Title: Im Ceni Meleth [I See Love]

Genre: Romance/Angst

Rating: PG-13

Characters: OFC/OMC

Time: Battle of Pelennor Fields to the Reunited Kingdom

Chapters: 1

Beta Reader: Alex Cat

Author: Codi Lyn

'There is no life in the void…' It whispered constantly to her. '…No longer any hope except to ruin and death as the world has fallen into …' There was never an end to the onslaught of her mind. The Voice seemed to know her every thought and whim, only to twist it into evil thinking and fatal wishes. '…You have nothing but death ahead and only the evil dwells at your back… You are surrounded by the darkness, nothing can save you now…'

A cold sweat had been forming over her for days and only recently her body could no longer control its tremors. She moved not, for every stirring brought her mind and body more agony in the form of searing flame. Nothing but the pain and darkness could be felt. The Voice continued its menacing whispers; small touches of something formless always sending a soft caress, only to be followed by the shock of torturous pain ripping through her.

"Darra." Such a tiny sound called to her through the thick blackness and with effort, she lifted her head a little to listen harder.

The Voice spoke to her more urgently now; with more menace and devilry, it attacked her mind and Darra was once again forced to curl back into her tight ball in an attempt to block it out. 'No one will save you! There is nothing left in this world for you. You belong to ussssss, Darra! You belong to me!' She shook her head and tried to call out for help, for that small sound once again but her own voice would not speak and her very lungs seemed to lose all oxygen.

"Darra, come back to the light." At last the little voice from before sounded and she bent all her thought on it and what it was telling her. I want to go back, she told herself over and over. No matter what the Voice tried to persuade her mind to do, she knew that nothing could possibly be as wretched as this darkness. Her mind screamed at her that this was the end, that there truly was no hope, but she fought. The small voice, it was growing louder and calling her name… that was hope enough. "Darra!" The voice called to her louder now, competing with the onslaught of despair clouding her judgment and emotion.

Tears streamed down her face as she tried to scream, to call out that 'yes, yes I hear you!' but still nothing as her breath became shorter and shorter. The darkness nearly overwhelmed her now, binding her, constricting her until she felt there was no more air even to inhale, so thick had it become. "Darra!" It called to her again and some strength hidden to her before awoke and she opened her eyes to a blinding light, not wanting to blink or shy away for how welcome it was to her. A new, deep breath coursed through her lungs and she gasped until at last she could taste the sweet clarity of fresh air through her nose and mouth again.

When the light dimmed to normal, she blinked many times to rid herself of the tears and at last they focused on a coarse, yet handsome, man sitting at her bedside. He was dirty and torn but there was a nobility about his face that left her speechless and full of respect; as though his eyes had seen the shaping of the world and everything since. A relieved smile softened his features and he brushed a loose auburn curl away from her eyes. "Manen nalyë [How are you]?" He asked in a calm voice but she could not bring herself to answer him for her own wonderment. He looked at her a moment before turning to a healer to ask her, "Does she know any elvish? Has no one taught her?"

The maid looked from her patient to the ranger and shook her head. "I know not, milord. Forgive me."

He waved off her apology and turned back to Darra with a sympathetic expression. "Thorongil enneth nin [My name is Thorongil]. Heniach nin [Do you understand me]?"

A moment of hesitation passed before she blinked again and nodded, responding in kind, "Mae govannen, Thorongil [Well met, Thorongil]. Gen hannon, Im maer [I thank you, I'm well]." He smiled again and nodded before standing and addressing the nurse once again to fix water and a soup of some kind for her patient. He left as swiftly as she'd met him and Darra tried to look after him but grimaced when a pain shot through her right side and up her body, forcing her back onto the mattress none too gently.

"Oh, dear! Do not fret yourself overmuch, you've been through quite a bit and I wouldn't want you openin' that wound again like you did before!" The healer quickly came over and began tending to the sheets and fixings around Darra.

Darra only looked at the younger woman curiously and finally asked, "What happened?" She was met with a pitying glance before the healer scurried off to fetch fresh water on the other side of the room.

