Sylvain’s Honest and Concerned Review

“Take your shoes off at the door and don’t track mud into my house.”

Sylvain found himself chuckling at her curt words, bending over to undo the laces on his boots before pulling them off. He followed Aurelia into her home, glancing around as he did so.

It was very much like her. Simple in nature. Just as she preferred things. While she had a couple shelves here and there with a few different trinkets, she more overly kept her home free of random things.

Walking further in, the two of them entered what Sylvain assumed to be her sitting room. Unlike the halls and rooms before that he had seen, this room had big bookshelves shoved full of all types of books. A fond smile finds its way to his face as he recalls how her parents’ home was also chock-full of books.

“Just grab whatever suits your fancy,” Aurelia said as she walked up to the bookshelves, grabbing a book off of it. She checks the cover before tucking it under her arm and grabbing a couple more. “I’ll make some tea after dropping these off in my room.”

“Of course!” Sylvain smiles, happy at the thought of what they were going to do next.

He can’t help but smile as he shifts through the books on the shelves, his mind wandering back to their day before. They had gone on a date! An actual date! Part of him wants to jump with joy but he doesn’t want to risk accidentally somehow knocking over the bookshelves. That would be bad.

Usually, Aurelia would vehemently refuse to go on a date. Too many people. Too many noises. Too crowded. In general, it would just be a bad time for her.

But!

Sylvain took note of what she liked and what she hated and eventually managed to come up with the perfect date idea. The problem was getting Aurelia to hear him out.

From there it was around another month of trying to get her to at least consider the idea before she finally agreed.

And boy was he happy she did.

The first thing Sylvain did was gift Aurelia with some clothes that he noticed she had been eyeing not long before. It was soft to the touch and in her style of fashion. Nothing too flashy to stand out while remaining comfortable enough for her sensitive skin. When she had opened the gift her eyes had widened ever so slightly before she chuckled quietly. He had sat in her kitchen while she changed in her room. When she stepped out, her small but soft smile was heartwarming.

Then he had taken her on a walk through the less traveled parts of the woods surrounding Faunus. He recalls the content look on her face as they enjoyed the sound of birds singing in the trees above them. Her face was dappled in golden light from the sun that managed to break through the thick line of trees above them. It was mostly quiet but Sylvain enjoyed it. A good moment where they could just enjoy each other’s company.

Finally, Sylvain had prepared a picnic. It was in the grove as there was really no nicer place nor a more isolated place to be. They had sat together while they ate, talking about whatever came to mind. He fondly recalls the soft flush on her face whenever Sylvain complimented her, her face turning a warm red before she averts her gaze, hiding her face.

Once they had finished eating, they had sat out there long past nightfall. Aurelia had been snuggled into his side as they looked up at the sky, watching the stars slowly twinkle to life above them. Her head had been resting on his arm and one of her arms was resting over his waist, holding him close. They laid together even as the biting chill of the night attempted to scare them away. Instead, Aurelia only got closer, nearly falling asleep against him in the process.

They laid like that for a good few hours before Aurelia finally offered for him to stay the night. Sylvain honestly wasn’t expecting it and stared at her with wide eyes. There was an awkward silence before Aurelia’s eyes widened and her face turned bright red.

“NOT LIKE THAT!” She had squawked, jolting up from her place next to him. Sylvain couldn’t help himself but laugh at the misunderstanding, his own face notably flushed as he awkwardly looked away.

Aurelia was then stammering slightly over her words as she requested for him to come over so they could spend more time together, admitting she wasn’t ready for the date to end. It was heartwarming and he couldn’t help but immediately agree. It’s not like he would’ve refused in the first place.

As they walked back, hand in hand, they thought about what they could do. After some back and forth they finally settled on cuddling and reading together. While sitting down and reading wasn’t something Sylvain did on a daily basis, he could always enjoy a good comedy or romance novel.

Which led them to now.

Sylvain found himself shocked at the number of titles on her shelves. Even more so when he realized the amount of these that were romance novels. He never pegged Aurelia to be a romantic. In fact, looking at some of these, they seemed more like something he would buy, he even has some of these books at home.

He’s about to grab a book that he recognizes as one of his favorites when he notices another book from the corner of his eye

How I started believing in the gods.

