RP:If You Love Something, Set It Free. If It Comes Back, It Was Meant To Be.

From HollowWiki

Part of the Lunar Tides and Silver Linings Arc


Synopsis: Lanara and Tiberius find each other again, but this time, disaster takes course. Lanara is relentless at pushing the lycan away which causes the man to lash out at her. The truth comes out. For a year, Tiberius had been a drunken idiot, and Lanara had been held captive in Kelvar. Tiberius wants her back, but the witch is unsure due to her secret illness. It is really just a lot, folks.

Beloy Street

Tiber:: The days were getting easier, and maybe that was because he finally closed the doors again. The man did not appear different. Perhaps he was leaner and grew more stubble than usual, but he was still dressed clean in his business casual attire. A grey sweater with a green checkered flannel underneath, black slacks, and dark brown loafers. Tiberius Lowell was not inside his apartment, but outside the apartment complex on the streets. The man had been lingering against a wall outside the complex with a cigarette in hand, and before him had been a dusty-blonde haired woman with piercing grey eyes. Jolie Belmont. Jolie had also been smoking along-side the man, and the two seemed to be enveloped in deep discussion. The woman, is also perched up against the wall, “Look, she just wants to know if you’re okay and if she should come home,” the woman says. “I’m just the messenger here. She knows I travel, and honestly, she should’ve just wrote you instead of making me make a pit-stop.” The man looks the woman up and down and blows the smoke to the side to avoid her face. “Look, I don’t know where the hell she ran off to, but I know that I’m fine. But tell her she should come back one day for at least a drink because I miss the hell out of her.” He takes another inhale and then releases words with smoke in the air, “A lot has happened. Are you sure you can’t tell me what the hell is going on with her?” He looks concerned for a moment and the look on Jolie’s face says it all. “Okay, I won’t butt-in. Just as long as she is okay too.”

Lanara had been back in Lithrydel for three days now, and she had been extremely busy with trying to help the refugees from Kelvar adjust to life in Enchantment. She worked closely with Lunalesca, to find them suitable jobs and shelter, and she hadn’t had a moment to herself, until today. As luck would have it, she ran into Nick, the Backstreet Bard, who had informed her that Tiberius Lowell was nothing more than a sleazebag as he had moved on with some blonde tramp before Lanara had even arrived in Kelvar! After renting a dingy one bedroom apartment above a mortuary, making a few necessary purchases at the market, and reuniting with her tikifhlee, the witch had unpacked her belongings. A bottle of honeyed whiskey gave her pause, and she spent the rest of the day deliberating if she should go and see Tiber, or avoid him at all costs. According to the Backstreet Bard, her ex-boyfriend was enjoying the single life and seemed happy. Should she keep the tip from Leopold to herself, and count herself as part of Tiber’s past, too? Did he even care if she was dead or alive? Of course, love always prevails, and so the witch gives herself a brief once over in the mirror and walks two blocks over to the lycan’s apartment complex. “We can still be friends… I guess. I owe him an apology at the least.” The brunette appears as beautiful as ever, clad in a little black dress and a pair of leopard print heels, seemingly all that had changed was that her hair had grown an inch or two longer and she had lost a considerable amount of weight. Clutching a heavy tote bag over her right shoulder, she warily eyes those that she passes during her trek, making certain not to bump into anyone or draw unnecessary attention. She should have hired a bodyguard or adopted some wild beast for protection, she thinks, as using even a minute amount of magic drains from her dramatically shortened lifespan. Turning the corner, Lanara finds her gaze drawn to the form of Tiber, leaning in rather close to a pretty blonde woman. She stops and stares, unable to keep the tears from brimming in her eyes, as she feels as though she were punched in the gut. Being apart from the man she loved all those months was painful, but seeing him with another woman was a different pain entirely, and she was overcome with a surge of sadness and anger. Seeing red, Lana crosses the street and mutters beneath her breath, “Soul mates? My legendary ass!” The witch didn’t need that hired protection that she mentally considered moments prior, but Jolie sure as hell may need some! “What the hell, Tiber?! I heard ALL about your behavior since I’ve left… You couldn’t even wait for me to set my heels on Kelvar’s shore?” Inhaling sharply, she reaches into her bag and procures the bottle of expensive whiskey and thrusts it into his arms, “A parting gift.” Hating the emotion in her voice, and the very public outburst that had drawn attention from literally everyone on the block, Lana glares at Jolie and wags a finger in her direction, “Watch your back… I will destroy you and everything you hold dear.” Glancing once more at Tiberius, the witch huffs and storms off back the way she had come.


