Bishop swore and ran his hand down his face as he stalked through the dark hallway of the Shadow Fortress. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. He was supposed to face Dilys in battle, not walk away from her. Yet here he was, leaving everything behind without any hint of certainty, exactly what he couldn't bring himself to do in the first place.

When he revealed to her that he was the one that had sabotaged the gate mechanism, Dilys gave him a look of utter shock. Bishop savored that expression, keeping it focused in his mind's eye as he prepared to do battle with her. He fully expected that shock to grow into fury by the time they met again, so he dwelled on it, studied it, savored it. He used that image to feed any hate he could muster for her.

He had so wanted to hate her, and wanted Dilys to hate him for his betrayal. But when he confronted her before the final battle with Garius, she didn't fly into a blind rage and attack Bishop on the spot. Instead, she calmly listened to his story and why he had to do what he did. He hadn't even intended to tell her about Red Fallow's Watch. The need to explain himself just became too overpowering when met with her expectant gaze.

He detailed how he had burned his own village to the ground for a Luskan initiation ceremony. How both the Luskans and the villagers died by his hand. How he very nearly died as well in the process. And how Duncan came to save his life, binding Bishop to him.

Bishop told Dilys how he had wanted to kill Duncan to rid himself of his debts, and that he had planned to kill her too. He didn't mention that he never once thought about that plan after he had permanently joined up with her, and he couldn't keep the words from spilling out of his mouth about feelings, or having no choice. His confusion made him come off as emotional, when Dilys presented as anything but.

After she had heard his tale, she didn't even try to change his mind. To his incredible frustration, she merely gave a quiet apology and returned her attention to Garius. Bishop hadn't even been worth getting angry over.

Bishop knew his drive to defeat her would be fueled by her own drive for revenge against him. Their confrontation was supposed to result in a violent clash of passionate anger, every bit as primal as their intimate encounter the night before. And Bishop would be the one to end her, plunging his blade into her flesh as he embraced her for the last time.

It was a sickeningly romantic notion, but somehow his feelings for her intertwined with his need to kill her. Just as Bishop became nearly blinded with rage whenever he perceived someone other than himself getting close to her, he became just as angry at the thought of someone else killing her. Dilys was his and his alone, whether to enjoy or destroy.

But Bishop could hardly have an epic battle to the death with Dilys if she couldn't be bothered to fight him. Her nonchalant attitude only mocked him for thinking he could have any impact on her at all the same way she had left her mark on him.

In fact, her very last words to him were a mockery. But it was that goading of him that finally caused him to leave. When Dilys suggested that in serving Garius, Bishop had simply exchanged one master for another, he snapped at her, only to cut himself off.

Dilys hadn't even been looking at Bishop when she made the outrageous claim. She could see only Garius, the determination in her hard eyes promising him defeat. She had looked the same way when they had confronted Ammon Jerro, fighting that battle with no regard for her own life and only the drive to end his.

There could be no final encounter between Dilys and Bishop, because his betrayal of her was unimportant. The Dilys he had made love to the previous night was already dead, and only the living embodiment of the Silver Sword of Gith remained. That weapon was unconcerned with petty human relationships. It sought only the destruction of the King of Shadows and his ward.

It was then that Bishop knew he had to leave. There would be no passion if he stayed to fight, he would only be killed indiscriminately, and it was a defeat that was certain. So Bishop bid farewell to Garius, letting him know that his death at the hands of the Shard-Bearer was guaranteed.

Bishop had stayed behind to lurk in the shadows for a while longer after that, fighting the desire to run back out there and end Garius himself to be sure he couldn't lay a finger on Dilys. Instead he only saw Garius tear apart Dilys's band of adventurers, causing even more people to defect.

Qara didn't hesitate in the slightest when she was offered the chance to betray Dilys. That was hardly a surprise however. They despised each other, and Qara's lust for power had her jumping at the possibility to gain more.

Neeshka's defection was less expected, and Dilys had showed it. Dilys and Neeshka had been friendly enough to each other, but the tiefling's loyalty to the Knight-Captain was not strong enough to resist the binding Garius had placed on her. So Dilys would be forced to kill a companion, simply because she had not tried hard enough to bond with her.

It was the fatal flaw of the Knight-Captain that led to the dissolution of her group. Dilys had always been quite capable of acquiring allies, the full roster at Crossroad Keep was proof of that. But when it came to making friends… she fell short. She would not open up to her companions, hesitated to express her true feelings, and refused to share her burdens. Dilys was a fine leader, well suited to her role as Knight-Captain. She just wasn't a very good friend.

