My brain whirled. She’d connected all the dots, and I now could see the history of my family laid out before me.

I was proud to be a Starling. Or a Starlight. Whatever. Starling was what I knew, and I think I wanted to continue to use the name that I was familiar with.

“Thank you, Marna.” I bowed low to her, now. Or as low as I could, since Diana was sitting in my lap, purring loudly.

“No, thank you, child, for staying true, even when you didn’t know my name, or any of your history.” Marna beamed at me.

“My question is why is there a temple all the way out here?” Lear muttered.

“There used to be a city! It was long ago.” Marna laughed, “It wasn’t an Evarin town, the kingdom didn't stretch this far north, but it was from another kingdom that rose and fell in the time between Evarin’s destruction and now.”

“That’s a long, long time.” I murmured.

“It is.” the goddess agreed, then clapped her hands lightly, as if getting down to business once more, and announcing, “Now, I have one last gift to give.”

I smiled, “I have my best friend and the man I love, what more could I want?”

“Goodness, I do really like you!” Marna giggled, as merry as a schoolgirl. “It’s because of those answers that I want to reaffirm the full gift for you. And, when you get back home, ask your brothers and their families as well, if they want the gift as well. That they didn’t receive the same weak version of it as you did was, again, just because your bloodline has become so diluted over the thousands of years. There’s no shame in it, but that’s just what happens when there’s no one else with the gift that you’re not related to who you can marry.” She sighed, then shook her head regretfully, “Genetics.”

“O-oh!” I stammered, “I…well, thank you, but…I…” I chewed my lip nervously.

“What troubles you?”

“I…don’t want to…be tempted like the others were.” I admitted in a whisper, looking down at my hands, which rested on Diana’s fur. “I-I’m only human.”

“Good gods, Winna!” Lear snorted, “That’s why you should accept! That fear will keep it in check!”

“Lear is right.” Marna nodded. “Your concern betrays your heart. It’s true. As true as those who remained True all those years in the past.”

“Had I…not chosen Diana, would…you still have come?” I asked haltingly.

“Yes. My coming wasn’t contingent on you choosing Diana over Lear. Choosing happiness and love is understandable. I’d have healed them both and offered to restore the gift all the same.”

“Yeah?” I murmured, looking up.

“Yeah. Wanting love isn’t a crime. Nor is wanting happiness. That’s only natural. Wanting happiness to the detriment of others, that’s where you get in trouble.”

“I see.” I nodded.

“Now, will you let me restore the gift?”

I took a deep breath, “Lear, will you help me learn how to use it?”

“Absolutely.” He flashed a bright grin at me.

“Then yes ma’am. And…thank you. Thank you for everything. I…I thought I was losing the two of the people I love most in the world.” I wiped my face, sniffling a little.

“You’d still have had Lou, your brothers, and their families.” Lear reminded me gently.

“I-I know, but…I’d have still taken the loss very hard.” I whispered.

“I know. That’s why I came. You’ve been so strong for so long. Sometimes a girl just deserves a break.” Marna smiled.

Joy now filled me, and I giggled, “Yes! Yes we do!”

“Now, give me your hand.” the goddess held out her own hand to me, and I took it.

A strange feeling filled me for a moment, and the mark on my hand darkened to the same black as Lear’s.

“There.” She smiled.

“Oh!” I gasped as I felt more magic than I’d ever had flooding my veins. It surged through me, sparking out of my fingertips.

“Whoops, let’s be careful, now.” Lear reached out and caught my hands, and I felt his magic surround me, and help tamp my own back down.

“Thank you.” I scooped Diana off my lap and into my arms, and leaned into him.

The man I loved and my oldest friend.

They were both alive.

“Now, it’s high time I leave, as much as I hate to do it. It still feels like there’s so much I haven’t gotten to tell you! But I’ll already be getting a talking-to for staying as long as I have, but…well, it’s fine. They can just get over it!” Our patron goddess grinned mischievously, and stood.

Lear helped me to my feet, and I kept Diana in my arms.

“Will I ever get to see you again?”

“Of course! I’ll have to come to give the gift to any of your family members who want it. Although your nieces and nephews might need to wait until they’re older before they make that decision for themselves. And I do suggest you build a temple or some kind of shrine, it makes it easier.”

“And this time we know for sure she can invite me in.” Lear laughed a little.

“That didn’t actually have to do with my rules or it being hallowed ground. That was the fey rules not quite understanding the situation fully, but once Winna said what she did, they understood and relented, recognizing our claims to one another.”

“I gathered as much.” Lear nodded.

“It won’t matter with my temples or shrines anymore, because as my child, you are welcome at all of them."

Lear smiled, “Of course.”

“Well, I must go.” Marna sighed. “You can take care of the shades now, right, Lear?”

A most wicked smile stretched over the fey man’s face, and his response was practically a purr of satisfaction, “Absolutely.”

