Hope is a Lover’s Staff; Walk Hence with That

The hut was modestly sized with a heavily fortified exterior on the outskirts of Base Village. All of the windows were small and held high. They were a welcomed source of light to the rooms within. They also kept the air fresh and moving within the walls keeping out a sense of staleness.

Althea walked into the main room and stared at the only other two doors within the hut. A small woman slightly younger than her stood at the door to her own set of rooms and gestured to the latched room adjacent. She didn't say much, and she kept her eyes down with her head bet forward. Her lighter brown hair covered her face when she did so. Althea couldn't tell if this woman was afraid of her, revered her, or both. The young woman was one of the few people who had volunteered to be taught the art of medicine. Through the exhaustive searches of the Queen's many teams of scouts since the end of the Mist, they still could not find another Healer alive. It truly seemed as if Althea were the last.

Jian moved past Althea then and unlatched the bolted door across from the silent woman. When he opened it, he peered inside before standing still beside it. His eyes still questioned Althea and her decision, but she was certain that this was one last thing she had to do. She passed through the door and gestured for Jian to close it behind her. He agreed to close it, but kept the bolt from locking.

In a cushioned rocking chair along the wall in front of one of the high windows, Althea saw the figure of Durai sitting motionless. She had received reports that he still had not spoken a word or barley even uttered a sound for the three months since being moved here after being as healed as he could be. And since being moved to this house, he automatically complied with the motions of being fed and bathed and other necessities, but only with assistance.

Althea walked gracefully and confidently to face him. She stood before him as he showed no signs of registering her presence. He simply continued to look forward, and when she put herself in his line of sight, he simply looked past her as if she weren't there. She kneeled before him and inspected his physical state. His face remained heavily bandaged across the left side where the burns were worst. The right side of his face still looked the same as it ever had. He was still as handsome as he ever was, but the spark behind his eyes were completely gone.

When she was convinced that he had been well cared for by the young woman outside, she rose from her knees and sat at the end of the bed still facing Durai. Still he looked through her. Wherever he was, it didn't seem to be there.

Althea finally opened her mouth to speak. "Durai, do you remember who I am?" Her question was met with a nothing stare. "Do you remember who you are? What you've done?" There was still nothing from the man in the chair. Althea simply had the smallest flash of a smile grace her lips. It was not the smile of smug superiority, just the smile one has when expectations were met without surprise. The reports of his nearly comatose behavior were not exaggerated. Probably for the best.

After a moment, she leaned forward towards him. The light from the high window seemed to light her from behind. If Durai were any more present, he would have mistaken her for an angel. "Durai, this is the last time you will ever see me. I'm telling you now that I will never again visit you here. The things you've done may be past, and we all may have lived to tell about a happily ever after, but -"

Althea struggled then to find the right words. She wondered if it even mattered, he wasn't hearing her. Or so it seemed. "What you've done, as much as I would love to be able to, I can never forgive. I certainly will never forget. You've made it so, no matter what the outcome may have been that night, that you would always be a part of me. Forever. You've left your mark on me, both physically and mentally. Though I may spend my whole life trying, I may never succeed in being fully at peace again. I may fight every day to keep my body, my mind, and my spirit from responding out of the fear you've put within me or remembering the pain you've instilled in me, but I will fight. In the end, you did not win."

The air between them was both heavy and empty. There was so much that Althea would say, but the empty vessel that sat before her offered no closure. Althea felt frustrated. She even felt a bit angry. She wanted him to own just how monstrous he had been to her. She wanted to see in his eyes the realization of all he had done and hear the words of remorse and regret. In a way, she even wanted to see him in pain. It was no less than he deserved.

And she would never get that. She would live her whole life carrying that emptiness and need alone.

The more she thought about that, however, the more she realized she didn't really need it. She had become something out of myth to conquer this embodiment of evil and malice. She had risen so high from what he had her believing she was for so long. She began to see that whatever she was seeking from this man, whatever she surely would not get, was nothing she truly needed.

She took one final look at his pathetic figure and rose to her feet. "I'm leaving you now with everything you've done. And I will go on. I will live out my life in the love I've found and the people I care for and the light I hold. Where you find yourself, the state you're in now, you will bear it alone."

With a small tap at the door, Jian opened it immediately and hastily. He saw that the scene was unchanged, and he sighed deep in relief. As soon as Althea exited the door, he closed and bolted it securely shut. Althea and Jian exchanged a glance. He nodded and stood at attention. "I will make routine checks on him myself. I promise." Jian took the order on himself. It was his way of honoring his friend. Hemele would have done no less than keep this man from causing harm until he laid cold in the ground. And that's what Jian would do.

She smiled at him and put a hand on his arm. "Thank you."

As she exited the hut, she saw Galen on a horse as he held the reigns of hers. He looked at her apprehensively, but seeing the peace in her face made him smile. She mounted the horse and looked at Galen. "It's over," she said to him with her melodic voice.

Galen spurred his horse, and the two mounts began their trek back up the hill towards the castle. "No, it's not. And it is okay that it's not." Galen said comfortingly. "You'll be dealing with all of this for a long time, and it's ok not to be comfortable with that. It's normal to still feel incompleted by it."

She smiled sweetly at him. "I know. I know this won't be fixed easily. But my final say has been said. I don't ever have to look upon his face again. And that is what is over."

Galen nodded happily that she had done the final act she had wrestled with for so long. They kept their pace all the way to the castle where they were happy to settle together. Galen added to his rooms and claimed them happily as they were next to Althea's. Their bond had grown even stronger and stronger the last three months of healing together. Through every rough day and night terror, he had been there for her. And in his loneliness and fumbling of his new surroundings, she was there for him.

That night they sat on a small hill within the garden watching the stars. The held tightly to each other as the air began to get cooler. Even with Durai, even on the best days, she had never felt this safe and comfortable. With Durai, she had always had a thrilling sense of newness as if each moment pushed a boundary to further intimacy. But in that lies the danger that she didn't know when the flutters in her stomach were from arousal and excitement or the warnings when things became worse. Now, however, though she still felt the exileration of warm, loving affection, it never felt like it did before. And that was a good thing.

Galen turned to her before they decided to go in for the night. He looked longingly into the eyes of his angel. "When I first saw you, you were like a figure I had dreamed up. But even so, I never intended to fall in love with you. I never assumed..."

Althea leaned in and placed her lips upon his cheek. "I know. I know. I never intended to fall in love again period. And maybe, since it happened when we weren't looking for it, it's what was meant to be. Maybe since our desire for it didn't manipulate and force the feelings to happen, that's how we know it is real."

They held each other more tightly then and let the stars shine upon them in the darkness. The dark of night is never the same, each night never like the last and never like the next. But in every dark of night there's light of some kind. Even if the moon and stars were hidden from sight, the light would always be there. No matter what may come to mask the stars, and there would be storms surely, the light is never truly gone. And even if happily ever after was a dream chased by children, sometimes it lives in a moment, if only just a moment, and it's worth the pain to reach it.