Consciousness returned slowly, as if it were hesitant to arrive whole.
First came the weight of my body. Then the strange warmth beneath the blanket. Next, the uncomfortable sensation that the space around me was too occupied to be just a bad dream. I opened my eyes carefully, staring at the ceiling of the inn room as the weak morning light slipped through the poorly closed window.
It took me a few seconds to understand where I was.
It took me a few more to understand with whom.
Elara was sleeping beside me, her face relaxed, her hair spread across the pillow. On the other side, Liriel was awake, staring upward as if counting her own breaths. Farther away, near the wall, Vespera lay on her side, too still for someone completely asleep.
My heart raced.
Not from immediate fear, but from recognition.
Something had happened.
I closed my eyes again, trying to pull the memory like a rope buried too deep. Fragmented images came. Muffled laughter. The strong taste of the drink. Close voices. Hands. Warmth. No clear sequence, but enough emotion to make everything evident.
I took a deep breath.
It was not a simple mistake. It was not an innocent stumble.
We had sexual relations.
Thinking about it so directly made my stomach twist. Not from immediate regret, but from the weight of reality. That could not be pushed under silence or pretense.
Liriel was the first to speak.
"You're awake."
"Yes," I replied, my voice lower than I expected.
Elara shifted, opened her eyes slowly, and took a few seconds to focus. When she realized the situation, she didn't shout or pull away. She just sighed.
"So it wasn't a dream."
Vespera turned slowly, propping herself on her elbow. Her gaze was firm, attentive, without accusation.
"The silence was getting uncomfortable," she said.
I sat up carefully, pulling the blanket to cover my body better. Not out of shame, but out of a need for order. My head was still spinning.
"I don't remember everything," I said. "But I remember enough to know that we crossed a line."
Elara nodded. "Yes. We did."
"Does anyone regret it?" I asked, without looking directly at any of them.
The silence lasted a few seconds. Long ones. Honest ones.
"No," Liriel finally said. "But that doesn't mean it's simple."
"It isn't simple," Vespera agreed. "Nothing between us ever has been."
Those words hit deeper than I expected. They were right. From the beginning, our group had always walked a thin line between survival and closeness. We had just never named it.
"I don't want to pretend nothing happened," I said. "And I don't want to act as if this was just the result of drink."
Elara looked at me seriously. "Then don't."
We went downstairs for breakfast after getting dressed in silence. The innkeeper gave us a curious look but said nothing. We sat together, as always. Even so, everything felt slightly out of place.
The bread had taste. The tea was hot. The world had not ended.
"And now?" Elara asked, breaking the silence.
"Now we move on," I replied. "But in a different way."
Liriel rested her chin on her hand. "You're afraid."
"I am," I admitted. "Of ruining the group. Of making the wrong decisions."
Vespera smiled faintly. "Fear is a better sign than indifference."
We left the inn later and walked through the city. Vailor was still alive, still carried by the recent victory. People laughed, bargained, argued over prices. Nothing seemed to know what had changed for us.
And maybe that was what frightened me most.
When night came again, I realized that what had happened had not been merely a consequence of the celebration.
It had been a point of no return.
Nothing was resolved that day. But something was accepted.
And, for the first time since I arrived in this world, I felt that I was not just fighting to survive.
I was choosing.