If there was any salvation in his sins, it was that she had found the strength to live without him. It was one thing to need someone for comfort and reassurance and another to decide to want someone. Resplendence could take care of herself now, has found a place in the world - and yet, still she wants him. She chooses him, and that it is her choice now speaks more for her love than any action she could have taken.

Valiance takes flight, but the prince is barely aware. He is intoxicated, blinded by his lover and the sudden, unexpected turn that their reunion has taken. In the past, he always felt that he had to treat her as a fragile flower, liable to break into pieces at the slightest provocation. The mare he sees before him now is whole, complete, confident - an entirely new persona layered into his beloved. He cannot keep his eyes off her. He cannot help the desire - no, the need to touch her. Zarina grumbles, scampering along his back and using his tail as a ladder until she reaches the ground, cursing the dragon for leaving her behind. Instead, she leaves the pair to their - ahem - activities and decides to explore the Fields.

He doesn't care. He barely even notices.

"Yes," she murmurs, and he leans into her only to find that she is withdrawing from his embrace. He starts to follow, desperate in his need to feel her against him, but stops, wanting to witness this newfound confidence that she has come to possess. He groans aloud as she slides by, her touch leaving trails of fire along his body; he nips at her, gentle but firm all at once, a request and a demand. As she steps briefly away, he prances alongside, caressing every inch of her he can reach. He wants her, needs her, in a way that he never could have anticipated, never having allowed himself to think this far into their future. There had always been something in the way.

But now, it is only her.

Now, she is his.

---

After, they stand together in the Fields, his wing draped casually across her back. He sighs with contentment, nuzzling from her nape to her cheek. "I love you," he breathes, and in his words there is a depth that there has never been, a newfound respect for her and all that she can accomplish without him, an understanding of the strength that she has gained. There is peace and there is adoration, and there is gratefulness, for she has forgiven him, and their life together is beginning. They will face the future as a pair, never again to be torn apart by the darkness lingering in the world.

She is his.

He is hers.

They are one.

"more words."

@[Abba]

Quilyan

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