She fixed the pitcher and a glass beside the bed and curtsied to Darra more than once with her face downcast. "M'name is Karren if you'll be needin' me again, miss. Just call out and I'll be sure to hear you." \

Before she could turn away, Darra caught her wrist and pulled her back to the bedside quite urgently. "Karren. I need you to tell me what happened, I... I can't remember anything."

Again, she received the pitiful look of compassion and as Karren sat upon the bed beside her, Darra let loose her wrist to listen. "Miss, I know only a little of your predicament so I won't be much use if you're wanting the whole tale." She tried to get out of her situation but Darra simply urged her on, a worried yet determined expression on her soft features. The nurse took a little sigh and closed her eyes as if envisioning the trouble she'd be in for telling anything to her patient. "The lord Thorongil told me not to remind you of any of this yet… The soldier who brought you here told me you'd been caught on the third level when the Enemy came through. You were holding a little boy but dropped him when an orc cut through your side." Karren took another breath to shut out the vision that came to mind and then looked at Darra with sad eyes. "I know the soldier said nothing else of the little one but that he took you away and fled to the Houses of Healing…"

Darra paid little attention to the rest of what she said for of a sudden all the memories flooded back into her sight and her eyes misted over as she reenacted the terrible scene in her mind.

She had been watching over her nephew while her sister-in-law went to the upper levels for the day. She had been told to stay at her brother's home until she returned so she ignored the warnings and shouting to evacuate the level and waited for her sister-in-law.

Damian was hardly to his second summer and loved his only aunt as much as he loved his own parents, if not more, for he spent more time with her than either of them at one time. Darra's nerves had been growing all morning since she first saw the massive army of Sauron at the gates of Minas Tirith. Damian seemed to sense his aunt's apprehension for he, too, had been fussy and frightened when the shouts and shrieks of men and creatures reached their small dwelling.

Finally, Darra knew they could wait no longer for her nephew's mother when the drumming sound of a charge came through the walls, and she wrapped Damian in a soft quilt before daring to step out of the front door. Running as fast as she could still did not out-run the Enemy, so close behind as they were, and soon they were overcome, Darra only having enough time to hide behind a pillar before Gondorian soldiers and Mordor's monstrous drones clashed with iron against iron.

For a moment, it seemed hopeful; the soldiers, brave men of Gondor, were pushing back the large mass of orcs, goblins, and uruk-hai. Amid the screams and shouts of battle, Damian's frightened cry finally aroused one of the orcs to their presence and Darra could run only three paces before the horrific shock of pain sawed at her side and she no longer had hold of anything except for the sheer terror and fear that coursed through her body. Damian lay crying in his thick quilt little more than an arm's length away from her, yet the dreadful orc was now pulling her leg and dragging her away from the helpless child, her blood splattered across his little cheek.

"NO! Damian, run away, Damian!" She shrieked to the babe but he would not move save for the reaching of his little hands toward her. As her vision blurred, she vaguely felt more liquid being sprayed across her back and then the feel of hard metal over strong arms wrap around her waist and pull her up into a soldier's grasp.

Weak from loss of blood, all she could do was reach for the child over his shoulder as he carried her away up the level and farther away from the baby screaming her name, 'Dar Dar!'

"Wait… the little boy, you have to…" She struggled to speak to the man but he did not reply, focused as he was on retreating from the Enemy hot on their heels. Burning tears flew down her face, mingling with blood, both orc and her own, as she saw the child disappear when they turned a corner. Everything after that turned to darkness… and then the whispers began.

"…Then you were dreaming or somethin' and turning about as you were, you opened up that nasty wound again and we had to hold you down to fix it. It was terrible, miss, I'm sure glad you won't be doin' that again."

Karren finished and Darra had to jerk her head sharply to rid herself of the memory of the Voice's whispers. Above all things, she did not want to remember that. Receiving a curious look from the maid, she changed the topic and questioned her, "Karren, do you know if my nephew is here? Has anyone brought him to the Houses since I came here? This, above all I must know."

