Nothing about Rommath had changed. His blue-black hair was still pulled back in a ponytail, and he still wore his robes of red and gold. Bright green eyes stared at her, the only part of his face not covered by his helm.
For a long time, he and Braelyn just stared at each other. Rommath had crossed his arms over his chest, the only thing enabling Braelyn to see that he was as anxious about this reunion as she was. She tried to think of something to say, but the words got lost on their way to her mouth.
"Braelyn," Rommath began, but that one word was too much for her to handle. She turned her back on him, unable to deal with his reappearance in her life on top of everything else.
"I can't do this, Rommath," she whispered. "Just go, please."
"Still trying to run away from me?" he said, and she jumped when he put his hands on her shoulders. It was such a familiar gesture, reminding her of all the nights they'd spent in the library wrapped up in each other, reconciling after an argument.
She had loved him so much, thought that there was no other man in the world besides him.
Rommath's arms slid down her arms and around her waist, one hand stopping to touch her wedding and engagement rings. "How did this happen?" he asked. "I remember you saying that your parents were Alliance heroes. Did they marry you off to him?"
"In a manner of speaking," Braelyn said stiffly, not willing to discuss what had happened with Jack. She was angry with Rommath, but not enough to reveal how their relationship had led her to Varian.
Rommath tightened his grip and turned her around to look at him. "Did you try to run away from him?" he demanded, and Braelyn could hear the jealousy in his voice. It angered her. What right did he have to be jealous?
"Several times," Braelyn bit out, "but the king is a difficult man to outrun."
Rommath glared down at her. "You said that you loved me."
"I did love you!" Braelyn retorted. "I waited for you for so long, Rommath, but you never came. And you never waited for me!"
"What do you mean I never waited?" Rommath asked. "I've been waiting every day since you left for a time safe enough to bring you home."
"Don't you dare lie to me!" Braelyn shouted. She tried to slap him, but he caught her hand in his own. He placed a soft kiss upon her palm. "No! Don't act like you still care about me when you barely waited a year before marrying that bitch!"
Rommath stared down at her, an elegant eyebrow lifting in surprise. "I wasn't aware that I'd gotten married," he said calmly. "May I ask who my wife is?"
"What is wrong with you?" Braelyn demanded. "I heard about you and Denaria, Rommath! News travels, even to Goldshire."
"You think I'd marry that woman after what she did to you? To us?" Rommath said, anger colouring his tone. "I haven't seen Denaria since the day she fed me that potion."
"Why are you lying to me?" Braelyn asked. Rommath's behaviour was beyond her comprehension. He'd never been one to engage in deceit before.
"Braelyn, I am not lying!" Rommath said. "I swear to you on the lives of my people, I am not married, least of all to Denaria. If you will not accept my word, then ask Lorelai or Aethas. They will not lie to you."
For a moment, Braelyn clung to her disbelief, stubbornly clinging to the thought that she had been wronged, that Rommath was lying to her. Then her heart constricted painfully as she came to accept the truth of what he was telling her. Rommath's devotion to his people was absolute; he would never invoke them in vain, and he would never ask Lorelai and Aethas to lie to her on his behalf. He knew they would never agree to it.
Braelyn could not help the bitter laugh that escaped her lips. How could she have not seen through Jack's lie?
"I'm going to punch that rogue in his stupid, stupid face!" she declared. "What was he thinking?"
"Braelyn," Rommath said, his eyes blazing with emotion, "did you marry him because you believed I had married Denaria?"
"No," she replied, hanging her head. What a mess this is. "But it did speed things up a little."
Silence descended on the pair, Braelyn still caught up in Rommath's grip. She wanted to pull away, but something kept her there, as still as stone. She used to dream of this moment, of being reunited with Rommath and hearing that he still wanted her. That he was going to take her home.
Only he can't ever take her home, as Braelyn's home was Stormwind now, not Silvermoon.
"Rommath, you need to leave," she whispered, placing her hands on his chest and pushing gently. "You are only hurting us both by being here."
Rommath bent down and kissed the side of her head. "It's okay, Braelyn. I blame myself for what happened to you, but it's over now. He is dead, and you can come back to me."
Braelyn was stunned. Rommath was a smart man, he could not seriously be suggesting that she could just abandon Anduin and her people mere days after Varian's death. Apart from the fact her husband was still very much alive, she had responsibilities, and a child on the way.
"Rommath," she said, staring up at him with shocked eyes, "I can't do that. I'm the queen, I have responsibilities, and Varian... "
"It doesn't have to be right away, dear heart," he replied, and she could the smile in his voice. "I know that you will have to return to Stormwind and grieve with your people. I assume that you will also need to help King Anduin settle in as well, but I can wait. When things have calmed down, then you can come home, and we can be together as we were meant to be."
This truly was one of the most difficult moments of Braelyn's life. How was she going to tell Rommath that she couldn't return to Silvermoon, that there was no future for them anymore? She was too afraid of the consequences to tell him the truth about Varian, but she couldn't allow him to keep living in false hope. It was just too cruel.
By the Light, she had been so angry at him for so long, but now... now all she felt was sorrow mixed with a whole of lot of regret.