It’s a strange title. The book is a big one. Likely well past 600 or so pages. Judging by the title he can only assume it to be a comedy.

But the thing that stands out the most to him is the author.

Kilrai Sivan.

He’s not sure from where exactly, but the name is familiar.

He takes the book and flips through the pages. It seems old, very old. It seems to have been something that Aurelia has had since her childhood.

Skimming through the pages it seems interesting enough. He looks between this book and his other option. If he chose this one he highly doubted that he would be able to finish it all in one night. He stares at it for a moment more before sighing, it wasn’t like he had much of another choice, his fate was sealed the moment he saw it.

He takes the book as he turns to go find Aurelia. It holds a substantial weight to it as he walks. If Sylvain had to give an estimate, he’d compare it to his sister’s, Vaerlen, cat in terms of weight.

He eventually finds Aurelia. She’s holding a tray as she walks out of her kitchen. There’s a couple cups, a teapot and some light snacks on it.

For some reason, there was a strange silence as they looked at each other.

Finally, Aurelia speaks. “I was expecting you to already be in my room.” Sylvain just barely catches her trying to push one of the plates behind the teapot.

“I took a while choosing what I wanted to read. I didn’t think that you’d be the type to read all that romance,” He said that with a slight giggle and a sly smile, causing Aurelia to avoid his gaze. “Anyways, what’s that?”

Her eyes widen when she realizes that he can see her moving the plate.

“Nothing,” She says quickly as she tries to adjust her hold on the tray so he can’t see anything.

“That doesn’t look like nothing,” Sylvain says playfully as he tries to lean around and see what it was.

“Nope!” Suddenly she’s holding the tray above her and Sylvain, allowing Sylvain to only see the bottom of it.

“Oh come on!” Sylvain tries to walk back and stand on his tiptoes to see it. Once he realizes that won’t work, he tries bargaining with her. “Come on, please Lia. I wanna see it.” He walks back over to her and leans close, making sure to hold eye contact with her.

Her eyes widen when he gets closer and her face is bright red. He isn’t sure if it’s from his words or his proximity.

“N-no…” Sylvain smiled to himself when he heard the stutter. You always know you’re getting places with Aurelia when she stutters.

“Pretty please,” he tried again. He rested his hands on her hips to help stabilize himself as he leaned closer, standing on his tiptoes once more to be more eye level with her. “With a cherry on top?”

It looks like she’s short circuiting for a second before she manages to push out a response. “Y-y-you begging isn’t going to change anything.” He saw her jolt slightly when he began rubbing small circles into her hips with his thumbs. “And stop that.”

“Stop what?” Sylvain played his innocence.

“You…you…” She stares down at him, seemingly a whole conversation in her mind as she looks at him.

Then she puts down the tray.

Sylvain has no chance to even consider looking at the tray when he’s suddenly pushed to the hallway wall. His arms are pinned above his head and Aurelia’s lips are on his as she kisses him.

His eyes are wide for a second, processing what happened before kissing her back.

One of her hands is more than enough to hold both of his wrists, allowing the other to have an iron hold on his hip. Everything moves fast and Sylvain barely has the time to keep up with it.

She pulls away for a second, allowing Sylvain to breathe. As he breathes he then processes the thigh that she’s shoved between his legs. He then processes that she’s now trailing kisses down his neck, her hand twitching almost as if it wants to be doing more than just holding Sylvain in place.

Sylvain’s about to sit back and enjoy this. There’s not much else he can do in the situation. Aurelia’s hold on him isn’t going any-

A sudden gasp is torn from him as she nips his collarbone before sucking a love bite into his skin.

Then she’s gone.

He’s left reeling against the wall as Aurelia pulls away.

He dully processes her grabbing the tray from where she had left it on the counter. Then her leaning down to grab the book that Sylvain didn’t realize he had dropped.

“Come on,” she then says. Sylvain looks at her and notices how she seems to be avoiding his gaze once more, a notable flush on her face.

Sylvain isn’t able to do much more than dumbly nod as he pushes himself off the wall and follows her.

