"You will go back to your world and forget me," Lord Arvis said quietly.
Deirdre blinked. This was not the conversation she expected today, freshly returned from the Aether Keep. A week apart, yet here he was, mulling on their future. "And you will go back to yours, forgetting me as I am. Do you think I've not thought about it?"
"I did not say that."
An odd thing to mention randomly, so she slid her hand off his elbow to tangle it in his. "Again, you think about leaving me!" she teased. "What reason tonight?"
The time Heroes returned was quiet, though a castle never slept. "None in particular. I think of you while I am gone."
"And I think of you, but it is you returning to me, and not of the day we must part." How a man went to battle day after day and returned immaculate she did not know, nor did she feel like questioning it, eyes on his easy face as they walked. "You will go back to your world with your Deirdre there, and I—I do not know." She was not jealous of the other Deirdre. They were the same woman at different points in time. She would be that Deirdre, but to do so, she had to lose her memories again, knowing why, but she would not remember even losing them on the return to her world! It made her head spin, thinking on it — a lost woman losing it all again, knowing she was going to lose this world, knowing she already lost one, but unlike the flickers of her past life, the undeniable feeling something used to be there, Askr would be utterly snuffed from her mind. To have a husband that was fleeting.
(It was…unfair.)
She squeezed his hand, leaning against him as the wind picked up. Leaving the barracks meant their walks were longer. "We should make the most of it while we are here."
"All because I confessed to missing my wife while we are apart?"
"Yes." Strangely enough, he laughed, though she enjoyed the sound. She stopped in her steps, strong enough to halt him. "You think about leaving me when we are apart!"
"As do you." Yes, she did; their time in Askr ended in only one way, lest she was to have two identical husbands. "I spend an equal amount of time wanting to be with you, but there will come a time."
Unable to claim she did not think about it or to not drag him into that unending conversation, unable to kiss him, as they were in public, she opted to press her hand into his, palm to palm. "Hopefully some part of me remembers you when the time comes." Lord Arvis made an odd face, blaming it on his weariness. "I'm glad you think of me. Let's head home."
From his laughter, a smile, caught by the late light. "Of course I think of you," he repeated, stuck between her ears.