It was tragic really, how the Aasimar's supposed allies abandoned her one by one. If Dilys had made more of an effort to open up and connect with her team mates, then perhaps they would not have left her. But out of all of her companions, it was Bishop himself she tried hardest with. She spent the most time with him at the expense of everyone else, and her relationship with them suffered for it. Elanee, Neeshka, Qara... because of Dilys's neglect there was no great love lost by their parting. It was only Bishop she had formed a real connection with, and that made his betrayal of her the most complete.

Perhaps that was why Bishop felt so angry as he made his way to the exit. Dilys seemed genuinely surprised and hurt when the others had abandoned her. And yet when it was Bishop standing against her, she was barely fazed.

Over the last few weeks, Dilys and Bishop had spent nearly every waking moment together. They knew more about each other than anyone else, and Bishop knew he had grown closer to her than he had with anyone before. And yet, even after all they had been through together, she showed no emotion to his betrayal. She didn't even care.

No, that couldn't be right.

Dilys hadn't personally tended to his burn so effectively because she didn't care. She didn't keep Bishop with her even when he pushed her away for nothing. And the few wonderful hours they spent together in her bedroom weren't meaningless.

If anything could express her true intentions towards him, it was the words she had said what felt like an eternity ago. The words he could barely comprehend, much less deal with them.

"Bishop, for all your barbs and doublespeak, I'm glad you're you. So don't act like I'm just using you," she had said, much to his surprise. The idea that someone could like Bishop just for being himself was such a foreign concept to him that he simply ignored it. But he couldn't ignore it anymore.

Dilys did care. As much as he wanted to deny it, to hate her, and to keep his distance... the brittle, blackened, and dry heart of him that so desperately craved her affection would not allow it. It forced him to open his eyes, to look at everything she had done with this new light shining down upon it.

Bishop slowed his pace to a walk as he thought back to the night before. When he had offered to guide just the two of them away from the keep in that most intimate of settings, she had denied him. Instead she had suggested that he leave without her, to go on alone and never see her again. Dilys hadn't put forth the idea because she didn't want him around, she did so in order for him to escape the inevitable slaughter. So that he would survive.

Her indifferent demeanor when Bishop confronted her with his betrayal wasn't because she didn't care, it was because she wanted him to leave, to survive. If she had been enraged and allowed him to be angry at her in return, then he would fight. He would fight her, and she would definitely kill him. So she showed restraint, and suppressed her certain disappointment.

If she had instead acted benevolently, pleaded with him to reverse his betrayal and fight by her side, then he would have likely been killed as well. Nothing would stop Dilys from killing Garius, but there was no guarantee she or any of her companions would survive the King of Shadows. So she hid her compassion, allowing Bishop to perceive a lack of attachment and walk away.

Even in such a pivotal moment, she had carefully controlled her behavior to force him away. Because even after everything Bishop had done wrong to her, his abusive attitude and traitorous behavior… Dilys still wanted him to live.

She wasn't concerned with her own life, or those of her companions. Unlike himself, they were willing to die by her side. Above anyone else in the world, she wanted someone as broken and worthless as Bishop to keep on living. He was the one she wanted to save, even though he wasn't worth saving. Because she loved him.

Dilys loved him. Bishop.

Bishop stopped walking and stood very still. He knew he was a despicable person for what he had done, and that he couldn't possibly deserve her. His unacknowledged vein of self loathing ran so deep that a part of him hoped she would enact her righteous vengeance and kill him herself, finally ending his awful existence.

But Dilys loved him, in the same way she loved the people of West Harbor. She wanted them to live too, even if she couldn't be around to see them happy herself. Even if she died and could no longer be with the man she loved.

Bishop turned and looked back the way he came. Her final wish was for him to survive. He should keep going, leave this accursed place and see her wish fulfilled. But he felt growing in him a tiny seed of a feeling that nearly washed away the ash surrounding his heart: hope.

Hope that if she loved him enough to want him to live, then she would love him enough to forgive his betrayal. Hope that going back could redeem him for all the rotten abuses he had unleashed on her. Hope that Dilys could actually defeat the King of Shadows, and save Neverwinter as she had planned. And hope that Bishop could fight by her side to help her survive that battle, and become a part of her life afterwords.

Because he loved her too.

Bishop broke into a run. Not towards the exit, but back to the inner sanctum where the battle was currently raging. Bishop loved Dilys, and for the first time in his life, he cared about someone else more than himself. He would fight for her, die for her, but do everything in his power to see her survive.

