The burning in his cheeks soon died down as he helped her with the crate, wondering how he was going to replaced it back by himself once she was down and gone into the caverns. He angled his side off the slab, listening for the hollow sound that slab made when its heavy burden was removed. He paused, listening intently, then flared the small flame back to life.
“I am…glad to hear that, Sarah.” He admitted. It was nice to hear that not every mage outside the Circle saw him as a useless puppet. “Should you ever wish to brave the Gallows again…I’m always here.”
She offered assistance in moving the heavy, and last piece of obstacle, from their path, and already she began to feel a touch of sorrow. Though her freedom was perilous to obtain, it was now ahead of her. But she was leaving behind the kind soul behind. When the sounds had dissipated, and they were left in silence, it was soon broken by his words, which made her smile bitter-sweetly.
“I do not know when I would venture into the Gallows once more, though I will send word for when I have found a safe place.” Sarah turned to him and knotted her brows together. The back of her hand found his cheek and she leaned up, tilting her chin to his face. With a gentle coaxing of her free hand, which now fell to his cheek, she tried to pull him lower to her level.
The pressing of warm lips came to his cheek, where she offered a reward of affection that perhaps he was not accustomed to. Her hair smelled of the forest, her skin of freshly fallen rain and the Earth it fell upon. “I will not forget your kindness,” her words melted on his flesh as she now spoke to his ear, “First Enchanter, may your Maker, and the Gods of Old, watch over you,” Sarah pulled back and dropped her gaze, for even a tint of rose now kissed her cheeks. Turning her back to him, Sarah faced her salvation, or her doom, just within that cavern.