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Keyleth twirled gracefully around the ballroom, emerald floor length dress twirling around her ankles, her red hair piled high on her head, adorned with small blue flowers. Upbeat and joyful music was playing, the sound of flutes and violins filling the room. Fairy lights were strung up, casting a gentle glow on the guests present at the evening's festivities.
Keyleth was giddy with happiness, champagne flowing through her veins giving her a light buzz, the band's sweet melodies putting a spring in her step, and most of all, she was with him.
She gazed at Vax lovingly as he spun her around, his long dark hair pulled in to a neat ponytail, his midnight black attire embellished with feathers. Her Vax'ildan.
The music changed pace, turning in to a slow ballad, and the lights dimmed to a deep blue as couples came together on the ballroom floor.
Vax pulled Keyleth closer to him as they turned together, always in step with one another. They spun slowly to the beat, faces inches apart. Keyleth looked in to her lover's eyes as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"I love you, Vax," she whispered.
He held her face gently beneath one palm and smiled.
"Keyleth, I-"
Suddenly, the music came to an abrupt halt, the lights became an excruciatingly bright red, and everything was loud, too loud. Keyleth clenched her eyes shut to avoid the glaring scarlet that seemed to pierce in to her skull, giving her a headache. She heard screams, a loud voice booming, talking about things she couldn't make sense of in her disoriented state. She forced her eyes open again, and looked upwards towards the source of the light. Where the ballroom ceiling should have been, there was instead the ruddy moon Ruidus, flaring more intensely than she'd ever seen before. She looked back down, and saw that Vax was gone. She was alone, and hurt, why did everything hurt?
She screamed out a desperate cry, "Vax!" before everything faded to black.
Keyleth bolted awake in her bed, panting and covered in sweat. She shook her head to try to clear her thoughts. She'd had that dream again. It always came back to that night, the night of the solstice. Every time she closed her eyes she would remember Otohan standing over her as she lay weak on the ground, too injured to move. She remembered her getting ready to deliver the final blow, before a sudden swoop of black feathers appeared out of nowhere. She remembered Vax standing over her protectively, glaring at Otohan with eyes fierce, a silent promise in them that he would never let anything happen to Keyleth.
He was there, he was really there. And then he was gone...
She pulled herself up in to a sitting position, tears springing to her eyes as the motion put strain on her wounds. It had already been weeks, but her injuries were showing no signs of healing.
It didn't matter anyway. There were more pressing matters at hand than her own health. She had him there with her, he was back. How could she lose him again after all they'd been through?
Keyleth hadn't had the bravery to go back to the excavation site. Others who'd been to scope it out had told her what they'd discovered. The oppressive red moon hanging directly overhead, the obsidian tower emitting a shimmering red beam, the orb, the screaming, the never-ending screaming...Vax...
The tears finally escaped her eyes, pouring down her cheeks as she sobbed, silently. She was so stupid. This was all her fault. She should have seen it was a trap, of course it was a trap. And she was the bait that made it possible.
Keyleth took a deep, slow breath. She looked down at her stomach, red scars slashed across it, gaping wounds that never heal. She clenched her fist. They did this. Ludinus and his followers.
It was no use sitting around crying over her past mistakes when he was out there, causing misery for countless families and innocents.
He had to pay. And she had to be strong. She was Keyleth, Voice of the Tempest. And nothing was going to come in between her and the person who mattered most to her ever again.