Winter 4994, 21 Aoimoth 

Lily never felt so happy and complete and content in all her life. Admittedly, she'd had the same thought before, many times in fact, but that was only because the bar kept rising the more she experienced. This time though, this time was different. This time she had Shon with her again. Even after what happened, he'd come back to her and stayed. Had given himself to her and taken her back in return in a way she'd only ever dreamed about. And he'd done it because of who she was and not despite of what she was. Though how far that could carry them still lingered in the back of her mind, like the inevitable shadows cast any time there was a bright light. 

As Yua laughed at Shon's blush; Tuth tried to clean up the mess of mead down his robe; Ryuuko dipped its head in the half-empty cup; and the Masters smiled knowingly at one another; Lily sighed. She didn't want this happy moment to end. She wanted to stretch it out for as long as possible and lose herself in it the way she'd lost herself in Shon's cold embrace upstairs. But she couldn't. Time moved on, and she had to move with it. 

"So..." she finally said as the mirth of the table started to lull, "How long do you think I have before I need to start running? Tonight? Or can I at least wait until tomorrow?" 

As expected, the smiles all vanished. Shon reached down to grab her hand still resting on his leg and held it tight. As if she were about to dash out now. But it was Velona who said, "Run? Lily, what are you talking about?" 

Veon-Zih leaned forward and had obviously misunderstood because he said, "The Warlocks aren't just going to come marching in. They aren't that kind of crazy-" But Lily was shaking her head. 

Tuth understood first, or at least voiced it first, "She's talking about the Temple and Guild. But Lily, you can't run. We have a hearing tomorrow and-" 

"There is no way I'm walking into the Temple itself after what happened." Lily interrupted him. Shon squeezed her hand harder, and she saw his jaw clench out of the corner of her eye. 

It was Yua who said, "But Shon's already drafted an argument for you and has half the counsel convinced. If you run, it will void his defense, and then there'll be literally nothing he or any of us can do." 

Lily blinked at her, and the others all nodded around the table, "Really?" she asked, looking to Shon for the answer, "You did that for me?" 

"Of course he did, Lily," Veon-Zih answered for him. 

Tuth just scoffed, "Took him all day and night too. I thought he was just running away, but... Well... Sorry about that, man." He rubbed the back of his head nervously, glancing at Shon while Ryuuko lifted its head from Tuth's cup and snapped at him. 

Shon just shook his head, having never been offended by the Mage to begin with. He turned to Lily, saying, "I swore an oath, Lily. That I would uphold the laws of the land and pursue justice in the name of Hengist. I will do everything I can to make sure the Temple honors your rights and you keep your power. But you have to trust me." 

Lily took a moment to take a deep breath but answered, "I trust you," and could only hope that he could hear how much more that word meant to her than what else she might have said in its place. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tuth shrug, and he said, "Honestly, his case was strong enough that I think it should be the least of your worries. They're probably going to focus on asking you what happened after Pia took you to the Warlock. All our reports are second-hand from what she told us." 

Lily brought Shon's hand up and kissed it before letting it go and lacing her fingers together on the table, asking, "What did she say?" 

"Why don't you just tell us what happened, Lily," Veon-Zih offered. 

She hummed, looking down at her hands and circling her thumbs around each other. She didn't mind telling all of them what had happened, but she didn't like the idea of telling the Temple everything. She doubted anyone's defense could stand up if the Paladins decided to take the Warlock's claims seriously. Especially if they reported the details to the Temple of the Slayer, Saint Giorgos...

"Arver was already in her yurt when we showed up." Lily started, "He spoke to me in draconic... I knew that he'd been teaching Pia, I should have suspected then, but it wasn't until he asked if I knew my name that I knew for sure who he was." 

"You knew him?" Yua asked. 

Lily shook her head, "Not him specifically. But the group he was part of was the same that kept me. Just like them, he refused to acknowledge my name. He said it wasn't a dragon name and that I would know my true name in time, that all dragons know their own name." 

Tuth let out a breath in a disbelieving and indignant "Pah," -which made her smile- and said, "They think you're a dragon? They are mad." 

