Edelgard returns the head bump, taking a moment to clasp Byleth's hand in her own for a moment before she takes the stone. She nestles closer when she feels Byleth slip her arm around her back, and then listens to her confession.
"Byleth..." She whispers as her love unfolds her fears to her. Byleth's connection to Seiros isn't something they've really discussed since just before Fhirdiad, when Edelgard explained what she knew of it, and what effects her death might have on her. It's true that the woman who holds her now is far different from the one who'd begun teaching at Garreg Mach years ago, but the Immaculate One cast such a shadow over her life, and one that Byleth didn't see for so long...but when you're raised in the shadow of another, all you can see is darkness. Edelgard had been the same way once, like Byleth, a tool built by another for a specific purpose, to be discarded when that purpose was fulfilled. And as Byleth had pulled her out of Thales' shadow, so too and Edelgard done the same for her with Seiros...at least, in part. But even in death there were still lingering tendrils, just as Thales' influence had yet to be completely erased from Fódlan...from her.
There's more that needs to be said, but that's not for now. When Byleth pulls away Edelgard touches her hand to her cheek, and smiles at her in equal parts love and empathy. "Let Seiros burn in the fires of her own making, and leave her there. The future waits for us both."
With the tokens exchanged, when the time comes Edelgard holds the flower out over the lava, but her eyes, and other hand, remain on Byleth. She lets the flower drop into the inferno below, leaving the Immaculate One behind. One day Thales will join her and be forgotten, and they will both be free to be who they choose to be, to live the lives that others sought to deny them.
After that, all that remains is for the ceremony to finish, and head home. It's a lovely night for a walk.
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"Byleth..." She whispers as her love unfolds her fears to her. Byleth's connection to Seiros isn't something they've really discussed since just before Fhirdiad, when Edelgard explained what she knew of it, and what effects her death might have on her. It's true that the woman who holds her now is far different from the one who'd begun teaching at Garreg Mach years ago, but the Immaculate One cast such a shadow over her life, and one that Byleth didn't see for so long...but when you're raised in the shadow of another, all you can see is darkness. Edelgard had been the same way once, like Byleth, a tool built by another for a specific purpose, to be discarded when that purpose was fulfilled. And as Byleth had pulled her out of Thales' shadow, so too and Edelgard done the same for her with Seiros...at least, in part. But even in death there were still lingering tendrils, just as Thales' influence had yet to be completely erased from Fódlan...from her.
There's more that needs to be said, but that's not for now. When Byleth pulls away Edelgard touches her hand to her cheek, and smiles at her in equal parts love and empathy. "Let Seiros burn in the fires of her own making, and leave her there. The future waits for us both."
With the tokens exchanged, when the time comes Edelgard holds the flower out over the lava, but her eyes, and other hand, remain on Byleth. She lets the flower drop into the inferno below, leaving the Immaculate One behind. One day Thales will join her and be forgotten, and they will both be free to be who they choose to be, to live the lives that others sought to deny them.
After that, all that remains is for the ceremony to finish, and head home. It's a lovely night for a walk.