The Sentinels I am very dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem

His heart felt lighter when he'd shared his burdens with Lotte. This was always the case, and he was eternally grateful that the gods had given him a being so close in heart and thought to himself - And thanked them equally that he could be a comfort and a boon to his twin, his dearest friend in all the world.

Where would we be, without each other? he wondered as he listened intently to Lotte's own woes.

"It's a good thing I came," Dag said somberly, affecting their father's voice and cadence as he smoothed firm kisses over his sister's brow. "Otherwise, you might've lost yourself entirely, and then how would we ever find our Lotte again?"

He knew it was a very real fear of hers, though she rarely articulated it so. Dag wasn't sure it was a true risk, but understood that fear could make anything real enough. And it was true that Lotte more than anyone had grown up and into their stories, living one or another as if it were a second skin. It'd been a game when they were children, but those times were past, now.

"You're as real as I am, Lotte," he said, slipping into Finnish to tell her this great truth. "Be whoever you want - only do no evil deeds, and remember your brother. Remember the you that you are with me."

For a while longer, they laid together and shared truths and dreams, knowing that very soon, they would be parted once more. It was enough, though, to know that they would be thinking of each other no matter where they went. It would be enough to keep Dagfinn from succumbing to the loneliness of his travels, and it would be enough to keep Lotte from losing herself in the roles she had to play.

It had to be.