Falowik
"A mortal life is mine now, Lauréatan. The years shall pass, and I with them." Uien's eyes captured the light of the stars; her spirit mingled with them and lent a living brightness to her eyes that took Falowik's breath away. But her words did so even more, and the effect of both together were more than he could hold inside, and he had to look away, to a bole of the tree they stood by. Uien released his hand. The moment she let him go, he felt cast adrift and unanchored, the world spinning at angles to how he stood.
She was choosing his life over her own!
She would not stop being an Elven woman, but she would never go across the sea. And if Eodwine had the rights of it, she had set aside the society of Elves for that of his, which was until now meager company indeed!
"Glad tidings, Lauréatan, or so I believe them to be... Yet if they are not so for you, I ask one thing of you only. To say as much, to speak freely. Please Falowik, my love."
How could he not speak his heart to her? How could he not look to her again? She was his lodestone - he wondered what the elvish was for such a word - her eyes were large and luminous. She seemed like a frightened bird, feeling the need to take wing to safety among the trees, but she remained, as if ready to die with his arrow in her breast.
He took her hands in his.
"It is as if you are the fairest bird in the forest, and all that is within you tells you to fly from the hunter, but you stay, ready to be shot. And I, who am the hunter, have two arrows. One is to say you nay, leaving you to wither and fade in sorrow; the other is to wound you with myself, with the death that is part of being a man, walking with you in joy until I die, leaving you someday, to wither and fade with grief."
Uien shook her head and opened her mouth to speak, but Falowik put his hand to her soft lips, and she held her peace, her eyes watching his.
"I choose to give you all the joy I can, and so I must wound you with the arrow of my love."
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