She cups his face, drawing him closer. "Why? Whose voice does it speak in?" 

"I-"

An awful shudder runs through him. 

"I don't know."

In this light there's something in his eyes that wasn't there before, a sheen or a glitter.

"Come back to me." The command resonates with the power of a queen, with one linked to the Song of Creation and used to pulling back good hearts from the vestiges of despair.

"Come back to me, my love, and tell me why this has pushed you so many years." 

He shakes himself - too quickly, actually, it breaks Raina's gentle grip on his face - and then his eyes are clear again. 

"Er."

Well, this is... going to be a difficult conversation. 

"Sorry." He takes her hand again, holds it in his lap. "I've never talked about this properly before."

He sighs.

"I'm... not as stupid as people think, you know. I knew there was something dad was hiding about my mother, makes sense that it has something to do with -" rather than describe it he's just going to scoop her up into his lap effortlessly with one hand. "That. I just thought I'd ignore it, seemed like the best thing to do. But ever since I found out the truth... I don't know. I don't know how much is just... me... and how much of it I get from her. But - if I had to guess - that might have something to do with it. Might not be just my body that isn't... human."

She thinks on this for a moment, brushing fingertips over his knuckles. "The darkness that lives in me is a terrible thing. But without it I would not be able to fight the way I do. It is still part of me, and always will be. I think... it's still a part of you, and always has been. No matter where it comes from." 

"Maybe." He smiles softly. It's always so simple when she says it. 

It's only when she's gone that - he cuts that thought off. 

"If... if we didn't- I think probably I will be heir to the throne. It would be... safer. But... if we weren't, if, I don't know, if there were another - what exactly would you want to do, together? Where would you want to go?"

She pauses. "Somewhere warmer than this, that's certain. Winter doesn't agree with me."

Where would she go, away from her friends? From Ophel and Flint and Omega? From Voltur ?

She shifts, sheepish. "Maybe we travel and then we come back. I don't want your father to think he can be rid of me at any point." 

He smiles. "I... All right, you're going to think I've gone soft, but I... really wanted to hear that. Didn't want you to feel like you had to come back, like I wouldn't go anywhere with you."

She holds his hands clasped between hers like a beggar kneels at church. Like it is the holiest thing she can come across, like it connects her to Heaven just to hold him like this. As if touching him is devotion. As if it is sacred service. 

To her, it is. To Her, it is too. 

"If there's one thing I am certain of, it's that you would follow me anywhere."

Gone is the scared girl desperate for love and family. The strength that shines out of her makes him imagine a queen, worthy of his throne. 

Worthy of his heart. She always has been. It's just that now she believes it too. 

He smiles down at her, radiant - and in her eyes he can see the stars over alien skies and all the lands and seas he ever wanted to see, and he knows in that moment-

His hand tightens on hers-

"You should be my Queen, you know," he murmurs, and his eyes are far, far away.

Her words are carried on a whisper, a sliver of a smile, the kiss of a teardrop on familiar skin.

"I will be." 

He brings her hand to his lips and presses a kiss there. "I'm so... privileged, to be there to see the Queen you're going to be, you know. I think... I wonder if maybe Someone knew we needed you."

A frown creases her brow.

Surely She couldn't have seen so far ahead... 

Could She have?

Pelor's counsel was that Caragon was not yet ready to take the throne, he was too young and a little too untried. Surely He does not approve of her. She knows that's the truth, at least.

"I don't know. I don't know. But They saw me here with you. And that much is enough."