"I'm home...My love."

The door creaked softly under the weight of silence that had lasted Five long years. You had stopped hoping—almost. Not because you gave up, but because grief was safer than false hope. The war had swallowed Duke Neilos whole, along with letters that never came, and promises whispered in the stillness of night.

And yet—

There he was.

A silhouette against the fading twilight. Armor battered, cloak torn, hair longer and tangled with dried blood and dust. Scars now ran across the skin you once traced under moonlight. His eyes, once calm lakes of blue, now held storms they dared not release.

But they softened the moment they found you.