and all the stars align to lead you to this place to find me waiting
"You are an incorrigible man," she chided as soon as the introduction left his lips, though her eyes were scrunched up with silent laughter. "Interfering with an adventurer's fetch quest? For shame."
G'raha is someone essential to Lunya.
They first met during the Crystal Tower expedition—G'raha as a representative for the Students of Baldesion, and Lunya as something of a bodyguard for the Sons of Saint Coinach. Their connection was a natural one, sparked by a sudden challenge in the Black Shroud that the ever-competitive Lunya eagerly accepted, and was strengthened by personalities that meshed well: G'raha with his love for history and eccentric whims, and Lunya with her love for exploration and jovial nature. Their friendship was a whirlwind of banter and mischief, and it was quickly that the pair became one joint menace to Saint Coinach's Find. The shore of Lake Silvertear was often filled with noise over childish pranks and loud laughter as they would chase each other down by the water.
Though Lunya was only called down to the Find when the expedition team was ready to make a move, she could be found there spending time with G'raha out of her own desire to. Each time she returned from her own adventures she had a new story for him, and he soon became the first to notice whenever she would show up. At first, it was the heroic stories—of fighting Ifrit, besting Gaius van Baelsar, and rescuing the Scions from Castrum Centri. Stories that Lunya had told before and would continue to tell for most of her life, though this was one of the first few times she did it with little reluctance. But as time went on and they grew closer, she began to trust him with the less than heroic side of her tales and the things she couldn't say to the Scions, and in turn G'raha opened up to her on his own inner demons. The mutual understanding they developed in those quiet hours in the night set the stage for deeper feelings to grow, and grow they did.
Sharlayan has long been the keeper of history, the observers and the wardens but never the heroes. But as G'raha watched Lunya work, he started to think that it would be nice to have a place on the pages of history beside someone like she, and at one point the two discussed traveling together once the expedition wrapped up. It was around the time their expeditions led them closer to the top of the Crystal Tower that G'raha began to realize that he was starting to like Lunya differently, and he resolved to keep those feelings hidden in order to remain by her side.
But it didn't work out like that—in the days the team spent looking for a way to reopen the portal to the World of Darkness, G'raha found himself blurting out an awkward and impulsive confession to Lunya, who had no time to respond when Rammbroes barreled into their tent and announced they had a way into the World of Darkness. They were forced to shelve the discussion that should have followed, and when G'raha followed Lunya through the rift he had a feeling that they might never get to finish what he had so stupidly started—and he was right.
The Crystal Tower expedition came to a close when G'raha Tia, now bearing the Royal Eyes of Allag, sealed the tower doors shut. His final words were ones of hope—but to Lunya they were those of a crushed dream. Still, when he told Lunya that her heroism would be the star that he would chart his course by once he woke up, she truly took it to heart. They became a major influence for her taking up astromancy, and they drove her to survive the bloody banquet of Ul'dah and save not just Ishgard but Ala Mhigo and Doma, hoping to become worthy of the legacy he fully believed she would leave behind. All the while, her heart never went astray, and though she knew the odds were next to impossible she always held fast to the hope that they might meet again in that lifetime.
That wish would take another five and three hundred years to see realized...
"I miss him dearly," she says, and the Exarch wonders if she can hear his heart stammer in grief over what they would have been, or if she can see how he fails to say that he's sorry and that he's still going to be sorry once all of this is over. He wonders if deep down she already knows. "So much that when I think of him my world feels like it's collapsing once more. But it's not up to me—I'm no scholar nor technician. All I can do is bring back stories, and leave more out there for him to wake up to."
It's better for them both if they pretend she doesn't know, if he holds back the hand that instinctively reaches out to tuck stray hair behind her ear, if she lies to her heart and tells herself she has no more room for love or epic romances.
From the very first Call, Lunya knew who was reaching out to her and the others. How could she not? It'd been years since she last heard his voice but G'raha Tia still haunted her dreams and her nightmares for half a decade. What she didn't know was how he was contacting them or what the purpose of this whole farce was, but she went to the Syrcus Trench anyway, unable to not follow when he called her.
Shadowbringers was a tense time for them both. Between the so-called Crystal Exarch's mysteries and Thancred and Zaya's increasing headassery, Lunya slipped back into a lot of her old easily-irritable traits from A Realm Reborn. G'raha, for his part, was just as miserable for having to lie to her face. It would have been for the best if they maintained as much distance as they could, but it was impossible with their roles as the Exarch and a Warrior of Darkness. If anything, they found themselves spending more time together than really necessary, drawn to each other by... what? Fate, maybe? Longing, impulse, heartache? There was something there and everyone could see it, but neither of them dared to say so.
But Kholusia and Mt Gulg brought that all to an end. They were almost there, almost past the pretenses that threatened to tear them in two for so long. He practically confessed who he was to her on a cliffside before the perilous trip to stop Vauthry and she almost begged him for answers, but it was neither the time or place and she set off for the mountain with a promise to talk again once this was all over.
timeline
dynamic
Friends to Lovers • Sun/Moon dichotomy • Knight/Royalty • Bard/Muse • Girlboss/Malewife • Wind & Stars
Similar couples:
- Claude/Byleth (Fire Emblem Three Houses)
- Venti/Lumine (Genshin Impact)
- Link/Zelda (The Legend of Zelda BOTW & SS)
- Zidane/Garnet (Final Fantasy 9)
- Lupin/Cardia (Code Realize)
tropes
Anchored Ship • Battle Couple • Boy Meets Girl • Break Her Heart To Save Her • Dance of Romance • The First Cut Is The Deepest • First Love • Flirting Under Fire • Happily Married • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl • The Lost Lenore • Love Transcends Spacetime • Red String of Fate • Rescue Romance • Sickeningly Sweethearts • Single Woman Seeks Good Man
trivia
- their anniversaries correspond to the date i completed shadowbringers and the release date of patch 5.3