✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻
In her excitement, Lana broke from the kiss she gave Sylis. He wanted to live and she would show him how. Moments prior she was batting away at her fire bolts and Sy’s ice balls, knocking them over the edge of the airship. The idea of going up to the crowsnest, to resume their sport, popped to mind. Likely they weren’t allowed up there, but Lana stuck with the saying, ‘better to ask forgiveness than for permission.’
The view was spectacular as the wind continued to whip around them. The airship was over a great ocean, returning to the city of Sharn. The stars were dotting the sky as the sun set behind them. Lana added her fire bolts to the twilight, hitting them in great archs that disappeared well beyond the ship. Sy added in his ice balls once more, bits of ice sailing across the darkening sky.
The two had come to be on such a ship as a sort of reward for cleaning up the graveyard. When Lana ran away from the terrors of the crypt, she found herself at her friend’s place. She was in hysterics, caused by seeing the ghost of her mother, and Rin helped calm her down with some tea. He offered to help her and sure enough, a few hours later, some of the slimiest of people came out of the woodwork and helped destroy the demon a cult had summoned. Lana could only hope whatever favors he had to pull to get that gang to lend a hand was something he could repay.
With the graveyard restored, the woman, an Elf named Wendelin, came to the guild to seek the men who had slain the ghost. Her family had been long haunted by the one they had released from the well of holy water. It nearly killed Wendelin because of that, but Lana and the men managed to end the apparition. Though they had been paid, the woman extended another offer to the men: If one would marry her, she would, in exchange, cure the men who had suffered from the aging curse within the crypt. Sy was one of them who had suffered.
It miffed Lana some that she had no say in who Wendelin wedded, but it all came down to Shadar convincing the woman that his brother had acted on his behalf. And so, a few days later, Sylis, Lana, and their other guild mates Shard, Shadar, and Emmerick, were whisked away on a cruise airship to attend Wendelin’s wedding to Shadar’s brother.
The cruise had been relaxing and carefree. The food was rich, the dancing gay, and the company merry. The day slipped by so quickly and part of Lana didn’t want it to end. However, she had a new focus waiting with her. Sylis. What adventures would they do together? What fun would they find?
“Oh the things I’ve got planned for ya,” Lana mused as she leaned on the railing of the crowsnest.
“Don’t think I’m going to be some pushover,” Sy retorted. Lana smirked.
“Ya already are. Ya see this finger here?” Lana twirled her pointer finger in the air, “I’m pretty sure ya’re wrapped around it.”
Sylis smiled in spite of himself and agreed. His face then softened as he took her hand that held up the spinning finger. “Perhaps I am,” he admitted, “but it’s not around that one.” He paused a moment before reaching into his pack and pulled out a long crimson string.
“What’s that for?” Lana asked. Sylis looked at Lana for a long time, pondering what he wanted to say.
“Well,” he finally spoke, taking Lana’s right hand again, “where I come from, it is said that the Gods linked together spirits with a red cord that could stretch throughout the fabric of time until the two spirits in mortality met. And when you find that bonded spirit, you are to remain together always. So it is tradition that we tie a piece of red string around the little finger of the person we want to remain forever with,” Sylis explained, slowly wrapping the material around her pinky.
“Forever?” Lana asked incredulously. It was one thing that he wanted her to influence him, but surely he didn’t want just her. No one ever wanted just her.
“I know, it sounds crazy, but I can’t shake this feeling Lana. These past many days, ever since I saw you, I feel like you are that other spirit I’ve been searching for. I feel complete around you and hell, that was before tonight,” Sy answered. He proceeded to tie the string around his little finger before saying, “Uil æaer birolor eed olor. Will you be my forever and ever?”
Wasn’t I father’s forever and ever?
With the uncertainty that is life, one thing crept to the surface of Lana’s forethoughts, painful and angry. A hot tear spilled down her cheek. Her hand collided with Sy’s as she tried to swipe it away, but he beat her. She then pulled away from his touch.
“But what if we’re separated? Won’t ya replace me if we were apart for years?” Lana challenged. It had been months since she killed her father, but the betrayal still stung. She had thought he only loved her, but after being in the Asylum for four years, her father had taken a new lover. Surely no one would ever want her forever.
Sy pulled out a knife and cut the red string linking them. “You see this?” he wiggled his little finger that was bound in red, “This is my promise to you; Never will I seek for anyone else. I may be a lot of things, but I don’t lie to those I love. You are my forever and ever. Even if you die, I will find you again in the next life and I will happily wait for that day.”
Lana eyed Sylis suspiciously. There was nothing there that would suggest he was being insincere. She wanted to disbelieve him desperately. She wanted to hate him for lying to her. Damn you Sylis, she cursed to herself. Once more he gave her her space as she sifted through her thoughts. He was being genuine and she hate him for that.
After minutes of deep reflecting, Lana felt a foreign sensation. She was cornered, but it wasn’t the wolf staring back at her. It was Sylis. He reached out daringly to wipe another tear away. This time she reached up and held his hand there, leaning into it.
“Sure,” she whispered into his hand. Lana then looked Sylis in the eyes, the light blue catching the final rays of daylight, “I’ll be your forever and ever.” Sy let out a breath of air as though he’d been holding it. It was a victory for him, a joy Lana hoped to share with him one day.
And so when the call to disembark came, Lana continued to eye the crimson string around her little finger. Was the man next to her truly hers forever? She doesn’t know and she may never know.
Forever is a very, very long time.
