Rhys had been right.

It was "living through", which definitely sounded neither romantic nor particularly comforting, but somehow Quinn couldn't shake the feeling of being happy. Not that she tried very hard, although there were moments when she was vividly reminded that she had been lucky.

The storm was in the fortress, there was no helping that. As well as the main gate had been reinforced now by the volunteers, it was still far beyond anything that could be called habitable in Jos Gharo.

There was snow on the ground when Quinn exited their small quarters, a joke compared to the lavish ones they'd had before, or even the ones back on Erados. Even so, she felt guilty about having them, but Rhys insisted that after being exposed to the long night she needed some time to recuperate.

The fortress looked like it had been taken back in time. Huge bonfires burned right next to high-tech generators that were being fixed after the storm had damaged some vital components. The medieval met futuristic at every step when Quinn took her morning walk to go and check up on Cassie.

It had been hard to leave her small room behind, though. After everything, Quinn had never enjoyed anything more than the nights when Rhys returned from the gate, frozen but pleased. Kol-Eresh had taken up the duty of keeping the main gate fixed throughout the month as a means of thanks for Rhys providing them with shelter.

It took some of the tremendous amount of duties upon Rhys' shoulders away, leaving him free to go through the fortress in sweeps. There were still some squads of traitors out there, fighting based on lies and hatred.

Quinn felt sorry for them. She couldn't imagine being brought up in a society like the one Nayanors had and being weak, but on the other hand she had no compassion for men who had blown up the only defense of twenty thousand people.

The reason why the few nights she'd spent with Rhys on the lowest level of Jos Gharo were the happiest in her life was the love burning without pause in her heart. When the terrible cold kept them up, Rhys gathered her into his arms, against his chest, holding her there under the Fermanoli coats until she fell asleep again. There was a small fire burning on the wall of the room and therein was Quinn's haven.

Sitting in Rhys' arms, she watch the play of the flames on the wall, feeling the harbinger gently pet her hair and kiss her neck.

It was hard to describe or even justify, although Quinn imagined she might have to do that very thing very soon.

It was hard not to run. The healers had paged Rhys ten minutes ago with the message that Cassie was awake. The harbinger had made her get warmly dressed before he allowed her out of the door.

"I'll be fine," Quinn promised, trying to struggle out of his grip and laughing when the warlord simply tucked her into the warm, huge coat like a child.

Rhys kissed her deeply, grinning against her lips when Quinn melted into the kiss without thinking.

"I nearly lost you a dozen times out there," the harbinger said. "I will not let you die of something as ridiculous as pneumonia. Your sister will still be awake a couple minutes later."

Finally Quinn had gotten herself out of the door and was sprinting down the wide, looming passageway. She greeted the few people she'd gotten to know over the course of the few days, seeing them smile when they saw her pass.

Rhys had told everyone that she had been the one to bring the Gech to their aid and surprisingly, even Nayanors could show a little gratitude when faced with their mortality.

That's all it takes, really.

Quinn burst into the healers’ quarters, the warmest part of the fortress right now and even there she knew that Rhys had been right to make her wear the coat.

"Cassie?" she called across the rooms, trying to find her in the structured mayhem the healers kept there. "Cass?"

"Quinn?" a weak, but happy voice replied. "Gods, Quinn!"

And then Quinn was flying through the room, cradling Cassie up in her arms and holding her sister there until they'd both run out of tears. Cassie's hands were trembling around her and Quinn tried hard not to notice how incredibly frail her sister had become. Neither one of them had ever been size zero back on Terra - now it looked like Cassie was a skeleton wearing her sister's skin.

Cassie saw the shock in her eyes and shook her head.

"It's okay," she promised in a raspy, broken voice. "The healers tell me I'll be back to normal once my body has finished, well, making sure I'm alive."

Quinn nodded mutely, her eyes drawn to the mechanical diadon in Cassie's chest, peeking out from her shirt. Cassie followed her line of sight, shuddering a little.

"That's better now too," she said. "When I first woke up, I had no idea what was going on with me so I kept thrashing and it kept cutting me. The poor healers. I have to apologize to them later, they were so nice while I kept yelling they were killing me..."

A hopeless, broken laugh escaped Quinn's lips as she heard her sister sound like Cassie again, not some woman with a spirit so broken she couldn't lift her eyes off the floor.

"Good," she whispered, "I'm glad Rhys' plan worked."

Cassie leaned back on her makeshift bed, looking at her with genuine curiosity and fear she wasn't able to hide from her eyes.

"What happened, Quinn?" she asked quietly. "I think a week has passed that I don't remember anything of."

"More or less," Quinn allowed, sighing. "I don't think you want to know, Cass."

"I do," Cassie said sharply, although even exercising her voice seemed like a chore to her. "And make your explanation as to why you're here a good one. After I tried so hard to be heroic and loving and saving you, ungrateful girl."

Quinn couldn't help smiling at that, seeing life returning to her sister. She wondered if her tale would make Cassie reconsider how "nice" the Nayanors were, but she had to trust Cassie to make her own judgments. She'd tried to live her sister's life for her for too long, thinking she needed protection. Now Quinn had fulfilled the vow she'd given to their mother and they were both free to live without carrying the burden of looking after each other every step of the way like mother hens.