Again, Darra's expression was urgent and determined and it took Karren off a bit before she shook her head sadly and responded, "I know not, miss. I haven't seen…"

"No, no, but he was small. He may not even be injured; Damian was only one summer old, nearly two. Please, you must tell me!" Darra took her arms in a fierce grasp which surprised her, despite her own weakness.

Karren looked afraid for a moment before she forced Darra's grasp to loosen and she pulled covers over her shoulders, pressing her back down onto the mattress and pillow. "Drink something if you will, miss. But I'm afraid you must get some sleep. You're still very exhausted though you may not feel it now. Please… I will try to find out what I can." Darra was frustrated that she could not move without pain but she nodded slowly and let the nurse tuck the blanket around her and fix a glass of water before leaving.

There was no window in her stone room and the only light came from a few lit candle sconces on either side of the wall across from her. Karren had left the door slightly ajar so her gaze was continually searching for someone to come to her through all the people that passed her room by.

She had fallen asleep once for a little while only to hear the soft whisper of the Voice echoing in her mind, causing her to wake up in a trembling sweat. For an hour, her hands could not stop shaking and she drank the entire pitcher of water Karren had left for her in an attempt to calm herself down. She was restless and in pain. Any more of this solitude without sleep and I will make myself crazy, she told herself as she tried to think of where her brother and sister-in-law were and if they were safe. Her brother, Raman, she knew, had little chance of still being alive after the siege and for that, she had darkened even more, for her brother had been so close to a father in their youth that she looked up to him in everything. She knew not where her sister was going to be or where she was now.

Unfortunately, there were never many congenial conversations between Darra and her sister-in-law, Maire, since she and her brother had married. Even now, they were only civil because of Damian and the problem of Mordor coming closer and closer as a threat to their lives. Raman bid them both be friends in his absence and Darra promised her older brother by seven years that she would give him no grief over it.

Two days had passed before this Thorongil had awoken her from the Black Breath and freed her mind from the Voice of Sauron. It was now the fifth day since her injury and Darra had only been informed that the blackness still endured over the heavens and Gondor had sent its army along with that of Rohan and Dol Amroth to the Black Gates of Mordor. Karren had not seen anything of the boy but she told Darra that the soldiers were cleaning the debris from the lower levels everyday.

"Darkness is coming back to my mind, Karren… You must let me leave this room." Darra pleaded every day with her nursemaid and at last, after careful inspection of her wound, she was allowed to leave her temporary chambers and venture out through the Houses of Healing.

It was a stretch to push muscles that hadn't been used in many days but Darra quickly adjusted to it and ignored any small pain in order to be deemed healthy enough to walk about on her own. It was soon clear that the world was no less oppressive outside her small dwelling than it was within. The skies were indeed as dark a gray as if fires had been burning for years under the very spot and the smoke had never cleared. Darra soon found herself outside the Houses, for the low moans and sounds of pain from injured and dying were no aid to her troubled mind as conflicted as it was.

Her side hurt her but she ignored it as best as she could and continued to walk forward, not looking to anyone who gave her curious glances or acknowledging anyone that attempted to talk to her. She wore a simple sleeveless dress, whiter linen than she had ever owned but nonetheless, it reminded her of the many bandages that filled the Houses of Healing and likewise those that wrapped securely around her own waist beneath the clothing. Her skin prickled at the coolness in the air; there was no breeze but everything was still as if the fires of Mordor would erupt and consume all at any moment. It was not a refreshing coolness but instead a deathly chill, like the feel of flesh that no longer had blood coursing through it.

"I'm sorry, lady. You are not allowed to go down to the lower levels for they are still dangerous." A tower guard stopped her when she came up to the end of the level of the Houses. She stood a moment, looking past the soldier's bright armor and staring at the flame-scorched walls that lay behind and below him. Her only thoughts were consumed by the image of Damian crying out her name and reaching for her grasp and a tear escaped one eye and fled down her face.

