"Welcome home, Ashen One".

Her voice was soft and sad, as always, just like the black velvet she was wearing. But it was a welcome nonetheless, and one that warmed me to my very core, the same way an ember would have. I smiled, even though I knew she couldn't see me.

"Speak thine heart's desire".

I had nothing to do this time. I didn't have any souls. I had lost them all, again, and again, and again. This time I came back just for her. To hear her voice and see her.

She was always there, waiting for me, ready to welcome me. She was the only comforting voice in this forsaken land. There was many a time when, weary of dying over and over, I crawled back to her just for a touch of that comfort.

This was one of these times.

I preferred to come back as a victor. To offer her thousands of souls, knowing that her touch would make me stronger. Power was all I cared about at first, but then I found myself coming back and laying my very soul to her feet just for the sake of her touch. For those brief moments of contact that made all the difference.

I yearned for the caressing of her fingers. For her small smile every time that I knelled before her. This had become my true reward; for, after wandering for so long in the dark, after killing and being killed many times over, after facing horrors I could never imagine, this is what I looked back to. This is what kept me sane. The thought of beauty. The thought of comfort. Of friendship. Of love.

In my darkest times, it wasn't the thought of power that kept me going. That only drove me mad faster and made my hollow chest feel colder still. What kept me going was the wish to come back to her triumphant and let her gentle touch heal my soul.

My body, I could heal it myself. But it takes much more to heal a soul.

For me, it took her.

"Ashen One?"

Her smooth voice was like soft droplets, washing away the dark from my soul. I inhaled deeply, to clear my head, but her sweet smell filled my lungs, making my thoughts even hazier.

I saw her hand slowly outstretching towards me.

"I'm sorry, my lady. I have nothing for you this time", I mumbled.

"Oh". Her hand trembled in mid-air and then hid into her black robes. "Then you have no need for me yet".

I closed my eyes and took another deep breath. "No, I guess not", I said quietly. "I'm sorry for bothering you".

"I'm at your service, Ashen One. There is no need for you to apologise to me".

Her lips twitched into a small smile and the final thorns of darkness within me melted away. I didn't deserve this smile, not this time, but I couldn't help feeling grateful.

I took her image in. Her slender figure, her white hair, her smiling lips. This was all the strength i could have hoped for. Now I could head back to the depths of the Profaned Capital with a ray of light kept within my heart.

"Thank you, my lady", I said and bowed deeply, though kind of ungracefully.

She bowed back. It always made me wonder, this responsiveness of hers to every little one of my gestures. She couldn't see me, I knew that much. Could she feel the movement of my body? Was there a way for her to know such things? And, if there was... Did this mean that she knew more about me than I thought? Did she know of my feelings for her? Could she feel them?

Could she feel the way her sight warmed my body, the way her voice made my skin crawl? The way the touch of her fingers made me tremble?

The way I longed for her lips...?

If she could... Then she didn't show it. Perhaps it embarrassed her. Perhaps it was her way of showing me that she is there, helping me, because it is just her duty. I was just an Unkindled, after all, like so many others.

"Well... I'd better get going. I have unfinished business with Yhorm", I said.

I thought I saw a reaction, I thought her hands twitched, but then she said gently, "Farewell, Ashen One", and I was on my way.