Archive of Our Own ^beta

Iuno had thought that she was okay with being forgotten.

Existential obliteration wasn’t on the top of her list of fun activities to do on Solaris-3, but it wasn’t like she had any other choice. She was already on the brink of disappearing before Rover came and found her in Chaos, then dragged her back into the real world because she hated Iuno’s well-thought out sacrifice.

Consequently, that means Iuno now has to venture into a world where she didn’t exist. She came back with a good sense of what awaits her – which was exactly nothing, since no one remembers her. No responsibilities, no nagging from Granny Lilibeth, no nasty comments from the old men from the Senate that are way past their due date.

It was fine. It was fine, really!

That was until the sight of the Hero of Heroes, Ephor of Septimont, in all of her blazing, fiery glory, stepped into her view.

She’s radiant, dignified, and beautiful. Exactly as she was during their final parting, when Iuno watched her go into the depths of Murmurstown with Rover to face the False Sovereign. How badly she had wanted to be by her side in that final battle, but both of them were aware of their duties. One more than the other.

Iuno can’t help but stare at her familiar figure. Augusta’s eyes are reminiscent of a solar flare – intense and powerful, but unlike the phenomena, she’s not a brief intermission in the history of Septimont, a sudden, short event that come and goes, but something grander, someone who’s here to stay, who can’t be limited by anything. Iuno will make sure that stays true, fate be damned.

Those same eyes that used to search for Iuno in the crowds and gazed at her with such fondness no longer hold recognition for her. Iuno feels something heavy and suffocating in her chest, watching Augusta walk by, greeting citizens here and there. She even waves at Rover with a smile that holds a level of warmth that was, of course, inferior to when Augusta looked at her. But, well, she didn’t even look at her, so whatever.

From a distance, Rover catches her gaze with a scrunch in her brows. She mouths, are you okay, at Iuno.

Is she okay? Of course she’s okay, what’s she talking about?

Sure, the easy smile that she wore had flattened into a thin line and she’s seriously thinking about just finding a cliff and diving straight off of it, but she’s fine. Iuno doesn’t need Augusta’s attention. She’s very happy lying to herself so she doesn’t have to deal with the crushing dread of facing the fact that Augusta doesn’t remember her at all.

Haha. Not a single detail! Iuno reminds herself that this is a result of her own doing. Isn’t that so funny.

Her fists clench and she can’t tell if she’s angry or depressed or suicidal again or all three.

Her eyes are stuck on Augusta’s back as it gets farther and farther away from her. She was never used to seeing Augusta’s back from so far away, not when she always stood next to her.

She feels like a stranger.

She is a stranger.

Augusta disappears into the Ephor’s Palace, and the moon is all alone again.

Iuno misses the attention of the sun.

These days, Augusta looks happier. Not in the sense that her expression was always bright and smiling, she still wears that stoic look that commands attention and respect, but in the sense that the air around her feels lighter – like a weight or a shadow has been lifted off her shoulders.

Like today, she appears in the presence of the citizens more often, lingers longer in the streets of the city she loves, smiles a little more often even if it's just for a second. If the cost for that was the memory of an existence called “Iuno”, then she’ll gladly offer it up over and over again, but it doesn’t change the fact that it feels like her heart is being ripped out and blended into pasta sauce. It almost makes Chaos seem like the better option.

She doesn’t know how long she’s been staring at the doors where Augusta disappeared through until Rover taps her on the shoulder. Iuno nearly jumps. She should’ve put bells or something on that bracelet she’d gifted Rover, because why does she walk so quietly?

Iuno almost suggests this addition to her gift when she catches the concerned look on Rover’s face. It makes her want to blow something up.

There’s no way Rover knows what she’s feeling... She wasn’t so lame to have her mood soured this badly just from lacking Augusta’s attention, right?

…Right?

“Iuno–”

“Nope. Hold it right there, Unwritten. I’m not sad, I’m not jealous, everything is fine.”

