POV Elvira Grey
Present day…
I don't know how to describe the last month as William's fiancée. It is wonderful when he is here and it is just us, but I don't know how to deal with the other people. It started as small things, such as women still batting their eyes at him in front of me then it increased to the point where they follow him into my house and ask for wedding rings. William finally got angry with them and told them to leave. I don't know how much more we can take it. The house is directly off of the market, with a view from the front window of the clock tower. I have never grown to like this house, even when William worked to improve the furnishings. I liked the access to society but found society cold and unwelcoming to an outsider who had taken the heart of their hero.
I longed for peace. I found the city more tiresome every day as I became more isolated in my house. Most of the women disliked me for having taken the most eligible bachelor, and the men were told to stay away by their women; jealous of my looks, and fearful that if I could take the Hero then taking their men would be easy. I used to enjoy society, feeling the power I had over others. This time I have no power, and I have no desire to be cruel in order to gain it. I … didn't even want power. I just wanted… something else; something I don't believe I have ever had.
My loneliness in our home has lead me to do something I never believed myself capable of: domestication. At first I worked through reading the collection of books William stored in his house, but this could only keep me going for so long. I began to abhor the messiness, to the point that I began to tidy it away. I found this satisfying, and once the house was tidy I didn't stop. I began to move the furniture around, finding that my body had more strength then before. Working on the house made it possible to stop thinking, something that made the time away from William feel darker than possible.
William has been working tirelessly over the past month, and not been at home too much as well. I can feel the cold pang of hurt that he is not here much, and I have to remind myself that it is not because I am here. I did not know what his life was like before I came into it, so I should not take things to heart. He is always rushing somewhere, and we have barely spent a night together since our first. I am worried that he regrets his choice of bride.
As my thoughts continued to get darker, the door suddenly opened startling me. Silhouetted in the door was William. My Love. He normally is not home during the day, and even so it is normally to have a few hours rest before shooting off to another quest. In those times, he would be apologetic for leaving, and I could see it in his eyes all he wanted to do was to stay. This time, however, he is stood there full of energy and life. I jump out of my chair and fling myself into his waiting arms. I shower his face and neck in kisses before I allow him to speak.
"It's great to see you too darling." He looked down into my eyes with a look of pure love. I responded by kissing him fiercely.
"I know you haven't been happy here, so I have a surprise for you." He looked a little more uncertain at this point, but I was ecstatic about a surprise.
"What is it, my love? Another bucket of oysters for me to consume before this evening?" I replied in a breathy voice before pulling him into another kiss as we stumble into the house and close the front door. It took him a few more minutes of us kissing to get back to what he was going to tell me.
"I have a new house for us to live in, Elvira. A nice big place, with enough space for us and… possibly some additions to the family." He said with a sly grin, rubbing a hand on my belly.
I grinned wide, "A new house? Is that what you have been working on?" I was in awe, all this time I was worried he didn't want to spend time with me, and he was actually trying to make life better for me. This firmly cemented the idea in my head that I had chosen right with this man.
"Yes, my dear. Sorry I haven't been at home as long…" I stopped his sentence with another kiss.
"You have done nothing to be sorry for my love."
He grinned helplessly at me before saying, "Pack your bags. We leave as soon as you are ready."
The carriage ride was long and bumpy. We left the confines of Bowerstone, and kept travelling through the countryside. I fell asleep on the way, safely tucked underneath William's arm. Although when he looked at me I can see the love he feels, when he looked out the window I could see how tense he was. I couldn't blame him; this is the sort of path bandits love to patrol. Before long, the carriage stopped in front of a large building, hidden amongst the dense forest. It was a tower that went high up into the sky, dwarfing even the tallest trees. William grinned sheepishly at me before asking,
"So… what do you think?"
I was speechless. The tower was grand and tall, dominating the nearby forest. After William helped me out of the carriage, I walked over slowly towards the tower, my eyes wide as I tried to take in the whole of our new house. I turned around to try to tell him how happy I was, but no words came out. He saw the look in my eyes and my grin as my response. He walked towards me with a smile, then wrapped an arm around my waist.
