Epilogue

Arawn chuckled, feeling a little hysterical as Sirona continued to stare at him. He wanted to escape her sight, but he held off the need to escape. He’d come here to tell her the truth and hope for a real future with her. He couldn’t just take off with the wind. Even if he had the power to do it, it would have been in poor taste.
He was trying to be a better person for the rest of his life.
“It’s incredible how suddenly being mortal will force things into perspective.”
She froze, “Mortal?”
“When you kill Anu, a great deal of my power left me as well. If I am not truly mortal now, I will have to start from the beginning in cultivating my powers again.” Sirona watched him sit back, “As I am unsure of my lifespan, I didn’t want to spend it never seeing you again. I didn’t want whatever future you were willing to have with me to be couched in lies either.”
“What are you trying to say?”
He shook his head, “It is odd to at once know that life could be too short for such things but also too long.”
Sirona scoffed, “Go back to the mortal bit. How does losing part of your power mean you could be mortal?”
Should he have just been exhausted the way she’d been after attacking Anu’s capital city? A bit of sleep and he should be fine, and if not that, couldn’t he take power from the surroundings to replenish himself.
Couldn’t he take power from her?
Arawn shrugged, “I don’t know what it means at this point, but I cannot remember needing to have to eat or rest the way I have been since you killed Anu.”
Just because he didn’t remember didn’t mean that it hadn’t been normal once upon a time, right? Sirona looked down at her cup, turning things over. Panic was rioting in her. He couldn’t be serious about being mortal now. Perhaps it was just a matter of needing to recuperate. How could killing Anu have hurt him? If she’d known that, she might not have killed her so viciously. Maybe if Arawn had absorbed Anu’s power, it would be different.
Could he do that now? Was there something she was missing?
“Are you and Anu married or something?”
He laughed. His eyes were bright and his smile was wide.
“For the love of the earth, I do not believe anyone would ever, in their right mind, choose to be bound to that horrible existence in any form.” He shuddered, “No.”
“But why would killing her have harmed you.”
Anu shrugged, “As I said before, it is not as though I had an elder deity, a parent of sorts, to explain things.”
Sirona nodded, “If you are mortal now. Can you still use magic?”
Arawn nodded, “Yes, though not to the same degree.”
“I’ll teach you,” she smiled.
Arawn frowned at her, “Teach me?”
“How to be a mage,” Sirona smirked, “I think between the two of us I have the better understanding of it.”
Arawn chuckled, “Oh?”
She nodded, “Besides… I have no interest in holding a grudge against you forever.”
She glanced at him, “And I have… fallen in love with you. Ending our relationship even knowing what I know now doesn’t sit right with me. I forgive you.”
He stared at her in utter confusion and awe. By all accounts, he’d been prepared to be eviscerated. How was she forgiving him so easily?
“Sirona, how are you justifying this?”
“I have a condition.”
“Go on.”
“I’m the only woman in your life,” she said, “Eternal or not. From here on…”
Arawn chuckled leaning forward and taking her hand, “I would go so far as to say that you are the only woman I have ever had in my life since I took my first breath.”
Sirona smiled and nodded, squeezing his hand back, “You’re going to have to learn how to cook.”
Arawn chuckled, “I will be the most attentive of students.”

Years later…
Arawn looked down at Sirona as they waltzed through the air. She laughed at him.
“You’re doing well!” She cheered. “You may even turn out to be as good as you once were at this.”
Arawn chuckled, “You are a much kinder teacher than I was. You have my apologies.”
Sirona chuckled, “I wouldn’t want you to fall and break something. I could heal you, but I doubt you will be in the mood for other activities.”
He chuckled, “For you? I do not think you could find a reason for me not to want you.”
“Do you still want to move up to the temples?”
Arawn nodded, “Are you certain you wish to?’
She looked away, looking into the distance where Druid’s tree stood, “I think… it’s time to leave. At least, for a little while.”
Arawn nodded in understanding. They had been speaking about it for a while, leaving Druid’s tree and retreating up to the mountains, but every time before, Sirona had teared up with grief and they stopped speaking of it.
In the morning, Arawn expected her to change her mind, but she stood looking towards the Cradle of the Beginning with her bag slung across her shoulders.
“We’ll come back,” she said. “And maybe it won’t hurt as much.”
Arawn nodded and took her hand. They started on foot before taking to the air and drifting on the wind over the towns below. Fedelm had taken his advice and focused on her power. When he’d gotten strong enough, he’d used his scrye mirror to check in on her and found Soren courting her formally.
He suspected they would be married within a year and there would be an heir to Berth-Conna soon after.
“Arawn.”
“Yes?”
“You said I’m a demigod… Have you ever met my deity parent?”
He hadn’t thought about it, but he was certain that he hadn’t. It had always only been him and Anu for as long as he could remember.
“No. Does it bother you? Not knowing?”
Sirona nodded as they drifted up towards the floating pathways. No birds greeted this time. The pathways seemed older than the last time they’d come but no less safe. Sirona pushed power into the ropes and floating stones to restore them.
“I just wondered where they are,” Sirona said. “I’ve been reading Druid’s journals.”
Arawn clenched his jaw and nodded, listening to her as they traveled towards the old temple with the hot spring inside. The temple felt dead as they approached, but it slowly began to wake up. She placed her hand on the walls and gasped as the light began to rush across the walls, carving gold script in its wake. The hot spring began to bubble against. The edges smoothed out into a formal gold-rimmed basin.
The inside of the temple straightened and repaired itself until it looked like it had when Arawn had first found it centuries ago.
“Well, so much for it taking a while,” he looked at her. “I could venture a guess and say that your deity parent was the god of this temple.”
Her lips twitched, “How did people get up here to worship?”
He shrugged, “It was probably their home rather than a usual temple.”
He wiggled his eyebrows, “Shall we christen your new temple?”
Sirona worried her lip as he approached her. He pulled her close and undressed her. She didn’t resist him, but arched and clung to him. He loved how willing she was to always give herself to him. When they were naked, he led her into the hot spring and pinned her against the warm rock of the basin as they kissed.
She groaned as he slid his hand between her legs and stroked her gently.
“Slowly,” she pleaded. “It’s important to christen it properly, right?”
“Why Sirona,” Arawn teased, nipping at her shoulder. “I didn’t think you could be so naughty. Perhaps you are actually a god of pleasure.”
Sirona shuddered as he pushed into her and threaded her hand in his hair. It was more likely that he was the god of pleasure between them, but she didn’t say that.
“More,” she pleaded as he began to rock into her. “Arawn, just like that.”
He groaned into her shoulder, losing himself in the taste of her mouth and the feeling of her around him.
She tensed up, fluttering around him and moaning in his ear as he chased his orgasm.
“I love you,” Sirona gasped as she tumbled over the edge. He followed her with a low groan and leaned against the edge of the basin and shuddered.
“I love you too,” Arawn said, “Do you think we could get out of visiting Taran?”
She laughed, “No because I want to visit him. We’ll be neighbors.”
Arawn chuckled and nodded, nuzzling her, “Very well. But later. I think there are few more spots in your new temple to christen.”
Sirona smiled up at him, “Take me there.”
“Wherever you wish, my goddess.”