No Happiness Guaranteed

Previously

…Elias took a berry, its sweetness bursting on his tongue. "I am," he replied, meeting her gaze. "But I think I'm more satisfied than I've ever been." He didn't need the compass to tell him where to go anymore. His heart, no longer adrift, knew its direction. It pointed towards Lyra, towards the shared laughter that would echo through their days, towards the quiet comfort of a hand held tight. It pointed towards a life lived not in the pursuit of a guaranteed outcome, but in the exhilarating, unpredictable, and utterly beautiful adventure of simply being. The journey had ended, and yet, for Elias, it had truly just begun.