Quickly, and to the surprise of both guards standing there, Darra ducked under his outstretched arm and ran for all her worth, swiftly out-running the soldiers for the hindrance of their armor to speed. She hiked up her thin skirts and fled downwards toward the level that her brother's home was set upon. Vaguely she could hear shouting behind her, of different guards and soldiers cleaning the gore and mire of battle calling after her, only to be ignored in her frantic plight to find the small child.

At last she came to the spot where she'd left him unwillingly and the sight before her made her legs collapse beneath her weight and all control of emotions let loose. The smell of blood and burnt flesh instantly filled her senses and all breath left her lungs as she looked upon the small broken and bloodied frame wrapped in a once soft quilt before her. Damian was beyond all doubt as dead and cold as the silent air about her. Slowly and weakly, she crawled towards the innocent body and sobs flew from her mouth as soon as her hand caressed his bruised little cheek, the once precious green eyes now closed forever as she felt his spirit follow countless others to rest.

"Lady! You must leave this place…" The sound of the man's voice brought her back to the present and she hunched over the child with the pain of her wound finally catching up to her. She clutched her side and felt the wetness of blood where it had reopened again. With a gasp at her injury, the soldier caught her from falling over and she grimaced fiercely against his cold breastplate. "We must get you back to the Houses…"

He started but Darra pushed against him with what seemed the last of her strength and yelled at him, "NO! I have no more to live for… He's gone. Just let me die! Let me die or kill me! I cannot bear this guilt, this agony of loss any longer!" Every word furthered her torture more and more until the man was forced to hold her upright himself. She looked up into his eyes with hot tears staining every inch of her face and reddening her exhausted green eyes so that she looked about to break. His own brown orbs stared back at her with a calm urgency that forced her to rethink her actions; only to have the Voice once again reinforce whatever doomed thoughts she had previously shouted. She shook her head slowly and looked to him pleadingly, "I can't do it… I can't resist it anymore... He has me." It came out barely above a whisper from her frail voice.

His expression instantly changed to determination and his grasp around her upper arms tightened firmly. "No." Once he said that, he stood and hefted her up into his arms, immediately running up the incline of the levels to reach the Houses of Healing. He had no helm on as most did for the work he was doing previously, and his dark hair flew away from his face and down to his shoulders where his bright Gondorian armor covered the rest of his large frame.

His face was gallant and unwavering as his long strides brought them closer to the Houses. "Move aside!" He shouted to more than one guard on the way up and occasionally his steady gaze fell upon her pale face to see if she was still conscious. Every step jostled her and sent spears of pain throughout her side and back, but she held to his neck-plate hard in attempt to stay awake, not wanting to slip back into the shadow that had held her for too long before.

They made it quickly to the Houses and were met by a frantic Karren instantly upon arrival. "Thank the Valar! I thought you'd gone forever! Thank you for bringing her back, sir. Bring her in here where I can tend to it." The healer fussed over her in his arms for a moment before turning to lead him to Darra's rooms.

Darra sobbed from her pain and grief but looked urgently up to the soldier carrying her and begged him, "Please, not in that room. Take me somewhere else were there's light and people… but not there."

He looked at her for a moment and then stopped the maid in front of them. "Can she not go anywhere else? Somewhere more open?"

Karren looked at him incredulously and explained, "Everything I must have to tend her with is in there. There simply isn't time to move it all before it becomes too late!" At her exigency, he nodded and they continued to Darra's temporary chambers, Darra having no more strength to argue with either of them at that point. He set her upon the mattress softly, careful not to put her in any more pain than she already was. Karren began to pull up the skirts of her dress, only stopping when she saw the young man turning his head away. "You should wait outside if you're goin' stay." The nursemaid suggested with a raised brow and he nodded red-faced and walked toward the door, sending only one look of concern to Darra before shutting it to give her privacy.

"I should never've let you out of my sight this morning... There's no tellin' how deep a trouble you've put me in." Karren murmured half to herself and half to Darra as she carefully but deftly pulled away the bloodied and stained bindings. Darra took breaths as deep as she could and stared at the ceiling in silence, clutching the sheets on either side of her to keep from fading while Karren pushed and massaged different mixtures into her aching side.

