Chapter Thirty One - True Love

Kathryn felt the tears sting her face as they rolled down her cheeks. She was sitting on a small stone towards the edge of the camp. She needed to be alone, to think things over. She wore a deep forest green gown that was trimmed with gold. Her brown hair tumbled down her back, and she fingered a red rose in her hand.

It seemed that her whole entire world had come crashing down on her. She had left Eirtue blind, but ready to seek after knowledge and whatever else she might be able to find. She had left the Forest of the Ligon with her sight returned to her, and glorious days ahead on the horizon. But then Edmund had had that dream. And then he had left. And she had not stopped the others from rescuing him. Perhaps it was for the best that they had done that, but she could not help but wonder if her uncle would still be alive if they had not rescued Edmund. Now her uncle was dead, Edmund was king, and she knew not what had become of her aunt. What more must happen to her? What more must she suffer through, must she endure, before she found happiness? Would she ever find happiness for that matter? Surely she would find some somewhere . . . surely it would be possible. Somehow. She knew she wanted to find some happiness in something, no matter what she did later on. If she could find but one spark of happiness, she would truly be happy.

She did not blink back the tears that came unbidden to her eyes. Nor did she wipe them away from where they fell onto her lap. They stung her cheeks in the cold of the evening, but she did not care. She wished she could just sit down and cry, and cry, and cry. Cry her heart out. Cry all those tears she had stored up inside her throughout her life, never wanting to appear weak in other areas in addition to her sight. But she wanted someone to share it with. Someone to pour her heart out to. Jessica would listen, perhaps, for a little while, but Jessica was so bubbly and happy, she would not truly understand. And Kathryn needed someone who would understand what she was going through, someone who could hold her hand, and stay with her as she tried to decipher her true feelings on these matters. But where would she find someone who would do that?

“Can I do anything for you, Kathryn?” she heard a voice ask through the darkness.

She turned to glance up into the face of Edmund. He stood there, looking like the boy Jessica had described to her when they first met. She only nodded, wiping tears from her tear stained face.

“What is wrong, Kathryn? Is it your uncle?”
“Yes, and no,” she could barely whisper the words. “There is so much, and yet, so little. I do not understand. I can not understand. Why does this have to happen to me, Edmund? Why can life not go on as it has before? Why must it all change? Why must Uncle Paulo die, why must you become king?”
“But, Kathryn,” said Edmund. “Look on the bright side of things. You can see again, as a result of what has happened. The rebellion from the Seventeens has been quelled. Orlando DiCaprio can no longer trouble us. I intend to open dialogue between Elenaesia and the Bears and the Squirrels and the other Ligons. You have been gifted with the power of the Varnhyme. The Stone of the King has been found. Many good things have come, Kathryn. We can not just have the sweet, or just have the bitter. They come together, as bittersweet. Like the chocolate imported from Cardopeia that I know I loved as a child. It had just the right tinge of sweetness, and bitterness, providing a taste all its own. So it is with life.”

Kathryn nodded, and then just let the tears flow unceasingly. Then she just threw her arms around Edmund and buried her head in his shoulder. She knew he would understand. He put his arm around her, and held her as she cried.

“I am sorry,” she murmured between tears.
“No, do not be. Sometimes it is right to cry. Sometimes it is what we need to do. Just cry, let the tears come. It is necessary sometimes, and this is one of those times.”

So she did cry. The tears came rushing like water over a waterfall in the mountains. She just cried. And he comforted her, far into the night. Memories of her childhood, scents, smells, voices and other sounds and feelings cam rushing over her. She buried herself in these childish memories, buried herself as she brought up to her mind the other things she remembered from them, the words her parents spoke to her, or whatever stuck out about that day in her mind.

Edmund felt memories come up at him as well. Memories of his youth, of his first seven years spent at home with his parents, and then he remembered the death of his mother when he was but four. The death of his father at seven, and being sent off to a strange home in Eirtue to live and serve Sir Paulo. How he had hated having to live in Eirtue. The city was not what he was used too. He was used to living in the country, where he could run and play all day long, without fearing for something else. It was something that had pleased him greatly, and he missed being able to run wild and free in the country.

But life in Eirtue had not been as bad as he had worked himself into thinking when he first arrived. Sir Paulo was not the cruel old beast he had thought him to be originally. Instead Sir Paulo had a wonderful sense of humour, and had taken time to have fun with Edmund. He did not treat Edmund as a slave, or work him to death or any other such thing that some of the friends that Edmund had when he still lived with his father had warned him about. He was very glad to find it was not so. Throughout his time spent in Eirtue in the service of Sir Paulo, he had known that the knight had two nieces, and that one of them was blind, but he had never seen them.

