Lunara settled into a routine and somehow had managed to avoid seeing Vilkas at all for several days. She had been busy with her preparations to leave after talking with Danica. They had decided that she should travel to the other holds of Skyrim to sell her potions. Whiterun may be the trading hub of Skyrim, but other cities were bigger and far more impacted by the war. She had been making preparations for her journey for the better part of the last couple of weeks. She got through the days without giving him a single thought, but the nights were harder. She had woken up several times having dreamt of the night he kissed her, swearing she could still feel his lips on hers. It both annoyed and unsettled her and she always had trouble going back to sleep after.
Tonight was one of those nights. She found a spot high up on the outside wall of the city that had a view of the road leading up to the city gates and she could see the stables to watch the horses as well. It was a peaceful spot, the guards didn't walk down this way often and mostly left her alone. Her temple robes fluttered in the breeze as she dropped her satchel and sat down. She cast a dim magelight spell and pulled a spell tome 'Ethereal Chest' from her satchel. She had bought it from Belethor a few days ago, but hadn't had a chance to study it yet. She was so absorbed in her reading she almost didn't notice the trio of warriors walking toward the city gate. She glanced up from her reading to see Farkas and Vilkas walking on either side of a red headed female warrior. She looked fearsome as the shadows of the braziers flickered across her painted face as they passed, headed toward the gate. Vilkas glanced in the direction she was sitting and she quickly extinguished her magelight, surrounding herself in darkness except for the aurora lights. He continued to look in her direction and she knew he could probably see her even in the dark, but the darkness comforted her regardless.
The trio continued walking and she could hear murmurs of their conversation from behind the wall and then the sound of the city gates opening and slamming shut behind them. She let out a breath and cast her magelight again. She was trying to concentrate on the book when she heard Vilkas speak to her. "Mind if I sit down?"
She looked up at him, ready to give him a piece of her mind. The look of sadness in his eyes startled her and she bit her tongue. Instead, she slammed the book closed and shoved it in her satchel. She stood up, looking up at him, "Do whatever you want. I was just leaving anyway." She started to go around him, but he blocked her path. "Please stay," he said, "we need to talk." She stared daggers at him and said, "no, we don't. I gave you a chance to talk and you chose not to. I don't care what you have to say now. It's not me who had the problem. Now please, let me pass." He moved to one side, giving her enough room to pass. As she did, he said, "You're right, you know. I'm sorry." She stopped, keeping her back toward him. "I am too," she whispered. She turned back to him then and said, "I'm leaving Whiterun tomorrow morning. I have no idea when or if I'll be back, so whatever you have to say I guess you'd better say it. Just don't expect it to change anything."
She was leaving?! A feeling of slight panic washed over him at that. "Will you sit with me?" he asked, struggling to keep his voice even. He sat down, dangling his feet over the edge of the walkway. Lunara stood for a moment, deciding, and then walked over and took a seat beside him, dropping her satchel as she did so. They both stared out over the dimly lit plains of Whiterun, neither speaking.
It was Vilkas who broke the silence between them. "I hope you're not leaving because of me," he started. "Whiterun has become your home, has it not?"
Lunara rolled her eyes. "Don't flatter yourself," she said coolly, then added, "Whiterun is where I live, but I wouldn't call it home. I've never been anywhere I could truly call home. That's what happens when you're an orphan. No, I had already begun to think about leaving before you decided to be a stubborn fool. It was actually one of your books that I read while you were unconscious that gave me the idea. It was called 'An Explorer's Guide to Skyrim', I think." She smiled a thin smile and shook her head, chasing the memory away.
"Would it have mattered if I had behaved differently?" he asked. "Would you still be leaving?"
Lunara looked down at the road below them. She honestly had no idea. She liked to think that it wouldn't have mattered, but it might have. She shrugged one shoulder and said, "I don't know. At least I would've had a reason to visit more often other than seeing Danica and Adrianne. But I have no idea what would have happened and there's no use dwelling on that now. I don't think I'm really built to stay in one place very long though. Trouble tends to follow me wherever I go. The fact that I haven't been in trouble in the last couple of weeks is truly the work of the Divines, don't you agree?" She smiled, she was rambling now and she knew it but it was nice to have him near. No matter how angry she'd been with him, she'd missed his presence too.
He stared straight ahead, unable to look at her. She studied his profile now. His hair had gotten longer and had come loose from the leather strap he used to tie it back. She resisted the urge to push it back away from his face. She could see the sadness in his eyes too, and she figured that's why he wouldn't look at her. Still as stubborn as ever, she thought.
