The hands that had pulled Levani to her feet had not left her palms after their initial touch and she considered them - the long fingers, calloused, but smooth. She remembered them from days ago, gentle as they had rubbed oil on a wound, tender, deft. She had thought then that they had contrasted the violence that he was capable of, the way that he had wielded the great weapon that he once carried, filled with the memories and love of his brother. Now, she realized that she was wrong, realized that the way he fought was just as careful, just as genial when he had gripped the pommel. This time, it was simply holding her own, pleasantly, quietly, as he thought over his words. This time, she considered the other meaning of it as they touched, more beyond the surface, tantalizing her just out of reach. When she looked up, she saw Kallo’s hesitation. She saw a fear in his eyes and she was surprised by it, for she didn’t understand its origin, its creation. Unsure of why the innocuous question would cause him trepidation, though he refused to look away, icy gaze keeping her own. Had she said the wrong thing, she wondered? Would his answer cause her such pain that he feared her reaction to it?<br/><br/>In his silence, Levani had the growing worry that the phrase was uncouth, and she misjudged his character, but once Kallo told her, her lips parted. The phrase had been beautiful, simple, entwining love with strength, a blessing for the battle that he had been about to endure. Once its meaning was explained and she took it for what it was, she fumbled with it, as though to search for a different meaning. She had seen his cheeks tinge a slight red, and she knew that significance, but she couldn’t piece it together, unsure still of what she was missing. That was until he squeezed her hand, and something in the gesture brought the understanding to the surface, knitting the pieces together.<br/><br/>Levani’s own face suddenly felt as though heated, a kiss of scarlet burning tanned cheeks and a flurry of questions blossomed in her mind faster than she could translate them to human tongue. Something, too, was burning softly in her chest, sending beautiful, fractal, spiraling sensations to the rest of her body, enrapturing her, grounding her to the moment. She abruptly couldn’t hear the swallows of the forest, the swell of its sound - only her heart pounding in her chest again, as though she had still just felled the behemoth creature, sitting in the tree. She swore that she could feel Kallo’s own heartbeat, quick and powerful, through the grasp of his hands, through the tenuous gaze of his eyes, through the uncertain lines of his face. If she’d been any more naive, she’d have thought that she was ill, but the tribespeople had explained such sickness many times over. She had witnessed it herself, in their rituals, in the heat of the does and bucks, in the mad fluttering of rabbits. It was more than examples so simple, so base, she knew. She realized that she cared for him, deeply. She realized that, in a way, she loved him, almost as she did Asdenni. Once she could name it, she knew it to be growing, like a wild seedling flourishing recklessly in her soul.<br/><br/>In her hesitancy to speak, Levani realized that her own uncertainty came from the inexperience, for she had never felt such for the other humans, though some had tried to introduce her to their courtship. She’d been immune, unfeeling for their displays, and they all - even herself - had thought her unable, incapable, and passion’s frivolity was rendered impotent. They, and she, had thought that she was made by the Watchers to live her eternity alone. None to look as she did, none to feel as she did, and she had felt for none. The heart’s presence hadn’t been found until then, in her many decades. Not until she met Kallo and she knew that he was changing her. She even realized that she had been urging to kiss him as he spoke, right from the moment that he’d told her what he meant, golden gaze concentrated, focused. She had wanted her lips to soothe away the fear that had seemed to be ravaging him, instinctual, wondering its capacity to comfort him - if it could in the manner that he had comforted her in the face of her terror.<br/><br/>‘Perfect’ he had named her, and her heart seized. She remembered her secret. She knew then that she could not kiss him, could not try to soothe that fear building within, painting the machinations of his handsome face. Not until he knew, if he was ever to know. She knew, without knowing, that his betrayal would hurt so much more if she kissed him then, admitting her own feelings in a language that she hardly understood. The agony of that gripped her, until his hand dropped away and Levani’s cheek suddenly felt cold, aching without his touch. She silently thanked him for it, for breaking her ensorcellment, for changing the topic before she was forced to wrangle with words. More cryptic words, to build that wall back up between them, a wall that she had been determined to bring down piece by piece.<br/><br/>“Ah, yes,” Levani looked away from him now, a sharp pain writhing its way into her chest, which she promptly worked to ignore. She found that it was not as easy as torn flesh. “I believe that I may have something for you in the brook,” she turned her attention back to neutral conversation, keeping herself busy with simplicities, though she didn’t think she could abate the business of her keen mind. She lead Kallo around the emerald hillock, surrounded by arching, leaning trees that sought to shelter the old home from speckled sunlight. It was hardly moments that they walked that the brook’s laughing could be heard, as it spilled over rocks and bubbled against its grassy lips. It was only two feet or so deep and it was cool, refracting light off its surface invitingly. She removed her breeches then, cringing only a moment at the movement of it, baring lean legs unabashedly. Leaving the leathers upon the shore, she stepped into the chilling water, shuddering with a moment of pleasure, feeling the mud between her toes as she had hoped. It sapped the heat from her mind, leached the shards of guilt that had sought to wrack her.<br/><br/>“I do not know how much that they would help you, but…” Levani paused to lean down, hands beneath the waters. She pulled on something beneath the crystal liquid hidden beneath a dust of grey foliage. When it freed itself from the earth, she lifted a small root, its coloration an amalgamation of lavender and cerulean, striated with dark brown, and it was topped with the grey threads. “These are used by the inhabitants of Asdenni in the area. They dry them, cut them, and use them for wounds. I do not know if your… alchemy can benefit from them, but they may,” she announced with a sort of hope, as though she were offering him a hefty contribution to his creation of salves. She placed the one she’d picked on the shore, before busying herself with pulling cool water onto the planes of her body. “We may rest here for a time, but we should go to the Ineasi on the morrow or thereafter. They will be on the way to our next stop, regardless,” she informed him, pulling up another of the roots after she’d washed her calves.