When she'd finished, Darra begged her to give her something to stay awake, and at the insistence of her expression and voice, Karren finally accepted and made a mild herbal tea for her to sip on, really only making her mother's favorite brew with no medicine added. Karren walked out of the smallish room with the bowls of bloodied water and spoiled bandages and was surprised to see the soldier who brought her in, still waiting against the wall beside the door.

Again, she arched an eyebrow at the tall Gondorian and he looked a bit awkward before explaining, "I was nearly finished for my post anyway… Uh, may I see her now?" She said nothing but simply curtsied and nodded to the soldier before walking away with a knowing look on her face. Taking her silence as a 'yes,' he quietly parted Darra's door enough to look through and see that she was awake and decent in attire. She briefly glanced towards him but straightened again when the strain hit her once more.

With a wince and a troubled expression, he stepped inside and took a seat in the chair beside the lady's bed, his elbows sitting on his knees as he looked her over. "Are you all right?" He asked hesitantly, as if the mere sound of his voice would cause her hurt or pain.

Slowly, she turned her head to him and rested it in a mildly comfortable spot to see him more clearly. "I'm afraid I've made myself much worse." A moment of uncomfortable silence passed.

"Forgive me, I've lost my manners. My name is Faolan, my lady."

Her eyes smiled but her face did not as she responded likewise, "I am Darra. And I thank you for bringing me back here… I only wish 'here' was somewhere besides this room."

He nodded and looked about the room, dissatisfied by the look on his face. "It is too dark for someone who is already darkened." He remarked but upon looking back to her affronted expression, he felt terrible remorse for his words. "Again! Forgive me, I meant no offense to you in any way." He studied her face a moment and then continued to explain, "I can only see it, in your face, and in your eyes… you've been in that darkness. And to a degree, it still clings to you though you do not will it."

He spoke with more understanding than she would have surmised and she inquired lightly, "You speak as if from personal experience of the Black Breath."

He only shook his head and lowered his gaze from hers. "Not myself, but my brother. A fellow soldier and better than I will ever become. He was cured from it by the grace of the Valar but the depression that followed him, he… he died on his own sword. I would not wish that upon anyone, let alone a blameless maiden such as you."

She turned her head away from him and took a shaky breath. "You know me not if you think I am without fault. My sister-in-law has every right to murder me for letting her only son die as I have done."

A moment passed before she felt warm fingers encompass her own cold and trembling digits and she looked to him questioningly before he spoke, "I know what happened. I inquired after you while the healer was still tending your injury and I promise you I will say no more about it after this, but you must realize it or you will never release His shadow from your mind… The orcs killed the child, not you." She looked at him in disbelief as he looked to her with some trepidation. She said nothing and Faolan looked from her quivering hand in his and back to her eyes filled with tears one more time before releasing her and standing to leave with a short bow.

Faolan walked down the halls with purpose and finally found someone with some semblance of authority in the Houses of Healing, a man named Dempsey who was not in the mood for negotiation that particular morning. "Sir, I'm not sure what you expect at a time like this! She is not royalty, no relation to the Steward's house, nor even remotely important to Gondor for that matter! I'm afraid I cannot move anyone at this stressful point in time for mere comfort!"

The man continued on before Faolan took his arm firmly and caused him to stop his ranting. "I don't care about her status or importance to Gondor. She is a living, breathing woman who is wounded more than many of the patients in here that fought even in battle. It makes little difference that she was healed of the Black Breath or not, it still has hold of her mind and if she stays in that closed, dark, and cramped room… she may not survive. Do you want another of your patients to die simply because you deprived her of fresh air?"

Dempsey was now somewhat recoiled from the determined look in Faolan's eyes and the grip on his upper arm that had increased considerably with each word. "I… we can find a room if it takes relocating another, l-lesser injured patient into her rooms. I, I will get back to you when it's ready for her, my lord." Slowly he pried himself out of Faolan's grasp and made to find someone to help him relocate his patients. Faolan half smirked to himself at the look on Dempsey's face. He was sure he'd left a bruise on the poor man's arm.

