Cervato - Rise of the Phoenix (Part 2 of Cervato's Saga)

Compassion

Penelope's scarred face wearing a sad smile always made Cervato's heart ache.  She dutifully helped Pen remove the bandages from her burnt form, now finally healed since she had escaped from the Mists in the search for the Commander.  Returning to the Med Bay, visiting Mandel and Pen, she had found the man absent. 

"Why should they be bound by your chains?" Baset whispered inside her mind.  Cervato pushed the words away.  Mandel probably had grown restless and wandered.  They would be reunited shortly.  Hiding her worry, she instead spent the time with her closest friend.  They had spent hours just relaxing in conversation as other various visitors dropped by.  Eventually, they had gone to Pen's new office, where the woman had revealed the truth of her search for Cervato. 

Cervato felt guilt.  Again.  Penelope's injuries had been because of her.  The beautiful sword that had been born on the cliffs of their camp, when Penelope had promised that Cervato could just be open to her when she felt trapped, was torn apart as the part of it that Penelope had recovered rested upon her desk.  Lifting it up to inspect the warped metal, Cervato wondered how such a magnificent blade had even managed to survive the extreme wrath of the volcano that Pen and her group had found it within. 

Though she was more grateful that her friend had returned alive.  Wrapping her arms around the powerful woman's frame, Cervato felt vulnerable for the first time since her return.  Penelope never disappointed her and never could.  The woman was so vastly loyal and just that she prayed she could protect her friend from any future harm.  Learning that Pen now had found a sibling in Madeline left her surprised, but seeing the joy in Pen's smile brought relief.  Pen was no longer alone.

"She will never forgive you for hiding the truth." Baset concluded.  Cervato held onto Pen more tightly.  The demon forced Cervato to be unable to reveal the entire truth.  At least, for now.  There had to be some way she could overcome this.  Something.  Still, Cervato thanked Pen for the sacrifice she had made, and to thank her friends that had also ventured with her into the Mists to search for her.  More people she would be indebted to due to their kindness.

Cervato loved Penelope.  The love she once held for Deronjur.  Ti'lay.  Atreyu. Zarek.  But unlike the past, this love would not be stolen or waste away over time.  She swore it.  She had to nurture it.

Another return to the med bay earned her a small shock, reuniting with Aeleth who appeared the most tired he had been in the years she had met him.  With open arms, they embraced tightly, finally reunited.  The man chastised her like any older brother should, and Cervato smiled, happy to hear those words.

"We could corrupt him."  Baset purred, but Cervato refused to listen any longer.  Aeleth's life was finally going right.  After finding Aditya in Amnoon, reuniting with Korrine, and finally his life's long wish, to have a family was starting to come true, Cervato held on to the doctor as she locked away the emotions of jealousy.  Insisting he finally rest, he complied, and the Commander walked away.

Eventually, she returned to her office, finding that someone had organized and cleaned her space in her absence.  The things she had left behind in the Shiverpeaks piled upon her desk.  A withered rose dying within a small vase.  A photograph of a time when she had been more carefree, where she had felt that her place truly was here in the Accord, and could always count on the pesky mesmer pictured with her to make for an irritating day.  A new journal that rested upon her desk, pages blank, clean and new.  A letter containing a wish that she would write of happier memories from the man who had confessed his love to her, Mandel Stabler.

As if she willed him into existence, Mandel appeared through a portal, green eyes smiling always upon seeing Cervato.  A precious happiness filled her heart before her anger came forward.  Cervato's words were like knives, openly expressing her frustration of finding Mandel missing and learning it had been on a whim to visit Joan only further angered her. 

"Another woman.  Wasn't she the one that you were jealous over for Saromire?"  Baset whispered once more, reminding Cervato of a time long past. "Then again, you left him for Atreyu.  You left Atreyu for Ryan for Lucas for Ainmyr for Brice for Atlas for Elijah for Kurai for Mercer for Saromire again. Human emotions are so amusing.  You cling to the most pointless obsessions.  Why not just indulge yourself and not hold such feeble commitments.  You never succeed in keeping them." 

Mandel recognized her anger, but instead of combating or refuting it, he merely left for the front of the office before returning with a bouquet of flowers.  Placing one within her hair carefully as he looked upon her.  The anger extinguished far too quickly and Baset's voice dulled until she no longer could hear the woman within her thoughts.

"...How do you do that?"  She recalled asking Mandel, realizing that with this man she found something she had been lacking in with all other lovers besides Zarek.  Peace.

"Do what?" Mandel was serious, unsure of her question but the way he had assured her of his feelings without expecting anything in return of her calmed her. 

"Make me feel..." Her voice lingered, cutting herself off.  Loved.  No.  Hadn't this been the emotion she was desperately trying to avoid after vowing herself she would not open herself up to be hurt.  That she could not tell Mandel those words unless she was absolute in her realization of her feelings. 

Mandel was creating those feelings that had lingered far too long reciprocated fully within.  Not the love she held for Penelope nor Zen, or any other friend or family.  This was the love of someone who connected with her very soul.  The patient love that was nearly coming to fruition despite every attempt to not let it take root in her heart.  After many arduous hours within the small space unable to let go of each other, they'd return to her home that night. 

For the first time in many days, she was granted peaceful dreamless sleep.