“Not again." Colin thought to himself. Here he stood in a stairwell of the temple. Alone. Emalia had just stormed off, obviously angry with him for how he had acted when he found her talking to a very shady looking character by the name of Xarkuss.
"Just what exactly am I doing here anyway?" Colin asked himself; but he knew the answer. When they were alone together, things were so much better. The time in her cabin on the sailing vessel which brought them here. The other night in Emalia's chamber in the temple. Ah, that night. It had remained in the forefront of his mind ever since. They had been so close, and how Colin had wanted to take that step. To just lean down and draw her lips to his. To take her fully into his arms and become one. Yet he couldn't. What if she rejected him? He did not want to jeopardize the closeness that had just begin to grow between them.
Yet here he was, standing by himself in the cold stone stairwell. It was just when they were around these "believers" that seemed to be popping out of nowhere. He just didn't trust them. The way that they sucked Emalia in. She was too vulnerable, they could hurt her too easily. And then the fact that each of them seemed to be trying to turn her away from him, looking upon him like an intruding outsider. His behavior was only pushing Emalia away but he just couldn't help himself. Apparently thoughts of distrust and jealousy still had a place within him. "Damn Sandorin, who qualified you to decide..." Colin's thoughts immediately ricocheted off in another direction, "I'm going to have to talk to her, and I'm going to have to change this. Otherwise I'm going to lose her."
Colin took a deep breath, straightened himself, and moved on.