Everyone else nodded in agreement, but Lily just shrugged, waving a hand at her face with its scaled stripes and slitted eyes. Yua hummed, tilting her head from one side to the other, then directed a question at Ryuuko. "Hey, little one, stand on Lily's shoulder for a moment?" 

Ryuuko gave a happy chirp then crawled up Lily's arm and onto her shoulder. The Ranger made a show out of rubbing her chin. "Well, you are bigger than it... But when I was taught that pseudodragons were just like real dragons, only smaller. I honestly pictured something more... dragon-like?"

Lily cocked her head to the side and could feel Ryuuko do the same on her shoulder, but that just made the table laugh. Even Shon smiled. "Well, when you do that, it's certainly more convincing," Yua admitted once she had calmed her laughs. 

"No, but seriously," Tuth said, once he had stopped snickering, "Dragons were just dumb destructive monsters. And even if I sometimes make fun of you for reading nothing but trash novels, you're not."

Lily rolled her eyes at him, "Those trash novels are fun. I read nothing but history and theology for the whole first part of my life, and you don't even have any of the good ones of those." 

"Like what?" Tuth asked indignantly, "You've been to Diem, the Guild there has every book in the kingdom." 

"Everything that hasn't been banned." Lily argued, "Saint Gorigos had all the books talking about the dragon gods, or anything describing dragons as anything but dumb monsters, destroyed." 

At first, it looked like Tuth wanted to argue, but then his jaw went slack until he finally stuttered out, "Dragon... gods..." then he slapped his hand down on the table, snaping, "Damn it, Lily. You knew I'd been researching the gods of dragons. That's the only reason I wanted to do that damn kobold mission!" 

"The dragons had gods?" Veon-Zih asked skeptically, "Then how would they have gone extinct? There's no way the gods would've allowed it."

"He's right," Velona agreed, "The gods don't interfere often, but in times of crisis, they at least create Chosen and will come themselves if necessary." 

Shon nodded, adding, "There have been eight Hengist Chosen over the last ten thousand years." 

"And correspondingly eight Horsa Chosen, one either won't or can't make one without the other doing the same to counter him," Tuth interjected as if that fact should matter. 

"And," Yua decided to get in on educating the table, as if any of them actually needed the lesson, "They say Horsa and Hengist themselves walked the earth at least twice." 

Lily groaned and ran both her hands through her hair and down to her neck, staring at the ceiling in frustration. "This is why I don't talk about what I learned there. It doesn't matter! The dragons and their gods are dead and have been for almost five thousand years. No one in the kingdom knows about them because the kingdom itself doesn't want them to know. If I go around talking about it, it just makes me stand out more, and the Slayer's Paladins will just come hunt me down to shut me up." 

"The Slayer," Yua muttered, "Saint Giorgos?"

Lily nodded, "Him and his friends killed most of the dragons, the good and the bad, and both their gods. In a way, he created the Warlocks that kept me, because they're trying to bring the dragons back. They seem to think it will save the world." 

"There were good dragons?" Velona asked. 

Lily groaned again and dropped her chin to rest on the table, dangling her arms limply between her legs. Ryuuko crawled up to drape itself over her head as she answered, "Yes. Okay, let me just lay this all out so you guys can stop asking. There were two dragon gods. Like most of the old gods, they represented opposing forces, Inryuu and Yoryuu-" Ryuuko whistled, and Shon twitched, but she continued without looking at him, "-were destruction and creation. They both embodied the elements, and they each had five children, or types of dragon, one for each of the elements." She pointed at the scales on her cheek, "Inryuu's were all precious-stone colored, and the reds, or rubies, were fire."

Lily dropped her hand and tilted her head to rest her cheek on the table -to avoid looking at any of them- "And we all know that I'm not a normal Sorcerer. I don't have a familiar for one thing, and I seem to embody my magic more than others, even Pia." Her eyes fixed on Shon's sword pommel, currently a lovely shade of ocean blue. "When they took my magic, I felt empty and drained and not at all me. Like it was locking way more than just the power. Like it was reshaping my soul..." 

