#elaien

Rike is definitely the most dramatic and expressive, but he keeps his negative emotions bottled up inside. He likes living in his pit of denial where everything is absolutely fine and no one holds a grudge against him for stealing a magic compass that one time. 

Razhang has been terrified of heights ever since she was banished from her country for a crime she didn’t commit (they banish traitors by throwing them off a cliff into the sea). It was very traumatic for her. However, she does everything she can to stifle the phobia because “fear isn’t the boss of her.” I love her very much.

I identify Elaien with the color green because of his plant/spring-based powers. He eventually uses his abilities to replace his missing leg with one made from a tree. 

“Since I was 14.”

“Really? That long ago?”

He smiled, deep in the memory. “I think when I first realized it, we were peeling cassava on Natia’s porch. You were telling me how you hated your skin.”

Asha recalled her younger days with a groan. Her teenage insecurities, so important then, seemed so insignificant now. 

“I hated hearing you criticize yourself. Every time you called yourself ugly, it angered me. And I didn’t know why.” He traced where a patch of white skin met brown on the back of her hand. 

“I figured it out though.” With the dying light of the fire, she could just make out his green eyes staring earnestly into hers. 

“I hated it because every time you criticized yourself, it was over something I loved about you. And I loved every part of you, because they made up my best friend.”

Asha looked at her hands, and let out a breath. “You have no idea how sweet you are.”

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and she leaned in to him. 

“When did you know you loved me?” he asked after a minute of quiet. 

“I’m not sure. There was no one moment . . .” Asha racked her brain. “Maybe--I think it was in Chaeshara. After Nicolao refused to give me back my sword.”

She very well near got into a fist fight with him when Nicolao said no. 

“You promised me we’d get it back. You were ready to challenge a prince because you knew what it meant to me."

"It took a lot longer than expected."

"And by all accounts we should be dead. But we did it." Asha wasn't only talking about the sword. It was a miracle they were together at all, and she had no intention to ever let him go. Her lips brushed against his neck and she closed her eyes.

"The gods must love us." He gazed at the stars.

"Or they hate us and simply failed all their attempts to kill us." She tossed a stick in the fire and watched the sparks fly into the air.

Elaien laughed. "I guess we're more trouble than it's worth to kill."

She adored that laugh. She wished she could sit here forever. No war. No expectations. And no arrogant princes.

Don't know whether to ask Alie to marry me or pester Diane to make Foghart canon

Hmmmm

Why can't I just marry both? Either way it's incest.