How about we start with a simple one, a short tale to whet your appetite, eh?

This story comes from the south, south of our own Land of Shadows. It gets rather cold down there, doesn't it, especially in the Summer; quite counterintuitive, is it not? As a story from this planet goes, the reason for this stems from a determined and powerful necromancer and his wish to enslave the earth, having it turn and stop according to his will. A rather misguided dream, I must say, and quite entertaining in its fruition, but that tale is for another time. This is a story of a different kind of passion...

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Talok Martch sat in his study, as he did every night. His study of spells and recipes for the college seemed to be never-ending, nor would it end soon if the stacks of scrolls and parchments on his desk were any indication.

Each night, Shaka Martch would enter the study with an expectant look on her face. She wasn't actually expecting anything in particular, nor would she recieve it most nights. Sometimes Talok would be in no mood for work, but that was not typical of his personality. In his world, you worked or you went hungry, and he liked to eat.

Ironic, then, that his work would often keep him from the dinner table.

Tonight though, Shaka was having no more of it. Too many months has she received this treatment from her husband, and she wasn't going to stand for it any longer. The weeks of solitude and mistrust end now!

That being said, she still decided to begin on a high note, hoping that tonight would be the night he finally opened his mind to the world around him.

"Hello dearest, still working?" She intoned in the sweetest, most polite voice she could muster.

Sadly, her hopes were not to be.

"Unfortunately yes, my dear. This equation just doesn't-"

"Can it!"

Talok looked up, confused.

"Work this, equations that. When's the last time you looked over that stack of papers," she accentuated this by picking up half the stack and slamming it on the desk, opening his view so that he could see her, "...and realized there was a woman in front of you with your name on her?!"

Talok was a wise man, so although he was very much in shock from having his workplace upended by the one who had vowed to respect his work, he knew that a rash response would only do more harm than good.

"Shaka," he said in a tone so considerate, a lesser soul might have melted for having heard it. "What's brought this upon you?"

"You don't appreciate the people around you whatsoever, you only care for your work!" she began. "I cook for you every day, and when you even deem my food worthy of your precious mouth, not so much as a word of thanks is given in return! The house is cleaned daily, yet your workplace is never touched, and do you ever thank Kat? No! And each night I come to you, arms wide," which she demonstrated, "hoping that someday you will stand up from your desk and embrace me like we used to. Yet instead of appreciating that which you have, you would rather focus on problems which are ever out of your reach!"

The issue Talok had yet to finish after an entire week of study sat on his desk, sending her point home like a spike when he looked down upon it. He looked back up, intent to say something, but she cut him off.

"Oh no, you've had your chance to have your say, and you spent the words excusing yourself from being around me. You've been avoiding me so long, if anyone else were to see us, they would probably say you didn't care about me, and I would be hard pressed to argue against them!"

At this, a dark look shrouded Talok's eyes, and she knew she had struck a painful chord. Perhaps she had gone too far... No. She had to stand her ground. He wasn't going to smooth talk himself out of this again.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

But thoughts of such arguments were gone from his mind. He saw what he had become, he knew she was right. He might have argued his defense in any other situation, but she had said one thing he couldn't pass by. The one thing she had inferred which would never be true.

Shaka watched as he raised from his seat and walked over to her. He grasped her shoulder for a moment and looked her in the eye, then released her and began walking down the hall. She stood for a moment, confused, but understood his meaning and silently followed.

They walked out to their carriage, he helped her up, then he drove the horses East. They rode silently for several miles. Shaka glanced at him questioningly, but never pressed. What would she say, anyways? Along the way he would stop and pick flowers, setting them beside himself in a disorganized bouquet. Shaka sorted them once they became too messy for her to bear, and he didn't stop her. It gave her hands something to do while her mouth was still, and he wanted the flowers to look pretty for their destination.

Eventually they came to a pair of willows that hung over a path next to the road. He drove the carriage through here into a somber place. A cemetery spread before them, the graves disorganized and unorderly due to the hilly terrain. But Talok knew his destination well, so he confidently guided the horses through the maze.

They pulled to a stop next to an odd-looking grave. It had a normal headstone, but stuck out of its top was a surprisingly lifelike arm. Talok disembarked, Shaka shortly behind, then placed his wild arrangement in the outstretched hand.

Shaka didn't understand at first. The arm looked vaguely familiar, but whose grave would this be if her hunch was correct? Her unasked question was answered as Talok wiped some moss off the stone, revealing the name "Mora Martch". She turned her head quickly towards him, surprise, shock, and confusion evident on her face, and he began to speak.

"A long time ago, I was walking alone on the path from Drouth to our current home," he intoned. "I had lost everything, and thought there was nothing else for me in life. I wandered the forest for days, lost, staggering through the woods until I eventually escaped into the grassy fields to the south, very much intent on becoming some wild beast's dinner so I could be of at least some use in death, as I had failed to be in life."

He chuckled and looked up at Mora's headstone. "Little did I know, someone else would beat me to it. As I stumbled into the open for the first time in my life, I heard the loudest scream you could ever imagine. A Petroll was chasing a young maiden straight into my arms. Seeing the fear on her face snapped something inside me back into place. I couldn't die now. Not while someone's life was in danger.

"The troll charged us, and the girl hid behind me pleading for help. I almost laughed. What did she expect me, a total stranger with naught but a dagger on my belt, to do? But determination gripped me stronger than humor or fear. Not caring for my own health, I charged right back at the beast, signaling the girl should find cover. She hid behind a tree and watched me get pummeled by the massive stony beast. I stabbed and slashed at it over and over, occasionally finding purchase in the flesh beneath its stony armor, but it kept fighting as if it were never touched.

"Eventually I gave up, and put the last of my strength behind one attack. I jumped on the monster, and as it sank its teeth in my arm, my blade made its home in its neck. That was the end of the beast. As it landed on me, pinning me down, I let its cursed bite crawl up my arm. I had already accepted it as my fate, an easy escape from this world of hurt.

"That was when this woman surprised me. She didn't want to see me die any more than I wanted to see her final fate. That astonished me more than the fact that she cut off my petrified arm. I looked at her with confusion in my eyes, my consciousness fading, as she bandaged my arm and told me everything would be alright. As I looked in her distraught yet caring eyes, I realized she truly cared for me.

"I knew love was in me all along. I loved my fellow man, to the point where I was willing to die for a stranger. I loved this woman, even though I had never met her before. The one I had failed to acknowledge was myself. I wasn't allowing myself to accept the love of others. That was the source of my despair in the first place. But seeing the look in her eyes..." he looked down at his palm, "I realized that was a mistake."

Talok closed his hand into a fist. "Mora opened up this part of me, and I loved her until the end. But more importantly, I let her love me."

He turned back to Shaka, who had been listening, rapt with attention. She had never heard anything like this from her husband before. Hearing about his troubled past and the devastating actions he had gone through to end his own life, it put his whole existence in a brand new light.

"Ever since she passed, my trust in myself dwindled again. The reason I avoid you, it's because I can't accept someone would love me after I failed to save Mora. You may not realize it, but today you've shown me that isn't true. I have blinded myself in my foolishness, and let your love pass me by. I've failed to appreciate each thing you do for me for the daily act of love that it is. That will end today, I promise you.

"That being said..." He pulled her close with the arm which wasn't currently attached to a grave. He stole her attention with the intensity of his glare. She could do nothing but look directly into his eyes and feel his passion. "That is the reason I avoided you. It was never because my love for you dwindled. I do love you. I've always loved you, and I always will with all my heart.

"Even before I met you I was willing to die for you. Never forget that."

With his empty sleeve as a permanent reminder, she never did.