Part I - Summer (Late) - "I took him to our secret place." (2/2)

"I told him about us," said Miyu.

Cameron didn't say anything. He waited for her to continue.

"I write letters to Archie, every now and then. See, we elves—we believe our words can reach those in the realms beyond, if we burn them in the crystalfire at the Reliquary. So I've told Archie about us. I told him the story of how we met. And all the time we spent together. … I think he would have really liked you. I think you would have liked him, too."

The two of them sat in silence for a long time. Miyu slid her arm through his, rested her head on his shoulder.

"Cameron," she began. "… You know, I was barely old enough to walk when they told me I was going to be the next incarnation of Princess Aerya of the Lillium. They had to prepare me for a lot of different things. Training me to become the avatar. It wasn't easy on me. On my body. I was still a child then. There was a lot of pressure on me. My parents would cry, a lot, back then. Elegia also didn't like it. He's … He acts cool, but I know he really cares about me."

She looked at the ground, watching the flowers sway in the light breeze.

"But they didn't understand what I knew. That even though it was hard, it was necessary. Because I am Princess Aerya. … Or, I will be."

She thought for a long time, about what she was going to say next.

"Princess Aerya watches over us. She has watched over Lazumere and the surrounding land for countless millennia. She protects us, keeps us safe. We thank her for bountiful harvests. We thank her for the food on our plates, we thank her when our elflings grow up strong and healthy."

Cameron bit back the urge to say, Well, what about when they don't grow up strong and healthy? … And if she was responsible for good harvest years, was she also responsible for the bad ones? … Was she responsible for what happened to Archie?

"As Aerya's current incarnation and avatar," she continued, "I'm supposed to become her."

Cameron didn't understand what she meant by that.

"It's called Apotheosis. At some point, I'll become her living embodiment. Princess Aerya of the Lillium made whole and manifest in this earthly realm."

Cameron still didn't understand what she meant.

"And when that time comes, I'll inherit all the memories of the avatars who came before me. As well as their emotions—their struggles, their pain. What they went through in their own lives as Princess Aerya's avatar."

In the silence that followed, Cameron had many questions.

… Would Miyu have a will of her own? Or would she be controlled, effectively puppeted by Princess Aerya? Would the two of them share Miyu's body? If so, would they share it simultaneously, or take turns?

Would the memories of the previous incarnations pop in all at once, or trickle in slowly? What would happen to her own memories? Would she see them as someone else's memories, or her own? What did she mean by their struggles? What does that even mean, to inherit someone's emotions …? Does that include all the memories of the previous avatars as they were, before those avatars underwent Apotheosis?

Instead of voicing any of these out loud, he simply turned them over in his mind—the analytical parts of his brain at work, no doubt.

… Not that he believed, of course, that such a process as she was describing was even possible in the first place. It was all metaphorical, obviously. A holdover from whatever purpose such a belief used to serve, in the olden days.

The silence continued for a while, until Cameron, not knowing what to say, but feeling like she was expecting him to say something, anything at all: "… Do you like being a priestess, Miyu?"

Her face lit up, and she answered without hesitation, warmly: "Yes! I love it!"

Yeah? You love it that much? Is that why everyone around here tells me how miserable and gloomy you used to be?

"… I see. That's nice, Miyu." He didn't know what else to say.

"It's what I was meant to do, Cameron. I love my village, and the people here. And to serve as a conduit for Princess Aerya's divine grace—there's no higher honor. The blessings, the ceremonies. … All of it. Even the parts that aren't so easy. Guiding the souls of the departed to the realms beyond. Helping those in times of grief. …"

Don't forget, marrying off your own cousin to another village. … Come to think of it, she conducted the Betrothals every year, didn't she? So how many others had Miyu—…

"… It's difficult sometimes, Cameron. Really difficult. But even so, I wouldn't trade it for anything else."

They didn't say much after that. The two of them, sitting in silence, listening to the wind blowing through the trees.

After they finally left Miyu and Archie's secret place—Miyu gathering a few of the flowers before they did—and made their way back down the mountain, Miyu pulled Cameron aside, just before they reached the Lazumere village limits.

And for a second, he thought he caught in her expression, a fleeting look of … what? Disappointment? Of expectations unmet? … Had he let her down, somehow, in that glade? … What had she wanted him to say? Do?

But then it vanished, as quickly as he had perceived it, and then Miyu spoke, voice tinged with kind of a solemn severity—her priestess voice. "Listen, Cameron … Observance is starting in a few days. You probably won't see me for a while. I'm going to be really busy. We won't have time to hang out, or talk, even."

"Yeah. I know."

"But! … It also means that Nocturne Reliquary will be open to guests. It's the only time of the year they open up to non-Lazumerians. … For obvious reasons. And … I know you keep asking to come up there, so …" She didn't finish her sentence, but Cameron understood—he understood that she was inviting him to see her in the coming weeks … not as Miyu Nocturne, but as the avatar of Princess Aerya.

"Yeah. … I know."

"Okay."

"Okay."

Miyu smiled, gave him a quick peck on the cheek, and then the two of them walked back to the Nocturne estate, without another word.