I finally made my peace today, and said my final goodbye.

I took the only thing I had left of him from the bank. The small velvet bag felt so heavy as I clutched it to my chest. And even heavier still as I stood there in the desert, the hole dug in the sand just waiting for me to place that last memento into it.

I chose that place, that little spot in the desert where my old home had stood, because that was where everything took place. The games, harsh words, arguments... And after so many moons of playing cat and mouse, it was where his confession of love was proclaimed.

No one knew him quite like I did. People looked and treated him at times like he was the prodigy of Balthazar himself. He didn't mind, even encouraged it. All others saw was a dark heart attached to an evil soul. But I knew him differently.

I knew him as the man that had an iron will, a sense of pride, and I saw him with the twinkle of humor in his eyes. He was the man that pulled me out of my pit of despair. Who picked up the pieces of what my bonded had done to me, even going so far as to challenge him in a fight over my honor. I still remember the day that I heard of his confrontation with Skyls, how he spat in his face for betraying me with another. I was shocked, and had no idea what to think. This man that had been nothing but rude, sometimes even nasty to me stood in the face of a warrior greater in strength and stared him down.

I was shocked, and so grateful at the same time.

For weeks after we danced a careful dance. Sometimes slipping up, letting small tidbits fall from our lips, only to ignore eachother after for days at a time. But when his true feelings came to the surface, my heart told me that it felt the same.

To me he was kind. His whispered words made my heart feel whole again, his arms gave me comfort that others thought he could not give. He never betrayed me, he never lied. He only ever broke one promise to me, the promise that he would never leave. But that isn't truly fair of me to say. He did not mean to break it, it was not his choice.

When word of his death reached my ears, my world was shattered. For all these long seasons I have continued to mourn. But with each season, the pain became less. It is no longer a soul searing pain, but a dull ache in my chest when my memories reach out to those days long ago.

Today I laid his memory to rest as I buried his ring under the warm desert sand, surrounded by the memories of all that we had shared.

Goodbye Malus.