The morning came to Helianthus soft as swan down. As a gentle spring breeze through the birch tree surrounding his childhood home. As The Sun's sleep-soured breath fluttering against his neck and the smell of sweet hay around them. Helianthus stretched, disturbing the head nestled firmly into on his shoulder.

The Sun groaned, eyelashes tickling the sensitive skin of his neck. Helianthus answered with a vague grunt. He squeezed his eyes shut against the grey morning light seeping through the wood of the old horse stall.

"I feel... strange." The Sun mumbled against his neck. The early morning chill prickled at Helianthus's skin as the god turned mortal onto his back.

His only blanket had been the warm weight of the god's body sprawled over him. The thick carpet of crinkling hay beneath them did nothing to shield him from the cold.

The Sun continued, voice hoarse from sleep. "Like I have emerged from a heavy fog. One that..." He yawned widely. "One that seeks to draw me back even now."

Helianthus curled an arm around the other man's waist, chasing his body heat in a vain attempt to escape the morning cold. "You're just sleepy."

"But I just slept. How counterintuitive," The Sun sighed. His dark hands drifted absently over the mortal's forearm, his smooth skin catching on the long-healed scars "Oh, human flesh feels gorgeous."

Helianthus propped himself up on one elbow to better watch the god explore the stretch of bare skin like some exotic landscape. How his lips would fall open with wonder at the simple sensation of skin against skin. The mortal lifted his hand to reciprocate The Sun's innocent caress, slipping his fingers just under the edge of one finely embroidered sleeve.

"How do you people get anything done?" The Sun breathed, shuddering at the light graze of Helianthus's fingernails against his bicep.

Helianthus couldn't help but agree. If only he could live the rest of his life like this. With the King among Gods quivering at the slightest touch like a blushing maiden. He had always preferred a man with experience who knew what he wanted and went for it. There wasn't a lot of time in the Legion to waste with teaching shy, clumsy virgins the ways of the world. But here, in the cool light of the early morning, he wanted nothing more than to show this gorgeous man every simple pleasure known to the human race one at a time.

After much deliberation, Helianthus decided to start with a kiss.

The stall door burst open, flooding the little stall with lantern light and dust.

"Mother of Fucking Mountains, Helianthus!" Cadmus's voice rang out like the damned Academy morning bell. "How does this always happen? Every time, I swear."

Helianthus pulled himself from the hay to address his friend, or rather his friend's back. "Oh, calm down. We're fully dressed."

"There's plenty of things you can do fully dressed, I've seen all of them. Thank you for that, by the way." He stood as though giving a monologue to the rest of the stable. "Astera wants you to meet her at the deer trail."

The Sun sat up, rubbing wearily at his sleep-crusted eyes. "May I have a moment to gather myself?"

"No. I mean... Astera specifically asked for- and I quote-" Cadmus cleared his throat in preparation for one of his legendary impressions. "Just Eli. If that madman is still stuck to him like a tick on a dog, have him help Ox cut wood or something. I don't care. I don't want to see his face until at least noon."

Helianthus snorted as he stretched the kink in his neck. He could see his sister's 'woke up on the wrong side of the bed' sneer already.

At the base of the mountains surrounding Convallis, Astera and Helianthus stepped lightly through the woods. They walked down a discreet deer path, little more than a gap between birch trees and shrubbery. Helianthus remembered this path, the twists and turns through the thick underbrush, seemingly without direction or meaning. The way changed every few months as the deer caught on to their traps, but Astera could always track it down again.

They moved as quiet as they could over the carpet of dead leaves and twigs. Helianthus' thick Legion boots couldn't help but to crunch leaves and snap twigs, but Astera moved without a sound. She balanced a basket neatly on her hip, feet falling thoughtlessly over old deer tracks. The faded green cotton of her skirts barely rustled as they passed over outstretched rosemary branches. Even the sound of her breath disappeared into the rhythmic rustle of leaves overhead.

A part of him wanted to ask one of the thousand questions he'd come up within the ten years he'd been away. How she'd managed the harsh winters on her own. If their old house in the deep forest still looked the same after all these years. But the silence wasn't his to break. It belonged to Astera and the woods.

Before he had died somewhere among the birch and pine, their father had instructed them to keep quiet so as not to disturb the game. But Helianthus suspected Astera's silence was something deeper. She kept the forest's quiet like a friend keeps a promise.

She paused, regarding the hundreds of black eyes watching them from the trunks of the birch trees surrounding them. Helianthus listened closely, shifting his grip on the wide wicker basket he held. Somewhere, a raven cried out danger but went ignored. Sparrows fought over a few scraps of food in the treetops, leaves raining down on their heads. The songbirds all sung out their loneliness in a sweet chorus.

Trusting Helianthus to follow her without question, Astera stepped off the deer path. The trees grew thicker here, shadows collecting under their tightly knit branches. She knelt to pick the wild strawberries hiding under rolls of peeled bark and underbrush. Both their baskets were full, so she stuffed the little gemlike berries into her pockets.

"He's not insane," Astera said as they walked out onto the open pasture. She popped a strawberry in her mouth. "I think that's what worries me the most."

"Who?" Helianthus asked though he knew very well what she was referring to. He held out a hand and Astera dropped a few into it.

"The-... Your Sun." She spat a seed into the summer grass. "If he was just a madman, that'd be one thing. But he's here for a reason. One we're not aware of."

"He said he came to solve a problem." Helianthus shrugged. The strawberry's flavor was much sharper than anything he'd find in a farmer's field. It hit the back of his teeth like a punch to the cheek.

Astera glanced at him with interest. "Oh, did he tell you what it is?"

