A Visitor from Terrasen [Indefinite Hiatus]

Melded Hearts

Credit to artist for picture above, obviously not mine but not 100% sure who it belongs to.

Aelin couldn't help it, she awoke at 4 in the morning, an hour before she needed to. She flung a hand over her face and gave a groan of frustration. She didn't usually struggle to sleep, not anymore, but the prospect of being so close to where she was so sure she would find beloved members of her court, it just made her unsettled to say the least.

Tentatively, she mentally felt for the bonds she held most dear. Those bonds, which she cherised most, which had seemed contaminated... Rowan was 3 of them, and the other... Fenrys. Gods blessed, delightful Fenrys, he must have refused to let Rowan follow her alone. Knowing the Fae warrior, he undoubtedly did it for Rowan's sake as well as hers, to keep him safe in this world and ensure he took care of himself. For her. Always for her.

So now, Aelin ran mental fingers over the 4 threads, a mating bond, a carranam bond, and two blood oaths. She wanted to weep, and knowing that she would find them soon, and also knowing her two Fae bastards would be stupid enough to leave and travel in the pitch black hours of a winter morning. Aelin mentally sent an unspoken order, a desperate plea she could not bring herself speak out loud, along the two blood oaths.

Wait for me.

Aelin did not realise she was crying at first, silent tears falling down her cheeks as she lay staring at the  unremarkable ceiling in that well-kept inn. She did not realise Rhys had woken, and was staring at her, not having moved from where he had slept. Just cracking open an eye and seeing a weeping woman on the couch at the end of the room.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Aelin started to count to thirty, thirty seconds to cry. She herself was thirty now, and with each breath she calmed herself.

6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Her gorgeous, loyal warriors. Who would follow her to the ends of the worlds.

11, 12, 13, 14, 15

Rowan had promised her that long ago, but Fenrys, who had fought so hard for her during the war, he had promised her that more recently.

16, 17, 18, 19, 20

Fenrys, the white wolf, who had experienced so much sorrow in his life. Even in the time where she had been held prisoner by Maeve, he had experienced more pain and suffering then than some did in their entire lives.

21, 22, 23, 24, 25

Together the three of them would break worlds and any rules that people thought governed them to get home.

26, 27, 28, 29, 30

She would find them. Fenrys and Rowan. And they would get home.

When she finished her counting, the Queen of Terrasen opened her eyes, and they were stone dry and burning with the passion of a thousand suns.

Rhys was startled by her control, in fact he was surprised she even cried at all. But she stopped crying less than half a minute since he had woken to her near silent tears, which he only responded to out of instinct which usually dragged him from sleep when Feyre cried in bed in the middle of the night, blocking the bond and her mental shields in hopes not to wake him. So he always woke up when a woman was trying to cry in silence, yet he had hesitated to console Celaena, and it seemed she didn't need his help either.

He watched for a moment longer as she gave a breathy laugh, seemingly at herself as she pushed the heels of her hands into her eye-sockets. Then she sat up and he quickly shut his eyes as she moved through the room to the bathing chamber.