While half of Valya could have easily passed out there, stretched out with Eloisa, comfortable and content in the wake of everything that had been said, the other just wanted to lay there, wide-eyed and fixated. Five centuries of life and she found herself reduced to this. Had she been fully awake, Valya might have laughed. It was hardly an unpleasant weakness, if one could call it such at all. But at that moment, if the other vampire were to disappear again? It would never matter how many enemies descended on her as long as she knew she still had Ela. She would take Famine into hell and back. But snatch her away again... No. I will not endure that again. If the Rider of War knew how many towns she had starved out in her name instead of His, what would she say? Riders of Famine were the most hated of the four, the most hunted... The paths she had carved right to herself. Hope could be a wretched thing sometimes, but then there they were. And Valya was hoping against hope that it did not change.
Promise? It would not be voiced because it was ridiculous and potentially insulting, but the word echoed around Valya's head all the same. She watched Eloisa raise her hand, strangely fascinated by the simple movement. A mixture of her thumb and her words made Valya stop worrying her lip, smiling at the mention of a war to wipe out the masses. Famine on a global scale. Both would have to wait. Her eyes remained on Eloisa's face even as she hesitated; truthfully, she did not think she had seen her so beautiful as she was in those moments. "There is nothing to forgive, Ela." All she had done was what she was doing now. Valya could not complain about that. "Do you forgive me?" She didn't want to add on what she had done because she could not remember it for herself and then it stopped feeling sincere.