Private When Death is No More

[Gerwald Lechner]

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.​

WEARING: xxx
TAG: Naedira Darcrath

Black skin, armored and tough, had been cracked and peeled from the body of Naedira Darcrath. Gerwald had been there to oversee it all. Nothing happened without his diligent and careful watch. Srina Talon had told him the woman was now his burden, and as the loyal creature he was, the wolf would not leave Naedira’s side. Whatever tasks Empyrean had for him could wait. Nothing was more important than the recovery of the former Knight which Srina had pulled from the nether and woven back together.

They were similar in a way now. Gerwald’s kind had been sithspawn. He did not need to know the details, but something of how Naedira had been put back together was not natural, and the Lupo knew that. His mind replayed the news of her death over and over again, only to shift to the sight of her in his arms on Elrood. Srina had kept her word, at a cost, and Gerwald was not foolish enough to think some repayment would be demanded of him at some time.

Naedira was in a bacta tank, yet to wake up. A room within Gerwald’s home had been set up for her treatment. For now it looked more like a medical suite in some stark hospital. The medical droids which oversaw her vitals, along with the needed equipment, occupied much of the space he could give toward it. He paced a lot. It was much like a canine waiting for his master to return home. In this instance Gerwald was simply looking for some kind of change in her condition, anything to suggest that she would wake from the coma anytime soon.

She was alive, at least. It was the one comfort Gerwald took.

His dreams had also settled.

The beast no longer chased him, or Naedira no longer chased him. Srina had been convinced it was Naedira that kept seeking out Gerwald rather than the beast seeking the ring the wolf had once worn. At times he still absentmindedly reached for it only to find it was gone. It had been destroyed in order to take the portion of the Auburn haired Knight which had been bound to it. Even as Gerwald’s blue eyes rest on the body which floated in the bacta tank, he was reminded that everything that remained of her was there. The ring was no longer Gerwald’s burden.

She was.

“Wake up, Naedira,” he said aloud.

<< “Wake up…”>> his mind pressed to hers.

He could feel it, their bond, or what remained of it. However it was that they had been linked in the force, now it was different, and yet something of it was still there. It was still easy to slip his thoughts into her mind. Even if it was because she was not awake yet, Gerwald needed to think it was because they were still connected. They had come close, so very close, and all she had to do was wake up.

Gerwald needed fresh air. His wolf needed it. Even if he was not leaving his home, Gerwald could wait on his balcony. The Sith Lord leaned against the railing, studying the skyline of Jutrand for the first time. It was urban, far too urban for his liking. Of all the places Gerwald had been, this was one of his least favorite. Coruscant was the only planet he hated even more. The wolf needed forests and grass to run in. This place was more of a concrete jungle, more like a ship than a planet.

None of this had happened as he imagined. Gerwald had expected they would have still been part of the Confederacy. All those who had made promises, and none of them remained. In the end it had been Srina, and the former Lord Commander now wearing the sigil of a Sith faction which was the reality of Naedira’s return. Nothing would be as she would remember it. All those she had known were gone. There was much that had changed, and even that would be Gerwald’s burden, to help her adjust, adapt, to live.

He turned his head over his shoulder. Naedira was still there. His feet carried him back to the tank slowly. This time he rest his forehead against the cool glass. His eyes closed.

<< “You have made it this far… come back to me…” >>​

 

[Srina Talon]

Tag: Gerwald Lechner ​

Smoke filled the balcony that Gerwald Lechner had just vacated.

A dark storm cloud descended from the sky. It was full of wind sharper than razor blades and little bursts of lightning that gave it form and shape among the rest. A form that was decidedly feminine emerged from the depths and delicate booted feet touched the cobblestone. Her hair was white as fresh-fallen snow but her attire clashed in shades of red and black. An empire waist hid her changing form.

The scent of something achingly cold, like the arrival of winter, mixed with the spice of blue rose would herald her entrance long before her Force Signature would. The sensitive nose of the wolf would recognize her magic while Force Clouding kept her secrets. Her hair would seem longer. Where she used to keep it at the middle of her back, easily, out of reach in a fight—It was growing faster than she could find the time to keep up with. It followed her in a silken wave.

Everything she passed seemed to become dull in her wake. Stripped of what made it special because in the end, she was far more exceptional than it could ever hope to be. A diamond among stones, untouched, and unbreakable. "That is not how it works, wolf."

