KOTLC After Stellarlune-A Sokeefe Story

Aeternum

Keefe had brought Sophie to a beautiful home situated on sprawling grounds complete with trees and a large pond.  "I've been looking for the right place for us," he began, "and I thought this might be it. I wanted to see what you think."

The house—just as massive as any she'd seen in the Lost Cities—was a beautiful pale blue with countless large windows allowing for plenty of natural light. Sophie couldn't decide whether the house reminded her more of a beach or of a clear blue sky, but either way, it was breathtaking.

"I like what I see so far," she told him. "Can we take a look around?"

So Keefe began to show her the outside of the property first. Wherever they were was beautifully warm. "I was torn between ocean or forest," Keefe explained as they wandered through the grounds. "And this kind of seemed like the best of both worlds. And as a bonus, no caves for traumatic kidnappings."

Sophie shuddered. She'd certainly never forget that horrible day or the events that followed. "No caves is a good thing," she agreed.

The pond was beautiful, with the clearest freshwater she'd ever seen. And with the gentle slope leading into the water, getting gradually and smoothly deeper, it really did remind her of a beach. The water—she couldn't help but bend down and feel it—was refreshingly cool but not at all cold.

"There's a lot of potential here for any changes we might want to make," Keefe told her. "I thought about asking the gnomes if they could make us another clearing like the one in the Grove, but then I also thought it might be nice to let the clearing be its own thing, especially since we'll still be visiting Havenfield frequently."

"And we can make our own memories here, new ones," Sophie added.

"Exactly what I was thinking," Keefe murmured, wrapping an arm around her as they walked toward the house.

The inside was bright and airy, with high ceilings and pale silver walls. They wandered from room to room, Sophie taking in the spacious kitchen, dining room large enough to host many of their friends, a living room that had one wall lined with floor to ceiling built-in bookshelves. Upstairs were several bedrooms. The top floor contained one large bedroom, with large glass doors leading to what looked like a balcony.

"I figured this would be our room," Keefe said softly. A tremor ran down Sophie's spine. Our room.

They both seemed to be trying, for the moment, to avoid looking at or going anywhere near the large bed as they walked over for Sophie to peek inside the closet and the bathroom. Then Keefe lead Sophie out onto the balcony. It had a beautiful view overlooking the grounds. The pond looked even more beautifully clear from where they were.

They stood, quietly taking in the view, for a few minutes before Keefe asked her, "well, what do you think? Do we want to live here or should we keep looking? There are still a few places I haven't checked out yet."

Sophie shook her head, smiling. "No, I don't want to look anywhere else. I love it here."

Keefe grinned. "I thought you would."

"Does it have a name?"

"We can change it if we want, but traditionally it has been called Aeternum."

"Really?" Sophie frowned, thinking. "That's Latin. It means 'forever'."

"Well, that's fitting, then," Keefe said softly, reaching for her hand. "And from what I've always been told, Latin was at least in part derived from the Enlightened Language. Not that the humans remember that now."

"Wow," Sophie mused. "It's so weird to think of that. Latin has been a dead language for a long time. A lot of humans' modern languages were derived from Latin."

"It's kind of fitting that our home would have a name from a human language. Do you like it?"

"I do. I think we should keep it."

"Aeternum it is, then." With that, they turned and headed back into the house. As they made their way back down the stairs and towards the front door, Sophie realized something.

"You know, humans usually take a week or two and travel for their honeymoon. But we don't have that many places to travel to. Do elves still have a honeymoon? I never hear anyone talk about vacation."

"No, we don't usually travel like humans do. But we do get a "honeymoon" if you want to call it that. Now obviously we can't help when Foxfire starts back up, but we've timed it perfectly. We'll have about three weeks after the wedding until we resume classes."

"And I can expect not to have to deal with Team Valiant stuff during that time? I can't picture life not being crazy busy, but it sure sounds nice."

They were back outside now, standing under the shade of a large tree near the pond. Sophie had a feeling she'd wind up spending a lot of time by this tree, though her heart ached at leaving Calla behind.

Keefe, who was already fairly close to her, inched even closer as he said, "no, they'll leave us alone at least for a while." He brought one hand up to her waistline, trailing his fingers around to her midsection before stopping, his gaze trained on his hand. "Give us time to...get to know each other." His eyes flicked up to her face.

Something about his tone of voice or the touch of his hand—or the topic he was discussing—made Sophie quiver.

It wasn't an unpleasant feeling.

"You know this isn't why, though, right?" He whispered. "I didn't ask you to marry me just because I..." his fingers, still over her abdomen, started tracing patterns over the chocolate brown tunic she was wearing.

"I know," Sophie said, a tiny bit embarrassed at the way her voice shook. "You love me."

He nodded and inched closer. "I really, really do. And I want all of it." His hand moved back to her waist and the other came to rest gently on the side of her neck, his thumb softly tracing back and forth along her chin. "Not just that, but everything. Sharing this home, starting a family. Not having to say goodbye at night anymore. You being the last thing I see before I fall asleep and the first thing I see when I wake up. That night you had the nightmare and I wound up holding you under the Panakes...just holding you. Feeling you fall asleep in my arms. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it and I just knew I didn't want to have to wait a long time. We knew we would eventually marry and spend our eternity together, so why put it off? We're happier when we're together."

"I know," Sophie whispered. "I feel it too. Waiting just felt like we were putting our future on hold."

Keefe smirked at her as he held her a little tighter. "Doesn't mean I'm not looking forward to that part, though," he said quietly, his deep voice and his warm breath on her cheeks making Sophie shiver. There was something very alluring about the way he was looking at her as he leaned down and lightly brushed his lips against hers before whispering, "soon."