He doesn’t even try to look at the tray again. Much more focused on the phantom warmth that remains all across his body. He finds himself thumbing over what was likely to be a visible mark left on his collarbone, recalling the sound that he made. He’s realizing now that what he thought was a gasp was bordering on something else entirely…

He’s suddenly snapped out of his dazed thoughts when he feels a hand on his hip stop his movement.

He then realizes that he was about to walk into a wall.

He needs to get his act together.

“Was it too much?”

He pauses in his embarrassment to look over to Aurelia.

She’s still avoiding his gaze, but something seems to be a bit more guilty about it. She seems deeply nervous and Sylvain would’ve thought she murdered someone with how she looked. She’s holding the tray with one hand, balancing it carefully as the other holds his hip.

“Huh? What do you mean?” He tilts his head curiously at her.

“I-I mean…I’m not very…I…just, was it too much?” She struggles over her words, “If you hated it, you can tell me…”

Oh…

Oh.

Oh!

“I loved it!”

Godsdamnit Sylvain.

Maybe don’t blurt that out next time.

Aurelia’s face is just as red as Sylvain’s probably is as he jumps to explain himself.

“Well! I mean it felt good, really nice! You know? Kissing is always nice! And everything else was nice too! Especially the last bit!” Sylvain wanted to slam his head into a wall. “I’ll stop now.”

Aurelia is staring at him with wide eyes. Obviously she wasn’t expecting that answer.

“Oh.”

Sylvain wants to turn to dust and become one with the earth.

“That makes me feel a bit better…I um…” Her hand on his hip subconsciously tightens before relaxing again. “I was scared that you hated it…you know? You seemed kinda out of it…”

“Aurelia.” Sylvain said seriously, “I wasn’t even aware that I could make that sound.”

She turns bright red.

“Let’s cross that bridge later.”

“Gladly.”

They walk a bit more in silence until they get to Aurelia’s room. Entering her room, Sylvain glanced around curiously.

Her room felt very cozy. Unlike the rest of her tidy house, it was filled to the brim with stuff. There was the bed with plenty of blankets and pillows and a couple of bookcases lining one of the walls. A closed closet and a desk that was cluttered with a mixture of papers and items, trinkets of unknown origin. She had several well tended potted plants around her room and Shuji was sleeping in one of them.

Aurelia catches sight of this too and sighs. She puts the tray down on the nightstand next to her bed as she grabs Shuji out of the plant. He makes a squeaking sound as he’s picked up

As it turns out, Shuji wasn’t asleep. Nope. He was eating the leaves off the plant.

“I was wondering where you were,” Aurelia said as she stared down at him. “You know you’re not supposed to be in the plants.”

Shuji stared at her before letting out a defiant, squeaking roar.

“Don’t give me that attitude, see how fast I kick you out of this room.” Sylvain giggles quietly as he walks forward to get a better view of the exchange.

Shuji doesn’t seem to like that.

He lets out another squeaky roar before nipping Aurelia’s hand. Aurelia doesn’t even flinch as she continues holding him. She then turns and walks over to the doorway.

Holding him out, she drops him on the ground.

He lands similarly to a cat and doesn’t have the time to process what happened before Aurelia closes the door on him.

As Aurelia walks back over to the plant, there’s scratching at the door and squeaks of protest. Sylvain looks over and can see Shuji’s tiny little dragon claws reaching under the door and swiping at everything they can.

“Oh you poor thing…” Aurelia mumbles as grabs the leaves that Shuji pulled off. She sighs as her hands hover around the plant, a green mist surrounding them and entering the plant. “I’m gonna punt that dragon one of these days.”

“Probably not the best idea,” Sylvain chuckles as he watches her.

“No,” She agrees, “But at least my plants will be safe.” She then finishes up with the plant. It’s looking a lot better than it did before.

She then walks back over to Sylvain. She glances around before a strangely mischievous look crosses her face. Sylvain isn’t sure he’s seeing things correctly.

Maybe Aurelia was feeling more at peace in her house? Or did their encounter from before loosen her up? Maybe Sylvain was seeing things? He wasn’t quite-

Turns out Sylvain wasn't seeing things.

Aurelia took notice of the bed behind him and instead of walking around him to lay down she decided that it would be easier to take him with her. Which now led to her lying comfortably on top of him with a cat-like grin.

