[Meetings 05] - Steel and Stone

I'd know it, wouldn't I? And why would I hide that from you, of all people?"
Tanis just looked at her. After a time, she reddened and looked away. "The owl was wrong," she repeated, running her hand through her curls.
"Was Kai-lid wrong, too?"
She didn't answer. They walked on in silence. Soon they halted on the stone path outside Flint Fireforge's home in Solace. In a moment, Tanis would rejoin the dwarf and Kitiara would seek out her twin brothers.
"Kitiara," Tanis said, rallying, then paused and frowned. "I . . ."
"Don't, half-elf. You'd expect too much of me. I'd disappoint you, and then you'd end up hating me for being the woman I am." She looked down at her hand, resting on the hilt of her sword.
* * * * *
A few months later, the swordswoman disappeared. She reappeared several months after that, claiming disappointment at not having found the purple stone that had been lost in the Plains of Dust. But Kitiara seemed curiously at peace for the first time in months.
Tanis was left wondering.
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