Selene returned to camp disheveled and sat down on her bedroll. Her hands clasped together in front of her.

"Are you alright?" Aiden asked, noticing her discomfort.

"Yes," she said, "I just have a lot on my mind."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really," she said.

He looked away from her and into the fire. He bit the inside of his cheek, trying not to show the hurt on his face.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be curt with you."

He gave her a reassuring smile, "It's alright. I know you're stressed. "He took a swig of his waterskin and leaned back on his elbows.

"Did I ever tell you where I was from?" he said.

She pulled her eyes away from her hands and answered, "No, I didn't."

"Did you ever wonder?" he laughed.

She gave a small smile, "Yeah, sometimes. But I didn't want to pry into your life."

"Well, I lived in the capital," he said.

"Really?" her eyes widened.

"Yes."

"What was it like?" she asked, the tension leaving her body.

He smiled as if he could tell how excited she was to learn about his home city.

"There were so many different people from so many different places, I would love to climb up high and watch the carriages roll in and the travelers and merchants enter the city. There were thousands of food shops, with spices beyond your imagination. My favorite was a bakery near my home. They made this bread that smelled heavenly and would make your mouth water. What I would give for even a crumb of it now."

"Were there balls and galas? Do the women really paint their nails and the men walk with canes just because they can?"

Aiden laughed, "Yes to all of those. I didn't know that balls interested you."

Selene looked at the fire, suddenly embarrassed. "I always wanted to go to one when I was little. The family I worked for rarely let me go to the town's festivals so when they left me, I would imagine what the balls in the capital were like. And the dresses the girls wore. The luxury they all took for granted, I had always wondered what it was like."

She turned to look at him to see him already standing holding a hand out to her. She stared at it and then at him in confusion.

"I'd be honored to give you your first dance, then," he said.

Heat roses to Selene's cheeks and she turned away, her hands itching to fiddle with her dragon blade.

"I don't know how," she said quietly.

"I thought you said you'd been to the town's festivals, even if it was rare."

"Yes but I never danced! I would just watch and eat the food and enjoy the lights. I-- no one ever taught me how to dance."

She was suddenly so embarrassed. Here she was, a newly trained warrior, the only wielder of an infamous magic, resigned to a nervous girl who didn't know how to dance.

Aiden only laughed, the sound dancing through the trees like the wisps that once followed her. She wished she could do the same. It made her turn back to him, his hand still held out.

His eyes were glinting with humor and he didn't look as tired as he said, "Then I'll teach you."

She swallowed nervously, reached up, and slipped her hand into his.

He yanked her up and she almost squealed in surprise, shutting her eyes tight. When she opened them again, she was pressed close to his chest, hard enough to feel his heartbeat.

Why did it beat so fast?

"W--we have no music," she said, suddenly sweating.

Instead of responding, he began to hum. It was a hymn Selene had heard before. Actually, it had been sung at the same festivals she never danced at.

He began to lead her, pushing her out and pulling her in, showing her how to move her feet.

Then his humming turned to singing, and Selene laughed at him. Not because his singing was bad, it was actually rather good, but because she found the idea of two people dancing and singing alone in the woods so absurd it would scare any demon away.

She began to sing as well, after all, she knew the words.

They danced around the fire until the logs cracked and splintered. They only threw more on when they were too out of breath to continue, and even then they didn't sit for long.

They dance along with the moon as she made her way across the sky, Ophiel shining down on them as they laughed themselves hoarse. They danced until their bedrolls were covered in kicked up dirt and their footprints littered the clearing. Surprisingly, it didn't take long for her to get the rhythm down, and soon he could easily twirl and spin her.

Her hair slipped out of its leather band as she flew and for a moment, it blinded her, covering her world in glistening white. She felt Aiden grab hold of her hand and pull her back in, whipping the world back into view.

And there he stood, a bright smile plastered across his face. Her light.

For the first time in a long while, Selene felt happy. Truly happy. She forgot of her fate and of the king in his castle across the continent. She didn't think about the burden on her shoulders or those she had lost, all she saw was this man before her. And the way that he threw his head back when he laughed and the twinkle in his eyes when she tripped over her own feet every once in a while.

It was as if neither of them remembered their argument and the days of silence that followed.

For a moment, she wondered what it would be like to live like this forever. Her and Aiden, traveling the world and dancing through the night. No one around save for each other and not needing anything else.

It seemed like an impossible dream.

It was closer to the morning than sundown when they finally collapsed to the ground, their stomachs aching from laughing so hard.

"Angel's mercy, you really meant it when you said you didn't know how to dance," Aiden said.

She elbowed him in the side, "Watch it. I can still kick your ass."

She watched him laugh again, his scar barely even noticeable as his eyes crinkled and his dimples showed. Then he took a deep breath, staring up into the cloudless sky.

She followed his gaze and searched for her old friend. There it sat, pointing north and glimmering like a beacon. Selene would've given anything to never have the sun rise, to stay with him here in the woods, beneath the stars, and dance until they were old.

"Aiden?" she asked, her cheeks still wet from her tears.

"Hm?"

"Thank you."

Because of this night, she had the strength to go on. She knew she had a clock that was slowly running out, but it was moments like that which gave her hope. It reminded her of what she was sacrificing herself for.

