For Hanna.

Because Lyretria are the best. And "Maybe someday we will be together. Just not yet" isn't what they deserve.

Happy Birthday!

The rover and the queen

Chapter 1: Building a life

Set after season two. But Will is alive and safe and Eretria stayed with Lyria who is now the very young Queen of Leah.

Nearly a year had passed since the warlock lord had been defeated and peace had come over the four lands. It wasn't a perfect peace and it probably would never be but at least the wars were over for now and even the hate and prejudice between the races seemed to lessen. There were still humans who despised anything magical and elves looking down at all humans and half-elves. But there had definitely started a change and this was mostly due to the new king and queens of Arborlon and Leah.

After their victory Will had to recover from his injuries and the considerable blood loss. So he and Mareth stayed in Leah until he was able to travel. Mareth would barely move from his side the whole time not minding Eretria's frequent comments about disgustingly sweet lovebirds or similar one bit.

After a few weeks the couple started their journey to Arborlon where they took their rightful places as new king and queen of the elven kingdom. The elven folk wasn't exactly thrilled when a half-human and a half-druid took over the throne but most of them could be appeased either with the explanation that they were in fact the conjunction of the linages of Shannaras and Elessedils or with both their history of saving the Four Lands and Will's connection to the former princess Amberle.

In the end they turned out to be good and wise rulers who collected a group of respectable counsels and made decisions in the interest of the nation and over time most elves decided that the right intentions and actions were more important than the length of their ears.

Meanwhile Lyria was openly accepted as Queen of Leah as soon as she took a seat on the throne. Not so Eretria in her role as significant other of the queen. Not only that she was the proof of the rumors that their former princess now queen was more interested in women than men and apparently had no intention to change that just because she was a queen now. Out of all the women it had to be a rover - some girl who had spent her life running around in the forests and robbing innocent travelers.

The fact that Eretria herself didn't show any interest in a least trying to act like the official girlfriend and as good as fiancée of a queen didn't make anything better or easier to handle for Lyria. She had barely managed to convince her girlfriend to stay in Leah instead of running off into the woods again. Of course she understand her feelings of guilt and her fears of hurting someone after all that happened to her. But Lyria didn't blame her for anything and she was sure it wouldn't happen again after the warlock lord was defeated so she just threatened her to lock her up in the palace if she ever tried to sneak out again.

Day for day Lyria looked for ways to show Eretria how much she meant to her, that she didn't have to feel guilty, that she wasn't evil. It took nearly a month until the rover would let her sleep in the same room and when she did it wasn't really a planned decision either. Lyria had given her a room opposite to hers. One night she was woken up by loud screams. As she realized where they came from she rushed into Eretria's room immediately fearing some sort of attack. But her girlfriend was alone. She lay in her bed eyes still closed but rolling around, kicking, lashing about and screaming out: "No, Lyria! NO! NO! I can't… no! Will! Amberle! No! LYRIA! NO!"

Lyria rushed to the bed and grabbed her. She woke her up and held her as close as she could whispering into her ear until the screaming subsided to a quiet sobbing and Eretria finally calmed down. Just as Lyria thought her girlfriend had fallen asleep in her arms once again the rover quietly began to speak.

"They come every night. Bu…but tonight it was… worse. You, Will, Amberle, even Mareth… you were all… I … I did… I was… All of you were… and I had done.."

"Shhhh… it's okay. You don't have to say it," Lyria interrupts her, "it was just a dream. We are alive."

Eretria's grip on her arm tightened and she started crying again. Lyria had never seen her so open and vulnerable. It took her nearly an hour to calm her down and the last thing Eretria whispered before finally falling back asleep was: "Don't leave me."

After that night, Lyria convinced her to spend the nights together again. Eretria was not the only one with nightmares and they became far more bearable for both of them when they found comfort in each other during the nights.

Lyria learned that being evil wasn't the rovers only fear but that another equally great one had build up inside her for many years – the fear of being weak – or even worse – showing any kind of weakness.

So Lyria tried to show her that sharing her fears weren't something bad and told her how brave she was to face those fears and admit them if only to Lyria until Eretria started to believe her. Some nights they talked for hours sharing stories about their pasts, tearing down each other's walls brick for brick. And even though most of this nights ended with them both crying and sobbing while just holding each other as close as possible they were also more prove of their love than any sweet kisses or happy snuggling could ever be.

