It was a forest one could find solace in. The trees ancient, their stories stretching for generations if one would only listen. Their regal boughs canopied the sky above but the wind playing in their leafy fingertips was audible from the earth far below, and every once in a while one would creak like an old man grunting from the effort of moving.
With the sun blocked out the deep woods remained cooler than the exposed countryside at the edge of their boundaries, offering respite from the summer's sweltering heat for those than ventured into their depths. Very few traveled far into their lair though, stories of ghosts and woodland dryads that zealously guarded their precious habitat keeping most adventurers at bay.
Yet the living arcane towers found two foreign beings among them. One hopelessly lost in both despair and direction, the other regretful and seeking forgiveness.
Both facing each other in silence.
Apoch finally broke the seconds that had stretched into minutes of standing before his wife some distance off, unsheathing his two daggers strapped to either hip. A muscle in her jaw visibly tensed, her weight shifting onto her back foot in a stance of defense at the ominous motion.
He tossed them onto the ground between them.
Her slender brows furrowed ever so slightly at the gesture, bending deeper as he took a tentative towards her. His expedition faltered, but only for a second as her hands erupted into blue orbs of light, her lips barely moving with the spell.
The missile of ice struck him square in the chest, causing him to take a step back. He gasped in pain but recovered, the advancement even more sluggish than before; effects of the frostbolt.
Two steps forward, one step back. And she kept attacking with his progression until he was barely alive when he collapsed on his knees in front of her. The spells damage was visibly apparent on his exposed skin, the flesh cracked open in deep fissures though the blood had frozen in place, keeping him from bleeding to death yet hindering his heightened regenerative abilities.
"I'm sorry."
He swayed slightly, vaguely aware there were tears running down her cheeks. Reaching up with quaking, frost-bitten fingers he drew her form against him, pressing his face into her stomach.
"I'm so sorry."
She cried out his name as he fell unconscious.