CONSEQUENCES AND NEW BEGINNINGS - ACT TWO: NEW BEGINNINGS (T)

«I can feel your gaze upon me, Dandreal,» Shael Silentlight observed, shaking her head imperceptibly, before turning towards the Aasimar, who was looking at her without concealing her very obvious concern. «You can't be particularly good at these things, you know,» she added, softly, turning away from the large three-mullioned window that faced the sheer cliff overlooking the sea.

They were in the summer residence of the Silentlight family, recovering from the ordeal they had been subjected to in the last period: located overhanging the sea, in one of the most temperate areas of the island, it was one of the few residences that had not ended up in the hands of Naekas Silentlight, the thief's cousin who was currently in the bush.

Quietly, and with no little effort, Shael made her way to a rich sofa embroidered with a golden flame on a quilted blue background, the symbol of the Silentlight lineage; taking a seat, with obvious difficulty due to the wounds not yet fully healed from her last misadventure, she asked her: «What is it, darling? Do you want to tell me what's troubling you? You look at me as if you are afraid you will see me disappear in an instant.»

Dandreal did not answer immediately, instead studying the other woman carefully. The Elf was still very wasted, the bruises and wounds from the confrontation she had faced still clearly visible on her body. Naekas, before being forced into hiding, had managed to lure his cousin to Evermeet by capturing the Aasimar, even resorting to a little torture.
Shael, also thanks to the support of the Five Protectors, had been able to rescue her, but clearly the matter had not ended there: some of Nakeas's Elves had ambushed them, managing to catch the thief and take her to their master, who had not hesitated to take advantage of the situation.

Days had slowly turned into weeks before they were able to locate where Nakeas and his men had holed up, along with their prisoner. Those weeks had been a trickle for everyone, but especially for Dandreal, who kept imagining one worst-case scenario after another, especially when they had found the huge White Wolf accompanying the group, considered by all to be the eternal shadow of the scout, badly wounded a few days' walk from the kidnappers' hideout. The cleric and the Ranger had been able to put him back together, looking after him with extreme care, but when Ice had finally recovered, it was clear that it had become absolutely imperative to find Shael as soon as possible.

It was the Wolf himself who had led them up to the Elf, clearly ready to take his due revenge for what had been done not only to him, but also and especially to the scout: he had done most of the dirty work that day. The scene that had presented itself in front of the large group of adventurers, once they had broken into the camp, had been quite chilling: with the advantage of surprise, they had managed to take down most of the Elves, but not Nakeas, who had fled instead, leaving behind his fallen comrades and a figure almost 'crumpled' in on herself, quite battered and with clear signs of a beating on her body.

Despite the fact that Ice and Grey, the other beautiful wolf of the group found some time earlier by Altan, had every intention of continuing the hunt - Nakeas was not the only one who had managed to escape - the Ranger had preferred to call them off: they had all agreed to prioritise Shael's survival and having the two wolves employed in the chase would have made it more complex to regroup later. The manhunt could have waited.
The image of the scout completely covered in blood, dying, was still very much alive in the Aasimar's mind, and she absolutely would not remove it, always resurfacing at the most inopportune moments. Like that, with the Elf in the flesh in front of her and in a much better condition than she had found her in in the camp.

«Dandreal?»
The Elf's voice, suddenly close to her, called her back to reality: the scout had gotten up and approached her, silently, concerned by her silence. Although it was clear that she had not yet fully recovered, and that it would still take time for her to return to full fitness, she was still ready to take care of her. It was painful to think that she had run the serious risk of losing such a purity of feeling and a person capable of have them, so fully and with her whole self, always. Shael made to remove a lock of hair from her face, intending to caress her cheek, but the cleric did not give her time to do so: she threw her arms around her neck and desperately held her close, finally giving in to the tumult of feelings raging inside her.

Shael's reaction was a little awkward, but the Elf still managed to reciprocate the cleric's desperate grasp, squeezing her in turn in an attempt to calm her down as much as possible.
«Hey,» she whispered into her hair, «I'm here. I'm here, you won't get rid of me so easily,» she tried somewhat to downplay, well aware of how complex the situation was and how complex it would be to get out of it, without too tragic repercussions for both of them.
«I'm proud of you, Dandreal,» she whispered to her, «you had a lot of courage in not losing your wits when you found me.» Altan had told her that the cleric had not spared herself, in an attempt to bring her back to the world of the living, and that she had behaved in an exemplary manner, particularly spurred on by her being deeply involved, because of her intimate feelings for the scout.

It took quite a while for the cleric to calm down and recover just enough to loosen her grip, but she didn't seem at all intent on breaking away from the rogue, who clearly seemed to reciprocate the feeling. In between, it seemed a lifetime had passed since they had last been able to enjoy each other's presence, each other's company in all its forms. Eventually, however, Dandreal resigned herself to pull away from Shael, very reluctantly, and then said to her, in a tone of mock reproach: «Let's go and sit down, you're still recovering. And I'm not going to have you on my conscience just now, after all the effort I've put into keeping you alive.»
With a smile, shaking her head exasperatedly, Shael brushed her companion's lips with a gentle kiss, before pulling away from her and starting to make her way to the couch, on which she was previously seated. The cleric grabbed her hand firmly, following her a short distance away and settling so close to the thief that she seemed to want to merge with her.

