Private Tales Sunset

[Zael]

THE PROMISE​

Together they walked, hand in hand.

Zael Castomir and Yuna Fairweather had come from the south of Liadain, each injured, each maimed, but now at last they upon cresting a small hill gained first sight of Elbion in the far distance to the west. For much of the morning heavy rolling clouds and a fog thick as a veil had obscured much of the land and much of the light, but as the hour approached noontide there came a lifting of the fog and a single shaft of sunlight pierced through from the east; so had sight of Elbion been gained, so now did they stop to rest in an island of gentle light among shade and shadow.

Both Zael and Yuna were exhausted, and as they sat they leaned into one another, shoulders and heads each rested against the other. And like this they simply sat for a good while. And like this they merely set their eyes on the far sight of Elbion. On the far sight of home.

At length Zael said, "I ain't ever goin south again."

Yuna looked to him with wonder.

"I stabbed a lot of people in the back to get here. I'm not proud of it, but I'm here now. I'm here now and I finally know what I want. And it's somethin better than a dream." He looked over to her too now, and he brought up his single arm, holding her. "It's somethin right here, right now."

"Zael..." she said, smiling and blushing. And they kissed, and as they parted she spoke with playfulness, despite all they had gone through, as was her usual self. "I told ya so, Firebutt."

"You did. And you were right. There ain't nothin for me down south—nothin but lost dreams and what coulda been."

"And if those Rogue friends of yours come here? What if they start winning in Vel Anir?"

"Then good for them. And if they free the Dreadlords, even better. But...hell, the soul of a nation ain't in one man alone. I might want the Dreadlords freed, but if my fellow Anirians don't? Or Gilram's Rogues don't? Then the more things change, the more they stay the same."

Now a small pale of fright came over Yuna, and she spoke in quieter tones, "And...if those Anirians who aren't your friends come here? What...what are we gonna do?"

"I'll kill them," Zael said. "Anyone comes up here threatenin you, or me, I'll kill 'em. One arm or two arms, don't matter, I'll put 'em in the ground all the same."

"Good. I don't wanna lose any more fingers," Yuna said jokingly. Much like Zael himself, she made light of dark times.

"But as far as anyone knows, I'm dead; heh, some folks probably think I died twice, if both stories reach 'em."

"Hopefully no one wants to find you."

"Doubt it. Only Kimble did, because me and him...we had some keen animosity between us. So I think Vel Anir is gonna forget about me, and quick; just like it does with every other dead soldier."

"And that's why I'm glad you're not fighting for them anymore."

"Never again," Zael said. "Never again—I'm gonna stay. And that's a promise, Yuna."

She turned to him and draped her arms over his shoulders and beamed with joy. "I'll hold you to it...Firebutt."

They kissed again, and they rose from the ground.

And then together they walked, hand in hand.

 

[Yuna]

LIVING​

Back home! Oh, she had never before been so happy to walk through those gates!

When Yuna was taken by that Anirian man Kimble and his accomplice Jenna, and as she hung from the wall in Kimble's hideout, encased in ice that kept her cold yet didn't kill her, she thought she was going to die. Constantly she swung back and forth between hope and despair. Would Zael come? Would he be killed trying to save her? Worry burned hot against the frigid ice confining her. But then came Zael and his friend Sable, and they fought Kimble and Jenna, and after a hard battle they killed them.

It made for a great story to tell! And Yuna had the missing little finger to prove it, in case any naysayers thought she had just been skipping classes all this time.

First, of course, Zael and Yuna went to the Fairweather estate. Her family had been worried sick about what happened, why Yuna had suddenly gone missing, and now they were overjoyed to see her come again through the front doors. Mother and Father and everyone else paled as they heard the story of her kidnapping, of her maiming, of Zael and Sable's rescue, and Zael had to calm Father down before he swore a Blood Vengeance on Kimble (he assured him that Kimble was dead, deader than dead). But her family hailed Zael as a hero, called him an honorary Fairweather, and insisted that if ever his friend Sable Pembroke were to visit Elbion then they would honor him as well. Zael in his turn thanked them for all of their hospitality, and—since it was by then very evident that he and Yuna were courting—said that he would do right by Yuna, and keep her close no matter what.

