Ridge

It was not common to see Tyr make himself so small in her presence. Oswin’s head tilted ever so slightly as she watched him waiver, briefly feeling her heart ache as he finally voiced his struggles. She had believed in giving him time to process himself, but she wondered now if she hadn’t failed him even a little bit, not coming to him sooner. Just as she had that thought, Tyr commented that he had failed her and said it with such conviction, Oswin clicked her tongue disapprovingly, shaking her head with immediate denial.

“When you used to kill,” she said the words softly, despite how there would always be a small part of her that felt hypocritical to her mother’s memory for falling for a man who’d played a monster in other’s stories. Oswin carefully set that mentally aside as she always did, having a great long list of arguments against the sentiment whenever it tried to come up. She cleared her throat and drew herself a step closer to him so that she could lower her head and peer into his face with her deep blue eyes, “You did so to cause pain or without thought to what pain it would cause.”

She breathed a soft sigh, thinking of Roisin’s hatred for Tyr and her understanding of it. “You tore apart families.” She quietly stated his sins, shining a light directly on the truth.

I know exactly what you were, she said without saying the words.

“When you killed that bastard…” even with his corpse still rotting on their grounds, Oswin wouldn’t name him, “You took down a monster actively choosing to do that sort of harm now.” She paused briefly and added, “you are not the same man you once were.”

Now she moved in closer, letting her lips brush the black and gold line across his face and up to the little white hairs in a little marking on his forehead. She kissed him softly there and pulled her chin back to calmly say, “And if I had not left my sisters and come with you, we wouldn’t have Calder.” Then she admitted, “and you were not the only reason I had to leave them. They did not believe in me anymore and I… I could not handle the truth in that.”

Tyr though, Tyr had never doubted her. Even now, he had only remained away from her as he feared some repercussions for his action that Oswin had no intention of giving.

oswin
this is as brave as I know how to be.
I know it’s gonna hurt you, but please… be a little proud of me.