Sanria walked up to the gates of the manor with a tiny sigh. She would go in, tell Throm she had decided to stay and would leave. There could be nothing simpler. But it wasn't at all simple. she'd have to look at his projection again, endure the rather uncaring nonchalance, remember just how much she wished he was the way he was when she first met him. It was too much. Sanria turned to go when a voice rang out across the grounds, "Lady Sanria? Is that you? Let me get the gate!"
Karen, the help, came to the gate with a broad smile and opened it. "Oh it's so good to see you! You'll stay for tea. Sir uth Bannon is weak, but he is managing and it will be nice." The woman led Sanria to the doors. "Sergi said he'd probably need a wheelchair to get around, and I told him, not a chance. Isn't that something?"
"Indeed. I wouldn't have thought Sergi the type."
"Me either! And here's the master now."
"A guest?" Throm asked from beneath his hood.
"Indeed. Lady Sanria no less," Karen, the help, said matter-of-factly.
Sanria couldn't believe her eyes. There was no projection. What sat before her was the flesh and blood Throm she knew - though all wrapped up in a thick cloak and looking more like a lump than the upstanding man she knew. It didn't matter. Her heart skipped a beat in her chest. 'He doesn't love you,' she had to remind herself. 'Those days are so long gone.'
Sanria gave her decision with as little emotion as she could manage, but still the faint glimmer of green eyes kept tripping her up inside. He asked about Colin, he asked about Orn, he asked her so many questions - why? She answered them, but this Throm clearly was not the detached soul that had been haunting about recently. She had to get out of there - before her hopes were raised. "Good to see you whole again," she managed. It sounded foolish.
As she walked long the grounds, Sanria thought over so much, but her thoughts traveled along the far-stretching continuum that was time to the last time she'd seen those green eyes really look at her. She reached up to grab the pack over her shoulder, a smile on her face, and noticed for the first time her pack wasn't there. She'd left it behind. She'd have to go back. She smiled at her folly and turned around to go back to the manor.
