2.12 To Go Home

 

‟You're back!"

Harcourt hops off the swing and clings to his parent, too closely to see the tears that slip out of his father's eyes.

‟Coming back was the intention..."

...but I shouldn't have risked leaving you, goes unsaid.

Not because Acheron can't be honest about his regrets, but because it is kinder to the child to pretend the risk was not there.

‟Are you in trouble? You weren't supposed to go down there, it's blocked off for a reason, that's what the police told me."

‟Well... they did a search, didn't they? I wasn't in there."

‟But I saw you go—"

‟Shhh. How long was I gone?"

‟Three weeks," cuts in the angry voice of the social worker—Ms. Madbouli—who brought Acheron here, to the fenced in area where Harcourt played by himself. ‟Long enough that we were in negotiation with your country of origin to try to find your relatives. So I'm sure you understand if we have some questions for you."

‟Only three weeks? That's interesting. My calculations were off..."

He wonders what could account for that. He'd thought the time dilation in Mnemosyne's realm was a mathematical constant, but it had apparently drifted further away from 'real' time since his last visit, many lifetimes ago.

Loki could have explained it, possibly, if he was still alive in this loop. Acheron suspected he was not.

‟Excuse me?" the worker social huffs.

‟No, excuse us. We should be going."

The blond man flashes her a bright smile, before he and his son vanish in an even brighter flash of light.

Sanaa Madbouli will have a difficult time explaining that, and the authorities will have an impossible time prosecuting Acheron Archer for child endangerment / abandonment when they can't even find him.

Master Li Yuan wants to convene the entire council to hear Flora Fleet's account of the defeat of Dong Huo, but Flora refuses to give him time to do that. She intends to be on the very next flight out of here.

‟Once I had him restrained in his sarcophagus again, the box started to glow and leech energy from me, and then these sigils popped up."

‟That is the main seal. You have fulfilled the prophecy. My order can restore the smaller seals."

‟Good... because I'm done with you guys!"

‟You are disturbed, when you should feel triumphant. Did something else happen? Shen Yu tells us that Meng Mihutang's anger has dissipated. Did you encounter her?"

Flora takes a deep breath, then lowers the part of her collar that was hiding fresh bruising on her neck. ‟Yeah. I did. I thought it wasn't real, but after a while, these appeared, and... I didn't get these fighting Dong Huo. I got them when your Meng tried to strangle me."

Li Yuan gasps.

‟I don't think she was what Shen Yu thinks she was."

‟Was?!"

‟I was pulled to another realm, like Xi Yuan said I would be. I met the man from her vision. He said time passed differently there, and souls couldn't escape, and Pangu's Axe was terrified, and your shenlong was actually a fairy, and Meng's real name was Mnemosyne? He said she was a counterpart to Lethe? I don't know what any of that means!"

Li Yuan's eyes widen in confusion. He nods for her to continue.

‟She didn't want anything from me, she just wanted to kill Acheron."

‟Acheron and Lethe are both infernal rivers."

‟...Huh... you think he was a fairy too?"

‟Acheron was this 'man' you met?"

‟Yeah."

‟I'm sorry. I don't quite understand what any of this means. Are you alright, Flora?"

‟I want to go home now. I am going home now."

‟That is your right."

She gets up to leave. He asks her to wait a moment longer.

She stands there, in the cold, scowling.

Li Yuan goes inside, and then returns with the Eyes of Horus. 

‟Wha'?" Flora is dumbstruck. ‟How did you get those?"

‟You earned them. They are for you. You should leave one in a safe place, and carry the other with you. The eyes always see one another. If you had only had one of them on your person, you may have been able to escape Meng Mihutang's sanctum."

‟I don't want any part of this anymore..."

‟It is a gift, Flora. We want you to be safe."

‟And what happens next time someone needs them?"

‟They will find their own way back to us, generations from now."

Flora takes them, though considers throwing them on the ground as she leaves. ‟Say goodbye to Ho Sung Kim for me, okay?"

Flora is greeted warmly upon her return to Sunlit Tides.

Ariel notices quickly that his wife is not her bubbly self, though, when she all but collapses in his arms and swears she's never leaving this island again.

Once he hears what she has to say about her latest trip abroad, he can't blame her for feeling that way.

Lupin seems happy to be living on his own, and Iris's last letter home included her plans to move to the mainland after graduation. 

Restless and requiring a new project, Flora turns their childhood bedroom into a display room / study.

Flora discovers she can, indeed, use one Eye of Horus to teleport to the other one.

She keeps one in the study, and other on her person, just in case that'll ever be useful.

The axe couldn't be squeezed in among the trophy shelves, so instead has a dedicated place in the hallway, surrounded by flowers and a view of the garden.

Flora says a few things to it every day, but Kerykeion does not respond.

Ariel... just... gives it a wide berth.

He's kept himself busy while his wife saved the world.

He goes for runs...

...frequents the gym...

...hones his musical skills...

...keeps Alexandria's garden alive as best he can...

...and performs sing-o-gram....

....after sing-o-gram...

...after sing-o-gram.

Life's just not as fun without Flora, though, he often thought, as he drowned his worries with a drink before going home to that empty orange house.

He couldn't be more thrilled that Flora is home, even if it takes her longer than usual to shake things off and remember how to have fun with him again.

Their lives are relatively care-free. Ariel's income is unnecessary, so he only works when he wants to—leaving plenty of time to go bar-hopping and dancing with his wife.

Neither of them have their parents around for emotional support, despite their relatively young age, so they do their best to each be all the other needs.

They get pretty invested in video gaming, as well.

Every few days, Flora meets up with Lupin at the arcade. Today they battle each other in Mummies vs. Madmen before chilling outside with snowcones. Lupin tells her about how much he's enjoying his job at the science center. He's already the head of two projects, and the labs have exploded no less than three times because of his experiments.

Flora does not understand the details. Something about robot fish.

Tank the Bard performs occasionally at The Wave.

Flora throws roses onto the stage.

Echo and Flint's son has grown into a cute toddler.







Flora sighs wistfully when she holds him, remembering some half-forgotten thing from her time trapped in the fae world. She thought she'd never get out. She thought she'd never have her own children.

That evening, she and her husband discuss growing their family sooner rather than later.




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Etc.: Someday maybe I'll post a flowchart of the timeline logic my sims blogs follow. 

It's the end of an era! Dong Huo is defeated, and Flora retires from adventuring.