[ TT ] Two people , entwined by fate . Together they embarked the journey of heroes , where through loss and gain they grew wise and powerful . Years later , they are on the opposite sides of war .

`` It comes to this?'' Lorem said, pained. By the lantern's light, he looked even more haggard than he had earlier in the day. The shadows deepened the wrinkles of the long years since they'd seen each other, and highlighted the scars that Tevon had watched him earn. Lorem furrowed his brow - deepening the shadows further - and sighed, `` You truly wo n't back down? You wo n't give her up?'' 
 
 Tevon's face, though suffering less scars than Lorem's, still had its wounds nevertheless. These scars had once been a shared memory, a permanent monument to their great history, to the journey they had shared. Now, they felt like wounds reopened to Tevon. 
 
 Grimacing, Tevon nodded. `` You know me, Lorem. You know that I wo n't give up for what I believe is right.'' 
 
 Lorem shook his head, flabbergasted. Tears stung at his eyes. `` You speak of *knowing*, of *understanding*, and yet... yet you can not bring yourself to believe in *my* cause?'' Lorem's fists clenched, in his lap. `` We fought together for years, united as one. My blade, your sorcery. My intelligence, your wisdom. And we won.'' The fire flickered, shadowing Lorem's face, as he looked away to the tent's entrance, out to the battlefield that lay outside. His gaze lingered, but he looked back to Lorem, his face wiped of emotion. 
 
 `` We were brought together by fate. We were powered by destiny. Our victory was prophecy - as was our journey, our foe, our *life together*...'' Lorem could n't bring himself to even hide the tear that he shed. `` And you deny that? You deny fate itself? You deny the prophecy that guided so many years of our lives?'' 
 
 Tevon crossed her arms. `` Lorem, I understand that prophecy is important to you -'' 
 
 Lorem scoffed. `` Important! Do you not remember how we met? It was scarcely chance. I was *sent* to find someone like you, Tevon. We would *never have met* if it were n't for that.'' 
 
 Tevon's expression darkened ominously. `` I do not appreciate being interrupted, Lorem. You have earned much kindness from me, even in these trying times - and we will forever share a bond, even on opposite sides of a battlefield. But to interrupt me when I am attempting to *sympathize* and *make peace* - that is not something I can accept, even from one I love.'' 
 
 Lorem winced, and nodded. `` I apologize, Tevon. It's just...'' He let himself trail away. He knew she would understand. 
 
 And she did - she nodded, leaning back, resting her arms on her lap. `` I do. Now, as I was saying... this has always been our largest divide, Lorem. In the stars you see writing. In them, I see nothing,'' Tevon looked up, as if her eyes could pierce the tent to look to the night sky. For all Lorem knew, maybe she could. Her magic had weakened with age, but her ingenuity had only grown, giving her a more subtle and intriguing style of magic. `` I can not accept destiny. I can accept that we contrived to make a prophecy come true, but not that it was *destined* to be so.'' 
 
 Lorem sighed. `` It's just so hard to believe, Tevon... after all the things we witnessed... after all the predictions of the prophecy... and even your *place* in it. You see yourself as nothing more than a random bystander, chosen by chance, rather than the universe itself?'' 
 
 Tevon nodded, gravely. This was not a conversation she had ever enjoyed. And especially not in trying times such as now. 
 
 `` Lorem, if you had not found me, you would have found some other sorceress who would have agreed to help you find some unknown evil. And two ambitious and powerful allies, on a quest to find evil, will surely find it somewhere... it's everywhere around us, after all.'' Tevon said these words ominously, but was careful to keep the intent clear - the two of them in this tent were good. But around them, this battlefield, this war - that was evil. She let her thoughts return to speech - `` Around us on *both* sides.'' 
 
 Lorem leaned back into his chair, his lips pursed. He nodded, slowly. He had thought the same. `` This war is contrived. Even as we find ourselves naturally coming to fight each other, from our own beliefs...'' He knew Tevon would pick up on his thought. Indeed, she was thinking it herself - 
 
 `` Whether by destiny or manipulation, there is another force at play. Yes,'' Tevon looked down to her hands, which she was wringing anxiously. `` Yet despite of this, I can not back down. And you can not either,'' she quickly noted, looking back up to Lorem with a hint of questioning in her voice. To her dismay, he nodded in answer. 
 