Tiber :: From a sane point of view, the two that were against the cobbled building had been side by side. As if they were just casual friends taking a smoke break at work. “Well, tell Nadine stay sa—“ a voice so shrilling then pierces through a mix of passing strangers. A voice clear as day. One that brought the heat to creep up his neck. Amber eyes blink and stare into the depths of chocolate brown eyes, and for a moment, his vision is clouded with white. His head grew lighter staring into that beautiful intoxicating face, and his skin flushed visibly. The elves words that were laced with venom however, poke through the blur and Tiberius Lowell is again sucked back into the present where the Kelvarian elf is now wagging a finger at Jolie. Jolie stares wide-eyed at the woman like Lanara is insane. Whisky was now in his grip as he must have mindlessly caught it, and then the jealous woman was marching away. She was alive. Was this even real life right now? Was he officially having an episode? “You’re alive,” he was staring at her while she was storming off. Then, the anger sets in. “Did Kelvar brainwash you into making you utterly psychotic?! What the hell!” And Jolie is left behind to sort of stare at the two crazies before crushing out her cigarette. “Have fun, Tiber,” and the girl was off. Tiberius in the meantime, drops the bottle of whiskey leaving it to shatter on the pavement. He chases after Lanara and his heart was… frantic. “Whoa, whoa, slow down, Lana! What the hell are you even talking about? Can we just talk about this?” He reaches out to attempt to grab her arm to pull her around to face him fully.


Lanara lifts a hand and reassuringly rubs the hourglass pendant that is worn about her slender neck, as though the fact that each grain of sand flowing through the hourglass provided comfort. In a strange sense, it did slightly soothe the woman, as it meant she was nearing death and would no longer feel heartache. Lana hadn’t expected Tiber to abandon his date and trail after her, so it takes every bit of strength to keep walking forward. If she turned around and looked into his sunset gaze, she would believe any lies that he tossed her way. At his comment about her being ‘alive’ she snorts, “Not for long… Cheating bastard…” The street is somewhat noisy as vendors are shouting about their sale items, so it’s doubtful he hears her slip of the tongue. Lanara blinks back tears and shakes her head, refusing to pay any mind to the man at her back, though his next statement has her hands balling into fists and she spins on her heel, “Brainwashed? Seriously?! You have NO IDEA what happened to me back in Kelvar! None. So… So… How –dare- you accuse me of being crazy. I wasn’t playing the role of a whore, like you! I wrote to you every day for three months… And then it dissipated, because things went south… But…” None of her words mattered. Tiberius Lowell had moved on, and so should she, as she only had so much time left. She could just spend time with her sister, friends, and pets, as they truly reciprocated her feelings. Turning away as the first tear falls, she cries out as Tiber’s hand clasps around her wrist to turn her around, and the witch flinches and shies away from the contact, “No… Please.” Lanara has a flashback of Zeildor tenderly reaching out before issuing the first of many beatings during a torture session in Kelvar, and for a moment the witch is blinded with fear. Tiber may begin to understand that his witch wasn’t having a grand time in her homeland and bonding with her daughter, for the way she trembled and her terrified expression spoke volumes. After a few moments, the memory passes and the anger manages to resurface, “There isn’t anything left to say… Is there? I just wanted to bring you some whiskey from home and apologize for how I had to leave… But, I shouldn’t have come here, Nick warned me… Your girlfriend ran off, so you sort of have to go and win her back.” Lana glances over Tiber’s shoulder to see Jolie’s form walking down the street, “I’ll see you around.”


