“I’m not. I’ve never said anything to you I don’t mean.” His voice was soft and soothing. The warmth of his hands was melting into her, soothing her trembles. In moments like this, Vi forgot his corporeal form was halfway across the world.
“Don’t abandon me on this journey,” Vi whispered. “If I’m to walk out that door today and put on my bravest of faces, it will be because I know you will be with me.”Was that true?Vi hardly had time to think before the words were out. She certainly hadn’t planned on saying anything of the like.
“I will be with you until the end of time.” The words illuminated her brighter than the glyph slowly rotating around her wrist. They were said in the common tongue, but they were three times as powerful as any of the words of Yargen.
“Do you mean it?” she breathed.
“So much it frightens me…” The sentence trailed off. Vi could feel that there was more unsaid. More that he thought but couldn’t bring himself to say.
Or perhaps she was merely imposing her own feelings onto him.
“Taavin, I—”
There was a knock on the door. She looked to it, and then back to him. There was a brief, pained expression on his face. She didn't want to let him go yet. There was more to say. But she didn’t quite know what, yet. And that meant it couldn’t be said now.
His expression softened and, as if reading her mind, Taavin gave a small nod.
“Come in,” Vi called, pocketing the key and releasing the glyph that brought Taavin into her world.
The door opened and Ellene poked her nose in. Her eyes were already red and shining. Vi swallowed hard, forcing her own not to match.
“How weird…” Ellene murmured, looking at the empty bed. Her eyes swept across the room. “I always thought you didn’t have very much by way of personal items… but now I realize there was a lot more than I ever noticed because it feels so empty in here now.”
Vi couldn’t argue. She felt it too. Her presence had already been scrubbed from these chambers.
“Sit with me?” Vi directed the young woman’s attention to where Taavin had just been.
Ellene wasted no time. In one fluid movement she crossed the room, sat on the other edge of the ledge, and scooped up Vi’s hands in a bone-crushing grip—a grip Vi was certain she returned. “I will come to you the first moment I can. Even if it’s in winter.”
Vi was forced to look away. Her gut twisted. There would be no chance to visit, in winter or otherwise, and Ellene would find out that fact through the words of someone else. Her secrecy would betray their friendship and all the trust Ellene had ever placed in her.
Yet a secret her plans must remain. She couldn’t risk it. So, instead, when words weren’t enough, actions would shine far brighter.
She pulled Ellene’s hands toward her, and with them the girl herself. Vi loosened her grip in time to catch her before they both tumbled out the window. Ellene’s arms were around her waist, Vi’s around her shoulders. Her dark corkscrew hair tickled Vi’s nose.
“I will miss you more than you know,” Vi whispered.
“And I you.” Ellene’s words were muffled, spoken into Vi’s chest. “Mother told me that I must be strong. She told me not to be sad, because your fate is far greater than even ours.”
Vi squeezed her tighter, closing her eyes. Despite everything she had just said to Taavin, despite her resolve, despite her lifelong dream to be reunited with her family… some small part of her wished to stay. What would her life have been like if she could run the jungles with Ellene for the rest of her days? She could settle with a kind and handsome man like Darrus, and they would live comfortably.
There was happiness she could stumble on, here.
Slowly, Vi’s eyes opened, turning toward the brutal dawn. The statement brought another brief wondering. How much did Sehra know? How much of her fate had the mysterious traveler revealed? Had she always somehow known Vi was the Champion?
It didn’t matter much now, she supposed.
“We will write our own fate,” she whispered. That was why she must leave—to stop the White Death and do what she could to prevent the end of the world she’d witnessed. Her visions were still malleable. “In a few years’ time, Ellene… your mother will teach you about the magic of Yargen.”
“Yargen’s magic?” Ellene straightened, rubbing her eyes. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“It’s hard to explain now.” Vi gave her a tired smile. “But when that time comes, ask your mother about people who could read them.”
“Read…them?”
“Yes. It’ll make sense to both you and her then, I promise.” Vi rested a hand on her friend’s shoulder.
“I don’t understand.”