She felt Shon's cold fingers on her upturned cheek and closed her eyes, reveling in the refreshing and soothing feel of it. And of her own power that rose to meet it. She sighed and continued, "I don't know why I'm like this or what they did to me. But if the Warlocks say I'm a dragon, and the Temples decide my power is dragon power and not Sorcerer power. Then anyone that does know about dragon lore -and some Mages do, that's why they still pay me for samples- will see my red scales and know me for a monster. And the Temple of Saint Giorgos will definitely want that power sealed if not completely destroyed, which means destroying me."

The silence that greeted her rant was broken by Shon, who said in his deep quiet voice, "You aren't a monster, Lily. Don't make me tell you again." 

"Yeah, Lily," Yua said, actually managing a truly delightful wicked grin. "He might end up spanking you next time, and as much as I would love to hear about it, I don't know if poor Tuth could survive more girl talk."

Lily couldn't help a giggle, finally raising her head and sitting up to see all the men at the table blushing and Velona hiding her smile behind her hand.

Shon cleared his throat, but said, "Not all the books with dragon lore were banned." Ryuuko twittered in agreement from the top of her head until Lily tilted it, and the little dragon spilled back onto her shoulder. Shon tapped on the table and continued, "There are some very, very old books in the Temple that talk about Hengist Paladins working with good dragons. We were taught they were embellishments, myths, but one of the Chosen supposedly rode a dragon into battle against a Horsa army."

"Yoryuu's," Lily answered, and he looked up, searching her face and furrowing his brow as if she'd said something shocking. Lily just shrugged, "There were five types of them too, all metallic."

"Metallic?" Shon asked, reaching forward to brush her hair back behind her ear. 

Tuth's eyes went wide, and he snapped his fingers in the air. Lily flinched, but Tuth didn't notice, "Of course! Everything in the material plane has some combination of elemental properties, that's how Mages determine their spell components, and the metal with the most fire energy is-"

"Gold," Shon whispered, his fingers trailing down her hair, picking up some to hold in front of her face. "Even if the reds were destructive, you are not. And even if you do have some dragon power, you are not only red." 

"But yesterday..." Lily started,

"Day before yesterday," Tuth corrected on instinct, and Velona actually stood up to reach past Yua and smack him across the chest with the back of her hand. 

Yua snorted, "Yeah, Lily, because that lovely fire horse before that was totally a manifestation of pure destruction, not at all an impressive work of lifelike art." 

Shon kissed her hair, then locked his eyes on hers, "For every argument you try and make that you're a monster, we will come up with two that prove you're not." 

Lily's mouth worked fruitlessly for a moment, but then she shook her head. "The dragons weren't that kind of monster, even the bad ones. No more than bad humans or Horsa followers are monsters." Shon huffed at that, dropping her hair and looking pointedly away. Even Veon-Zih scoffed a little. Silly Hengist men. But Lily continued, "Giorgos is the one that says they were beast-like-monsters. But they were intelligent, and some even say they taught the first Mages. Even Bede himself supposedly trained under a brass dragon." Tuth looked like he wanted to ask for more on that, but Yua reached over and covered his mouth with her hand, so Lily continued, "If I am a dragon-"

It was Velona who interrupted her next, "You're not, Lily, and I can prove it." 

"You mean besides the obvious fact that she can fit in this room and Shon could fit his-" Yua started. 

"The Warlocks are still trying to bring them back." Velona continued over the Ranger, "If you were a dragon, then that would mean they succeeded in their goal. Unless they said they need to make more of them?"

Lily sat back in her chair, crossing her arms and tilting her head at her Master. "No, they always say they need to bring back the true dragons. And at my tower, they were trying to do it by breeding animals with dragon power."

"So you're not a dragon, even if you do have dragon power," Veon-Zih concluded, "And we've gotten off-topic. What else did the Warlock say in Pia's yurt?" 

Lily shook her head, "Just that, really. He said that now that they'd killed my 'guards' -you guys- that I could come back with him and together we could save the world."

"Guards?" Yua asked. 

Lily nodded, "He seemed to think that Shon and Tuth were sent with the Temple and Guild to keep me in check." 