Tiber appeared bewildered. Not alive for long? What did that mean? She was not being dramatic was she? Well, she was, but ending it because of him? Was that what she was talking about? Her tainted words of him cheating cut through him. “What do you mean –cheated-?” The man was defensive and palms reach up to rub his eyes in disbelief at her behavior. A year later and this is how they are going to meet each other again? Also, she is actually alive and fighting with him right now. This is –real-. When the elf spins on her heel he stands tall and does not bellow away. “Whore? Are you serious, Lana? Gah,” he sneers and looks around at the people walking by staring at the two. Great. They were –that- couple. Then again, they were not a couple anymore. Amber eyes look at her, and his voice tones down a notch. “I waited for you. Every day for a year, and that last letter you gave me? It was covered in blood. I thought you were dead, Lanara! I didn’t get that last letter until just a few weeks ago and you sent it –months- ago. And you clearly didn’t want me involved. Please, Lana,” and then, she is crying out at his touch. It stung, and the man knew she had been in internal pain. The woman was fragile, and he is now realizing that she is smaller than before in her frame. The lycan’s anger melts away, “Hey, hey,” his voice coos sternly. “Lanara, what happ—“ and again, the anger rises. This time, again, from her. Words shoot fire and the only name he can pick up is ‘Nick’. Well, there goes the tenderness in his tone. Instead, his tone is stone-like, hard, and stern. “You saw Nick…? That bastard is a lunatic, Lanara. Why the hell are you still even talking to him and even before me? Do you not see that he still wants you? He’s a liar, Lana. And the only girl I’m trying to win-over is –you-.” A hand abruptly runs through his blonde, short waves. There is an exasperated sigh. “God, Lanara I missed you every damn day. It killed me. And then when I got that last letter, I—“ His hand now lingers on the back of his neck and his stomach begins to churn at the thought. “Jolie is not my girlfriend. She’s a friend of Nadine’s. Nadine has been worried about me, but for some reason she won’t let me know what she is up to, but she asked Jolie to ask me if she needed to come home. I think she just doesn’t want me in the thick of it because I’ve been—er, it doesn’t matter,” a drunk mess is what he wanted to say. “Please, just come up to the apartment. Don’t leave, please, Lanara. Talk to me. Please.”


Lanara crosses her arms and bows her head, feeling defeated, as she had promised herself that she would remain strong. Instead, she had shown Tiber her vulnerable side in all of five seconds, and a crowd was forming around them. Perhaps their shouting and her wincing when he grabbed her arm was a cause for concern, to the passersby. Feeling so small, she takes a step closer to Tiber and lowers her voice, trying to mask the hurt, “I went to the bank, because I lost some weight and didn’t have any clothes that actually fit me. I took out a small loan, because I needed to put a deposit on an apartment and buy supplies and some furniture.” Lana is embarrassed by this, because she lied to the loan officer as she didn’t have an actual job or any sort of income to repay the borrowed money. She would be dead in two months anyway, but it had bought her some time, and a place to hide out. “As I was leaving the bank, Nick was walking in, and he told me that the day I set sail… You went and hooked up with some sexy blonde.” Slowly, she lifts her head to lock eyes with the lycan, chocolate against amber, “Nick said you were the talk of Cenril… A new girl every night, living up the single life, and just…” Shaking her head, she blinks back fresh tears, “You couldn’t have come to Kelvar… You were much safer here.” There were threats far greater than a plague. “I missed you, too, so much. But… A lot has happened, and I, well, I’m not the same elf I was before Kelvar. I’m sorry that my letters didn’t reach you…” Reaching into her bag, she removes a pack of cigarettes and after shakily lighting it, she presses it between her lips and inhales. When did start smoking?! “I hope everything is alright with Nadine…” Lana had never met the woman, but she knew that she was like a sister to Tiber. At the invitation to go up to his apartment, she hesitates, knowing she should be spending time away from the lycan and not growing closer. The more attached they became, the greater the hurt in the end, but she also couldn’t bear to be away from him. “Okay… We can talk.”

Tiber :: When the witch steps closer to him, he itched to reach out, but he stands his ground. Eyes look at the circle forming and there is a glare at each face. Her explanation catches him off-guard, and although she was closer to him, he had never felt so far away. And because of this, the feelings he had for her began to be masked and shoved down to keep away. It was clear, she did not want him. Should he attempt anyway? “You have a place, Lanara. You always have,” he paused, and he was actually patient enough to listen to her words. His tone had died out, only because the others were watching. “Does that really sound like me, Lana? We didn’t even—“ he never touched her, so why would he touch any other girl? Hands are shoved into his pockets now since there was still that itch to keep her close. He rocks on his heels and stares over her head before looking back down into chocolate eyes. “I want you to tell me what happened. Forget the letters.” A small squint is given when she pulls out the cigarette pack. Lanara Banks was right, she was different. Maybe he should hold his breath on the smoking for now, although if he did say something he would be hypocritical. “She’s fine,” his voice was soft. “Nadine is strong.” Shoulders than ease when she agrees to come up stairs. “Okay,” he tries to search her face for a moment to get another hint of anything. He then turns and moves towards the building, expecting her to follow behind. Once upstairs, he would fumble with his keys to unlock the door. Hands were shaking out of adrenaline and exasperation and then the door to the inside swung open. The apartment had looked exactly the same since she had left. Her same decorations. He had not touched a thing. He had not been ready for that step, but he was beginning to think he had to be. The only difference the apartment had was that there was white paint that was over filled in holes in the walls. Yeah, maybe he should take a yoga class. “Uh, let me get some water. Sorry about the whiskey. You can sit on the sofa or the chair there,” he points to the living space. “I’ll take whatever you don’t.” The air might have been awkwardly tense. Suddenly, a small meow comes from the left side of the apartment where Tiberius’ bedroom was. A cat that had multi-colored fur prances through the living space before circling around Lanara and staring up at her with another meow. The cat still had the same eye-color as Salem and shape of face.