“The great priestess has learned to lie now.”

Iuno spins on her heels. She can’t bear this tightness in her chest. “Shut up. I’m in a really bad mood right now.”

“I thought you said everything was fine,” comes Rover’s voice.

Funny, Iuno thinks, I thought that too. And look at her now. How foolish.

She starts to leave. She’s not ready to do this, to face that ugly, tangled mess in her chest that’s been choking her up every time she thinks about Augusta. “Don’t follow me.”

“Didn’t you say you were going to be back to being all buddy-buddy with Augusta within a few days? It’s been a week and you haven’t talked to her at all.”

That hits a sore spot in Iuno’s gut, striking exactly that tangled bunch that she didn’t want to touch.

“Dearest Unwritten One,” Iuno nearly snarls. The corners of her eyes sting. Her lungs are stuffy. “Mention that again and I’ll shoot you, I’m serious.” The threat would have come across as more legitimate if she didn’t sound like she was about to cry.

She’s such a fool. Instead of a priestess, she should rebrand into being a jester. She should be the one with the bells. At the very least, maybe the loud jingling will quiet her unwelcome thoughts.

This is all so, so stupid. She doesn’t cry easily. She’s Iuno. Confident, unshakable. She doesn’t dwell on the past. She doesn’t look back, she doesn’t, but all she can think about is Augusta and how well off she seems without her.

It’s terrifying.

She tears through the streets of Septimont, seeking anything, anywhere that doesn’t remind her of the absence of the sun’s warmth. She swings out the Moonring, and flies out towards the Asphodel Barrens.

Fear surges in her like a tidal wave. Is Augusta better off without her? Rover has definitely told her about Iuno, she’s said so herself, so why hasn’t Augusta come looking for her? Does she not want Iuno by her side?

She’s waited a whole week and she hasn't sent out as much as a notice or for Rover to invite her for an audience.

What does the moon do when the sun doesn’t need her anymore?

The sun can function perfectly fine without the moon’s existence, but the moon… the moon needs the sun to shine. Iuno isn’t required anywhere in Augusta’s life, and yet she still badly wants a spot by her side.

Is that too greedy?

Iuno nearly tramples the silverglow blooms with her sloppy descent when she arrives. Her favorite spot in the Sanguis Plateau doesn’t look nearly as gorgeous in the daytime, but it doesn’t matter. She just needs some respite, that’s all. She leans against the hanging tree, shuts her eyes, and takes a deep breath. Quiet replaces the bustling sounds of Septimont. Fresh air fills her lungs, clearing away the suffocation she’d felt in the city, though the uncomfortable weight at the bottom of her stomach still stays.

She’d ignore this since coming back from Chaos. Why’d it have to surface now?

She was so confident that her and Augusta’s bond was unbreakable, that their souls were intertwined as the sun is forever entangled with the moon. But when the time came to test it, it terrified her. She can handle her existence being erased, she can handle the bearing the disappointment of an unchangeable fate, but she’s so frightened that the sun’s warmth may no longer be hers to bask in.

Is this selfishness, to want the sun’s gaze to belong to her? Will the sun cherish her, spoil her, entertain all her complaints and childishness with unshakable patience, just like how she did before? Iuno wants to know, but the possibility of the answer being anything but what she wants scares her.

The stillness of the air is broken by the sound of soft footsteps landing a distance away. Iuno doesn’t bother to open her eyes. She knows who it is.

There’s only one person left in this world who’d chase after her in worry.

“I thought I told you not to follow me.”

“I was worried.”

Iuno’s temper flares in indignation, but there’s nothing she can say that wasn’t a lame attempt at a lie.

How simple it would be just to say, it's not a big deal, and move on with her day, but she can’t because it is a big deal.

A huge one that’s been bothering her for days and makes her want to slam her head against the wall until she stops thinking. She can’t stand being unknown to Augusta, that she can’t hear her name being called in that warm, overly fond tone (that was reserved only for her, by the way), and the comfortable moments they’d share sitting together with the view of Capitoline Hill under them.

