Chapter 4
“Emma.” He had helped her into a chair and there was a cup of tea in her hand. She breathed in the familiar scent and was wondering how she had stayed away so long when she looked up to see the gift of a rare, gentle smile.
“Sorcerer Supreme, I -.”
“You are exhausted from your travels, perhaps we may meet for lunch in a couple of days?”
“So very formal we have become,” she chided him, then sipped at the tea and blew out a sigh of relief before she whispered brokenly, “I never thought to sit here again. I don’t -”
“Do you remember when I once asked why you were kind to me, and you said -”
“‘Kindness isn’t something that is earned or deserved, it is the simplest offering of grace one human being can offer another.’”
“I certainly did not deserve the grace you offered me the day we met, and yet you understood it was precisely what I needed. Kamar-Taj was your home long before I arrived here, and it will always be your home, should you wish it to be.”
She studied his face, and saw the honesty in his words, then finished the tea, always with that bit of honey, but not as bitter as he used to make it, practice makes perfect, she thought to herself as she placed her cup on his desk. “Thank you, Stephen, your kindness is appreciated.” She rose from the chair and nodded to him, then left his study.
Stephen closed his eyes, and was transported to the day he and Wong had returned from Hong Kong. Emma had touched his hands, and had seen everything, felt everything he had experienced. He was still but a novice then, and she a powerful healer, and he could not stop her from taking on the pain that had nearly killed him, had in fact killed him time after time. He sighed as Mina fluttered into his study.
“Do you think she will ever forgive me?” He asked her. She shrugged, and moved closer to him, but somehow, as always, she knew when he needed to be left to himself, but not on his own.
“It isn’t a question of her forgiveness you should be seeking, Stephen, but your own. She forgave you, long ago,” Wong answered from the doorway. “She knew what she was taking on when she took your pain from that time.”
“I didn’t ask it of her.” Stephen stormed back at him, and leaped from his chair.
“No. It was a gift of her love for you, you never quite understood that, because you never felt worthy of her love.” Wong shrugged at him, and murmured, “I’m hungry, I think there are leftovers, from supper if you would like to join me.” He met Stephen’s stormy silence with another shrug and left him to his thoughts.
“Where is she, Wong?”
“Gone.”
“What do you mean, gone?”
“You saw what I did, her rooms are empty. She is gone from Kamar-Taj.”
“Did she leave word with you, a note for me, anything?”
“No word, but she left this, she seemed to think you would understand its meaning.” Wong went into his small private office in the library and returned with a glass case that contained a single caterpillar.
“It’s a caterpillar.”
“Morpho menelaus, to be precise.”
“Morpho menelaus.”
Wong nodded, and resumed his work. Knowing he’d been dismissed, Stephen picked up the glass case and carried it to his study. He spent the next few days in meditation when he wasn’t caring for the small creature in the case, or searching for Emma to no avail.
He blinked at the light of the new day, and rubbed his face. So many regrets, so many missed chances. He glanced over at Mina who would have been crossing her arms at him if it were possible for her to do so.
“Yes, Mina, I know. I need to get over myself, but first, I need tea.” She fluttered at him and he sighed at her. “Yes, and breakfast, stop fussing.” He grinned at her in spite of himself, and she settled on his shoulders, and nudged him gently out the door in the direction of Emma’s rooms.