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He had been good once.
He had once smiled with sincerity. With joy. With love. He had never always been tempted by the dark magic that promised him lies and deceit.
His life had had comfort with someone to hold his hand, to be by his side, to hold him when things got rough, to whisper words of comfort and give him the love he craved.
He had it all. Or so he thought.
There had been something that lingered in Tanion’s mind that would gradually swim to the surface and you had only noticed it until too late.
Cadia, you thought, was beautiful during the warmer months of the year, but it was nothing compared to how beautiful Tanion was. There would be days you would just stare at him for mere moments until he caught you out and smiled at your embarrassment at being caught and then kiss away your blush.
Others would dote on how you two were around each other, believing that Shiloh was the reason why you two were together. Though, secretly, you both knew it wasn’t. It had been a complete chance of you two meeting here within the endless miles of the Cadian forests. You’d gone out to one of the rivers from your village to find Tanion sitting on the bank, nursing a wound on his shoulder.
“Are you all right?” you called, hoisting the sack of dirty clothes over your other shoulder.
Startled, he turned, glaring at you. But the more he looked at you, the anger seemed to dissipate.
“I’ve been better.” he grumbled before going back to tending to his wounds.
You gingerly made your way to his side and inspected the bloody wound. You couldn’t help but hiss at the sight of the gash. It was almost as if a wild animal had done this. You watched as he dabbed at the wound with a piece of fabric that was already blood stained.
“Here,” You said, setting down the washing and moving tentatively closer to him. “Let me.”
His eyes had never left yours as you held out a delicate hand inches from the gash and allowed the arcane power to flow from your veins and into the wound. A few seconds later, the wound began to close up and heal, leaving a faint scar and the blood.
You smiled at your handiwork and gazed up to look into this mysterious stranger’s face.
“Thank you.” he whispered in awe.
“You’re welcome.”
That was the moment where you both knew there was a sense of intrigue. He stayed with you to keep an eye out as you worked. He’d felt that it was only right as ‘payment’ for healing him.
As you cleaned, the both of you talked and introduced yourselves and it was then that you two came closer. You always meet at the river everyday with smiles, finger-linking, hand holding arms around each other and then secretive kisses among the willow trees.
“Do you think that the war will come soon?” you asked as you both lay on a far hill from the forests intertwined and watching the clouds float on by.
“It won’t. Not for us.”
You looked at him. “What makes you say that?”
“Because we’ll be far from here. The both of us.”
“Really?”
Tanion nodded and you rolled onto your side, pulling him close to you.
Those words had once held meaning to you. To both of you.
Unbeknownst to the both of you, life had veered you in a different direction. One the day, you both set off to our new home and you were then met with those of Qadess and were asked to join them. Tanion refused out rightly but after more words of persuasion, you both agreed to join. It was then that your new home was in the city of Qadess. It was beautiful and everyone was welcoming.
But as time went on, Tanion changed. Your time within Qadess had set his mind on other things. Those of higher powers had not seen it, neither had you. Looking back on everything, you had no idea how you had missed it. Tanion was slowly becoming a new person, although he never stopped loving you. But something was pulling him away from you, or trying to.
Your heart broke the more you thought of…that day. Tanion declaring war on those who opposed him. Him holding out his hand to you, to join them. You pleaded with him to stop, to get rid of the thoughts of war. You tried to remind him of the promise he’d given you years ago. But Tanion shrugged off your words and left with his companions in tow.
The life you’d wanted with Tanion was gone, ripped from your very hands, your heart shattered. Your magic had gone haywire the longer Tanion was gone, injuring yourself in the process. You grieved and grieved for your lover, wanting him to come back. You even prayed to Shiloh for him to come back to you. But it seemed as though your prayers were falling on deaf ears. So, you left and entered a different land of Cadia to live, abandoning all that you learned. Your power diminished and died out, your faith in higher powers gone for good. You stayed as far away as you could from the war. The only thing that remained was your love for Tanion and hope that he would see sense.
You’d had it all.
Love, happiness… him .
But now, it was far out of reach...for the both of you.
(the end)