The next morning, Rhen and Lars left the room, trying to be as quiet as possible. But whilst sneaking through the house, they accidentally entered the dining room, where most of the party was already having breakfast. Elini was just serving some venison when they walked in. She took one look and knew exactly what was going on. Rhen and Lars, in their sleeping clothes, their faces turning completely scarlet, tried to soften the situation.

"Good morning, everyone. John, Marge, Te'ijal, Galahad… Elini." Rhen greeted.

"Good morning, northeners." Said Elini.

Lars took a seat, followed by Rhen, who cautiously sat a few seats further from his. They looked at each other, but quickly ended the eye contact.

"How is your shoulder, Lars?" Elini asked, walking over to his seat and putting meat in his plate.

"Err, it's fine. It will be completely healed in a few hours and I can take this off."

"Same with my leg." Said John.

"By the way, Te'ijal, I never thanked you for last night. I'm sorry for what you had to do for us."

"You're welcome, Lars. I'm not actually mad at you two, it's that little light druid that I need to set straight. Maybe I should've sucked his blood as well." Te'ijal grinned.

"Wife, no." was Galahad's immediate response.

"I was not being serious, husband. That kind of blood might as well be poisonous. It will burn me if I ever even take a drop of it."

"It's good to know you have limits." He said.

Everyone went on to eat in silence. At times, Lars would catch a glimpse of Rhen before setting his eyes back on his plate. The silence was broken with the opening of the dining room door. Dameon entered the room, still frowning.

"Ahh, light magician, how good of you to join us." said Te'ijal.

"I'm a Sun Druid, vampress." He replied, taking a seat next to Rhen. "I need to talk to you, Rhen."

"What, now? It's breakfast."

"It's important."

"I might have forgiven you enough to talk to you, but I will not leave my food for the sake of a conversation with you."

"Fine, I'll wait as long as I have to. Elini, would you pass me some eggs?"

"Here you go, Dameon." She was being friendly, but even he knew that she wouldn't forgive him easily after her potential husband was injured because of him.

Lars didn't like it that Dameon got to sit so close to Rhen. 'Why didn't I just sit next to her?' 'And then everyone would know that you two are way too close all of a sudden.'

'Too close…' He chased the thoughts away.

"Rhen, could you help me in the kitchen? I need to get some tomatoes and mozarella." Elini got up from her seat and urged the girl to come along, leaving Dameon red faced, although, not as much as Rhen.

Once outside of the dining room, Elini hurried her to the kitchen, where they were away for anyone to hear.

"How are you?" the woman's question confused Rhen. She was expecting a lecture on how to behave or how this is not a proper way to start a relationship.

"I'm wonderful, Elini…"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Good. So, are you two together now? Don't take this the wrong way, I've always thought you and Lars were a good combination, but to everyone else it might not be as obvious that you have feelings for eachother. And what happened will possibly come as shocking to them if they ever were to find out."

"Oh… Well, I didn't think everyone would have to find out that soon…"

"Listen, Rhen, it's wonderful that you finally acted on your feelings, just be careful. I've seen the way Dameon looks at you, I'm sure he won't be as happy for you if he figures it out. And by the looks you two give eachother… that might be pretty soon."

Rhen blushed and stuck her eyes to the floor.

"It's completely fine, if you choose not to tell anyone yet. Especially Dameon. I won't forgive him soon about letting my future husband be injured like that."

"What?" the girl raised her head.

"I mean… potential husband, of course."

"Elini are… are you and John getting married?"

The Veldt woman sighed.

"Yes, yes, alright. We've decided to get married. I wanted to go to Thais for the ceremony later this month."

"What happened with you two last night?"

"We talked for the most part. I left the room once to get us a snack, John is always hungry…and I saw the sandwich in the kitchen. Mozzarella? Only Lars eats that. In fact, he's the only reason we buy it. And he can't cook, so I put two and two together. The wonderful thing about this wedding is that now I don't have to use a love potion on John. He just agreed to marry me all by himself." The woman smiled widely.

"I'm very happy for you two."

"As am I for you. Now, we should probably get the food we promised, we've been gone long enough."

The ladies returned shortly to the dining room. Elini, serving sliced tomatoes from a giant plate and Rhen, holding a smaller one, filled with thick mozzarella slices. She headed for Lars' seat and placed it in front of him, secretly rubbing one hand through the back of his head to touch his hair.

"Thanks, Sword Singer."

"No problem, Necromancer." She laughed and then returned to her seat with an angry Dameon right next to her.

"Rhen-"

"What Dameon?"

"Can I please speak to you?"

"Aren't you now? Or do stupid questions not count?"

"Please…"

"Let me finish my breakfast, Sun Druid."

He exhaled heavily.

"Can we talk now?" he asked an hour later, when everyone was heading out to town. Rhen stayed inside the house with him, giving Lars a nod while he was heading out the door.

"What is it?"

"Can you ever forgive me for what I did?"

"You almost let John and Lars die and not to mention, left Te'ijal no choice but to drink goblin blood. Her doing that is just a bit better than drinking blood like yours. How could you do that, Dameon?"

"I'm sorry, Rhen, but I just wanted-"

"Wanted what? For them to die?"

He was silent.

"You… you didn't actually want that, did you?" she asked, but once again, there was no reply. "Did you or did you NOT, Dameon?"

