Dragon's World

44.

"My purpose?" I flick the shard back in the fountain with furrowed brows before he dumps the rest of his pile back in the fountain as well.

"The first night you'd stayed there with me, I had a dream that gave me only bits and pieces of who you would be to the world, your future self. I knew I had to trust you to make that future reality. You also had to trust me too," he looks to me, all seriousness in his eyes.

"Why didn't you tell me?" My eyebrows furrow a little more but I'm not mad. I'm perfectly calm, just a bit confused. He can see the future?

"I wanted to see if it'd really happen first. I'd only ever had one of those dreams once before," he holds my hands in his as he explains.

"Well, what happened to that one? Did it happen like you'd dreamt?" I ask.

"Yes, and it turned out terrible," his eyes drop to the fountain.

"The dragons," I whisper subconsciously.

"Yes, the dragons, the destruction. I dreamt it all. All except for the part that'd show me who was responsible for it. So I could neither prevent it nor warn anyone of it without looking like a suspect," his eyebrows furrow now as I feel the residual anger he holds towards the event.

"Rune, that was not your fault. Nobody could've even predicted such an event, who could've stopped that? How would you have even stopped that? Challenge your brother under what circumstances? That was not your fault," I lift his chin so he looks to me but my reassurance isn't working. I need a different approach. "I think of it like this, if that never would've happened, I would've never met you. So while I may not be happy that it happened, I am grateful for the opportunities it brought me," I piece my words together carefully as his eyes drop again.

"You are someone I can never lose, Vanessa. My strength, a true treasure," a smile forms on his face but his eyes stay glued to the fountain. With that, I pull his face back up to look at me. After a moment of just staring into each other's souls, I press my lips to his.

"By my understanding, my purpose in this life is to better the world somehow. Even if that's just the world of one person," I smile after pulling out of the kiss.

"You asked how you went from someone I saw as dangerous to someone I saw spending the rest of my life with? I fell in love, that's how," he mumbles, still looking at my lips.

"Don't get mushy on me now, lover," I poke his cheek with a smile, making him smile back as he captures my hand. "Now, I'm actually tired from all that reading. Can we go to bed or do we have to wait for the results of the vote or something?" I stand and brush off my pants before pulling him up as well.

"Those will be announced tomorrow morning. We can expect Kassenna to wake us early again," he rolls his eyes but smiles as we make our way into the castle.

"Perhaps we can just sleep in another room," I joke but he pulls his hand up to his chin in thought.

"That doesn't sound like such a bad idea actually," he begins, the gears in his head already turning.

"That was a joke. We need to be up," I laugh at his idealizing.

"Maybe I'll just stick a chair up against the door so she can't barge in then," he shrugs, making me laugh again.

•••
~~MINOR SMUT WARNING~~

Once we make it to the bedroom, I flop onto the bed just like the night before. It's exhausting being important.

I turn to find Rune wedging a chair up under the door handle. Once he notices I'm looking at him with skepticism, he gives a guilty grin and shrugs his shoulders as he flicks off the lights. A flame dances on his fingers for a moment before transfering to a candle. Then, he walks over to the bed, peeling off his clothes in the process. He leaves only his boxers on as he sets the candle on the nightstand and flops onto the bed, on his side. With a hand propped under his head and his leg bent up on the other, he looks to me and wiggles his eyebrows.