As much as the former Lord Commander wanted his Knight to wake from her slumber, he could not simply will it so. Srina could feel him reaching for the bond they'd once held. She was uniquely qualified to understand it since it had been one of the elements that she had preserved from the scraps of memory she had been left to work with. Naedira was…Unstable. Her body was weak. But, healed. Enough that she would have already awoken on her own.

If she could.

"I can hear you calling her…", Srina intoned, distant, but a far cry from the power-drenched Sith that he had unintentionally awoken on Elrood. The lure of blood-games had faded from her mind enough that her eyes were no longer pools of liquid night. No longer would he see crimson stars in them. Nor find her butchering entire worlds just to be able to hold her husband close without fear. "…But there is a difference between us. I can hear you."

"Naedira cannot."

Srina had walked the chaotic halls of the Knights mind night after night. There had been no more improvements other than physical that had been made possible with the application of high-grade bacta. She could remember cracking the dark, chitinous armor, and peeling it off of a body that looked so small and helpless without it. The way her pain had spiked with every break.

The Nocna Mora had truly grafted itself into her.

The fabric of her gown pulled across the floor while she approached. It was not uncommon for her to appear as needed. More and more she used the Force for travel. Her small storms that moved through the environment were not as fast as teleportation but they were more secure. There was much less of a chance that she mind wind up in a wall. "It may be timed to accept that she needs more than you can give. Her body is here. Her mind is…Untethered. Trying to avoid that pain. Such…"

"Suffering."

Srina had an idea of how to tether the former Knight Obsidian but her certainty that it would work as intended was less than. She did not like to play games she wasn't positive she could win.

She also did not want to provide false hope. This shell of a woman had long since been Gerwald's truest weakness. He would move heaven and earth for her.

The newly made empress did not want to see him crumble.

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.​

WEARING: xxx
TAG: Naedira Darcrath | Srina Talon

“I know.”

His words were decided, factual, but lacking any kind of passion. Gerwald knew who it was who spoke to him. The voice was unmistakable to him now. Were there ever a day he forgot what the voice of Srina Talon sounded like, it would be a dark day indeed. Even then, the days were getting darker. The Sith were settling their politics as only Sith could, and Gerwald had been selfish enough to bring Naedira back to it all. Perhaps she would settle with it just fine seeing as she had been the one to teach Gerwald the Sith code. Then again, her death had flown in the face of the Sith code.

One life instead of many. It was not often their way.

“She would have answered by now if she was hearing me. It is odd, I can feel that she is here, the bond is there.”

Her body is here. Her mind is…Untethered.

Gerwald nodded. Untethered was the word he could not place. From what Srina said, the wolf gathered she should have woken up by now. After all, for just a few moments she had been. Srina’s one act of mercy was to render the woman unconscious, though it could have easily been to quiet her screams than the things which caused Naedira to cry out as she had.

He finally turned from the tank and looked at his empress. The thought almost made him shake his head. It was a title she would have never aspired to, and the wolf had been there that day to see her reaction. Srina would walk out the role that had come her way, and with best of her ability. There was no question in that. What Gerwald questioned was whether she would abide by the moves Empyrean was making. She was close to Carnifex as well.

This was not her purpose for being here. If she wanted to discuss it they could, but as long as Naedira remained in the bacta tank, their work was not finished. His promise was not kept.

“So in freeing her… I have damned her.”

Srina could tell him he was wrong. She did not hesitate to point out when he was. Gerwald would not be convinced otherwise. There would not have been a need to use the word untethered if they could allow her to remain so.

“It has always been beyond my ability, Srina. Whether it is because of indecision or a pure weakness on my part. No matter how much power or strength I gain, it never seems to be enough.”

He reached for a ring that was no longer there. Srina’s words still rang in his mind. Naedira would be his burden now. It seemed she would be in ways Gerwald could not have imagined. Had Srina known this would be a possible outcome? In saying what she had, Darth Omnia had to know what her wolf’s response would be. Despite the lesson he should have learned from the Mountain, or what the Mountain had done to him, Gerwald continued to rush forward.

His eyes turned back to the tank. At least this time there was no indecisiveness to what he said.

“I will be her anchor.”​

 

[Srina Talon]

Tag: Gerwald Lechner ​

Did he?

