The Offering

Chapter Seventy Three - Daella

Another wave of pain rushes through me and I grip my head, keeling over I try to keep my legs under me.

I focus on breathing through the pain as the headache takes hold.

There is a knock at my door and I grit my teeth against the pain it causes.

"Come in." I call out quietly, sure whoever is on the other side will hear it.

"Dae? Are you alright?" I hear Alvaryn as he walks into the room, closing the door behind him.

"Another headache." I answer, my eyes squeezed shut.

"Come sit down, where is the tonic Quirin gave you?" He asks guiding me to the bed.

"I can't, I've already used it three times." I answer sitting down and hunching over with my head in my hands.

"Come lie down." He says scooping me into his arms and setting me down on the bed. Then he is sitting beside me and shifting me so my head rests on his lap. He starts running his hands through my hair, fingertips massaging my scalp and I feel my muscles relax as I focus on the feeling.

"Better?" He asks after a while.

"Yes, thank you." I answer quietly, worried if I move too much the pain will come back.

"I never thanked you, for helping me, the night..." He stops himself. "I think it reminded me of when I was younger." He says, voice soft and comforting. I keep my eyes closed as I focus on his fingers. "When I was coming into my magic I would get terrible headaches, Oenus did what he could of course but there is only so much when it comes to one's own magic." He continues. "So my mother would lie awake with me for hours on end, she would do this, run her hands through my hair, it didn't matter how late it was or how tired she was, she would come to my rooms and sit up with me until I fell asleep."

"I used to do the same for my brothers and sisters when they were sick, it's why I did it for you, and Aeris...it was the only thing I could think of that might help."

"It did help." He says softly.

"You must miss her."

"I do. I wish I had spent more time with her. I wasted so much of my time buried in books and living in other worlds that I forgot about the one I was living in." He replies and I can hear the sadness and regret in his words.

"She loved you, she would have wanted you to live the life you wanted, doing things that made you happy. She would have known how important reading was to you."

"It was something we had in common, she loved reading as well. She would read poetry, history, romance, a little adventure." I can hear the smile in his voice as his fingers continue to comb through my hair. "Sometimes we would just sit together for hours and read, we wouldn't speak, we would just sit and enjoy the silence and reading together. When she had stopped going out so much I would bring her new books, trying to find something she hadn't read yet." He continues.

I turn, looking up at him and he stops combing my hair and touches my face, fingers grazing my cheek.

"I'm so sorry you had to lose her that way, so suddenly, you didn't even get to say goodbye." I say, feeling the loss and heartache, seeing my own mother and remembering saying goodbye to her.

He smiles sadly, fingertips brushing hair away from my forehead.

"I'm lucky I got as much time with her as I did. And at least now she won't be in pain anymore."

"I'm scared the same thing will happen to you and Aeris, that you will both leave and I will never see you again." I whisper, eyes filling with tears.

"Hey," Alvaryn leans closer, face close to mine. "I promise we will both come back to you, you won't lose either one of us anytime soon. And then when we get back and the war is over we can finally start our future together." He smiles, pressing his lips against my forehead.