It was the next day just before noon when Faolan, again, came to see Darra in her enclosed room. She looked much more sober than the day before and he noted she did not try overmuch to meet his particularly watchful gaze.

All throughout their sitting, they watched Karren and another young boy come back and forth to the room to take supplies away and bring different ones she'd never used before. Darra stole a glance at Faolan as he looked at the two busy helpers and noticed he seemed not curious at all. In fact, he looked somewhat amused with a secret humor or joke. Finally they'd taken the last of all Darra's ointments and clothes away and Faolan turned to her with an easy smile. "Are you ready?" He asked her as if she'd been told about everything that was going on and she looked at him with a perplexed face, only furthering his smile. "Try not to fuss about too much. I don't want to hurt you more." He warned her and she was just about to inquire when he stooped over her and lifted her slender frame into a solid hold against his chest, amazingly only causing minor discomfort for her. With a nod to Karren, he bid her to go ahead and they followed her through the Houses of Healing until they came to a rather large room with a broad window, and near it a balcony looking out to the southern mountains away from Mordor. Easily, he laid her upon a soft mattress close to the window and fixed the cushions behind her so that she could look out without straining herself overmuch.

For a moment, she simply looked out at the majesty of the mountains and said nothing. Faolan nodded for Karren to leave and she curtsied respectfully before exiting the room to see to other patients in the halls. He stepped out on the balcony and turned his back on the view, leaning upon the stone railing to look back at her. A soft, almost ghost of a smile played across her lips as she continued to look out and asked him casually, "How did you convince them to move me?" She cut her deep green eyes over to him and slowly eased her neck to turn and face him as well. "I would surely love to know, for I have been attempting to change their minds since I first arrived here."

He grinned at her mischievously and chuckled lowly before responding, "Everyone respects a soldier of Gondor."

She smiled a little more and looked at him with amusement. "I hope you didn't hurt him too badly, Faolan."

He outright laughed then and walked over to sit beside her, enjoying the first pleasant look he'd seen on her fair face. "We met only a day ago and already you know me so well, my lady. Am I so obvious?"

He teased her and she answered him simply but with playful air about her, "It is not so hard to see that you had a secret enjoyment in something of your dealing with Dempsey. I must admit I wished I could have hurt him in some way when he talked down to me so." She hummed a little chuckle and he smiled at her lightened expression, so different from the day before.

"He should not have talked so to anyone. You, least of all, for you have done naught."

He remarked on the spinster of a man and she shook her head carefully, looking up to him with eyes of the deepest evergreen. "Why do you imagine me as such a perfect person? You have only seen me in pain and unhappiness and yet you have said nothing against me, only reprimanding those that have."

He deepened his expression and smiled thoughtfully before answering, "I see only what the Valar have blessed me to see." Her face showed doubt but nevertheless she smirked at his answer and to him the air seemed just a little fresher that day.

In the days after, Faolan tried to spend time in her company as much as he was spared from duty. His fellow comrades teased him about it in an attempt to lighten their moods but he disregarded them save to say that he did not want her to fall into depression as his brother had. Each day he saw just a slight bit more of the woman he knew was beneath the shadowy exterior and everyday he lived in those moments.

The day the War was won and the evil of Sauron destroyed, Faolan was on his duty cleaning away the filth of battle. An invisible shock seemed to shoot through the air and behind it a strong gust of fresh cool wind followed and blew away the dank stillness that had settled over Minas Tirith. Manwë had cleared the skies and provided a constant wind as the heavens lightened with a new dawn. Men, women, and their children all praised the Valar and rejoiced in the streets and in their homes, celebrating the first peace in many ages of Men. Eagles came and shouted the news to all that the Evil had been overcome and Sauron had fallen.