He dropped his gaze to the road below and spoke again, his voice barely above a whisper. "It terrified me, you know. Knowing that someone else knew my secret. That kind of trust is..difficult to give." He shrugged then, "I guess I was worried that even for all the life and death experiences we shared in that short time I still knew next to nothing about you and you the same about me. And then all of a sudden I wake up and you know the biggest secret, the one I kept from everyone and not only did you know, but you just figured it out without anyone revealing it to you. I had no idea how to deal with that. I even got angry at Farkas and assumed he told you." He smiled wryly at that. "He gave me an earful after you left, by the way. He called me a stubborn idiot."
She bit her lip, trying to suppress a smile at the thought of Farkas calling Vilkas an idiot. "What else did he say?" she asked, failing to suppress a giggle.
He turned to her, still smiling and said, "he said you didn't react at all when you figured it out, and you told off Kodlak when he questioned why you wanted to know what I was and that you almost came to blows with Tilda when she tried to throw you out. I would have liked to see that one." He was grinning now, and she felt her cheeks grow warm. "Then he asked me what I planned to do about what had happened and I told him nothing. He called me a stubborn idiot and when I told him he was the second person that day to call me that, he said that I should probably think about why that was."
"And did you? Think about it?" Lunara asked, her smile gone now.
"Aye, I did, every minute of every day. I was too much of a coward to come find you and apologize though. I hate to admit it, but there it is," he said, frowning.
"I see," she said. "I understand better now, and maybe I shouldn't have pressed you to share something when you weren't ready because you're right. The only thing you really know about me is that trouble finds me no matter where I go."
"And you have wicked aim with that dagger of yours," he added, nudging her gently and nodding to the dagger strapped to the belt of her robes.
"That too, I guess," she grinned, "but you really don't know much else."
"No, not much, although I did learn a few things while trying to keep you alive," he said quietly.
"Like what?" she asked, concerned.
He spent the next hour relaying the events that had happened while she was in jail and being held captive. He told her about the prophecy the seer shared with Valuxus and how now that Lunara had killed him the Syndicate will fall into disarray and eventually disband altogether. He told her about his meeting with the Jarl and Kodlak and Caius interrupting it and Balgruuf threatening the guards with their families lives to give up her location and finally about Farkas leading them to the hideout. "And then we found you there and when you put that dagger through Valuxus's eye and then collapsed, I remember thinking that I might never see you alive again," he finished, looking away from her again.
She'd had no idea about any of this. In all of the chaos that ensued after, no one had bothered to fill her in on the details. She shook off the feeling of anger that threatened to wash over her. It didn't really matter now, did it? "So what did you think about the prophecy, did you believe it?" she asked.
He shrugged. "I think in the end it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. In the end, trying to prevent it from coming true, he forced it to when he had your sister killed."
"He had my best friend murdered too," she said quietly, as memories of Silas flooded her mind. "I hadn't known him long, but we had become friends. He was my only friend and Valuxus had him murdered for helping me, only he made me believe it was my fault Silas died." Tears had gathered in her eyes and threatened to fall. She stared at her lap, dimly aware of Vilkas putting his arms around her and pulling her into a hug. She started crying then, and he stroked her hair without saying anything. She cried for Solara, Silas, Captain Pelus, and her aunt and uncle. She cried for all the things that might have been, and all the things she feared never would be.
She pulled away from him, wiping her tears on her sleeve. "I'm sorry," she said.
"It's okay," he said softly, reaching out and wiping away a stray tear from her chin. He hand cupped her face and she smiled at him, eyes still glistening with unshed tears. "Please," she said, "don't kiss me. I couldn't bear to go if you did." She turned her head away then, and he let his hand fall.
They sat in silence for a while, until she stood up and gathered up her bag. "I need to get to bed, I have an early start in the morning." He sighed softly and stood too, taking both her hands in his. "Please be safe, and do come back sometimes. There are people who care about you here, don't ever forget that," he said, his voice uneven. She lifted her hand and stroked his cheek. "Never," she breathed. He pressed his forehead against hers, his free hand cupped her face again. He bent and kissed her trembling lips. She closed her eyes and kissed him back, tears sliding from under her lashes.
He pulled away and pressed his forehead to hers again, wiping away the tears that had fallen. "Don't cry, my moonlit beauty, everything has a way of working out," he whispered as he pressed his lips to her forehead. "Farewell, my wolf," she said, "I'll see you soon." She turned and left him standing there alone in the darkness. He sat down on the ledge where he stayed until just before dawn. He heard the gate open and smelled lavender, honey, and the unmistakable scent of her. He stayed quiet, watching her walk down the road to the stables. She never looked up to see him sitting there, never once looked back at the city after she mounted her horse and rode toward White River Bridge.