[Ortus fumbles only slightly when Gideon tosses herself whole-heartedly into an embrace, and perhaps it is that her embarrassment is contagious, or that it is simply the state of Ninth House children to always have the faint cringe of wounded beasts to them at any offered hand. He knows not.
He knows that he has wanted this since he was younger than she was, when he would sometimes lie awake in the still hours before the bells called him to his training and attempt to convince himself that he had dreamed of a terrible mistake. That he would walk into a room, and someone would smile at him in rueful apology for their too long and inexplicable absence, and the holes in the heart of the world would be stitched shut.
She is only ever so slightly shorter than he is, and much sturdier. He holds her like a babe burbling around a mouthful of her own fingers in the cradle of his arms.]
I am a foolish man. [He says, softly, with tears seeping into the black around his eyes.] I should have had no doubt that even the sea would fall before you.
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He knows that he has wanted this since he was younger than she was, when he would sometimes lie awake in the still hours before the bells called him to his training and attempt to convince himself that he had dreamed of a terrible mistake. That he would walk into a room, and someone would smile at him in rueful apology for their too long and inexplicable absence, and the holes in the heart of the world would be stitched shut.
She is only ever so slightly shorter than he is, and much sturdier. He holds her like a babe burbling around a mouthful of her own fingers in the cradle of his arms.]
I am a foolish man. [He says, softly, with tears seeping into the black around his eyes.] I should have had no doubt that even the sea would fall before you.