She came with the same surety that she always came, despite her hesitancy. The world and fate drew them together inexplicably time after time. How it was that she ended up there when he most needed her, every time, was not something Cera could comprehend. It wasn't something that truly mattered enough to be looked further into, regardless. For she was there, in that moment. There was nothing else that mattered but her.

She came slowly. Across a void that was filled with a hurt still tender to the touch, with eyes that begged forgiveness. Surely she knew it had already been given. Moments after she'd spit her words at him he'd forgiven her, because love did not know how else to function than to forgive. To relent. She was sewn irrevocably into his heart, tearing her out would only serve to kill himself. Love was the most terrifying thing in existence, in that way. It could kill a man with no mortal wound, could bolster the smallest creature into a warrior of repute. Love was the most dangerous, volatile, beautiful thing Cera had ever experienced. And Ranjiri stood there, the embodiment of his love, and he was too weak a man to have even considered denying her any forgiveness.

His name was strangled even in its beauty, for he'd been kept from her voice for so long that anything she could have said would have sounded like a symphony orchestrated on his heartstrings. Apologies stumbled from her lips summarily, but all he could do was smile. It had been so long since he'd been able to, but even if he'd still been but a broken shell he would have summoned it if only for her sake. Striding forward, he had none of the hesitancy that she'd displayed. His love for her was too strong, too resilient, and as the forgiver of the situation he knew how this would end. There was nothing to fear in his eyes.

"You are long forgiven, princess," he said softly. She was far from it, in the eyes of an impartial spectator. But Cera did not call her so mockingly. She'd been his little princess since he'd first laid eyes on her tiny form, and though he hadn't called her such since she was very young, it only seemed appropriate to name her it now. Wings opened in an invitation, hoping she would come to him so he could embrace her, for he would not force her emotions into a mold that he desired.