Meanwhile in Vostrim Castle

Schenk was clad entirely in black today. He made his way through the gardens before he arrived at a small oak tree. It must've barely been a few years old.

The man knelt on both legs before the tree. It was dusk. Nobody was around, he had checked.

He looked at the thin tree and smiled weakly.

“Victor, my dear son.” He spoke in a voice nobody would recognize to be his. So gentle and filled with sadness.

“Not a day passes where I do not-“ his voice cracked and he took a deep breath.

“…where I do not think of you. Where I do not think of your little hands, your smile when you saw me, how you called me father…” his voice was shaky, and his eyes grew wet. He closed them and took several deep breaths.

The leaves rustled in the wind and Schenk’s long hair got in his face.

“Son, please forgive me… for being unable to protect-” his head slumped down and he started to cry unrestrained, covering his eyes with his hands.

“Androcles… here you are…” he heard a soft voice from behind him. It sounded sad. His sobs immediately stopped, and he lifted his head. He didn’t need to look to recognize this voice. Even out of several thousand, he would always know its owner.

“Mirabella.” He said weakly with a sad smile on his face. He didn’t turn.

She stood a few meters behind him. She was wearing a long black dress with a veil of the same color covering her face. She showed no skin at all. She was even wearing gloves.

She walked towards him and came to a standstill behind him. She put a hand on his shoulder and looked at the little tree before them.

“You shouldn’t see me cry.” He said hoarsely, wiping his face. He was still breathing heavily, his chest heaving up and down. His knees had started to hurt minutes ago, but he did not care.

Schenk could not tear his vision from the tree on his son’s grave. Then he felt two small arms reach around his neck from behind, hugging him. He felt his wife’s frail body press against his back. She was quivering.

Her head was resting on his neck, and he heard small whimpers. He reached for her hands with his right and held onto them.

“Our poor son…” she sobbed and his grip on her hand tightened. They didn’t say another word.

Minutes passed in noble silence, only interrupted by the occasional sniffle. The couple did not break their hug for a single moment. They needed one another to go through this pain.

After a long time, Mirabella broke the silence.

“Androcles, will you please promise me one thing?” she asked after she regained enough composure to talk again.

“Anything darling. There is nothing I would not do for you.” He said hoarsely and meant it. With every ounce of his being, he wanted to make her happy. This woman that shared all his pain and responsibilities. She was the source of his happiness and his light in the brutal reality of war.

His voice conveyed all of his feelings to his wife who trembled. She tightened her hug for a second and he could hear another sob.

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“Then please don’t run away to hide your feelings from me!” she sobbed.

“I…” he wanted to explain but fell silent. He did not want to show weakness and cry in front of her. He wanted to protect her and be strong for her. He wanted to be her emotional anchor.

He realized how foolish he had been. Through hiding this part of himself from her he had hurt his wife. The last few minutes had shown him how wrong he had been.

“I only wanted to protect you…” he pressed out and tilted his head slightly, so it touched hers.

“I know…” she whispered and moved around him kneeling before him, taking his face into her hands after pulling aside her veil. Her eyes were teary, yet she smiled.

“I know darling. That’s why I love you so much. You only mean well. But you forget about yourself.”

She gently traced the side of his face with one of her thumbs. He knew she was right.

“You can’t always be there for me, but hide when you need help yourself, taking on the big mean world by yourself… it hurts me more than anything else to see you like this… more than anything.” Tears streamed down her smiling face, and she caressed his face.

He cupped her face with his large right hand. She nestled against it and held it in place with both of her hands, taking them off his face.

“Will you promise me to always share your grief with me from now on?” She asked, looking him deep in the eyes.

“How did I ever deserve you?” he smiled and shook his head.

“I swear on our son’s grave.” He spoke in his deep voice, having regained most of his composure.

Mirabella smiled at his words and blinked a tear away.

“I love you, Androcles. More than life itself.” She said and leaned forward, sealing their lips in a passionate kiss. It carried nothing but bottled-up emotions, relief, and love.

Their lips parted eventually, and they looked each other deep in the eyes. Mesmerized by each other.

“Who would’ve thought I could love you even more than I did already?” Schenk chuckled and kissed the tip of her nose.

She smiled briefly, then knelt next to her husband. He gently put an arm around her, and she leaned onto him.

All crippling grief had disappeared. It had been replaced by a shared sentiment of shared sadness.

“Androcles… I fear for our daughter…” Mirabella admitted as her husband caressed her hair.

He shook his head and smiled.

“She is a strong woman. I have no doubt she will come back unscathed.” He smiled at his wife.

“You also feared for me whenever I left to fight… and yet I always came back.”

His words caused a smile to blossom on her face.

“You are right. She is strong.” Mirabella replied before falling into thought.

“I love her more than anything in the world… just sometimes I wished she would spend more time with me…” she leaned onto her husband again and he hummed affirmingly.

“She has always had a passion for fighting. I know how you must feel. You should talk with her about it, maybe let her show you a bit of fighting.” He chuckled, lightening the mood a bit.

Mirabella couldn’t suppress a giggle.

“Maybe, I bet you’d love to see that.” She smiled at him.

“I’m just glad she finally made some friends. She had been so lonely for the largest part of her life…” she scratched the back of her head.

Schenk nodded with a smile.

“The four of them have gotten very close, but she spends more time with Faust than with the others. I like that boy. He has made such an enormous change over the last 6 months…” he sighed. Faust began to remind him of himself occasionally.

“He’s a lot like you when you were younger.” She smirked at him. Seeing his expression, she couldn’t entirely hold back a chuckle.

“What if they were getting too close?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Schenk’s face darkened.

“I just hope it doesn’t happen. And if it does… I’m not sure I could deny my daughter the happiness we get to enjoy every day together.” They kissed briefly and Mirabella nodded in agreement.

“We should tell her we expect her to marry another noble in a few years, but if she really goes against it… I don’t think I could bring myself to force them apart.” She looked to the floor.

“Let’s not assume the worst my cute little wife.” Schenk smiled down on her.

“We can still worry about it if this distant fear becomes a reality.” He looked up at the stars and sighed.

“There are so many things we have no influence on. We should just accept things as they are if we want to avoid suffering.” Schenk paused briefly, looking at Mirabella’s astonished face.

He smiled briefly.

“That’s what an ascetic once told me when I met him on the road between Antioch and Rhodusium. In hindsight maybe I should have spent more time thinking about his words than worrying.” He slowly stood up, pulling his wife with him.

His knees were hurting horribly, but he didn’t care. He hugged his wife, and they watched the stars together.

Her eyes shone in the darkness. She loved the stars. She always had. For a long time she had wanted to tell him something.

‘This is the right time.’ She thought and smiled.

After a long silence, Mirabella looked at her husband and after hesitating for a bit she finally opened her mouth to speak.

“Let us have another child.”