The Bond Endures

I awoke before the sun in full crown when the sky still flushed shyly, heart still roaring from the night's succession of ordeals. The air was cool and deeply scented, of pine and fresh dew, of dew on every blade of grass. Kael was lying next to me on the cold stone slab of the Veilwood temple altar, covered in my cloak as protection against the chill, his chest rising and falling with a gentle rhythm of calm, steady breaths. He slept for the first time in months and there were no dreams, no long hours of restlessness and tremors. Sleep that was honest and free of nightmares.