Simon Hawke - The Outcast

“You mean you left the convent without permission from the high mistress?”

“Yes,” she said. “I broke my vows. I cannot be a priestess any longer. Nor do I want to be. I just want to be with you.”

“You tracked me? All the way to Tyr?”

She smiled. “I am villichi. Following your trail through the mountains was not very difficult, but it took a while to find you once I reached the city. However, your reputation had spread quickly. Many spoke about the fearsome elfling fighter and master of the Way who worked at the Crystal Spider gaming house. I knew that it could only be you. But when I saw you with that half-elf girl, I thought...” Her voice trailed off.

“You of all people should have known better,” Sorak said.

She nodded. “Yes, I know. I know only too well. Still, you left without even telling her good-bye. I am sure she pines for you.”

Sorak glanced down at his sword. “If she pines at all, it is for an ideal, not for me.”

“You cannot always walk alone, Sorak, despite your name. No one can. You need me.”

“It would be better if you were to go back.”

“I cannot.”

“Cannot, or will not?”

“Both,” she replied. “You can tell me that you do not want me to go with you, Sorak, but it will make no difference. I will follow you whether you want me to or not. No one knows you as I do. No one understands you as I do. No one cares for you as I do. And no one can watch your back as well as I,” she added, thinking about the two men she had killed back in the alley as they waited to attack him. She would not tell him about that. She did not want him to feel obligated. She only wished her aim with the crossbow had been better, and that she had killed Rokan, as well. Then Tigra would not have died. She would not tell him about that, either.

He smiled wanly. “Why waste yourself on a male who cannot love you properly?”

“Why waste myself in a villichi convent, where I would never even see a male, much less love one?” she countered.

“But you have forsaken your vows, and you are no longer a priestess. You have no more vows to keep, while I have a vow I cannot break, no matter how much I might wish I could.”

“I will be satisfied with whatever you can give,” she said. “If I cannot be your lover, then I shall be your sister, as I once was.”

“And always shall be,” Sorak said. “Very well then, little sister. Since I cannot dissuade you, we shall both go out to seek the Sage together. Somewhere out there.”

He looked out across the vast Athasian desert, slowly fading from golden orange to bloody red as the dark sun sank on the horizon.