A Guardian's Ascension (Chapter 10)

Wanting to burst with joy and cry out his name right away, Sophia instead more cautiously set her weaponry aside then wordlessly, slowly, knelt down in the field to bring herself as close down to Torv’s level as she could come without actually rubbing her cheek through the turf. She’d been thinking about this moment for months and couldn’t be gladder it was here at last. Even if, in a perfect world, she would’ve wished to be less sweaty for this reunion with him, and also not dressed in clothing which so boldly pronounced her new superhuman status in life. Still, the important was that he’d come for her, as she knew he would soon. And wonderful though it was to see Torv, especially when they weren’t surrounded by jubilant masses all vying for her attention, the young Guardian also wasn’t naïve or selfish enough to believe that their relationship would simply pick up precisely where it left off and continue merrily on as though nothing had changed. Granted, a small guilty part of her did still optimistically pray for such a miraculous outcome as that, but being realistic, Sophia knew it would take some adjustment on both their parts: some talking, some closeness, some understanding. Nothing two soulmates couldn’t handle.

“Hello,” she murmured, immediately cursing herself internally for not having something more romantic prepared, though she hoped Torv could at least hear the needfully palpable yearning for him in her tone. “I… don’t suppose it would make everything immediately all right again if I tell you how badly I’ve missed you all this time, would it?”

Torv shifted his weight from one leg to the other, clearly still getting his bearings around the giantess, which Sophia was fully expecting. At least she saw no intimidated withdrawal in him, no urge to back away from her into the trees. Just the completely-fair initial unease of a young man who’d gone months without seeing his future lifelong partner, and when he finally did encounter her again, he was but a firefly in comparison to her dizzyingly humongous grandeur.

“I missed you, too,” he replied with aching sincerity.

Soothed, the giantess allowed herself more of a smile now. She could also feel a noise of adoration taking form in her throat but muted it before it could escape as a stereotypical princessly coo. Taking a deep breath, she brought her face a little closer now to where Torv stood, sufficiently near that she could have blown a warm gust from her puckered lips and he would’ve stumbled clear over. Naturally her instinct pushed her more to kissing him rather than causing a storm, of course, but she restrained herself, wanting to make sure she gave him all the time he needed. As she met his eyes deeply enough that she almost forgot their surroundings entirely, and found Torv looking back at her with similar intensity, Sophia only hoped that as soon as possible he’d look past her godlike enormity and recognize exactly the same girl looking at him with exactly the same desire and exactly the same aspirations for them both, even if their future together was perhaps going to look different now (to say the least) in light of her sworn duties.

“Maybe we could… take a walk somewhere together?” Sophia gently asked. Though she was lying on her stomach now, and speaking softly enough that the watchers in the village likely couldn’t tell what was going on, this conversation to come deserved surer privacy. Before Torv could even wonder how they were supposed to stroll together when only one of his betrothed’s lethargic strides would constitute a harried sprint for him to keep up, she discreetly slid her upturned palm along the grass, bringing the soft gangplank of her outstretched fingers to rest in front of him. “I promise, you’ll be safe, if you let me carry you. I’ve had plenty of practice. But I’ll understand if you prefer to-”

Sophia silenced herself, her heart skipping multiple beats, when Torv didn’t even wait for the end of her reassuring spiel before clambering up the pithy hump of her gigantic thumbpad and positioning himself squarely in the spacious middle of her creased palm. The feather-weight sensation of his puny limbs pattering so comfortably along her skin sent euphoric chills up her spine.

“I’ll be all right here,” Torv declared, now sitting cross-legged on her warm hand as though settling into a familiar bed. “I trust you, Soph.”

This time the giantess failed to keep herself from spouting that fawning croon like an off-key hymn, but by now she didn’t care in the least if he heard her indulgent happiness. Though the pair of them still had so much to talk over, she had a good feeling that things were going to be just fine. With more deliberate pace than was necessary, Sophia ascended back up from the ground to her real stature story-by-story, while keeping her hand flat enough the whole way that she probably could’ve balanced a fragile mug of brandy upon the pillowy terrain of her peachy palm and still never spilled a drop, much less Torv himself. Her gaze didn’t abandon him, either, and as her first cautious steps transporting her most precious-conceivable passenger in-hand gave way to more relaxed strolling across the green landscape, the giantess was gratified to see her little love wasn’t at all disturbed to be riding so high in the air. He shot no fidgety glances to the plush edges of her palm, and never even shut his eyes for vertigo; he only looked up at her immense not-so-distant face, not exactly hyper-radiantly beaming the way she was, but still with kindness and acceptance apparent in his face. That was all she could ask for now.

