In the instant when Ashera fell, Geoffrey felt as though he let out a breath he'd been holding for months.
In those moments of a dying, azure light, the choking question of can it really be over crashed into reality and made him lightheaded with relief. Among the gathered warriors a cautious jubilation took up, then grew in strength. Fists pumped in the air, cheers vaulting to the soaring ceiling. Mist shrieked and threw her arms about Boyd. Soren exhaled a long sigh, his shoulders sagging out their tension as Ike, injured but whole, sheathed his sword. The mage shoved his way through the crowd, put his hands on the commander as though testing his reality.
But where was Elincia?
A heartbeat's space of alarm, but then he found her. The wings of her pegasus sprouted up out of the pack. He might have gone to her—to tell her how her valor outshone all, to touch her the way Soren had touched Ike, let his hands prove to his eyes that she really was alive and well—but a moat of people surrounded her. Eyes shining with the rush of victory, she held animated conversation with Sanaki, Michaiah, fielded congratulations from Tibarn and Ranulf and everyone within earshot of her.
She dismounted then and waded through the press of bodies, grasping hands with everyone she passed. They parted between she and Ike. A certain gravity between the two of them demanded that respect. They met one another halfway and she took his hands in both of hers like a benediction.
A petty jealousy stirred up inside him, an envy at the months they two had spent together while he made himself sick not knowing if she lived or died. Envy that Ike had served her well and he had not. Had not even had the chance to.
Such base covetousness. He would not nurture such within himself. He turned away to take stock of his own condition, see to his heaving and weary mount and begin the business of putting this place behind them forever. A long trek downward awaited them, a return pilgrimage of dragging their exhausted and wounded bodies back through the entirety of this unnerving tower.
A flurry of white and green blurred at him from the side. Elincia broke from the crowd and ran to him. She leapt into his arms and squeezed his neck so tight she nigh chocked him.
He barely had air to speak, and it didn't matter. Any elegant words he might have said deserted him. Holding her in his arms like that, all he could do was lean in and speak into her ear so she could hear him over the din of voices talking over one another. "Well done."
"Oh Geoffrey, it's over! We did it!'
She pulled back and kissed him on the mouth. His face went hot as she pressed her lips and her body against him. She fairly well paralyzed him with her kiss then laughed and wrapped her arms about him again, holding him close.
He squeezed her back, in a bit of a daze. Defeating a mad goddess warranted some celebration, yes. But this? This moment would live in his heart forever.