Did he know that he was wasting breath and life on a woman that could no more hear him than she could open her eyes? She flowed forward as a wave would encompass the shore. Every act was met with grace, despite, her well-hidden condition. She made certain to keep her stars hidden from sight through a variety of means. From force clouding, and signature suppression, to specialized fabric that muted the sound of heartbeats to confuse lifeform scanners—There was no precaution she hadn't taken.

Certainly, Empyrean would notice that she was not home. Not asleep.

Even with the compunctions of a corpse he knew when she was restless, when, the moon called and the urge to wander as she would have on Eshan took over. There was no solace to be found in steel walls full of supplicants and Eternal loyalists that had begun dropping to their knees every time she walked by. It was disconcerting, to say the least. "She is in terror. Crippled, by agony.", the soft words were as ethereal as the silks that pulled across the floor. Repeated, so that he would understand.

Her consciousness would not return to what it perceived as a reprieve from all it had endured over the last decade. Why would it? Why would anyone relinquish the coolness of emptiness when they expected reality to be full of flame, piercing glass, sharp teeth, and scorching hot coals?

"…Think about what she left…Of her last living memory."

Of the Mountain of old who tore them both apart. Who beat Naedira Darcrath with bare fists and nightmarish armor until she couldn't stand. Smacked her down, again, and again. Breaking bones she hadn't known existed before impaling her on a pike and slowly burning the remains. It hadn't been the brutal thrashing to kill her. Not being shoved through walls or thrown across the room.

It was smoke inhalation.

For the sake of duty—She had burned alive. Feeling, enduring, and suffering it all alone.

Her head tilted when Gerwald seemingly gave up without a fight. Was that any way for a Sith Lord to act? To accept reality? To not take what belonged to them? Now that Srina had snatched the object of his affections from the other side, had he suddenly, completely, forgotten who she was? Who she had become? With or without the title of Queen or Empress—She was a force of nature.

That was all that mattered. Not the title. Merely, she sheer oblivion and fierceness of her might.

"Hush, wolf. All is not necessarily lost.", she began while his words caused her lips to flatten with distaste. That he thought so little of himself made something beneath the surface of her skin itch in annoyance. "It was beyond my ability—For a decade. I am not who I was and you do not know who you will become. I took what is mine. I took what belongs to me. I will have what I require and the galaxy will no longer deny me. Empires rise and fall…"

"But Srina Talon? Remains."

The white-haired Empress moved toward the bacta tank and let her hand lay neatly along the glass. She breathed slowly, carefully, while he came to the truth on his own. The warning that she had given him was more than just an emotional or physical toll to be paid. It was…Everything. Naedira Darcrath was too damaged to return. Her mind was full of holes. What was left?

Unspeakable, unspeakable agony.

"I can take your memories of her and weave them into the mess the Devourers left behind. I can take your life force and weave it into her. No longer, will she only feel pain. She will feel you."

She would wake up.

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.​

WEARING: xxx
TAG: Naedira Darcrath | Srina Talon

So they were playing god, it seemed. It was what Sith did he supposed, but something about what Srina suggested seemed like they were playing with something they should not have been. Gerwald was already justifying it in his own mind. Had Prazutis not done what he had, or because the wolf had made a promise, it was the only way to save her from the tragic, final memory.

No, if they were going to see this through, Naedira could not be left to relive her death over and over again.

“I did not say all was lost,” Srina’s wolf still found himself testing his new found boldness where she was concerned. “But you are correct. Sith take what they want. We both know I never fully embraced that philosophy when I served the Confederacy. The Sith do not play by the same rules.”

It was more of an observation. His deficiencies, weaknesses, were still a result of the neutrality he tried to walk in. Balance had been something he sought for a long time, and the pursuit of it had only left him wanting.

His eyes turned back to Naedira. He placed a hand on the tank as the images of his own torture at the hands of the mountain flashed before his eyes. Gerwald had lived, barely. Time had been what brought healing, and life had allowed him new memories which made the event more distant than it should have been. Now that they had brought Naedira from the pit, she would have time to make more, but first she needed to break past the one.

“Through victory my chains are broken…”

He turned back to Srina.

“It is what she would say. While I never fully embraced the Sith Code, she had. The Force shall free me.”

It was an acceptance for what had to be done. Gerwald would have to reconcile whatever the implications of what they were about to do with this new code of his. She would feel him, their bond would be more than what it had been. What Srina proposed was more than a simple joining of their minds, but rather she would know everything Gerwald thought, and felt, about the woman as if they were her own thoughts.

