76. Watching Over You
It is winter and they are still alive.
She loves him without any specific word or action; he knows this, but cannot otherwise understand or comment upon her feelings. He is not certain as to who is being selfish.
Will you still follow me? He asks.
Her response is another question: you're asking me now?
The two of them are dancing around judgment with the tenuous grace of the dedicated and confused. This is not some sort of fairy tale—and anyway, Roy's manner is now very seldom regal and Riza has never been a princess of any kind. If anything, she s a talisman, the good luck charm given to an ineffectual hero in an attempt to keep him from falling clumsily upon his own sword.
(This is all figuratively speaking, of course. Right now he knows little else, and Riza is not saying anything.)