It was common knowledge among those with Miriel's background that the positive pole on a magnetically charged object will find itself attracted to the negative pole on an object with an equal magnetic charge. She had applied this in terms of the physical and literal for purposes directly related to scientific pursuits, but she had never thought to apply it to her own social relationships. Not until he breathed those words to her.
"I guess you'd be a bit more careful, eh, Mir…? Opposites attract, y'know…"
It had been in response to her desperate interrogation of him, in a horrified, angered voice she hadn't ever used before (and a subconscious borrowing of Sully's vernacular), about why he was so reckless, about why the bloody hell he decided to rush into battle like a gods-damned idiot when… when… "You… you know I'm…"
He grasped at her hand as if it was the most precious thing he could think of, and she leaned over to make it easier for him to speak to her without exerting himself. The axe that had won him countless battles, the one that he paid top dollar for, the one that he refused to part with no matter which weapon that tactician gave him, lay on the ground, covered in blood and tossed aside, completely untouched. "Yeah… yeah, I know, babe. I'm so…" His voice broke as he squeezed her hand, and she blinked stray tears from her eyes. "I'm so sorry…"
The sound of his breathing became labored and the shock of the deadly blow to his body began to subside. Blood began soaking the ground underneath them, soaking the knees of Miriel's pants as she knelt beside him. He shifted, gritting his teeth as he suppressed the searing pain ripping through him. He was losing blood, fading fast, and Miriel could only sit and watch. The wetness growing in Vaike's eyes was something she never thought she would ever have to see or endure—she thanked the gods silently that her tears were fogging her glasses, otherwise she didn't think she would be able to sit there and watch the thing she treasured most slowly fade away.
"Tell him all kinds a' stories about… about who his dad was, okay…?"
"I will." Her eyes shut tightly, and she squeezed his hand, unable to hold back her horrified tears. "I promise, Vaike, I'll tell him all about you."
With the slightest raise of her lids, she made out the form of her husband as his lungs took one final intake of breath, and shut them again in heaving sobs at the sound of his voice, soft and gentle and weak, withering away as he spoke. "I… love… you…"
The only thing she could manage to say in time before the feeling of their magnetism fading away was a softly muttered "I love you too, Vaike," and a squeeze of his hand.
A positive force attracts towards a negative force. Of basic magnetic attraction, that much she was certain. But it wasn't until her chest began to heave in uncontrollable sobs as she held his body closer to hers that she discovered the horrible reality—that in the absence of a negative force, the positive force begins to dissipate. And at that moment, Miriel discovered her charge had become completely neutral.