«What really happened, in that camp, Shael? What did they do to you?» Dandreal, now, was spasmodically clutching the Elf's hand: ever since they had snatched her from her cousin's hands, the desire to know, to know what they had done to her was tormenting her so much that she could not sleep a wink until late into the night, succumbing to exhaustion.
At the question, the scout palpably stiffened and, if possible, whitened even more: she, too, had not slept well at all since she had been rescued, due to the nightmares that did not fail to appear every time she closed her eyes. In her heart, she had no wish to return to what had happened in her cousin's camp, for herself and the Aasimar at her side. «Please,» the Elf pleaded with a knot in her throat, clasping both her hands between hers in an attempt to restrain her trembling, «do not force me to relive those moments. Don't make me tell you,» she raised a trembling hand to gently brush her face, «I would hurt us both. Besides, if I'm honest,» she added, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, «I'm not ready to deal with the consequences of what happened with Nakeas myself...»

Instinctively, Dandreal held her close, in an attempt to make her feel safe as so many times in the past Shael had managed to do with her, make her stop shaking. «Forgive me,» he whispered in her ear, cradling her gently in his arms, «forgive me. I have no idea what you have been through the past few weeks... I am deeply grateful to have you here with me again, I have suffered your absence so much.»
She continued to cradle her extremely gently in his own arms, unable to let her go even when the other woman's trembling subsided, whispering words of comfort to her and repeating that she was there, that he would never leave her, for any reason.

Her heart clenched when the Elf begged her to hold her close, not to let her go yet. It was the first time the thief had been so fragile - and since they had met, both had made great strides, opening up more and more to the other. «Don't worry,» she whispered to her, «I'm not leaving you here. I will always stay by your side, I will never leave you again. I won't let you out of my sight again, I promise,» she added, trying to smile and relieve some of the tension with that joke. In her heart, however, she trembled at the thought that Shael, sooner or later, might leave with the Five Protectors, that something might happen to her without the cleric being able to intervene as happened last time. Without realising it, she pulled her closer to him, as if she feared she might see her disappear at any moment.

«Dandreal...» gasped Shael, trying to make her understand how she was unintentionally hurting her, and the cleric hastened to loosen her grip, worried that she had done some damage. The Elf stood up straight, wiping her eyes with one hand, but without trying to hide the fact that she had been crying from the Aasimar; her other hand was entwined with the cleric's.
She looked at her, her eyes still reddened and filled with an indefinable pain that, if possible, further broke Dandreal's heart, who would have loved to wipe that expression from her companion's face once and for all. Shaking herself, Shael took a deep breath and began: «Forgive me, I did not mean to dump all this on you...»

Exasperated, the cleric let out an exhausted «Don't be silly!» For a split second, neither of them said anything, before both of them finally relaxed a little and Shael attempted a bit of irony, pointing out that that was precisely why she loved her. The remark did not quite have the desired effect, as the Aasimar immediately assumed a watchful and serious look, which put the woman in front of her on her toes. «Yes,» she answered in a simple, composed manner, «I love you. You are everything I could have wished for and more. I would do anything for you.»

The hands were entwined again, the cleric's thumbs drawing hypnotic patterns on the scout’s back; Dandreal's attitude was pensive, thoughtful, even serious: she believed every word she was saying to her. Her past had not been the easiest, as evidenced by the scars that decorated her body, particularly on her back, indelible signs of a burn from a fire that had broken out decades earlier in her village.
It had taken months, almost years, before the two women had been able to trust each other to such an extent that they showed themselves more and more in their frailties, as well as in the inevitable flaws that characterised them as individuals.

Looking into her eyes, for a moment Dandreal got lost in them, being brought back to reality by the owner, who took the opportunity to catch her completely off guard with a crucial question: «Will you marry me?»
«What?» Dandreal was staring at her, apparently not understanding the postal question. «Marry...?»
«Yes,» the rogue answered her patiently, barely smiling. «I'm asking you to marry me,» she continued, gently releasing one of her hands from the Aasimar's grasp to caress her face, shaking a strand of hair from in front of her eyes.
«You know,» she added with gentle irony, «two people standing before an officiant to celebrate the union of intent to spend the rest of their lives as partners.»

«Will you marry me?» Dandreal got straight to the point, not bothering to reprimand her companion for misplaced irony on such an important topic as marriage.
«Yes, I want to marry you,» replied the Elf, simply. «Because these months away from you, not knowing how you were, with the fear of never being able to see you again, of losing you... it was all just too much to hold. It's all still too much to hold and digest. It will take months, if not years, before we can look back on this period with serenity, from both of us. But I prefer to spend this time, and the days, months, years that follow, knowing you for all intents and purposes as something more than my partner. If anything should ever happen to me...»

The two women both ended up with their legs in the air, as the Aasimar threw herself weightlessly into the Elf's arms, no longer paying attention to the words the other woman was uttering or the fact that she was still battered from her recent misadventure. After placing an intense kiss on her lips, such that it was breathtaking, she leaned gently on her chest to answer, joyfully: «Yes, I want to marry you, Shael.»
The smile she gave her was so radiant, so beautiful, that her face seemed to have seemingly lost the tension that, until a few moments before, had dominated it. And, in spite of the series of difficulties that would face them in the near future, also a consequence of the profession they were in, being able to face the future together, in that capacity, made everything easier.

It would be a long time before Shael would have the strength and courage to tell Dandreal everything, as it was for the cleric to speak of her time in captivity at the hands of Nakeas. When, however, they were able to broach the subject, it was a liberation for both of them, allowing them to face the future with more serenity and lightness.