How cute. We need more Griffin x Valtor.

This made me sooooooooo happy!

I love it! I live for this couple!

You can feel Griffin’s hesitation to leave!

This was amazing! Keep up the good work!

Oh, my god, this is so perfect! I love it so much! Like, I can't even tell you!

I loved the way you paint a perfect picture of what their relationship is like. It's clear why Griffin is so hesitant to leave as you've described so well why she's stayed so long. The impact their feelings have on their magic was shown so well and helped showcase the power and difficulty of her decision further. Their partnership mixes so well with their relationship (too well) and while it draws strength from their feelings, it also gets in the way of their romance as it helps Griffin open her eyes and I really liked that.

I loved the dynamic between the two, the banter, the care but still with the certain possessiveness, and not only from Valtor, but from both. The idea that he never uses magic to undress her really struck a cord with me as it expresses deep intimacy and respect on his part and that is something we don't really see from him. There was a certain gentleness to Valtor that clashed so well with his recklessness and bloodthirst and just demonstrated so well why the choice was so hard for Griffin to make. It's clear that he loves her. Just not enough. And that is so very tragic and so very them.

Other stuff that really piqued my interest:
- The care you in the worldbuilding. You even wrote a sentence from the book Griffin was reading? Damn! That was so awesome!
- The fact that the Ancestresses don't mind their relationship as long as it helps rather than hinders them. I just thought that was cool.
- The "pick the lesser evil" game between Griffin and Faragonda. I will read an entire fic focused on them playing it! I can imagine Griffin giving Faragonda two horrible choices and watching her sweat over them. Damn, what an image!

And here are some quotes that I really loved:
"once Griffin had learned to associate the feeling with Valtor’s absence, she’d tried to avoid separation as much as she could."
"lingering anxiety that seeped into her skin coupled with faint nausea and chills that didn’t leave her, niggling at the back of her mind." That description tho!
"Valtor wasn’t shy about the things he wanted; he wanted power, and he wanted her." I'm fangirling so hard!
"She’d been enamored by the notion of the two of them against the world, but she had no desire to take it over." Aggh, my heart! My heart!
"He didn’t make her want to stay away." Damn!
"There were a million reasons to leave, but he was the one that made her want to stay." I will sob now, okay?
"all he’d manage to do was complicate things. Fitting, really." Indeed. What a true sentiment!
"She was worried Valtor didn’t just draw the line higher than she did but that he didn’t draw it at all." Actual tears in my eyes!
"Griffin knew that most people, with their unrealistic and hypocritical ideas about right and wrong, wouldn’t see a difference between having dozens of lives on your conscience and having hundreds or hundreds of thousands, but to her, the distinction made all the difference in who she saw in the mirror." I can't even articluate how this line makes me feel. But I love it to death!
"He’d stolen everything from her; the feelings she wasn’t ready for anyone to awaken, the deepest parts of her she hadn’t wanted to show to anyone. She’d used them to guard herself, but there had been no protection against Valtor. He was too used to getting what he wanted. And he’d wanted her." Ah, stop! You're going to kill me!
The last few paragraphs were all just... *screams* *screams louder* like that!