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We have not been able to speak voice to voice again since that day.Nathair had been hoping they could conversate in thisway, but the lapse of will due to the ease of his mind meant he’d instantly been swarmed by trances upon his waking.

It was like they were punishing him for trying to flee from their cruelty.

It mattered little. Although he wanted to use his voice to speak with her, she was learning his hand signs little by little. One day, they would be able to talk freely, and Nathair didn’t carehowthey did so, only that they could.

She has expanded my vocabulary.There were signs he didn’t have for certain words or short sentences. Linh would teach him her people’s way of saying them and, although that made him grumble, he accepted them. He wouldn’t be petty and make his own on the spot like he and Weldir had.

Being brought to real life came with new things to speak of, new things to learn, and this female was on that journey of expansion with him. It, in its own way, made adopting them into his signs special for him. It was becoming Nathair-Linh speak.

Linhair speak,he thought with humour.

He’d never needed the word beach before, or sand, or even rain. He and Weldir had not spoken of these things in Tenebris, nor had he seen any of them. Even if the opportunity may have come about to learn many other signs, Nathair had... turned inward. After so many years within the afterworld, he’d eventually given up speaking with Weldir.

Not because there was no point, but because there was little he could add. Weldir would sit with him, make sure he was lucid, and then explain all that had happened in the world – without him. He was updated, but only asked questions if he wanted something to be expanded on.

Other than that, Weldir knew everything about Nathair. Why have the same conversations repeatedly? It was the definition of insanity, in Nathair’s opinion, and he was already half crazed.

But here, with this female, he yearned to know all about her. He wished to tell her about himself, about what he could remember before he died, and the afterworld he’d lingered in. He wanted to tell her of how he picked on his sibling, Aleron, and the male he’d chosen as his bride and was brought back to life with.

He wanted to speak with her about Merikh and the unresolved feelings they both likely had, and would never be able to fix. How Merikh had travelled to another – Elven – world, and left this one behind. How that fucking pissed him off because he’d like to take that bull-headed Mavka by his horns and squeeze the undeserved hate out of him with his tail.

Nathair wanted her to be a place he could lay those things on, as he thought she would welcome them with resilience. She may offer an outside opinion that could help him shed his feelings of regret, guilt, and melancholy relating to them.

Especially when she lifted a warm expression to the sun with her eyes closed, and therefore, his very face as well.

He flicked her earlobe, making the red gem dangling from it clink, and she opened her eyes once more.

“How do you smile so freely?”he asked her, only removing his hands from her neck long enough to speak.

A glint of trepidation twitched her features. “What do you mean?”

An annoyed sigh blew from his nose hole. “Don’t be c-o-y. Don’t make me r-e-p-e-a-t myself.”

Her gaze flicked away at that, her lips pouting. Then she drew her knees up so she could plonk an elbow on one, and placed her cheek on her fist.

“If you’re asking how I can still be happy despite everything... I don’t know.” The usual softness in her eyes hardened and then darkened as she stared off at the rolling waves crashing beforethem. “If anyone else had asked me that, I’d probably lie, but I don’t want to with you.”

“Then don’t?” he signed, tilting his head. When she wouldn’t answer, he gently placed his fingers around her pointed chin to tilt her face to him properly. “You don’t speak.”

“I talk all the time!” she exclaimed, rolling her eyes.

Nathair released a small warning growl. Any other human would have stiffened their back or grown wary. Linh just half-heartedly poked her tongue out at him with the bridge of her nose wrinkling.

“T-o-w-n? Past? Memories?” Nathair wanted to know more about this female.

She had withdrawn from him in the past few days, while still being kind enough to sing for him. The little female no longer wanted to be intimate, and was making him worry that she hadn’t truly forgiven him for how he hurt her... andfrightenedher. Yet, she still desired his squeezing hold nightly, like nothing was the matter.

When she looked away again, this time with her lips tightening with a pensive expression, his sight shifted to blue.

I give up, then.Not on her, just on this subject. He vowed he would not push her to speak of things she did not wish to, and just hoped she would one day do so.

They would remain in their silence, then.

I tire of silence.Beyond his ears was too quiet, while the chattering in his mind seemed to grow louder because of it. He longed for her to fill it with her melodious voice, as it eased that chattering. To soften the voices himself, he often focused on her lovely features, the lulling rhythm of her heart and breaths, her pretty scent.

He caressed the side of her neck again, showing he was exiting the conversation as he looked up.

The blue sky was bright, the sun warmer with each day. Yet, a chilly wind came from the south as storm clouds inched their way closer with every minute.Would she like to sit in the rain?