“Leon?” Veronica called out, her voice small and uncertain.
Now fully awake, she clutched the blanket around her shoulders as she called his name repeatedly. No response emerged from the shadows. Where could a man of his imposing stature possibly hide in this modest chamber anyway?
“You could at least have said something before disappearing,” she murmured. “Especially since you insisted that I stay by your side…”
Where could he have gone in this downpour? Even though logic told her he must have had compelling reasons, an irrational sadness crept into her heart. Unwelcome memories began to surface from the depths of her mind. The time she had been imprisoned alone in that pitch-black room felt viscerally present, the terror as fresh as if it had happened yesterday. She remembered the haunting screams and desperate prayers of the other prisoners, being confined in a daze for endless hours, and waiting with diminishing hope for just one person to return.
She hated waiting. It warped time into an endless torture. A single minute would stretch into an agonizing eternity, and then…
A sound at the door suddenly shattered her dark reverie. She jerked her head up to see Leon, drenched to the bone from the relentless rain, pause in surprise as he opened the door and found her awake and distressed. Without even pausing to remove his sodden garments, he strode purposefully toward her.
“Why are you crying?” he demanded. “Are you in pain? Has the dizziness returned?”
He was before her in an instant, his large hand pressing against her forehead to check for fever. When she flinched slightly at the cool dampness of his skin, he began to withdraw his touch. Veronica immediately stretched out her arms and wrapped them tightly around his waist.
“Where did you disappear to?” Veronica demanded. “You’re supposed to say something before vanishing, or people get worried sick. Honestly, you’re impossible…”
Leon immediately enveloped her shoulders in his strong arms, his expression softening with remorse. “I’m sorry. You were sleeping so peacefully that I thought it would be all right.”
“But I woke up all alone.”
“I’m sorry. I promise it won’t happen again.”
In truth, she hadn’t been waiting long at all, but she clung to him with feigned indignation anyway. Perhaps it was because he indulged her every whim so thoroughly that she found herself behaving like a child with him.
Leon held her quietly for a moment before murmuring softly against her hair, “Veronica, I just need to dry off quickly. It won’t take a moment.”
“No.” She clutched him tighter.
“You’ll catch a chill.”
“I don’t care.”
Most would find such stubbornness exasperating after a while, but Leon’s lips curved into a tender smile, as though beholding something precious beyond words.
“At this rate, I won’t be able to leave for work either.”
“Good,” she declared. “Don’t go. Stay by my side forever.”
“As you wish, my lady. I won’t go anywhere without your permission.”
His acquiescence came without hesitation. It seemed he would agree to any demand she made, no matter how unreasonable or impossible. Her mood lightened, and as she slowly loosened her embrace, her eyes met his steady gaze. With his rain-slicked hair swept completely back, his handsome features were fully revealed, drawing her eyes like a magnet to steel.
“You look chilled to the bone.”
“I actually am freezing.”
“Then shed those wet clothes and come under the covers before you lose more warmth.”
“So you’re not upset anymore?”
“I wasn’t really upset to begin with.”
Leon’s mouth quirked into a knowing smile at her feigned nonchalance as he began peeling off his sodden garments. The heavy thud of wet fabric hitting the floor was followed by the magnificent sight of broad shoulders and perfectly sculpted muscles. Veronica found herself mesmerized, stealing glances at the glistening droplets trailing down his firm skin before impulsively tugging his arm toward the bed.
“I’m still cold,” he admitted.
“I’m warm enough for both of us,” she whispered.
She yearned to envelop him in her warmth. Yet he hesitated, his eyes traveling over her thoughtfully before wiping himself with a dry towel and only then slipping beneath the covers. His body was indeed like ice against hers.
“Are you hungry? I requested dinner be brought up when I returned.”
“My appetite has vanished. More importantly, where did you venture off to?”
She nestled closer against him as she asked, savoring the steady rhythm of his heartbeat against her ear.
“I went to meet that acquaintance I mentioned before,” he explained. “Years ago, I aided the lord of Roberdin at the borderlands. He promised that if I would tutor his son, he’d grant me a parcel of land to build a house upon—anywhere of my choosing.”
“A lord?” Veronica echoed, stunned by this revelation.
To someone who had lived an ordinary life like herself, it seemed a position even more formidable than emperor or Pope in some ways. After all, he was the sovereign master of the very ground beneath their feet.
Now she understood why Leon had been so certain that the person who owed him this debt would still be alive.