Lanara didn’t find herself a place because she didn’t have anywhere to stay, but she doesn’t correct Tiber, because she’s not ready to tell him that she only has two months or so to live. She can sense his frustration about the letters, his hatred towards Nick, his worry for Nadine, and his curiosity about her time in Kelvar, and she doesn’t want to worsen his anxiety by tacking on her death sentence. “Well… You never made a –“ Forcing herself to take another drag from the cigarette, she bites back her remark about how Tiber had never seemed to want to take things to that next physical level. Of course, being a typical woman, she internalized the matter and chalked it up to Tiberius being a gentleman, or perhaps he didn’t find her all that desirable. Maybe she had to sock him in the jaw and rough house with him a bit, like Khitti had suggested, as Catalian’s weren’t like the average mating male? Secretly, she harbored fleeting thoughts that Tiber may be into men, akin to Callum. He had loved Meri, they married, and they even had Fleur! But, he identified as a homosexual. If Tiber preferred that lifestyle, they surely had no future. Blinking, Lana frowns and remembers that they can’t have a future if she’s buried six feet under, and she realizes that they are already at the apartment. The lycan struggles to open the door and she remembers a time not so long ago, when she had her own key, and how she would often enter the apartment and jump into his arms or plant a passionate kiss upon his lips in the middle of an alley. The urge to wrap her arms around him and just be held is so great, that she heaves a sigh of relief once she’s directed to sit upon the sofa as he gets them a drink. Resting her bag on the carpet, she crosses her legs, and glances around the apartment. Aside from the strange splotches of white pain smeared in various spots on the walls, it looks the same as when she had left. It had been so long since she last smiled, but a hint of a grin is on her face when Tiber returns with a glass of water. “Thank you…” A cat enters the room and at first the witch is all ready to lift it into her arms and cuddle it to her chest, until it steps from the shadows and she sees that it’s not Salem. Maybe she had jumped to conclusions about Jolie, maybe she had believed Nick when she shouldn’t have, but there was no confusing a short haired black feline with one that had long silken fur and was a variety of colors. “Where is Salem? Who gave –that- to you?” Someone had replaced her, she’s sure of it. From the awkwardness in Tiber’s stance to the fact that he loathed animals, she felt as though she no longer belonged. “Um… I need to use the restroom. I’ll be right back.” As Lanara closes the bathroom door behind her, a droplet of blood lands on her hand and she heads over to the medicine cabinet for some gauze. “Another freaking nosebleed. Great.” Rummaging around, she finds a few of her old lipsticks, some eye shadows, and finally the gauze! Pressing the cloth to her nose, her dark gaze lands on the nearly empty jar of cover up that she had bought with a ton of silver, and she narrows her eyes. “That wasn’t even opened when I left… What the hell?” She had only used the sample that came as part of the bundle. Who was using her makeup? Tiberius Lowell has some serious explaining to do! Washing her hands, Lanara returns to the living room and takes a seat, “Sorry. I keep getting nosebleeds from all the salty air at sea. Where were we…? Oh yeah. The cat?”

