"I am with you always."

The security of hearing Ophelia speak those words was more than the Bloodskald could return in verbal kind. Knowing he would never have to be alone again...it warmed him from the inside out, giving him an easy sort of relaxation even as they trekked across the strange, glossy water-land that was the Halcyon Flats bidden by a disembodied voice only he heard.

Somehow, Torleik felt he'd experienced stranger things here in Helovia.

But perhaps not so strange a figure as the thing that slowly came more and more into focus as they approached. It looked like a raccoon and...some other creature the warrior had never quite laid eyes on before - and it seemed this was the thing that had called him, as it spoke in much the same voice and half apologized for the 'guide' that had brought them hither. It called him 'cully' and Torleik wasn't sure if this was an insult meant to prick his pride, an insult meant in amusement, or not an insult at all. Confused but curious, the dark one was quiet until a real question was posed, and then the one after it.

This creature cut straight to the quick, didn't he? Casting his eyes to Ophelia, who had less than an hour ago assured him she would always remain with him - something he just now began to really consider, and, to his shame, doubt, Torleik felt the unmooring nudge of uncertainty slide like oil beneath his hooves. Did she truly mean what she'd said? She was a wanderer, a nomad at heart; could he keep her by his side no matter what the future held? Could she crush him like the Moon Goddess had tried?

No. He doubted because he was afraid, and fear had no place here, now. He loved her, and she said she would always be with him. They had created a child. No outside thing could break them apart, and he would be damned if he was the crack that made their foundation crumble because he could not simply let a good thing be without running his mind over all the 'what if's that could ruin them.

No more doubt.

With furrowed brows, he looked back at the creature. "Love does not breed such betrayal," he returned. "If she did the same to me, then she never loved me, and I would have no obligation to suffer her." Thoughts of his mother swam to the surface of his memory, wounded and treated like chaff by his father, yet she stayed so that her son might know his sire. The Bloodskald looked at Phi's belly, knowing that a life they had both created was within. "Though I might not owe her anything then, I would still owe our child the world. And if that meant remaining, I would remain."

Realizing then the utter absurdity of this discussion and the ease with which this creature parted thoughts and confessions from him, he grunted. "This is a strange land with strange happenings, and I do not doubt that you have not simply summoned me to ask whether I would walk away from Ophelia if she betrayed me - which is a useless daydream, as it will not happen." And he believed that. Torleik didn't think for a second that she would betray him, ever. He searched for her eyes, to let her into his thoughts.

'I love you, and I believe you love me as you say you do. And I believe that will keep us together.'