Happy Woden’s (Odin) Day
Rogue Wizard’s Journal: January 25th, 2019 (cont.)
Of course, I hesitated for a moment, magical flames licking the edge of my fingers. The Grove had been my childhood place of growing up in my magical powers. It has been the place where my love and lover Elpis had been. Where we talked, laughed and loved. She had in many ways turned me into a man. Now, I was about to destroy the only thing left that represented any kind of anchor to the past. The last physical remnant to my magical childhood.
It hadn’t all been good. I suddenly realized I was standing the very place where Elpis had pronounced judgment on Lunette and removed, very forcibly, her wings. That whole thing led to Lunette and I having healing sex to cure me of magical disease, but the magic released also restored Lunette’s wings to the current state they were in. It was one of the most intense physical and magical moments of my life. It happened in the grove, but I was fairly sure, that Lunette’s parents’ home was gone. This twisted trunk was all that was left. An old throne, scars and a place of love turned to a dead coldness. How symbolic of my relationship to Elpis.
I glanced over to Lunette, our eyes met and she nodded. Then she looked away. I turned my attention back to the tree. My thoughts were racing and then I remembered the day Elpis cast me out of the Grove for good, my wife’s death and the breakup I had with Miss Salty. Anger welled up in me. Fire. The Fire of Fury.
“Amber. Now!!!”
Flames burst from my fingertips. Red and orange. As they touched the tree, I could see it illuminated from the other side by Amber’s flames. The flames from both sides burst quickly up the trunk. After a few minutes, I stopped casting my spell. It was no longer necessary as the tree’s magic was now providing the fuel for the fire. Soon the whole trunk was a burning beacon. The heat became quite intense. Elpis never allowed fire in the grove, and now I could see why in full glory. I didn’t have to tell Amber to stop as the heat required me and Lunette to back up some distance away and Amber joined us. We watched it burn.
“Well, the fae can stop spending so many lives to protect this place now from the hands of the wizards.”
Lunette’s voice was cracked, coming in gasps through her sobs. I said nothing. The tears were rolling down my face like rivers. We watched as the flames began to consume the trunk. Soon the whole thing was in flames and burning brightly. The magic of the tree being consumed by our magical fire.
Amber seemed a little distraught herself.
“Ed, this whole place is going to become very active, very soon with either fae or wizards. It’s not going to be safe for much longer.”
“Amber, we have a little time. This is a funeral pyre and it would be disrespectful to leave too early.”
Amber nodded and walked a little ways away from us, and I felt Lunette’s hand in mine. She grasped it with some desperate strength.
“What do you think really happened to Elpis, Edward?”
“She lost her fight with her inner demons. She came to hate who she was and then did what she had to end that part of her life. Suicide. But as an immortal, she couldn’t do that as a dryad. She had to become human. So she did, in a way. Her ghost will either slowly dissipate over time, or if her unfinished business is resolved, she will fade forever. She is still out there, I think, but there is no going back to where she was now, ever.”
“Well, the fae can stop fighting for this bulge in the line now. They can pull back.”
“That’s bad news for me. I am going to have to start living at the Mansion full time.”
“That has it’s own dangers”
“Tell me about it, but I am hoping to enact the plan soon. I need to disappear for my family’s sake.”
“Or die. I am not trying to be shocking, Edward. Because that would end the feud and then the Council would not give two shits about your family.”
“You didn’t shock me, dear. I know that would solve the issue too. Death will come for me in her own good time. I will embrace her as if I was laying down in bed with a beautiful woman. I just see no need to do it myself with so many enemies. One of them is probably going to get me. I just hope I am in a position to return the favor.”
Lunette moved in and I put my arm around her waist as she leaned against me. We watched the flames for a little longer. Amber broke our reflective moment.
“Edward, I sense that this is attracting attention. From both sides. Scouts will be here soon and we need not to be.”
“You’re right, just give us one more moment.”
I turned to face Lunette and she me. My arms went instinctively around her waist, and she put hers around my neck. I kissed her. I felt my magic get supercharged and she probably had the equivalent to a micro-orgasm, but we both needed to feel better and so a kiss was needed. I pulled back after a little bit.
“We need to go Lunette, there is going to be nothing left anyway.”
With that, Lunette, Amber and I headed back to the Mansion. The last remnants of the Red Tree Grove burning behind us.
Author’s Notes: Before this week, I hadn’t touched this chapter since May 27th, 2019. I think the whole Grey Storm thing just made it too difficult to write. I was also wrestling with how to do this. In the end, this chapter is simply a funeral for a character made as a labor of love and because of that love causes me pain now personally and as a writer. Elpis needs to be gone as much as possible, but she had to go with my own writer’s hand.
As I mentioned before this saga as a whole is probably going to come to an end very soon. The whole thing with the ‘death’ of the main character. I am putting ‘death’ in quotes because I want to still leave some air of mystery to this. You have to read the rest to know the true end of the Rogue Wizard.
Emotionally it’s hard for me to let go. I loved every moment of writing the Hedge Wizard of Redberg and Rogue Wizard is basically the endgame of that. It means letting go for good and moving on and I have a hard time with that when it comes to writing. But closure in this whole Miss Salty/Elpis relationship is going to come slowly I think for me, but I also think I can make it come a little sooner by closing this whole thing out and ending it. It will give me fewer memory triggers if I do, but I have to trigger some memories to get there.
I remain,
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
Skaal!!!
Still Walking,
The Grey Wayfarer 