...so many times." 

ALEXANDER STONE

☉

she buries her face in her hands. her palms press against her eyes in a meager attempt to stop them from burning. but too soon there are warm tears slipping down her cheeks, an agonized howl stuck silent in her throat. raw agony - everything she hadn't felt when he died, everything she wished she could have felt when he died, comes flooding through her. 

drowning her. she hunches forward, fingers curling, threatening blood. hot, wet anger fueled by self-loathing. 

"you -

"you fucking -

"you left me -

"you let me -

"i've done such -" 

horrible, horrible things.

ALEXANDER STONE

☉

she sinks against him like she had before. like she had the day that she returned to this accursed plane, like she had when she'd found him then - with a ring on his finger and a devotion to a different her. mixed up feelings wrestle inside her and she bites her lip so hard she threatens blood.

she grasps for him, tense fingers pulling on his back. she buries her face in his neck, hissing away the pain, teeth glancing off his collarbone.

no apologies are blubbered. she can't will the words to come; nothing encapsulates how sorry she is. there aren't enough words to tell him what she did, or why she did it, because she can barely understand it herself. 

so they sit and she sobs and she is so, so happy. 

ALEXANDER STONE

☉

between them is could have beens and should have beens and most importantly, can never haves. how long has she craved his embrace? how long has she desired nothing more than to sink into his arms, stare into green eyes, and know that everything will be okay? he became nothing but a dream and dreams always, always fade. 

now, her heart aches for someone else. 

but she can't bring herself to disentangle. she can't bring herself to put more distance between them. not after her skin, her soul, her everything has been in mourning for what she never had. 

she meets his smile with a brilliance of her own. more tears slip past her cheeks and she makes an annoyed noise in the back of her throat as she wipes them away.

"i feel like you're going to fade away again," she says with a shaky laugh. catches herself at again. shakes her head. "we have...so much to talk about." 

ALEXANDER STONE

☉

he wipes her tears away and suddenly she is aware of how near he is. she is cradled by his warm hands, peripherals obscured so the only thing in her vision is him. him and his bright green eyes and his kind face. the weight of his words have her leaning her cheek into his hand, her own taking his jaw, thumb brushing against his lip.

"i am not the woman you remember," she whispers. "time, if it's meant for us, will show you all of my shortcomings, but right now it's important i tell you what i never said. what i agonized over after you were gone.

"i loved you, alexander. i don't think i ever stopped loving you and i don't think i ever will, but i..."

she takes his hands, draws them from her face, and holds them in her lap. "after you died, i found a way to love someone else."

her breath is shallow now. she hasn't even said as much to KING WAYLAND yet. is she really so foolish to hold onto these words, these professions, again? he'd think this so utterly ridiculous, and that alone makes her smile gently. 

"but i know this for certain, selfish as it may be - i cannot lose you again."

ALEXANDER STONE

☉