Tiber slowly sits in a chair angled from her, but he does not lean back in comfort. He keeps his back hunched and his elbows on his knees. His water glass was dangling from his finger-tipped grip. The man watches the cat and one hand rubs the back of his neck again in a fidget. “Uh, the ca—“ and then the woman is up and gone to the bathroom. The man then looks at the cat. “Don’t ruin this for me,” Salem sort of blinks before rubbing up against Tiberius’ leg like nothing is wrong. When his ex walks back into view, he gives her a stare of observation. One full of distance. Was what she was saying truth? Salty aired nose bleeds? Is that a thing? “Err, right,” he has no time to really think on it because here came interrogation. “That’s –your- cat. That’s Salem.” At first it did not make sense, and before she could speak over him, he holds up a hand. “You left all your potions and make-up. I was getting ready one day and I knocked a potion over. I tried to clean it off of him, but his hair started to grow longer and turn color. I don’t know what kind of concoction you kept in the freaking bathroom, but I threw that one out for you. Because Sven forbid I put it on myself,” the cat then jumps up on the couch to brush up against the elf again.


Lanara looks at Tiber in disbelief, about to verbally attack him for letting the cat drink one of her glamour potions. Didn’t he realize that those powerful concoctions were poison to animals?! “Getting ready… You just happened to knock over my glamour potion… And Salem was –that- thirsty that he lapped up a foul tasting fluid? Were you forgetting to fill his water bowl? Also!” Taking a sip of her water, she gathers her thoughts, before grilling him some more, “By getting ‘ready’ are you referring to the fact that you were using my makeup? Tiber… I just wish you would have told me all of this before we became involved…” She’s half taunting him, half concerned that he’s actually into men, “Are you sexually attracted to men? Because we never did –THAT- and if you weren’t wearing my makeup, which means another woman was, and you went and made our cat all pretty… Seriously. His fur is softer than my hair!” She had said Salem was ‘their’ cat, as though it were a natural statement. Lanara begins to pet the cat, and after Tiber gives her a truthful answer, she gives a nod, “We can really talk… There are some things that I’m just not ready to say, but I will try to open up about what happened in Kelvar. And… I would like to know how life has been for you here, of course.” The witch hates that they are sitting across from one another, as though they were polite acquaintances. She didn’t even get a hug, but it’s probably for the best, right? Knowing things were going to take a darker turn, she pulls Salem onto her lap and hugs the cat tightly to her chest. “What do you want to know, Tiber?”


Tiber sets the water on the coffee table in front of them. It was like he was a ticking time bomb, and it was like she was begging for a reaction. “Are you serious right now, Lanara? Do you not realize that the damn cat will do whatever he damn pleases because he. Is. A. Cat!” The woman was grilling into him, and he was now digging palms in his eyes. Fingers moving up through his hair to make some strands stand straight up. “Look all I wanna do is—“ talk, but nope. Another blow. “Are you really thinking that I’m into men?” He stands up, but only to pace around the living room. There was pure silence that filled the atmosphere. He does not answer her question about the sexuality thing. Instead, she let’s her continue to talk and have her fit. Then again, she deserved a fit after the hell she had been through, but he did not know that. “Are you done? Oh, oh, I can finally get some words in. Awesome. Thanks. Appreciate it.” His tone was laced in sarcasm. “Let’s talk about me first and your accusations. I didn’t like who I was without you. Let’s start off with that,” his Catalian accent was thickening the more aggravated he felt. This witch drove him off the deep-end. Here he was thinking, one, that she was dead. And two, if she was not dead that they would figure things out. Right now, it was headed south, and fast. “You want to know how I did? I drank. I drank lots and lots of whiskey. I drank until I physically couldn’t down another glass,” he lifted his arms up and he was cackling. Was he laughing out of madness? His tone is straight truth. “Your make-up? I kept getting into bar fights and then having to work, so I covered whatever blows I took so I didn’t look like a reckless moron. Which I guess I am. And I guess I also like men now too because of it.” He clips his words and stares up at the ceiling. “This whole time I’ve been indulged in my own self-pity and was a drunk idiot. I should have chased you, Lana. I should have pulled some dumb story-book moment, and I’m sorry I’m not that smart of a guy.” Beat. He then sits back down. The lycan takes a moment, and folds hands together and his voice lowers. One that is genuinely curious. Like he needed to be fed from her hand and know the answer. “I don’t want you to push yourself to answer things if you don’t want to. But… why did you tell me to move on and then show up in Cenril with a bottle of whiskey and then accuse me of all these screwed, made-up lies? Why did you tell me you loved me in a letter and then tell me to move on? Why, Lana?” He was now the one pressing the questions. “Is this what is making you happy? Because it doesn’t look like it? Tell me what happened. What drove you to write that final letter?”

