Back and forth, here and there, a million things,» she would say. One foot here, the other foot there. Her speech was often peppered with local tongue-twisters, which they called ‘life’s little wisdoms’… To my heart, so foreign to this place, they were utterly incomprehensible.

But her heart—I understood it. I understood every beat in her chest. Every flutter of her eyelashes, every touch of her lips. An old officer, who had won countless battles, who had killed enemies and spies left and right, was ready at any moment to fall at her feet.

To protect her from everything in the world—that was all I needed now. That was all I was capable of.