Leaving the temple had been a bad idea, her plan to apologize withthe worst treaty in the Santuary for fifteen years turned out to be a complete disaster and in the end, she had been exposed to everyone there; but the reality was impossible to deny and despite having sworn allegiance to Athena, Elyn would forever keep in her heart the oath of absolute fidelity to Saga.
The girl was sitting on the back steps of the Pisces Temple when she sensed Leo's cosmos entering there. It had been two days since the fight in the arena of the colosseum and she had gone back to hiding in the darkness of the twelfth temple: she would stop hurting people or offending with her presence and in turn, no one could recriminate any of her decisions whether or not they were related to the Gemini's rebellion. However, the girl had cordially greeted everyone who crossed the Temple of Pisces to go to meet or gather with Saori, regardless of whether they were warriors of Gold, Silver or Bronze range; she even had a conversation with Hyoga in which they both spent hours talking about Camus. As long as people came to her in peace, she wouldn't deny them the option to exchange a words.
Aioria showed no intention of going beyond the last stairs that would supposedly take him to the Pope's temple. The warrior appeared through the back door, stopped his steps and stood there, still and silent until he found the courage to sit at side to the girl who hadn't even turned to look at him:
"I'm sorry."
That took her by surprise. Never, ever, she had heard the Saint of Leo apologize to anyone. He was a proud person who had grown up hearing bad words about his brother every day so that, in the long run, Aioria had locked himself in and discarded any contact beyond of his circle of trust:
"I ..." Elyn hesitated, Aioria had only insulted her once while she had done it for years, a simple forgiveness wouldn't be enough to reverse all the damage caused but she couldn't think of any way to amend her mistakes at that moment "I am also sorry... although the word of a traitor doesn't care you very much."
Neither of them said anything else for a while, in fact, they didn't look at each other either. Everything seemed much simpler if they were guided by the words of the heart and not by the commitment to look into each other's eyes to tell the truth. They had a lot to say but getting down to confess it was a difficult step to take:
"Do you know why I stayed in the Sanctuary, Aioria?" The girl felt that Leo shuddered at her side "I found a letter from Saga in his temple that dated shortly before the battle of the twelve temples... Sometimes he had few lucid moments and apparently in one of them... he wrote it for me. I guess I knew I would find it sooner or later. In it, he asked me to accomplish do what he was never able to do."
"Dominate the world?"
The Saint of Pisces Australis let out a bitter smile at Leo's impertinence but she didn't want to feel insulted, Aioria's tone had been friendly, a simple comment to break the ice that kept them tense:
"It would have been fine... but no, kitty... Saga entrusted me to take care of Saori, Athena." Aioria fixed his green eyes on Elyn, surprised by the statement. She also did the same with the Gold Saint, keeping the smile she had drawn seconds before "Saga knew that his other self would, and the darkness, end up consuming him and that his actions had claimed a multitude of innocent victims, you have no idea how much he suffered for it... Yes, some of us knew who was hiding under the Pope's helmet and yet, we followed him; others, suspected it and preferred not to go deeper into the subject while others... just didn't realize what was happening until it was too late." Grief got stuck in Elyn's throat, she usually got carried away by her emotions in front of Milo, maybe in front of Mu, but never before anyone else who didn't have her confidence; crying in front of Aioria would be somewhat humiliating but it was also necessary if she wanted to expose her point of view on the Gemini rebellion "The Pope sent me away from the Sanctuary because he knew that my true goal was always to save him and that I never really considered myself faithful to Athena... I swore allegiance to Saga, the authentic Saga that only a few of us knew and I still feel loyal to that promise."
"They could execute you for what you just said."
"Tsk, Saori knows all of this and she still keeps trusting me. Do you think Athena can't see what kind of feelings live inside me? Besides... what does it matter?" The girl shrugged and wiped her tears back to fix her gaze on the beautiful rose bush she had managed to restore over the days "Do you really think that my brother died becausehe thought so stubbornly that Saori was an impostor? No... Camus died for giving Hyoga the opportunity to awaken his true power; Shura for redeeming himself for the death of Aioros; Aphrodite for protecting the person who raised him in the past..." Elyn stopped her words trying to regain her composure a little; while she had mentioned those names, her voice had gradually broken. None of them were there and their absence was getting heavier every day but the mission that Saga had entrusted to her should be carried out and she couldn't fall apart "Even Aioros died to protect a baby who everyone insisted on believing that wasn't the authentic Athena, he fought for his beliefs, because he would also have done it with another baby if Saga had wanted to execute it without reasons... Deep down, none of us fights for devotion to the goddess. Even you, you have fought to the last for to clean the name of Aioros and your own in front of those who treated you as traitors... but are you afraid to accept it, aren't you? You're afraid to continue being judged because your devotion isn't as big as you preach and that's why you're enraged if they tell you otherwise or you go out of your way to keep that false image in front of others. It's for fear, Aioria. "
Leo said nothing. He thought of Seiya, Shiryu and their companions advanced through the twelve houses to save Athena's life. In addition to Saori, on the way through the different temples they had also found other reasons to continue standing: friendship, revenge, self-improvement... and all that should be punished because only the Saints were allowed to fight for the name of Athena and still thus, the goddess still considered them as her greatest followers. The Gold Saint then understood the reason why a girl like Elyn had earned the Pope's respect long ago, why she was able to rub shoulders with the golden warriors and look at them equally... Her principles were clear and she would fight without fear of defending them, just as Aioros had done. Elyn was willing to protect Saori just because Saga had entrusted it to her, regardless of ethics or if the rest of the world made fun of such a decision.
Aioria smiled and let his eyes wander through the garden of Aphrodite: a sea of red flowers that didn't seem to poison anyone since anyone could go up and down without the poisonous roses affected them in the least... nothing seemed had changed in the Sanctuary, it seemed from one moment to another his arms companions would appear through the door of the empty temples... Making him feel exactly the same feeling that had accompanied him since the death of Aioros and fifteen years later, he was still turning in the temple of Sagittarius hoping to see him leave to say goodbye. Now that feeling was expanding to five more Gold Saints and it was strange, because he didn't consider them friends to shed a tear for them but he did admit that something made him feel sorry for his losses:
"My brother... he would have loved to meet you."
" Thank you, I am honored to know it... I regret having insulted his name. He really was the best followers of Saori, he saved her." She ended up confessing the girl and then, sighed "Now I am the last bastion of the Sanctuary, Aioria, and I will fulfill Saga's last will, because he was also a Gold Saint of Athena."
-END-