Chapter 7 - Reunited At Last

The next day....

Rowan pushed open the heavy doors of the Adventurer's Guild Hall, bracing himself for the cacophony within. His expectations were exceeded - the huge chamber echoed with a clamor to rival the busiest city streets. 

Hundreds of voices overlapped in boisterous conversation, laughing and arguing in equal measure. Steel flashed as blades were sharpened or drawn in exaggerated miming of past exploits. Colorful flags bearing infamous sigils hung from every rafter, each claiming a stake in legends unfolding daily under far-flung skies.

Smoke wreathed the vaulted ceiling from three great fireplaces. The musicians struck up a lively reel, coaxing hardened warriors and rogues into an impromptu jig amid peals of laughter and applause.

Rowan paused just within the doorway, still overwhelmed by the cacophonous atmosphere and sheer density of adventurers crammed into every nook and cranny. Eyes that had faces beasts in dim borderland forests struggled to take it all in at once.

This was the blistering heart of dreams made manifest through steel and spell, where fortunes were won or lost with each new dawn. And within this maelstrom, clues to his beloved's fate and new chapters in legends of his own forging surely awaited, if only he could pierce the sensory din to find them. Rowan navigated the exuberant crowds, eyes scanning every joyous face for one glimpse of moonlit locks or summer-sky eyes. The years apart faded into memory's mist as instinct drew him unerringly through the tumult.

Then by chance his gaze alit upon her figure, radiant as dawn breaking over glade and glen. Elia stood at the bar, smiling and chatting animatedly with a stout dwarf. At that moment, she glanced up - and froze, breath catching audibly even over the surrounding din.

Their eyes met across the crowded hall, locking with a magnetic pull defying time and distance. His name shaped soundlessly on her lips, ripping his name from depths where only memory kept it. Then with a cry, Elia shoved through the throng, heedless of curses tossed in her wake.

They raced to meet, feet flying swifter than any steed across the open floor. And then she was there, flinging herself into his waiting arms. Rowan crushed her slight frame to his chest, breathing her scent like rich wine after a long draught. Tears spilled unheeded down both faces, smiles cracking cheeks nearly numbed by sheer joy surging after years unsaid. Rowan embraced Elia tightly, lifting her small frame from the floor as joyous tears spilled down both faces. Years of solitude melted away in an instant, all the stifled longing for separation rending them utterly overcome.

Elia clung to Rowan's neck, raining kisses upon his cheeks between gasping sobs. "Oh Rowan, I never stopped dreaming of this moment!" His name spilled from her lips like pure magic, renewing his spirit as thoroughly as the first rays of dawn.

Setting her down gently, Rowan drank in her features, more radiant than any vision solitude and memory could contain. "Elia, my dearest heart, you shine brighter than ever." Her swollen eyes glittered, reflecting myriad facets of love and hope rekindled by their long-awaited reunion.

All around, the boisterous hall faded into a hazy dreamscape, the remainder of its throngs' dull specters crowding peripheries of vision. In that moment, the reunited lovers embraced once more, renewed tears washing away every darkened creek and hollow left by years of lonely wandering. Their souls sang a rapturous duet, reaffirmed and everlasting in its beauty. Once tears subsided, Elia linked her arm with Rowan's and led him to the bar. There she procured flagons of mulled wine, its warmth and spices richly comforting as hearth fire after dark woodland trails.

Over drinks, Elia regaled him animatedly about the wonders beheld within academy's hallowed halls. Rowan listened raptly to tales of spells binding wind and rain, of stars and constellations mapped in fiery script across ink-dark nights. She spoke of ruins upon ruins long decayed in new illumination with demeanor, and legends reborn through clever invocations piecing together tongues since lost to antiquity's crumbling pages.

Her passion and intellect shone brighter than any flame, igniting within him reflections of their youth spent puzzling out runes in grade light. Through it all, Rowan grinned blissfully, eyes never leaving her radiant features aglow recounting marvels too vast for solitary dreams to contain.

He chimed in briefly of woodland patrols and grim work abroad, honors earned through steel fulfilling oaths to glade where her shadow yet lingered. But tales of heroism and strife seemed pale beside magic kindled by spirit alone, blossoming through scholarly toils beyond measure. Rowan found solace simply by immersing in her dazzling presence after years as mere wisps upon forest winds.