Some could argue it was simply a different kind of prison, but with time Naedira would at least be able to make new memories, her own choices. Whatever chance she had of being free required this step. He knew the consequences of what they were about to do. Gerwald had already agreed to be her anchor, but it was beyond that. It was as Srina had already said. The ring was no longer his burden, Naedira herself would be.

“If that is what must be done, then do it. Her final memory cannot be her death. Naedira needs to be freed from it.”​

 

[Srina Talon]

Tag: Gerwald Lechner ​

“So in freeing her… I have damned her.”

Her lips moved but the deep voice that pulled from delicate vocal cords while she flawlessly repeated his statement belonged to the lupine. Not to the ethereal woman that stood amongst the makeshift trauma unit in his quarters. That had certainly sounded like defeat. Especially, when combined with the inaccurate self-reflection. Mirrored silvery orbs would call him on his chit long before anything or anyone else…He ought to be used to that by now. Mincing words or trying to wax poetic in her presence would only end in misery. "Stand on your chest and say what you mean, Gerwald. Mean what you say."

Her frozen eyes flickered. Reflective, but with a telltale sharpness.

"Because once we are done…It cannot be undone without sacrifice."

One of them would most assuredly die. Likely, Naedira in her weakened state. It was not only her prerogative but her right to inform the wolf of the dangers of what he wished for. She was delving into a darkness that he clearly didn't understand, or else, he'd perform the rite himself. "Jedi…Sith…None of it really matters. Power. That is the only truth. Whether it comes from knowledge or sheer might…That is what we are. The Darkside is a tool that I choose to use because of the strength that can be found in oblivion. If I am provided a better tool; I will use that."

"Power is all that matters. Not the dogma connected to it."

Naedira Darcrath was a loyal Knight of the Sith when she'd passed into the mists beyond. It was ironic that someone so entrenched in Sith history would have been the one to put one of his own down. The auburn-haired woman had seen things in black and white. Good and bad. Right and wrong. Those convictions had brought her strength; But they had also been her undoing. Srina longed for the day when her peers finally saw the Force what it was.

A tool. A piece of equipment. Nothing more, nothing less. Without a commanding hand to wield it in the wake of the galaxy…It's worth weighed less than sunlight.

Srina knew that Gerwald was simply repeating the views of the woman in the bacta tank. Her thoughts were far simpler. Driven by baser instincts of want, take, have. She had no reason to deny herself anything that the universe might have to offer. What good had it done her in the past?

"If this is truly what you wish…I will make it so."

The words were confident. There was not a shred of doubt in the silvery creature that she could do what it was that he wanted. That through his sacrifice of self—She could restore the woman he loved. At least partially. She left her hand on the glass of the tank and without looking back held her other hand toward her wolf. It was a soundless movement. A simple, gesture. "I will do what I can to keep either of you from blending too much. I will not raise an obedient slave from the dark…"

"But I can provide her with stability. A safe place to crash back to reality where she might not shatter upon impact."

Might, not. Might.

Srina could give her a reason to want to return. A choice, versus, remaining a disembodied ghost in a place where she was neither alive nor dead.

Gerwald only needed to take her hand.

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.​

WEARING: xxx
TAG: Naedira Darcrath | Srina Talon

His voice echoed back at him. Gerwald knew better than to argue with his mistress, and yet he had. Part of him resented her for what she had done. No matter how much he pushed or gave voice to what he knew of his own thoughts, she did not understand. Like others before her, she heard what he said, but she did not listen, not truly.

A resigned sigh escaped his lips.

“Have I not said what I meant? Without some kind of anchor, a refuge as you are wont to call it, she is damned to reliving her death over and over again. I told you I will be her anchor, if such is required, and I mean it.”

There was an intensity in his eyes, but not borne of anger. His gaze held a deep seated conviction, powerful and raw. It raged like an all consuming fire. Gerwald was right and he knew it. It was not that he would argue, but the wolf would not back down from the path he had chosen. The choice had been made long before Srina revived Naedira, ripping her from the netherworld and bending the beast that held her captive to her will.

“We have long moved beyond that, undoing what has been done. Yes, there are other actions I could take, or you could, but I have determined to see this through, and so I shall.”

He nodded.

