Light the Way

CHAPTER 20. starlight

LANNA

The Reach stretched wide with promise, embracing Lanna like a long-lost daughter. Flowers bloomed at her feet, bright as jewels against the rich earth. The warm air was rich with fragrances and carried the sound of distant chimes and birds. Willas' hand felt secure around her own, and she leaned into his gentle strength as they moved beneath a canopy of swaying branches. How strange to walk these paths as a woman who belonged, her future a sunlit expanse rather than a narrow track through shadow.

Willas tugged her gently toward a fountain, where the cool, clear water bubbled up, and a pleasant breeze stirred the leaves. Lanna inhaled the sweet air, filled with the scent of budding roses and the promises of early summer. After so many years of being tethered to other people's ambitions, each step now felt impossibly light. She marvelled at the difference - what it was like to walk this way and know it was right. Happiness, it turned out, was a strange and heady feeling. The very idea of it set her laughing.

"What is so amusing?" Willas asked, grinning as he stopped to admire the flush in her cheeks.

"Everything, I suppose," she replied, smiling at him as he slipped a wildflower behind her ear. She tucked her arm through his and held tight, feeling the solid warmth of him next to her.

Their steps fell in easy rhythm along the garden's pathways, winding beneath arches of flowering vines. "Perhaps you could narrow it down a little," Willas said. "The lady's thoughts are a mystery to me."

"Hardly that," Lanna countered, "especially if you believe what your sister says."

Willas shook his head in mock dismay. "There's always a bit of truth in gossip," he teased. "Which makes me wonder how you really feel about this plan of mine."

The playfulness in his voice, the way he leaned into her as they walked - it all felt wonderfully familiar, and Lanna loved him for it. She breathed in the air, fragrant with possibility. "Your library, you mean? Or something else?"

"Perhaps everything," he replied, echoing her earlier words, "but mainly the library. I can't build it without your approval."

Lanna had been sure of so little, once. She laughed at how absurd it was to imagine this life only a few months ago. "You mean you won't build it," she corrected, feigning sternness.

"Won't," he agreed, pulling her close. "Not until I have your advice."

Willas stopped beside a bench under an old tree, and Lanna touched its bark as she sat down. Gold and silver leaves whispered gently in the breeze, and her thoughts turned with them. She remembered when everything had seemed uncertain, a girl in a family always wanting more. How far she had come. How she had grown. As Willas joined her, she was thankful to feel rooted in this new soil, more alive than she had ever dreamed.

A servant came quietly across the grass, holding a letter. "A raven from your father, my lady," he said, bowing as he handed it to her.

Lanna turned it over in her hands, the paper fine and the seal unbroken. She paused, the moment like a memory from another life. This time, though, it was different. She was different. "Should I open it now, do you think?" she asked, looking to Willas for reassurance.

"Of course," he said, eyes twinkling. "He's probably offered you advice about the library as well."

"Then I had best read it." She laughed as she broke the seal and unfolded the letter, holding it to catch the last light of the setting sun. As she scanned her father's careful script, warmth spread through her. "Congratulations, Lanna. We are proud of you." It was short and simple, and everything she needed to hear. She smiled softly, tucking the letter back into her sleeve. Her father had never been a man of many words, anyway.