She was back. Back at the Lord of the Night’s… home? Hideout? Base? What did it matter? He was gone… hopefully. 

“But why am I back?” she mumbled, staring at the door, “I don’t need to be here. I don’t want to be here.”

“Because it’s the last place you saw.” A voice startled her. A woman’s voice. The voice she’d only known in her dreams, “It’s easiest for you to come here.”

She turned around slowly, only looking up when she knew the woman was in front of her. Her eyes widened in surprise as she looked at them. “...well… you look…”

“Different?” The woman laughed, tossing her golden curls over her shoulder, “Well, I’m rather fond of this look. Of course, it draws eyes, but isn’t that the point?” 

She looked at her feet, “Why are you here?”

The woman’s smile wavered, but she quickly recovered, “Well, why wouldn’t I be here? I like all the drama you cause!”

“More like the drama you make me cause,” she muttered under her breath.

The woman sighed, “Arelyn, please-”

“That’s not my name.”

“It should be. ‘Tempest’ doesn’t fit you. Nor did any of the other names you gave yourself.”

“Since when did you have the right to give me advice?” she asked, looking up at the woman before her, “You were never there long enough to give me my name.”

“I know, but-”

“Cut it out. You’re not just here cause you are obsessed with messing with people’s relationships.” she crossed her arms, “Spill.”

The woman sighed again and looked down at her dress as if she was worried it had changed in the few minutes she’d been there, “Well, if you insist.” She turned her head away and looked out across the street at nothing in particular, “So, maybe a month ago, you… insulted me.”

“And? Do you really think I’m worried about one of you killing me for an insult?”

“Well, uh…. Yes?”

“Yes. Because I’m worried about dying.” she scoffed.

“You should be.”

“Why? Because the Underworld is that bad?”

“No- ugh!” The woman looked at her in annoyance, “Can I just explain?”

She shrugged, “Sure. Take your time.”

The woman sighed, “Anyways, I’m here to help you.”

“You? Help me?” she laughed, “For a moment I thought you were serious!”

The woman frowned, but still managed to look better than most elves she’d seen, “Why don’t you like me?”

“Well, lets see: you told me “I’ll make all your problems up to you!” And then gave me a single pep talk, you broke my little brother’s heart, you left me to live with one of the most stuck up, selfish people in the Lost Cities, you didn’t help us kill the Chimera - none of you did, in fact - pretty much everyone in the Lost Cities is depressed now, since Sophie was basically their only hope for the world, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg! And you expect me to like you?!?” she stopped when she realized she’d been yelling.

The woman looked back across the street, “...I guess you’re right. Not with all of it, but some of it.”

“Why?” she felt tears spring into her eyes as she remembered Sophie and Dex’s wanderlings, “Why would you guys let them die? Any one of you could’ve saved both of them with a snap. So why didn’t you?”

“...You won’t like my particular answer, but… death always makes love stories more exciting.”

Her sadness turned to rage, “You let them die because it was entertaining?!?! It couldn’t have been some lame excuse, like, ‘We’ve been really busy,” or “I had just found some other hot model,” or anything else?!? You were just bored and let the entire Lost Cities sink into sorrow?!?!” 

“I said you wouldn’t like it,” the woman defended, “And besides, when you’re immortal, you need some kind of excitement.”

“And you couldn’t just kill me?”

“Now why would I kill my own daughter?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because I WOULD’VE BEEN HAPPY TO DIE?!?! OR MAYBE BECAUSE THEN I COULD BE KNOWN AS MORE THAN A NEVERSEEN DESERTER?!?! THE CAUSE OF THE MOONLARK’S DEATH?!?! UNTRUSTWORTHY?!?” she sighed and brushed her hair back in frustration, “You have no idea how much I’ve been tempted to do your job for you.”

“What about your brother? Wouldn’t you miss each other?”

