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The day that Doctor Dankovsky asked Yulia for money to help with Lara Ravel's sickhouse, she had a bad feeling. She'd always been known as a fatalist, yes, but this was something different.
Things grew no better as the day passed. That night, Eva Yahn showed up on her doorstep in tears. Night time visits were common between the two women; Eva loved fully, with her heart and body. Yulia was not the only one; Andrey Stamatin had been her first lover, and the new Bachelor of medicine had been her latest. But somehow, the two women always returned to each other.
"Daniil and I tried to leave with the Stamatin twins," Eva sobbed into her shoulder. "But the trains..."
Yulia gently shushed her as she rubbed her bare back and ran her fingers through her long gold hair, pressing kisses to her face, trying in vain to kiss all her tears away.
"What will happen?" Eva whispered into her neck. "What will become of us?"
"I cannot claim to know." Yulia was no Mistress or Herb Bride; she had no special powers of her own. She was intuitive, but she could not see the future. "But we have each other, right here and now."
Eva kissed her, cradled her face between her soft warm hands. She tasted of the late season air and twyrine; she had always had a dreamlike quality to her. A good balance for Yulia's more practical, if depressingly realistic mindset.
They made love that night. Yulia kissed her breasts as she slipped her fingers between her legs, through the deep golden curls that were there. She kissed her way down her stomach, favoring the naval piercing with her teeth and lips as she brought Eva to her first trembling, gasping orgasm of the night.
She would have been all right to stay here all night, taking care of her emotional, distraught lover, but Eva had always had a mind for fairness. She paid close attention to Yulia's inner thighs as she pulled down her trousers, kissing and nuzzling as she spread her legs. It was always a joy to experience her lover's tongue; she worked slowly and methodically, stroking that pearl of flesh with her upper lip as she slipped her tongue inside. Yulia gripped handfuls of Eva's hair, squeezing and pulling as she came, eliciting moans from Eva's throat.
Eva slept in her arms, but Yulia was wide awake and worried. Trying not to jostle Eva's soft, naked body, she pulled on her coat and went outside.
She spent hours staring at the river. Little else soothed her troubled mind like the sight of the dark waves or the sound of the water rolling over and into itself.
She sighed contentedly as she felt a pair of warm arms slide around her waist. "I thought I might find you here," Eva murmured in her ear.
"No matter what happens," Yulia said as she leaned back in her lover's embrace, "the Gorkhon will always be here."
"I suppose that is a comforting thought." Yulia smiled a rare smile as she felt long, slender fingers run through the back of her hair. "Your hair is growing longer."
"I haven't had time to cut it." Yulia tended to stand out; unlike most women in their little village, she preferred to keep her hair cut neat and short. She hated having hair in her eyes; she preferred all of her senses to be sharp. It helped to keep her wits about her.
"Would you like me to cut it for you?"
No matter what tragedies would befall their village, at least they would always have this night to remember. "I would like that. Thank you, Eva."
With that, they walked back to Yulia's house hand in hand.