There was yet another lesson. It was clear Srina wanted her wolf to be more, to pull himself past the barriers in his mind. Dogma was mere words. Power was the true pursuit, and the Echani had demonstrated more than once that she had the ability to take whatever she wanted. Perhaps Gerwald did not because he could not, or maybe it was because he feared what wielding such power would make him. His moral compass was not as black and white as the woman he desired. Gerwald was a selfish creature when pressed, and were it not for his adherence to some perceived notion of duty, he would not have learned to overcome it.

Srina would not raise a mindless slave. It should have gone without being said, but in her words Gerwald heard a warning. It echoed his own thoughts, words he did not want to say.

He did not want Naedira to love him simply because he willed her to do so.

The choice had to be hers. Even if they succeeded in what they were doing, Naedira had to be free to choose. It would be the one thing that would make her alive. Anything short of that freedom would make the woman no different from a B1, or some other droid, just following their programming.

“No, I would not see you do that.”

They had wasted enough time. Srina positioned herself between them. Lithe fingers pressed against the glass of the bacta tank, as a pale hand was offered to the wolf. There was no need to close his eyes, but Gerwald did anyway. One might think he was offering a prayer, and perhaps he was. Whatever the reason for it, the wolf only thought it natural to do so. This would be the culmination of years of sacrifice to bring about this one moment.

Naedira would live, or she would die.

There was only one thing left to do.

Gerwald took Srina’s hand.​

 

[Srina Talon]

Tag: Gerwald Lechner ​

The terse woman sighed softly while the wolf reacted with petulance. It was expected. He still didn't understand, fully, what her words were in reference to—But it was to be expected. There were very few in the universe that could flawlessly comprehend the way her mind worked. She listened. She knew what Gerwald referred to…She simply didn't agree.

It was selfishness that drove his final decision. Layered with the labor of love…But it wasn't the altruistic act most would see it to be. He wanted the person back who understood him. The one who had managed to bring some sort of sense, of order, to a chaotic existence. To have that cradle where he might fall…The cradle that Naedira required, now. Srina had always known the price of attachment. The price of loving and caring for her family, extended and otherwise, was always a cruel burden.

Heavy.

She would have it no other way…Because the alternative was to relinquish her claim on them. To isolate herself, completely, from everything that mattered. To abandon her husband and every member of House Talon…It was a thing she could never do. The only difference between the two of them was the fact that she knew what it was. What she was. Selfish.

Because living without…

It wasn't living at all.

"There is another option, wolf. She was never damned…You just don't want to see it."

The words flowed quietly, but the sentiment he echoed moments later only solidified her point. Yes. There were other actions they could take. They could remove Naedira Darcrath from the bacta tank and fill her soulless body with enough opiates to kill a bantha. Her heart would slow. She would drift away in repose so soft that her spirit would simply dissipate. Return, to the Force. They had the opportunity to set a mortally wounded creature free…But for egotistical, selfish desire, they would prolong her existence. Extend, the suffering.

His sacrifice to the fallen Knight was not a cure. It was merely a tool, a crutch, to trick her into returning.

From one hell into another. Merely, a lesser of two evils.

Thus—She waited. Milk-pale skin would seem even more sallow in the moonlight that poured through the open balcony. It left her with the appearance of being delicate, as if, she were made of glass. It couldn't have been further from the truth but Gerwald already knew that. She had crafted herself into a Sith that was made to be everlasting. Not through blood sacrifice, theft of powers, or artifacts—But through sheer force of will. When his hand fell into her own…

The world should have shaken, trembled, from the sudden well of darkness that sprung from an ocean of shadowed black that filled the room. It was cloying. Suffocating. The sky should have opened and bled for a sacrilege she intended, but, it didn't. The transition was smooth as silk between a powerless waif and a creature that could only be likened to a natural disaster.

She pulled on the invisible bond between Naedira and Gerwald with enough force that it caused the empty vessel in the bacta tank to thrash and slam against the glass. The wolf would feel as if she had plunged her hand into his chest cavity and proceeded to root around, looking, for something that clawed hands couldn't quite find. It should have been a bloody affair but it was all tendered to the metaphysical. To feel. Not see. She would blind them in the darkness and unmercifully bind them.

The frayed threads of the pre-existing connection would strengthen. Heal. There was no rush nor any sense of urgency on her end. Regardless how much pain either party endured with her intervention it was far more important to do it right. They would suffer when she pulled memories from the wolf and used their truest form to bring Naedira a sense of self. To make her less broken. Making her whole was a pipe dream. No one could do that.

