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“How is she doing?”
“She’s as stable as I can make her.”
“Thank you Ryne. Truly.”
The worst has passed—for now, at least—I take a moment to sit down on the large bed of Mir’s room in the Pendants. A white mattress and sheet with a brown comforter for warmth. Looking around—now that I’m not focused on suppressing the light in Mir’s body—I can’t believe just how big this room is. It would be more accurate to call it a large apartment than an inn room. There’s an armoire, glamour dresser and a massive set of cupboards as well as a fully equipped kitchen with a dining table you could easily seat six, maybe even eight people at comfortably. Some fruit has been left in baskets on the table, presumably by the man running the place.
I look back to Y’shtola, who is wearing a simple black shirt and pants, lovingly staring at the woman of the hour: Mir, her wife—Warrior of Darkness— who is wearing a tight fitting shirt and loose pants, all in her signature orange. I’ve been around her plenty since she saved me from being taken back to Eulmore, but this is the first time I’ve seen her sleeping…or with her blindfold off. She’s cute, but I’m also immediately drawn to the scar across her eyes. Just as I’m getting caught up in this I hear Y’shtola clear her throat and I snap back to my senses. I…may have been staring a bit too long.
“…I should go. I’m sure you would like some time alone with her.”
She looks up to speak to me, a smirk on her face.
“With the reaction she had this time, it would be prudent to have you here in case her condition worsens. Besides…I know you’ve been wanting to ask about us anyways.”
Whoops. Definitely staring too long. I can feel heat concentrated in my cheeks, but despite the embarrassment I ask, “Alright then…how did you two meet?”
Y’shtola looks back down at Mir, stroking her fiery orange hair as she begins reminiscing.
“We met about six years ago for her—eight for me—shortly before she joined the Scions. She was just starting out as an adventurer when we chanced upon each other. She says she had fallen for me almost immediately. The Echo was not received well when she was younger and I was the first to treat it like the blessing it is.”
“I realized my feelings for her a short time later. She was the first to be genuinely interested in my research, the first to be so interested in me, and not just because she found me physically attractive. Her perspective as a talented magic user with no formal training was surprisingly useful. It was…refreshing, albeit surprising considering how little she understood of at first.”
“She seems to keep up with you well enough from what I’ve seen.”
The Mystel woman suddenly looks frustrated as she continues.
“Her first fifteen years were spent in a place called the Azim Steppe. A large, open grassland where many Xaela tribes—Drahn with dark blue scales and horns—mostly passed on knowledge orally, so she had never learned to read. I mentioned earlier that the Echo caused her problems: she was ostracized and mostly left to her own devices as a child.”
I reel at that information. “The savior of the world, cast out because of the Echo?”
A sigh escapes her lips, “Aye, the tribes she had the misfortune of being raised in saw it as a curse that she could see into the past of anyone the Echo deigned worthy. There must have been something they wanted to hide.”
Her expression softens again as she recalls a less painful memory.
“I offered to teach her to read and write after Minfilia insisted she know how. She was a swift learner.”
Y’shtola lets out a chuckle,
“Whether that was out of a thirst for knowledge or just because it was me teaching her, I can not say for certain. Most likely both. If only that swift learning had extended to her romantic awareness…”
I’m reminded of that moment shortly after we entered the Faerie kingdom.
“Now that you mention it, when we first spoke in Il Mheg she mentioned having only just realized you were probably giving her romance novels as a hint that you liked her.”
A much larger sigh leaves her this time.
“Yes…she is that oblivious. It makes the women in her stories she loves so much look enlightened by comparison.”
I can’t help but laugh perhaps a bit too loud for how late it is, but then another small detail comes back to me.
“Wait, you said dark blue scales and horns? But Mir’s are black.”
Y’shtola’s free hand comes up to her face, rapping her knuckles against her chin while she considers something.
“We have never found any clues as to why she has black horns…or anything about her parents, for that matter. It’s a mystery how a red Xaela orphan came to be in the Steppe. We assume one of her parents had to be from there, but no one from the area could provide any leads on them.”
Bizarre. Almost sounds as if she was just left there by some higher power like I’ve read in a few stories.
