I dreamed of Frona again. This time though, we were a lot younger. Maybe I'm just rocked by Nyx coming back into my life, triggering all that lingering guilt about what happened.
She should never have taken that stupid oath to stay in the city. She always felt trapped after that day, and I always felt like I was the one who did it to her. The truth is, I never asked her to make it. I wanted trust, not a contract. Or better yet, a genuine desire to settle down. And now that I write that down, I see how foolish I was to hope it might happen.
And how unfair.
I always loved her, and I always will. But we had disagreements that became cracks, and that's where my love for Nyx grew. Gnomes live a long time and its quite common for us to have a succession of long, happy unions. When Frona made that oath, it bound her to me in a way that our wedding vows didn't. It was a surprise, and over time it trapped me too. I suppose Nyx was my reaction to that. It was a young man's infatuation, panic and shortsightedness all muddled up with our very real mutual respect.
I might have been able to fix things with Frona, if only we had the time. I ruined so much, it would have been nice to fix something. In the meantime, I'll just remember the good times in my dreams.