Chapter Text
”Where are we going?” You asked him as you were flying forward. Him on his own, and you on yours.
The sun had already set behind the horizon, painting the sky with hues of purple and red, with a gold outline right at the edge of the horizon. The air was clear, cool, and you could smell a hint of dew mixing together with pine as you flew lower, right at the edge of the treeline.
“You’ll see soon,” Zora replied, his voice sounding much more quiet than you would have expected, as if he was reluctant to let the words fall from him.
You quirked an eyebrow at him, about to say something along the line of preferring to know, because the mood of the moment wasn’t one of a romantic surprise, but upon catching a glimpse of his eyes, so deep and full of secrets, much like the endless oceans, you were taken aback. There was a strange undertone of worry beneath those waves in the mirror to his soul, and a veil of melancholy laid on top of it. And it made you wonder, it all made you wonder.
He led you forward to what looked like an abandoned tower, which made you quirk an eyebrow once more. It made many questions swirl, clash, and mix together in your mind. But as much as you wanted to ask him, straight up, there was a sense of him telling you much more than you’d realize to ask, as long as you’d let him tell you.
So, you let him lead you inside, lighting candles as he did, to reveal something that reminded a study. Stacks upon stacks of books, notes, and papers were lined next to the walls, the shelves and the counters in the room. A scent of ink mixed together with that of paper and burning candles, as if creating a nook of your own in a far corner of the world.
“I came here after dad died,” Zora began, looking at the point where the ceiling met with the walls, with his back turned towards you. “I came here to work on my magic, so that I might be able to fight back against the oppression us commoners and peasants are facing.”
His tone was hesitant, as if spoke with hushed whispers of syllables he was scared to utter.
“I’ve never shown it to anyone,” he admitted with his head lowering down, his gaze falling to the floor.
And that admission, spoken with words that dripped from him like autumn rain, made your heart clench. The syllables were laced with loneliness, and the edges of them were painted with every shade of the grief that he still harboured in his soul. His shoulders slouching forward, it told you just how much he dreaded telling you about it. But, all the same, it told you about just how much he trusted you. He trusted you enough to lay his emotions bare before you, to let you into his haven, to let you into a place that had become one in which he could hide away from the world. And it had been his solitary sanctuary ever since Zara had died.
But now, it wasn’t solitary anymore. He had let you in, and was talking about it all. Or rather, he had opened a door for talking about it all.
So, you made your way to him, with soft steps that were fixed on a straight path, the only path you knew; the path to him. And you wrapped your arms around him, pressing your head against his shoulder.
He tensed with your touch, but as soon as he felt and heard you breathing in his scent, and your hand drawing circles onto his chest; it made him melt under your touch. It made the pain and the worry lift from him, making his gaze rise back up to the heavens as a smile crept onto his lips.
“But I wanted to show it to you, because…” he hesitated for a moment, taking the seconds that ticked away to fight his relief from rolling down his cheeks. “Because I want you to know… me… I want you to know who I am… deep inside…” he whispered.
“But I do know,” you replied with hushed syllables of your own, but yours were warm and delicate, like the spring sun. “I know you, and I know that you have a good heart,” you smiled, squeezing him tighter in your embrace. “I know your heart,” you repeated.
And right as the statement flowed from you, you could feel a warm droplet dripping onto your hand. Just one. But it spoke volumes.
The sensation of the droplet rolling off your hand, was followed by Zora wrapping his arms over yours, tightly and protectively, as if looking to shelter you within his own embrace. He wrapped his arms over yours, as if to say ‘I’ll keep you safe, no matter what, becauseyouare my heart’.