“If her romantic awareness is as bad as you say, what did it take for her to realize she loved you?”
In the most deadpan way I’ve ever heard her deliver any line, “She died.”
There’s no way I heard that right. “I’m sorry, sh-she died?”
Another pained look spreads across her face.
“Aye. An ascian by the name of Lahabrea had possessed Thancred. Mir hesitated because she didn’t want to kill him and he took advantage of that moment of weakness to kill her. It was only by the intervention of Hydaelyn that she was revived and emerged victorious in the end. This is also where my name for her, Phoenix, comes from. It was a literal and figurative rebirth for her that day.”
That’s one mystery solved, but, “…where did “Little” come from?”
A large grin can be seen as she continues.
“Compared to nearly everyone else aside from other female Drahn and any dwarf, she is quite small.”
“Pfft…hahahaha! That is a simpler answer than I was expecting, but yes, I guess she is on the small side. Even I’m taller than her!”
Y’shtola continues while cradling Mir’s head like a mother looking after her sleeping child.
“She had fallen into a coma for four days after she escaped from her battle with Lahabrea. When she woke up, she immediately told me what happened, how the only thing on her mind had been getting back so she could say what nearly went unsaid: that she loved me. I had been using that time to decide how I would confess to her, only for her to confess first. It was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.”
“Our first date was at an absolutely beautiful place owned by someone Mir helped out early into her time as a Scion. We were fortunate that the skies were clear that night and we could gaze into the stars until sleep took us.”
“I thought you couldn’t see the stars in the sky. Why would she take you on a day to do that?”
Her ears are touching her head and she’s wearing the saddest look I’ve ever seen on her.
“I haven’t always relied on aethersight to see. I lost my sight trying to protect Mir when the Scions had been framed for the murder of a city-state leader. I had cut off the path of our pursuers, but without enough time to perform a regular teleport I was forced to attempt one similar to the ascians. I was nearly left stranded in the lifestream, but the combined efforts of a powerful white mage and Mir’s singing guided me back to her.”
“Mir sings? I’ve never heard her do that before.”
“‘Tis a rare sight indeed. Something she’s only done when under extreme emotional duress, from what she’s told me. I’m only aware of a handful of times she has done so, but every time she does, a power beyond anything she is normally capable of emanates from her and phenomena we didn’t know were possible are made possible. For example: I was able to hear her singing a song of immense loneliness a few times after I was brought here.”
“I can recall the look she had up until we went to Rak’tika. She was barely managing to hide it from most, but I could tell she was struggling. Her mood changed so quickly the moment she saw you at Fort Gohn. It was like she was alive again.”
“She was distraught when I was taken from her…and I did not fare much better.”
The Mystel woman pulls Mir into a hug who, despite being asleep, reciprocates.
“We finally had the time to get married naught but a few months before I was brought here.”
“With the way you two are together, I wouldn’t have guessed so short a time. I’ve not seen two people who love each other even half as much.”
“After thirty years of never knowing love, suddenly getting so much of it from me must have opened the flood gates for her. Those she loves, she loves so deeply, so completely, that she will do anything to protect them. She's even like that in her sleep, as you can see. I find it adorable that the most powerful woman alive can be so needy.
Y’shtola is right. Mir looks so precious like this. I feel like I want to protect her at all costs.
“The gap between her public and private self is incredibly cute…and she seems so much more approachable without the blindfold. Why does she always wear it?”
A resigned sigh escapes her.
“She was blinded by a man called Zenos while protecting me and many others. She sees the scar over her eyes as a mark of shame, that she failed, so she hides it. I’ve tried to convince her it’s the opposite, but it’s the one thing she has been stubborn about.”
She looks directly into my eyes with a look that tells me she’s being deadly serious.
“Do not tell the others this—we intend to bring it up after we return to the Source—but while I was gone, Mir fell in love with another Mystel at some point after I came here.
Ryne: She cheated on you?!?
“I’m from a tribe where having multiple partners is commonplace, so while it was surprising—and admittedly it did hurt—I wasn’t against it after she told me about them. She met Zhloe by pure happenstance. Apparently she was trying to run an orphanage and was having financial problems…which was around the time Mir stepped in to help. She tells me it went about the same with Zhloe as it did with me: she didn’t realize she loved the girl until well past the point of no return.”