They exchanged memory and pain. Naedira would inflict…Grievous injury to Gerwald were she not there to stand as a buffer. The wells of agony did not touch, Srina. The long years of solitude, killing, and insanity rolled from slender shoulders like water. When the bond was solidified and the anchor made unbreakable—Srina would withdraw. Gerwald…Would feel as if she'd hollowed him.

Taken everything. Everything, he had to give, before taking everything he didn't.

Srina stepped back from the bacta tank and watched Naedira slowly settle into the medicinal waters. She kept the hand of the wolf, turning it, so that the back might press against the top of her sternum. Heartbeat for heartbeat…Her cold darkness receded and he would be able to breathe again. "…It is done…", her dulcet tones ground out, distorted, between beauty and beast. The corruption had not quite left her and there was some part of her that didn't want to let it go.

Touching the Force so intimately was like taking hold of a live wire bare-handed while standing in a storm. Yet—Instead of causing her cardiovascular and nervous system to go haywire, instead of turning her skin black with deep tissue damage, instead of leaving angry, fractal patterns on unblemished skin while blood vessels were destroyed…It empowered her.

She could see why so many Sith sought control of it. To own it. To feel angelic and violently insane while breathing in the electric air of the future. It was…Addictive.

Golden eyes closed. When they opened—They were silver once more. Mercurial pools that watched the bacta tank. She could feel that things had changed.

"Come…Let her see you."

For if Gerwald looked, carefully, past the glass... Through the bubbles and the silken sheet of auburn hair that floated in the water he would see what she saw. Burnished, glowing, tawny orbs peered back at them with an intense sense of confusion.

Naedira had opened her eyes.

 

[Gerwald Lechner]

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.​

WEARING: xxx
TAG: Naedira Darcrath | Srina Talon

Srina was right, of course. Gerwald did not want to see the fact Naedira had not been damned. He also could not see it. A choice was required, and while Gerwald knew Naedira had made a choice to face Prazutis, she had not chosen what came after. Maybe she had, maybe the choice had all been hers by facing the Sith alone. The fate she had suffered at his hands was still undeserved, and Gerwald’s selfishness was about to see consigned to another.

But how could he let her go when she was now within his grasp. He had lived with a shallow hope that she would live again, that his promise would not be met. Were it not for Srina it would have not been. The wolf knew he could not pass up the chance. Even with the many questions that were left unanswered, Gerwald had to proceed. He had to push forward. The burden he carried now was much greater than a ring around his neck. Naedira needed him in order to live and find some semblance of sanity.

Love demanded a high price, one Gerwald was willing to pay if it meant getting what he wanted.

“No, you’re right. I did not want to admit it. It makes it easier to hate Prazutis that way.”

Yes, the wolf still carried his grudge against the Mountain. It was fueled by what Gerwald perceived to be an injustice, which was nothing more than the universe at work. When Gerwald took Srina’s hand, it was an admission of the things he could not control as much as it was a demand that Naedira live.

He could not have expected the pain. It seemed as if every memory of his was unraveled, pulling at the strands of those which would give Naedira some semblance of who she had once been. It would be biased perspective as it was how Gerwald had seen her, and certainly incomplete. There were parts of her life he could not help fill in the gaps for, but he could share with their battles, their bonding, the night on the balcony where they had shared their first dance. Srina pulled what she willed as Gerwald convulsed and writhed in pain, held upright only by his connection to his Echani mistress.

It did not relent, not until she was finished. He could feel his hand on her chest. THe steady beat of her heart drew him out of the agony and back to reality. His labored breathing became normal. It was no longer a battle for every breath. Gerwald panted at first, grasping for as much air as he could take in, until his cadence finally settled. His blue eyes found Srina’s and they changed from gold to sliver. Her instruction caused him to pause for a moment. He had been waiting for this a long time, and now that it was here…

…His eyes lifted past the tank and looked beyond the liquid. Naedira’s eyes were open.

The wolf rushed to the tank to check her vitals. Everything seemed stable. They would be able to take her out. He did not wait. Gerwald began the process of removing her from the tank.

“There is a robe just over there. Will you get it for me?”

She would be cold when she got out of the tank at first, and she would likely need to regain her strength. Still, As the wolf hasted to hold the woman in his arms all he could do beyond asking Srina’s help with a robe was to ensure Naedira was okay.

“Naedira… Naedira… it’s okay. I’m here. I got you, just like I promised.”​