Midas definitely takes after his namesake. He is a jealous lover, an impatient friend, and motivated by greed and pretty trinkets. He had been possessive of Aria – to the extent where she had apparently felt the need not only to leave the harbor – but to leave him as well. Midas still remembers the day as though it was yesterday. He had stood up on the sand dunes and watched Aria and their daughter, Asteria, swim away in the fading light. She had thought he hadn’t seen – but he had. What Midas didn’t know was that as he waded into the water later, there was another who watched his moves with the same intensity, Sylvia. However, the past is the past – Sylvia need never feel jealous of Aria. For though Midas and Aria had a passionate love story – it was not enduring, it was not a story fated for a happy ending, and it wasn’t all it seemed to others who may have looked on from the outside.

It was without a doubt, over.

This is the beginning of Midas’s future. He has let go of Aria and Tarrant, he has accepted that he is not a good person, and that he can never be the great king he had imagined as a boy and tried for as a young stallion. He was not that guy. He has learned from the mistakes of the past and he will move forward with the new knowledge he has gained from his first homeland. He was stupid enough once to chase after Aria and leave the devotion and love Sylvia had for him behind and he will not be so foolish again. He will try not to force himself on Sylvia the way he did Aria. He will let her live her life, but he will always be near – he loves her too much not to be. He will worry when she is not in his eyes, and he will think about her when he cannot see her. Even if she does not live by his side, he will watch over her – like a guardian angel, he will always be there.

This he knows, but will leave unsaid, unable to burden the mare with any feelings of obligation or worry.

Sylvia’s anger brings him out of his thoughts. Her face and body are as angry as Midas has ever seen the soft-spoken mare get. He has done this to her – he has turned her into this. It is then Midas is struck with epiphany - he should let her go, no, he must let her go. Just the thought twists his stomach into knots, but he knows it is right. He will be noble one more time, one more time for her he will do the right thing, the selfless thing, and set her free.

She speaks again – more words crumbling his wall like fire from a cannon. How he had wanted to hear her devotion – how he had imagined she had waited for him for all this time and hoped beyond hope that they would be reunited. And here she is, his pearl, confirming his dreams. She was the mare Midas had known so long ago but had failed to see her love for him; he could see it now plain and clear. His heart beats hard in his chest and his mouth feels dry. He feels hot even though the night wind is attacking him in every direction. Midas’s hair flies in every which direction as he gingerly steps forward closing the gap between them. ”I’m so sorry Sylvia, I’m so sorry.” He chokes out as he wraps his neck around hers and buries his head into her long locks. His heart melts against her beating one. “I’ve dreamed of this moment for so long, I’ve imagined you’d waited for me, but hoped you wouldn’t. Sylvia, μαργαριτάρι μου, please know what I say next, I mean with all my heart…I love you, I think I always have.” He waits, the silence and darkness wrapping him in a blanket of solitude.

He pulls his head away and brings his temples to rest on her forehead, his orbs still tightly sealed. He breathes out loudly, bracing himself for the goodbye that he wishes doesn’t have to come, ”Which is why - ” He falters in a shaking voice, barely holding back tears that threaten to come at any moment. He clears his throat and tries to start again, ”Which is why I think you should move on, you deserve better, you deserve someone who’s whole, and good, and wonderful.” He pulls back to stare into her eyes, managing a feigned grin through his tortured face, his eyes are no longer hidden by a stony expression, instead they are overwhelmed with love, fear, and sadness. ”You deserve someone who can make you happy, you’re future here is only misery.”

He gestures wildly around with his head to the rocks and the towering spires that slowly disappear in shadows. ”This is not the Harbor, the sun doesn’t shine here, it doesn’t have miles of sandy beach to tell us all it will be okay when the storm passes. We cannot erase the past, or our mistakes, or our failures, the storm has hurt us too much, things can never be the same, we can’t just start over!” He snorts in disdain. This is not the life he wanted – for either of them. He wheels around, willing his strong legs to take him away though every step feels like he’s being weighted down by lead chains. The tears start flowing down his cheeks and falling against the cold surface of the rocks, ”And this future of mine, is something I cannot ask you to share.” He says with his back turned and his heart dying. He cannot look back, he cannot see her face.

Tears start to mix with rain as slowly the heavens begin to open and the first rain showers of winter fall upon Atlantis.