A Guardian's Ascension (Chapter 21)

Sophia briefly feared, in the three days since she sent Allian off with her message, that she might feel some cowardly impulse at the actual soon-to-come moment of truth, and as a result, keep these vital yet complicated feelings of hers bottled up inside, perhaps forever. But over this first emotionally-turbulent month of what would become her long and legendary career as a five-hundred-twenty-seven-foot-tall defender of her people, she had finally learned to let trepidation bounce off her like hundreds of orc-fired crossbow bolts less effective at breaking her skin than cooling breezes. This situation was no different, even though it might’ve once felt like her greatest challenge of all. At her most distraught, in fact, Sophia would have previously braced herself for this upcoming encounter as she might prepare for a battle against a foe far more treacherous than even the most populous incursion assault of slavering beasties and fire-breathing dracus majoris all flocking toward her in massive swarms like springtime birds. Now, however, with the benefit of healing time, enlightening conversations, and firsthand experience as the village’s resident exalted warrior-goddess, the young Guardian felt no fear, and certainly didn’t feel like she was headed for any kind of battle. This rendezvous was not only something good, but for the best, and what Sophia ultimately realized she’d needed to feel complete again all along since her ascent.

Unlike the last time Torv came to visit her, the giantess wasn’t caught off-guard now. She perceived almost every step of his timid approach through the hilly woodland stretch, in fact, even small and humble as he was, beginning from the edge of town all the way here to the clearing that Sophia had made her public dominion whenever she was theatrically training or awaiting monstrous invasions. Despite her heartfelt feeling of peace toward this forthcoming meeting, the Guardian had chosen to wear her full heavy-armored battle regalia today while displaying her fighting prowess to the citizens from afar, and had purposefully not returned to the Citadel to change into less-formal wear afterward, nor stripped any of her imposing gear away. This wasn’t some frilly dress-up costume, but a symbol, and an extension of who she was now, and so Sophia saw it as appropriate for presenting a much-different, wiser, and better version of herself to Torv.

When her one-time soul partner emerged through the trees today, he had no cause to call out the giantess’s name, since her soft gaze was already locked to the path where he would momentarily appear, and so he immediately craned his neck up to meet her attention. It wasn’t an intimidating stare-down, or at least not more so than came naturally from being watched by a being so many magnitudes taller and stronger, instead gently fond and yet still fiercely determined. Torv’s little expression was caught somewhere between a hesitant smile and servile poise – he was obviously confused and ever-so-slightly nervous that he had been asked to come here alone this evening, which Sophia knew was only reasonable for him to feel. Especially because she doubted severely that he had any idea of her intentions today.

“Hello, Torv,” the giantess whispered in the most welcoming tone she could, feeling more at ease than she thought she would, and knelt again on the forest floor as she had last time. Though neither did she make every possible effort to dip her countenance down to ground-level and simulate meeting Torv’s eyeline. She still would’ve towered ridiculously over him no matter her posture, and so there was no point in pretending she could close that height gap, nor would she have necessarily wished for that now. “Thank you for coming to see me. I… insisted that Allian emphasize this was an invitation to you. Not a demand, by any stretch. And he promised me he would. I only hope he kept his word there.”

“He did,” Torv replied, though Sophia knew her sibling probably had let at least a hint of obligatory intensity sneak into his usually-monotone timbre toward the person who had so wounded his sister’s heart. “But, you know I wouldn’t have refused anything you asked, Soph. I couldn’t ever.”

“Thank you,” Sophia sincerely replied. She contemplatively prodded the tip of her tongue from the corner of her lip while idly twiddling a few loose blonde-tressed strands from over her shoulder between two fingers. “Though, you should know, I won’t hold you those words. It wouldn’t be fair of me. Not until after you’ve let me say what I have to say, anyhow.”

Such a statement might’ve seemed ominous if Sophia hadn’t carefully spoken it with all due grace. Torv responded accordingly, looking even more perplexed than he had when foraging his way into the clearing to see the giantess who had, in his mind and in everyone else’s as well, grown too exponentially far beyond his meager being to remain equals. But he didn’t appear like he wanted to back away, either, only anxiously wringing his knuckles like he had just before breaking the news to her at their first post-growth reunion. Seeing that he was ready and willing to listen, Sophia lowered her hand, palm-up, to the ground.

“Come with me. Please.”

She still wouldn’t have raised a word of protest if the little fellow had turned tail right then, but at the same time, there was no mistaking the gravity in Sophia’s voice. Romantic past or not, anyone would’ve found it difficult to refuse this thwooming murmur from a Guardian who so completely embodied her station now, at long last. Like their last bittersweet contact, Torv had no reluctance in clambering up onto the creamy bridge of his former mate’s flattened fingers, then finding a place to securely seat himself in the creased center of her hand again. Once he was in place, Sophia returned to full height and then moved to take him somewhere more private, only going dramatically further this time than he might have anticipated, if indeed he had anticipated anything at all. A touch of her thumb to that silver stone packed into the giantess’s uniform folds later, and the portal back to her astronomic home away from home reopened.

Sophia saw Torv’s open-mouthed marveling at the exotic spired sky-touching architecture of the Citadel and smiled to herself, knowing she’d felt much the same way when first visiting this place at human scale. And since she was hoping this wouldn’t be his last visit to the Guardian headquarters, either, she was glad to see he wasn’t afraid or disbelieving that he was here: merely overwhelmed, and maybe still seeing himself as unworthy. Much like the way he’d first reacted to sharing the colossal presence of his steeply-evolved former partner. But that would soon change, or at least she would attempt to make it so. The world was much more complex, Sophia had come to realize, than binary choices between modest humanity and godlike Guardianship, or between equal monogamy and passionless isolation.

“It’s all amazing,” Torv said just as the Guardian stepped into her personal quarters and shut the door behind them. There were entire poems’ worth of adoring meaning packed into those few words he spoke, but just in case his actual feeling hadn’t been expressed, he added: “You are… amazing, Soph. And you know I’ll always care for you, more than anyone I’ve ever met. Don’t you?”

“Yes. And I’ll always care for you, too. With all my heart,” Sophia said, warm but still cordially restrained, as she had yet to communicate any of the real reason she’d sent for Torv. Sitting on the side of her bed, however, and bringing her palm-penned former future-husband up to face level, the giantess knew it was time. “Let me put your mind at ease. I didn’t ask you here to try and convince you that things can go back to the way they were between us. In fact, you’re here because I… understand now. Truly. Even if it broke my heart for a time. I may have become a Guardian in the eyes of our people from the moment I was raised to this size, but by my own estimation, I didn’t “become” one until… well, not so long ago. Everything is different now. It always will be different. But maybe that doesn’t have to be the worst thing.”