Asa collapsed onto her cot, head in her hands with a faint aura that cast a gray glow like a funeral pall over her tent. “How can I find my light when the one who made me shine is gone?”

  Her words struck a chord in Zander, a chill running down his spine. Being abandoned, believing it was your fault, these old sentiments that haunted him were more than ghosts in this tent. They were yasmars that ripped into you until you had nothing left. Being left behind was a knife to the heart. Believing you earned it was a dagger that plunged in and out day after day. He’d yet to figure out how to ease that pain beyond replacing the old relationship with the next one where the inevitable was bound to recur. It was a never-ending circle of loneliness.

  He couldn’t standby and watch another person spin in that horrible cycle. Yet, what could he do to see her shine again?

  The silence spread, making time drag forward at snail’s pace. Zander needed to be rid of this slimy feeling, needed to make her smile. He’d promised Wayn to shield her light, to guard her with his life. Yet those oaths felt small beside the ache of watching his friend suffer.

  Those old oaths weren’t the answer. But they could be the guides.

  Zander placed his sword at her feet, set his shield atop the blade, and knelt. Asa’s gaze lifted, her green eyes like grass emerging through the mist of her veil of tears. They’d both made mistakes, they’d both need to learn from them. Zander thought of no better way forward than learning together, brother and sister in loneliness making each other less alone with their pain. He believed in their potential, knew that she deserved one person who wouldn’t use and discard her.

  That stirring in his chest when he met her eyes was all the proof he needed that this was right. That this was good. He looked forward and saw what they could be and knew the words he must speak.

  “On my honor as a knight, I, Sir Zander of Mirrevar, make this vow. Meladon hold my oath in your mighty hands. Hear it with your all-knowing ears. With your divine will, bind my fate to Master Asa of Ferrickton.

  “Asa, my sister, I promise on Leverith, who governs my deeds and heart, to protect you. I swear my sword and my shield to your defense. I vow to help your light shine so that you may illuminate the way. Do you accept my oath?”

  Asa wiped her eyes, clearing away the veil of tears. As if clouds had been pushed away instead, her smile shone bright, and that dismal gray glow gave way to a soft radiance that brought joy into Zander’s somber soul. The warmth he felt now could have melted his heart even if it were entombed in ice.

  Asa took his hand. “I accept your oath, Sir Zander of Mirrevar. Rise, my shield and protect. Rise, my sword and deflect.”

  Rarely in his life had he felt risen to greater purpose. Here was his sister in need of her bigger brother to guard more than her body. Here he was in need of his bright sister’s light to guide him through the dark days ahead. The sorceress and her knight. Yet this went beyond storybook sentiment. They would do more than fight off each other’s loneliness and pain. They’d powerfully carry that light forward into the dark, sharing it with all who needed to know they weren’t left behind alone.

  Asa wrapped her little arms around him, her head barely high enough to reach his chest. “Thank you,” she whispered, exhaling some of her pain onto his shoulder.

  Zander had no issue closing the embrace, corralling her heart into a place for safekeeping. “You’re deserving, sis. You are worth so much more than your eyes see.”

  Her aura flashed bright, a momentary sunburst in the room, like pulling a dark cloth off a noralistone.

  “I’ve been known to light up the ladies,” Zander said, “but I’ve never been so happy to do it nor so surprised with the method.”

  Giving off a chuckle that was worth more than the combined laughter of all his squires, Asa shoved him off her. Her light didn’t dim, her smile didn’t fade. He knew it wouldn’t last forever. Her pain would flare again. And again. But this smile was worth more than any precious gem. He’d make seeing this again a daily mission with no less importance than being blademaster of the encampment. Eventually, the smile would stay longer and come easier until it went from being a surprise visitor to a regular resident. He hoped.

  “I approve of this method,” she said. “Too many times I’ve tried to chase away the darkness with the other way.”

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  Zander nodded, knowing all too well what she meant. Nights chasing away absence with temporary companionship and a prayer that it would bring him closer to the Sunrise. “It fills the hole inside of you but soon enough you’re empty again.”

  Asa jabbed his arm. “Nice.”

  Zander tilted his head in confusion.

  Asa narrowed her eyes. “The double entendre?”

  “You’re speaking Al—” Zander caught himself before finishing Alfread’s name, wincing at his near blunder.

  She raised her brows. “Ale-most like somebody who spent too many years around the fancy talkers at Leverian University?”