While their relationship became more and more serious Eretria had jet to find her place in this new 'living-in-a-palace-and-being-the-almost-fiancée-of-the-queen' life. As long as Will and Mareth had stayed in the palace she had spend lots of time with them but after their departure she didn't really know what to occupy herself with most days. Lyria was busy with her royal duties especially after all that had happened prior to her coronation. She offered Eretria to join her meetings either as a official council or just to accompany her more than once. But even if Eretria fully understood that her girlfriend had many responsibilities now and was very proud how well she handled it she had never been interested in going into politics herself. It wasn't a lack of ambition or ideas for improvement that stopped her, but her dislike of appearing in public and attracting attention. She had no choice than to stand the attention she now got as Lyria's girlfriend but why add fuel to the flames by acting like she wanted to rule over people that did already mistrust her?

So she spend her days wandering the grounds while trying to prevent meeting too many people and only sort of befriended some stable-lads because none of them threw weird looks at her clothes and boots or the knives she refused to ever leave in her room and were pleased whenever she decided to help because she didn't have to do anything better and she enjoyed the company of the horses.

In the evenings they met in Lyria's bedroom. (Lyria referred to it as 'their room' right from the beginning but it took some time until Eretria could accept that phrase.) The servants had a strict order not to interrupt them as long as the two of them were in there together and didn't call for them. Sometimes they were even able to eat dinner there just the two of them talking the whole time about their respective days or just enjoying their shared time quietly. After dinner they occasionally took a bath and then went to bed together. The evenings where their time when they could touch and kiss each other as long and as often as they wanted without being interrupted or getting disapproving looks and making up for the daytime when they sometimes rarely saw each other.

Of course Lyria still knew her girlfriend wasn't truly happy even when she seldom complained about it. But she couldn't think of an idea to change this until about two and a half month after Will and Mareth had left Jax returned to Leah. He had found it entertaining to sneak into the palace and then brag about how none of Lyria's guards had noticed him. It wasn't until he added that Eretria alone would probably be more useful as a look-out than ten of her guys that she knew exactly how Eretria could entertain herself during the queens official meetings and at the same time do something very useful.

"You want me to do what?" Eretria couldn't believe what Lyria was suggesting.

"Train my guard."

"But… why? And how? I'm not even a member of the guard myself. They were officially trained and have their chain of command and all sorts of rules and regulations I have no idea about. All my skills either come from teaching myself or from guys like Cephelo and…"

"…and you can't deny that they surpass the skills of my guard several times over."

At this Eretria has to grin.

"Well you are right with that. Sometimes I wonder if they are only deaf or also blind. If your threat about locking me up if I steal away again is still on I wouldn't rely on them to warn you in time to catch me if I were you. Oh and neither would I send them to follow me. With the noise they are making I would hear them three miles off."

"And that's exactly why I want you to train them. Tell them what Cephelo told you. Show them how you learnt to move so soundless."

"You want me to abandon each of them alone in troll territory after telling them if they were not alive and exactly on the same spot when I would come back one week later they were not worth living at all?"

"Well… maybe you could start with some less drastic lessons. But if you announce one week in troll territory as final exam they will probably follow your instructions very attentively." Lyria had to smile a bit herself before she quickly added: "And this is definitely not a promise that something like this could become an official or unofficial exam for the guard members."

And that's how a rover became the official Instructor of the Guard of Leah. It didn't take long until she was in equal measure admired and feared by every member of the Guard and all those who wanted to become one. Her methods may have been more than unusual but they were also without doubt effective and she had to admit that it was a great fun to teach her eager students be allowed to give those a piece of her mind who didn't bother to listen to her at first and once in a while show the ones up that were a bit too full of themselves for Eretria's liking.

When Jax tried to sneak back in again half a year later he was caught by two of the newest members of the Guard and handcuffed and disarmed before the Instructor of the Guard herself escorted him to the throne room. Her gleeful grin was mirrored in the queen's face as soon as she recognized whom exactly her girlfriend was bringing in.

Eretria was finally happy about who she was. She was proud of what she did during the day. She was glad about the fact that most people finally accepted and respected her when she took her place next to the queen at the recurring official dinners in the evening. And above all else she was infinitely thankful for the loving girlfriend who awaited her at night to listen to her complaints about totally incompetent guard trainees and in return asked about her thoughts on the latest political problems and developments in the kingdom. They would lay down together sharing sweet kisses and whisper sweet nothings into each other's ears until they both drifted to sleep. The nightmares decreased over time but whenever they came back to one of them the other would be there to comfort her and bring her back to reality where they had each other and therefore all they could wish for. And then they would fall back asleep knowing that the other one would still be there when they woke up the next morning to face a new day as Queen of Leah and Instructor of the Guard of Leah. Together.

Notes: This will be a story in seven chapters. I'll try to update one chapter everyday for the next week - but no promises :)