"What are my options, then?"
He'd thought about this for hours while she slept. Had turned it over from every angle, examined every path forward, weighed every risk.
"You could try to return to Valdara. Slip back across the border, find your way to... somewhere. But the contract would follow you. You would spend your life running, hiding, waiting for the day someone recognized you and turned you in for the reward."
She shook her head. "What else?"
"You could come with me." He said it simply, without pressure. Facts, not persuasion. "Deeper into the Iron Wilds. Into Mountain Clan territory. And once you're there..."
He paused, choosing his next words carefully.
"There are procedures. Ways for humans to seek sanctuary among the clans. If you claim protection under Mountain Clanlaw, your human contract becomes meaningless. You would be free. Truly free, in a way that running could never make you."
She stared at him. "And what would I owe for that protection?"
"Nothing."
Her brow furrowed. "That can't be right. There's always a price. There's always—"
"Among humans, perhaps." He held her gaze steadily. "But the clans do not trade in people. You would owe nothing. You would be a guest under Mountain Clan protection, free to stay or leave as you chose."
"Stay or leave," she repeated slowly. "You mean... I could leave? After?"
The question cut deeper than it should have. He kept his voice even with effort.
"If you wished. Once the sanctuary is formalized, you would be under no obligation to remain. You could travel to other clan territories, seek work in the trading posts, even—" He forced the words out. "Even return to the human kingdoms, if that was what you wanted. The sanctuary would void your contract. You would be free."
Free to leave me, he didn't say.Free to walk away from everything I'm offering and never look back.
She was quiet as her eyes searched his face.
"What doyouwant?" she asked finally.
The question caught him off guard. "That is not—"
"It matters to me." Her voice was quiet but firm.
"Iwant you to be safe." The words came out raw. "I want you to be free. I want—" He stopped. Started again. "I want you to stay. Not because you owe me, not because you have nowhere else to go. I want you to choose me, knowing you could choose anything else."
His hands had curled into fists against his thighs. He made himself relax them, though the effort cost him.
"But I will not let what I want influence what you need. If leaving serves you better, I will help you leave. I will carve a path through anyone who tries to stop you, and I will watch you walk away, and I will be grateful for every moment I had with you."
The silence stretched between them.
Then Delia did something he hadn't expected: she laughed. A small, broken sound, but real. Almost wondering.
"You're impossible," she said. "Do you know that? You're completely impossible."
"I have been told this before."
"You just—" She shook her head. "You just offered to help me leave you. After everything. After—" Her voice caught. "After this morning. You would actually just let me go?"
"What you need matters more than what I want."
"That's—" She pressed her hands to her face, and when she lowered them, her eyes were bright. "That's the first time anyone has ever said that to me. The first time anyone has put what I need above what they want."
Ralvar didn't know what to say. The words felt too big for the space between them.
