A MAN'S SORROW CUTS DEEPER

The fire that burned from within...

She was lost. The fire she saw engulfing Can's hut scared her, and so she ran faster towards it. The screams of her loved ones filled her ears and heart with unimaginable fear. Yet it was what she saw next that filled her entire being with an overpowering fear that howled through her skin. She saw Can walk right into that fiery inferno. As if in slow motion, she saw his, her, their life ending even before she could tell him how much she loved him still.

Each step he took toward the hut etched itself in her memory, and she was unable to stop it, fully aware that her photographic memory would replay it all again, and again, and again...

And she was lost. Their loved ones, in just as much despair as with fear for Can's life, now held her back from going after him. She begged them to release her. She could never have forgiven herself if he had not made it out alive. She waged a battle and fought on the inside even more than the outside. How foolish she'd been in the last few days? Her Can had returned. He was back in her life. He was back in her home. And above all he was back in her heart...

The fear for his life made her think of him and of them for the first time in over a year. What happened to them? Instead of love they gave in to their pride. She now realized that in the face of life's danger, your life passes by right before your eyes... And in that matter of seconds that she waited for Can to come out, she saw their entire love flash in her heart...

When, unbeknownst to her they kissed at the opera and that kiss linked them together forever.
When she met him and he whispered her name.
When they rode his motorcycle.
When they held each other in Agua.
When they danced at his mountain hut.
When she found him in the forest and she told him to stay.
When they slept under the stars in the forest.
When she told him he made her feel beautiful.
When he returned to her on the beach and they held each other tight.
When they lay in the hammock in the sweetest embrace.
When he chose her over Polen, and they kissed yet again in the opera.
When he told her he fell in love with her.
When she found courage and revealed she loved him too.
She remembered the exact number of teas she had brought him.
The exact number of kisses they shared and how many times they accidentaly bumped into each other.
She remembered his gaze, his gentle embrace, his strength in his arms, and the love in his kisses...

The moment he came out of the hut she could swear she was already embracing him with all of her love she ever had in her heart. That fire spread from the hut and egnited in her heart. And from there it spread to her soul, and they now burned in unisom so everpowering and gratifying that she all but danced to its sweet melody. And then her gaze froze on a single detail, a detail only the two of them would trully understand its importance. He was holding her bandana.

Can realized that Sanem caught onto what he was holding. And he made sure to tell Mirhiban that he salvaged all that mattered to him from the hut. Sanem took it as a sign that he still loved her. After all this time. After all they had gone through. After the heartache of each and every second that passes since the day he left he behind. Silently, even without admitting it, he showed her he was still hers. But now it was up to her if she was strong enough to come out of the ashes she referred to in her book, and to come out as the phoenix to greet her Albatross with her heart already his...