"Yes!" as the word escaped his mouth, Rhen stepped back, frightened. "I wanted Lars to be gone! I didn't expect the vampress and the stupid pirate to be there when it happened!"

"When what happened? W-when they got ambushed?"

"I only wanted what's best for you, Rhen! Lars can't be who you need him to be. He's not a good natured person, you were his slave for fuck's sake!" Rhen never expected him to say that. He didn't seem the kind of person who would swear… not that it mattered anymore, he was already completely changed as it is. "Say something!" he shouted as the girl's tears started to fall from her face.

"What could I possibly say? What would you want me to say, Dameon? That I forgive you? That what you did was nothing more than your way of you showing your affection and that I am grateful? That I love you? I don't, Dameon! And I didn't even think you could be so blind as to not see that I care for Lars and if he were dead, and you couldn't stop that, I would never forgive you!"

"Rhen, I'm sorry! I can try and make it better, I'll do anything for you to forgive me."

"You can't do anything. You tried to kill Lars. And more importantly, you even wanted to. I don't understand this, what would you gain from his death?"

"I wanted to be with you, Rhen. And I know he has feelings for you. I thought it was the only way… I love you, Rhen."

Rhen chocked back some tears. She suddenly felt more eyes on her. Everyone had returned quickly, shocked looks on their faces, standing at the front door. Lars was nearest.

"Rhen? Rhen, are you okay?" he hurried over to her, putting his right hand on her shoulder. "What did he do to you?"

"Nothing, Lars."

"See, Necromancer boy, she's fine." Dameon's tone was rude and impatient.

"You made her cry. She's not fine. What have you done, you fucker?"

"I told her the truth, you idiot."

"Alright, listen!" Te'ijal stepped into the scene, holding out her bow and an arrow in her hands. "I don't know what you did to make her so upset, but I am not a fan of human drama. The sooner we get down to the problem, the better for you, got it, Sun Druid?" she hissed the two last words, staring at Dameon, ready to strike if needed.

"Wife… don't-"

"No, Galahad. If he does anything more to the chosen one, I will attack."

"Rhen, it's okay, please don't cry anymore." said Lars, wiping her tears away.

"Lars, he tried to kill you…"

"What?" five voices spoke in synch. Lars stood silent.

"He… he wanted to kill you. So that he could be with me. He didn't know Te'ijal and John would be there. He thought… he thought that it would be just you. Lars, if you died, I-"

"Shh, don't." the boy pulled her close and kissed her hair. She sobbed her final tears on his chest.

The room fell silent for about a few minutes. Rhen pulled away from Lars. She wiped her eyes with the sleeves of her blouse.

"Te'ijal, please, put the bow down." She said. The vampress gave the druid a supsicious look, then lowered the weapon. "I don't share your feelings, Dameon. I never will. I don't love you and I can't forgive you. I won't let anyone from this party kill you, but you should know that from now on, I won't let them help you either. Everyone, I need to discuss something with all of you. Away from him. You need to stay here and not move an inch." She had turned to Dameon again.

"I'll take care of that, Rhen." Elini stepped forward and silently summoned a succubus. The underground temptress wrapped herself around the light druid and gave him a hungry look. He looked terrified. There was no way he'd leave while a bloodthirsty creature was so close to him. "Akari, make sure he doesn't do anything even more stupid." The succubus hissed and smiled in understanding.

Everyone departed to the dining room, where just an hour ago they were having a semi-normal breakfast. They sat around the table and for a minute, no one spoke. Te'ijal broke the silence. She had never enjoyed suspense.

"Human, if you will, tell us what you know."

"I already did… he wanted to kill Lars. But he didn't count on you to be there to save them."

"Why on earth would he wish Lars' death? True, the boy is a pain in the behind at times, no offense, but then again, we all do annoying things once in a while."

"He wanted to be with me. He thought I loved him and that maybe if Lars was out of the way, we would be together."

"What a foolish assumption." Said Elini.

"I knew that mad man had feelings for you." Lars looked at Rhen.

"It's not like I never suspected it, Lars. But to go to such lengths…"

"The question be, what are we gonna do with 'im?" asked Mad Marge.

"It would be wrong to just leave him out, he's a druid we need in order to defeat Ahriman." – said Elini. "And not to mention, it would be foolish to think that the chamber in the Sun Shrine would open without him. We need to get the sword that's inside."

"So… we'll just ignore him the whole way to the Stronghold Temple?" asked John.

"And afterwards, when we get sword?" added Lars.

"Afterwards… we'll go to Thais." Said Elini.

"But, we would still need to defeat Ahriman first, what would we be doing in Thais?" Galahad was confused.

"Well, I need you to attend a special occasion." Elini's face blushed slightly.

"Oh, we're telling them?" John got up from his chair, holding it to support himself.

"Yes, I suppose we should, we might be dead in a few days anyway."

"Okay… do you want to or should I?"

"What's going on?" Lars was getting impatient.

"We're getting married." The words spilled out of Elini's mouth.

"Another husband, Veldt woman?" Te'ijal wasn't surprised.

"Yes, but… this one is more special."

"I am?"

"You are, John."

He bent down and kissed Elini. The party had never seen them kiss, it was both shocking and sweet at the same time.

"Husband, perhaps we should officially be married as well. What do you say?"

Galahad sighed. Te'ijal laughed and caressed his pale cheek. Of course he would agree. He knew Te'ijal would not have it any other way.