“Since she first told me about it that night in Slitherbough, she has done everything and more to ensure I never felt like I was getting less love, or that I was any less important to her.”
"If anything, I’d say we’ve both only fallen magnitudes deeper for each other."
“You said this Zhloe woman was trying to run an orphanage…so does that mean you’re going to be some form of parent when you get back the Source?”
“By the time Mir met her, Zhloe only had one child in her care besides her younger sister: a girl named T’kebbe…who by Mir’s own accounts has grown as attached to her as Mir has to me. So, yes, I suppose I will be.”
“Are you okay with that? It must have been quite the shock when she told you.”
“I was apprehensive at first. We had both originally agreed we didn’t want children. To say I was surprised that she adopted a child while I was gone would be putting it mildly, but the way Mir talks about her, you’d never be able to tell she’s been her guardian for less than a year. Her enthusiasm is contagious and…I find myself excited to meet all three of them.”
She points at me with another serious look on her face.
“Do not tell her this, but even though I told her I wanted to meet them first before I make a decision on what will happen with them…I’ve already made up my mind. I fully intend on going through with all of it, although I may have a little fun with her before I give them the good news.”
“Your secret is safe with me, Y’shtola, but how can you be so sure before you’ve even met them?”
She holds out her hand with two fingers displayed.
“Two reasons. One: It is highly unlikely Mir would fall in love with someone I couldn’t love as well. Two: After everything she’s been through to get the Scions back to the Source and save the First, I haven’t the heart to tell her no. Could you?”
I hadn’t even considered that.
“When you put it like that, no. She’s putting her life on the line to save this world. I think she deserves at least that much.”
Y’shtola goes back to gently petting Mir’s head, serenity painted across her face.
“And that’s why I already know. It seems like her aether has stabilized for now. Thank you for staying, Ryne.”
“Any time, Y’shtola.”
As I’m putting my shoes on I hear rustling from the bed.
“Mmmm…Ryne?”
Turning around, I can see Mir wiping the sleep from her eyes
“Oh! Mir, you’re awake!”
“Good evening, Phoenix.”
“Are you leaving?”
“Y’shtola and I just finished talking and I was going to inform everyone else you were stable for the moment.”
Mir sits on the side of the bed, using both hands to keep herself steady.
“Thank you, Ryne. I don’t know what we’d do without you.”
She’s thanking me?
“I didn’t do anything—”
Suddenly she’s flying off the bed and wrapping her arms around me.
“Please don’t make light what you’ve done today, Ryne. I stopped Vauthry, yes, but if you hadn’t stopped me from turning then everything we’ve done to this point would have been pointless. So be proud of what you did today. I know I am…and I can assure you the others are as well.”
“Th-thank you, Mir.”
She pulls back and smiles at me.
“You are more than welcome. Now, instead of you going to tell everyone on your own, how about you give Tsuki and I a few moments to get dressed and we can all go get some food? I feel like I could eat a tonze right now.”
“Are you sure you’re recovered enough to do that, Mir? We could have some food brought here instead.”
Y’shtola chimes in.
“With the condition everyone saw her in when we brought her back, it would help morale to see that her condition has improved.”
“We’ll just get some food, talk with whoever’s there for a bit, and then come back here, okay? Nothing more, I swear.”
“…As long as you’re sure you’ll be fine.”
“I don’t think I can say that with absolute certainty—you and Shtola can see my aether better than I can—but I do feel much better.”
That’s probably the best I can hope for, given the circumstances.
“I’ll be waiting for you in the main entrance to the Pendants, then. See you soon.”
I leave Mir’s room and go to where I said I’d wait for them.
While we’re changing into our robes, Tsuki starts questioning me.
“How much of our conversation did you hear?”
“I heard none of it. The first thing I heard was Ryne getting off the bed.”
She starts scrutinizing that answer, almost as if she doesn’t believe me.
“Good. Let us not keep Ryne waiting any longer than she has to. The last thing we need is her getting worried after we just convinced her it was fine for you to go out.”
“Of course, my love.”