Now he felt eternally grateful for being assigned to help Lady Kathryn when Sir Paulo had left to go to Aiulindale. He realized that he had always admired her, and thought that she was very special, yet it was not until he and Octavian had been talking on the battlefield that he realized that he truly loved Kathryn. Now, he wanted to tell her, to ask her to marry him, to be his wife and queen, but he did not know where to find the words. He was nervous, and he was frightened. What if she laughed at him? Or what if she said no? Or what if something else happened? His mind went through many possible scenarios, and each cut him deeply. How could he bring himself to ask her to marry him, if she could do any of those possible things he had just imagined? Or something he had not gotten around to imagining yet?

No, he thought to himself, no. I must gather the courage to ask her, if I do not get this courage, if I do not ask her, I shall never know. And it will be all my fault because I was not brave enough to ask a girl to marry me. How bad can it be? All I have to do is get down on one knee and ask her if she will marry me. It can not be that bad.

Kathryn had stopped crying now, and had calmed down. Edmund pulled himself away from her, and dropped to one knee. He held her hand in his, and covered it with his other hand. He looked up at her gentle, tear stained face, and she looked down at his earnest one raised to look at her.

“Kathryn,” he said slowly. “I, I want you to know that I love you. I love you more than anything or anyone else in the world. I love you, Kathryn. And I am in debt to you, for it was you who helped me to realize who I was, and who I was meant to be. It was you who helped me become who I am. You told me, back in the beginning, that truth would find you on its own. And my mother told me, right before she died, that the truth would set me free. Because of this, I have realized some of the truth. I know now whether we can know all truth, without being sinless, but I do know that this is one bit of the truth at least. I am asking you, Kathryn, if you would honour me by consenting to be my wife, and my queen. Will you marry me, Kathryn?”

She gasped slightly, and turned away. Did she love him enough, to commit her entire life to him? Did she love him enough? Did he love her as much as he claimed? Did he mean what he said, or was he doing this out of pressure, and hoping she would say no?

He watched her, as she turned away from him. Did she not love him, as he loved her? Did she not want to marry him? Why could she not just say so? His throat felt dry and parched after he finished his small speech to her. In some ways he wished she would hurry up and answer, so he could get a drink of water for his throat. He nervously licked his lips as he waited for her answer.

Kathryn did not turn back to Edmund right away. Instead, she let her eyes glow green, and she focused on him. She found her way into his mind, slowly at first, but gradually gaining confidence. There she looked through his thoughts, wondering if he really meant what he said. Suddenly, she stumbled across an open door. Growing curious, she peeked inside, and saw in there a chamber filled with love. Then she realized that the door was open because he loved her so much, he could not just keep his love for her to himself any longer. She suddenly felt ashamed for doubting him, and small for having to prove to herself that he really did love her. She turned back to him, tears threatening to come again, but she squeezed her eyes tight, trying to hold them back.

“Edmund,” she found herself saying, though she did not know where she found the words to speak. “Edmund, I, I love you too. But you can not want to marry me. You see,” and now the tears did come, “you see, I did not know if you really did love me, and I used the power given to me, the power of the Varnhyme, to find out. You can not possibly want to marry me after this.”
“No, oh, no,” he murmured as he stood up slowly, and looked down at her, holding her chin with one of his hands, and still holding her hand with his other hand. “I love you even more for that. You should not be afraid to use your power, Kathryn. It was given to you, and you will use it wisely. I know you will. Do not apologize. I still would be very honoured, if you would consent to be my wife. Please, Kathryn, please, will you marry me?”

She looked deep into his eyes, and saw there the love that she knew he saw in her own eyes. She felt the tears coming again. But this time, she knew they were tears of joy, and of love, and of happiness, compared to the sorrow she had expressed through her tears just a little while before. She nodded, and her eyes shown more beautiful than they had ever shone before.

“Yes, Edmund,” she whispered to him. “Oh yes. I will marry you. I will be your wife, I will be your queen. I love you.”

Then, he swooped her up into his arms, and spun her around, a smile on his face. At last he stopped breathlessly, and collapsed onto a large log that was lying on the ground. He pulled her laughing to sit down beside him. There he held her face in his hands, and gazed at it for quite a long while. Then, on impulse, he leaned towards her, as she raised her face to his, and they kissed. They kissed long and passionately, the love they shared for one another flowing between them in that kiss. And surely, out of all the kisses in history, none have been more passionate, more pure, more loving that one kiss, save the one they would share on their wedding day. But this was one of the most special kisses. For their love for each other was so great, that it could not be tracked, not even with one thousand blood hounds. And it could not be broken, not even if one tried to break it with one thousand swords. And as they kissed, the sun rose in the east over the Sea of Nautalae, and over shadowed them with its glory and brilliance and goldeness.

The sun was a reminder of their love for each other. It would have its ups and downs, but it would remain there forever, firmly holding them and binding them to one another. Just as the sun would keep rising and setting, from the day it was created, to the day the world ended.