"You want me to promise to stay here? If that's what you need, I will."
It wasn't an empty vow, nor a simple one. Despite all of the distractions he faced while searching for the elves, he never took his thoughts completely off his wife. Whether talking with the swallit or exploring the dark realm, Linda always remained in the back of his mind. He considered what he would give up for her, and he believed it would be anything. Holding to that belief, he made his offer, and it was as genuine as it was monumental.
"I want you to be happy," Ryson continued, "and I'll stay here… if that's what it takes. I won't go on another scout unless you want me to."
Linda responded without hesitation and without acknowledgment to the sincere sacrifice Ryson was willing to make.
"What a hero you are. That way you can blame me. No, I don't need your promises. We've talked about this before."
With that caustic response, Ryson began to reach his limit.
"Yes, we have," he responded with a hint of annoyance and a growing frustration, "and I thought we settled it."
"I can't argue that. Many things have been settled… whether I like it or not. Don't feel bad about having to leave again at some point. To tell you the truth, I'm looking forward to it."
Ryson quickly swallowed any anger as his concern began to grow. He pressed his emotions aside, which was no simple task, and began to seriously consider what he sensed. She was speaking in a tone and with an expression that was foreign to him. He almost believed she was under some spell, but he knew that was impossible. She was immune to magic. He sat down on the edge of the bed next to her and tried once more to get some idea of what was wrong.
"This isn't like you. I know you don't like me leaving. I don't like it, either. But we've dealt with this before and it never came to this. What's different now?"
"I just feel differently," Linda declared, though she certainly didn't reveal any great distress over the admission. She said it as if she was remarking about the calm weather outside.
"Are you sick?"
"No, I'm not sick."
"Then what is it? What's making you feel different?"
"Maybe nothing. Maybe I've been like this the whole time and just didn't realize it."
"But you're not acting like you usually do."
"Am I supposed to be doing something different?"
At a loss, Ryson explained that even her current position was out of the ordinary.
"You don't usually lie down in the afternoon. You have to go to work soon."
"I suppose."
Her indifference left the delver unsure of what to say or do. He held back his frustration, but he admitted a simple truth.
"This isn't normal."
"When is it normal to be married to a delver?"
And once again, the delver felt a painful sting in the pit of his soul. Unable to mask his apprehension, he spoke out the truth.
"That's what I'm talking about. You're making it sound like you made a mistake."
"Maybe we both made a mistake."
The statement struck even harder at Ryson and he fought for understanding.
"Why would you say that?" He finally approached a subject he did not wish to address, felt it might make matters worse, but since Linda crossed a threshold, he felt it was necessary. "Is this all because you think we can't have children?"
"I don't think, I know."
She seemed so certain, and that in itself caused Ryson unease. The basis for her conclusion came from some conjecture about magic, yet neither of them had any true grasp of the matter. They weren't spell casters, didn't study the magic as did wizards and sorcerers.
"How can either of us know for sure?" Ryson submitted.
"You're a delver and I'm a human. It's not hard to guess."
"That hasn't stopped any one before," Ryson insisted. "Humans and delvers have had children together. Actually, purebred delvers are somewhat rare."
"And getting rarer," Linda added.
"That's not the point. Humans and delvers mixed in the past and they'll mix again in the future. Most of the delvers I know have some human heritage in them."
"But I'm a human that's immune to magic."
"So you think you're immune to having children?"
"Immune to having your children." She paused to finally look at him. Her eyes were devoid of any passion. She gazed upon him as if he was nothing more than one more patron arriving at an otherwise crowded tavern. "As a delver, the magic is part of you. It's inside you and makes you what you are. You really wouldn't exist without it, but that same magic can't touch me. That means a part of you can never touch me. Don't you get that?"
It finally hit him solid, a deep understanding of what she was talking about. His own appreciation of being a delver was growing. He didn't cast spells or absorb magical energy, but the energy made him different, gave him his abilities. He would pass on the magic to any child of his. Whether it be pure delver, or part human, the magic would have to exist, but it couldn't exist within Linda.
He stood up from the bed and walked to a window. As he looked outside, he believed he knew what she was saying. It went deeper than not having children. It had to do with them, about their lives together. They weren't just a human and a delver trying to work through a difficult time together. There was something that now stood between them, a barrier, just like the barrier that kept the elves imprisoned in the dark land. She was immune to that part of him which made him a delver.
It was a revelation far too bleak to consider. The implications were staggering. It meant more than just not having children. It struck at the very core of their existence together. If he dwelled on it, it could break them apart. He didn't want that, not for one moment. He decided to concentrate on the aspect of children, something they could investigate… together. He turned to face her with renewed determination.
"I know you're immune to magic, but neither of us really understand it. We can talk to someone, find out what it really means."
"Why bother? Just face it. We're incompatible."
Another dagger to Ryson's soul; she came out and very plainly stated that which he did not want to accept, the very fear that twisted his insides. And she did so with continued indifference, as if she was talking about some napkin that might not match a decorative tablecloth.
"You can't mean that… and I don't believe it!" Ryson exclaimed with enough emotion to offset Linda's apparent apathy. "We talked about this before, too. It wasn't just chance that we met. Of all the things that happened to me after the magic returned, meeting you made the most sense. It probably kept me sane."
"Maybe neither of us is sane."
"No, I won't accept any of that. I've seen too much. Things happen for a reason. If we weren't supposed to be together, I never would have made it this far. We were supposed to be together."
Linda sighed as she revealed her full view.
"I tried to convince myself of that, but now we know the truth. When we met, I had no idea I was immune to magic, and I sure didn't know delvers had magic in them. Think about it. All this time, I've been worrying about what might happen to you when you were out on some scout or fighting some monster that shouldn't even exist. It's absurd when you think about it… absurd because I should have been worrying about something else, worrying about the truth."
"You think we were never supposed to be together in the first place," Ryson whispered, not wanting to speak what he understood from Linda's words, but not being able to ignore it, either.
"It makes you wonder."
But Ryson would not wonder. He would not let the smallest doubt enter his soul. He knew where he was supposed to be.
"You're wrong," he said sternly, not wanting to be harsh to his wife, but not wavering from his conviction. "You're forgetting everything that's happened to us. We've dealt with destiny. We've seen it play out. We've even dealt with the power of my sword, a power that reveals clear direction. If we weren't supposed to be together, we would know by now. The sword would have made it clear. It never has. We've survived worse than this. We've gone through things that would have crushed other people. We can make it through this."