Chapter Text
“I should have guessed Thorn had something particular on his mind with this dinner! What a night!” Sharlel stood in front of the mirror with a radiant smile on her face and brushed her hair very late that night. A new ring on her finger gave away her response to Thorns romantic proposal. Thorn had just slipped into bed and was relaxing with looking at her getting ready for bed.
He had been very secretive all day and his dinner invite had been a lot more formal and delightfully elaborate than usual. Those two alone should have been a strong indication for her that he was planning something out of the ordinary. Add avoiding all questions with a smile or a wink as a telltale sign he had something very special on his mind tonight; as he was usually an open book about everything.
Their eyes met in the mirror and she beamed at him “Thank you for a wonderful day, my love, I honestly had no idea you had planned this for tonight. I’m amazed over everything you’ve so carefully put together. I was almost starting to worry you didn’t get what I meant when I mailed you the rings. If you hadn’t acted upon it soon, I would have proposed to you!” She put down hair brush and turned towards him while chuckling “You would have found yourself proposed to after another well-placed rescue one of these days. I so love dragging you into my arms. I so love you.”
Later she understood what had taken him so long. He was waiting for clear skies in Coerthas. Which doesn’t happen very often, just five out of a hundred days to be exact, according to the weather statistics. Clear skies after midnight for northern lights is very rare. Which also explain why she hadn’t seen the Northern Lights before. To see them, you would either have to sit outside every night and wait for them to happen, or do it like Thorn did; check the weather, find a spot where the northern horizon is visible and just be ready to go when the weather finally decides to cooperate.
After breakfast the next morning, the two of them set out for Sanctum of the Twelve to register with Claribel. She congratulated them warmly and gave them all the details that are involved in securing a Tie That Binds. When they got back outside, they sat down together on the steps outside the sanctum. Thorn looked over the leaflet Claribel handed out. It described the whereabouts of the twelve Deity Stones they had to pray in front of to attune their rings to one another. “This shouldn’t take long at all”, Thorn said after a little while of studying both the maps and the list. “We could make it more challenging” Sharlel said with a smile, “if we decide to not use any portals. That would make the pilgrimage last longer and be more interesting.” “I love that idea! We need to plan a little ahead for the two colder ones in Coerthas though.” Sharlel kissed him on the cheek “We got boots and coats from our last trip there. We’ll just put them in our bags, and we should be sorted for snow and icy temperatures.”
After agreeing on a more challenging pilgrimage the two of them sat on the stairs for a little while, just breathing in the fresh air and enjoying the warm, giddy and heartwarming thoughts of having reached this far together.