Lanara had gotten a rise out of Tiber, just as she wanted, but it left her with a void in her heart and a bad taste in her mouth. Why did she have to push his buttons? Maybe she really had turned into a psychopath since her time in Kelvar. She would greatly benefit from some therapy, but right now these feelings aren’t matter of the mind, they encompass every last beat of her heart. It doesn’t bring her relief when he tells her that he used her makeup to cover bruises, or that he wished he was romantic enough to chase her all the way to Kelvar and bring her home. As he begins to angrily describe his drinking habits and how he pined for her the entire time she was gone, Lana begins to cry. She had hurt Tiber, and that had never been her intention. It was easier to believe Nick’s lies than face this truth, because to hurt the man she loved, hurt her just as well. Tears are spilling down her cheeks and onto Salem’s glossy fur, so she lowers him to the floor with trembling hands, and she takes a glance at the door. The witch had no fears of commitment in the past, but she had nothing to offer Tiberius Lowell, at least nothing long term. “I’m sorry… I never meant to hurt you. I received that letter from my daughter, and I just… I failed her so long ago, and this was my chance to set things right, and I couldn’t ask you to come to Kelvar with me. I could never ask you to give up your work, your life, your love of the beach and city! Kelvar is a small island, all forests, it’s always autumn, and our lifestyle is very basic and boring. Yes, I would have been over the moon to have you move to Kelvar with me, but because I love you, I couldn’t take you away from everything that you’ve built and everything you love here.” She speaks of love in the present tense, meaning her feelings haven’t diminished at all in the past year. “I had it to be final, because from what Natianara described in the letter, things looked really grim, and things were so bad there, Tiber…” The tears continue to stream down her pretty face, as Lanara lowers her glass of water to the table, and clutches her bag in her hands. “Tiber… There is –nothing- left of me that’s any value, and I want to just patch everything up and be yours again, but it wouldn’t be fair to you. I need to keep my distance, please, just trust me that it’s for the best. I hurt you, and I don’t want to do that again. What if I have to leave again? What if we get really close and something terrible happens, like one of us dies? Being away from you broke my heart, and I wanted to come back… But, I couldn’t, because Kelvar was invaded and I was kept as a prisoner for several months. That’s why I sent that last letter, with the blood, urging you to move on. I was tortured every night, I face such horrors that I no longer have nightmares, they haunt my waking moments, too. I’m a broken woman, Tiberius.” Rising to her feet, the witch hugs her bag, and takes a step towards the door. “I said I love you in a letter because I knew if I said it to your face, that you wouldn’t say it back to me, and that would have hurt me more than us separating.” Lanara lifts her hand to clutch the hourglass pendant, a constant reminder that she needed to keep her distance. “I need to go…”


Tiber’s golden gaze seemed to be suffering. The cries that echoed through white walls intensified in his head. There was a feeling of remorse. A sickening feeling that encircled his stomach and left him with a heavy head. Those eyes look to the side as she cries. A guilt was swarming in. Again, he had left the girl crying in front of him. Just like days in the past, but they were stronger than this. The lycan knew it. As she apologizes, he does not feel any better, for here she was an emotional wreck on his living room couch. Alive. Somehow, things had ended up more complicated than he imagined in his head. Her words echoed throughout the walls and somehow, tears begin to form in his eyes, but they do not stream. His eyes are left glassy and stare at that wall to the side. “Cenril means nothing. It all means nothing, Lana. You had to know that,” but the truth was, she did not. Tiberius never spoke his feelings, nor ever wore his heart on his sleeve. The glassiness disappears from his gaze, and eyes of honey find her again. That itch came again, the one where he wanted to get up and make the pain go away. Tiberius Lowell, however, was terrified to do that very thing. The man is reading her words that spill from her full lips. There was nothing left to give to him, she was saying, and his brain was buzzing. The air was being sucked out of him. When did she forget how to fly? “You can’t live in ‘what-ifs’, Lanara. Or fears—“ and then, the agony. The torture. It left the toxic feeling of blame on himself with her words. If only he somehow made it to Kelvar. Pulled her away from all the madness. The lycan wanted to take every horror away. Every excruciatingly painful memory. “Lanara, I—I couldn’t imagine what you are feeling.. I,” he cannot fathom words, or say the right thing. What do you say to something like that? In front of him was a broken woman. One where he could not even piece together a single one of her emotions. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t take you away from all the pain,” his voice was soft. Ashamed. Utterly speechless from the right words. When Lanara Banks stands, the blonde man does as well and he slowly takes steps towards her, but she is already motioning towards the door. “Don’t go—“ and then her last statement stabs him, and he is left motionless. At the time, she was right, but the man had felt… he did not know what to feel the day he read her letter. She left, and if he admitted it, and she was gone, there would have been no point. The truth was, he did not attempt to chase her, to live in Kelvar, to take her away from the pain, to tell her he loved her. “We can figure it out. We always do, Lana. Just—just give me the chance. You’re safe here,” he cringes at his own idiotic words because it would not matter now. “I know I was too late before, but… just stay. Don’t go, Lanara.”


