Episode 101
All of You
Rominy stares at the blue and gold rope coiling between Tharios and Viala.
Then it vanishes again.
Questions fill Rominy, but he’s too drained to put words to any of them.
“Are you both all right?” Arisanna asks in quiet Elvish. Rominy understood that.
Viala sighs before responding, but Rominy only picks out parts of her Elvish words. She’s all right, and she misses home? More words about magic?
“We’ll visit soon,” Tharios promises with other words Rominy can’t quite make out.
Arisanna leans near. “She said she’s fine, but she misses home. Her powers have grown stronger since she last visited New Valderi. Tharios said he’ll take her there after our trip to Celesta once Elowyn is well.”
Rominy whispers his thanks as he looks down at Elowyn again. She slumbers peacefully now. It’s been a while since she last stirred, and he tries not to let the thought unnerve him.
“I believe it’s time to send you back to her,” Tharios says in Nunian. He checks Elowyn, and Rominy does his best to keep his heart steady at the thought of being with her again in the heartlanding.
“My father said he spoke to you?” Tharios says quietly.
Rominy glances at the others before nodding. “He did. Thank you.”
“She’s worked hard today,” Tharios says. “Let her rest if she needs to, all right?”
Rominy clears his throat. “Of course.”
“Whenever you’re ready.”
Arisanna steps away, and Rominy lies back, breathing out slowly as he clings to Elowyn’s hand. “I’m ready.”
“Sleep well, Rominy.” Tharios lays a hand on Rominy’s shoulder, and everything goes dark once more.
When a purplish, moonless night sky full of tiny pinpricks of starlight takes shape as Elowyn blinks open her eyes, she stares at it for a few moments.
This isn’t Feressa. She’s been trying to reach Feressa. And Rominy.
The real world.
But the rocking beneath her and the gentle breeze teasing her hair leave no question about where she is.
The heartlanding.
She bites back a groan.
“Elowyn.”
“I tried. I tried to wake. But I—”
Rominy crawls toward her and wraps his arms around her before she can finish. “You did amazing, love. Tharios said you worked hard today.”
“I tried.”
“I know. And I’m here now, so you can rest, all right?”
She groans.
“I hope that was about the resting and not about me.” He kisses her temple, and she sighs as her lips twitch into a smile.
“Of course it wasn’t about you. I missed you.”
“Well, I missed your smile. And your voice. Your gray eyes. Your kisses. Your sense of adventure. Being alone with you. Everything, really.”
If he’s trying to cheer her up, he’s doing a pretty good job.
“How do you feel?” he asks as he runs his hand along her arm. “Are you tired?”
“Maybe a little.” As much as she hates to admit it.
“Do you want to sleep?”
“No.”
“Then we won’t. At least not yet. But tell me if you get sleepy, all right? Tharios says it’s important for you to rest when you get tired here.”
That sounds like something Tharios would say.
“Elowyn, what does oathbound mean?”
She looks up at Rominy. “Where did you hear that?”
“Cerian said Tharios and Viala are oathbound. She...lit your hotel room on fire. By accident.”
Elowyn’s eyes grow wide. “Please tell me Cerian was there. Or Pera or Grandmera. Mother, even. She could put it out with her water magic. Tharios isn’t—he doesn’t have fire or water magic. He didn’t hurt himself trying to protect her, did he?”
“Tharios is fine, El. Take a deep breath, all right? Cerian was there. He dealt with it.”
Relief fills her, and she curls against Rominy’s chest.
“Tharios showed us the magic threads connecting them. I don’t really understand it. Is it part of a normal elven binding? Or a Lothlesi one?”
“Neither. It’s ancient Lothlesi magic. Tharios...he sacrificed his freedom to save someone’s life.”
“Viala’s?”
“No.” Elowyn buries her face against Rominy’s neck and pushes memories of that day away.
“I didn’t mean to upset you, love. We can talk about something else.”
“He did it to save me. The day they met, I was there. And...he used his magic to bind himself as her protector for life so they would let me go. A life for a life.”
It takes a moment for Rominy to respond. “I am very confused now. I thought we liked Viala.”
His words lighten the tension in Elowyn’s heart, and she almost laughs. “We do. But we didn’t know that at the time. There was some confusion about whether I was being invited to New Valderi or kidnapped. It’s difficult to explain.”
“I see.” He pauses for a moment. “Actually, I don’t, but I’ll take your word for it.”
“The Lothlesi are wary of humans. I don’t know why. They were concerned about the heartbinding. But Tharios played the hero, sacrificed himself, binded with the princess, and smoothed hostilities between our people.”
“I sort of did that, too, you know.”
When she looks at him again, he’s grinning.
“Such a sacrifice,” he whispers. “Giving up my freedom to marry the princess and ensure peace between our kingdoms.”
She stares at him for a moment. He’s clearly not serious, but he’s surprisingly lighthearted compared to how downtrodden he was the last time he arrived here.
“Don’t blame yourself for whatever happened that day that I don’t understand,” Rominy adds softly.
“Sometimes, the biggest sacrifice turns out to be the best thing to ever happen to someone. It was for me. And I’ve seen how Tharios looks at Viala.
I’m pretty sure he feels the same way about his sacrifice as I feel about mine.
You are the best thing to ever happen to me, love. And I would choose you every time.”
Whistling wind. Romantic Rominy is making an appearance tonight.
