novelraw Chapter 135: EMILY (2)
Chapter 135: EMILY (2)
[Herbalist Shop — 11:00 AM]
Emily had finished the main work.
The herbalist had left them the workshop — "I have things to do in the south district, lock up when you leave" — with the confidence of someone who knows her space will be respected.
Alex was still on the bench.
Emily organized what she had bought — the plants wrapped in specific paper to preserve their properties, labeled with the small, precise handwriting she used for everything.
"Can I ask something?" said Alex.
"Yes."
"Are you okay? With everything. Not the team, not the missions." He looked directly at her. "You."
Emily stopped labeling.
Several seconds of silence.
"I’m okay," she said.
"Emily."
"I’m..." She considered honesty. "I’m processing things."
"What things?"
She turned around.
Not with discomfort — with the expression of someone who had been holding something in for a while.
"Raven and you." A pause. "Kira and you." Another pause. "It doesn’t bother me — I decided, I know what I chose, and I wouldn’t change anything." Her hands clasped in front of her. "But I feel like I fell behind."
"Behind how?"
"In... in us." She looked down for a moment. "With everything that happens, there’s always urgency, there’s always something more important than a moment for the two of us. And I understand it, I really do, but sometimes I want more." She looked up. "Time for us. To show you how much—" She stopped.
Her fingers found the top button of her dress.
She unfastened it.
The neck of the dress gave way, revealing more than usual — her large breasts had taken more space to breathe, and Alex noticed.
She leaned slightly toward Alex with that specific mix of shy determination that was uniquely Emily.
"I want to show—"
Alex’s hand reached her before she finished.
Not where Emily had expected.
Toward the button.
He buttoned it.
Slowly.
Carefully.
As if he were adjusting something that had accidentally come undone.
Emily looked at him without understanding.
Alex stood up from the bench.
He came closer.
He kissed her.
Soft.
Brief.
With tenderness and love.
When he pulled back, Emily still had her eyes closed for one more second.
She opened them.
Alex was looking at her with that expression he had when he said something he truly meant.
"You’re not Raven," he said.
Emily waited.
"You’re not Kira. You’re not Maya." His hands on her shoulders — not pulling, just there.
"You’re you. And what you are doesn’t need to rush to be enough."
"Alex—"
"You’re the person who showed up in my room the night I was expelled, without anyone asking you to." He continued. "You’re the one who studies mountain plants at ten o’clock at night so I can survive the next level better. The one who remembers exactly who I am when I have no idea myself." A pause. "The one whose hands shake from exhaustion and still keeps channeling because someone else needs it."
Emily didn’t answer.
Because there was no answer that wouldn’t come out as crying, and Emily had decided she wasn’t going to cry.
"I don’t want you to do something you’re not because you feel you fell behind a pace I never asked you to follow." Alex looked at her. "You’re perfect as you are. Tender and shy and kind and braver than you think."
"I’m not—"
"I saw how you broke the Soul Anchor from the other side of Level Four with your MP almost at zero." He looked directly at her. "That was bravery."
Emily looked at the floor.
The tears she had decided wouldn’t fall came out anyway.
Only two.
She wiped them quickly.
"When that moment comes," said Alex in a lower voice, "I want it to be because you decided to, not because you feel you have to catch up to someone."
A pause.
"Even if I have to wait until our wedding day."
Emily’s head shot up.
"Wedding?"
"It’s an expression."
"It’s not... you said—"
"I said I would wait."
The color in Emily’s cheeks reached levels that Luna, invisible in the spiritual plane, could probably detect.
*Wedding.*
*He said wedding.*
*Not as an abstract possibility.*
*Like...*
Emily pictured it without meaning to — the image arrived complete before she could filter it. A small ceremony. Alex in clothes that weren’t combat armor, dressed in black. Grim probably in the background with an expression that this was a necessary protocol.
She covered her face with her hands.
"Don’t do that."
"Do what?"
"You said wedding and now I can’t—" She breathed. "I can’t stop—"
"Stop what?"
"Imagining it."
Alex looked at her.
He smiled.
Emily lowered her hands.
"Don’t smile like that."
"Like what?"
"Like you like that."
"I do like it."
Emily looked at him.
Then she laughed — not the sound from before, but the more genuine one that came out when something surprised her in the right way.
"I’ll wait for that day," she said. "Eagerly."
"Me too."
They looked at each other.
Emily leaned in.
She kissed him this time.
Soft and honest and completely present.
Alex kissed her back.
---
[Outside — Twenty meters]
The sound Raven made was not articulate.
Kira’s ears were completely up.
Maya looked at her notebook and wasn’t writing anything because her pen had stopped in the middle of a word and hadn’t resumed moving.
The boy looked at the window.
"He said wedding?" he asked.
"The mention of the wedding," corrected Kira.
"Will there be a wedding?"
"Probably."
The boy processed that.
"Will we be there?"
"Probably."
A pause.
"Good."
Raven looked at Maya.
Maya still had her pen stopped mid‑word.
In her notebook — half‑written.
*"...with northern flowers and Akari carrying the rings and—"*
She noticed Raven looking at her.
She closed the notebook.
"I saw nothing," said Raven.
"Good."
"Except the northern flowers. Nice detail."
"Raven."
"And Akari with the rings. That would be adorable."
"**Raven.**"
**"It’s funny,"** said Grim.
"No one asked you!"
---
Inside, Alex and Emily separated without drama.
Emily gathered her packages.
Alex helped her carry them — he took half without asking.
They left the workshop.
Three steps onto the street.
Emily stopped.
She looked at the left alley.
"Raven?"
One second of silence.
"Hi," said Raven from behind the wall.
Emily looked at all of them — Raven, Kira, Maya, the boy, Grim.
"How long have you been there?"
"Since you arrived," said Kira.
"All of it?"
"All of it."
Emily looked at Alex.
Alex looked at the street’s ceiling.
"You knew?"
"No."
"Sure?"
"Sure."
Emily looked at the group.
Raven with the expression of someone who regrets nothing.
Kira with her usual objectivity.
Maya with her notebook very well tucked under her arm.
The boy with the expression of someone who had learned something important about how families worked outside of ritual organizations.
**"It was romantic,"** said Grim. **"The second part, mostly."**
Emily covered her face.
Then she lowered her hands.
She looked at Raven.
"The wedding?"
"Northern flowers are pretty this time of year."
Maya was surprised and embarrassed by Raven’s betrayal.
"Raven."
"And Akari with the rings—"
"I’m going to throw you into the canal!"
Raven dodged the first attempt with the ease of someone who expected it.
The second too.
The third almost connected.
The group continued through the east district of Veltharr with Maya chasing Raven, Kira explaining to the boy why this was normal, and Grim walking beside Alex.
**"Wedding?"** said Grim.
"It’s an expression."
**"Is it?"**
Alex didn’t answer.
**"Good,"** said Grim.