Sojourner in an ancient land by Lisande

Part 4
REDEMPTION AND ROBEIRA

He kissed her again and again in the coldness of the open cliff, and her breath came in puffs of white, warm and fast.

"No," she murmured, and stopped him, "they will be looking for you. Arec our famous job instructor is not supposed to leave the village." She sat up, and looked away, suddenly depressed. "Any more than is Robeira."

"I know," he told her, "but you are not that Robeira tonight." He touched her hair, very gently, as if he had never touched it before. They were lying on the snow, and she caught him glance down to the dagger that lay between them, before he looked at her again. "Maybe not existing is just as meaningless as existing," he said quietly, searching her eyes.

She looked at him, then, and her resolve softened. She allowed him to pick up the dagger, and watched as he threw it away in a puff of snow. There was a question in her eyes, and she leaned down, towards him again, until her pale hair became a curtain, framing his face.

"Just to make it bearable," he suggested, with a half-smile.

The world seemed to pause in thought as she considered this. The way his hair lay, so familiarly, almost antiquely. That scar, across his right cheek. And his eyes, as brightly grey as they had been since the first time she had stared into them, so many years ago, reflecting the moon.

"I suppose," she agreed, then, and kissed him lingeringly.

In the moonlight, her hair fell through his fingers like spun gold, and her skin was warm to his touch. The frozen snow did not seem cold beneath them, and above them hung the wild, wild moon in a sky that had forgotten the dawn.

----------------------------

EPILOGUE

"…Therein lies your station, calling, and destiny," Robeira finished. Neither she nor Arec had said anything, but she could feel the other instructors watching her.

She was about to withdraw into her cloak as usual, but on impulse, she spoke again. "Two more things."

The mage stared back, still in awe, and Tylus and Rene actually gasped. Arec glanced up at her, once. She ignored them, and addressed the new initiate.

"Good luck. And don't forget who you are."

And this time, Robeira smiled.

----------------------------
---fin