“How… have you been?” Sophia asked when at last they’d reached a distance from the village that seemed to her like the closest thing the couple would get to solitude. She felt foolish asking such a relatively trivial pleasantry, when there were such pressing matters at hand, but she also couldn’t have lived with herself to risk giving him a wrongful impression that concern for his wellbeing hadn’t weighed on her mind since they were last divided. Because it most certainly had.

“W-Well. I’ve been well. Thank you,” he responded, a bit stiffly. Since they’d come to a stop now, he stood up in her palm, seemingly having gotten his sea legs already. “And… what about you? We’ve all been thinking of you from the minute you left, Soph. Wishing strength and safety for you. Not that anyone believed you needed the help, after the way you fought during the last attack. They chose you for a reason, but…”

“I’m grateful to the Guardians, for everything they’ve given me. I couldn’t ask for greater decency or guidance from them, and it means more than anything to know that I’ll be able to protect our people from now on. It really does,” Sophia blurted, no longer able to withhold her feelings. “But, to tell you the truth, Torv, I… I haven’t felt so happy in all these months as I do right now, here, with you. There were many nights at the Citadel when I thought only of this, the day we’d be back together, the moment, knowing that even though things would… change for us, none of it would matter, because what I feel for you is so strong. My… love for you.”

“I will always care very deeply for you, Soph. And I will cherish, always, the time that we spent as one,” Torv promised. “Just know that, even though our paths have changed and we will not be bonded together as we once thought we would, I-”

Whatever words Torv said immediately next were effectively muted for Sophia, who right then experienced the sensory shell shock equivalent of a hundred dracus majori crashing nose-first into her pre-ascendant body all at once. Only by the ingrained grace of her balance and training was the giantess prevented from accidentally tipping her occupied hand while the riptide of disbelief, denial, and heart-rending grief took its toll. Recentering herself as swiftly as possible from this blow, however, just like Sigrid had taught her (though generally not in regard to emotional impacts), the young Guardian tried not to let her jaw hang or her eyes go ghostly with premature anguish. Perhaps she’d misunderstood his words. Perhaps a chance wind had whistled between them at the exact-wrong moment and distorted Torv’s message to make it sound instead like he was declaring their soul partnership finished. Yes, that was most likely.

“I… apologize,” Sophia interrupted, more loudly than she intended. “But, whatwas it that you just said? Our… our paths, you said they-”

“Yes, I suppose it might have seemed… strange… that I felt the need to say it aloud, that you and I cannot be together,” Torv sheepishly replied, even a bit embarrassed, and apparently still on a totally separate conversational page than his titanic ex-mate. “I know that much was obvious to you, from the moment you accepted the Guardians’ offer. Believe me, it was to me as well, soon after that. But, I thought it still important that you know I understand, completely, the necessity of your position now, and so only wanted to offer you my vow that whatever you should need, from here on out, that you think I could do to help you, little though it could possibly be in comparison to your… Guardianship of our people, I-”

“No, no, no…” she cut in again. Sophia maintained her composure, as she did in whatever variety of strife she was facing. Still, the evident gulf between the pair’s respective comprehension for where they stood as a couple was only compounding the giantess’s worsening internal state, like taking several minutes to slowly extract a trodden-upon nettle, rather than more-wisely ripping it out clean. Only of course this specific nettle had cut much deeper. “I… believe there has been a… mistake. I must have… misled your thoughts somehow. And it is my fault alone, I’m certain. But, you are… saying… that because I agreed to join the Guardians, I… w-we… are no longer one?”

Now it was Torv’s turn to show speechless bewilderment.

“Soph…” he uncertainly uttered after collecting himself and then bowed back into a humble seated position in her palm. “As a Guardian, I’m sure you came to understand this far sooner than I ever did. But a partnership of the kind we shared, especially with the expectation of marriage someday… it must be a partnership of equals. And, well… I could not be so self-absorbed or delusional to ever believe that someone like me, or any one of us you stand for, could possibly be considered – by any definition of the world in any known tongue – your equal.”

“You… really believe yourself so unequal to me, that our love could not overcome such a feeling?”

“Soph,” Torv repeated more emphatically this time, wringing his hands and deflating such that he became seemingly even smaller in the giantess’s hand. “You are… incredible. So wise, and capable, and caring, putting all others before yourself, just as you always have. You are the greatest person I have ever known, and it would be an understatement to call you anything except a goddess among us. And I could never, not in a millennium of trying, be worthy of you now.”