“You know,” Sylvain said slowly as he looked at her, “I always wonder if you got anything else from your mom since you two are so different from each other. I’m beginning to see what it is.”

This causes Aurelia to bark out a laugh as she flips around to lay down next to Sylvain instead of on him.

“And I think I can’t read the room…”

Sylvain pauses as he looks at her but she waves away his questioning look as she sits up. Something tells Sylvain he’s going to get an earful from his, surprisingly older twin, Ire when he eventually asks her to help explain it for him.

His attention is pulled away from his thoughts when he hears the sound of Aurelia picking up something from the tray.

He sits up as he watches her pour some of the contents of the teapot into each cup. She then hands him one of the cups.

Sylvain takes it with a quiet thanks and as he sips it, he recalls what had started the wall situation.

The plate.

“Can you show me now?”

She pauses mid sip. She glances at him for a second before sighing.

“Fine…”

She puts her cup down as she reaches for the plate.

Sylvain’s eyes widened when he saw what it was.

Cookies.

They were simple chocolate chip ones. The edges looked a bit crispy but outside of that they looked delicious.

Aurelia quietly looked away as she presented them to him.

“Can I take one?” He asked curiously, studying her face as he did so.

She gives a quiet but curt nod.

He takes one from the plate.

It’s still warm. Not from the oven, they seem to have been made a bit ago, maybe this morning. More so, it seems they were kept warm by some sort of heating spell.

Of course this only confused him more about the response he got from her when he first asked about it.

He looks back at her. He realizes that she was watching him almost expectantly but her eyes dart away the moment she realizes he’s looking at her.

He’s kinda nervous, judging by how nervous she is, but he takes a bite.

It’s crispy, that much is obvious. It’s good, but definitely crispy. It looked like there was slightly not enough flour but outside of that it was your usual cookie.

“…so?”

He glances back over to Aurelia.

She’s watching him with baited breath.

“It’s good,” Sylvain says as he takes another bite. “I like it.”

“You don’t have to lie,” She said almost immediately.

“I’m not!” Sylvain said, “I really do like it.”

It was like she hadn’t expected that answer. “Really?”

“Really really.” Sylvain said as he finished up the cookie he held. “Why are you so worried about it?”

She looks away as she mumbles out an answer, looking a mixture of ashamed and embarrassed.

“Huh?” Sylvain tilted his head curiously at her, “Could you repeat that please?”

She sighed as she then took a deep breath and said, “These are my sixth attempt.”

Oh.

Oh.

She made them herself.

“I wanted to make something for you, since you always make stuff for me…” She then says, “But I’m not nearly as good at cooking as you are…I kept messing up. One time I put it in the oven they just ended up being a pile of goop, I don’t even know how I managed that. I was planning on bringing these with us but I wasn’t sure if you were going to like them so I didn’t…”

Sylvain looked at Aurelia with a soft look. She could’ve done something she was good at. She could’ve just bought him flowers or something from the market. Instead she stepped out of her comfort zone to make him something special herself.

He gently took the plate from her and put it back on the tray. She seems confused and scoots back when Sylvain moves forward. He keeps going until her back is pressed against the headboard and he’s practically laying on her.

He brushes some hair from her face as he kisses her softly. She seems unsure of what to do so she hesitantly rests her hands on his hips.

“I love them even more now…” He says softly against her lips as they part.

Her face is slightly red as she nods before she presses her face into his shoulder.

“They’re not that good,” She mumbles slightly.

“It’s the thought that counts,” He counters, running a hand through her hair.

They lie there for a moment longer before Sylvain speaks again.

“We should probably start reading soon…”

Aurelia looks as if she wants to disagree. Instead she says, “You read. I just want to hold you.”

“You sure?” Sylvain tilts his head at her. As much as he wanted to read that book, he didn’t want to purely focus on the book and neglect Aurelia as she focused on him.

“Yep.”

Her hands around his hips squeeze for a second before her arms wrap around his waist.

“Certain.”

“Don’t let your hands wander,” He jokingly says as he reaches for the book on the nightstand.

“Sure,” She says as she presses a kiss to his neck.

He sends her an unamused look while she looks at him mischievously.

Something tells him he was in for a long ride.

-

They ended up rearranging themselves on the bed. Sylvain lying on his side with Aurelia holding him from behind.

