Chapter 10

Is It Impossible?

After hours of tapestry-weaving, Lorelein’s fingers had grown tired and tender. She had set her tools down, and for the last ten minutes devoted herself to a mug of Thistle Tea and a relaxing moment by the open window. She found the soft ocean breeze to be quite soothing, and it was one of the reasons she decided not to return to Stormwind. Stefan was another, of course.

She turned to look back at the unfinished tapestry. Bordered by a rich wine-red hue, a pair of figures stood apart, watching the other with unperturbed avarice. The figure on the left was a man, dressed in the garb of a warrior, a sword in one hand and a large money bag in the other. The other, a woman, was dressed in flowing white robes, a small infant held in her arms. Separating the two, in the center of the tapestry, was a long streak of white thread that ran vertically down the picture. The warrior was complete, but the woman had only one foot; the other was a tangle of threads where Lorelein had decided a break was necessary.

Is it impossible? she thought, remembering the purpose of her work. She had thought so when she started it, but now there were factors that compromised her opinion.

There was a knock at the door.

“Lory, are you there? I’ve lost my key!”

Him, for example, she thought. She set the tea down and headed to the door. Stefan trundled in, dirty and battered.

“Gosh, you look lucky to be alive!” she said, closing the door behind him.

“I am, several times over,” he replied, flopping onto the bed.

Lorelein strolled into the bathroom, pulling a towel from a drawer and soaking it in a tin of water. She went back to Stefan, wiping the grime and dried blood off his face. He stared back at her and smiled weakly.

“I wish I had the strength to thank you properly, but I can barely keep my eyes open.”

“You don’t have to say a thing, Stefan.”

He smiled at her again, turning his head to look around the room he had been away from for several days. He caught sight of her tapestry, sitting quietly on its stand in the corner of the room.

“It’s coming along I see,” he said. “It’s beautiful.”

There was a pause while Lorelein remembered her earlier thoughts.

“Stefan, do you think it’s possible?”

“What?”

“For those two to live in the same world?”

He turned back to look into her sapphire-blue eyes. Behind them, Stefan saw an inquisitive wonder, and an insatiable hunger to please. He saw a red haired girl from the Human capital, surrounded by a city founded on backstabbing and black marketeering. And this girl was doing it all for him.

“I have living proof that it is,” he said simply.

He leaned forward and planted a kiss on her lips.

“But I really must get some rest, Lory. I’m dead tired.”

“By all means! When you wake, a letter came a few days ago from Stormwind, requesting your presence,” she replied, setting the wet towel aside.

“Odd, I handed it in yesterday. Those b******s are pretty damn overconfident,” he laughed. “Will you finish the other foot for me?”

She smiled at him. “Of course, Stefan.”

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you too.”