It's Our Secret
The goddess Yune's army had been moving for a while, and they were now sitting down to eat and rest for a while. Micaiah sat washing her hands in the nearby river, carelessly forgetting about the brand on her hand. She was interrupted from her trance by a familiar voice: "Micaiah, do you have any tomes you don't need? With us fighting Ashera and all, I figured we should create some custom equipment." Ike asked her. Micaiah nodded absently and pointed, with her branded hand, towards her bag. It was then that she realized she had just shown him her brand. Micaiah sat frozen in panic, feeling the fear grow when the general stopped rummaging through her bag and approached her. Both stood silent for a while, with the silence eventually broken by Ike: "It's our secret," he said as he looked at the brand. "Thank you, General. I just wish it didn't have to be one…" Micaiah said, on the verge of tears. The next instant, the girl found herself in the general's strong arms, sobbing into his shoulder. "It's OK, Micaiah…It's OK…" Ike knew that was a pathetic attempt at comforting her, but he had tried his best. He suddenly noticed that Micaiah was staring at him with a mix of misery and bewilderment in her eyes. "Uh…what are you looking at…?" "General…I mean Ike…how can you sit with me like this, knowing about my brand?" Micaiah never got a verbal answer from him, but the feel of his lips against her own answered her question without one.