She’s held up on not letting her hands wander, keeping her arms wrapped around his waist. Instead she takes the chance to press kisses to his neck and suck love bites into his skin every now and then.

Honestly he shouldn’t have been surprised that the first thing that Aurelia did was find a loophole in his words. She was raised by the fey after all.

But she does seem considerate of his wishes and keeps it to a minimum.

Despite the very cozy atmosphere, Sylvain finds himself increasingly concerned and disturbed with the book he’s currently reading.

He’s very quickly caught onto the fact that this is a very true story.

The fact that Aurelia was in it was proof enough.

He’s only gotten to the first chapter but he already wants to opt out.

The author seems to be close with Aurelia, but there’s also plenty of other people.

A Dragonborn named Windy. A human named Doc. A minotaur named Mini. An elf named Gnorfie. A half-orc named Humphrey. And finally, a strange cloaked figure named Kassidin.

The book details many different heists all to complete a job given to them by this man named Phelan Moonfall.

Though the most concerning thing to him is the fact that Aurelia was so young.

The first thing the author describes about her is how young she looks.

A small child, with no chance of being anywhere older than eight.

Yeah he had a basic idea this happened. He knew that Aurelia had to have been young when it happened. After all, she’s still fairly young right now. But he never thought that she would’ve been that young.

Though the next most concerning thing was how adultlike she’s described to be.

He wasn’t even sure how to put his thoughts into words.

He keeps reading.

-

Well that was unexpected.

Mini just died.

And not by some other being.

No.

He killed himself.

Not to mention that Kassidin then fed his body to owlbears.

Or how the remaining members of the group decided to…keep his liver…

Sylvain felt grossed out by the amount of detail.

He keeps reading.

-

Sylvain was beginning to see a pattern with the group’s general level of intelligence.

He had already caught onto the fact that Windy wasn’t the smartest.

That had led to most of the conflicts between him and Aurelia.

But he didn’t think he was that dumb.

Because Windy just kidnapped a dire wolf pup.

Sylvain feels like he’s in a fever dream as he reads the ridiculous fight.

It’s only stopped by Kassidin and Belakor going in and stopping them with the new member, Onatos. What followed was a rather gory scene.

What is it with this book and gore???

Either way, they won. With Windy having disappeared into dust somehow and Humphrey nearly dead.

And of course it isn’t over for Aurelia who ends riding through the night so they can know where they’re going. Because, as it turns out, no one else can read a map. So when she has to sleep the next day, they immediately get lost.

Sylvain continues reading.

-

It happened.

Sylvain only knew it was a matter of time.

Especially when the first thing that Windy said to her was mocking her height.

But Windy got left behind.

Sylvain was slowly getting used to the lack of intelligence of those in the party but whenever Sylvain thinks they couldn’t be that stupid, they prove him wrong.

They had been screwing around with magic in the cart. Eventually Windy cast light on Onatos’s stuff, pissing him off to the point where he throws Windy out of the cart.

From there, Aurelia graciously stops the cart to go and get him.

Then he starts screaming insults at her.

She very quickly leaves him behind.

Sylvain sighs heavily but keeps reading.

-

Sylvain actually has to put down the book when he gets to the Tolken arc.

At this point, Aurelia has long fallen asleep, holding him tight as she usually does when she’s in a cuddling mood.

He wishes he could feel as content as her right now.

But no.

He was reading how Onatos fireballed an innocent civilian, turning them into ash.

He regrets reading this.

But he kept pushing through.

So first, they tried to steal an invite to this illegal animal auction. Which sorta works until Onatos, in a moment of frustration, murders a man in broad daylight in the middle of a very busy street.

Naturally, everyone is horrified.

Sylvain would be too.

And once again he’s subjected to another horribly gory scene.

Then, Humphrey, Squidward and the author flee the scene while Doc gives chase after Onatos. The author runs into an alley. Squidward and Humphrey escape into a restaurant. And Onatos heads back to the wagon with Aurelia.

Oh yeah, and did Sylvain forget to mention that the author took the invite from the flaming pile of ashes that was this innocent man’s corpse. Because he did that.

When Onatos gets back to the wagon, Aurelia, who found out what he did through some nearby animals, is immediately pissed off. And very rightfully so.

