"There you are," Eliott pushed open the glass-paned doors to the balcony. "I've been looking all over for you."

This room was among the few rooms sporting balconies and collectively, they were called the Princesse Chambers. He had only known of its existence from one of the Chief Maids when he went out of the emergency meeting about importation after dinner in search of the place they had stuck Edge into.

After trying at least three of these chambers, he had walked in on Edge standing in the balcony of the fourth one. She had been leaning against the balustrade much like how she did in the windowsill at the belltower. She turned to the sound of his voice just as he had trudged across the bedroom and propped the balcony doors open.

"It's nice out," was Edge's only answer when Eliott joined her in her spot. It was just like all the hidden nights they spent in the belltower, nights when Eliott couldn't sleep and she had trouble doing so as well. One of them would go and find the other there and they would just talk. They had been doing it even when Eliott knew Edge as Belle, a random fae woman who just happened to look like the girl he met as a child.

Now, even if the surroundings changed into that of the sprawling grounds of the palace with the somber shades of teal and beige of Edge's room behind them, it felt the same. It was just him and Edge. Just them and the company of the dark night.

"You still have to tell me what happened to you all these years," Eliott sidled next to Edge, their shoulders almost touching but not quite. "Up until the belltower."

Edge turned to him. Their faces were so close Eliott merely had to lean in to kiss her. "Do you really know that now?" she said.

He shrugged. "If we're going to spend the rest of our lives together, might as well start airing our laundry this early on, right?"

"Right," she chuckled. She ran her hand down her arms, the ones marred with faint lines of scars. Then, it all came spilling out.

Edge, as a child, met Eliott in the forest in one of her patrol rounds. One day, human soldiers (from a kingdom she wasn't familiar with so she couldn't confirm if they were from Lezeris) raided her village and carted all the fae. She and her friend, Ivory, were separated from everyone.

"Then I lost Ivory when we tried to escape the fae trade," Edge blew a breath. Sadness painted her eyes. Suddenly, asking her to recount all these painful memories didn't seem like a good idea. "But it's all good. We found each other somewhere around last year. She had found a good job as a messenger in one of the smaller presses in the neighboring town. Unlike Rosewall, some folks over there are tolerant of fae. Mostly because they preferred to paint their town with beauties."

Eliott hummed. It's true that fae, even though most of their features resembled humans—two legs, two eyes, ten fingers, and all that—theirs seemed to have been arranged in such a way it made them look ten times more pleasing than an average human.

Edge shook her head and waved her hand in a vague space around her hand. "Well, anyway, after Ivory and I got separated, I wandered what I came to know as the town of Felnore," she continued. "The ones who took me away from the village found me again and sold me to the mines. That's where I stayed for the rest of my childhood. That's where I received most of your tokens too."

"So, what you said back then..." his heart quivered in his chest with the realization. "About me saving you...is this what you're talking about?"

"Yeah," she answered. "I used to look forward to the larks. I would get excited whenever I see a lark flit through any windows then feel disappointed when they don't land on the sill. I kept all the tokens no matter how small and insignificant they were. A rock, a crest of some kingdom, a lace. You name it."

She smiled at Eliott. It was enough to melt his insides. "I'm sorry I lost some of them, though," she hooked a finger near her neck and drew out the necklace with the pebble in it. "These two were the only ones I was able to save after the warden found out about the larks. He thought I was sending messages to people, warning them of my situation."

"Why didn't you?" Eliott asked. It might be considered rude or patronizing. He expected Edge to feel that way or call him out on it.

Instead, she sighed and withdrew her wings closer to her back. He hadn't even noticed she had let them down earlier. The rustle of the feathers soothed Eliott in unpredictable degrees. "I don't know if anyone else in the village was alive," she admitted. "And fae don't have the tendency to dream or to fight for what we believe in. We know we're enslaved and it's wrong, but we have accepted it because it's our lot. Unlike you, humans, we have an unhealthy habit of settling with whatever life throws at us."

Eliott pursed his lips. He didn't think it was the case for all fae and humans. There were humans who had given up and there were fae who fought to survive. No one was the same as the other.

"But I understood that to live, we have to dream," Edge continued, craning her neck up to the sky with a smile. "We have to demand more because this couldn't be life. Pain, suffering, and death. It shouldn't be our lives. And so, I escaped the mines. For some months, I retreated to the thick forest around Felnore. Through that forest did I find the old Duchess of Aldermere."

Eliott raised an eyebrow. "The Duchess?" he frowned. "She died a long time ago. Aldermere has a new Duke now. It was given to another family. A previous baron or something."

She stuck her bottom lip out. "That's what I thought too when she told me of the tales she had of the human kingdom," she said. "I wanted to leave her and continue on my way but I just couldn't. She looked so frail and...well, alone. She had no visitors in her lodge in the middle of nowhere and she couldn't move much. So, I looked after her. In exchange for my service, she told me of the wonders of Rosewall and the Lezeris Empire. Then, she let it slip."

"She's fae," Edge revealed. "At first, I didn't believe it but soon, it became apparent like sunlight during winter. Fae live longer lives than an average human. We age slower and we can survive for longer periods of time without sustenance. From the tales the Duchess was telling me, they were from over a hundred years ago."

That seemed about right. The legendary Duchess of Aldermere was a person of legends at this point. Since her reign, Alderemere, being a trading outpost, only had accepted male leaders. For whatever reason, Eliott didn't bother finding out. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the Duchess had almost run the town into ruin with her lavish taste and extravagant functions.

"So, that's what I've been up to until we met at the belltower," Edge finished. "It all worked out, right?"

Eliott nodded. "Yeah. I'm just glad that you're here."

At that, Edge laughed. "Me too," she said. "I just hope my next life won't have to go through what I did. I pray that all my good deeds would help her have a smooth-sailing and comfortable life."

"Next life?" Eliott prodded.

"An old fae belief," Edge said. "Basically, we, or at least our ancestors, believe that fae souls do not fade, that we can live a new life, over and over. At least until we reach some kind of fulfillment. When we have done our purpose or achieved what we dreamed, then, we pass on."

"That's beautiful," Eliott said. That's the only thing he could think to say after Edge's explanation. "Do you think humans have next lives too?"

Edge rolled her shoulders. "I told you. It's an old belief," she said. "I meant nothing by it more than a silly wish. Next life or not, I'm happy to be here. I'm happy with what I have."

"Should I contact my next life as a prank?" Eliott wondered aloud. "That'd be amazing, if I could actually do that."

Edge snorted. "Good luck doing that," she said. "What would you even say to him? Would it even be a him?"

Eliott shoved the image of him being a woman out of his head. "Well, I'll tell him to find you," he frowned and tapped his chin. "Or at least the next version of you. But maybe the original you would still be alive and that'll be awkward, I think—"

A warm body pressed against him and he had enough of his wits left to sense Edge drawing him closer to her. "Shut up, Eliott," she whispered against his lips. "Rambling doesn't suit you."

He leaned into her embrace. "I'm serious, though," he drew away for a bit to peer down Edge's eyes. In the darkness of the night, they lost most of their shine. It didn't matter though. All he could see was his face reflected in them anyway. "Even if those things weren't true, it's worth a shot."

He snaked an arm around Edge. "I promise," he said as softly as he could. It was for Edge's ears only. No one else was supposed to hear what he's saying. "In every life, I will choose you."

Then, he kissed her.