Work Text:
Do you love me?
Those words that were once uttered in the most intimate of settings now tasted like bile. He looked down at her, crumpled and defeated, but only felt the rage still boiling under his exterior. His coldness would not betray it, but it didn’t bring the satisfaction that he craved so.
Once he had been madly in love with Selemene, the goddess who radiated beauty, power and control. Now, it was only contempt and regret. Regret for being so easily swayed by a beautiful face, body, and voice. But of course the Invoker only feels that now.
It was not all bad. There was the before when there was some semblance of happiness. He had the gift that bonded him and Selemene. Sweet Filomena with her bright-eyed optimism and intuitive nature. As lovely as her goddess mother, and the personification of all his good qualities. They were happy, even if it was for a brief moment.
But Selemene’s vain knew no limits. Demanding his unfettered loyalty not long after Filomena was born, with her honey and lies. Do you love me?
It hurt his heart to leave her, but it would hurt more to raise Filomena in a world such as that. His child deserved better and more. Both father and daughter were happy in their new life, admiring the beauty of the nature around them and Filomena admiring the flowers to her heart’s content.
The illness that plagued his daughter became a cruel reminder to the Invoker that all the good things he wanted and cherished slipped through his fingers. Bless her heart, she tried to hide it from him. Trying not to worry him than he already was.
He never let the mask slip for the sake of his child, but every so often, the tears just fell freely. Out of frustration, out of fear of the unknown, and where his mind wandered every now and then.
Every solution that proved fruitless brought him closer and closer to the horrific realization: only her mother could save her. He didn’t want to admit it out loud, but the Invoker realized that the last sense of a happy life for himself was within the person he left to begin with.
He found himself at Selemene’s presence, kneeling before her and choking to utter the pledge of loyalty to her. So close, just so close to healing his pride and joy, until Filomena speaks for herself. Of course she would. She was a child, and one that was beyond her years at that. She never wanted to worship, just her mother. Just the love from the one person who gave her life.
At that moment, it’s as if a dam broke inside him. Begging, pleading,tears, arguing, just anything to save the fading life in his arms. Yet Selemene just turned and left. Left him to pick up the pieces of his shattered heart as Filomena tried to smile for the last time.
Nothing was the same after that. In his fits of rage, the books and journals that proved fruitless were burned, especially the ones that contained the once beautiful drawings of an unnamed flower. Now, they were nothing but ashen memories of a rosy-colored past.
Do you love me? No! No he didn’t. He wouldn’t let love in again. All it brought him was pain and suffering. And he wouldn’t make that same mistake again. What was the point?