and i'll be in denial for at least a little while

"Are you alright?" he asked, sitting down next to her, the pair sat on a hill. It wasn't far from Eternalia
"The stars look lovely tonight." she replied, her voice sounded teary, but it was understandable. What they had just witnessed was unheard of to the elven community, and they had both lost people close to them, everyone had.
"You didn't answer my question." he said, not needing her to talk about why she didn't want to. He would understand
"I didn't want to lie," Oralie said, her voice wavering as she started to break down in tears.
She turned to face her friend, eyes half visible behind overflowing tears, grieving for what she had lost that night. The sight nearly made Bronte cry with her, but he couldn't. He had to stay strong, comfort her. The rest of the world could not see his tears. The person he had lost that night was dear to him but not to the rest of the world. Not anymore.

That night, had been the night of nightmares, fire ravaging the elven capital of Eternalia, burning down what ended up being half of the glittering city. It was supposed to be a simple matter. Get to Oblivimyre, have Sophie heal fintan, put him back into prison and leave. That was all that was supposed to happen, but of course all the plans had to go toppling down sideways.
Fintan, as he had been healed, had burned down oblivimyre, the place he was being temporarily housed in. in the burning panic of all the others in the castle, in a rash decision fueled by self sacrifice and impulse, Kenric, a dear friend and colleague had tackled fintan so that Oralie, Sophie and Fitz could leave without dying first. But he paid for that sacrifice with his life.
And so now, Oralie and Bronte were sitting, on a hill not too far from their glittering castles, some of the few parts of the city that hadn't burned down in the fire summoned by fintan. Oralie had now moved closer to Bronte, sobbing into his shoulders as the two colleagues hugged.

Finally, tears had started to fall from Bronte's eyes, but he sat there quietly crying, so that his friend could grieve about the person she had lost that was dearest to her.
Kenric, had been a good friend to all of the other councillors, but he and oralie had shared a special connection that everyone could see but no one could do anything about. Bronte would know, he tried but the pair of them were too stubborn to do anything about it by stepping off of the council, both of them thought it would be for the betterment of the rest of the elven world if they ignored their feelings and kept on being true, unselfish leaders.
Until it was too late for them to even have a chance at having a life outside of servitude to the council.
Oralie pulled away from Bronte's shoulder, eyes red from her still flowing tears of heartbreak.
"Are you ok, Bronte?" she asked, "do you want to talk about it? I know that, even with his mistakes that fintan was very special to you,"
"No, you need time to grieve kenric before you hear my pathetic sob story about the elf that killed our friend." Bronte stated, already trying to stop the flow of steady tears, making their way down his face, betraying his true emotions. Oralie hugged Bronte even tighter, both of them crying for the people they lost