Elia sipped her wine, eyes alight recounting some esoteric text's mysteries unlocked through persistence. A lull arose as another round arrived, setting Rowan's pulse pounding in his ears.

Under glittering banners and laughter swirling overhead, he found courage hitherto untapped on all wandering roads leading here. "Elia... All these years, my heart remained in your keeping. No spell or charm could weave an enchantment half so powerful."

Her quick indrawn breath hitched, hands trembling faintly around her flagon. Eyes like deep forest pools met his own, mirroring all he dared not name for years unsaid. "You gave me strength when none remained, lit my path through darkening woods. No glory or honor could compare to this - being near you again, knowing you yet remember times past."

Rowan took her hands, calloused yet soothing as balm. His citadel had crumbled, bearing all treasures within. "My love for you remains unchanged, undimmed as sunset upon glade where first you believed. Say you feel the same, and my road ends, content finally to rest..." Here was the heart's deepest unveiling, destiny's next petition awaiting return writ in immortal stars. Elia's eyes welled afresh, glimmering like moonlit pools along forest paths winding endlessly into memory. She squeezed Rowan's hands where they lay clasped between them, a smile loosening knots in her brows as she beheld his beloved features.

"My stalwart Rowan," she breathed, scarce above the din yet carrying all the intimacy of glade whispers. "You stood as oak 'mid tempests none could weather. And when solace seemed but fantasy, your memory was shield against all dark imaginings."

Leaning close, Elia lingered on the cadence of his steady breaths, throat tightening. "My heart harbored no other - how could it, having known love's first dawn in your eyes, enduring as this very hall's fiery beams?"

She kissed each scar gracing palms weathered by shielding all she held most dear. Against his lips, Elia's next exhalation dissolved all lingering doubts:

"This bond transcends all divining. My love for you defies contemplation's spires or time's river clasping hands. It simply endures, as you endured for me so long. Now and forever."

Within her gaze glimmered all that had beckoned through long lonely years, receipt at last for oaths inscribed eternal as roots sinking ever deeper with each loss weathered.

Rowan cupped Elia's flushed cheek, drinking in her beauty through a sheen of tears brimming yet unshed. Within her gaze he glimpsed all things kept safe until reunion - hope, passion, dreams for horizons stretching ever on together, come what may.

Leaning close, he breathed her name, softer than forest sigh, sweeter than any bard's verse. Elia's eyes drifted shut, dark lashes fanning rosy skin aglow with love's fiery baptism. Their breaths mingled warm as he pressed lips to hers at long last, sealing solemn oaths sworn where shadows gathered densest.

All fell away in that searing kiss - years apart, roads braved alone, sorrows that once seemed endless tides. Only this blistering moment existed, Rewrite him to her with hands cupping nape and cheek, reaffirming soul's triumph over any barrier. Within her embrace shimmered futures not dimmed despite dreamscapes sundered but kindled brighter than sun through early morning mists.

When lips parted, foreheads leaned together, the bond remained unbroken, doubled in strength. Their eyes opened as one, reflecting eternity's span in each glimmering pool. Two souls as ancient as forest queen's roots now entwined beyond torment's severing. And in flame-lit halls of destiny, all looked fair indeed.

Emerging from rapture's mist, Rowan and Elia beheld wonder reborn across the others uplifted features. Laughter and revelry crashed ever on around the secluded haven of their entwined fingers and mingling breaths.

Yet worlds away seemed turmoil's roar, all beauty contained within glimmering orbs reflecting what solace and passion justice no one else witnessed or conceived. Two hearts meant to stand as one whether promenading halls and heroes, or braving shadow where none trod hence with faith to light their every footfall.

Elia sighed, nuzzling her beloved's chin. "Whatever roads may come, adventures beyond measure ours to face together, my love. I would endure all trials beside you, my strength." Rowan pressed a chaste kiss to her brow, eyes aglow. "This is but the first chapter, beloved. Our legends are just beginning."

Fingers linked tight as steel-forged oaths, Rowan and Elia accepted mystery's invitation with smiles creasing cheeks and laughter upon lips well-kissed. Together they departed halls where wonders multiplied beyond cataloguing, to face horizons stirring ever fresher mysteries with each color-dashed dawn yet unveiled.