Shon huffed, and Tuth said, "Like anyone could keep you in check." making everyone laugh again, even Lily. Shon smiled. 

When everyone had calmed again, Shon said, "Tell them everything. They don't need the background unless they ask, and they know Warlocks are insane. Trust Hengist, Lily. His justice will win out."

Lily huffed, "I trust Hengist about as far as I can throw the bastard. I'll trust you." 

Shon's eyes looked like they were about to roll out of his head from the shock of her blasphemy, and Velona recited a familiar prayer for her student to the sky, but Veon-Zih said, "That will have to do."

*** 

As the pub began to fill with the nightly crowd, their conversation shifted to lighter topics. Tuth grilled Lily on dragon correspondences and lore while Velona and Yua left to move their belongings from Lily's room to a new one they'd rented. Veon-Zih left Shon's side to watch some dart throwers in the far corner and even played a few rounds until Tuth and Lily went to join him. Shon watched it all from his seat at the table, nursing his meads slowly and keeping to himself. Ryuuko draped itself across his shoulders and occasionally stuck its head into his cup when he tipped it back for a drink. 

Tuth, it turned out, was very good at darts, and was creating a stir among the locals. The regular patrons soon started challenging him to do harder and more complex throws and changed their drinking game to make him take a swig every time he got a bullseye rather than every time he didn't. Lily cheered him on from the sidelines, and when the ladies returned, Velona went to stand with Veon-Zih, but Yua came back to the table, taking Lily's abandoned seat next to Shon.

"So," she said simply, reaching forward to take one of the new cups the server kept them stocked with, "Cinnamon?"

Shon closed his eyes with a silent prayer, then opened them again and nodded. But he'd been drinking enough to add, "She's always smelled like cinnamon, and her lips..." 

"Those," Yua said, shooting him a sideways grin around her cup, "are not the lips I was talking about."

He could feel the blush rise from his neck into his face, and Shon took a long deep drink to try and hide it. But knew he failed when Yua laughed out loud, "Oh man, this is great. I was starting to wonder if anything would get any kind of response from you, but this is more than I'd hoped for." 

"And what would you have tried if it didn't?" Shon grumbled, "Torture?" This was torture enough in his opinion. Some things were better kept private. He didn't know how she would respond if -in her teasing- she managed to land on some of his darker fantasies, the kinds of things he didn't want Lily to know about. No. Better to keep that all tucked away where even he tried not to see them. 

Yua snorted, "Like torture would work on you. I saw you take that draken hit, remember? You'd probably just glare and ask for more until the torturer was shaking in their boots." She sighed, "Lily doesn't care, you know. Most people aren't ashamed."

"I'm not ashamed," Shon argued, though Ryuuko undermined him by chittering in obvious disbelief. Shon pushed the pseudodragon off his back, but it just clung to the chair, then jumped over to perch on Yua's shoulder with an indignant chirp. "Some things should just be kept private." And he had absolutely no experience with such topics of conversation. 

"So you want me to stop?" Yua actually asked.

"Will you?" Shon countered, already seeing the answer in her grin. 

"Maybe. Once you stop responding so strongly. Or..." she took another drink of her mead, "You could just ask me to leave." 

"You want to?" Shon asked. This time she didn't grin.

Yua shook her head, "No. I like Lily, this team, and even you. It feels kind of like a beautifully dysfunctional family. And I honestly don't want to travel alone anymore. But I will if you ask. In all seriousness, I understand if you want some private time with Lily after all this, and I really don't want to be a third wheel. Even if I will continue to poke fun if I'm here."

Shon thought about Lily talking with Yua on the plains and how the Ranger had readily agreed to fight a possible Warlock for them. He remembered how she'd tried with the others to convince Lily not to run. How she hadn't flinched at the idea that Lily might have dragon power. And her telling Lily that she wasn't a force of destruction. Yua had started out as just another adventuring companion, one of many he'd had on various jobs over the years, but had ended up almost a friend by the end of this one. 