She laughed darkly, “You should know how untrue that question is. Of course I’d miss him, but he doesn’t know we’re related. Was that your doing, too? To make my love for him more interesting? To make our hate for our father more intriguing? At this point, pretty much all of my life was affected in some way by you.”

Her mother pulled one of her golden curls from behind her back and twirled it around her finger, “I know. Do you want to know why? Because I care about you. It may not seem like it - in fact, it probably seems like the opposite - but I really do. You are my only child that isn’t human at all. You’re special. Though I didn’t love your father like I did Piper’s, you’re still one of my favorites. And none of the gods want to kill their favorites.”

She looked at her feet as her mother’s gaze fell on her. “So… he’s an elf. My father.” 

Her mother nodded, “And I’m sure you figured out who it was long ago. How else would you know who your brother is?”

She said nothing, but stole a glance at the woman in front of her, “Is that why you followed me? Because ‘I’m special’?”

Her mother smiled sadly, “You are, and yes. I wasn’t always there, but I did leave Olympus often and followed you.”

“You followed me… but you didn’t help me. At all. In any way. Got a reason for that?” she put a sharp edge on her voice, but it was hard. All her anger towards her mother was quickly fading.

She sighed, “No. I have no reason for why I was there and didn’t help besides not wanting to give myself away. And that seems like it was almost a good idea, considering how much you despise me. You probably would’ve rejected my help anyway.”

She couldn’t argue with that. Fresh tears ran down her face, but she didn’t even know why she was crying. “What do I do now?” she asked so quietly she wasn’t even sure her mother had heard her.

Apparently she had, though, because she smiled again and slowly approached her, “You need to heal. You were injured pretty badly. In fact, this dream has probably lasted maybe a week or two for everyone else.”

“What?!?” She frantically wiped the tears away from her eyes and looked around, “How am I supposed to leave?”

“You’ll probably wake up shortly after I leave.” her mother explained, “But I have one last thing to tell you.” She waited for her daughter to look at her before continuing, “No matter what you believe, or anyone else tries to tell you, you are NOT the Phoenix in the prophecy.”

“How do you know? Isn’t the whole point of prophecies that you can’t change them, control them, or predict them?”

“Trust me. It may have seemed like the prophecy was all about you, but I know for a fact that that isn’t you. Think about it; a phoenix is a flaming bird. You aren’t a bird, and you can’t control fire. That’s the basic proof, and I have more, but we shouldn’t leave your friends waiting for you to wake up.”

She nodded and looked away, not able to look at her mother as she whispered, “Thanks, mom.” 

Aphrodite paused a moment before smiling, “Of course. Let’s just watch the rest of the story unfold calmly, shall we?” 

Arelyn gave her a smile before her mother disappeared, along with the street the Lord of the Night had lived on. Instead, it was just a suffocating black. Looking around, she couldn’t find any light, and looking down made the entire space feel colder. Feeling around, she realized she was falling. But when will I stop? She thought as she fell, waiting to hit the bottom, but it never came.

She had no idea how long she’d been falling in the thick darkness before she suddenly stopped. What’s happening? Slowly, she watched a sliver of light pierce through the black, and she tried to rush towards it, even though, the closer she got, the more it felt like it was burning her skin. The darkness was cold, part of her mind told her, why can’t we just go back? It’ll be nice. Arelyn ignored it and kept going. To the land of the living.
____________________________________________________

Arelyn winced as light - real light - flooded her vision. Her shoulder throbbed and she had a horrible migraine, but she couldn’t hold back a smile when a familiar voice broke the silence, “Sleep well?”

Well, this is what happens when I remember that I didn't update yesterday: you get a really long chapter out of panic writing. Anyways, happy November! Like the last chapter, I tried to only use she/her for Tempest or, as she now goes, Arelyn! I revealed this name in Forgotten Power/Protecting Home, if you read that, but I wanted to do more with it, so..... Yeah. Hope you liked it, and I'll see y'all later! Bye!