I don't know if the tears start flowing before or after Novak wraps his arms around me. But I do know that the realization and relief are now truly palpable. The fear I've felt for all those months is finally gone, as if dozens of kilos have been lifted from my shoulders.
Novak seems to share that feeling with me, tears streaming down his cheeks as he holds me tightly.
'You'll never do that again,' he whispers into my hair, a laugh audible between my sobs.
'I... I wasn't planning to,' I sniffle against his now wet coat.
'Thank goodness.'
Whether seconds, minutes, or hours pass, I don't know, but all I want is to stay here forever, or at least until I'm certain that the nightmare of the past months is over.
It's Novak who eventually lets go of me, gently taking my shoulders and pushing me away slightly so we can look into each other's eyes. His watery red eyes stare at me with relief before he takes hold of my cheeks and firmly presses his lips against mine.
With that kiss, filled with relief and the tension of recent times, the last remnants of fear dissipate from my body. Finally, I can relax my muscles, finally, my mind is momentarily clear. The warmth, the softness of his skin, and his scent were exactly what I needed.
It's ultimately Elien who clears his throat and snaps us out of our trance. Completely forgetting he was there, I turn to my little brother with a slight blush on my cheeks.
A small smile graces his lips as he looks at me and walks towards me with outstretched arms.
Next, I fall into Elien's embrace. He sheds no tear, I shed no tear, that's how we were raised.
'How are you feeling?' Elien asks as he pulls back and looks me up and down.
'Weird.'
'Why?'
'For the first time in months, I feel no pain, all my senses are three times stronger, and it feels like a constant energy is flowing through me. Like I'm using my magic, but it's not visible,' I try to put into words.
'You also have a new aura around you, powerful and intimidating. Your scars are gone, your eyes are brighter, but your skin is paler,' Novak tells me as he gathers his belongings from the ground.
Elien agrees, then he asks the question everyone would want to ask. 'What can you do?'
To answer that question, I walk a bit away from them, step onto a large rock, and look out over the mountains.
My hands reach out in front of me, and the magic flows through my lifelines.
The lonely streams widen, the grass grows, the flowers shoot up from the ground. The dark clouds that had gathered above the mountains disappear as if by magic. The blue sky appears, and the once barren nature blooms and grows before our eyes.
'Holy shit,' Elien curses as he looks around.
With a smile, I lower my arms and look at Novak's proud smile.
'Put this on,' he smiles, holding out a new dress towards me. I seemed to have completely forgotten that my dress is covered in black blood.
Novak helps me into the new dress, while Elien discreetly looks the other way.
'Are you strong enough to walk down? Elien informed Alisha that something happened, and she'll be worried,' Novak asks after fastening the strings of my new dress and Elien has turned around.
'Yes,' I reply before picking up the dirty dress I just took off the ground.
My eyes glide over the stained fabric before I toss the thing into the air and with a snap of my fingers, it bursts into flames. Before the fabric can hit the ground, there's nothing left but a vague smoke.
The two boys look at me in amazement and both shake their heads.
'After you,' Novak says, gesturing with an outstretched hand towards the path leading down the mountain.
The way down is not comparable to the way up. My energy level seems multiplied by ten, my body gives no protest, and there's no pain. My feet glide over the stones as if this is what I've been doing all my life.
Suddenly, the smallest details catch my attention: the chirping of the birds, the butterflies and bees flying by, and the gentle sound of the water in the mountain streams.
While the way up took us hours, we now fly down in no time.
It doesn't take long before I see Alisha sitting on a large rock by the two horses. Her blonde hair and blue dress flutter in the wind. Her eyes are so focused on the wildflowers she's braiding together that she doesn't see us coming down until we're a few meters away from her.
Her head snaps up, her eyes looking at me in total disbelief. Tears immediately fill the blue, she pushes herself off the rock and runs towards me.
A few hours ago, I struggled with the strength and speed with which Alisha pulled me into a hug, but now I wrap my arms around her effortlessly.
A single tear leaves my eye, while tears keep flowing down her cheeks. The relief in her is palpable.
Then she gently pushes me away and holds onto my shoulders. Her eyes roam from top to bottom over me.
'Thank the gods. I'm so glad to see you. How are you feeling? How did it go? Are you in pain?' She rattles off one after the other. Her hands move from my shoulders to my hands, pulling me towards the rock where she was sitting.
Together, we sit on the rock before I tell the entire story from the moment I said goodbye to Novak and Elien. Every detail, every feeling, I spill out while everyone listens attentively.
The empathy, the pain, and the fear that is no longer necessary but still somehow palpable are visible in the three pairs of eyes.
I finish my story with a deep sigh.
'Now, on to the castle, to the death of the king and the general.'