Seated there by the founatin with Etrina, silence took Zaofan, and though he was contented simply to relish the restoration and bask in the small satisfaction that she had arranged that they would indeed keep their promise, there was a faint urgency that kept his knee bobbing, his foot tapping, his mind racing. She had become one with Time itself; so why did he feel it was his last chance to do anything?
"Everything's gone by so fast in the last year, it's hard enough for us to just stop and catch our breath," he started, and the words dried up in his throat immediately, drowned out by the ambience of the fountain in the town square, ripples catching the clear sky above with rays dancing like thousands of diamonds.
"I don't know what's going to happen, or what I'm going to do. All I know is we can't keep going backward...but we can make the most of what we have now."
Unclipping the pin of the Royal Court of Reshlan from the remnants of the cape that symbolized his oath, and fishing the dust out of his pockets, Zaofan cupped his palms together. A small, contained alchemical explosion erupted between them as
Pot au Feu condensed heat and pressure within his hands. Sharp, transparent smoke escaped between his fingers, and the dust from the reaction returned to the ground.
Then he got on one knee, and with a deep breath looked up to her face, the trailing blonde framing those studious eyes that now saw the flow of causality from all-when. Maybe it didn't surprise her at all as he unclasped his hands, revealing a white-gold ring set with a raw diamond.
"Etrina Stoltengarde, you've been the head of my table, the aperatif to my digestuf, the
premiere inspiration. Every moment I spend with you is like experiencing a new flavour again and again like...finding a finish I never new was missing every time. Without a spell, without any magic, just you completing my plating, I know everything's as perfect as you wish; as I need..."
"But right now...will you make me the happiest man in the galaxy and ma"