“It’s kayak racing!” squealed River. Wonder had begun to suffuse in her expression the moment they left the settlement to delve deeper into the mysterious caves for a Liembel competition. It took place at a wide open-space cavern that housed a large clear water pool with a strong flowing stream that disappeared into multiple tunnels. Several empty wooden boats waited at the shore and River rushed towards it, cataloguing how they differed from her own world. She found there was no consistency to how each boat was designed, it became clear to her that the wood carved into the sides of the boat had symbols relevant to a particular tribe.

“Liembel racing, River” Maksim corrected, as he strode across the cavern floor with stunted, clumsy steps. A short infinitesimal of a second, she watched him hover a few times then went back to walking on the ground. He was lagging behind, and it became clear to River that he wasn’t used it.

“Do you ever not hover over the ground?” she asked him.

He frowned. “Not much use to walking when I can easily fly over everywhere else.”

“You can fly?!”

“Wasn’t it obvious?”

“Striking difference, Maksim.” she clutched his elbow “Hovering and flying are so different. How far do you say can you fly up there?”

“River!” Lei’la called, appearing before them in a strong gust of wind, breathless. “I finished scouring hundreds of stalls, even boutiques refusing to open in festivals. But that’s okay, I find my name still holds sway among tribes. Here, this is for you. Isn’t it perfect? Hardly easy to find a decent weaver who can make a passable thrice stitching but here, this should do it.”

Maksim bent at the waist down to her “It’s a hat.” he helpfully said.

“I damn well know what a hat looks like.” she snapped to him.

Lei’la pulled an orange bonnet made from crochet stitching to cover her braided white hair, and down to the sides so it covered both her ears, “Cozy, teh? It’s made from Eureka leaves. There aren’t many of them left.”

“You have my gratitude for this Lei’la, but what’s it for?”

“To mask your scent. It’s the same material we use for our cloaks. It should suffice.” Satisfied, she nodded. Then strode back to the shore “I’m gonna go see which boats would do best to serve us well”

Maksim observed her closely, “Feel better?”

She nodded, tucking down the bonnet securely around her head. “I’m glad I won’t be embarrassing you any further with my mortal smell.”

Bunch of more people came filing in from the cave tunnel entrance, building up racket. Buzzing energy of excitement crackling in the air.

Maksim almost buckled under his knees when someone bumped into him in a hurry. She caught him with an arm around his midsection, cheek resting on his arm as he steadied himself, swaying side-by-side on his feet. When he glanced at her in surprise, she said. “I got your back, okay?”

“I can’t believe I know what ‘okay’ means.” He mumbled.

A flash of doubt crossed her face, “Is it that weird? To have my memories inside your head?”

Grey brows puckered deep, throat bobbing “I glimpse memories from your past when I dream. When I’m awake, I just know things. Words and phrases I couldn’t have learned but I just know what they mean. It’s those instances that I wanted to go to you the most.”

Suddenly, she had iron air in her lungs she couldn’t breathe past. The man had whites for eyes yet a faint glow behind them revealed a wild rampant fire of emotions. It was a study of wonder, a breathtaking view of Maksim that she wouldn’t have minded watching for the rest of her life. Clearing her throat, she whispered. “Is that how you found me?”

The burgeoning crowd around them heightened on hype. Teams were showing off, tribespeople cheering for them. Some individuals giving speeches at a highest booming level. Then it all muted, went away in a blip when Maksim dropped his forehead to hers. Strands of his long hair falling forward like a curtain, pressing them closer in privacy. “I have always known where to find you. It so happens that I haven’t built up energy to travel again. Usually, I’m fit for it once a time after a yearlong rest. Yet with you, I travelled dimensions three times in a row. A feat that should have been impossible.”

She took in his changed features. How farther away he was from looking like death. “Has it been a year for you?”

A dark mirthless chuckle, irony in his gaze. “It’s been a couple of weeks. I can’t help it.” He palmed her cheek, an icy cold touch that she welcomed because it was Maksim. She knew the feel of his heart. There was a bond between them that gave her absolute knowing. A resolute determination that he was built out of the coldest waters but graven in massive depths like an ocean. It called to the child-like part of her, the part predisposed to curiosity. The man was a mystery she was eager to dive into.

“That’s dangerous. You should be resting.” Her heart was in knots. He shouldn’t be out here, overexerting himself.