She made a habit of sticking to Augusta whenever she could, so much that even Rover noticed it in her short stay in Septimont, so who was she lying to?

That’s rather embarrassing, now that she thinks about it. Iuno wasn’t that clingy, was she?

She briefly thinks about asking Rover, then decides that she won’t like the answer her friend gives, so she doesn’t. After a good minute, she finally opens her eyes after realizing that Rover won’t go away unless she talks to her.

Rover has her arms crossed, frowning. Somehow, this sight upsets Iuno even more.

“Stop with that sad puppy look,” Iuno says. “Don’t you have better things to do than to chase after a priestess throwing a temper tantrum?”

A smile twitches at the edge of Rover’s mouth. “I’m surprised you’d describe yourself like that.” She approaches Iuno, careful to avoid stepping on the flowers, and sits down by her feet, leaning against the trunk of the hanging tree.

“Wanna talk about it?”

Talk about what? Iuno wants to say, I’m perfectly fine.

They’ll both know it's a lie.

“Why haven’t you talked to Augusta yet? She knows you exist.”

Iuno lets out a dramatic sigh. “Why yes, thanks to when you were panicking all over the Hunter’s Den looking for me. And what Augusta knows is just that there’s a blue-haired priestess somewhere employed at the temple. That’s it.”

Not Iuno, not the person who was once her closest friend. Just a random girl with blue twintails that the Unwritten One swears up and down was important to her.

“It’s your job to introduce yourself,” Rover says pointedly. “If you don’t do that, how is “Iuno” supposed to start a new chapter in Augusta’s memory?”

Iuno doesn’t like it when Rover is right, so she grants her with complete silence.

It’s not like she hasn’t thought about introducing herself to Augusta. In fact, she really wanted to within the first few hours of being back. However, the question of how and everything that came after held her back.

Iuno wanted their reunion to be something bigger than her just rolling up to say hi. She wasn’t going to cry, whine, and be pathetic all over Augusta’s doorstep to get her attention and then spill out everything that’s happened (with Rover’s guarantee that she’s telling the truth) to reclaim the place by her side either.

Aside from that, Iuno was scared.

The trade that she made with fate, approved by no one, disliked heavily by one, was that she’ll be forgotten, and wouldn’t exist enough to have to deal with being forgotten. But now that plan is dashed through, and Iuno has to rewrite her existence into the lives of the people who once knew her.

It was harder than she thought it’d be.

It wasn’t as easy as just finding familiar faces and going, hello I’m Iuno let’s be friends (again) hooray hooray and then all would be well.

She wasn’t even nearly close to being ready to confront the blank look on the faces of people who used to know her.

She tried, first with Granny Lilibet. The old woman who mentored her for years in the Tetragon Temple looked at Iuno and asked if she was the person Rover was looking for in a kindly tone. It was the tone she takes up with people seeking guidance, people she doesn’t quite have a connection with.

In other words, a tone for strangers. It came to Iuno like a punch to the gut, and before she could even utter a word, she’d ran away with a weak excuse that she’d left her pet bird in the oven.

With that kind of result, how could she even think about approaching Augusta? It was pathetic. She frankly wants to throttle the Iuno from a week ago who stated with cocky confidence that she’d be back to being friends with everyone in no time.

If she sees that same blank look on Augusta’s face when she is in front of her, she’ll really kill herself.

She tells Rover as much, and the latter gives her a wry smile. “I don’t think you need to think about it so hard. Just be yourself. You weren’t thinking so hard on how to do your introduction when you first met Augusta, right?”

“No,” Iuno agrees. “I wasn’t.”

Rover lets out an exasperated laugh. “Trust me, it’ll be fine. Just go talk to her, Iuno. I didn’t take you to be such a coward.”

Coward? Did she really just call her that? How dare this stupid, unwritten, blank void– Fine! It’s just talking to a person, it’s not that serious, Rover’s right, Iuno’s stupid, happy?