Faolan quickly put down his tools and ran up the streets and levels to the Houses, deftly weaving through the sudden crowds that now filled the city in their rejoicing. Patients who suffered from the Black Breath were now in the halls of the Houses and singing elvish tunes with mirth as the many nurses and healers were dancing with each other around the pillars and cots. He had never seen such merriment and sheer joy from so many at one time, but he would not let his heart be too gladdened until he had seen Darra, for how she faired now mattered greatly to his own peace and frame of mind. Swiftly he rushed through the halls until he had come to her room, stopping dead when he looked inside to see her enveloped in the arms of a soldier not much older than himself.

His countenance was crushed and jealous at the same time as he watched the man softly stroke her deep auburn hair over her back and shush her silent sobs as she clung to his neck. Until he looked again and noted that the man's hair was also the same dark reddish brown as Darra's and when he turned his face to Faolan, he also saw the same green eyes staring back at him somewhat protectively.

"Who are you?" He asked Faolan and before he could respond, Darra had turned her tear stained face to look at him and, for the first time since he'd met her, he saw her perfect lips erupt into the most beautiful smile he'd ever seen in his life.

"Faolan! My brother has returned to me!"

Raman looked curiously between his younger sister and the out of breath soldier before him and then asked her, since he'd had no response from the former, "Darra, who is this?"

She smiled at him and ushered for Faolan to come over where she introduced them, each shaking the other's hand firmly, though Raman gripped especially hard for the unsaid connection between the man and his sister, still making him weary. "He saw to it that I had a room with a window and balcony such as I do now. I believe he helped me more than any leaf or medicine ever did." She looked from her brother to Faolan admirably and he could only gaze back for the emotions flowing through his mind from her change of spirits.

"Though it seems that you have helped her more in merely a few moments than I had in a week of knowing her," Faolan remarked towards Raman and the man stood before him just as tall, holding his arm out in a trusting gesture.

"No, I believe you have done much more than I have, Faolan. For you have given her something I can only give to my wife." A spark appeared in Raman's eye and Faolan smiled, taking his arm in a strong clasp as comrades do. Raman nodded to him and took his sister's chin to kiss her forehead affectionately. "I must go to my wife, Darra. She needs me now." She nodded to him solemnly and Raman gave one more knowing look to each of them before leaving the room to leave them alone together.

Faolan turned his head to her and after a moment of looking out the door, she turned her eyes to him in a subdued happiness. "You told him about Damian?" It was more of a statement than question and she nodded, only giving a moment to the lament before she looked into his eyes once again and he saw a new light that had not been there before. Her eyes shone a brighter green and though salty tears stained her cheeks, they were of joy and happiness, no more grief. This was the woman she was, the woman he'd waited patiently to see and had finally been rewarded with. This was the woman he knew he loved.

He stepped over and sat on the edge of her bed, a strong gust of cool wind blew her softly curled hair around her face, a few strands covering her eyes which he reached up to tuck behind her ear. "You should be more covered. You'll get too cold in this wind." He suggested and she smiled at him again, such a look as to make his heart melt.

Shaking her head, she took a deep breath, the first in a long time without pain. "No. This is what I need, Faolan. It seemed such an eternity that I was in the Shadow; I couldn't see or feel anything. Now everything is so clear… like what I see in your eyes." Her expression changed to something deeper and he allowed himself to become lost in her tender gaze.

"And what do you see in my eyes?" He asked her. She leaned toward him slightly and brought her hand up to touch his lightly bearded face with soft fingers, softer than he'd ever felt upon his skin and a tremble of keenness pulsed through him. She looked into his piercing brown eyes and caressed her thumb across his cheek before he took the hand in his own, slowly bringing it to his lips in a lingering kiss. She caught a spark in his eye just before he leaned forward, replacing her hand with her lips against his. Slowly he met her and slowly they released. Even a chaste kiss as it was, they did not want for length.

Her eyes fluttered open languorously, as if she had just awoken from a beautiful dream and it had come true. Their fingers twined together tightly in that moment and Darra and Faolan smiled at one another affectionately. She took a steadying breath and parted her lips before answering him. "I see love."