"That isn't going to happen, Rommath," she said bluntly. "You need to accept that now. Don't create a future you can't have."
Rommath stared at her. "Why are you saying such things, dear heart? Is a life with me not what you want?"
"I'm pregnant!" Braelyn blurted, unable to think of anything else to say that would silence Rommath, and make him give up on her.
Rommath stepped away from her. Braelyn could hear the pained the gasp, see the momentary flash of distress in his eyes.
"I don't want to hurt you, Rommath," she whispered, tears falling down her cheek, "but you have to understand. We are over. It was all just a dream. Lovely while it lasted, but a dream nonetheless."
But Rommath, always her equal in stubbornness, refused to admit defeat. Braelyn could see it his eyes, the tilt of his chin, and the set of his shoulders. He was going to fight, and she found herself thinking bitterly that he should have fought like this much earlier.
"I would be lying if I said that I didn't want the child you're carrying to be mine instead of his," the elf said, "but as long as that child is born of you, I will love it as my own."
Braelyn could tell he meant every word.
"It's not that simple, Rommath!" she exclaimed in frustration. She walked away from him, hands forming into fists. "This child is going to mean so much to so many people! Anduin, my parents, even Genn Greymane... "
"They can still be a part of your life. You can visit them... "
"No, Rommath!" Braelyn yelled, turning to glare at the mage. "Just, please listen to me. You need to go back to Silvermoon and forget about me."
Rommath did not reply, he stood staring at her, head tilted to one side, as if he were studying some particularly complex problem. She saw a sudden flash of realisation in his eyes, and he strode forward, once again taking hold of her arms.
"Are you in love?" he demanded, his gaze boring down into hers.
"Rommath, what are... ?" Braelyn began, but he ignored her.
"Are you in love?" he repeated.
"Yes," Braelyn responded without thinking, "just not with you."
As Rommath's hands dropped from her body, Braelyn realised that what she'd said was true. She was in love, and it wasn't with Rommath.
She was in love with Varian.
Braelyn loved her husband with an intensity that almost blinded her now that she acknowledged her feelings for that really were. She wasn't sure how long she had felt this way, but there was no denying it any longer.
And there was no hiding it, either.
When Rommath stepped forward again his face was unreadable, his eyes blank. He raised a hand and trailed one of his long elegant fingers down Braelyn's cheek. She didn't blush, and she didn't get flustered. She simply stared at him with pity, as she realised that he now felt the way she had when he had sent her back to Stormwind.
When she didn't react to his touch the way he expected, Braelyn knew he'd recognised that she was telling the truth about no longer loving him. He backed away from her, face falling back into that mask of apathy he'd been wearing the first time they'd met.
"May I ask how he was able to win your heart, when you swore it belonged only to me?' Rommath inquired.
Braelyn thought hard before answering. Rommath deserved an honest answer. "When things became difficult for us, Rommath, you pushed me away rather than fight for our future. You sent me back to Stormwind, without sparing a thought about what I wanted, what I needed," she said. "Varian, however... when we fought, he reacted badly, and I didn't think I could ever forgive him, let alone come to love him. Yet he refused to give up on me, on us. He gave me what I needed, which was time and space to heal, and he never stopped fighting for me.
"Varian did what he did because the thought of losing me terrified him to death. He couldn't even bear the idea of me being lost to him, let alone actually send me away himself."
"You know why I sent you away," Rommath growled. "Your safety... "
"I am in far more danger as Queen Braelyn Wrynn than I ever could have been in as your wife, Rommath," Braelyn pointed out, and gestured to the tent, reminding him of her current predicament. "Varian worries about me constantly, but has only ever held me close."
Rommath sighed, and she saw with relief that he was finally accepting what she had said. "Very well, Your Majesty," he said, and Braelyn was sad to hear such cold formality from someone who had once meant so much to her. "I will not waste time here any longer."
Rommath raised the tent flap, but paused to look back at her when she called out to him.
"I was furious with you for a long time, Rommath," Braelyn said, "but even in the depths of my anger, I never would have wished this pain on you."
He nodded. "It is not in your nature to inflict pain intentionally," Rommath replied. "It is one of the things I love most about you." He chuckled when he saw the look on Braelyn's face. "No," he added, "my feelings have not changed, dear heart. I love you now as I loved you then, and as I will always love you. Remember that."
Braelyn could only watch in stunned silence as the Grand Magister of Silvermoon left the tent and her life. For the first time in her brief existence, she knew what it felt like to be the heartbreaker, not the heartbroken.
There was very little difference between the two.
AN - ugh. that moment when you realise that you stuffed your timeline up so a whole heap of things happened in a really short period of time, even though it all happened a bit more realistically in your head. That was me in this chapter. Basically, in 2 years, Braelyn's been to Silvermoon, had her affair with Rommath, come home for a year and then gotten involved with Varian. I should have thought about that a bit more, since I always pictured her stay in Silvermoon being over 6 months, and several months passing between her engagement and the wedding.
A short chapter today, but I felt like this confrontation deserved to have its own.
Next chapter: Fox and Learen launch a rescue effort, but it's hard to stealth when a certain mage seems determined to show the Sunreaver's a thing or two about fire magic.