â When you walk in here, you make me hope, so do not come back here unless you are back for good. â
scandal sentence startersâžĎâacceptingâĎâ˝
       Her body stills at the words that leave him; wrist pausing midturn in itâs twisting of the doorâs handle and the foot that had been poised to step outside first now lingering hesitantly behind. And while his words were enough to make her stop, it is the way he says them that makes her stay a few moments longer. Thereâs something in his voice that makes her breath catch in her throat and her chest tightens almost painfully as her heart gives an echoing thud.
       Part of her wants to laugh, to scoff at what he says and tell him heâs mad. She canât possibly make him hope - hope is not something she knows. Deceit, lust, brutality, selfishness - she knows those. They crawl across her skin like the sweat that beads on her brow under the desert sun. But hope? It sounds foolish, like a fever dream in the middle of the night; there is no way that she can make him hope, not when there are so many others who surround him who do so already.
       But another part of her wants to believe him - to believe that maybe thereâs a purpose for her here after all. That sheâs good for something other than wreaking havoc on a battlefield and leaving broken hearts in her wake. Itâs silly -but all the same she cannot stop herself from wanting.
       Her thoughts drift to another reason for wanting it to be true, to the reason she came back in the first place; to the little girl sheâd left behind in her village. The little girl whoâd looked at her with pleading eyes when sheâd told her she was leaving and that sheâd have to stay with their elderly neighbours while she was gone. The child her heart ached to have left behind, and who so resembled the man she now refused to face.
       Her intention had been to leave again once this battle had been done with. To go back home after the seacomers had been stopped, assured by the fact that while Chrom might hate her now, at least he seemed no worse for wear. But there was more to it than that. War had not been prevented, only waylaid for a short time - and if she wanted to keep her daughter safe, leaving and pretending that everything was okay was not an option.
       She exhales then; the breath sheâd been holding leaving her in a quiet hush like sound.Turning halfway, she keeps eyes locked on the floor, and her voice is eerily quiet as she speaks.
âž Ď â˝ âşââ⌠Iâm back for good, Chrom. You donât need to worry about me deserting in the middle of the night.â
       The unspoken again at the end is left hanging heavy in the air between them; and in the space of a breath she opens the door and slips outside. It is only when the door swings shut behind her that she allows her composure to fracture - and even then, all that escapes her is a shaky breath before she all but flees down the corridor.