“Then goodbye, but not forever!” Marna waved to us.

“Goodbye!” I nodded, leaning into Lear, who nodded his farewell.

Diana maowed sweetly.

There was a bright flash, and then Marna was gone.

It was quiet for a few moments, then Lear caught me and Diana both us and spun us around, cackling somewhat maniacally.

“We’re all heeeeaaaaled!” he sang. “And now I get to kick some shade ass, and then we’ll go back home, help some people, and I can teach you more magic!”

“I’m getting dizzy!” I cried, and Diana hissed in protest.

Lear stopped, “Oh, sorry.” he put me down and steadied me, grinning stupidly. It was entirely adorable.

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“But you’re right, we should start making our way home. The injured townsfolk still need help, and as quickly as we can manage.”

“Yes, of course. Let me go take out the garbage first.” The fey man grinned wickedly once more, then turned on his heel and headed towards the door.

“Please be careful” I called, following anxiously behind him.

“Don’t worry, Winna! And make sure you watch, I’m back up to my full strength, so I can put on quite a show for you!” He stepped out the door, and began shooting enormous blasts of pure magical energy.

The shades screamed and tried to flee, but Lear was entirely too fast for them now. He was apparently full of energy now, after being healed, which had probably replenished his normal energy as well as his magic. He darted back and forth at full-speed until they were all gone.

“There. See?” the fey man smirked, turning back to us.

“That was impressive.” I blinked, and Diana purred loudly.

“And kind of attractive?” He walked with a rolling, almost lazy gait back to the temple, and put his arm up on the doorway, leaning over me in a very ridiculously attractive sort of way.

My face heated, but I held his gorgeous gaze. “Maybe a little.” I teased him, reaching out and walking my fingers up the buttons of his shirt, but keeping Diana in my other arm.

“Gods, and the fey are the ones who are supposed to be enchanting!” he groaned, then leaned down and kissed me firmly and deeply before breaking away. “Faaangs, ughhh…”

“That's going to get old. We’ll have to figure something out.” I pouted a little.

“Gods, I know!” he sighed, then smiled. “But I bet that if we work together, we could come up with some kind of antidote in case an accident happens, now, cause you can do a lot more things than you could before. You just have to learn how.”

“I bet you’re right.” I smiled, “I’m…excited to learn more.”

“I’m excited to teach you.” He murmured, now gentle. I love how he went from ridiculously flirtatious to gentle and earnest so quickly. I knew the earnest side was really more what he was actually like, but the flirtatiousness was all good fun.

We kissed again for a moment, but I pulled away and said, “Let’s go home. I need to heal some people.”

-

“Winna, this is incredible!” Pava breathed, awestruck at the new-found power his little sister now wielded.

“It really is!” Vim agreed, looking fairly impressed as well, but he was a little harder to read, Lear found.

“I’m just grateful she agreed to answer my prayers.” Winna murmured, “She didn’t have to help me at all. And then to restore the gift to its full power for me…” Her voice trailed off and she shook her head, still not fully adjusted to the idea yet.

“That would be poor repayment for someone who’s apparently stuck to what she was supposed to be doing with her powers.” Pava snorted, shaking his head.

The woman Lear loved sat up, finished healing her patient, and wiping her face. They’d been back in the village for just a little while, and she’d already healed the three of the most badly injured people, thanks to the restored gift, and Diana was on stand-by in case she got tired or needed help, but was, at the moment, busy providing some much-needed stress relief to the traumatized townsfolk by providing purrs, allowing pets, and submitting to ear scratches from anyone who asked.

Winna was quiet for a few moments, then finally spoke as she stood and went to the next patient. “There’s…there’s more, and it concerns you two.”

“Oh?” Pava raised an eyebrow at her.

“She said she’d give you the gift too, if you want it.” their younger sister murmured.

Lear watched her brothers closely. Pava looked startled, and Vim only blinked, which he assumed meant he was surprised as well.

“What?” Pava finally asked, “Like…give us magic too?”

Winna looked up at them as she worked, smiling. “Yes. It does come with the caveat of having a magical life-span, too. I know that sounds great, but…well, it has downsides as well. Please think long and hard about whether or not you want to accept. And if you do turn it down, she won’t be offended, she was very nice.”

“I won’t do it.” Vim said immediately. “Not if it means I have to watch my family grow old and die, and not be able to go with them.”

“The offer wasn’t just for you.” she told them, “It includes your families as well. But she said to let the kids wait until they’re older before they decide if they want it or not., and that makes sense.”

Pava and Vim stared at her, then one another, in silence for a few moments.

“I’ll have to talk to Jiven.” Pava murmured.

“And I’ll have to talk to Mina.” Vim nodded.

