The world burned around them, but he didn’t care.
News of the Legion’s return had reached him, but his plate was full with teaching the Relic what it meant to be mortal. What it meant to truly live. For once, he didn’t rush to the next battlefront, insisting to himself that instead, it was more important to tackle the ones closer to home. Convincing himself that nothing else mattered, if he could keep her to himself just a little longer.
Selfish. He had ever perpetuated that particular condition, and he had accepted that fact some time ago. Cael’rus knew what he wanted. Had known for some time, though those emotions had been avoided initially. What he wanted was within arms reach, standing beside him while they watched the raging cobalt sky above what had been formerly known as ‘Thunder Mountain’. What he wanted was permanence. It was a change he was willing to venture forth with.
“I don’t like your last name.” He’d declared, looking to the Relic. Elekai Yeven. It was a name that often drifted through the channels of his psychological cogitations, and though Yeven was her true name, prior conversations had made it abundantly clear that this was not a name she truly enjoyed, even if it was her own. It held weight, and baggage. Much of which she was at times ashamed for.
The blonde was quick to respond. “Yeven is not my last name. Yeven’argyll is my only name.” She was intimately privy to the range of thoughts and emotions that the male harbored. Such was the nature of their connection, and she knew to which name that he was referring to without having to ask, despite the vague indication he’d made.
Despite the recent changes of flesh to the former construct, she still at times held a robotic syntax. Combined with her newfound understanding of parallel phrasing and sarcasm, it made it hard to tell when she was being a little shit. Cael opted to take it for face value, and just roll with the punches.
“Well yeah. But when I introduce you to other people, I don’t do it as Yeven-” He paused before his lips could perform the completion of her name. While he was ninety percent certain it held no real power over her anymore, he’d made a promise to never use it and still stuck to the obligation now. “I always refer to you as Elekai Yeven. I’m just saying, it’s clunky and you’ve said that the name doesn’t feel like you in the past. If anything, I feel like we should give you something...that is more you. It’s only fair, right? You start this new life, as a new person...I feel you should have a new name too.”
Cael’rus was working up to something, in the slick manner that the sly bastard was prone to. His intentions remains unclear, but openly innocent. Simple conversation, right? Yeven was curious to know what those intentions were, or where the thoughts had come from though he remained careful about what cogitations slipped past the open gates of his mind.
"What name would you give me then, little Light? Relicbourne? Starfallen?"
Some other atrociously 'elven' name?" She bit the bait, just as he had hoped for and his response was swift in return. “Atrociously elvish seems a bit harsh, but I was thinking ‘Elekai Embergrove’, if you’re open to suggestions.”
It wasn’t a subject he’d thought about overly long, but he knew without a doubt, this was what he needed to do. though the significance of this acceptance on the matter had been considered fully. In all his life, no one had ever shared his last name. No woman save a sister and a mother. He’d certainly tried to pass it along though no occasion had quite worked out. Perhaps it was cursed, but he felt he had the tools now to break whatever bad luck the Universe had extended toward him. He was the master of his own fate, and Yeven would be along for the ride in whatever capacity that he could manage.
“B-but...that’s your name...” It wasn’t quite a denial. Only hesitance. To the Relic, names were a thing of power and importance. They weren’t to be given lightly, and she didn’t give others her own save a trusted few. Surely Cael knew the implications of what he was offering. And he did. It was just as important to him for his own personal reasons, but that didn’t change the gravity of what he wanted to share.
"You... want to give me your last name? Like... forever? Like I get to keep it forever?"
"I don't think anyone else on this end of the universe outside of my family deserves to share it more, and nothing would make me happier than to introduce you as such. It's yours to keep as long as you feel satisfied with the name."
"Say my name, Cael'rus Embrove. Say it true."
"Elekei Embergrove. Missus...Elekai Embergrove.”
