[she doesn't know that the world is turning just for her]

Skill: [none]

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Euphemia could see it all. Her entire future, rolling out before her like a red carpet: she not only had a guest to bring to her sister’s wedding, but there would be another wedding, this one for herself. Then, children, lots and lots of children! Euphemia hadn’t even known she wanted children, but there they were, all twenty of them.

They all had his face, his colors, his silliness. They were each an offering she laid at Adonis’s temple, an act of devotion in their own right.

Beyond that, there were grandchildren. Lots of shared meals, her sisters with graying muzzles. They all smiled.

They smiled at her.

Just behind this vision, overlaid with scenes that came to her as clear to her as daylight, was Adonis as he loped next to her. How her heart burst to perceive him, quite possibly the happiest man on the planet at that moment! The reason for his happiness? It was her. It was that Euphemia loved him.

It astounded her that there had been life before this evening. How plain, how colorless it had all been! Plants had been every source of heart-racing she had experienced, except for those times with Alaric, though it was nearly impossible for the silvered woman to procure thoughts of the other man.

There was nothing she could think about besides Adonis. When not thinking about him, she was thinking about those years before her, the other life that had been taken from him by the creature of blood and rot.

It might have been colorless in comparison, but she still wished to know it.

He was right, the darkest form of darkness would be upon them, and she would get to know his beloved stars more intimately. Soon, my dear Adonis she cooed at him, pointing her nose out towards him and wishing she could reach out to kiss his mouth, but even now, when she took her eyes off their dark and rocky path, she stumbled, then caught herself, and giggled at her clumsiness.

She didn’t know why, but her paws felt so heavy and her limbs so loose. She attributed it to the love energy, which filled every corner of her body and made her feel as if she was vibrating.

Her laughter somehow turned into language. You must tell me everything. More than I already know, she begged him as they ran, deciding that she must know every detail of Duskbreaker, as well as Adonis. They were both versions of the man who claimed her heart, and she treasured his liberated past as much as his dedicated present.

Another stumble meant that, with much effort, she wrested her vision back to the mountainside they scaled. I know that you died once, which I am so sorry for – and that you were born again, which I cannot be sorry for, because it was when our paths crossed. She furrowed her brow, pretending to be confused.

or, should I say, when our stars met?

But it was all a bit of fun, because the truth was that his beliefs were now her beliefs. Euphemia had never actually had beliefs of her own and was more than happy to adopt his. His stars, her stars – it was to their stars they ran now, ready to proclaim their treasure before them.

A third and final stumble caused Euphemia to stop for a moment, her chest heaving, yet her face was smiling and bright, and she spoke in between her panting breaths as if they were just an impediment to her expression. But… the shewolf wondered aloud. Who’s your mom? Your dad?

As Adonis could tell, neither her own mother nor father was in Dawnbreak (nor were they alive), and if she could adopt some new parents along with her new religion – well then, she would be an incredibly lucky woman indeed.

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