“Then come to bed and show me,” she invited.

Athgar threw off his robe and climbed into the bed, pulling the covers around them as he snuggled up closer to her, and then she suddenly called out in protest.

“Your feet are cold!” she declared, shrieking in laughter.

“Then let’s warm them up together!”

Some time later, Natalia awoke to the room still lit by the fire, filled with its warmth. She lay on her side, with Athgar snuggled up behind her. Deftly removing his arm, she climbed out from beneath his embrace to stand beside the bed and gaze down at him, taking in his youthful appearance. He was brown-haired, like most Therengians, with the patchy beard typical of a twenty-year-old, and she longed to look into his grey eyes, the mark of his race. She could stare into them for hours, she decided, content just to be with him.

Tearing her gaze away from the bed, she moved instead to the window, where the glass was frosted over, evidence of the winter that had descended upon them. Scraping away the frost, she gazed out upon the vista before her. Off in the distance, she could make out the peaks of the Grey Spires, not the biggest mountain range on the Continent, but undoubtedly impressive to one that had never seen such terrain up close.

Natalia longed to stay here, in Athgar’s embrace, and spend a lifetime together in peace, but she knew it was not to be. Ever since her escape from the Volstrum, she had become a wanted woman, destined to be forever on the run from the family. They weren’t her real family, of course, for she had been born a mere peasant girl, but when her magical potential had manifested early, she had been whisked away to be trained as a Water Mage and inducted into the Stormwind-Sartellian family. Once she completed her training, she had become the first-ever low-born to be inducted into the family as a battle mage, but then they had made known their intentions; she was to be bred with a Fire Mage to produce a powerful offspring.

Looking back down at the bed, she suddenly became keenly aware of the strange twist of fate that had led her to Athgar, or more accurately, he to her. She had balked at the thought of a forced coupling with an unknown Fire Mage, and yet here she was, doing the very thing she had fled from.

Athgar shifted slightly in his sleep, bringing a smile to her lips. He was no ordinary Fire Mage, she knew, for the Orcs had taught him a disciplined way of controlling his powers, rather than the full-strength magic expected of a Volstrum graduate.

Natalia turned her attention back to the window, staring off at the distant peaks to the north. Somewhere, beyond those mountains, lay Karslev, and the Volstrum. Was there any place that was free from their influence? She involuntarily shivered.