Helianthus kept his eyes on the grass. Without the sheep to mow it down, the pastures had all gotten overgrown and full of weeds. "He said he needs to get to Astuvia, which isn't a problem since we're already heading that direction. There's plenty of room in the cart. But... what he's planning to do there I... can't say for sure..."

Astera scoffed. "The Legion's tamed you. All that time taking orders and doing drills... You might've been a little too trusting when you were younger, but you were never stupid."

"I'm not stupid!" A flock of ravens took to the sky, screaming bloody murder. Helianthus popped another strawberry in his mouth. When the sharp sting passed, he continued. "He took me off guard. I wasn't expecting to meet a god."

"No one does, Eli." Astera sighed, planting a green-stained hand on his shoulder. "Which is why we need to be careful when we think we have."

"You really don't need to talk to me like a child anymore." Helianthus shook her off. "Sweet sunshine, I've killed people."

"And since when did you start killing people?" Astera cried out, smearing her mouth with deep red juice. "Honestly, I was relieved when you started babbling on about your so-called god. It was the closest I'd seen to my baby brother since you arrived! I'm glad you weren't eaten alive in bootcamp or killed but... None of this is like you, Helianthus."

"I know." Helianthus felt something hit his shoe and looked down to find a few carrots had fallen out of his basket. He stooped to pick them up, running his hands through the thick grass to be sure he hadn't missed any. He mumbled something to the grass "It's like you."

"I'm sorry?"

"Remember that time when we were kids and that bear came after our chickens?" It was maybe one of his first memories. Helianthus was barely big enough to reach the windowsill and look out to the chicken coop just beyond their vegetable garden. He remembered how they panicked at the sight of the shadow just beyond the treeline, throwing themselves against the wooden slats of the coop.

Astera nodded, her brow furrowed with confusion.

He looked around the surrounding fields, there weren't even sheep around to overhear their conversation. "Well, when Captain Regus went down, all I could think of was the way you ran out in your night gown and screamed in that bear's face. I don't know why on earth you thought that was a good idea, but that bear never came back again."

Astera smiled faintly, her gaze drifting off to where Convallis huddled behind walls of turned earth and wood. She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I kind of called you stupid."

Helianthus shrugged. "I think I might prefer that title over 'Captain', honestly.

An easy silence fell between the siblings as they crossed the open fields. A silence that belonged to the both of them.

"So, what brings you down to earth?" Oxalis asked from the top of a ladder as he hammered a lintel into place. Astera had involuntarily volunteered him to babysit the supposed god as she went about some very important business in the woods.

The master carpenter could've argued that he was also very busy. He had a town to rebuild and four other half-baked amateur carpenters to whip into shape before he left for Astuvia tomorrow. Astera lived in the woods and would continue living in the woods for as long as there were woods. But he knew better than to argue with Astera.

He'd learned well over their tentative friendship that the wild woman was more likely to exchange niceties with a bear than suffer an argument with him.

"The wine? The women?" He reached out his hand and The Sun put a nail in it.

"I haven't tried wine yet, but I assume I would have no taste for either." The Sun yawned, leaning against the wall. The still fresh memories of Helianthus' strong, callused hands gripping his hair briefly took hold of Oxalis' mind. A smirk pulled at his lips. "I just have to run a simple errand. Shouldn't take more than a week."

"Here in Convallis?" Oxalis asked, climbing down to assess his work. "What could the King among Gods want from this place? Wool? Furs?"

"It's complicated and honestly a little embarrassing." The Sun sighed, rubbing at the bridge of his nose.

"We'll be together for the rest of the day. I've got nothing better to talk about, especially to the all-seeing." Oxalis moved a few boxes to the sunny spot in the little house where the roof had caved in. Thankfully, this one had been built properly the first time around. All the scuffs and scrapes had very little effect on the foundational bones of the place.

"Death got himself banned from his favorite flea market or something. He asked me to go in his stead and buy him a couple silly trinkets." The Sun mumbled as he bent over to pick up the other end of a long beam. Oxalis snorted.

Together, they hauled it up to the gap in the roof, slotting it in place among the other, older ones. In an hour, the house was perfectly livable again. The only sign it had ever been raided were the new roof beams, the fresh pine gleaming like a gold tooth among the older, tobacco-stained wood.

"Where's this flea market? If Death is banned, I might have to move there." Oxalis played along, taking a long drink of water before moving to the next house on his list. He might be mad, but The Supposed Sun made a decent assistant. He'd helped the carpenter get through twice the amount of work he'd expected to do today.

The fact that the invaders were shit at burning things down didn't hurt either. Oxalis considered leaving flowers on their smoldering ash pile.

"Oh, you wouldn't want to do that." The Sun sighed, wiping the sweat from his brow.

"Oh? Why not?" Oxalis passed the waterskin over.

"It'll make Death want you more. He loves a challenge." The Sun answered over a sip of water. Out in the fields, the ravens gathered. "Once, a woman evaded him for three hundred years. For three hundred years, every crow and raven on the Stag Goddess's black earth pursued her. The year she turned three hundred and one, she gave in but only on the condition that she be made his Queen. She would've been better off just dying at seventy like anyone else."

"You can't be telling me you've actually met Queen Fouquieria." Oxalis laughed. He grew up to that story. It was one of his favorites as a kid. The beautiful woman who defied death to rule the underworld and all its treasures. The story changed depending on the teller, but it always had a good ending.

"Met is a strong word. I see her every now and then when Death wants to show off. It was one of the few times where Death got the better half of the bargain." He said, his pearl-black eyes cast to the ground, the new grass still dusted with ashes and bits of burnt wood.

Oxalis got up and took his waterskin back. Humoring the madman's fantasies of being a god was turning out to be less humorous than he'd like. They set out to the next house over, the midday sun heavy on their backs.