Part 3
They had lapsed into silence again. Tomir stared at the moon glittering overhead while he tried to gauge just how much magic he could muster. He figured he needed just enough to realm-step back to his house. Once he was safe in his home he could call Ryfon or Immeral to come heal him. He could tell he didn’t even have enough magic to properly summon weapons so realm-stepping was at least six hours away. Of course, this was all contingent on whether or not Sybil planned to let him leave this forest at all. He wouldn’t be surprised if she decided to follow orders and kill him. Realistically, she was already disobeying by letting him live this long.
Tomir couldn’t help himself, “Why did you heal me?” he asked.
Sybil stiffened in the firelight and then stood and moved closer to him, sitting at his side. “I expected you to fight me once you woke up.”
Tomir barked out a laugh, “So you were trying to, what, even the playing field?”
She snorted quietly, “Please, I was beating you in fights before they took me away to train.”
“So what then? You were just planning to let me leave?”
“Would you believe me if I said yes?”
Tomir smiled a little and turned to face Sybil, “Considering I’m still breathing, I’d say yes.”
“You know it wasn’t my choice, right?”
Tomir sighed and leaned back slightly to let his back relax against the tree. “I know. But it was a good move for you, to be a part of the Council.”
Sybil grunted but didn’t reply for a few minutes. “I didn’t come find you because I didn’t want to see that you’d moved on,” she finally said.
“Funny, that was my excuse as well.” Feeling bold, Tomir reached over and clasped one of her hands in his own. “I think we may have made a mistake though.”
“At any time in the last 200 years, either of us could have reached out to the other.”
“What if I reached out now?”
Sybil closed her eyes and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Don’t you think it’s a little too late for that now? We’re fighting on opposite sides of this war and things just got a whole lot worse.”
“I don’t care about the war. The gods started it, we shouldn’t be the ones paying for it.” He smirked internally, he sounded like his brother. Tomir gathered the last of his courage and said, “Let me make you dinner. We can just catch up, properly, see where this goes. We could have a second chance.”
“If we do that, everything becomes more difficult. Life becomes complicated and we wouldn’t be able to tell anyone.”
Tomir laughed and rested his head against hers, “I find that I don’t much care anymore about making things difficult or if anyone else knows. It’d be enough to be around you.”
Sybil pulled away from his shoulder slightly to look him in the eye, red met silver, “Okay, make me dinner.”
It was fun to write this. A good exercise in just getting something out and not letting myself dwell too much on it. I hope you enjoyed and thank you everyone who read and liked it! Spoiler, at some point I'm definitely writing a little story that'll be titled 'Meeting the Family' wherein Sybil meets Tomir's family and comes face to face with one of her least favorite Council members.