Page 74 of Zel
“It wasn’t a waste. Your eyes and hair sparkle again.”
“The hair might be from perspiration,” Ulrich joked. “But if my eyes sparkle, Zel, it is because they are looking at you.” He touched Zel’s face, touched the unbound fall of his hair, wild and regrown. It didn’t ease his pain, for that particular ache was forever gone, but it soothed him all the same. The new aches, he could tolerate. He would never have his arm back, but it was no longer his curse to bear.
A worthy sacrifice for what he had gained, so much more than the sacrifice he’d made so long ago.
“If Rudy hadn’t noticed my tears revitalizing you, I might not have realized the answer soon enough.” Zel looked over his shoulder to where Rudy stood, farther away than his voice had sounded, like he’d backed up a pace or two once Ulrich reawakened.
Ulrich allowed himself a moment to enjoy that the young man might be frightened of him. Or Zel. Or both. Perhaps he was mostly regretful and loath to face them, given his eyes were on the floor.
He also held his side, as if his ribs were bruised or broken. A fall from and subsequent climbing of a several stories tower for the second time were sure to do that.
“Please don't thank me,” Rudy said to his feet. “All would have been well if I'd just listened to you, Zel. I am so sorry. I didn't…” He trailed off, and only then did he glance up, first to look at Zel and eventually at Ulrich. “I don't think I ever truly knew what love was until I witnessed the two of you. I was such a fool to think I knew better, yet you were willing to die for each other. You love each other, no bewitching necessary. I am truly, truly sorry.” He again glanced at his feet before turning as if to go.
“Rudy!”
Rudy hesitated but didn't look at Zel.
“I am still so angry at you, but I meant it when I said I hope we can always love each other as friends. It might take me a while to fully forgive you, but I want to try.Eventually.”
Rudy snorted and finally did look at his friend after the teasing way Zel said that. “If you someday think me worthy of your forgiveness, I'll be here. Well, I’ll be home.” He took out of his pocket what Ulrich saw was a pair of pendants like the one he'd given Zel. A matching set, it seemed, and Zel was no longer wearing his.
“Here.” Ulrich held out his remaining hand from where he lounged on the chaise. He wasn’t ready to get up yet, but he could do this much, since he knew the type of trinket this was now. It only betrayed its magical aura when near its twin. “Those won't work while you're in the tower, but I can fix that.”
Hesitantly, Rudy came forward and placed the pendants in Ulrich's palm. Ulrich only needed one.
To the naked eye, he did nothing to it other than smooth his thumb over its emerald surface. Then he handed both pendants back to Rudy.
“Thank you.” Rudy glanced once more at Zel and vanished, returning to wherever he’d been when he followed Zel here.
As Zel better situated himself on the chaise at Ulrich’s hip, he helped Ulrich to lay back more comfortably. Ulrich must have looked weak and worn, if Zel was treating him so tenderly. He certainly felt it.
“What now?” Zel asked. “Do you think you could live one mortal life with me, even if we can no longer have forever?”
“I believe there are some very specific words for times like this. About happiness. And an ever after.”
Zel grinned. “Like inThe Bard and the Fairy Prince? The tower could still be our home.”
“But a place to retire to when the day is done, not to lock ourselves away in like hermits. There is still the Thieves Guild left in turmoil, and an evil Queen who believes she controls it. Even with a change in internal leadership, her reign remains, and I am in no condition to rise up against my old apprentice.”
“Is that what you would have wanted?”
“I do not yet know the extent of my magic that remains, but I know I must live now or be left to rot. I feel strangely invigorated to do more than wallow another several centuries—or decades as the case may be.”
“I am with you for all of it, for any of it, Ulrich, if you are with me.”
“As my… bride? Or shall it be bridegroom?”
Zel scrunched his nose in adorable thought. “If there was a term that combined the two, I think that would be most fitting. I might have to invent one.”
“Well then, little cabbage, for now, I shall call you my beloved.”
“I love you, Ulrich.” Zel bent down and kissed Ulrich gently.
“I love you, Zel.”
Ulrich was indeed drained, but with rest, he knew he would recover. He wished he had enough energy left to kiss more passionately and drag Zel down onto the chaise with him, but that would have to wait for another night. Any night, every night, hereafter.
“At least Rudy can inform my parents that we are well. Tonight, I want only you.” Zel tucked himself beside Ulrich. They didn’t quite fit, but that was another sacrifice Ulrich was willing to make.
