The craft was simple but careful, shaped from things she'd gathered over the months. Bits of metal, riverstones, polished by hand. Elias turned it in his fingers. You made this? She nodded.
You said your wife had one once. He froze, remembering the necklace Clary used to wear. The one he'd buried with her years ago. He looked at Naira, unsure how to respond. "Why five stones? " he asked quietly.
She met his eyes. For what hasn't happened yet. She said he didn't understand at first, not fully, but something in her tone made his chest tighten. She wasn't talking about jewelry. She was talking about the life she wanted, the one she had quietly imagined since the day she stood in his doorway.
Elias slipped the necklace into his pocket and said only, "It's fine work. " It was all he could manage, but she seemed to understand the weight behind the words. Over the next weeks, they began to visit the nearby settlement more often. Elias traded leather and corn for supplies. Naira sold small woven trinkets and beadwork to the rancher's wives. Some looked at her with suspicion, others with quiet curiosity, but no one dared say much with Elias beside her.
The people learned to call her Elias's woman, and though neither of them ever used that word, it stopped feeling wrong. At night, they sat outside by the fire, watching the stars. Elias spoke more than before. Small pieces of his life that he'd buried deep. The war, the years after, the feeling of digging graves and ground too dry to take them.
Naira listened without interrupting, her hands resting on her knees, her gaze steady. When he ran out of words, she said, "You carried too many ghosts alone. You should let them rest. " "And how do you do that? " he asked. "You stop looking back," she said. "And you make something worth staying for. " He thought about that for days.
The next morning, he went into town and traded for lumber. When he came back, she found him marking the wall beside the window. "What's that? " she asked. "Room for a cradle," he said simply. The look on her face was brief, but full of meaning.
"Shock, then quiet acceptance. " She didn't question him, only smiled slightly and helped measure the boards. They built it together over the next few days, not speaking much, but each movement said what words couldn't. When it was finished, it sat near the window, empty but waiting. The following week, a chill wind swept through the valley. Elias caught a fever and spent two days in bed.
Naira stayed by him the entire time, cooling his skin, whispering small prayers under her breath. It was the first time she'd seen him so vulnerable. When his fever broke, she didn't leave his side. "I've been alone most of my life," he said weakly. "Didn't think anyone would bother keeping me alive this long. " Naira touched his hand gently.