“Fine. Fine, fine, fine.” She half-groans, half-chants this as she summons Moonring. “I’ll go talk to her. I’ll go talk to her right now. Happy?”

“Very.”

She makes sure Rover sees the exaggerated eyeroll she throws at her before alighting the Moonring.

“Don’t let me catch you running back here within the hour,” Rover calls. “I’ll snitch to Augusta if you do.”

“Don’t let me catch you near tall cliffs,” Iuno returns, because she always needs the last word. “I’ll kick you off.” She flies off with that, Rover’s tinkling laughter trailing in the wind behind her before it fades away.

The evening air feels cool on her face. Her heart feels a little lighter. For the first time since the battle with the False Sovereign, thinking about seeing Augusta doesn’t twist up her stomach and send flurries of stabbing pain into her heart – well, actually, it still does, but it doesn’t hurt as badly.

She wants to see her. She wants to see her sun, her Ephor, her companion. Her Augusta.

She can’t keep running from this, hiding away like a scared cat. She needs to see this through. For herself, and the past she gave up. For the future that a simple hello holds.

Iuno finds herself wondering about a specific corner atop the Ephor’s Palace that overlooks the arena. It was the spot she’d like to sit, and it was the spot where only one person would know to come find her at. Iuno wonders if she still goes there.

Septimont is in view now, grand and tall, basked in the golden-red glory of the setting sun. Iuno doesn’t really have a plan. She’ll visit the Ephor’s Palace first, she supposes. If the ruler isn’t at her throne, then she can try the sparring grounds? And if not there, then she should just submit an official request for an audience…

Iuno is past the city walls now and as the palace walls get closer, she sees someone all too familiar. It seems like she doesn’t need to do any searching.

Her fiery red hair dances in waves in the wind and for some odd reason, she’s dragging her ridiculously large broadblade with her despite being in her own palace. How typical of her.

Augusta’s heading towards the spot where Iuno always sits.

Anticipation drums in Iuno’s chest and she clutches the edges of Moonring to stop herself from shaking. Iuno readies her greeting as Augusta catches sight of her. She feels her heart still at the sight of those brilliant red eyes on her, the vines of fear snaking through her lungs as she meets them — but before she or her anxiety can do anything, before she registers that Augusta doesn’t look at her blankly, but rather with a subdued delight, that idiot throws her sword at her.

She splutters a few profanities as she veers to the side, barely dodging what would be a really unfortunate fate and a future funeral for Rover to host.

“You–” Iuno has to stop speaking to twist away from the returning blade, because of course Augusta’s weapon likes to play boomerang and come back to its owner with scary precision of where the intended target is, regardless of whether or not they moved from its initial trajectory.

“You must be Iuno,” Augusta says with mirth. That’s when Iuno nearly falls off the Moonring, caught off guard. She wonders how many times she’s dreamed of this moment, of Augusta saying her name, but it certainly wasn’t like this. Augusta catches her blade and unsummons it as if that can do away with the fact that she’d nearly turned Iuno into paste.

“I don’t remember you,” Augusta clarifies, watching Iuno with a calm amusement as she flounders pathetically on her ride. “But someone tells me that you were very important to me.”

“I was. No–” Iuno gives up on the Moonring and hops down onto the ledge, standing face to face with the person she’s longed to talk to. Her heart is pounding so fast that Iuno feels like she might faint. “I am.”

“Oh? Interesting. I like your confidence.” Augusta smiles and all of Iuno’s fear of rejection and dismissal is washed away by the glow of the sun. Iuno finds herself brimming with something that can only be defined by joy and she’s grinning back at Augusta with childish glee. It’s been so long since she’s been shown the sun’s warmth. She will shamelessly bask in it.

Augusta holds out her hand. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

She’s been? Waiting? For her?

But Iuno was? Doing the same?

