49 Swallow (1/2)

We move through the place, and the atmosphere is even more noticeably changed in here than it was in the city outside. The oppression that hung in every hall is gone. The guards are at attention and proud to be there, they are not cowering and simpering and vicious-eyed as they were before.

”How did this happen? There was war...”

”Don't worry about that,” Mattias says. ”Worry about you.”

It is impossible to be worried about me. With him, I am safe. I have always felt it, and now I see the protection I felt when I was with him extended to the city as a whole. I have been sensing his presence since I entered the city, I just didn't realize it.

He brings me to a room with a balcony, a view over the old city. It is reclaimed in large part by the wilds now, and we see trees and vines and bird life making the most of the wreckage of the old world. It has a melancholy beauty to it, new life rising from ruins.

Mattias wraps an arm around me and together we stand in the silence of the reunited.

”I missed you.” He rumbles the words. His voice was always nice, but it is deeper and richer now. It holds more command.

Those three words bring a flush of tears to my eyes. ”I missed you too. I thought you were...” I take a deep breath.

”I know. I am sorry.”

”You tried to warn me. You tried to show me. In that field. But I didn't listen, and...” Hot tears are running down my face. He was right all along. He must be so furious at me.

”You did what your instinct told you to do. You were wild and untamed. Nobody bears you any ill will. It was what it was. You changed the course of our fates and the world is better for it.”

”It's not better for Tore, or Keanau, or Zen, or Cowboy, or Elias. So many dead...”

”They chose to be near you. They knew the danger. We all saw the blood spill from the sheriff's neck and we knew what that would lead to. They chose their fate, Trissa.”

I sniff. ”So... none of the others survived?”

Mattias is a miracle, and I know I am being greedy, hoping for a second and a third and a fourth miracle to match.

”Those three mercenaries of yours held back the mech invaders for a good hour,” Mattias says. ”The three of them saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives. They died, but they are heroes to us all.”

I take a deep breath. The grief will always be with me, but this is a life of pain and I already know none of us will emerge unscathed.