Section 3 out of 5 from the Daphne chapter. Also, I learned an interesting fact today about my writing. Apparently everything that I've posted up here is on average of about the eighth grade reading level, according to the Flesch–Kincaid readability test. At first, I should think to be offended, but realistically that's probably much better for readability and comprehension, if I'm expecting more people than just myself or friends to read this. Anyway, as always, enjoy.
Daphne walked across the atrium and around the impluvium from her bedroom to that of her husbands. She did not yet enter, instead pressing her hand against the doorframe and looking down to her feet, as though to invoke the god of doorways to give her good fortune upon passing through. Composure regained, she took one light step forward, and then yet another around the doorway to see her husband. Surely he was there, standing proud, fully armoured and ready to go off and away, to execute his virile and civic duty.
Yet there he sat on a bench to the side of his room, his shoulders hunched and sinking into himself. He sat there in just his tunic, his armour not yet worn. So too, he was alone. Tears began to well slightly in her eyes, but in joy and sorrow at the same time, and for the same reason; he too was depressed by his departure, he too did not wish to leave her.
Quietly, meekly she spoke out to him, called to him, “Aelestros— I thought that I couldn’t bear to see you before you had left, but it turns out that I could not bear to not see you.” She strode towards him and watched his face as it drew up towards her. It was wracked and pained with grief. She loved to gaze into his eyes, but now they were not the bright shimmering wells that they normally were, but instead cloudy pools evocative of the sea on a stormy day. She could see how hard this was for him, that he felt just as miserable about this arrangement as she did. She had to be strong for him.
She cradled his face along the jaw with one hand, and with the other pulled him up by his arm. One hand still rested on his face, she put the other on his side and drew him in, closing her eyes and she guided his face to hers, pressing their lips together. She felt one hand wrap around her midsection, and the other reach behind her head, cradling it. Still embracing one another, the kiss naturally ended and they opened their eyes slowly to meet one another’s gazes, faces just inches away from one another.
She broke the silence and pled to him in hushed tones, “I don’t want you to leave. I don’t want you to leave me.” Her voice picked up in volume just as much as it did in emotion, crying from her heart, “Why can’t you just stay here with me?” The dam of self-control which held her tears at bay had been broken, and thin rivulets broke down both her cheeks, taking her makeup with it.
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