She can’t help but burst out in laughter, earning a confused look from her sun, and she tries to wave it off. “I’ll tell you later,” she says, doing her best to quell her giggles. She can’t help the fondness from overflowing. She can’t even imagine how she looks right now. Over the moon? Utterly enamored, like a maiden in love? It doesn’t matter, because it’s all true.

She saunters up close to Augusta and takes her outstretched hand.

Iuno knows this warmth well, knows that despite her hands being rough with callouses, her touch is so, so gentle. She knows this from when she’d gotten sick and Augusta sat by her bedside, sweeping her sweat-drenched bangs from her face; from the times where Iuno took Augusta’s hand in her own and played with her fingers, sneaking various moon-shaped rings and bracelets on and off just to see how it looks on her. There was the time where Augusta had caught her after she went flying off of her Moonring from an idiotic aerial maneuver that she thought she’d look so cool doing.

Iuno still remembers how gentle Augusta’s fingers were around her waist as she set her down on the ground. She proceeded to scold her, then laugh at her, to which Iuno had gotten angry and threw the Moonring at her. It evolved into an impromptu spar where Iuno lost pretty badly, because she just couldn’t focus when all she could think about was Augusta’s smile, the way she laughed, and how gently she’d touched Iuno earlier.

She feels a pang of loss as her heart flutters and settles. She… really was in love with Augusta, wasn’t she? She still is.

Of course she is, she still has all her memories with Augusta nice and intact, and as if that wasn’t enough, she has already lost count of the amount of times she’s revisited them over the week.

It took Iuno too long to realize that, or maybe she’d realized it then when she made the decision to trade her existence for Augusta and her beloved Septimont. It doesn’t matter now. There’s nowhere to put her feelings, not when the other person has no memory of who she is and what she was to her.

She’ll never know if Augusta had returned her feelings. Those silly days of her indulging in her every whim, every request, is something only Iuno will remember.

Iuno pauses briefly, then changes what she’d intended to do. She bows and brings Augusta’s hand up to her lips, pressing a gentle kiss to the back of her hand. Iuno passes all of her sentiments, her adoration, her dreams of what could have been into that kiss. A memento for the past, a mark to represent the future.

Iuno lets go. Of the dreams, of the past, of what could’ve been. She keeps the adoration – there’s nothing she can really do about that, she can’t get rid of it even if she tries. Not that she’d want to.

Iuno is going to focus on the present. She’ll build new memories with Augusta and forge a bond that was deeper, more unbreakable than the last. She’ll make it so that her existence will forever be imparted with her sun.

“You won’t ever have to wait for me again, Augusta,” Iuno vows. Her voice comes out softer than expected. Her promise is as much for Augusta as it is for herself. Iuno doesn’t want to leave her side again. And if she does, she’ll come back, again and again, no matter what. No matter how many times she’ll have to reintroduce herself, no matter how many times she’ll have to brave being a stranger to someone she loves.

When she looks up, she sees interest, amusement, and a hint of liking twinkling in Augusta’s eyes, though that last one might just be Iuno’s grand delusions working overtime.

Actually, maybe she wasn’t delusional. Despite the orange glow of the sunset, Iuno doesn’t mistake the slight flush of pink on the tip of Augusta’s ears. Iuno is rather pleased with herself.

Get this, Rover, she wants to gloat, my charms are undeniable.

“Iuno,” Augusta says, and Iuno savors the way her name sounds on Augusta’s tongue. “If you’d like, would you like to join me for dinner?”

“I would be delighted,” Iuno replies. She can’t take her eyes off of Augusta.

Her sun smiles at her ridiculously quick reply. Augusta leads her by the hand into the palace. Something about her not letting go of Iuno’s hand makes her heart soar.

For the first time since her new beginning, Iuno is walking by her side again. There’s no prophecy to weigh them down, no prophecy to dictate their actions.

They are just Augusta and Iuno.

The sun and the moon, rightfully by each other's side.

She holds Augusta’s hand a little tighter, following with a slight skip in her steps.

Iuno has never been so content with fate.