“I cannot answer that either.”
She nodded, covering herself with the fur and laid down.
Sariel was immobile, and then he found himself peeling his armor off, layer by layer.
He lay by her, pulling the woman in his arms as his body whispered mine.
But his heart.
His heart was in the most danger of all.
For when she sighed against him, it was as if time, did not slow, but picked up, reminding him, that it would run out. And his precious woman, would die.
Sariel returned to his men, to his spot on the mountain a different being that day.
And his brothers knew.
“What have you done, brother?” Ezaju whispered under his breath, rarely did he ever speak. “You smell of humanity,” He turned his head, taking his eyes off the village. “You stink of earth.”
Sariel looked down, in shame. “I love her.”
His brothers, all one hundred ninety-nine of them, seemed to gasp in unison, and then began talking all at once.
“Do you want to send us to hell?” One spoke above the rest. “Do you realize what will happen if one of
us falls? All of us fall!”
Sariel sighed. “You think I don’t know that? You think I’m unaware of repercussions. I cannot help how I feel.”
“Try!” Ezaju yelled. “You must try. For the sake of all of us!”
Sariel nodded. “I will… try.”
“We watch,” Bannik replied. “We do not sleep. We do not close our eyes.” The brothers all returned to watching in one loud clap of thunder and repeated. “We are the ones who keep our eyes open. We are the awake.”
But Sariel… did not repeat it.
For his vow was long ago broken, the minute he closed his eyes and wanted.
Stephanie hid her face in my chest. “I’m not sure I want to see anymore.”
“The story ends soon.”
“But does it end well?” she asked.
“It ends the only way it can.” I licked my lips as the vision disintegrated in front of us.
Sariel was again at the village.
And Nephal was already waiting for him.
He knew his brothers were watching, but he kept thinking, if only they saw the joy, if only they saw what they could have.
He slept with her.
Not once.
Nor twice.