Master Veon-Zih had spent his first years adventuring with a dedicated team that were still his closest friends. Even after they'd all retired around him. Now, Shon's Master was retiring too and taking Lily's with him. As far as Shon knew, they hadn't told Lily yet, and he didn't know how she would respond to the news. With her more social nature, he thought it would do her good to have a companion other than him.

Shon looked sideways at Yua, who was holding her drink up for Ryuuko to sample, and thought of what Veon-Zih had said about him needing a social ambassador. Maybe if Shon looked at Yua's teasing as a type of training instead of torture, it wouldn't be so bad...

Shon took another drink of mead, then said, "Having a competent ranged fighter is always good."

Yua smiled, "Aw... thanks, big guy. I'll try and keep the teasing gentle. Maybe you'll learn not to react so strongly, and then it won't be as much fun anymore." She made to pat him on the back, but he pulled away before her hand reached him. She stopped, furrowing her brow at him, and asked, "You really don't like being touched, do you?" 

"No," Shon said shortly, and she pulled her hand back. 

"But Veon-Zih and Lily-" she started.

"They're different," Shon said, then sighed, "Even Master can't touch me for long, and Lily is the only one that doesn't feel it."

"You mean your cold? It can't be that bad. I've been to Oane in the winter. I can handle a little chill." She clearly didn't remember flinching away from him in the heat of the moment back in the Yurt.

Shon arched his eyebrow at her, and Ryuuko huffed out a little dragon laugh. She tried to match his expression, but it just made her face look lopsided as she scrunched one eye closed to lift the other's brow. Shon snorted and shrugged. He'd probably drunk too much, but if she really wanted to know...

He waited until she looked away to take another drink then touched the back of her neck with just his fingertips. 

Yua knocked her chair over and clapped her hand over the back of her neck as Ryuuko launched itself into the rafters, circling the pub and chittering madly. "Cathbad's veiny shaft, what the hell?!" she shouted. 

Shon shrugged and took another drink while Ryuuko landed back on his shoulder again. As he lowered his cup, he said, "People have never liked touching me or being touched by me. I've gotten used to it." 

"Everything okay over there?" Lily called from the dartboard. 

Yua rubbed her neck and picked up her chair, then grinned at him before shouting over her shoulder, "Everything's fine. Your lover's just trying to finger me is all." 

Shon buried his face in his hands, but Lily just laughed, "Did you tell him he's not your type?" 

"I might make an exception if he agrees to share you," Yua answered back. Shon looked through his fingers to see Lily giggle, her beaming smile lighting up the room and reminding him why he'd agreed to keep the Ranger around. 

Yua turned her chair, then straddled it to face him and picked up her drink. Continuing about Shon's cold, she said, "Okay, so it might be that bad, and I'll keep my hands to myself if that's what you want, but I'm sure I could get used to it at least as much as Veon-Zih has if you'll let me."

So she would tease him no matter what but would respect his personal space physically? Shon could respect that, which was probably what prompted him to say, "You can try." effectively giving her permission to touch him. Though he probably couldn't stop flinching. 

He rubbed his face again, then reached for his drink, using it to gesture towards Lily and asking, "You have no shame, do you?"

Yua laughed, "Oh if you think that's bad, you should never meet Ebonwing." 

"A Druid?" Shon asked. With a name like that, what else could they be?

The Ranger nodded, "Also of the Southernwood. She was my old traveling companion, but she was summoned back to the wood..." Her face fell just a bit, her smile turning sad. 

"Your lover." Shon realized. 

"Ah..." Yua sighed, holding the back of the chair and leaning back to speak to the ceiling, "She was amazing. With legs that reached to the heavens and a hunger that could never be sated. For adventure and... other things." She winked at Shon, who managed not to blush and just shook his head. Somehow it was different when it wasn't about him. 

"Why didn't you go with her?" Shon asked before he could think past the mead to the possibility that it might be a touchy topic for her.

Yua leaned forward again, crossing her arms over the back of the chair and looking mournfully into her half-full cup, but answered, "She didn't give me the chance. She knew I didn't want to go back to Shutha, so she took the choice from me and left only a note. I sent Neg with her -my crow companion- but until the Grove gives her leave to travel again..." She sighed and gulped down the rest of her drink before continuing, "But I would have. I would've gone back and gotten locked into a job there if that's what it took to stay with her."

