Paladin - the path north volume one

Epilogue

Velainna sat inside the Saints tower, she'd been here nearly every day since Tar'vid had left... it still upset her how things had ended between them. It was all his fault anyway, if he'd just taken her that day...

"Why'd I have to fall for a guy like that?" she sighed, leaning on the window cill and looking out longingly across the empty fields to the mountains.

"We cannot help who we fall for Lady Velainna," Korgan said from the shadows.

She jumped at his voice, how long had the elf been there?

"I lost my wife a long time ago... you never really get over it. Though, I never wish to in all honesty. It's all that drives me onward," Korgan told her taking a seat nearby.

"Did you love her?" she asked, the question wasn't really that strange she thought, many marriages were still arranged, especially given her situation.

Korgan laughed, it was a strange thing though, she'd never heard him laugh before.

"I did, yes. We met at the lords ball in Kivenia, though you wouldn't know that place. She looked so beautiful in her purple gown... I had just left the Mages coven at the time and was, how should I put it... awkward around others."

Velainna turned round to look at him, she had always found him strangely creepy for such a handsome man, but now, looking at him, she realised he had a softness to him that made his features more inviting.

The Mage smiled again, his hands open and inviting. "But she came to me... me, Velainna, a nobody as far as she knew... my Urieo."

His tale stopped abruptly and she noticed the droplets falling onto the stone floor of the tower. "We were happy you see, for hundreds of years... until the Paladins went mad, they destroyed so many Elven towns and villages... including mine, my dear sweet Urieo and our children... gone in an instant."

Korgan's hands balled into fists as his anger rose, the room seemed to become darker with it.

"For the last three hundred years I've hunted them Velainna, I wanted to destroy their order, tear them apart, as they tore apart my life... then in one random act... they were gone, a freak occurrence did what I could not. It left me empty, without purpose... my plan to destroy them with their own champion now pointless."

The elf stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder, though there was no malice in his action. "So I made a choice, to let go of my hate... I've killed so many, for nothing, hurt good men and women who were never responsible for my family's deaths. I make you a single promise Lady Velainna... if Tar'vid will make you happy... I will give him to you."

Velainna realised her hands were over her mouth, tears flowing down her cheeks... Tar'vid could be hers...

"What would you have in return?" she asked, there must be a price for such a thing after all.

Korgan smiled and held her hand. "Your happiness, is all I require" he told her earnestly.

Was this any choice at all then?

"I gladly accept your offer," she said without any regrets.