Elaris Ashwyn's Arc

Chapter 4 of 12

They reached the river town near noon. The market crowded the bank, stalls loud with fishermen and buyers. Elaris walked close to Ren through the press. She had decided something in the night. She wanted to seal what stood between them. Trust given deserved trust returned. But she owned nothing to offer him. Every coin, every blade, every scrap she carried was borrowed or bare. The only thing that was truly hers hung against her chest, and its band bore her name. To give it was to hand a stranger her secret. So she carried the wish and no way to spend it. She stopped at a fishmonger's stall to buy their meal. The old man looked up from his knife. His hands went still. He stared at her face, then past her at Ren, and the color left him. "Ashwyn," he said, low. Not a question. Elaris's hand flew to her chest. Ren stepped half in front of her. "I buried my wife eleven years back," the old man said. "She served your mother. Combed your hair when you were small." His eyes moved to Ren. "And you. My boy Elijah worked your father's stables. Mucked the stalls while you rode." He set the knife down. "I know both your faces. I've mourned both your houses." Elaris's throat closed. Eleven years of hiding, and one old man had named her in a breath. She waited for him to shout it to the crowd. He only wiped his hands on his apron. "I won't tell," he said. "Who'd I tell? Everyone I'd tell is dead." He pushed two wrapped fish across the plank. "No charge. For the girl my wife loved." Elaris took the food with numb fingers. Then she understood what she had been given. This man already knew. Her name held no danger from him. And it held no danger from Ren either. She had proven that. She stepped away from the crowd and drew Ren behind a stack of empty crates. She lifted the chain over her head. The ring turned in the light, violet stones set in silver leaves. She had never taken it off before another soul. "You showed me your chains," she said. "I want to show you mine." She pressed the ring into his palm and closed his fingers around it. "Read the inside." Ren tilted the band. She watched him find the name cut into the metal. His icy eyes lifted to hers. "Ashwyn," he said quietly. "Elaris Ashwyn. I was born a princess." The words came steady. "That's mine to give. Now it's yours to keep." Ren closed his hand around the ring. He did not flinch, did not bow, did not sell it in his eyes. He held it like something he'd guard with his life. "Then I'll keep it," he said, and gave it back. The secret was out of her chest now, spoken by choice for the first time to a person who could ruin her. And she had chosen to trust that he wouldn't.