Series Title: Depositi Del Sole e Della Luna

(Stories of the Sun and the Moon)

Book II: I Servi Fedeli Del Dio Della Luna

(The Faithful Servants of the Moon God)

Chapter Number: One

“Matters of the Heart”

Author: D. Sanders

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“I’m sorry Gallus. I just cannot be what I think you need.” Fiamma said with a sigh as he adjusted his yellow robes nervously. He didn’t want to break Gallus’ heart, but knew this meeting was going to go badly. They’d only been lovers a short time, and while he liked the tall young lunar acolyte, he wasn’t in love with him. It was better to end it now before Gallus’ heartbreak would be harder to endure. Lunar priests tended to love without reserve and Fiamma didn’t want that sort of all encompassing relationship. Gallus to him had been nothing more than attraction to a broad, earthy-toned and handsome young man in the prime of his youth. At almost eighteen years and ready to exchange his blue hued novice robes for the white robes of his chosen priesthood. It was painfully obvious Gallus needed much more intimacy of the soul than Fiamma was able to give him.

Gallus sat there stunned. He couldn’t find his voice suddenly, his throat closed and his hands fisted into the material of his light blue robes. He felt as if the floor has just been pulled out beneath him and he was falling, falling into an abyss in which there was no escaping from. “Why?” He managed to croak out, his voice cracking.

“Oh Gallus. I’m sorry. Please I like you, I do, very much, but I do not love you. You need someone you can care about who cares as much about you in return. I’m not the one, I wish I was, you’re a wonderful man Gallus. You’re an asset to the order, you’ll be head priest here one day I’m sure. Your devotion is one of the most beautiful things about you. I just cannot be what you need. I have never been able to love like that. My affection for you ends there. I’m so sorry, I really am, but we need to end this before it goes too far. I will always look to you fondly as one of the sweetest lovers I’ve ever had.” Fiamma said trying to be kind, he really did care about Gallus’ feelings and hated having to hurt him.

“I see. Forgive me for not being enough.” Gallus whispered in reply, his head bent low, his stomach a knot of pain.

“I never said that you were not enough Gallus. I am the one who is ‘not enough’ for you. If there is one here needing forgiveness it is I, not you. I fear I led you to believe my feelings were deeper than they were.” Fiamma reached out to touch Gallus’ hand and he flinched away in pain.

“Oh Gallus. I’m sorry.” Fiamma sighed, seeing Gallus was struggling to maintain his ever-calm exterior, the pain in his eyes was clearly evident.

Gallus only nodded silently and turned and left the room, his broad shoulders drooping with a heavy emotional burden. Fiamma let him go, any further communication would only make Gallus’ pain more unbearable. Fiamma settled back down by his fire and poured a glass of bitter white wine and sipped at it with a sigh. His mentor coming in from the other room and joining his novice by the fire and pouring himself a glass of the wine and adjusting his golden robes as he sat down.

“That was hard I know. But better for him in the long run. I told you before you began playing with him that lunar priests base partnerships on emotions we solar priests could barely begin to hope to fathom. I warned you if you accepted his affections you were going to cause him pain. I hope you remember this lesson and don’t let handsome young men make you forget your better judgment. Remember the pain you saw in his eyes today and never again take a lover to your bed that feels more deeply than you do. If you cannot return like for like, you keep to yourself.”

“Aye father. I know that now.”

“And Gallus is the one paying more dearly than you. Pray to Sol for him and his heart tonight. It is severely broken by your own hands.”

Fiamma stood and nodded silently. It was indeed entirely his fault and his mentor was right. So Fiamma headed out to the temple to light candles and ask Sol in prayer to help mend Gallus’ heart.

---

Mane was standing out of sight, his heart breaking for his favorite novice when a soft voice sounded at his shoulder. “Don’t you wish sometimes you could do more?” Sol asked his brother as he appeared in the field beside his brother to look at the devastated youth who was crying in private under the stars.

“Aye. I wanted to tell him not to when it happened. It’s not our place to make their choices for them. Even when we know they are making the wrong ones.” Mane sighed moving to sit on a large boulder. Sol flopped into the grass at his feet.

“I have a novice in my temple right now, making quite a lot of requests on this one’s behalf. The one that caused this heartbreak.”

Mane nodded. “He’s a good lad, just not the right one. Gallus will bear him no ill will. That is not in his nature.”

“Nor is it in yours, your followers are the best of mortals. I sometimes envy you that. I have quite a few I want to throttle at times for being idiots.”

Mane chuckled. “Even mine do things that I would deem supreme idiocy. Like we are any better at times?”