“Do you think when Tharios takes Viala in his arms, he’s regretting what he did?” Rominy murmurs near her ear.
“No. He...he loves her. Desperately.”
Rominy’s breath is warm on her neck, and her eyes slide shut. What is he doing?
“So why feel guilty about the role the universe let you play in their love story?” His nose nuzzles her ear, and she gasps.
If Rominy keeps doing that, she won’t be thinking about Tharios at all.
“Are you suggesting it was destiny?” she manages. “Destiny that he bound himself to her that day?”
“Some people are destined to be together. It’s written in their hearts and can’t be undone or pushed aside. It can only be embraced, wholly and completely.”
When he presses his lips to her ear, she whimpers.
“Rominy—”
“Wholly and completely, love. A force too powerful to deny, at least for long.”
Her fire magic prods at her, heat spreading deep within.
“We aren’t talking about Tharios anymore, are we?” she asks on hitched breaths.
His lips brush against the tip of her ear. “I want you, Elowyn. All of you.”
“Rominy.” Her fire magic blazes to life.
“Are you tired, love?” He pulls back to look into her eyes, and the heat in his gaze makes her heart race. “Too tired to stop waiting to live?”
If she was tired before, she isn’t now. Not when he looks at her like that. But...her fire magic. It’s already threatening to consume her.
“No, but we c—”
“Can, love. We can.”
She can barely breathe as his words settle into her heart. “Tharios—”
“Yes.”
A choked sob catches in her throat. “No more waiting?”
“No, love. No more waiting. Not tonight. But you have to promise me something.”
“What?”
“That you will tell me if you get tired and need to sleep.”
She hesitates longer than she probably should. “I promise.”
“I’d question your sincerity, except you can’t lie to me.” There’s amusement in his eyes, along with the smoldering heat.
“I will. I give you my word.”
“I believe you.” He leans toward her until their lips briefly meet. “Shall I romance you? Make your heart race, love?”
Before she can respond, the world transforms around them, and she gasps.
They’re no longer on the sea or a tropical beach. It’s much cooler, and snowflakes fall gently from the sky.
“Rominy,” she breathes as she stands and turns in a circle, taking in the winter wonderland surrounding them.
“Are you warm enough, love?”
When she turns back to him, he smiles over the guitar he holds, and her heart tumbles over itself at the happiness in his eyes as he coaxes a new song from the gorgeous instrument. It’s a gentle melody he plucks from the strings.
“What’s this song called?” she asks.
“I haven’t decided yet. I thought perhaps ‘Elowyn’ or ‘The Other Half of My Heart.’”
“You wrote a song for me?”
“My heart feels music whenever I look at you. I’m just letting it out.”
Her emotions hover near the surface, threatening to prickle her eyes and lodge in her throat.
“I’ll have to write words to go with it someday,” he says. “Sing it to you when you’re sad. When you can’t sleep. I hope you want a life full of music, love. You’ve awakened something in me I can’t seem to put back in its box.”
She can’t even begin to find words to respond to any of that, so she lets his melody wash over her instead as she closes her eyes and twirls in the wintry scene. Tiny frozen pinpricks of snow cool her skin as they fall, tempering her heat a little.
She’ll need more than snow to get through tonight, but it’s enough for now.
When the strumming of the guitar changes to the notes of a piano, she opens her eyes to Rominy smiling at her over that glossy behemoth.
Then he stands, but the music magically keeps playing without him there to press the keys.
He approaches her, never taking his eyes off hers, and holds out his hand. “May I have this dance, love?”
“You have me swooning again, Rominy,” she whispers as he folds her into his arms.
“Good. You’re getting warm, love. Are you managing?”
“For now.”
“I’m a little chilled myself, so I’m just going to keep you here with me.”
Laughter bubbles up inside her, and she gently pushes some of her excess heat into him.
“I’m definitely keeping you here with me,” he says.
And they dance. Gaze into each other’s eyes. Steal the occasional kiss.
Eventually, the music changes, and Elowyn looks up at Rominy. The heat written in his eyes makes it hard to breathe as both their hearts race.
And he kisses her softly as they continue this dance of theirs.
Soon, his hand bracing her lower back pulls her against him as his steps slow to a stop.
She clings to him, her eyes closing to the world around her as he fills her other senses.
His scent, so uniquely human. Masculine.
It’s not full of magic as an elf’s would be.
It’s just full of him. The salty taste of his lips on hers.
His firm hand on her lower back, pressing her against him as she molds to his solid form.
The snow pricks become softer. Warmer.
And the sound of ocean waves joins the melody of his piano.
She opens her eyes, expecting their tropical island, but it’s not a place she’s ever been. A small cottage sits nearby on a pebbled beach as a drizzle turns the twilight gray.
“This is an actual place,” Rominy says. “And someday, I’ll bring you here for real.
So many places you need to see and experience.
No more waiting. And every time I bring you to the cottage by the sea, I want you to remember this night.
The night we stopped waiting for tomorrow.
Give me everything, Elowyn. Every hope. Every fear.
Every frustration. Every joy. Share your deepest secrets.
The parts you share with no one else. I want all of you. ”
There’s no use even trying to hold back the tears threatening to spill from her as she nods in his arms, here on this drizzly beach with his piano playing nearby.
“Will you be mine, Elowyn? Every part of you in every way?”
And she doesn’t answer with words as she finds his lips once more.