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The graves are simple, unadorned but tidy, placed side by side tucked away in a corner of the Blumenthal cemetery. Caleb had worried that his parent's remains would be in unmarked graves, their names branded as traitors, but Trent had never risked the scrutiny of publicity. His scourgers had always worked in perfect secrecy, and the accusations of those they murdered were never published.
To the little town of Blumenthal unknown bandits had murdered two families and likely set the blaze that took the lives of a third. It was a great tragedy in a small village and all three sets of remains were buried with the simple grace a small town could afford.
Essek had gone with Caleb before, waited a respectful distance to give him privacy when he sent the journal he kept for his parents to lay between them. Essek had held Caleb after, as he grieved, just as he had after Caleb had destroyed the t-dock. Their love had grown around their griefs and regrets. The pain of missing his mother and father was never gone from Caleb’s heart, but it was held there gently now, peacefully, accepted as a permanent part of him.
This visit, Essek had asked Caleb to let him cast Tether Essence before, so that Caleb could feel his love and support, and to let Essek share in his love and grief. The platinum thread wound their wrists together in a pattern the drow dearly hoped he would soon see again in braided cords before their friends, declaring their souls bound.
Essek’s hands shake from nerves as Caleb kneels at the graves. He second guesses every part of this plan and can only hope his partner’s keen mind is too occupied with his own thoughts to wonder at the anxiousness Essek knows he is projecting. Both clerics had confirmed the research he had found, as well as Yussa, he sternly reminds himself. Sending can travel across planes, though no one he spoke with knew for sure if the divine gate would interfere in some way for what he planned.
He had researched carefully, not just the spell and the probability it would work, but the custom for which he planned to use it. Every book he had looked at insisted a Zemnian proposal begins with asking the parents of whom you wish to marry for permission. Even if the gods refuse to let him hear an answer, he wants Caleb to hear him ask.
So he takes a breath, steeling himself, manicured nails tapping the ring in his pocket nervously. When Caleb’s bowed head lifts from laying a bouquet of bright blossoms taken from their garden, Essek’s fingers move in a familiar dance as he pulls the strings of magic taut to Send.
Catching Caleb’s inquisitive eyes, Essek speaks, carefully enunciating the Zemnian words he has painstakingly memorized, "Una and Leofric Ermendrud, I wish I knew you, but I hope that you can know my heart and how dearly your son is loved.
He casts again swiftly, seamlessly allowing his words to continue, “I ask for your permission for Caleb's hand in marriage. If you are able, please respond to this message. Caleb, Bren, will hear you.”
Beside him, he hears a choking gasp from Caleb in time to the phantom feeling of shock, the accelerated rate of his lover’s heart. He knows Caleb can feel his own trepidation, knows Caleb can sense his fear that he has gone about this all wrong. Before either can settle too far into panic, the sky above them flares for a second. Searing light envelopes them and blinks away as swiftly as it illuminates, leaving neither sure of their own eyes, but for the sting in the other’s confirming it.
He feels Caleb freeze a heartbeat before the echo of a deep voice sounds in his mind, linked to Caleb’s.
“My son. We have only ever wanted your happiness, Bren. Caleb. We love you. Be happy, live, love. Know there was never anything to forgive.”
Then just slightly clearer, a warm voice, lighter in tone, washes through his mind, echoing through him to Caleb.
“Essek, companion of my son’s heart. You have our permission. Love each other well. Keep each other safe. Until we meet you both here someday.”
The spell fades gently away and Essek catches Caleb before he falls.
“Essek, mein gotts... You. My parents. They... I heard them. How did you... they.... you...” Caleb sobs into his shoulder, words choking and practically incoherent as he clings to him.
The emotion flowing between them both is nearing overwhelming, so Essek motions to sever the tether early only for Caleb to catch his hands.
“Not yet. If you can bear it, please. I... I want to feel you when you, ah, if you, ask?” his voice ends in a whisper.
Essek isn’t sure if the tears he feels in his eyes are his own or his lover’s, every feeling is echoed and heightened.
“Just breathe,” he whispers, tilting his head to lean his forehead against Caleb’s, feeling both their heartbeats steady in reply to the familiar comfort.
Carefully, Essek drops to one knee, delicately, he lifts out the velvet box and opens it towards Caleb. Caleb’s eyes flick between his and the ring, an elegant band of pure platinum holding a pearl so dark purple it is almost black, flanked by tiny cut amber and obsidian.
“Caleb Widogast, my love, my student and my teacher, my dearest friend, ussta ssunssun. You are everything I thought I would never find, could never have, and every day I am with you is more precious to me than all the motes of possibility in all of the beacons. I want to be with you for as long as we live. Will you marry me, Caleb?”
The emotion surging between them is as potent as the first time they confessed their feelings, as overwhelming as the first time they made love while tethered. The miracle they just shared, godless as they are, settles a broken part deep within Caleb and Essek knows before the words tumble from Caleb’s lips what he will say.
“Ja,” Caleb breathes, smiling, eyes bright and sparkling with tears. “Ja! Yes, yes. Of course, yes. Mein perle, mein liebling.”
And then they are kissing as fiercely as the fire Caleb wields, joined as strongly as the gravity Essek can control. Beyond the divine gate, a mother and father smile, at peace at last. And further beyond that, the Luxon waits patiently for its champion to bring it the knowledge he will find with his chosen partner at his side.