"You shouldn't go," Cullen murmured, sitting on the far side of the bed, back to Finley with his shirt in his hands, though he seemed to have forgotten that they'd just decided they need to get up. There was always so much to do, and today wasn't a day for sleeping in.

Finley was already tugging her undershirt over her head when he spoke, and so she tugged it down into place and pulled her hair out, letting it cascade down her back in wild tangles. A sharp ache shot through her left arm as she leaned back on the bed to move over to him, and she was glad that he couldn't see her flinch.

Rather than attempt to crawl across the bed again, she walked around it and sat beside him leaning against him and resting her head on his shoulder. "That's hardly fair, and you know it."

"They have the rifts under control," Cullen protested, turning carefully his hands moving to support her as he pulled away from her. When she simply sat up straighter, they found their way to her hands. His right hand closed around her left wrist, and slid down her arm slowly until she sucked in a quiet breath. He moved his hand back up her arm. "Dorian said that he may have found something. It's worth it to wait—"

"For what?" She couldn't help herself. She'd known he would make this hard, just by being there, but she'd thought…he'd always prided himself in keeping his composure, in putting his job first. She hadn't expected this. "Cullen…"

There's not much time left.

They were words she couldn't say. "This will give them more time to figure out the mark. So when I get back, they can fix it for me."

"Look at what it's doing to you, now!" Cullen protested. "You're not as good at hiding things as you used to be." Cullen looked like he might say those very words she'd thought earlier, but they caught in his throat, an unspoken truth between them.

Reaching out with her good hand, she ran her fingers down his cheek to his jaw, loving the feel of his unshaven face beneath her fingertips.

She would miss him.

"Seventeen rifts," she offered instead. "We've planned the route out. I doubt it'll take more than two months. Three if something goes awry."

Seventeen rifts, and all reported rifts would be closed. Finally, the damage done from the hole in the sky would be repaired…

Well, not really.

The clearings and forests where those rifts had formed would take decades to return to how they had been before the Breach, they would be weaker spots in the veil, prone to magical anomalies and the like.

It was a little disappointing, though she tried not to think of it that way, but she'd always wanted to leave the world a better place. She'd wanted to find a cure for the Blight, to give the Wilds back the life that had been lost.

But the least she could do was try to leave the world in roughly the same condition that she'd come into it.

It wasn't ideal, but things would be alright. Others would pick up where she left off. This was important, too, and despite efforts, she was still the only one who could close the rifts.

For a moment, Cullen had looked ready to argue. She'd even thought he might try to lock her in her room, the way his desperation played in his eyes.

Instead, he closed them and leaned forward, forehead to forehead. When he was the commander again, he pulled away, standing up and jerking shirt on quickly. "We need to hurry if you're to leave on time."

They dressed quickly, his hands moving to help her with belts and buckles and her braid without her needing to ask. When everything was in place, he pulled her into a tight hug, one that she readily leaned into, burying her face against him. "Come back to me."

With that, he let go of her and headed to the door, not waiting for the answer she couldn't give.