(Untitled)

[ostro_goth]

Teja is by the fireplace, eschewing the sunlight; he has his harp and plays a soft, sad melody, his fingers moving as if on their own while he gazes into the fire and thinks.

Oh, and he has much to think of, and to feel pain for!

Not only has Asher returned, and been hurt so deeply, mere minutes from his entrance, when Teja told him, straight

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[ruinous_fortune]

Ruin grins, flopping into a chair nearby.

"My, my. You've been busy, haven't you?"

[ruinous_fortune]

"But I also see that joy is dampened by the memory of your people."

[ostro_goth]

"That, I must live with," Teja says, shrugging sadly.

[ruinous_fortune]

"Or get over it," he says. "Move on. Reinvent yourself!"

[ostro_goth]

"No," Teja says. "I would not dishonour their memory by forgetting them!"

[ruinous_fortune]

Ruin's lips curved down in a frown.

"I said nothing about forgetting them, Teja. Is it all or nothing with you? There does exist this thing called a middle ground."

[ostro_goth]

"The middle ground is for cowards," Teja says.

[ruinous_fortune]

"No, it's for people who know when to give an inch."

He stands.

"I was a warrior once. Will probably be again. I loved my people. I fought for them. If I could have died, I would have died for them. But that love would never eclipse the love of my chosen lover. Nothing would ever make me feel the slightest shadow of shame or doubt for it. The middle ground is remembering and honoring the love of your people in your heart as a memory, but realizing that you have left them behind and your life now stretches out before you with open arms and a heart so damned pure that it could cause even the most cruel of beings to take notice."

Ruin shakes his head, turning to walk off.