What We Choose to Keep

Willers came late. I had already lit a candle and was sitting by the window with a cup of tea that had gone cold. He looked tired when he came in, but not like before. It was a different kind of tired.

He sat down on the chair across from me without speaking at first.

"I've been thinking about the document," he said finally. "About what it could have meant to you. And about what it means that I carried it there without knowing."

I nodded slowly.

"I'm not angry anymore. Not like that. But I need to know you won't do the same thing again."

"I won't do it again," he said. "Not with you. Not with anything that matters to you."

He leaned forward and placed his hands on the table between us.

"I don't think Ravenholdt is my future. Not the way they want me. But I'm not done there yet. There are things I need to finish. People I can't leave behind yet."

I looked at him. At the small lines around his eyes that hadn't been there when we first met in Goldshire.

"Then you stay until you're done," I said. "And I'll wait."

Willers smiled a little. It was a tired smile, but genuine.

"You shouldn't have to wait for anyone."

"I'm not waiting for anyone," I answered. "I'm waiting for you. That's different."

He reached across the table and took my hand. His fingers were cold from the night outside.

"And if I never finish?" he asked quietly.

Then I smiled back.

"Then we stay where we are. Together. And we carry what needs to be carried. Both of us."

He nodded once. Then he stood up, walked around the table, and pulled me into a long, quiet embrace. I felt his heart beating against my chest. Steady. Tired. But there.

When he pulled back, he looked at me with an expression I hadn't seen before.

"No more secrets," he said.

"No more documents disappearing into vaults," I answered.

We stood there for a while. Outside the window, the wind blew in from the sea and touched the curtains. Inside the room, it was warm from the light of the single candle.

For the first time in a long while, it didn't feel like we were just surviving. It felt like we were choosing something.

And that was enough.