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<span class="mu-i">When you open your eyes, she is there, sitting under the silvery ring that cleaves the sky in two. It’s a warm summer night, the rustling wind caressing the grey grass. She looks up, as if lost, and even in the night glow you recognise her at once.
The same short dark hair, the same olive green eyes. Now black and grey because it’s night, but they are there.
Bragia Lacresta.
Next to her, the blonde head of Candeloro rests on the grass, looking up at the sky. Slowly, he reaches out with a hand as if to grasp at something only he can truly see.
They look younger than the last time you saw them, or the time before then, when they were discussing about raising a family together; or rather, less experienced.
“I can’t find any sleep,” she confesses in a soft whisper.
You take a tentative step forward. She’s so close you could almost touch her. Candeloro reaches up to wrap an arm around her waist.
“I can see that,” he muses, a smile that she ruefully mirrors, then sighs and slumps back, falling against the grass, accepting his arm around her body, but she doesn’t reciprocate with the same affection you noticed during the other times.
This must be—
Earlier.
“What is the thing that worries you the most?”
“I just— I don’t want to disappoint Her,” she whispers, turning her eyes towards his. “After all She has done for us. I thought I would have died in that fire.”
“Same,” he chuckles. “One day I will make it up to you,” he replies, his voice turning regretful as his hand slowly kneads her back.
You remember the carvings in the Temple, depicting their bodies inside the burning barn.
“There is no need to,” she assures him flushing slightly. “I’d just wish for Madama Uxoria not to scowl at me all the time.”
“I think she’s jealous,” Candeloro muses. “Ansàrra sees in you what nobody else sees.” He hesitates, lowering his voice. “Well, almost nobody…”
Bragia purses her lips, taking long breaths.
“This is our first mission. We can’t make mistakes. I am greatly worried we will face some kind of enemy that’s beyond our strength. And I am still just learning! Why do you think Ansàrra sent us this way?”
“I do not know,” he replies. “But I do not think knowing is going to help us in any way.”
“How so?” Bragia’s eyes darken, curious.</span>
[cont.]