"It gets better, you know."
I was led by him on a tour of the grounds, which were more than a little worse for wear, as William explained that this building belonged to his friend. Garth had decided to give it to the Hero for freeing him from the Spire. It was a grand building, easily worth ten times the townhouse we had lived in before. Some of the tower was in disrepair, and I found myself worrying about my initial happiness over the house; it became worse the closer you got.
"I know it doesn't look as good close in, but the living area has been fixed, cleaned up and furnished. Some of it done by me, and other by tradesmen. Over time, I will have the money to get more tradesman to come by and fix up the outside and other rooms. A…diamond in the rough, as it were."
He again looked at me with worry in his eyes, as if watching my expression to know if he had done alright. I grabbed him again and showered him with kisses.
"It is amazing, we shall have many kids and be very happy here!" I grinned helplessly as I grabbed his hand and pulled him into the house to get the interior tour.
POV William
I watched as she explored the house, the way she almost seemed to glide over the floor like a dancer as she went from room to room. Watching her didn't feel the same way it used to, like I was being pulled to her; like watching her wasn't enough. My love for her at the beginning was an all-consuming hurricane. It was physically painful to leave her after our first night, but the longer I stayed with her the less I could breathe. If Theresa knew what I had done, she would be mortified.
"It is the duty of a hero to serve the realm. Many wonderful things may be thrown at your feet, some in fear and some in love. Do not give into these. If you do, you could easily start to turn into something else, someone people SHOULD fear." Theresa looked down at the young teenager with a stern look.
The boy looked up at her, "but… what if I like someone? What if… what if she likes me back? The adults around here love each other… that doesn't look bad?"
Theresa looked away from the boy, "Love is the worst of them all. If you choose wrong, you have given someone power over your heart. That person can then turn you into a monster."
The boy then looked out to the tomb in the lake. He quickly rubbed away the tear on his cheek. Heroes are not meant to cry.
The memory was like a new punch to the gut. The evening I had cried myself to sleep. It was not the last time I would do so, but it was the first time I had felt so hopeless. I had felt like my life would not be a life, it would be a sacrifice to endure. I was not wrong. Looking at my fiancée I felt something new; hope. I saw her whirl around to face me, and when she looked at me with her grin… well, my heart felt stronger.
I still don't know what happened that day. I have never felt like that before, or after. It took weeks for the pain to stop. The pain of being away from her was imbued in my blood, and it took weeks to be able to think while apart from her. After that, I felt more relaxed and clearheaded then ever. I saw the truth behind the lies Theresa had told me, but I also saw the ugly truth; my love for Elvira was the biggest gaping weakness I had ever owned.
However, I knew I loved her.
Once I had become clearheaded, being around her was easy. I was no longer a lovesick puppy, drooling on her every word. I was William. Not "the hero". Not a descendant of some long dead man who wielded the sword of pure good. I was just… William. And William could notice things, it seemed. I saw how she didn't talk of friends, and only of me. I saw how the house would always change between visits. I started to see how much of a prison the house was when everyone hated you.
I decided to actively do something Theresa would abhor: something for myself. After saving Garth, he had tried a few times to give me something for what I had sacrificed to release him. Every time, I had rejected the very notion. What was a heroes' job, if not for being imprisoned for years to save someone who may have had a hand in killing your only blood relative? This time when I saw him, I asked him about the tower. The tower he used to send me to the bloodstone marches. He had looked at me, not unlike Theresa likes to, as he said "so the man is more than an empty husk?" … I had no response. Unlike Theresa, he didn't take my silence as insolence, so he chuckled. "Have it, just be careful of the attic. It is full of all the things I haven't finished studying yet."
Elvira ran over to me grinning, "there is a bridge! Let us go and see the view from there!"
I ran with her to the bridge, never letting go of her hand. Once at the bridge, no words were spoken; none were needed. She curled up under my arm. This view was one of the best of Brightwood, and many people would pay hundreds to see it, but I had the only view I ever needed under my arm. Someone who saw me. Someone who didn't only seek me out because she wanted something from me. Someone who stayed even when she didn't have tasks for me to complete.