Emalia sat with Sandorin, still begging. After a few moments, he relented. "The best I can do is force him to speak the truth. He still doesn't use magic, right?"
This question, directed to her as though Colin were nothing but cattle - or not even there, disturbed Emalia. She looked up to Sandorin. "Why not ask him?"
"Because I don't trust him."
Emalia rose from the pew with a new realization. All this time, she hadn't trusted Colin either. She realized finally that she had never honestly given him a chance - always seeing him as somehow second rate, or substandard. The thought made her feel very guilty and deeply ashamed of herself. She walked to her Uncle and looked into his eyes, shaking her head a little. "I trust him." She turned then to Colin. "I'm sorry."
"No need. I expected it."
"I'm so sorry I did this to you. I... you've proven to me how much you really do want all of this... so... let's just go."
Something in the exchange seemed to mark a change in Sandorin as well. His hand landed on Emalia's shoulder with a new gentleness. "No, don't."
With Colin's agreement, and a few words of understanding, Sandorin placed a hand upon Colin's head and incanted a spell. Colin's face became rather blank as Sandorin asked his first question. "Have your goals truly changed from when you were known as Visha?"
"Yes," Colin answered without hesitation.
"What is your aim with Emalia?"
"To be with her for the rest of our lives, to have a family with her, to protect her on her journey."
Emalia didn't notice the look of incomprehension upon her Uncle's face at the answers. Her face had pulled into a smile and her frigidity toward Colin found itself fast melting. He -had- been telling her the truth the entire time. While this compounded her horrid feeling of guilt, it also allowed her to see Colin in a way she never had. As she was digesting this, the voice of her Uncle floated into her mind. "Wait, journey?"
Emalia briefly told Sandorin of the trip she intended to take, though none of what she intended to do once she was there. "You've been talking to one of those Jihad people haven't you? You're not the first person I've heard say they were going ot go off and find some place after talking to one of them. They sure do tend to get people worked up."
"We should just finish the questioning, don't you think?" Emalia asked, attempting to avoid any form of argument with her Uncle since she had just gotten him onto their side. "Colin... is any part of Visha still within you?"
"Yes."
"What part?" Sandorin asked with a scowl.
"All. I am Visha."
Emalia's heart dropped a bit. "Do you still seek power and control?"
"I seek strength enough to protect you. I wish I had control enough to keep you with me."
"What do you mean, keep me with you?" Emalia asked, her worry getting the better of her.
"I have doubt the conviction of your love and feel that I could easily lose you."
Emalia found herself stunned into a momentary silence. If the guilt she felt could have been made into a living being, it would have been heckling her now. She thought back quickly over her past with him, and discovered that she had been much more than obvious with her feelings. She had one final question which would decide for her whether she could continue on knowing Colin was Visha and Visha was Colin. "Have you truly no desire to return to what you once were?"
"No. I have only desire to keep what I have and make it stronger."
Emalia turned to Sandorin, unable to harbor the entire load of blame she was placing upon herself. "Uncle Sandorin... is this sufficient for you? Do you believe him now?"
"As hard as i find it I must believe him," he replied, shaking his head.
"I cannot explain it, perhaps some interaction of the energies and becoming alive..."
"Uncle Sandorin... I have something to ask of you." Emalia had her answers. She knew the truth. Sandorin as well, heard and knew the truth and was apparently so distracted by it he continued talking to himself until interrupted by Emalia's question. She had given her word to Colin, and she intended to keep it. They needed no clergy, nor Gods. Emalia only felt the need for a single witness, in a chapel, to see to the exhange of vows.
Though Sandorin advocated the idea of a proper wedding with clan, family, and friends - Emalia knew such a thing was merely a delay. No more time could be spent, outside of a single obligitory night to the private celebration of marriage. Colin gripped her hands as if he thought she might flee - not that Emalia blamed him with her past record of behavior. None of that mattered now as when they left the chapel on the Estate, it was as Mr. and Mrs. Stone.
