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Drifting in darkness, the two floating amethyst flames took shape, becoming a pair of brilliantly glowing eyes in the darkness before bathing the world of infinite shadow in a soft lavender light.

The world illuminated by the strange light was still dark, appearing as a mist-shrouded forest in the depths of night.

Sturdy cedar trees stood like sentinels made of shadow, their branches blocking out the pale moonlight from above.

In one direction, however, the lavender light was brighter, revealing a small clearing and a strange cottage built next to the base of a towering cliff at the forest’s edge.

The cottage looked like it had been constructed in a human style, with a sharply slanted roof and a large stone chimney on one side, but the proportions of the house were clearly designed for much taller occupants than any humans Lennart had ever met.

A wide, covered patio wrapped around the cottage, offering space for several visitors to take their ease on simple wooden benches, but in this strange world, only a single person occupied the patio.

Lennart’s breath caught in his chest as he glimpsed Zedya’s delicate figure, rocking in a simple wooden chair with a set of long knitting needles held in her hand.

The blanket she was knitting looked soft and comfortable, sized for an infant or small child, and a faint smile hung on her face as her hands moved methodically from one stitch to the next.

But it wasn’t the blanket that filled her gleaming amethyst eyes with joy, rather, it was the actions of the clearing’s other occupants that held all of her attention.

"Come at me together," a strong, confident-looking Lennart said as he tapped his chest with a pair of dulled fighting gauntlets.

"Two people to bind and one to deliver a killing blow," he coached the young men before him.

There were three young men on their feet, one from the Horned Clan, one from the Clan of the Great Claw, and one human, all dressed in padded training gear and holding blunted weapons while seven other youths sat on the grass nearby, waiting their turn for a lesson.

"This is the life we’ll have?" Lennart asked, turning to look at the amethyst flames in the shape of eyes, floating beside him as he stood among the trees. "Teaching young men to be soldiers?"

"I said that I couldn’t give you children," Zedya’s voice said softly.

"But if you want to pass down your skills, then we can take in young ones for teaching. As many as you’d like," she said before the vision of the clearing shifted slightly and a second building, built as a small barracks or student’s dormitory, appeared next to the cottage.

"You could train the very best and the most talented, or those who have lost their own mothers and fathers to tragedies we couldn’t prevent. .."

"I cannot give you children," she repeated. "But if you wish to raise a family of a different sort, then I will raise them together with you. It would be a good life, wouldn’t it?"

Zedya poured all of her strength into creating the best vision of this possible future that she could. In her vision, the young men and Lennart fought with intensity punctuated with laughter as her husband used vampiric strength and speed to outpace young warriors in the prime of their lives.

He fought with careful, deliberate technique, spilling no blood and leaving only the occasional painful bruise to ensure that a lesson was learned.

The young men watching did so with eyes filled with respect and admiration, watching every move with the intensity of a student seeing a precious lesson from a master.

When the lesson ended, however, that reverence fell away, replace by friendly slaps on the back and good natured teasing, while the Zedya in the vision set aside her knitting to fetch cups of chilled water and hearty snacks for the young, would-be warriors.

"It wouldn’t be a bad life," Lennart admitted. "But you and I decided long ago, before we ever gave our hearts to each other, that children weren’t part of our lives. I’ve accepted that. There are others who can raise and teach the next generation of soldiers, they don’t need me for that," he said.

When he spoke, the vision of the clearing shattered, breaking into hundreds of shards before fading into the darkness of the void, returning him and the burning eyes to the world of endless emptiness.

This time, however, Lennart felt less substantial than he did before, as if a part of himself had faded into the void along with the vision of a simple life caring for a different sort of family.

"Then, perhaps something more like this," Zedya said, fighting to keep the growing strain from her voice as another scene bathed in lavender light took shape in the darkness. She’d poured so much of her strength into the first vision that the force of its destruction hit her like a physical blow, with shards of the broken vision cutting into her mind like a rain of shattered glass. Still, if she couldn’t give him a vision of the future worth returning for, if she couldn’t entice him to drink the blood she was dripping on his lips even now, then it would be Lennart who faded away into darkness, lost forever from this world.

This time, Lennart found himself staring at a version of himself dressed richly in a silk tunic and fine lace, his arms wrapped around Zedya’s alluring figure while sitting on a luxurious sofa in an opulent theater.

On a stage before them, musicians played a stirring requiem while dancers dressed as ghosts moved gracefully across the stage.

"Is this High Fen City?" Lennart asked, blinking at the sudden shift from the humble cottage to the rich life of luxury. It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen such places before, in fact, he’d often been present while on duty while Lady Nyrielle attended such events, but it was the first time he’d seen himself as a member of the wealthy audience with no duty other than to enjoy the show before them.

"It’s High Fen City, or Dark Wood City, or wherever we want to visit," Zedya’s voice said from beside him as the Zedya in the vision selected a tasty morsel of peppered lamb from a tray beside her and fed it to the husband she adored.

"We have all the time in the world to seek out any part of life that we wish to enjoy.

All you need to do is come with me on the journey, and we can fill our nights with whatever we please. "

"Zedya," Lennart said, looking at the happy couple in the private box as they enjoyed the show. "Is this because you want the kind of life that Lady Nyrielle is giving Lady Ashlynn?" he asked, raising a brow at the glowing eyes. "Is this the life you want?"

The vision of the future she presented tugged at his memories of the nights they’d spent together in High Fen City, enjoying what may have been their last days of peace before plunging into war against the Lothians and the powerful church behind them.

They had been magical evenings filled with unique delights, but the most delightful part hadn’t been the exotic meals or the dazzling shows.

.. it had been the mesmerizing woman who held his arm and snuggled close to him on each and every one of those evenings.

"It’s a life worth living for isn’t it?" Zedya said, her voice getting caught in her throat before crumbling into a series of soft sobs.

"But right now, you’re fading away," she forced herself to say, fearing that Lennart had lost track of what was happening to his body as his spirit grew ever closer to being devoured by the abyss.

"You don’t have to come back for theaters and fancy dates, you can come back for a simple life in a quiet place, or. .."

Distantly, the sounds of battle filled the air as the scene shifted once again.

This time, it revealed Zedya and Lennart, each wearing darksteel fighting gauntlets, wading into the front ranks of a human army, leading a charge to reach the powerful human inquisitors hurling flames from their hands alongside Templars wielding blinding blades of violet light.

"If this is the place where we belong," Zedya said in a voice filled with sadness and determination, her figure fully manifesting next to Lennarts as she wrapped her arms around his muscular upper arm and holding him tightly.

"Then I will fight by your side in every battle so you’re never alone when we face our enemies, whoever they are. "

At this point, to step so fully into his world that she appeared beside him, she knew that she was risking her own life in an effort to reach him.

If he fell here, devoured by the abyss that awaited all of those who fell beneath her fangs, then she would fall with him, perishing together as a husband and wife whose love was fated to end as soon as it began.

"As long as I have you," she whispered, clinging to his arm and pulling, as if she could haul him physically back to the world of the living, even though she knew such a thing was hopeless. "As long as you’ll come back to me..."

"But Zedya," he said softly, turning to look at her with gentle, chocolate brown eyes. "This isn’t what I want from life with you either..."