  He nodded. “I need a translator. Double on ton dray? Sounds like you need at least two personal servants to say such things.”

  She smirked. “Fortunately, I’m fluent in both. It means that what you said had two meanings and one of them,” she licked her lips and arched back her shoulders, her chest straining the top of her robe. Alfread didn’t just like her because she spoke his language.

  “I assure you,” Zander said, suppressing a chuckle, “that I only meant what I said in the sentimental way and any and all,” Zander puffed out his chest and flexed his arms, “allusions were illusions.”

  Asa grinned. “Sure…” she said, elongating the word in a manner that could convey two meanings.

  Zander loved her smile, cherished this playful side of her that mirrored his own. She was his sister in soul if not in blood. And she needed to know that was the extent of his love. “My father left my mother while she was pregnant with me. My mother died when I was ten. There is a hole that my parents never had a chance to fill and I spent years making tribute to Leverith, often just trying to find a way to fill that hole. When I was hurting the most is when I pursued it the most, just to feel a connection.”

  “And that connection was only ever temporary,” Asa said. “You cannot fill in a hole with something that is hollow.”

  “You only put something in that hole for a moment,” Zander said, sighing as he thought of a thousand nights with dozens of different girls. “For that moment, you taste what life is like without that hole and then you’re empty again.”

  “Then you rush to next moment to fill that emptiness again,” Asa added. “But it never stays away for long, does it? Always, it chases, faster than we could ever hope to run.”

  Zander met her gaze, seeing the same understanding and longing reflected back at him. It felt like he was staring into a mirror, if that mirror was smaller, darker, and better looking. The old him would rush to fill that hole, would take Asa to her bed for a moment of peace. Feeling shame’s tendrils wrap around his gut, he thought of how weak he had always been that he wouldn’t have hesitated to make his best friend’s nightmares a reality, that he’d toss aside his devotion to the Sunrise for a moment of fading light, that he’d perpetuate the same pain in this one person who seemed to understand what it was like to have this gaping, hungry hole in them.

  In all those lonely moments he was looking for more than just the Sunrise. He sought family, blind to what he had in Alfread, Mirielda, and Evan. They weren’t here with him now, nor could he be together with Alexia yet. Asa’s light shone on the truth, allowing him to cut himself free of those horrid tendrils. Here was his sister.

  Asa buried her head into his side, carefully placing her arms on his back. No passion. No seduction. Only compassion and understanding. And love.

  “This is better,” she said, her voice soft. “We don’t need to make love to feel loved,” she whispered.

  She squeezed him, her arms small but not weak. The embrace hurt, finding a bruise from his battle with Alfread.

  “I’m sorry,” Asa said, pulling back and reaching for her staff. “I was so focused on my own wounds that I’ve left you in pain.”

  Zander shook his head. “There are plenty of invisible wounds that exceed mere bruises. You’ve tended to my greater pains already.”

  She smiled. “And you to mine.” That didn’t stop her from mending his bruises. Forgotten aches in his face, neck, and shoulder were erased as Leverith’s blue light swirled around them, infusing deep into his flesh, piercing straight to his soul. He’d never felt closer to Asa.

  Feeling at peace, for the moment, he sank into a mattress above his paygrade and stretched.

  Asa sat beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “It’s not fair that you’ve sworn an oath and I haven’t.”

  Zander sat up to banter, but before he could find the right words her staff was at his feet and she knelt behind it.

  “On my love for you, Sir Zander of Mirrevar, I, Master Asa of Ferrickton, swear this vow. Leverith, hold my oath in your heart. Norali, shine your light on these words so that I may always remember them and live true to them. With your divine will, bind my fate to Sir Zander of Mirrevar. I promise on Leverith, that I will always try to heal your wounds and keep you safe from harm. I promise on Norali, that I may always try to guide you to your light, to your sunrise. I promise on Dalis, that I will share your tears and hold you warmly when the world rains on you. I swear my staff to our friendship. Do you accept my oath?”

  Zander’s head felt heavy. His heart felt full. “I accept your oath, Master Asa of Ferrickton. I will be shield-brother to you, staff-sister.”

  Tears fell from her eyes and she made no attempt to wipe them away. Zander found himself mirroring her again, knowing that this time the tears fell not for the hole, but for its filling.

  She clanked her alabaster staff against his shield. “To being fellow travelers in darkness.”

  “To being guardians of each other’s light.”