“Fiera?” Tharion asked late that night while the two of them were alone in the tree hollow. Yali was sound asleep. Fiera looked up from her battle strategy she was sketching out on parchment.
“Mm?”
“Marry me?” he asked. Fiera’s expression hardened and she sighed, pushing the parchment away from her as she leaned back and crossed her arms.
“Tharion, you already know my answer-”
“I thought maybe it had changed.”
“Well it hasn’t.” There was a long pause in which both elves stared with determined intensity at one another.
“Why not?”
“You know perfectly well why not,” she snapped. “I’ve told you a thousand times. I wouldn’t make a good wife.”
“You said you wouldn’t make a good mother as well, but you still adopted Yali.”
“I’m not a good mother. She had no one else.”
“She did, but she chose you over the others.”
“I can’t imagine why.”
“I can.” At his words, Fiera abruptly stood up and began pacing.
“Tharion, you’re testing my patience! What does this have to do with marriage?”
“Yali needs a father,” he said simply.
“She has a father.”
“Not by the forest law. That can’t happen unless we marry. You know that.”
“What does that matter?” Fiera spoke with abruptness, being careful not to raise her voice and wake Yali. “You don’t need a piece of parchment to say you’re her father. You already are!”
“Fiera, what’s the real reason you don’t want to marry me?”
“What’s the real reason you want to marry me so badly?”
“I love you,” he replied with such intensity that Fiera had to purse her lips and look away for a moment. “Sometimes, I wonder if I’m the only one… if it’s only on one side.”
“That isn’t the issue!” she hissed, beginning to tremble slightly with anger as her gaze pierced him like a sharp thorn. The flickering light of a candle cast gloomy shadows across her face, masking the full effect of her scowl. “I shouldn’t have to announce it for you to know that! You’re a fool if you can’t see it yourself!”
“You’re frightened. Why? Do you think I’ll only hurt you in the end if you say it aloud?” A small hiccough made both of them turn to see Yali standing behind them with wide and worried eyes, glancing back and forth between one parent to the other. She clutched her blanket tightly to her chest as a breeze swept through the hollow, ruffling the hem of her nightgown. Fiera gazed sharply at Tharion.
“We’re finished speaking about this,” she told him in a clipped tone. Tharion opened his mouth as if to argue, but took a second look at the little girl standing before them and closed it, nodding with tight lips.
“We were just talking, Yali. Don’t worry yourself,” he told his daughter soothingly. “Come. Back to bed with you.” He took her small hand and gently coaxed her back to her bed as Fiera held in a sharp breath and bit her lower lip hard to stop a single tear from escaping her eyelid.
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