The night after the whole mess in Defiance Bay, they set up camp with everyone visibly worried about Cera. Sagani keeps casting glances at the elven woman, Eder and Kana both keep making jokes that get no response, and even Pallegina's lightly tapping her face in a held-back slapping motion got no sound from her. And now…now she's just sitting on a nearby log and staring into the fire like either she's trying to read it or it holds the answers she so desperately needs.

Most everybody eventually dozes off, all except Aloth and Cera - Aloth absolutely refuses to even close his eyes longer than a blink before Cera lays down and goes to sleep. He looks up from Concelhaut's grimoire to see Cera staring into the fire rather blankly, the only sign of life in her being her slightly twitching lips and the rise and fall of her shoulders as she breathes.

Lad, even I'm getting' worried 'ere. Go talk to the lass.

I'd never have thought that, Iselmyr. Really.

The feeling he gets next can roughly be translated as a rough elbow jab from Iselmyr, except she's a part of his soul so he's not sure how that works out. The message is all too clear though, and one he didn't really need to get in the first place.

Cera doesn't even twitch when he sits down next to her saying "You of all of us should get some rest, Cera. We've got a long way to Twin Elms, after all."

She slowly blinks, and eventually says "Thank you…I will."

Aloth immediately knows it isn't Cera he's talking to - wrong inflections, too calm, halting speech, everything - and asks "Who are you?"

She looks at him for a minute, then finally says "My…name…is Aerea. Aerea ix Ensios."

She doesn't say anything else, and Aloth waits for a minute before asking "You knew Thaos?"

Her head snaps up to his, suddenly defensive and on edge. It seems there's suddenly a war going on between Aerea and Cera, and finally she sighs and says "Yes, I knew him. As much as anybody could know him, anyway. And I now know I was a fool in my lifetime. My current self and I, you call her Cera, we've been…talking. She's been desperate to know anything else about my time, any kind of weakness of Thaos' or any idea of what is even troubling her…us." Her expression says she at least has an idea of what that would be, but he doesn't want to ask - that alone might worsen Cera's condition. Aerea looks up at him, a small smile playing on her lips, and says "Should I tell you, or do you want to hear this from Cera herself? Because the one thing I knew and still know for certain is that Thaos never gives up and never leaves any survivors in his wake. Victims, yes. Never any survivors, none that he meant to die and they somehow survived. I know that well. And one thing I learned from him, whether he knew it or not, was to treasure the people you care about. Back in my life, I joined what I knew as a missionary order that was spreading word of gods across the land. We saw miracles performed, lives changed, and we were convinced that helping to spread word of these beings - who made flocks of birds dance through the air, made fires take shape into weapons and armor and a woman with a sword, and many other impossible things - was going to end the suffering that was rampant in the world at the time. And from what I know and what my current self has seen…that missionary order evolved into what you know of as the Leaden Key."

Aloth's stunned speechless, what are the chances?

Aerea puts her head in her hands, and then buries her face in them and starts crying - looks like Cera's back in charge. He puts an arm around her, and gets taken by surprise when she buries her face in his armor. He starts running his fingers through her hair, and finally she calms down enough that her sobs fade into hiccups. She looks up at him and quietly says "You must think I'm such a fool. And a weak idiot."

"No, never. Cera, listen to me. We'll stop this. All of it. We'll stop Thaos. We'll figure out how to save you. I promise."

"It's too late, I think. Ever since the palace, ever since I saw him in there…gods, he looked exactly the same! Sounded the same, right down to the inflections in his voice and the accent! And ever since he…I don't know what he did, but he brought on another vision. A woman. Chained to a massive iron wheel. He was trying to get a confession out of her. Aerea, my past life, she wouldn't say who she was. She said a lot of things, how she joined what she knew as a missionary order to spread the word of the gods to the rest of the world, how Thaos was much the same and yet so different when you're on his side…how he'll use anyone and anything to get what he wants no matter the cost to anyone around him. But she wouldn't talk about the woman on the wheel. I felt a massive amount of shame and guilt and regret though." She looks away from him, either from her own shame at whatever her past life did or from something else altogether. Either way, its unsettling Aloth more and more. "Focusing on the present used to help. Drowned out the whispers for a time with other people's voices…but now, my present only seems to lead back to my past. Aerea's past."

Aloth can feel Iselmyr prodding at him, but he can already guess at what she wants. Lad, she said to 'focus on the present' an' I'm thinkin' there's one way o' doin' tha'.

