The market was larger than Thiriel expected.
Wooden stalls stretched along three streets, selling everything: exotic fruits, colorful fabrics, cheap jewelry, amulets that promised good luck.
The air smelled of spices and roasted meat, and the bustle of buyers and sellers created a chaotic symphony.
Caethiriel flitted from stall to stall like a restless bird, dragging Arielle with her as she pointed out everything that caught her attention. Her eyes sparkled with a joy that Thiriel had rarely seen since they had arrived in Oakhaven.
She deserves it, he thought as he followed them. After everything she has been through, she deserves a normal day.
They stopped at a sweets stall where Caethiriel insisted on buying pastries filled with honey. Then at one for cheap jewelry where Arielle tried on a blue beaded necklace that matched her eyes.
Thiriel ended up paying for both things before they could protest.
"You didn't have to," Arielle said, touching the necklace with hesitant fingers.
"I wanted to."
She looked at him with that expression Thiriel had learned to recognize. That mixture of surprise and something softer.
He looked away.
They continued exploring until the sun began to descend. The city's central fountain appeared before them, surrounded by food stalls serving hot dishes to passersby. The aroma of spiced meat and freshly baked bread filled the air.
They sat on a stone bench by the fountain and ate lamb skewers while watching the people pass. Families with children. Young couples. Elderly people walking calmly.
Normal life.
Life that Thiriel had forgotten existed.
"Brother." Caethiriel's voice pulled him from his thoughts. "Are you having fun?"
Thiriel considered the question.
"Yes," he finally replied. "I think I am."
His sister's smile was radiant.
But there was something else in that smile. Something Thiriel didn't identify until later, when he began to notice a pattern.
Every time they stopped, Caethiriel found an excuse to position them a certain way. Thiriel next to Arielle. Always. At the stalls, on the benches, walking through the streets. His sister acted as if it were a coincidence, but it wasn't.
She is pairing me up, he realized with a mix of exasperation and amusement. My own sister is playing matchmaker.
He didn't know how to deal with that.
In his previous life, marriage alliances had been political affairs. Cold. He had never had to navigate the genuine feelings of another person, except with Elara, and that had been so long ago that the memories felt like blurred dreams.
The sun set and torches began to be lit around the plaza. The fountain sparkled under the dancing light, its waters reflecting the flames like a liquid mirror. The bustle of the day gave way to a calmer, more intimate atmosphere.
Caethiriel yawned in an exaggerated manner.
"I'm tired," she announced. "I think I'm going to go back to the inn."
Thiriel looked at her with narrowed eyes.
"You? Tired? An hour ago you were running between the stalls."
"Tiredness comes suddenly." Another theatrical yawn. "You two stay. Enjoy the view. I can go back alone."
"Cae—"
"The inn is five minutes away," his sister interrupted with a smile that was far too innocent. "I'll be fine. See you later."
And before Thiriel could protest, she disappeared into the crowd.
The silence that followed was heavy.
Thiriel looked at Arielle. She was looking at the ground, her cheeks visibly flushed even under the torchlight. Her hands wrung the hem of her skirt nervously.
This was planned, he thought. My sister left us alone on purpose.
He should leave. He should invent an excuse and return to the inn. He should avoid this situation before it became more complicated than it already was.
But he didn't move.
"Thiriel."
Arielle's voice was barely a whisper.
She looked up and looked at him directly. Her eyes sparkled with the light of the torches, but also with something else. Something she had been holding back for weeks.
"There is something I need to tell you."
Thiriel felt something tighten in his chest.
"Arielle, you don't have to—"
"Yes, I do." Her voice trembled, but she did not stop. "From the first day I saw you... when you arrived covered in blood, more dead than alive... something in me was drawn toward you."
She paused, taking a breath.
"At first I thought it was just professional concern. You are my patient. It's normal to worry about patients." A nervous laugh escaped her lips. "But it wasn't that. It was never that."
Thiriel said nothing. He only listened.
