"But of course. The reason was to marry you," Essek says, smiling. The city of the Dawnfather. A strange place for a drow, especially one of his upbringing, but it has become his home.

Already he loves when Percival lays his whole head against his chest, because it is how he expresses his desire to kiss or be closer when he can't. His eyes slide closed too, and they hold one another as well as they can.

Light, but he hates to think of Percival so convinced that he was beyond saving. "I love you," he repeats. Whoever he has been, whatever he has done, this man deserves happiness, and Essek intends to give him as much of it as he can provide. "We have both been lost in dark places. Perhaps we merely stumbled upon each other."