She was at her post in the courtyard, minding her own business, when a hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her down a dark corridor toward the annex. She tried to twist away, seeing the shadow of a dark cloak flick past, but the hand held her tight. As soon as they were out of sight of the main bustle of the courtyard, though, her attacker released her. She spun around, fists raised and furious, but stopped as she saw Uldren flip his hood off.
"Did I scare you?" He asked, grinning.
"Yes! Why would you do that?"
"There's too many guardians here that hate me that I didn't want to risk being recognized. Usually I wouldn't care but I didn't think getting them upset would help you." He smiled at her.
Well, that was thoughtful. "Thank you- You're right, they're already pretty mad at me."
He put an arm around her waist. "Come on, it's pretty empty down here."
"Have you been here often?"
"More often than I would like."
They strolled down the stairs. She couldn't help smiling, just being near him again had already made her so happy. The corridor opened up onto a small, empty platform under the blue sky.
"I've missed you so much," he said. "Mara's been keeping me busy, though. This was the first chance I've had to get away and come see you." He twisted a strand of her hair in his fingers before brushing it away from her face.
"I've missed you, too. The people here are impossible to understand, and they don't really listen to anything I say."
"I know, it must be awful. I'm so sorry. In all my time working with guardians, I have only met one I'd say was worth talking to."
"I hate not knowing anyone and not having anyone to talk to. I couldn't even talk to them the way we talk, it doesn't make sense to them."
"You must be so lonely here," he murmured, pulling her closer. "I think of you all the time. I wish I could visit you more often."
"I wish I could come back to the Reef." Was she complaining? She shouldn't be. They were the Queen's orders, and it was her duty to follow them. But she was lonely here, terribly lonely and homesick, and it felt so good to talk to him again.
"I wish you could, too. I'm trying to convince Mara to lift your banishment, but she won't listen to me." He rubbed his hand across her back, and she let her head fall onto his shoulder, clinging to him. It felt so good to be in his arms again. He leaned his head against hers, pressing his lips to her forehead. She had been lonely all her life before she met him. No one had ever loved her before. She'd had two sisters who didn't hate her, but they hadn't risked anything for her, either. They had never stood up for her. Uldren had already given so much for her. He'd argued with Mara, the Queen, on her behalf, he'd risked his life to save her, he'd trusted her with his life on countless missions, he'd listened to her, he'd talked to her, he was breaking so many important rules- laws- just to be here to come see her. If anyone found out he was secretly spending time with her, an exiled, disgraced corsair, breaking one of the most important Queenslaws, that would hurt his reputation a lot. That was how much he loved her, to risk all that. She had never felt so sure of anything. But there was still so much they had to get past.
"I'm afraid of how long it will be before I can come home. I really don't know how to fix this."
"I'll do everything I can for you. I'll talk to Mara and try to convince her to change her mind, and I'll sneak out and come visit you as often as I possibly can- I'll write you letters! Petra, we should write to each other!"
"Oh, I'd love that, if you really have time for all that."
"I'll write you a letter every week, no, twice a week- three times if I can."
She beamed at him. "I'll write back every time I get a letter. Oh, that would be so nice."
He leaned in, starting to kiss her affectionately, holding her face in one hand and keeping the other around her waist, but stopped abruptly as they heard footsteps. He released her, taking a few quick steps back and promptly starting in the middle of a sentence he had never begun as three guardians came around the corner. Gosh, he was fast, faster than her brain could even process the danger in the sound of boots on tiled floor.
"So I suggest giving an incentive to return to combat. I'll have our smiths send an inventory list from the Vestian Armory of gear you can offer for bounty rewards, and Paladin Bryl should be able to compile a list of tasks in need of guardian assistance. I'll see that both are in order of most valuable and most complicated so you can match each task with a worthy reward."
As the three guardians came round the corner, a warlock in green robes was also talking loudly at the same time.
"Nah, he almost killed me, but I pulled my super on him and blasted him to shreds. I went flawless in ten minutes."
"Fifteen," A titan corrected.
"I thought it was ten- Hey, what are you doing here?" He called, spotting Uldren and Petra.
"Discussing business with one of my sister's emissaries," Uldren responded coolly. "How are things in the City?"
"Fine," he answered suspiciously, "I thought there was a no-contact rule for banished awoken, though."
Uldren laughed, and replied lightly, "Oh, that was changed. A rather old-fashioned rule, don't you think?"
"Well, yeah. I just… just the other day, I thought Mara said-"
"Queen Mara."
He rolled his eyes. "I thought your Queen said she wasn't allowed to talk to anyone."
Uldren shook his head. "Not with most people, no, but I am the Prince. If she wished to send me to communicate directly with the emissary, who is to say she can't? We are, after all, discussing the assignments which the Queen has given to her."
He was clever, making them feel foolish, by pointing out the obvious and confusing them with the complicated style of Awoken formal speech, to ensure they wouldn't later raise the point to anyone else.
"Er...of course," the warlock said politely, shrugging. He glanced at the titan, who was just as unsure as he was.
It was the hunter that intrigued her. She was clad in thick brown leather and light blue cloth with metal plate painted a dark turquoise and scratched gold. Her cloak split into two tails that trailed behind her, limp in the absence of wind, and her dark eyes held a shrewd look of intelligence. This hunter, with her short-cropped hair pulled back into two messy pigtails, was not thrown off by Uldren's clever talk. It wasn't lost on her that he had avoided the question and accidently given two contradictory answers, yet she kept silent. She observed not to solve, not to call out, not to expose, but to notice, analyze, and collect, to hold a private store of information, only to comment slyly, "Of course the Prince is apt to do as he likes, as he has so often been known to do despite other suggested courses."
"But would I really step outside my bounds?"
"I leave time to answer that question, if it hasn't already."
He shrugged. "We'll see. In the meantime, I have private business to discuss with the Queen's emissary, business of the Reef. If you wish to talk to me, I may be available at Vesta sometimes."
The hunter smirked. "Alright, we'll leave you to your business. Come on, boys." The three guardians walked away, going back to their argument over the Warlock's story. As soon as Uldren was sure they were gone, he pulled Petra back into his arms, rubbing the side of his face against hers.
"Who were they?"
"A famous fireteam… The Howlers, I think. That Warlock is cocky enough to be a hunter, but their hunter sure isn't your typical gunslinger, either."
"I noticed."
He laughed. "Watch out for her, but you could be friends with her, too, if you get the opportunity. I've worked with her fireteam on many projects and you'd like her. You could talk to her pretty easy. I knew her in her past, actually. She was the school counselor at the school Mara and I went to as kids.. So naturally, we saw rather a lot of her. I don't know what they call her now, after Twilight Gap, or what she calls herself. I do remember her old name, but for her sake, I won't say it. They're not supposed to know. But don't worry about them. I only have an hour or so before I have to go and they took plenty of our time already."
"Oh… only an hour?"
"Mhm." He slid a hand into her hair. "So let's spend it well."
She closed her eyes as he leaned in, enjoying a long, slow kiss. He held her tight, as if she was the only thing in all the world that mattered. He was the only thing that mattered to her. The only thing she had. The only joy and hope to keep her from despair as she pushed through the dreary days ahead of her in this dull place. Being in love was a wonderful thing, really, especially with someone as wonderful as him.
"You know what one good thing about this is?" he murmured. "When you come home… we'll already have made it through something difficult together. We'll already know how strong we are. We'll already know that we can survive anything."