 `` No harm will come to the girl, Tevon. You know this. She will be watched, and kept safe, and raised and grown as any member of royalty would.'' Lorem shuffled papers on the table again. Possible agreements, treaties, compromises. `` But we can not let her out of our sight. It is better to be safe than sorry.'' 
 
 `` You truly think so? You know just as well as I do that your side yearns for her death more than her imprisonment.'Better to be safe than sorry', as you said.'' Tevon cast a disdainful glance at the papers - all of it insipid with politics and some shrewd hand at work, all to kill a little girl. 
 
 `` I will protect her, I promise, Tevon. It is my duty.'' 
 
 Tevon nodded. `` I know it is your duty. But you know why *I* protect her, do n't you?'' 
 
 Lorem's anger drained quickly, in the face of Tevon's unflinching defense. It had baffled him, when they first met, to know she listened to none of the prophecies, gave no heed to any of the stars, followed none of the celestial paths - yet she was a hero nonetheless, devoted to saving people and risking her life to do so. How could she do it without a greater purpose? And the answer was - 
 
 `` You make your own purpose, Tevon, from your heart. Your actions are indeed honorable, and I appreciate them, I do. They are why I love you, Tevon, even to this moment. Justice - honor - you do n't want the girl charged with a crime she has yet to commit,'' Lorem let his hand fall on his silver belt, the symbol of his faith. The cool metal soothed him normally, but now, it felt hot to the touch. `` Yet in the face of prophecy, the crime was committed eons ago. We can not change that. But we can be there to minimize that, to give her a chance to change her stars before we must...'' He let the eventual'necessity' go unsaid. 
 
 `` And you can not let her do that herself? Even if we are to assume the prophecy is true, we know - from experience - that prophecy can change. One of us was fated to die, Lorem, in our journey. And neither of us did. We changed that.'' Tevon said, desperate with emotion. `` Why can we not let this girl change her own fate?'' 
 
 Lorem sighed. `` We can not leave the future of the world to chance.'' 
 
 Tevon raised an eyebrow. `` Where do you think this war sprang up from, Lorem? Views such as yours that restrict the fates of men, that judge them before any mortal man could, that assume a *monster* out of a mere *babe*, are what have driven men to war. Me and you were lucky to be *chosen* for good, Lorem. The people who are destined for greatness and good futures will not decry a system that crushes and tramples the futures of many more. Predestination, whether for good or for ill, is not how we should live.'' 
 
 Tevon let her fury simmer down. Before Lorem could speak up, she raised a hand, stopping him. 
 
 `` Regardless even of that, this prophecy is a contrivance, Lorem. It pains me to know you ca n't see that. Someone has found our dividing question, and driven it between us, as a wedge. This is a ploy to separate us in a time where there *must* be some need for us.'' 
 
 Lorem constrained anger in his heart. `` I will not accept criticism of the Augur's work, Tevon. It is divine, from the stars themselves - those words could not be altered for any mortal scheme, I assure you, whether you believe it or not. I *must* act on these words. It is my duty, as it has been since I was a boy. It was the duty that brought me to you, even.'' 
 
 `` I know. I will not fault you for following your duty. But nobody can judge you if you fail while attempting to.'' 
 
 `` I will not fail,'' Lorem said, conviction creeping into his voice. `` I can not afford to.'' 
 
 `` I'm sorry, Lorem,'' Tevon said, rising from her chair. `` But I'm the one who will decide the price of your failure.'' 
 
 With a wave of her hand, Tevon bound Lorem with magic to the chair. The glow of aether transmuting into steel made the tent bright, but the flaps of the tent were held down by a wind Tevon had been stirring for the entire conversation. Before Lorem could shout, Tevon wrapped his mouth with a cloth wrapping she pulled from the aether. It was thin, but would do - there was no aether left in the area around them to use, after the expenditure needed for the steel bindings. 
 
 `` I'm not going to let us fall into a war devised by some unknown adversary, and have us kill each other, or at the very least, one of us die from some pawn soldier. If there is to be war, then you shall not be in it.'' Tevon turned to Lorem, tears running down her cheeks. `` I love you too much for that.'' 
 
 Lorem looked to her, his outrage fading away, being replaced by a bittersweet tempest of love and sorrow across his features. 
 
 `` I wo n't let this war come to pass, Lorem. I will stop it before it does. I will find the man behind this prophecy, who drove us apart like this -'' 
 
 Tevon looked to Lorem, with a fire burning in her eyes. 
 
 `` And I will *end him*.''
