Summer (bb636376)

Summer is the season in which Theo begins to inhabit the present after Luc and the Hero’s Party leave Leafel. The garden’s abundance and the long, bright days offer a measure of ease, but they do not erase his longing or the uncertainty of what lies ahead. Instead, summer gives those feelings a quieter shape: Theo stops watching the road obsessively and tries to live while he waits.

Arrival of Summer

Spring gives way to summer as Theo prepares for bed while daylight still lingers outside. In his loft, a shelf made from leftover chair wood holds an antler, hagstone, and shell given to him by Wicker, together with a candle in a brass holder and a potted vine. Theo has made the shelf into an altar to Arriss. He does not pray there; morning and evening, he lights the candle and sits quietly, sometimes letting his thoughts wander and often thinking of Luc. The repeated routine places the season’s lengthening days alongside an intimate, private rhythm.

A Season of Abundance and Routine

Three months have passed since the Hero’s Party left Leafel for the final time when summer is described as being in full swing. Theo’s garden is already yielding a generous harvest, and his frequent trips into the forest to forage give Malthios more time to stretch his wings. The change is not merely in the weather or the plants: Theo feels happier and more content than he can remember, freer because he has stopped making his present depend entirely on what the future might bring.

The season is also visible in Theo’s changing appearance and in the work around him. After a very wet spring, plants are growing vigorously, and he hopes to fill his stores early. In the forest, summer’s heat is held back by the tree branches; Theo has acquired freckles across his shoulders and face, and golden highlights have appeared in his auburn hair. He kneels to scrape moss from a tree with a new harvesting knife when a sudden prickling at the back of his neck warns him to move. The scene turns the season’s ordinary labor into the threshold of danger: the same forest that supplies Theo’s stores becomes the place where the next attack begins.

Waiting, Separation, and the Future

Summer does not end Theo’s separation from Luc. He has stopped checking the road compulsively for the familiar tall figure, and the pain in his chest has dulled to an ache. He holds on to the belief that Luc will be safe and will return, understanding the wait as a test for both of them. His feelings remain intense and unfamiliar; love and desire overwhelm him even as he tries to work out what intimacy would mean for him. The season therefore brings neither a clean recovery nor a settled romance. It lets longing coexist with the garden, the daily work, and a growing ability to value the present.

Beyond this summer interval, the story’s chronology turns toward choices that challenge inherited expectations about the future. Luc’s father’s sapphire-set ring becomes a promise between him and Theo, while Luc later rejects the demand that he continue the Hero’s bloodline and chooses a peaceful life with the man he loves. Those later decisions are not assigned a season here, but they sharpen the meaning of summer’s waiting: time apart does not cancel the bond, and a future need not be dictated by duty or inheritance.