He doesn't reply, more focused on Cera than Iselmyr's comments - she does have a point though, much as he wishes she didn't, much as he wishes he could say he came up with this idea on his own. He cups her face, saying "Cera, look at me." When she's staring at him, looking desperate for any kind of distraction from her visions and the whispers, he takes a breath and says "When we first met, I was completely lost. No direction, no idea about where I'd go or what I'd do, nothing. I didn't even know how I'd get out of that scrape with the locals in Gilded Vale, not after Iselmyr pushed them over the edge with her lovely comment. Then you showed up out of nowhere, sent those drunk rowdies away with a look and a few words, and even brought Tenfrith back."

Cera chuckles slightly at the lighter tone at that last part, and says "Yeah, well, I could feel his fear like it was my own, it wasn't too hard to track him down. And I was nearly already at my wits end with things by then. I killed one of them before they knew I was there, the other was too shocked that his partner was dead to react in time. Tenfrith thanked me and ran off to town."

Gods, why is it the mere sound of her voice puts all thoughts out of his head? He can't remember most of what he was going to say after that part! "Cera, what I'm trying to say is…I've finally found my purpose. And it's not because of my father or Thaos, not because of any kind of 'guidance' they gave or direction they faced me. It's because of you. Because you never force anyone do something they don't want to, because you'd never hurt someone unless they were trying to hurt you first. Because I feel like I knew more about you after seven days in your company than I did of the Leaden Key after seven years as a member in the organization. And because…"

Don' stop now, lad! Get yerself together!

Cera gently asks "Because?"

Gathering up every ounce of courage he has - with a generous helping of nervousness and some prodding by Iselmyr with the point that its far too late to back out now, just like telling her he used to be part of the Leaden Key - he quickly says "Because this." and kisses her.

When he pulls back after a far-too-short-moment, she's staring at him with wide eyes and a shocked expression. He's about to say something when she suddenly grabs him by the front of his armor and pulls - he honestly can't tell if she pulled him to her or vice versa, but suddenly her lips are on his for far longer than before. And then he's suddenly swamped by a tidal wave of emotions - likely Cera's emotions, as it feels like a storm that's likely to drown anyone in it.

When everything fades, the torrent of emotions between them first and foremost, Aloth finds his arms around Cera's body and her head resting on his shoulder. And he's seriously wondering if he should tell her or not that she's a really good kisser.

Cera's chuckle instantly reminds him of her ability to hear his thoughts whether either of them likes it or not, and her voice whispers I'd say your pretty good, but I don't actually know. None of my parents' choices actually got close enough, I made sure of that.

He kisses her again, much longer than his but only maybe half as long as hers, and says "We'll fix everything. You, the souls Thaos stole, all of it."

Iselmyr's voice rattles around in his head, saying I's about time, you two. An' I know the lass can hear me, lad.

Cera's chuckle devolves into a massive yawn, and Aloth says "You should rest, Cera. Like I said before."

Cera starts to protest, but its lost in another yawn so strong it brings tears to her eyes. After wiping her face, she finally nods and mumbles an agreement.

Aloth breathes out a sigh of relief, and puts a kiss on her forehead before making sure she lays down and at least closes her eyes. Before she falls asleep completely, Aloth suddenly remembers the weird dream he's been getting every so often ever since that second trip to Stalwart - Cera kissing him.

When he asks about it, her face flushes bright red and she mumbles "That…may have happened. If I was gonna die…well…" She doesn't say anything else, the glowing shade of red her face has turned telling more than enough. After a moment, she says "If you're going to ask when I started loving you, please don't. I couldn't really give a definite answer. 'After day one in Gilded Vale' will have to suffice."

"I'll have to say the same. For me, I can definitely say I started seeing you as more than just a companion when you didn't react at all to Iselmyr's presence. You accepted me for me, her and all. Something I thought was impossible."

"I can say almost exactly the same thing, you know. You knew about my powers and saw me for me anyway. You didn't see some freak, or someone looking to blackmail everyone around her. Which is what my suitors saw if they didn't see something to control and use. I'd pretty much given up hope of thinking anyone would stick around after learning of my powers, which is why I didn't talk about them much during my travels. Heck, I told you because you'd seen me use them so obviously and didn't freak out - you wanted to know more, most people wanted to run away in the other direction or turn me over to someone to be hung."

Instead of answering, Aloth sits down next to her and kisses her - the unspoken 'never' has to be heard seeing as Aloth imagines it came from the center of his mind.

AN: Sorry about the wait everyone - but its finally here! Aloth and Cera have FINALLY gotten together! Yeah, I know, I strung it out a while - but they've finally figured out the other elf has feeling for them! Finals are coming up soon, so I probably won't be able to update for a bit. Two weeks at the most. Soon as Winter break starts, I'm finishing up my current stories! Promise! Enjoy! More chapters coming soon!