Shon hummed, swirling his own drink, looking at it rather than her. It wasn't his place to talk relationships with anyone, having only just started his first. Still, he took the risk, "And been miserable in the process."

"That's what she said," Yua explained, "In her note, she said she didn't want to see me miserable on her account if she could avoid it. I know she didn't want to go back either, but unlike me, she didn't have a choice. The Grove comes first." As a Druid, her Oath to Cathbad would be no less binding than a Paladin's to their god. Shon could understand that. The blessings of the gods held both benefits and responsibilities.

"But that doesn't mean it's the end," Shon whispered, looking up to meet her eyes, "She may get permission to travel again, and you may find your way back to the wood now and again."

Yua let out a short disbelieving laugh and said, "She made her choice when she took mine. Besides, long-distance relationships don't work."

Shon nodded toward Lily, "Nothing worth keeping is ever easy to hold onto. Lily and I exchanged only letters for five years, and Master Veon-Zih..." He searched the crowd for the Monks, then gestured to them, huddled at a private table together, "... waited for over forty years before he was allowed to pursue any kind of relationship."

Yua had picked up another drink but stuttered into it, "Forty?" she asked, looking over her shoulder at the Monks and clearly seeing their relationship in a new light. 

Shon nodded, "He took a vow of celibacy, but now that he's a Grandmaster, it doesn't hold him anymore." Shon looked into his cup again and set it down. He'd definitely drunk too much to be telling Veon-Zih's story for him to anyone.

"Damn..." Yua whispered. She shook her head and laughed, leaning forward to narrow her eyes at Shon, "Are you trying to cheer me up, big guy?" Shon shrugged, and she laughed again, "Careful there, iceman, people might start to think you're really much kinder than you let on." 

Shon smiled, though if Yua noticed the slight change, she didn't show it. He said, "I've drunk too much." He stood and eyed the stairs but looked back down at Yua to say, "I've been to Shutha a few times. Never know where the Temple might send me."

Ryuuko flew to Lily's shoulder and nuzzled her cheek -prompting her to turn to them- while Yua gaped at Shon, somehow lost for words. Shon nodded to her, then started towards Lily.

She met him halfway and brought her hands behind her back, bouncing on her toes and grinning at him. Shon could feel his smile broaden and leaned down to whisper in her ear, "Come to bed with me?" 

Lily hummed, pressing her cheek to his, then reached up to pat the opposite side before she walked past him and skipped up the stairs. Ryuuko held onto her ear, its tail wrapped tightly around her arm. It hissed back at Shon. He wouldn't be able to keep it out this time. 

"Get used to it, lover boy!" Yua called. Shon sighed -ignoring the Ranger- and followed Lily up the stairs.

*** 

Lily looked out the window at the sparkling lights of the capital city. Studying the skyline over the traditional buildings, she made note of the landmarks. The Mages Guild, a single tower, more massive inside than out. The Grove of Cathbad, its treetop roof rustling in the night breeze. The Temples, all three of them, though the white stones of Hengist's parapets shone brighter than the gray and black of the other two. The Church of Soleil, its elegant spires reaching for the sky, ready to catch the light of the sun when it rose in the morning... 

Tomorrow... 

The open door clicked shut behind her, and Lily smiled, knowing that she wouldn't have to worry about the second click of a lock. Shon knew she didn't like locked doors. She listened to him move around the room behind her. A hiss of leather through belt loops and a soft rustle as he pulled something cloth from his bag and dropped it on the floor at the foot of the bed. Their bed... 

Shon whistled a signal to Ryuuko, and the pseudodragon answered in kind, leaping from her shoulder and returning to its human. Lily couldn't know what they communicated to each other, except that Ryuuko hissed, and Shon growled at it.

Lily crossed her arms and smothered a snicker behind her hand, imagining the implications. She suspected Shon had made a separate bed for the little dragon, and Ryuuko was chafing at being kicked from its spot on his pillow. She snuck a glance and saw that Shon's cloak was pooled on the ground at his feet, and he was, in fact, pointing to it and glaring at the pseudodragon.

