She refused, with some difficulty, to face him again. She refused to find the caring in his stare and she refused more than anything to admit that she’d been waiting on such a moment to present itself again. Together they were ghosts nameless and free, but ghosts nonetheless. Essetia had spent too long a ghost in her father’s eyes or perhaps he was just a ghost to her… Either way, she’d struggled to find any good reason to remain so thoughtless -so meaningless- when she knew all that she was capable of doing. Her heart was vast and it forgave, it loved, and it beat with the intensity of her every emotion. She wanted to share it… she wanted to show someone all that it possessed.

But how could she share a heart?

Just ahead, the tunnel opened up into a room bathed in crimson light and natural heat. Lava pooled slowly from a wide break in the ceiling and fell endlessly into the deep chasm of the Heart. Essetia had seen the wall once before, but it had been utterly different. Her skin had not felt warm, but so very cold, and her mind did not thrum so anxiously as it did now. Every nerve ending along her spine, down her legs, and even in the dips of her neck and shoulders felt alive with expectation. In truth, the bay had been waiting for some time to feel such a rush again… She’d been missing it, cherishing its memory.

Yet, disappointment had long since settled her mind and reclaimed her sanity. She’d wanted something more… wondrous? The Sleuth had managed to accomplish so much in her time away from the warrior, so driven as she was to appear changed when next they met, but she had been the only one who’d been changed by their encounter it seemed. Even then, as they meandered into the heart’s womb, the warrior showed no signs of change.

When their wandering had come to a pause, and with the soft red light casting misshapen shadows across his greyed hide, the sleuth turned slightly to study the ocean-like depths of the warrior’s eyes. Her chest felt tight as she watched him, her lips parted and ready, but she could find no evidence of time there. The young bay had aged, she knew. She had grown and experienced so much in the months they’d spent apart… She had lived. Somehow, the notion saddened her as she stared at the warrior unabashed. In truth, he appeared more jovial than she, but less hindered, as if a secret existed upon the curve of his lips.

It was a secret, Essetia knew, that he would never reveal.

From the corner of her eye, the sleuth caught sight of her wolf and smiled absently at his curiosity for the molten wall of lava. The translucent blockade that protected them all from its fiery escape glittered softly in various shades of red, black, and orange. It was comforting to know that it would forever be trapped behind that wall of crystallized stone and yet troublesome. It would never be set free to wander, but instead be forced to travel the same route over and over until, finally, it ceased to exist.

“I missed you.”

They were words she’d never heard before. They were words that were felt deep in her soul until they fissured, erupted, and finally ruined her. Suddenly, her tongue felt numb and whatever she’d wanted to say dissipated into nothing. Her thoughts, a tangled mess of sentiment and wonder, became quiet. Even Romul’s presence did little to bring her back the ground where she’d started to drift away. What did it mean? How could he know? “You did?” was all that she could manage with any confidence. But then it made her question her own desires; it made her question whether or not she’d missed him too. Was that why she’d felt so distraught all this time?

He continued without wavering and without a hint of shame for such feelings, and it made the tall bay feel uneasy. A hot blush rose to her cheeks and a soft smile followed shortly after, but her troubles had only begun, for visions of bronze danced recklessly in her wake. “Then why…” her voice broke quietly as she hedged the very question she’d been speculating for some time, “did it take you so long to return?”