"You are... different. Not like the other adventurers I've treated. They talk of glory and rewards. You barely speak. But when you do..." She shook her head. "There is something about you. Something deep. As if you had lived a thousand lives and carried the weight of all of them."
"I like you." The words came out in a torrent, as if she had been holding them in for too long. "I don't expect you to feel the same. I know you don't look at me the way I look at you. I know there is probably someone else in your past, someone who still occupies your heart."
Arielle's eyes grew moist.
"I just needed you to know. I needed to say it out loud, if only just once."
The silence stretched between them.
Thiriel looked at her, but he didn't truly see her. Not completely. Because superimposed over her image was another. A different but similar face. Eyes of the same color. The same sweetness in the smile.
Elara.
His wife. The woman he had loved and lost. The one who had died while he conquered empires, too busy being invincible to protect the only person who truly mattered.
The weight of those memories crushed him.
He sighed.
"Arielle... what you feel for me... is something I do not deserve."
She opened her mouth to protest.
"Let me finish." His voice was soft, but firm. "It's not that I feel nothing for you. That would be a lie. But..."
He searched for the right words.
"The path I have ahead of me is full of dangers. Enemies I do not yet know. Battles I have not yet fought. If someone gets too close to me, if someone becomes important..." He closed his eyes for a moment. "It will put them in danger. It will turn them into targets."
When he opened his eyes again, Arielle was trembling.
"I already lost someone once," he continued. "A long time ago. Someone who looked a little like you, now that I think about it. I couldn't bear losing someone else the same way."
Tears began to fall down Arielle's cheeks. Silent. Contained.
"That is why... for now... I cannot give you what you deserve. I cannot be what you need me to be."
Thiriel didn't know what else to say. He didn't know how to comfort someone whose heart was breaking because of him. In his previous life, he had never had to deal with this. Feelings were weaknesses that emperors could not afford.
But he was no longer an emperor.
And Arielle was not a weakness.
She was just a girl who had been brave enough to confess her feelings, knowing they would probably be rejected.
"Arielle, I—"
He didn't finish the sentence.
Because suddenly she was in front of him. Very close. Too close.
And before he could react, before his mind processed what was happening, Arielle's lips found his.
The kiss was brief. Barely a graze. But it was enough to send an electric shock through his entire body.
Arielle pulled away, her cheeks burning, her eyes still wet but now shining with something different. Determination.
"I don't care what you say," she whispered. "Nothing you tell me about dangers and enemies is going to change how I feel."
She took a step back.
"I just wanted you to know. And I wanted... I wanted you to remember me. Always."
And then she turned around and ran.
Her footsteps echoed on the cobblestones as she disappeared into the night, leaving Thiriel alone by the fountain, with the taste of her lips still on his.
He remained motionless for several minutes.
I could have avoided it, he thought. I saw the kiss coming. I had time to pull away.
But he hadn't.
His body had refused to move. Some part of him, some part he had kept buried for decades, had wanted that contact. Had longed for that connection.
Elara, he thought. Is this betrayal? To feel something for another person after so long?
There was no answer. Only the sound of water falling in the fountain and the distant murmur of the nighttime city.
Thiriel sighed and began to walk back to the inn.
His thoughts were a whirlwind of contradictory emotions. Guilt for feeling something when he shouldn't. Confusion for not knowing how to proceed. And beneath all that, buried but undeniable, warmth.
A warmth he had not felt in a long, long time.
The inn appeared before him all too soon. He climbed the stairs with slow steps, his mind still processing what had occurred.
When he opened the door to his room, Caethiriel was sitting on the bed, waiting for him.
Her expression was a mixture of anticipation and barely contained curiosity.
"Well?" she asked, leaning forward. "What happened? Did you talk? Did she say something to you? Did you say something to her?"
The questions came out in a torrent.
Thiriel looked at her.
His sister. The little conspirator who had orchestrated all this.
"Cae," he said slowly. "We need to talk about your matchmaking skills."
Caethiriel's eyes widened with feigned innocence.
"Matchmaking? I don't know what you're talking about."
Thiriel sighed.
It was going to be a long night.