Swords and sails, she had never blushed so red in front of her family before!

* * * * *​

Going back to the College was something! For a week or so Yuna was the shining star of her class, and several others, her story of danger and adventure circulating around her peers. A lot of her fellow students came up to her, and either with a careful and cagey tone asked to see her hand with the missing pinky, or tried to sneak a look at it. Yeah. Yeah, that's right! See, Yuna Fairweather's not telling any tall tales this time! This time it was all truth!

On that note, though (you know, the whole "missing a finger, missing an arm" thing), Yuna did ask Zael one night what he intended to do about his arm. There were some rare, exotic solutions for it! Zael just nodded, said he knew someone, a girl named Kristen Pirian, who had her whole hand blown off and replaced with an artificial one. But, despite this, Zael declined any notion of getting such an artificial replacement himself for his arm. Yuna didn't push him on it; even she, knowing that she could somewhat easily get a replacement finger herself, thought that she ought not to. Both of them, then, chose to make do without.

But Yuna did help Zael pick out some sleek half-cloaks! Ones that would drape over his right side and conceal his missing arm. Ah, well, "conceal" was kind of an icky word to use, implying this or that, buuuuuut that was really beside the point; the cloaks just became a part of his style, and Yuna thought them to be very becoming.

Things returned to "normal" before long. Yuna kept on in the College, and Zael, much like those months after he came back to Elbion from the Battle of Vel Kastula and before Yuna's kidnapping, set about to make a new living and a new life for himself. He stayed in the Fairweather estate, but he insisted on earning his keep, and did so via all sorts of jobs from the people he already knew—Malia Corinth, Captain Grinko, some people in the Department of Acquisitions. He made strides to expand his list of contacts too, reaching out through said acquaintances already made to others, gaining new friends in the Chamber of Law, the Chamber of Preservation, some regular traders and merchants, and more. He even started to make a particular name for himself, becoming known as "the One-Armed Man" among many of the Elbion Guard and its associated mercenaries.

Then at last came that night.

* * * * *​

One thing led to another, and Zael and Yuna made love.

And after, as they each lay together, looking into one another's eyes, Yuna with a big smirk and playful tone said, "I finally got you."

Yuna giggled, and Zael laughed, and after she said with a more serious and heartfelt air, "You know, all I really wanted before was just to not be a 'stupid' virgin. All of my friends—"

"Like Heidi?"

"Especially Heidi—they had all done it. All of my girlfriends had done it before. And it seemed like they could get any man they wanted! They weren't like me, right? They weren't skinny, and they had big breasts—stop grinning! I know you guys like big breasts! Anyway, Firebutt, point is, I really wanted to be like them. Everybody seemed to like them. They were popular, you know? This is probably going to sound stupid, but I thought the sex had something to do with it. You have sex and now you're a girl who knows what's what, you're confident because you're not a dumb virgin anymore and it's not a mystery, everybody likes you, and you can do anything. Do this sound stupid? I swear to Astra this sounds stupid, I'm sorry, you can tell me to shut up."

"It's not stupid."

"Really?"

"You didn't know what you really wanted. Neither did I."

It came back to Yuna, the story he once told about: "The brothels?"

"Yeah. I looked forward to it, back in the old days of the Academy. The sex...hell, it was fun, and nice, especially then, but...it was missin somethin. I didn't know what, and didn't much think about it. But payin money to have someone for a night is hollow. Even if there isn't money involved, just havin someone for a night, or two, or however much, and then goin your separate ways, maybe bein friends at best, that ain't it either."

He laid his hand on her cheek. "I wanted somethin special, Yuna. And I think you did too."

She covered his hand with her own and said, "Just you and me."

He smiled and kissed her. "Yeah. You got me, and I got you."

"I like that."

"So do I." And then he drew himself in a bit closer and his hand went elsewhere and he said, grinning, "And so you know, your breasts are just what I need."

Yuna giggled and snuggled in a touch closer herself, teasing, "What're you gonna do with that one hand, huh?"

"I got more than just this hand."

And so the night went on.