“Maria,” Théoden whispered softly in my ear as we stood in each other's embrace amongst the white sandy beach. I didn’t respond to him, instead I stood in silence. Crying softly in his chest. “Maria, it is alright.” Théoden whispered to me. He pulled me away from his chest and looked down at me with a soft smile. He brushed away the tears that had fallen with soft gentle strokes of his fingers against my cheeks. “There are those beautiful emerald eyes that I love.” He cupped my chin up and kissed my lips gently.

I shily turned away from him. For the first time, I didn’t kiss him back. “Maria? Look at me.” He said in a more firm voice. “Please.” He begged.

I glanced my eyes up to him. “I…I almost killed her.” I whispered so low that normal ears wouldn’t pick up.

“But you didn’t, love.” He spoke softly to me. “She was just wounded badly, that’s all.”

“Yeah, because that is what it appeared to be.”

“Maria, please don’t do this to yourself.”

“Do what?” I questioned him with a bit of annoyance in my voice. I didn’t know how I could brush this one off. I almost killed Quinn.

“Put blame on yourself. Accidents happen, that is all that was. We were training, more force was used then we all realized.”

“I almost killed her!” I shouted as I slapped his chest in anger.

He grunted at the impact. “But you didn’t.” Théoden spoke as calmly as possible, allowing our aura to sooth my body.

“But I almost killed her!” I shouted once again.

“But you did not kill her!” Théoden shouted back at me. He grabbed my shoulders and shook me a bit. “Maria, I need you to realize that. You did not kill her.” He repeated again.

My face went blank as I just stared at him. I understood his words. I understood what he was saying. It just felt wrong to move past this so quickly.

“I know, I'm not asking you to. I just want you to realize what happened.” Théoden said as he flashed a memory of the fight. Showing me what he saw. The punch. The blood spewing from Quinn. Quinn’s slow fading breathing. However, what he shown me next was something that I did not see, Quinn’s chest slowly rising and falling as he cast his highest level of healing he possibly could.

I saw her eyes flutter and her breathing go back to normal. Something I didn’t see. A wave of relief washed over me. I hadn’t killed her. I just badly wounded her.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“See? You didn’t kill her. You just wounded her.”

I smiled softly at him, “I see that now. Thank you for showing me the truth.”

“Of course Maria. I am your protector for a reason and protecting you from your emotions is one of the things I choose to protect you from.”

At this point he had released his grip on my shoulders and found myself caving into his chest once more. His aura fully engulfed the both of us now.

I realized how desperately I needed this right now. The comfort that I could only get from him. The peace and joy from a simple embrace.

“Thank you, my love.” I told Théoden as I stepped back and looked him in the eye, “I would like to kiss you now.” I said with a grin.

He bent down and kissed my lips, which I returned this time. I let the kiss sink ever so deeper before I pulled back. “I don’t want…”

He smiled at me, “I wasn’t expecting any more than a kiss tonight Maria. You have been through a lot today.”

“We have been through a lot.” I corrected him as I knew that Marcel’s mind tricks affected him too.

He sighed, “You always worry about me when it’s me who worries about you.”

“Well someone's got to.” I rested my head against his shoulders.

We eventually took a seat on the beach and sat in peace for the rest of the night with very minimal small talk. Tomorrow is the second day of Summer.. Meaning we had six full weeks left until the first week of fall. Hopefully Marcel will stay away, and stay in Summer Crest for a while as their festivities are taking off and in full swing.

“I’ll see you in the morning for Magic training.” He kissed my lips, “I know you are getting stronger, a lot stronger, but we need you at your personal best if we are going to withstand any chance against Marcel and Crimson both. Let alone their army of fiends, demons, and devils it seems.”

I nodded, “Right. Perhaps I need to see which of these does radiant damage.” I looked down at the many gems on my ring. Some are not as bright as others as they have yet to fully charge since my last use.

“Radiant will help against creatures from Hell.” He pointed out agreeing with me.

“Did you hear what King Alaric said about trapping his soul?”

“Interesting, I didn’t think of that. That would prevent him from coming back and us from happening to travel in the Hells to find him on his home turf. I’ll work on securing an item for a jar to house his soul in.”

“Where would we put him after we capture him?”

“In a locked box and throw away the key?” He looked down and smiled at me. “Maybe place it in the bottom of South Haven? Or in a pit of lava?”

“So a locked magic box and the bottom of the ocean.” I agreed with him, “Got it.”

“What else did Alaric say?” He questioned me. I knew he pretty much knew everything already but I think he wanted to hear it for himself.

“Well, he agreed to be with us on the battlefield. And he pointed out the fact that there is indeed something off with Sybil.”

“So the King of Truth sniffed out a lie?”

“Exactly,” I responded to him, “I felt a bit uneasy when I was in the first meeting with her. Something seemed off. She was acting differently than the Sybil I knew. Sybil would not have slapped me in the face.”

“Fair, What are you thinking?”

“Is it possible that Crimson is Sybil? I know it’s a long shot but her demeanor towards me seems oddly familiar in how Crimson acts with me.”

“It’s possible. I mean dragon’s can shift into any form any time they shift out of dragon form. If that is the case then Marcel and Crimson have been working against us longer than we have thought.” Théoden's facial expression shifted, “Shit.” He said, “I should have known. I should have known.” He repeated over and over.