The Sapphire Pass: All-Father

The City Beneath

Ophelia tapped her pen lightly against the stack of papers. It grew more slowly each day as she learned new words and phrases. She still wasn't fluent in Jelu by a long shot, but she was getting there. She continued having issues with scientific and medical terminologies, especially ones that had no accurate translations.

Certain words like 'love' had no place in Jelu language. There was a word that meant 'like' and a word for 'familial love' but when it came to romantic love the closest word to it meant much more than that. It was something eternal. Something akin to telling someone that even their last breath couldn't steal it from them. The word in their language carried the weight of eternity on it's shoulders, which was far greater than Atlas could ever boast.

It made her wonder about her own feelings, she never saw what love was supposed to feel like. The only reference she ever saw was in movies, and James assured her that movies were all portrayed by actors. Actors only pretended to feel those things, so how could she ever know what love actually was?

She could only hope, that is she ever did find it, she would know.

When she finally came out of her momentary thought bubble, she noticed James was staring at her quizzically, and she gave him a smile as if to say, 'Sorry, I wasn't really staring. I was just thinking about something other than the boring thing that's going on here.'

As much as she wanted this day to end, she hated the thought of it. Today was her final day in this office for the next indeterminate length of time. Tomorrow, she would be searching for the rebels. Tomorrow, would be the last time she would see James' face.

The paperwork said she would be gone for two weeks. It made her chest hurt when she thought about it, it was hard to breathe. She didn't want to leave for that long. She knew it was a sacrifice she had to make to save lives, but it was one she wished she didn't have to make.

It was never hard to leave during the day to use the bathroom or when she had to go sort her papers and file them away somewhere. Even when James was away from his office for most of the day, because she knew he would be back soon, but that certainty wasn't present in this situation. In this situation, she didn't know when she would be able to see him again, and that made her hurt.

She could feel the corners of her mouth being dragged down against her will and she quickly excused herself so she could pull herself together. It would be fine. Two weeks- fourteen days, she'd been alone for far longer than that before. This is what she was trained for, and if she did it well, then one day she would only have to leave if and when she wanted to.

"Ig'gine goto," James said.

It was time to go. Home for the final time. She forced a smile, and took his hand. He was as somber as she was.

He usually walked with purpose and today he dragged his feet. The usual talkative drive, was silent. Instead of deciding what to have to dinner, when they entered the house they went to their room, changed and sat together, looking out at the sun as it faded behind the distant mountains. Neither of them said a word.

After a time, Ophelia's silent sadness turned in to silent tears, and when she tried to go somewhere else James held onto her. She was embarrassed by her weakness, but he held onto her until the tears subsided, being replaced with warmth as his temperature rose in the moonlight.

When they were unable to keep their eyes open much longer, they made their way to bed and Ophelia fought to keep her eyes open for every second she could. As soon as her eyes closed it would be morning and she would have to leave. She had to commit everything to memory because if something happened, then it would be the last memory she had.