Unmoved, he murmured under his breath “In my dreams, you burn. In searing hot pain. My memory gets hazy when I woke up but I know it was you. It’s like now, whenever I get to go near you. Something in you burns, and it makes me better, stronger, like I can climb mountains and dare pass dimensions five more times without rest. Isn’t that weird?”

She held his hand that was cupping her cheek. “We ate an eternal soul, a fruit we shared together. It’s more likely pieces of it are responsible for something strange in us going stronger when closer to each other. Like now. How do you feel?”

A rough, choppy exhale. Eyelids falling heavy with him under a solid moment of peace before saying, “Renewed. The longer I stay with you, the faster I build myself from the death of passing. We should be ready to go back to our universe when this day is done.”

She doubted that. “Husband or not, you’re mine now. I’m gonna take care of you. And in no way are you gonna pass through dimensions again, not when you’re stumbling like this. I’m gonna get you somewhere to rest. You shouldn’t be standing on your feet.”

His free hand snaked at the back of her nape, pinning her close to him. “Close your eyes, River. Trust me on this.”

“Don’t get weird on me. People are gonna see us. They can’t see me using my powers. They’ll suspect I’m behagthi.”

“Do it.” he rasped, resting his lids down. Long lashes upon his cheeks.

Doing as he instructed, she followed suit. Once she did, the din of crowded tribespeople rose up. Their voices like loud drumming noises next to her ears. It should have been discomforting if it were not for Maksim’s cold touch, grounding her. The bright burn of discomfort from noises was falling to a chill. Something in him relaxed the fire in her, soothed the pain of her overpowered senses.

Eyes closed, he muttered. “You burn me.”

River swallowed hard. She didn’t know what to say to that since he had an opposite effect on her. Wondering if she stayed with him forever, she would never have to worry for a thing.

“Stay close to me” he said, “Like this. And I heal in the strangest of ways.” Then he released her, slowly. As if he was taking in every single second of intimacy with her.

She blinked back the tears that welled close to falling. “Thank you for coming back to me. You have no idea how much it means to me.”

“Was there any doubt about it?”

She looked down, suddenly embarrassed.

A flicker of understanding passed through his expression, keeping quiet. Touching her cheek, right below the eyes before taking a step back. “What is it that your friend Lei’la needs help with?”

She looked away towards the clear stream where most people had gathered, trying to make a hundred mental step-backs from what just transpired between them. “Her memories aren’t what she remembers it. And she has this surprising power. One that leaves her with more questions than answers.”

“Answer me this question. Did her surprising power first manifest in your presence?”

Shocked, “Yes. How did you know?”

“Back in Crow’s private library, he had several scriptures about behagthis written by mad shamans. All of them nearly unintelligible. It read like they were worshipping behagthis, writing them off with contradicting titles such as a slumbering monster from the darkest depths and a pure wave of light eliciting happiness and joy. Mad ramblings. But it held one consistent thread about you.”

It was all she could do not to bounce on her heels like an excited pup “Go on. Tell me.”

He reared back, grinning with surprise “Only you would dare command a prince.”

She went up to her tiptoes, her head going up to his chin to whisper “I think you mean only I, a behagthi, would dare such a thing.”

“No. It is only, my wife, can ever dare such insolence.”

She matched his grin. “You haven’t seen nothing yet.”

Bending forward until his mouth was next to the shell of her ear, he muttered “Glimpses of your memories are imprinted in my mind, wife. I know exactly what you are capable of.”

A shudder raked down her spine, wetting her lips “What do the mad shamans say about me?”

“They have a name for you. It’s the only word that didn’t get lost in translation.”

“And?” she asked, meeting his opaque-white eyes.

“They call you “awakener”, bringer of clarity.”

She squinted at that. “I knew an elder shaman who misinterpreted his messages. Took him a lot of tries to get it right. So I think your shaman scriptures are dead-set wrong. How can I be a harbinger of chaos and a bringer of clarity? It’s nonsense. Next to each other, they’re an oxymoron.”

“Maksim!” Lei’la waved from the pool shores, holding a paddle on each hand “Come on, let’s get going. It’s almost time, and we have got to figure out our strategy before then.”

River rested a hand over his elbow, “Wait! I have so many questions.”

“Tonight.” he said patiently, “You have my promise.” Then he approached Lei’la, waiting in the boat.

The weaver girl held up a stubborn chin when they neared, “I will be paddling in the front.”

