Work Text:
So this is what it feels like to have your heart ripped out, Luthe decided. She said that she would come back, and he believed her, he had no *choice* but to believe her, but. . . there was an ache in his chest which would not fade, which would not allow him the freedom of a single day without remembering Aerin. The thought was childish, melodramatic, unworthy of them both--she *would* come back to him, she had promised--but knowing it to be so did not help Luthe in the slightest.
She would live a lifetime as another man's wife; she would be a Queen and a mother to people Luthe did not care to know. She would come back to him, still Aerin, still the woman he loved, but *different.* He would love her, always, truly, and yet, he could not keep himself from doubting.
Luthe set himself to the task of waiting; and resigned himself to the ache in his heart.