“Where do you want to live?” he asked softly, interrupting her thoughts. “If you could live anywhere in this realm, where would it be?”
Veronica’s eyes, momentarily distant, began to sparkle with realization. Like a child asked to name her dearest wish, she counted off items on her delicate fingers as she considered.
“I… hmm…” She bit her lip in concentration. “Not too near the coastline or in the heart of any city. The weather turns treacherous by the sea, and I’ve never been fond of ceaseless noise. I’d love a hillside dwelling where the ocean stretches out before you like a painting, yet not so remote that a town is beyond reach. And I’d want a yard spacious enough for sheep or goats to graze contentedly. The house itself should be crafted of sturdy oak, with grand windows to welcome the light and a hearth that glows with warmth on winter nights.”
“You’ve painted quite the vivid picture,” he remarked, the corner of his mouth lifting as he envisioned her dream in his mind’s eye.
“Better than vague longings, isn’t it? I’ve been nurturing this dream since I was just a girl.”
“And what about children?”
Veronica, who had been answering with such certainty, faltered at his next question. Children…
She had always yearned for them with her whole heart. But her monthly cycles still hadn’t resumed. She had hoped that being reborn and restored to health at the Blasen Mountains might have kindled new possibilities. Her breasts had ached a little as they did during her cycles, giving her a flicker of hope, but it turned out to be nothing.
When she glanced up, Leon’s expression as he awaited her answer was inscrutable. Today especially, she found it difficult to read what lay behind those fathomless eyes. Unable to form a response, she merely bit her lip, and he gently pulled the fallen blanket up to her neck as he began to speak in hushed tones.
“The truth is, I called a physician to examine you while you were sleeping.”
She knew he had been close to doing that, so she wasn’t completely surprised.
“You seemed feverish, and I thought to procure some tonics to restore your vitality.”
The gravity in his voice made Veronica’s heart seize with sudden dread. Was something very wrong with her body? Perhaps she was barren…
“He detected the pulse of new life within you.”
“The pulse of… what do you mean?”
“It means you’re with child.”
Veronica’s eyes widened to perfect circles. Leon had been gazing at the delicate curve where her neck met her shoulder, but now he raised his eyes to meet hers steadily. Silence flowed between them—thick and impossibly slow. It felt as though time itself had ceased its eternal march.
“So you’re saying that we’re going to…”
Even as she stammered, her mind raced ahead. She understood why he had left her in such haste—it was because Leon wished to secure a stable home for them without delay.
“We’re going to become parents,” he said softly. “If we choose to embrace this path.”
Leon didn’t deceive her by claiming pregnancy was an unalloyed blessing. Nor did he pressure her by revealing his own deepest wishes.
“If it feels too overwhelming, you just have to say you aren’t ready for this child. I truly need nothing in this world but you.”
His voice, though low, resonated with unwavering certainty. Something molten and fierce welled up from the depths of her heart.
A child had taken root within her. The divine had bestowed a gift upon them, and that gift was a new soul forged from the mingling of their bloodlines.
“How could I not want this miracle?” she whispered, her trembling lips barely able to form the words. “This has been my wish forever…”
How woefully inadequate the human language was for containing the vastness of emotion.
The Bahamut’s vision, which she’d believed long forgotten, flashed before her eyes. Specifically, she recalled the first memory she’d glimpsed during her corruption—the radiant faces of parents gazing down upon their newborn child, that symphony of laughter and tears and the perfect slice of mortal existence.
And now we will be…
Veronica couldn’t continue speaking and instead flung her arms around his neck with desperate tenderness. She felt him embrace her in return, burying his face against her shoulder, his breath ragged against her skin. His emotions were overwhelming, untamed.
Only after becoming one like this, anchored firmly to each other, did his raw vulnerability pour into her consciousness. You were terrified too, weren’t you? Perhaps even more than I was. Her heart ached with sweet recognition.
“I never dared dream of such happiness…” Leon murmured, his voice rough with emotion. “I feel as though I might die of happiness at this very moment.”
She could feel his heart thundering against her chest. Veronica closed her eyes, and the infinite darkness behind her eyelids rippled with colors she had never before witnessed in this realm.
Sometime in her past, she had wrestled with questions such as: Could a child denied love learn to bestow it? Isn’t love a gift that only those who have received it can truly give?
But now she knew that that wasn’t true—for love wasn’t an innate talent but a sacred labor of the heart.
“I love you,” he said.
And she answered, “I love you more.”