“You have a point my brother. I don’t deny I’ve made quite a few mistakes in my time.”

“Yes you have, but so have I and let us not discuss our mistakes when we are on speaking terms. We will only fight again.”

“Aye. So back to your Gallus here, I’m getting requests to send him someone that is right. You know who that is, Gallus is your dominion.”

“There is no need brother. The one for him will come soon enough. I just hope when the time comes Gallus sees it for what it is and this incident doesn’t make him fear to love again. That is in his nature. He will close off his heart for a while for the fear of the pain.”

Sol nodded and sighed. “Mortal love is decidedly your dominion, you understand it and all it’s multiple facets better than I.”

Mane nodded, love was indeed his dominion and he knew the ache and pain it caused when it was lost better than anyone. He himself lived every day with that gutting pain of love that was gone. He turned and looked at his brother, the cause of his ache. He sighed, now was not the time to fight over an ancient heartbreak. Gallus needed him and Sol working together for the moment. “Yes, it is my domain and it will come for Gallus soon. Does your novice ask for intervention of a vague nature?”

“Aye. So I give his request to me, to you. You may now interfere in his love life if you choose to, the request was made of mortal free-will.” Sol winked and Mane stood.

“Now is not the time. But when that time does come, if he hesitates I will at least be able to guide him with advice.”

“Will you show me his chosen? I am curious.” Sol asked and Mane nodded turned and vanished. Sol followed and together they reappeared by a carriage making it’s way to the temple and was preparing to stop at an inn for the night.

A youth of about twelve with blond hair which was wild and free and hung in snarls over his frightened and defiant green eyes was manhandled out of the carriage by what was obviously his father and told sternly to wait.

“This is he?” Sol asked eyeing the boy up and down. “He’d be quite beautiful if they cleaned him up a bit.” The boy was fey of build almost to the point of being a waif of a boy. His demeanor was simultaneously shy, terrified and angry.

“Aye. He’s the son of that foul Lord there shouting at the driver. The boy was born mute and has only been kept at home until his mother bore another son. That son has been born and now that they no longer need him as an heir his father is taking him to the temples. He’s been abused greatly; he has never known the hand of kindness even if he is perhaps the most gentle of children himself. I’ve seen him tend a broken wing of a lark he found in the garden with such gentle fingers he looked like mother looks when she is making a new creation.”

Sol nodded watching the boy stand silently off to the side of the road. “He looks wild.”

“He is, he will find it very difficult to fit into the order. He has been left alone most of his life, so getting along with others will be difficult, especially since he has no way to communicate his needs. He cannot speak, he cannot read, he cannot write. He will feel utterly alone and lost.”

“Poor boy. I know the Father a little; he used to worship me, now he does so as a token on holidays. He is a nasty mortal, beats his wife, adulterous and murderous. Our Father has a very ‘special’ place for the likes of him.”

“I know, He almost killed young Praduc there as a child when they discovered he couldn’t speak. He was barely a babe out of arms then and they’ve treated him like a simpleton ever since. He is nothing of the sort.”

“Mortals often confuse being mute with also being dumb.” Sol said with resignation, once again hating the fact he couldn’t physically knock some sense into the mortals he protected.

“Far too often. He is coming into learning late in life, but once he discovers the brotherhood encourages learning he will take to it well.”

“Your Gallus is a fine teacher. I can see now the path of these two. Praduc is too young right now; at this stage in a mortal life this is a large age difference. Gallus is newly man, this child hasn’t even hit puberty yet.”

“Aye, the friendship will be built first. Which is the best of foundations. Gallus will be the brother he needs right now he must understand caring first before he will understand the deeper emotions he is capable of.” Mane said as they watched the father grab the boy by the scruff of his tunic collar and drag him inside the inn stumbling. Sol growled.

“Filthy pig. I wish Father would let us give men like that a taste of their own medicine.”

“Father holds that right and he can do things that neither you or I could imagine as punishment. I would not want to be that mortal for all the world.” Mane said and Sol chuckled.

“Aye, Father is quite creative at times.” Sol said as both Gods returned to where Gallus had cried himself to sleep under his favorite tree by the lake.

Sol reached down and patted his hair. “Handsome brute, I am sorry you suffer.” Sol said looking up at his brother.

“Not for long.” Mane said as he moved to cradle Gallus’ head in his lap to keep him warm and protected.

“Fair the Day my brother.” Sol said as the sun slowly broke the horizon.

“Fair the Day my brother.” Mane replied in kind as Sol returned to his temple and Mane stayed by Gallus’ side to offer comfort to a saddened soul and protect his favorite young novice from being foolish with his health and falling asleep in the cold moist air of the lake.