Episode 104
Immortal Flame
“Will you speak to me?” Tharios asks quietly as Viala stares straight ahead on their walk along the outskirts of Feressa. “Please.”
She says nothing, and he turns her toward him, lifting her chin until those blue eyes of hers meet his gaze.
“Not for a moment do I regret the promises I made to you,” he says softly. “Not the day we met. Not the day of our Lothlesi binding. And not the day of our elven one. I regret nothing.”
Her lip quivers, and she slides her eyes closed.
“You have enough to deal with right now. You should be in there with Elowyn. Not out here trying to comfort me because I did something stupid with my magic. The last thing you need right now is me lighting the hotel on fire. If Cerian hadn’t been there—”
“But he was there. And I am exactly where I wish to be right now. By your side.”
She blinks a few times as she looks up at him before glancing away. She’s attempting to hold back tears. He knows her well enough to tell after three years of being bound.
“When we return to New Valderi”—she lets out a slow breath before meeting his eyes again—“I plan to ask my father to bind my magic completely.”
He frowns. “What?”
“Perhaps Peravyn was right. It’s not...safe...for me to have this much power so young. And without the proper training—”
“No, Viala. No. Your brother is wrong. We just need to focus more on your training. And we will. As soon as—”
“I am terrified, Tharios. Terrified that one stray thought will burn down Windhaven. Or hurt you or someone we love. We still can’t even”—she glances around and lowers her voice—“we can’t be together without you extinguishing my magic first. I am dangerous.”
“You just need more practice, and I need to guard your magic better. And we’ll get through this together with your magic intact. Forget Celesta. As soon as Elowyn is well, I’ll take you home. Spend a decade in New Valderi if that’s what it takes. But don’t sacrifice your magic, Viala. Please.”
They stare at each other, both their chests heaving, until Viala looks away.
“At least extinguish it until we return to Lostariel so I don’t accidentally undo everything your family is trying to accomplish here,” she whispers.
Tharios works his jaw. Taking her powers, even temporarily, feels wrong. That’s why he rarely does it outside their bed. It’s like extinguishing part of her essence. Her deepest self.
“Please, Tharios.” There’s desperation in her voice, and he sighs.
“I’ll be more careful. Watch you more closely. I—”
“You can’t be everything to everyone all the time. You are only one elf.”
“You are the most important person in my world,” he whispers.
“But Elowyn needs you right now. Your full attention. You need to focus on that. Extinguish my magic for now. Please.”
The anguish in her eyes nearly undoes him. How can he refuse her when her gaze pierces his heart like that?
He pulls her close again and buries his face in her golden hair. “Fine. I will do it for tonight. I make no promises about tomorrow, though.”
“Thank you.” Her voice is small, almost a whimper, as she relaxes against him.
And despite his reticence, he reaches across the space between them with his air and life magic and pulls on the faint threads of Lothlesi power he inherited from his mother that entwine with the elven magic flowing through his veins. “This feels wrong, Viala.”
“It isn’t. It’s the Lothlesi way of keeping our powers in check. You know that. Do this for me so I may rest easy knowing my magic is not one more burden on you while we’re here.”
Her magic grows stronger every month. He feels it every time he reaches for her immortal flame, that glorious source of life and magic so unique to every Lothlesi. That he can access it at all is a twist of fate so incredible that her people barely believed it was possible.
She usually just feels like life to him. Pure life without magic choking him the way his sense of elven magic does every time he accesses his powerful life magic.
But when he buries his powers deep within her essence, where her immortal flame resides, he feels everything. It’s such an intimate experience of magic among the Lothlesi, to reach toward another’s immortal flame. Few outside kin or close friends ever sense another’s flame.
Only a binding partner may touch it.
“Are you sure?” he whispers as he holds her flame with threads of his magic.
“Yes, Tharios. Please.”
He lets out a soft breath.
And then, with a twisting swirl of air and life magic, he encircles her flame, cutting it off from the world and extinguishing her powers temporarily.
A slight moan escapes her, and he tightens his arms around her.
“Thank you,” she whispers as she clings to him.
“I think you’ve trained me well,” he teases to distract himself from his frustration that he hasn’t done better by her. That he let it come to this. “Usually when I do that, we’re alone.”
He’s only partially joking. His body seems primed to expect her touch after he closes off her magic.
“Then come with me now, my love, and let me show you how desperately I love you.” She pulls him into a kiss without hesitating, there on the outskirts of Feressa, where anyone might observe them.
“We’re in Nunia,” he whispers against her lips, though he doesn’t pull away.
She stills. Then she puts some space between them and sends him one of her apologetic smiles that always reminds him of an elfling caught stealing sugared fruit from the kitchens. “I would not make a very good human.”
He reaches for her hand and draws her to his chest again as his air magic plays with the hem of her shimmeron skirt. “It’s a good thing you were born a faerie princess.”
“I believe your elven tongue is stumbling over the word Lothlesi again.”
“Is it?” He leans near her rounded ear. “Faerie?”
“This would be more enjoyable inside our hotel room, elf prince.”
With a grin, he wraps his arm around her shoulders and turns back toward the hotel, and she leans her head against him.
“Don’t give up on your magic yet, all right?” he says.
She sighs but doesn’t argue.
Inside their hotel room, she stands at the window, gazing off toward the mountains barely visible in the distance.
“We’ll return soon,” he murmurs near her ear as he slides his arms around her from behind. Thoughts of the first time they did this make him smile.
How they hated each other back then.
Or thought they did.
Now he can’t imagine his life without her here beside him.
Setting the curtains on fire.
Setting him on fire.
Making each other laugh. Grow. Become better versions of themselves.
At least she does that for him.
Hopefully, he does that for her, too. After today, it’s harder to believe.
“I will do better,” he says softly.
She turns in his arms. “Tharios, no. I didn’t mean to make you believe you—”
He presses his finger to her lips. Then he kisses her as his air currents gently swirl around her.
She pulls away to look into his eyes. “You give too much of yourself already, elf prince. I will not demand more of you.”
“Help me replenish my life magic,” he whispers near her ear. “As only you can. We can figure out everything else later.” He speaks in her native tongue the way he always does during their joining so she doesn’t have to think about her words. Elvish doesn’t come easily to her when she’s in his arms.
“What’s it like?” she asks softly. “Doing this with your magic?”
Her question catches him off guard, and he struggles to respond. Surely they’ve talked about this before? Haven’t they? Perhaps they haven’t.
“My air magic...grows eager. It...it’s like a hunger only you can satisfy.
It wants to wrap around you and experience you.
Every part of your flesh. And my life magic.
I can’t...I can’t even describe it. It builds until it’s starving to experience every beat of your heart.
Every breath you take. Every tremble of your flesh against mine.
It magnifies every sensation. But it would be overwhelming if you were an elf.
With you, Viala...you’re just full of life. And—”
She pulls him into a desperate kiss before he can say anything else, and he doesn’t hold back his life magic.
Not with her. Never with her. The sense of elven magic from his family hovers at the edges of his perception, but he ignores it as he always does as he gets drunk on the pure life filling her.
And when he pulls her close later, after every desire is sated, she looks into his eyes, contentment swirling with hints of fear. “I won’t give up on my magic, Tharios. Not yet. Even though it terrifies me.”
He draws her into one more gentle kiss before pressing his forehead to hers. “Don’t give up on me, either. We’re in this together. Always.”
With a tremulous breath, she nods, and he pushes his lingering worries about Elowyn aside.
Tonight, this is where he needs to be. Where he wants to be.
Everything and everyone else can wait.