I listen quietly as he illustrates their tale, of the seasons that stretched from their first meeting until now and find myself surprised at the length of time that has passed. The number of seasons he'd been letting this love grow and sweeten with time, unknown to me and likely most of the Sadim. For a moment I wondered what my courtship with Antares might have been like if we had been given a chance to know each other before throwing ourselves into marriage, if we, too, would have smiled as my nephew did now. If we would have told each other stories of our childhoods, made tender memories of friendship before finding the thread of love that bound us together.

I laugh with Al Hilal as he twirls his head, well aware of how that feeling felt in my own chest.

Somehow I doubted it. Our love was a wildfire, a beast with its own mind that followed its own whims. I could no more have tempered or slowed the rate at which I fell any more than I could have stalled the tides as they came and went. We existed for each other, not as puzzle pieces, but as other parts of one another, inextricable.

I almost envied the tender love story that Al Hilal would be able to share with Azalai, the story that his chosen mate might someday whisper to their sons, their daughters and fill their hearts with hope for their own someday love. As much as I loved my Husband, and I loved him more than I could often convey in words, I could not exactly point to the wild way we had rutted atop the Dunes and call it tender. It had been passionate and wild, and exactly what we needed, but it was neither tender nor mild.

I bit the inside of my cheek at the memory, stifling a laugh that had nothing to do with the earnest adoration gleaming in Al Hilal's expression. He spoke of her beauty, and I nodded, only somewhat surprised to find that his chosen mate had been marked as he had with a crescent moon. Well, I couldn't help but think, it will be easy to see which one she is, then. Not that I expected it to be hard to find her, when the time came. Our life was vastly different compared to the rest of the isles, and I expected that she would have a great many questions about it. Or I hoped she would at least, hoped that she would be interested in learning about it for Al Hilal's sake.

"I am eager to meet her, nephew," I say warmly, stretching to touch his shoulder briefly in familiarity. "I am sure she will become a part of our family as easily as we breathe, and that you will both find the happiness you deserve." I couldn't help but adore him, and I prayed to all of the gods above that Azalais would treat him well, even if their marriage was slightly unconventional.