Rygnar
Earth’s air was thinner than Mesaarka’s. Colder. Cleaner after the storm. I had once stood beneath these stars as a conqueror.
Now I stood beneath them as something else.
“It was not an ending,” I told her. “It was a declaration.”
My people had watched. Judged. Accepted.
Not on Mesaarka soil.
On Earth.
That mattered.
She had not flinched.
When the blade touched her skin, she did not hesitate.
She chose. She chose me.
Lina
“I didn’t realize,” I admitted, glancing at him, “that returning the mark meant so much.”
His gaze shifted to the horizon where forest met night.
“It meant everything.”
A slow warmth spread through me.
“That first night,” I said, “when you brushed your cheek against mine… I thought it was just instinct.”
“It was,” he said.
I smiled. “And now?”
“Now it is a vow.”
Rygnar
She reached for my hand. I closed my fingers around hers.
“When you pressed your palm to mine tonight,” I said, “every Mesaarkan there understood what you were declaring.”
She tilted her head. “And what was that?”
“That you stand beside me. On this world. By choice.”
Earth wind moved through the pines below. Not Mesaarkan mineral plains. Not imperial territory.
Reclaimed ground.
Ours.
Lina
Below us, I caught sight of Kareth Vorn crossing the courtyard. She did not look up.