"It really did begin then," Quinn began. "On the day you pushed me into that pod. You have no idea how I screamed and beat at the door, how I imagine what had happened to you after that..."

When she was done, a good solid hour had passed and Cassie was looking straight ahead, not having said a word in all that time. The only clue she gave Quinn that she was still listening was fidgeting with the mechanical diadon when she described where it had come from.

"I knew you were going to be okay when I saw your eyes finally opening in that hallway," Quinn said. "Then we brought you here as soon as possible and Rhys ordered to make you a priority. It makes sense too. The fortress is in bad shape, but no one came even close to the exposure you got in the storm."

Cassie looked up, her eyes tearful and terrified.

"Cass," Quinn said, taking her hand. "It's okay now, I swear. Rhys tells me that the fortress will be okay and they will rebuild it when the long night passes. No one will hurt you ever again, I promise. You're safe now."

"It's not me," Cassie protested. "It's you. Gods, Quinn, how can you blame me for saving you on the ship when I was kidnapped, when you rode out into the long night of Luminos in a carrier to get to me?"

"You were screaming," Quinn said in her defense. "I couldn't just let that asshole Dolor drag you off to die somewhere in the dark and cold."

"I was screaming for you to stay," Cassie said, laughing almost madly. "I knew how much it hurt you to see me like that. I knew you would do something stupid, but I never imagined that! I thought the worst would be that you would run to your fated and make him come after me, getting him killed, but..."

She trailed off.

"I never wanted you to risk your life for me," Cassie said.

"I guess we're even then," Quinn replied, squeezing her hands and sharing a quiet smile. "Let's promise then. No more heroics on a planet filled with warriors. The next time we want to take a sightseeing tour of the planet during the storm, we'll ask Rhys."

The smirk on Cassie's lips told Quinn that her sister was getting better perhaps too fast for her liking, because she could have predicted the next words to the dot.

"Rhys, huh?" Cassie asked. "I remember him. Not bad to look at and apparently not a monster either."

"Mine," Quinn growled playfully.

"Of course yours," Cassie said dismissively, pulling her own Fermanoli coat over her body and shivering in the cold. "This is Luminos. No one doubts that. Now that I'm awake and somehow alive again, with this contraption keeping me ticking, I can start showing you around. I've been here longer than you have, after all.

"Although I have to admit it never occurred to me to hijack a Gech to be my ride."

"I had to improvise," Quinn said with an angelic smile. "It was a bad situation. We needed to get you back here."

"So," Cassie teased her further. "Tell me about him. I really think you got the best one if even a fraction of what you're saying is true."

Quinn looked at her sister with surprise.

"It's really weird to hear you say that, you know," she said. "After everything you went through, after Dolor... You owe me a few stories as well. I have no idea what he did to you."

Cassie's face went pale when her fated was mentioned.

"I – I don't think I want to talk about Dolor after today," she said quietly, lowering her voice so only Quinn heard her in the buzzing room. "I always knew there was something wrong with him, that there was a madness that couldn't be cured. I have no idea if life made him like that or if he was born with those tendencies, but the bond never worked like it was supposed to. All that time, I saw other women getting along with their mates.

"And now you and Rhys. I see the truth in your eyes. It's something else entirely."

Quinn couldn't fight the smile that just kept coming to her lips, unbidden. Every time she thought of Rhys, it still amazed her how her life had brought her exactly where she needed to be, to the man who loved her and who she loved in return.

"You have no idea what a relief it is," she told Cassie. "To know that all this didn't kill your spirit."

Cassie smiled sadly, shaking her head.

"I have a long way to go to be happy again, but I know I just drew the short stick," she said, holding onto Quinn's hand. "I'm glad you have a fated who makes all this worth it."

"He does," Quinn said, agreeing. "He really does."

Cassie smiled, her eyes fluttering shut for a second before she rolled herself to the side and gave Quinn an apologetic smile.

"The healers tell me I need a lot of rest," she said. "I guess it means I'll be sleeping like a cat for a while until my body gets used to this thing in my chest. Right now it's taking an awful lot of energy but they assure me that I'll get used to it. Will you be back to talk to me again?"

"Always," Quinn promised, chuckling. "You sleep. I guess it might be better for you to sleep for as long as possible. The long night is still upon us and trust me, you'll be much happier when you wake up and it has passed."

"Mm," Cassie agreed sleepily. "I think so too. Go, Quinn. Go to your fated. I'll see you later. Right now, I'm perfectly fine sleeping the knowledge I can dream peacefully..."

Her sister fell asleep in the middle of the sentence, but Quinn couldn't hold it against her. The healers had warned her too that the diadon took time to get used to and that Cassie's body would need a lot of rest to keep up with it. She gently petted her sister's hair before slipping out of the healers' quarters, back into the world of snow and darkness.

It wasn't nearly as scary as it should have been when she knew that she was going home to her fated, into his strong, firm embrace and loving arms. Quinn had to stop and remind herself of dignity not to outright run to him, but it was somehow easier to walk when she knew that every step was taking her closer to him.

In more ways than one, Quinn thought. We can be together forever now. This cruel world did its best to tear us apart and it failed.

It's like Rhys said. After what we suffered, everything else life may throw at us just needs living through. We can, too, now that we have each other.