After I’d finished my conversation with Roger, I went back inside of the little wooden house, and said hello to everyone who was there.

As I stepped in, I saw Praxa sitting cross-legged on her bed, as she gave me a warm, and tender smile. She looked like she had a lot that she wanted to say… but at the same time, she seemed to be little too busy scratching Lily behind the ears, and playing with the young girl’s hair, to really be able to say all that much.

For her own part, Lily had wrapped her arms around Praxa’s sides, and was nuzzled up against her quite contentedly – and the child looked as if she was just about as close towards heaven as any mortal being could get. Meanwhile, Aaron was in the midst of talking with Praxa about the current state of affairs in the world. And so, after looking into Praxa’s eyes for just a moment, I sat down and joined them, as the three of us talked about what we expected to happen next, after everything that had happened the night before.

It was clear that the attack by the City of the Red Tower was almost unprecedented in this world. As Aaron and Praxa explained it to me, no one had attacked a city that was under the protection of the Blue Tower for hundreds of years, and it was hard to know what to make of it. There were a few different ways to explain why the Red Tower might have done such a thing. But, it seemed that the likeliest explanation was that the Red Tower was testing whether or not the Blue Tower would really have the courage to respond. Even though the City of the Blue Tower was the strongest of the nations, the gap between them and the Red Tower had been growing smaller every year. And some had even begun to wonder if the Red Tower might really be able to overthrow the Blue, and to seize control of the city after thousands of years of control by the Guild of the Pen, and the Guild of Knights.

And so for that reason, it seemed very likely that the Red Tower might actually be able to get away with their attack on the town of Westfall – since the Blue would be unlikely to risk a full blown retaliation.

Of course, it was still a dangerous move for them to make. But in a lot of ways, it was a fairly sensible gamble.

If the Blue Tower struck back, then it was almost certain that there wouldn’t be any sort of long, and protracted war, since the stakes would be much too high for either side. And so, based on what we could infer from events like this in the past, it seemed likely that just a small sacrifice from the Red Tower would be enough to appease the Blue, and to bring the conflict to a close.

I had noticed during the battle that all of the soldiers from the Red Tower had been quite young, right down to their commanding officer. And so Aaron had suggested – with the same sort of brutal of logic that he always displayed when the two of us played board games – that probably the Red Tower had sent some of their youngest troops on purpose, so that they could offer to send all of the surviving men and women from the attack to be executed by the Blue Tower, in order to bring about a reconciliation.

That was a rather awful possibility… but it made a certain kind of sense, of course – and Praxa seemed to think that sort of stratagem would probably work, and would be in keeping with the diplomatic standards of this world.

And so, even if the City of the Blue Tower did attack, probably the Red would just lose a small portion of their army, and an especially inexperienced portion at that – which wasn’t all that much of a price to pay.

On the other hand, if the Blue Tower didn’t respond, then that would be a kind of wedge that the Red could use, and would be able to test. They could then push the boundaries further from there. And if the Blue Tower never responded, then the Red would know that they could get away with quite a bit – and all sorts of strategic options would open up for them after that.

That was their reasoning, at least, as best as we could make sense of it.

At the same time… that whole line of thinking suggested something else. If the City of the Red Tower was preparing to go against the edicts of the Blue to that degree, then they might really be preparing to launch a war against all of the other nations of this world – the City of the Blue Tower included.

Even a few years ago, that sort of proposition would have seemed insane. But the more powerful that the Red Tower grew, the more it seemed hard to place any sort of clear limits to their ambition.

Praxa let me know that no one had launched an attack upon the City of the Blue Tower for over five hundred years. But the last time that it happened, the attacking nation nearly succeeded – and it took all of the efforts of all of the people of the world to repel them, and to keep the Blue Tower secure.

Of course, after all that I had learned so far, I wasn’t exactly the biggest fan of the Blue Tower. But I understood just how dangerous it might be if the Red Tower managed to position itself right in the center of the world. And I understood that such a thing might bring about an enormous amount of suffering for the people here, that might make things much, much worse than the rule of the Guild of the Pen had been before.

At the same time, it was a little hard for me to believe that the Red Tower was really willing to go to such lengths just in order to preserve their practice of slavery from the threat of others. And a part of me began to wonder if there might be a lot more to all of this, and if their motives might be a lot more complicated than they had first appeared.

At any rate though, for the present, I didn’t really have any sort of insight into what those other motivations might be. And after talking about the recent events for a little while longer, I noticed that Lily was starting to get a little restless… and soon, she was gently tugging on Aaron’s sleeve, and asking him if he’d like to make breakfast with her. Apparently, neither of them had had eaten since they had woken up. And so, Aaron and Lily began to head off towards the kitchen, as they prepared to make up a meal for the four of us.

Once the two of them left, Praxa squeezed my hand, and looked up into my eyes… and then, she asked me if the two of us could take a walk together, and if she could talk to me for a while.