“Then I will keep up and follow,” he nodded dutifully.

River stretched her stiffened shoulders, brushing off the sting of a triggering word like ‘promise’ and came close to the tandem team who will be racing down the stream.

Lei’la held out an open map in front of her for Maksim to see, “See that craggy rocks in the right tunnel? Do you think that is preferable over the 8 ft. waterfall in the far left tunnel?”

“Might I remind you it’s the red spider festival?” he muttered, pointing over the map “I would like to go through the middle tunnel.”

She huffed, “But nobody, absolutely no one else will be going there.”

“Why? They’re spiders. Nothing to fear about.”

Her jaw fell. “Red spiders! Little red spiders that gets on you, disappears into a part of you somewhere. It’s just.. difficult to shake them off when there are about thousands of them in the middle tunnel, don’t you think?”

“Red spiders are Brumcia’s animal icon, the reason why we are celebrating. Why should we be afraid of them?”

“Death!” Lei’la flung her arms helplessly, “Their poison!”

River said, “I figured red spiders were kept as pets.”

She sputtered, “P-pets?!”

“Yeah, I have come across a sun tribe that kept a red spider the size of my palm as a pet. Her name is Willow.”

Shaking her head furiously, “No way. No how. I’m front paddler, so I get the last say and we are absolutely not going to the middle tunnel.”

He sighed, propping a seat inside the boat “As a part of your team, I would like to be heard and recognized. If we get into trouble in the middle tunnel, I’ll handle it.”

Lei’la gritted her jaw, looking like she was going to rebuke him.

“Aren’t we a team?” said River. “How about we give each other one chance to prove ourselves? A benefit of the doubt, I suggest. Since we don’t know each other well, and we’ve just met. What do you say, Lei’la, should we give him a chance to show what he is capable of?”

She mumbled, “I don’t like creepy crawlers.”

“What’s that now?”

“I said I don’t like little things that crawls into who-knows-where. Making matters worse, they’re deadly poisonous. One bite and you die the next time you sleep. Can’t we just go the sane way, and go to the waterfall and have you, and your water control, take us down to safety?”

He replied, “Everyone else with a snow tribespeople on their team would also be doing that.”

“Hardly,” scrunching her nose “They can’t even bend the water like you do. It’s a lost art. And an ancient skill no one bothers to perfect. The only snow tribespeople who knows how to move water like you do is the snow tribe princess. And even she can’t hover. Or fly. You’re something else.”

He rolled his eyes, “That was a nice attempt, sun princess.”

“—not a princess”

“But we are going to the middle tunnel. I’m 974 years old, wiser and older. I have the final say. What’s that thing they used to say back in the sun tribe? Listen to your elders.”

She grumbled something under her breath when she took a seat on the front. “Fine, then. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“You won’t get into any trouble.” He promised.

“All right.” said River “You two play nice. I’ll see you at the finish line, teh? Take care of each other.”

“Most certainly, wife or do you prefer the expression ‘babe’?”

She smiled at him. The burst of playfulness was a good sign he might be recovering well. “Wife is good. Though I prefer you calling me River. My name sound nice coming from you.” He quirked a brow at that. “Just so you know. I’m still not on board with the eternity thing. I don’t wanna be tied down to anyone forever. I like my freedom.”

He chuckled, “What makes you think you can undo the bindings of an eternal fruit?”

“I have my optimism.”

“Yes you are pretty stubborn that way.”

She rolled her eyes at his frown, “Well, if my husband thinks I’m pretty I guess I’m good.”

Lei’la pushed off the boat, guiding it towards the starting line of the race.

“Your husband forever.” he said, looking back at her over his shoulder with a terrifying smirk. Forever with him was a great unknown. No girl scout level badge had prepped her for this. Survival in a wild forest? Aced. Finding her way through dark tunnels in a mountain? Old news. But Maksim Descansos? She shuddered at the idea of climbing the mountain of him, he was going to be a massive challenge to get comfortable with. The man was filled with mysteries that invited the repressed parts of her to the surface. And she would rather not indulge the curious, playful part that got her into so much trouble.

She crossed her arms, there was a giddy part inside her that gravitated to him and she needed to hold it back. “I like you better before we ate that damned apple.”

He shook his head, and called out to her over the crowd that was gathering to watch the event “You might be the only one who has ever said that.” A cheeky smile over his shoulder looking back at her, “I like it.”