Kagerus had never stopped charming her wife. But flirtatious as her words are, Solace never doubts the sincerity of them. The twin foals shift under their mother's touch and Sol gives a small, involuntary gasp. They were getting big, and they hadn't returned to Tephra a moment too soon. "It will be a good place for Iridian and Indius to grow up," she adds, feeling the familiar twinge of excitement as she speaks the names of her children-to-be.
Thoughts of lazy days playing along their beach with them, and maybe teaching one or both to fly, preoccupied her mind. These were the little milestones she had missed with her last two - when sickness and war had been pulling her apart. But Solace doesn't let herself dwell on her past now, she lets the sounds and scents of her birthplace wash over her, a reassuring reminder that it is no longer that time.
But her attention is captured quite suddenly, and her head turns to search for what she can hardly believe she has seen.
A flash of gold, the scent of wildflowers, mountains, and something darker, but still familiar.
Her heart skips a beat.
Svedka had always been a mystery to her, a riddle she would turn over in her mind for a lifetime. While he could decipher her every look and mood, she was always left wondering where he would go and what he would do next. There had been times when others called her cold or aloof - when there had been the weight of a kingdom on her golden shoulders - but he had always seen past that. Or maybe, he had never seen it at al.
But there are many more reasons than that which make her love him. No, that list would outnumber the stars.
He places himself between them and Solace is left speechless. Her cerulean eyes take him in and she can hardly believe she isn't dreaming. But she was too familiar with the world of dreams to truly doubt him. And even her mind, with its immaculate memory of her twin, could not render him is such perfection.
Where have you been
The words rush forward and almost slip off her tongue, but she does not want to make demands or accusations. This was the way it had always been, he was wild and she was steady. She would always worry for him, and he would always come back home eventually - it was all she knew to do, all she could do, to rejoice and love him wholly when she could.
So she does not ask the question that had kept her up for so many nights. She will never tell him the way she mourned his absence in the early days of the plague. But those nights are washed away, like blood in the tide as he hums into her skin.
She is happy.
"Oh, Svedka, you are still as wild as the wind, I see." She chides him with a laugh, returning his affection heartily. "Be we have only just come back, is it the same for you?"
we are the ever-living ghost of what once was
