Random 108

That, as it happened, silenced both goddesses. Even the one holding the other by her ear. Sebastian, on the other hand, turned to stare at her with obvious admiration.

After a moment, Land began to laugh again. And this is why I want you with him. The sunflower came closer again. You care. But if you do, make your choice. Grow old while he does not, or grow old together.

"...wait. What?" Sebastian said. He had heard that bit. "No. I agree with her. Stop playing games. Can I just, for the hell of it, have a couple of decades with someone and finally raise a child so that they won't be utterly traumatised?"

Luck huffed. You have had children. Many of them. Why not be glad about it?

"Because the last one I had hates my guts, and I've never properly known the others."

Another huff.

"Sylvie?" Sebastian asked, glaring at the sunflower and butterfly.

"Growing old together sounds better to me," Sylvie said almost absentmindedly - the other variant was a familiar drama plot. She sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve. "It's the not-being-rid-of-you-two that worries me. It seems like you don't even notice when you're messing with people for your entertainment, so it's hard to take a promise of you stopping that seriously. I really can't make that decision for anybody else. It would be vile."

The goddesses were quiet for a while. Sebastian, on the other hand, decided to sit next to Sylvie. "I agree with her."

Lady Land grinned. Luck was tring to flail her arms as Land said, Well, dear boy and girl. Old age, is it?

"...wait."

You will have your wish. Luck looked a little troubled when Land said that. No games.

"Just how long? Will I...?"

Secret! said Luck, finally being left off of the vise that had been Nature's hands. She still sounded bitter. You won't know. Neither of you will!

"Good," Sylvie answered, more out of spite than from having an opinion on that detail yet.

Angry at the goddesses, angry at herself for thinking they could be talked with, and emotionally exhausted, she turned to Sebastian, shifing position so her legs were in front of her. Leaning in close, she whispered, "I'm sorry."

Sebastian was busy frowning, calculating different scenarios at the same pace that the butterfly flitted about desperately. At the same time, he was stuck next to Sylvie, grounded just like the sunflower that stared at the both of them.

He leaned back at Sylvie. "I am not the least bit sorry," at this point the half-elf directed a green, bitter look at the two. His eyes were beginning to hurt from seeing two different things at the same time. "I don't even know where I came from anymore, I don't know how long I've worked for the both of you, but I'm starting to get the picture.

"This whole operation was a test to see how far I've gone, and Sylvie was an unwitting accomplice. True?"

Yep.

"I hate the both of you."

Sylvie slipped an arm around Sebastian's back and addressed Land. "Why? Why didn't you just talk to him?"

The sunflower swayed for a moment. A goddess, hesitating? Sebastian wondered. He would have destroyed himself.

Sebastian blinked, then stiffened and stared at nothing.

Sylvie looked at him and gave a questioning hum. She had a guess, besides the obvious one that it was a made-up pretext, but didn't want to voice it.

Sebastian looked like he wanted to gnaw on his finger, all too aware that three feminine entities were staring at him. The bits of wisdom and experience he had garnered during the years began to click into place.

His anger subsided a little.

"At first," he began, voice still hoarse from all the singing, "I would have become overconfident. I was happy to work, laugh and commit a lot of unethical things.

"Then I began to calm down, and had you talked to me, I'd have..."

We might have -- Land raised an eyebrow and tweaked Luck's ear. Hard.

Luck cursed, recovered, and said, We got worried. But you were too important for my designs!

His ears twitched. He licked his lips but continued, in any case, "And now I'm damaged goods. I've known it for a while. It's gotten... not tedious, but..." He left it that, blinked and winced. "And this was just... no. It's still not fair." Sebastian stared at them, looked at Sylvie, and bit his lip.

The sunflower swayed and the woman-visage looked at Sylvie, still holding Luck by the ear. Lady Land was waiting.

Sylvie ignored her to the point of not noticing. She told Sebastian, "I need some time to put myself together again. Done it before. It's just too much all at once." Her eyes burned and her head hurt and all she wanted to do was breathe and absorb what had happened.

The sunflower bent and the woman nodded. The butterfly struggled and the other woman kept ineffectually tearing at Land's hair. Fair enough.

This is not over! shrieked fickle Luck.

For a while, it is.

Sebastian stared, eyes empty. The sunflower made to leave.

Sylvie closed her eyes. Her head on Sebastian's shoulder, she held on to him - grounding for her and See, I'm not running away from you now for him. It was all she could do for now.

The goddesses went away.

Finally, Sebastian said, voice shaky, as the wind picked up again, "My turn to say sorry."

"Didn't sound like it was your fault. But thank you."

"I think it is."

After a long pause, Sylvie said, "I can't think right now." She was trying not to break out in tears again. "I really can't. Can talking wait until tomorrow?"

For a moment, Sebastian was quiet, just leaning against Sylvie. Eventually, he got up. "Yes. It can. I want it to wait for tomorrow too. I'm trying to figure this out."

What the hell had just happened? he thought as he fell asleep, next to Sylvie, in the copse, shielded and guarded by the trees. In fact, he wondered if the trees were not in fact doing that.

When he woke up, lashes tickling Sylvie's cheek, his first thought hit him.

What the hell just happened?

Once they had put their heads down, Sylvie had fallen asleep very quickly, entirely against her expectations. She interpreted that as a good sign - her gut feeling still was that Sebastian's company was reassuring.

On the downside, she had woken up from nightmares for brief spells. What she remembered of them involved running through unknown woods, blind and unable to move her arms. She blamed the resin-and-needles scent on the conifers for recovering that particular memory.

Eyes hot and swollen, mouth dry, head hurting, she'd need a bit to wake up properly, but at least now she wasn't as cold and stiff, and not quite as scared as then.

She squinted at Sebastian briefly, vision still blurry, but clear enough to see his eyes were open. She gave him a smile and a peck on the tip of his nose, and went to extract herself.

Sebastian, on the other hand, had been seeing dreams of his own, consisting of being chased, first afraid for his life and then just hoping they'd get it over with.

Had it been anyone else than Sylvie, he'd have tied her into knots of broken bones, but the moment he woke up, Sebastian had full knowledge of where he was. Who he woke up next to.

Who kissed her nose.

"Did that really happen?" he asked, tentatively, carefully, the tips of his fingers tracing the lines of Sylvie's face as she got up.

She settled for sitting up for the moment and smiled wrily. Didn't I ask that yesterday? "I remember talking to a sunflower while you cussed out a butterfly, if that's any help." Her voice was a tad raw.