>>5742739>>5742647>>5742645>>5742614>>5742571>>5742579“I…”
You consider how to break such news. How would YOU want to be told of the death of a loved one? Well… Directly, you suppose. It’s a bit late for that, but maybe a cost-benefit analysis of why the death was necessary? Or maybe… With an explanation of hos things will be different moving forward?
You think of the Chaplain, presumed dead (and with some certainty) following the Great Green Dragonborn’s escape—a death that was unavoidable, n pursuit of freedom. You think of Davora the Herbalist, for the first time in some time—that infatuation which taught you love, that loss which taught you the value of beings you’d once considered lesser, a life and death with regrettable purpose. You can see the logic in them, hardly even mourn them anymore…
But you are no human—not really, not in how you were raised. In instinct, in upbringing, you are from an entirely different WORLD than this mate of yours. And even one such as you… If anyone ELSE had taken them from you, would you be so forgiving, or would you feel wrath? Did knowing the necessity of these losses, or their unavoidability, make your mourning process any easier?
Will knowing that her own husband killed her brother make his loss easier to bear, or harder?
“...I worry that I have upset my Godsss,” you say instead. “I have felt… Ill, weak, ever sssince I sswore that oath to you and your noblemen.”
Ekaterine regards you closely, nd even puts a ahnd to yoru forehead, before pausing.
“You feel…” she beins.
“Ssomewhat lukewarm, dry to the touch, and otherwise ssomewhat ectothermic?” you hazard.
You both look into each other’s eyes, and smile, and laugh, and embrace.
“Whatever has happened, you will work it out,” she says, adding with a somewhat playful tone: “You are, as you like to proclaim, the Dragonborn Antipaladin.”
“Yesss,” you agree, with forced smile. “I am.”
And so you are. And so you remain. And so, though it troubles some too-human part of you, you will carry this secret to your grave, for the good of your marriage, your child, and your subjects of every race.
[The End, for Now]
