♮
Cadyrhem set his staff against the table and picked out a first aid kit. A little ways away from the tent his queen sat on a stone, pressing a cloth between her hands. He took off his gauntlets and laid them on the table before walking to her side and kneeling before her. "May I?"
Lilescha blinked, then laid her hand in his. He tugged the stopper off of his water skein and set to gently wiping the gold stains from her pale bark, palms scarred from past battles already.
Blood magic, he'd heard the other casters call it. A bit of a misnomer for the golden sap sylvari had, but still accurate. Some of them found it unnerving, others used it themselves; life force gave spells a surge of power and in a fight the smallest things could tip the scales.
When sap stopped weeping from her wounds he wrapped her hand carefully, then took the sticky cloth from her other hand and cleaned it as well. Lilescha tilted her head as she watched him. "Not very lovely, are they?"
"Everything about you is lovely," Cadyrhem corrected with a smile. "While it pains me to see you wounded, your scars do not detract from you."
She raised a brow. "Truly?"
"Of course. My mentor once said that scars are simply tattoos with better stories."
"Your mentor must have been as silly as you," Lilescha remarked with a smirk.
"Perhaps." Finished with the bandages, he took both her hands in his and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. "There you are, my queen."
She shook her head at the moniker, as she always did, a smile on her face. "What am I to do with you, Rhemy?"
"That I am able to serve is enough for me." Standing, Cadyrhem gave her a deep bow, smiling when she shook her head again. Her smile meant so much to him, and that he could give her reason to filled him with joy.