“Of course. I don’t expect you to make the decision now. Like I said, take some time and think it over. I think we’ll need to build a temple before we can really talk to her again anyways, if any of you want to accept the offer.”

“Thank you, Winna.” Pava smiled a little.

The young woman stood, finished with that patient as well.

“You’re making quick work of this, now.” Lear smiled at her.

“Yeah.” She smiled back, then looked down at her patient. “I have a lot more to do, though. You said the dwarven merchants already got the temporary housing up?”

“Yep! They worked incredibly quickly! But that’s no surprise, really, they’re very hard workers.” Pava replied,

“On that note, the villagers staying at the cottage returned here, to the housing. We told them they could stay, but they wanted a bit more space for themselves.” Vim told his sister.

“I’d have been fine if they’d wanted to stay, but I don’t blame them for wanting more space.” Winna shrugged.

The pretty healer slowly made her way through the townsfolk who were the most badly injured.

“Phew, I’m getting tired! I think I'm finally coming to the end of my magic, but I’m shocked how many people I got through before getting this far!”

“You got through all the people who were very badly hurt.” Lear observed.

“Yeah, I did! I did my best to push through at the end.” Winna smiled, putting her hands on her hips as she surveyed her patients. “Now I can move on to people who weren’t as badly hurt, with Diana’s help. I bet we’ll be able to get through them by the end of the day!”

“A break first, though. Then you can get back to it.”

“Alright. I should probably eat, I’m pretty hungry.”

“It’s about lunchtime.” Lear nodded as Vim walked up, “And here’s your brother with a tray of food.”

“You angel!” Winna smiled at him.

“Well, I try.” He winked cheerfully at her.

They gratefully accepted the fragrant bowls of soup that he handed them, as well as some soft white bread, a smokey cheese, and some salad of winter greens he’d managed to pull together with an oil and vinegar dressing. It was altogether very nice, and they sat in relative silence, scarfing it down.

“Ohh, that was so good.” Winna sighed.

“I need another bowl.”

“I’m not surprised, you eat a lot.”

“Takes a lot to power these muscles.” He winked at her.

The woman he loved rolled her eyes, but smiled. “Oh hush.”

Lear grinned at her, then went and got his bowl refilled. As he settled back down on the ground, he could see Winna’s eyes now roving the workers who were carefully beginning to move the bodies of the dead away to finally be buried, her expression full of sadness.

“Three people died while we were gone.” she murmured.

“Winna, it’s not your fault.” Lear told her in a calm, even tone.

The young woman was quiet for a few moments, then took a deep breath. “I-I know.”

“Please don't blame yourself. Given how weak your magic was before that, I suspect they’d have died anyways.”

“I just…I feel so guilty. And their families must be so upset to know I could heal them now. I can’t imagine how much it hurts, especially to see me healing everyone else.”

“Has anyone said anything to you?”

“No.”

“And I don’t expect they will. They knew what the situation was, and how it might play out.”

“I know, I just-”

“No, Winna. No.” He shook his head. “It’s not your fault. You’re not guilty. Sometimes bad things happen, and you’re not answerable for that. You didn’t cause the landslide, but you did everything you possibly could.”

Winna took a deep breath. “You’re right.”

“Say it.”

“What?”

“That it’s not your fault.”

“It’s not my fault.”

“Again.”

“Lear.”

“Come on.”

Winna huffed, “Fine. It’s not my fault.”

“Good. And please believe that.” Lear bent and kissed her forehead. “I love you very much.”

“I love you too.”

He grinned at her. “We’re going to get married!”

She smiled back, a little tiredly, “Yeah.”

“We could…get married very soon. Or wait, if you’d prefer.”

“You’d rather it be soon though, wouldn't you?”

“Yes, but if you need to wait, I’m content to wait as long as you need.”

Her dark eyes searched his face, “It…it could be sooner. I’d…planned on waiting, but…after all the madness at the temple, I…I’m okay with getting married soon. I came far too close to losing you.”

“Then let’s start planning the ceremony. We can wait until the town is more stable, of course.”

“Yes. We could…maybe build that temple and have the ceremony there?”

Lear smiled, “I think that’s an excellent plan.” He felt his smile falter.

“What’s wrong?”

“Do you…want me to bind myself to you, too? Magically, I mean, as in the oldest most true form of fey marriage.”

“What? No, you convinced me that it wasn’t necessarily a good idea, and I respect that you don’t like the idea.”

He was quiet for a few moments, reaching out to brush some of the blonde curls from her face. “I would bind myself to you.”

Winna’s face heated, but she shook her head. “I think we should try out being married for a while. If it seems like we’re working out well enough, we could revisit the idea.”

Lear nodded, “A fair suggestion.” he dropped his iridescent, green gaze, “Just say the word and I’ll do it though, alright?”

Recognizing the magnitude of what he was saying, she squeezed his hand. “Thank you, Lear.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”