She returned her eyes to the window, her smile turned smug at her correct guess. She wanted to reassure Ryuuko that it could sneak its way back after Shon fell asleep, but that would have to wait. For now, she wanted to see what he would do when given a chance to make the first move.

Lily could feel when he approached her, though he stopped short and actually asked, "May I touch you?" 

She sighed, dropping her arms and reaching back behind her with both of them. Fumbling against his legs for a moment, she found his hands and pulled them to wrap around her. Leaning back to rest against his chest, she said, "You don't have to ask, Shon. Ever." 

"You looked like you were thinking..." he explained, but held her tighter, resting his cold cheek against the side of her head and looking out the window with her. 

"I was," Lily said, "but there will never be a time when you touching me won't make whatever is on my mind better."

He hummed, the sound disbelieving.

She turned in his arms, resting her hands on his chest and rubbing the strong muscles below his shirt, "And if that ever changes..." She looked into his eyes and smiled, "I will tell you. Didn't I already promise as much? I don't want a lack of communication between us to create pointless drama. I trust you, and I want you to trust me too." She let her hands slide up to cup his face, "You already trust me to take care of myself in the world, but you need to trust me with you too. I want you to be able to do whatever you want with me, whenever you want, no matter what it is."

Shon pulled her closer, and the way he squeezed made Lily want to melt, but the look of something like fear in his eyes had her waiting, "I don't want to do anything you don't-" he started. 

Lily placed a finger against his mouth to shush him, feeling the smooth cold of his lips like a layer of ice after a night of sleet. "I'm new to this, so even I don't know what I want. Except that I want to try it all. I want all of you, and I don't want you to hold back because you think I won't like it. You have to trust that, one," she pressed her finger into his lips a little harder, "I will tell you if I don't like something. And two," She lifted a second finger with the first. "that if, for whatever unimaginable reason, you don't get the first message, I am more than capable of stopping you if I have to." 

Shon pulled her against him hard and buried his face in her neck. Shaking his head, he said again, "I don't..." 

"Shon," Lily interrupted, "I don't think we will ever need to put that second one to the test. I trust you," She repeated, relaxing into his embrace with a sigh, letting her body fit itself to his. "I would never submit to you otherwise." His breath shook on her neck, and she hummed, stroking his hair.

"So that's what I want. I want you to know that I will welcome anything you want to do with me whenever you want to do it. Whether that's touching me while I'm thinking about how much I hate the idea of this trial tomorrow, or... I don't know, anything at all," She laughed and pulled his head back so she could rest her forehead on his, losing herself in the soft vibrant blue of his eyes, and asking, "Now, what do you want?"

Shon loosened his embrace and slid his hands across her back and down to her hips. He squeezed, then pulled her to press against him, letting her feel exactly what he wanted, trapped and hard between them. Lily hummed, and Shon's smile was as soft as ever, but his eyes twinkled with a new mischievous light as he whispered in her ear, "I want to taste you."

Lily giggled, "Yua did promise that was something I should look forward to..." 

With the grace of a warrior and speed of a Monk, Shon dipped, sweeping her legs out from under her. Lily squealed and giggled, relaxing in his arms, confident that he wouldn't drop her.

"That woman..." Shon said as he carried her to the bed. Their bed. "is a torment..." He laid Lily across the blankets gently and stroked her face, his grin wicked, "but she isn't wrong."

He kissed down her neck while his hands trailed under her shirt, pulling the fabric up torturously slow. Lily hummed at the refreshing feel of his rough calluses, arching her back and lacing her fingers up through his hair. "I look forward to finding out," she whispered as he trailed lower, between her breasts and beyond, then added, "Together." and felt him smile against her skin. 

And all worries of the following day and the goings-on in the world beyond his touch drained away. She was complete and calm and warm under his cold skin, and Lily knew, This. This is what makes everything worth it.

Even if she couldn't trust the Temple or the Guild with her fate, she could trust him. And she would, with anything and everything.