Then Onatos goes and makes it worse so Aurelia rats him out to the guard.

Then there’s the animal heist.

Honestly Sylvain isn’t even sure how to put how he feels into words. He just finds himself looking at the pages slack jawed.

It was fairly okay with the author and the little fox, which Sylvain quickly recognized to be a firelily. But dear gods. Humphrey, Squidward and the giant eagle. And Gnorfie’s attempt to scare everyone into silence too.

Lets just say, Sylvain had to put the book down several times while reading just to convince himself to keep going.

And Sylvain wasn’t even touching on Kassidin holding a random kid hostage and possibly scarring him for life. And he was purposely ignoring how Kassidin killed a man and Aurelia covered up the murder. No thank you. He did not like this Kassidin character at all.

He barely manages to convince himself to keep going.

-

Sylvain does not like this Kassidin person.

Already from the start, he got some of the heebie-jeebies from him.

But him throwing Doc through a door and threatening to throw him overboard definitely sealed his fate for Sylvain.

But luckily they met London!

Probably the only bright side to this chapter so far.

Sylvain was purposely ignoring Humphrey’s obvious interest in Aurelia’s LESBIAN aunt. The author wasn’t, taking every possible moment to bully him for it. But Sylvain was.

Of course, seeing as they can’t have nice things, right after that, something idiotic happens.

The door.

Both the author and Gnorfie.

Spending nearly the whole chapter.

Trying to steal a twenty foot tall door.

Then right after that, was the pincers thing.

Why does Kassidin have pincers?

Why?

Then there was the lava thing. And then Pineapple trying to eat the helpful rats. But at least they got out.

Sylvain keeps trudging on through the book.

-

What is it with Aurelia getting snatched off boats by strange sea tentacles?

Once is more than enough, but twice?

It’s a wonder she can even go near deep bodies of water at this point.

Sylvain also doesn’t like Humphrey. At all.

It was bad enough when Humphrey dragged Aurelia over EIGHTY FUCKING FEET into the air over her protecting Kassidin’s desire to keep private about himself. But now he nearly fucking kills her? Sure it helped save her, but it could’ve gone so wrong so easily. There were so many better ways he could’ve gone about that and he chose the worst ways possible. Another testament to the lack of intelligence this group has.

He was on the author’s side about this.

Fuck Humphrey.

Another new thing is the fact that the captain of the ship was also part of some sort of evil organization. Nobody likes them apparently. Especially not the author and Kassidin who kill him after they get to where they need to go.

Sylvain keeps pushing forward.

-

What is it with this party and destroying things?

Like, can they not have anything nice.

Obviously not cause it almost ended with them getting eaten by a giant crystal dragon.

If it weren’t for Aurelia, that would’ve ended horribly.

But they ended up finding a bunch of these evil guys. They’re called the Red Star or something like that.

They break in, beat up a couple guys, steal their clothes and are looking around for the red dots on the map made magic map by the strange library. One of the dots is Aurelia’s father, Jyran, whom they find amongst these people.

They then break him out, get away and buy themselves time by flooding the area.

After that they continue running until they all meet up again at the top of the Scar.

From there they take strange joy in making Jyran faint not once, not twice but nearly three damn times.

Honestly Sylvain wishes he could faint right now.

But he doesn’t and keeps reading.

-

Obviously, tensions are brewing in the party.

Doc clearly has something going on if he’s still insisting to work with Phelan even after being told not to by this clearly not mortal thing. Humphrey is being Humphrey. Finally there seems to be something more going on with Kassidin.

They end up choosing to deflect from Phelan and Aurelia warns the godspawn about Doc. They then end up making a bunch of traps for the people chasing after them.

It’s rather cool to read if Sylvain is being honest.

Of course, good things can’t last forever.

Cause Doc and Humphrey try to steal the hand and make a run for it.

It obviously doesn’t work but they still try it. Aurelia ends up handing them over to the godspawn to keep them from trying anything.

But something tells Sylvain it’s about to get worse.

-

THAT FUCKING BITCH!!!

Sylvain is seething as his eyes dart across the page.

A lot has happened.

And it did, in fact, get worse.

A lot worse.

As it turns out, Kassidin is a walking corpse.