There was nothing but a kind of sweet, and almost overwhelming tenderness about her gaze… and I agreed to her request at once, without really thinking, before remembering to ask if she was okay, and if she was able to walk just yet.

She smiled, and told me that she was. But she asked if I would be willing to support her, and to let her lean on my shoulder as we walked.

I told her that I would be very willing to do that. And then, the two of us said goodbye to Aaron and Lily, as we opened up the door, and made our way out through the quiet and peaceful woods.

Eventually, we found our way towards a little boulder that each of us could sit on… and we sat down together side by side, as Praxa looked up into my eyes, and began to speak.

“William,” she said. “I just wanted you to know...”

“… I wanted you to know that I meant every word that I said this morning. I really do like you… and… ”

“… and, I love you, William – I really, really love you. And I want to be with you, for as long as I possibly can.”

“I love you, too,” I whispered. “And I don’t ever want to be apart from you, for as long as I live.”

Then, I kissed her softly on the lips – over, and over again – as she wrapped me in her arms, and pulled me close.

I don’t know how long the two of us spent like that. But eventually, we broke away, as she leaned back, and looked into my eyes.

“So…,” she said. “Well, um...”

And then, the two of us started to laugh together, as she lowered her head in mock resignation, and looked back up towards me.

“I’m sorry,” she said, still laughing a little. “This is all so strange to me, you know? I know that it shouldn’t be, because it’s not like… it’s not like I didn’t know that you kind of loved me,” she added, as she broke back into laughter. “You really haven’t been that hard to read for a while now.”

“You haven’t been, either,” I said, with a grin.

“I hope that I haven’t been,” she said. “It’s not like I was trying that hard to conceal it, or anything. But...”

“It’s still so strange to be sitting here like this,” she said, softly, “and to think of you as my boyfriend.”

“It is strange,” I said. “But… it’s good, too, I think – really, really good.”

“I think so, too,” she said. Then, she kissed me once more on the lips, and held my hand.

After that, the two of us began to fall into a kind of warm, and peaceful silence, as we enjoyed the feeling of one another’s presence, and the joy of being together.

“Hey, William,” Praxa said, eventually. “Can I talk with you about something a little more serious…?”

I lowered my head down, and looked back towards her.

“Of course,” I said. “What did you want to talk about…?”

“Well… I’m not sure if this is the right time for us to talk about all of this, but…”

I saw her breath catching, a bit, before she was able to continue on.

“I don’t think that you really know that much about how relationships work in our world, just yet. And… and, now that we’re together... I kind of wanted to tell you about all of that, if that’s okay. And – and about how things are supposed to develop with time, and about what comes next, and… and, about all of that… about all of that,” she repeated, softly, “… if that’s alright.”

At first, I must have looked a little surprised, and begun to color. But then, I just beamed with a bright, and a warm smile, as I ran my fingers softly through her hair, and looked into her eyes.

“You’re right,” I said, quietly. “I don’t know about any of that just yet. So… would you tell me how relationships work here, exactly? And what people in this world do, once they’re certain that they love each other, and that they never want to be apart?”

She nodded, and kissed me once, softly, before continuing.

“Well… men and women are supposed to get to know one another for about a year, in this world. And then… if after all of that time, they still love one another...”

“Then, they hold a ceremony. And after that… the two of them are united, for the rest of their lives.”

“Then… if we’re supposed to wait a year, before deciding what comes next,” I said, “… does that mean that today marks the first day of that period?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I think so, at least. I guess we could count it from earlier, really, but… this feels like when everything really began – to me, at least.”

“To me, too,” I said.

Then, there was a long, and a deeply warm pause.

“I really love you, Praxa.”

“I really love you, too, William.”

“I was really, really scared,” I whispered.

“I was, too,” she said. “But I was so glad when I saw you running towards me… and I’m so glad about everything that’s come next – about everything that’s still occurring...”

For a while, there was just a sense of deep, and of radiant happiness, as we held each other tightly, and enjoyed the feeling of one another’s warmth, and company.

Then, after a few more minutes of that, Praxa looked up into my eyes, with an expression of some amusement, and some confusion.

“Well…,” she said.

Then, there was a long, strange pause, before the two of us at last just burst back out into laughter.

“Well, um… should we go to back to the house for now,” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said, smiling. “I guess that we might as well.”

“Alright, then,” I heard her say. “In that case… would you help me to get back up?”

“Of course,” I said.

Then, each of us kissed each other once again, before I helped her to make her way back up, and to move forward.

And then, slowly, I let her rest her weight onto my shoulder, as I held her by the hand.

I felt her soft, red hair pressing lightly against my neck, as she leaned in towards me... and I felt her squeezing my hand tightly, as she walked along my side.

And then, the two of us just made our way quietly through the peaceful, and secluded forest, as we thought about everything that had occurred, today – and about everything that was still to come, in all of the days, and the years ahead.