Lanara pauses with her hand atop the doorknob, because the pain in Tiber’s voice is enough to still her heart and halt her tears. The lycan may never have expressed his feelings, but the sentiment is there, and she knows that the male is literally begging her to let him back into her life. Even if she only has a little life left to live, she knows it will be worthless without him at her side. That undeniable pull, that invisible cord, Sharna’s final words, those were things that her heart wouldn’t let her ignore. Turning she presses her back to the door and shakes her head, “Please, don’t apologize, Tiber. You aren’t responsible for the trauma that happened in Kelvar, and I’m not safe anywhere, sadly. Things happened that I can’t discuss right now… I-I really need to rest.” Lanara knew if she didn’t leave for her apartment soon, she wouldn’t make it there, as her body would give up from the curse she bore. As the lycan talks about ‘what ifs’ and how he wants a chance, she struggles so much, wanting to surrender and just explore their love story until her last breath. But, if Tiber was hurting now, she could mend that pain, even if it meant her death would inflict a harsher pain in the end. Lanara’s mind is running in circles and she isn’t sure which is worse, to give into an enjoyable present, or to face a painful future. It wasn’t solely her decision, as two hearts were involved, but she’s not strong enough to tell Tiber the whole tale. The man couldn’t tell her he loved her, so there was no way that he would turn her into a lycan. It wasn’t a simple two way street, their love had always been a complicated circle of madness. Yet, they both continued to come back time and time again, never getting quite enough of each other. Lana is standing there, not answering Tiber for a few moments, and he can see the gears turning as she relents, “Okay… Maybe we can meet up tomorrow? I can stop by around noon, if that’s okay?” After receiving an answer, the witch is compelled to close the distance between them, and pulls him in for a tight hug. Lanara sighs, as she inhales the scent of his cologne, feels his corded muscles beneath her palms, and for the first time in a long time, she finds contentment in an embrace. Resting her head against his chest, she snuggles as close as is physically possible, and just enjoys the moment. “I do have to go. I need to work through some things on my own, just please, accept that for now?” She desperately wanted to shower, nap, and have a hearty meal, and she preferred solitude over spilling her guts and weeping before the man she loved. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Tiberius” Slowly, she forces herself from the embrace, and she instantly feels a chill the moment their bodies part, as though even her soul longed to stay at his side.


Tiber :: Lanara’s plead for no apology had him in complete denial. All the man wanted was to sweep her away, but she was right, she needed rest, for the woman had had a long journey. The man, however, wondered how long she had been walking the earth of Lithrydel. It had not to be very long considering she was talking about bank loans. Her wounds had been recent. Raw. And she was perfect as if there was not a scar that harmed her. At least on her face. The weight on her was noticeable. The loss of it. The man nods along in understanding, and that circle of pain the two went through finally comes to a slow line. They can meet tomorrow. The man yearned for her to stay, but at least he would see her face another day. A night to prep for the worst outcome, but a night to prep to keep the thread still attached to their dynamic. The witch slowly moves and he watches her carefully. Arms wrapped around him in embrace and her touch was what he desired for the last year. To know that she was still physically there. Her embrace was different. Lighter. Her scent, however, the same. His hands rest on her small frame and he leans close to her ear. “It’ll be okay. I don’t know how, but it will be okay,” he holds onto her tight enough to find his own comfort. Here she was, finally back in Lithrydel and in his arms. Through the spiral of emotions, he was only glad that he was able to see her face again. Living. “Noon. No lateness,” it was a gentle demand. And then she is gone, away from his grip. Like a ghost, she is out the door. Like she had never even been between the bare white walls leaving him alone to wonder what could have been.