Two, he’s a lab experiment gone wrong.

Three he just fucking blasted Aurelia after he promised to work with her.

He fucking betrayed her in the worst way possible.

And that wasn’t even touching on the fact that the author was also burning someone alive as this all happened.

Some fucking how Humphrey and Doc also got away from the godspawn. So that only makes it worse.

Luckily, Aurelia manages to get the artifact and get away, so that was good. What was not good was a demon appearing from nowhere. As it turns out, it was Doc’s patron. Sounds about right.

Finally the title of the book makes sense now.

Because as it turns out the author was an atheist.

Then they summoned a god.

From there a fight ensued. Synapse against (god)Onatos. Doc and Kassidin against Jyran, London and Kilrai on Conan, Aurelia’s pet dire wolf.

Sylvain felt sick to his stomach as he read it. His anxiety rose slowly as he read.

But finally they beat Doc and Kassidin and get out of there.

There’s a few more chapters left but Sylvain has to put down the book.

He drags his hands down his face. He felt stressed out. The most he’s ever been. And it was just from reading a book.

No.

It wasn’t from reading the book.

It was from knowing that this is true.

That this is what Aurelia went through.

As fucking stupid as some of these people were, the events in this were still traumatizing.

He doesn’t realize he’s crying until he feels Aurelia move behind him.

She easily flips him around and holds him close, running a hand through his hair.

“You don’t need to worry about me…” She says quietly, “It’s all in the past now…”

That makes it hurt more.

Knowing that despite her being so young, she’ll ignore what was likely horrible traumatic pain just to make him feel better. Because he knew that it wasn’t just in the past. It was still here. And it was still a major part of her life.

She seems to be aware of that too.

She just quietly holds him for a while. After a bit he finally stops crying as he then shakily asks.

“Were you ever asleep?”

“No,” She said, still running a hand through his hair. “I saw what book you had and I wasn’t going to stop you from reading it, but I wanted to know what you thought…”

“What I think?” She gives a quick nod. “I think your group was a bunch of morons and that Kassidin, Doc and Humphrey should go to hell.”

She pauses, like she wasn’t expecting that answer. Then she kisses him softly as she then says, “Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure they’re in hell. Doc and Humphrey at least.”

Sylvain is about to kiss her back when he freezes.

Doc and Humphrey at least.

“What about Kassidin?”

“Honestly?” Aurelia starts, “I have no fucking clue. And honestly I don’t want to know. So long as he stays out of my life I’m happy.”

“Didn’t he try to commit a genocide?” Sylvain asked with growing concern.

“He did commit a genocide.”

“Aurelia, that's not any better.”

“Look,” Aurelia says calmly, “I could give less of fuck about Kassidin at this point. He made his bed, he can lie in it. I just want to be happy, and for me, that includes not worrying about Kassidin. It’s been over two hundred years, if he wanted to try and kill me, trust me, he would’ve tried.”

“I still think you should be wary…” Sylvain said, holding tightly onto Aurelia.

Aurelia is strangely quiet as she looks at him.

“I am.”

“You are?” Sylvain is confused, “But you said-”

“I know what I said Sylvain.” She cut him off. “I’m not worried about me. And I’m not worried about my family. We’re all war survivors. Soldiers in our own right. We fought to try and save our land from total destruction. Damn near every single person has fought. So I’m not worried about them. They can defend themselves if they need to. I’m worried about you.”

“Me?” Sylvain tilted his head; “Why me?”

“I’m always worried about you Sylvain…” She says slowly, “You’re not like me or my family. You had a happy life. A safe life. You don’t have the same set of skills bred by war. Hell, I literally met you by saving you from being jumped. I’m always worried, Sylvain, you just don’t see it.”

Sylvain stares at her with wide eyes. Her words touched him to his heart.

And they were the truth.

Looking into her eyes, it was obvious.

Wrapping his arms around her neck, he pulled her into a deep kiss.

She seems to have been expecting it as she immediately reciprocates the act of affection. Her arms are holding him tight and close and he finds comfort in her hold.

He tries to put all his feelings into the kiss. All the unspoken words into it. And his one main desire.

He was going to marry this woman one day. And he was going to help her get better.

He was going to make her happy.