Hana crossed the space between us and pulled me into a tight hug. “We would be honored to have you join our family.”
Marten followed up close behind her. “Not that we don’t consider you family already,” he chuckled, clapping me on the shoulder. “I knew you were a good man the first time we met, Lux. I know you’ll make Lia happy.”
“Thanks, both of you,” I said, returning Hana’s hug. The strength and warmth of her motherly love washed over me, and I realized I had come to desperately miss the feeling of safety and belonging it gave me; I had lost the last of the real memories of my birth family decades ago. I lingered in her arms for a few seconds longer, then pulled away and stood up from my crate.
“I’d appreciate it if you would keep what we talked about between us. Lia knows everything already, but Marin doesn’t. For her sake, I’d like to keep it that way,” I explained.
“Of course,” Hana answered. “Your secrets are safe with us.”
Marten nodded in agreement, then took his wife’s hand. “It might not feel like it now, but you saved us again today, Lux. Thank you for keeping my family safe.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me. “Or, should I say, our family?”
“Our family,” I replied with a smile. “Speaking of keeping us safe, I’m going to go walk a patrol around camp. Not that I think we’re in any danger, just...old habits, I suppose.”
“I’ll clear you a space to sleep in the wagon before you get back,” Hana offered.
“No need; I’m going to keep watch tonight,” I said, reequipping my belt and gauntlets. “I can sleep while we travel during the day. At least, once Lia is awake. I’ll be much more comfortable knowing someone is always watching our perimeter.”
Hana looked concerned, but she didn’t press the issue. We said our final goodnights and parted ways; they returned to their wagon, while I walked out to the road to begin my wide lap around the camp. Although it was true that I was more comfortable keeping watch, my real motivation for going on patrol was to spend some time alone with my thoughts. The events of the past day were almost too innumerable to process, and I had a hard time believing they hadn’t played out over the course of a week instead of twelve hours.
I walked until the wagon was out of sight, obscured by a small thicket of trees, then sat down in the center of the road. The night had turned particularly cold after sunset, and I wrapped the warming cloth of my cloak tighter to fight off the chill. After a few seconds of fidgeting to get comfortable, I took a deep breath and expanded the small radius of Detection I was holding outwards with a burst of energy. The world quickly grew to a vast circle of glowing lights, and I lost myself among the details.
When my mind was settled comfortably after the influx of information from my surroundings, I began to sort through my memories with as much reason and calm as I could muster. Val betrayed us. It was an unfair assessment of the situation rooted in emotion; based on what Virram had said, Val had kept her word and left out the specific details that would have caused us trouble, but the information had reached the King through other sources. She had clearly been conflicted about carrying out Virram’s order, and although I had no evidence to prove it, it seemed as though she had ordered her men to attack me to protect Lia. Had the orders been reversed, the other Trinity Guards would have quickly overwhelmed Lia without my intervention.
Savitz tried to kill Marin. It was difficult to reconcile my idea of Savitz against the actions he had taken. All of the interactions Lia and I had had with him during our imprisonment were surprisingly pleasant, and he had shown some modicum of compassion for us despite the clear disgust his men viewed us with. However, his actions began to make sense when I took Virram into consideration; Savitz had no reason to doubt whatever terrible stories the King had told him about us, and the dead Trinity Guards in the throne room combined with the shattered sigil window would back up any atrocities we were purported to have committed. It was possible that Savitz had taken the attack personally, believing that I had betrayed the trust he had initially put in me, and had used the emotion to justify the orders Virram had given him.
Virram threatened Lia’s parents. The thought sat unanswered as I tried to approach it from different angles, searching for some rational reasoning. No. There’s no justification for that. Virram had shown that his actions weren’t taken for the good of his country, but for the good of his own self-interest. Planning an invasion of his own capital, sending his most dedicated guard away to her potential death, using his subjects as leverage; there was no explanation that would make his actions excusable.
I took a deep breath to recenter myself before moving on. I’m going to ask Lia to marry me. Just as it was a struggle to keep my anger from flaring up when thinking about Virram, it was similarly challenging to hold back my tingling excitement about the prospect of marrying Lia. I knew that I would have to find a time to talk with Hana in private to learn the Kaldanic marriage traditions and what would be expected of me, both in terms of my proposal and as a husband. It was