His lungs burned as he sprinted down the hallways, but his chest swelled with emotion, giving him the strength to push onward. He no longer cared about being tied down, attached, or bound to Dilys. He felt free. Even though he had no idea what would happen, his path was clearer than it had ever been.

The Shadow Fortress was a large complex maze, but Bishop made good time running through it. His abilities as a scout were useful even in a place such as this, and before long he reached the long hallway that led to his destination. He could see the large double doors at the end, waiting for him to break them down.

Just as he started running down the corridor, a loud crack pierced the air. Bishop stopped in his tracks, having a suspicious feeling that he knew what had just happened. As if to answer his mental accusation, a slow rumble shook the building, growing in volume and speed as bits of the ceiling began to rain down to the floor below.

Bishop bolted forward, determined to reach Dilys. He flew through the hall with all the speed he could muster, and fortune alone kept him from being crushed by falling debris. He could hear large chunks of rock crashing down behind him, and he didn't need to look back to know the path was blocked. The hallway was long, and he had only just made it to the halfway point.

Then the doorway collapsed, taking down any chance of entering the great room with it. Bishop slowed to a stop, breathing heavily as the building continued to quake around him. The only path to Dilys was blocked, and so was the way to the exit. Bishop was trapped, and Dilys was trapped. They would both die here.

Bishop fell to his knees, laughing quietly at himself. He had condemned himself to certain death, and wasn't sorry at all for it.

He felt like such a fool. Dilys knew she was going to die, perhaps even counted on it. But Bishop had been forming all his machinations, plans, and schemes in the entire time he had known her, and yet he was the one who couldn't figure things out.

Bishop didn't even understand his own feelings. It was mere moments ago that he had wanted to kill Dilys, so that he would be sure no one else could. But Bishop was now quite certain that even if he had managed to best Dilys in battle, he would not be able to kill her.

He had felt furious at the thought of someone else harming her, and somehow interpreted that as the need to kill her himself. Only now Bishop could see that it was because he wanted to protect Dilys, not kill her. He had been so emotionally broken that he couldn't even identify something as simple as love before it was staring him in the face. He had been immeasurably conflicted for no real reason.

He was going to die alone in a hallway, simply because he couldn't make up his mind. He couldn't decide who to side with, live or die, love or hate. He just couldn't figure out the winning side. It was Dilys who understood that there was no winning side, and that heading into the final confrontation with the King of Shadows was the ultimate end.

Now that he finally understood, he was trapped here. Hatred had loosened its vice-like grip on him and allowed his mind to clear, but it had happened too late. He had been freed of the labyrinth of his own heart, only to be condemned to death in a literal one. But he wasn't bothered.

He felt strangely at peace. The certainty of his fate was no longer a comfort, but his freedom was. Just as before when he last came close to death, he could feel the chains slipping away. Not the chains of obligation, but chains of self-imposed confinement.

He had forced himself into a certain miserable way of life, because of a distorted perception he had of who he was. Now, he would die in a way that would completely break that perception. A type of death that was completely out of the character he had told himself he was.

He looked back at the collapsed door frame, wondering how Dilys was faring behind it. That wall of debris might as well have been an infinite distance for how it kept him away from her, and he wished more than anything he could be by her side at the end. But even though she would never know of his sudden dramatic change of heart, he still felt closer to her than anyone in his entire life.

He reached into the large pouch at his belt, and pulled out the small doll he had taken from Dilys. He looked at it with a soft smile, running his finger along the hair of yarn.

"Turns out I'm a sentimentalist after all, Dilys," Bishop said quietly. "You knew me better than I knew myself." He let out a sigh as the trembling of the building worsened, causing rocks to fall all around him.

"Dilys," he whispered, hoping some sort of magic would allow his voice to reach her so she could hear him as the world fell apart. "I love you."

I think impending mortal doom can help a person get past their emotional hangups... And though I love MotB too much to just disregard it for the sake of a well rounded ending, I hated how that expansion ignores any positive influence you built up with Bishop so that he knows you care for him and not Casavir. Kinda negates any epic romance I imagined for him... :(

But this concludes the longest fanfic I ever wrote, and I hope you readers enjoyed it. Extreme thanks to Arc Ascendent, EpitomyofShyness, RoseDragonscales412, tehmibs, Vshard, xX-LittleBlackSparrow-Xx, T, Fendie, Sarah J, MoonLightDancerElf, and Lisa for their feedback. This story was difficult to complete, so reading the reviews that were genuinely insightful, constructive, and downright moving make me glad I finally finished it.