Rick felt something break free in his chest, a tight knot of shame that had been there for a long time. "Thanks."
"Don’t thank me for telling the truth." But her eyes were warm. "Now it’s my turn. Remember, you can ask me something. This trial goes both ways."
Rick thought about it. "Why did you stop bringing people to this garden five hundred years ago?"
Sylvia’s face changed a little. "Because the last person I brought here died five hundred years ago."
"O-Ohh... I’m sorry to ask that... and also hear that." Rick felt uneasy hearing all the truths that she revealed.
"No need to apologize, jeez... seems like it’s going to be hard for you to ask me the truth, huh?"
"Yeah, probably..."
Things really started to happen on Day Three.
"Tell me about your friend," Rick said. "The one who passed away."
Sylvia had been waiting for the question. As she talked, her fingers moved over the moss next to the bench in patterns. "His name was Therion."
"He was a strong and brave dragon warrior who was also very annoying in the best ways. We became close when I was very young, less than 200 years old."
"Rick, dragons don’t get along easily. We’re too proud and too protective, but Therion broke down all my defenses by constantly telling me that I deserved to be loved, not just respected."
She spoke more softly. "We spent three hundred years together."
"That’s a lot of lifetimes for a person. It was only the beginning for dragons. We should have had thousands of years, but there was a war with the kingdoms in the west, and Therion led a battalion to protect our borders."
"He died like a hero, killing five enemy dragons before he fell. They brought me his body, and I held him as he died. ’Keep living,’ he said to me last."
A single tear ran down Sylvia’s cheek. Rick had never seen her cry before. "And I have."
"I’ve ruled my kingdom for five hundred more years, making decisions and acting like the strong queen who doesn’t need anyone or anything, but Rick, to be honest... I’m really tired."
"I’m sick of being by myself. I’m sick of keeping everyone at arm’s length because I’m scared of losing someone again like I lost him..."
Rick didn’t say a word. He just hugged Sylvia and let her cry on his shoulder.
The Dragon Queen let herself be weak and vulnerable for the first time in five hundred years. She let someone hold her who didn’t expect her to be strong.
They stayed like that until the sun went down. Her tears soaked into his shirt as he stroked her hair and told her it was okay and that she didn’t have to be strong right now.
The conversation Rick had been dreading happened on Day Four.
"What is it like? What’s going on?" Sylvia asked. "Watching everyone you love die while you live forever?"
Rick said, "I don’t know yet."
"I haven’t been alive long enough to lose people to old age, but I do think about it."
"You said that if I bond with you, I will live for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years. I’ll see Carmilla, Natasha, and Liora get older and die while I stay young. That scares me more than any test you could give me."
"It should scare you because it’s a nightmare." Sylvia’s voice sounded empty. "I’ve lost so many people, Rick."
"Friends, partners, and lovers. Some died in battle, some from old age, and some just faded away as time went on. And every time they died, a part of me died with them."
"You eventually start to pull away. You stop getting close to people because it’s too painful to lose them. You put up walls and tell yourself it’s strength, but really it’s just being afraid."
"Is that what you’ve been doing for five hundred years?"
"Yes." She stared at him. "Until you came and made me want to break down those walls."
"Do you know how scary that is? Rick, I’m falling for you."
"I’m falling for a mortal man who could die at any moment, even though I’ve been keeping my distance from people for five hundred years. If you left this citadel tomorrow and a random monster killed you, I would have to deal with that loss for the rest of my life."
Rick held her hands. "I can’t promise I won’t die, but I promise that no matter how much time we have, I’ll make it worth it. And if the worst happens, at least you will have lived instead of just ’being.’"
"Therion said something like that to me once," Sylvia said, her lips curling into a sad smile. "He said that one day of really living was worth more than a thousand years of just getting by."
"Smart guy."
"Yes, he was. I think about him every day." She held Rick’s hands tightly. "But I’m beginning to think he would want me to move on. To be happy again instead of just being a memory."
Day Five was all about trust and fear.
"I’m afraid to love again," Sylvia said without being asked. "Not because I don’t think I’m good enough or able to do it, but when you love someone, you give them the power to hurt you."
"I was almost broken by Therion’s death. I don’t know if I could live through it if I let myself love you and then you died, left, or betrayed me."
Rick knew that fear very well. "I’m scared too."
"When I close my eyes, I worry that I’ll wake up in my old world, in that gaming chair, and this will all have been a dream."
"I worry that I’m not good enough for you, Carmilla, Natasha, or Liora. I’m scared that you’ll all find out that I’m just a loser who got lucky."
"Those fears make sense, but they’re not logical," Sylvia said. "You’ve shown yourself over and over again."
"You’ve made it through things that seemed impossible. You’ve made real connections with strong women. You have been brave, kind, and strong of character. When do you start to believe in yourself?"
"When will you be able to trust that I won’t leave you?" Rick said something back.
They both stopped talking because they knew their fears were the same.
"This is hard," Sylvia finally said.
"Yeah, but that’s how important things usually are."
The polyamory talk happened on Day Six.
"How can you love more than one person?" Sylvia asked, her voice full of real confusion.
"Dragons mate for life, and their mate is their only one. I have no idea what it means to share your heart with more than one partner."
"How does it work?"
"How do you make sure that everyone knows they are important?"