"Dance with me again someday, yeah?" he responded, he said and turned his head to look at her.

She met his eyes and smiled at him, yet sadness still dwelled inside of her. For she knew that this night would never come again.

Oh, how her heart ached.

***

The next morning was hazy, neither of them having slept much the night before. They woke, put on their packs, and began walking.

Without horses, the trip would take longer than normal, but it was their only option. If Selene was correct, they should intersect one of the trading roads that day, which would lead them closer to the Rein mountains.

Neither of them spoke of the night before, not because they didn't want to, but because it seemed like a thing that should stay in that night. It was too precious a memory to taint with the light of day.

But the silence from earlier in their travels was long gone. Aiden and she talked normally again. The feeling of having him back as her close friend was so comforting, she nearly wept when he merely asked her if she was ready to go.

But another thought lingered in the back of her mind. Did he think he could deter her from her goal? There was no possible way he would just let her walk into that castle, even if it were with him. If she were in his shoes, she'd do the same thing. But he acted as if they weren't going there. She knew that another bitter argument laid in their future.

She just hoped it wasn't soon. She needed her friend now more than ever, and if she had to sit through the silence again, she wouldn't be able to bear it.

For now, though, their journey was easy.

They made good time because when the sun reached its peak, they were already on the road. The hard dirt felt nice under her shoes. It had been so long since she had walked on anything manmade. In fact, she felt as if their pace had quickened.

If she remembered correctly, they were right on the border between Erador and Radëgon. If they followed the road west, they'd end up right in the capital city of Freymaw. If they followed it east, they'd end up in the port city of Borlès.

She had never seen this part of her home country. She had only ever known the woods behind her house and the rolling hills of the roads into town. She'd gotten to see travelers and merchants as they passed by the sell their goods. But on this road, she saw more in an hour than she had in twenty years.

At one point, they saw a man with a covered wagon smile and wave; as he pulled ahead they peered into the bed and saw cages full of strange animals. Some giant black lizards that stuck their tongues through the bars and brightly colored birds that squawked at them. She swore she even heard one speak.

Aiden and her shared a glance but said nothing of it.

They continued their travel on the road until the sun began to set. Camping right on the road seemed like a good way to get robbed, so they turned off and walked until the sky was completely dark. Then they found a good spot at the base of a huge tree and set up.

It didn't take long for both of them to fall asleep, exhausted from the night before.

The next day was uneventful. A few travelers passed them but paid no heed. At one point, they saw a group of Radëgon soldiers on horseback, patrolling the border. They wore the coat of arms of the General in power now, two bears on their hind legs framing a shield with a blooming Gladiolus flower on it.

Selene counted twenty soldiers, each with a sword strapped to their saddle. She wondered if they'd seen anything out of the ordinary yet, like a demon. They seemed fine, but she couldn't be sure. There was no way the king would just stop sending creatures after her, they must be all over searching for her.

As the soldiers passed them by, Selene and Aiden stepped off the road to give them room. Their horses' hooves kicked up the dust, clouding the air and making Selene cough. She held up a hand to wave the air clean in front of them, but when she turned to look at Aiden. He seemed whiter than normal.

His color didn't return until the soldiers were long gone. She wondered what experiences he had with the military that made him so nervous around them. He hadn't even seem shaken when he slew the Akiri, but he looked like a whole different person then.

They continued their walking until sundown again, the talking minimal as they both wanted to conserve their energy.

That night as Selene laid with her back to the fire, she used her arm as a pillow, her hand reaching out into the dirt to try to stay a little cooler.

Suddenly, fingers touched hers. She looked up to see Aiden reaching out from his own bedroll, his hands barely laid over hers. His eyes remained closed, his breathing even. He must have moved in his sleep by accident.

She moved to gently take hold of his hand, her fingers twining through his. She ran her thumb over the back of his hand, and as she did, she wondered what they'd been through.

Small scars decorated his knuckles as if he'd hit something hard many times. One of his fingers seemed a bit crooked like he'd broken it. Callouses covered his palm and his fingertips from years of holding weapons and tools, just like hers.

His hand was so much bigger than hers, she hadn't even noticed it in all the times he'd held it out. It was only now, when just his fingers seemed to swallow hers entirely, that she saw it.

These were the hands that had pulled her up from that dark and lonely abyss, the hands that had healed her wounds, and carried her to safety. They were so beautiful.

She couldn't begin to imagine how much she was going to miss them. How much she was going to miss him.

Her vision became blurry as tears silently began to fall across her face and onto the arm that was still beneath her head. She blinked them away as best as she could, hoping he wouldn't suddenly wake to see her crying.

She was doing it for Lily, and Jack, and Lucius. So no one else's lives would be destroyed by death and sadness. Yet she realized that at some point in the last year, she had forgotten about the emptiness in her heart, because he had begun to fill it and patch it over with the hands she now held.

She was doing it for Aiden. So that he could live.

Selene fell asleep like that, her hand still touching his. Her tears had dried on her cheeks long before. And the last thing she had felt was a strange ache in her chest, one she hadn't felt before. It was foreign, yet comforting.

Neither of them moved from that position all night.