A collaboration between giants

It didn’t matter whether we sat in silence, or talked for hours until we fell asleep under the same star-painted roof. Spending time beside Theresia seemed to me like a renewal of heart.

I felt light and airy beside the playwright.

As I allowed my cheek to rest gently upon my arm atop the oaken-polished desk by which we sat, I watched as Theresia fell deep in absorption of her work. Her fingers grasped gently the ink pen by which she scrawled onto parchment the notes that did not belong on the paper fed into the typewriter beside her. Each time her gentle and calloused fingers fell upon its golden-lined surface, the quiet air was quickly filled with the cacophony of constant clicking, like a singular cicada upon summer wind.

Theresia’s face held fault lines like the soil as she focused, gathered around her furrowed eyelids which focused wholly upon the parchment she used as a platform for her endlessly persistent imagination.

I wanted to ask what it had been that she had been so enthralled with, but I too had been enjoying gazing upon the passion of the playwright.

It was her finest point, to like something so much that she could do it for hours without paying mind to the world around her.

My train of thought fell into her grasp in an instant as she leaned forward towards me, placing her lips against mine so suddenly. In turn my hand touched upon her cheek so softly, and my heart began to beat so much more than lightly.

“Do you want to do something together?” I asked her as I pulled away.

“Like what?”

I looked towards the corkboard upon her wall, which had been pinned with a painting of light; a 'photograph' envisioning the night sky we had created together.

“Theresia the Playwright, and The Baron of Lilacs. Don’t you think together, we could show all of Aethine the stars?” I said with a beaming smile.

///

He had made his way through the skylight once again, as if the door to the room I called my own meant nothing to him.

His bright-golden hair shimmered underneath the faint lamplight, and his dull-orange eyes seemed to pierce my being with his know-all demeanor.

"Hello once again, God of the Moon."

A greeting did not suffice to welcome him, not that it truly mattered.

I didn't think for a moment that Solis truly cared about formality.

"You call me a God, but that's not truly what I am."

"What could you be if not a God?" I asked of him.

"A demon." He spoke simply in kind, winking as he walked past me to settle on a bench in the far corner of the darkened room.

We sat then apart from each other, sharing softened gazes that seemed to be at odds.

I did not hate or despise the being before me, but everytime I met with him I wondered if there was friendship between us.

“When working with the heiress, I realised just how fractured the hearts within this land are...” I spoke softly. “I would like to try and heal them.”

"So then, you're alike to me?"

"Yes, but my guilt is different to yours..." I spoke softly.

A clock had been placed on the wall of the storage room, in order for me to keep track of time in a world where there was no moon to split the day in two.

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

The sound of the hands and the whirring of the gears served to split the silence, at least.

“Do you think if I save the hearts of the Undine… I can stop feeling this binding guilt…?” I asked of him, my wavering voice almost a silent utterance against the warmth of the air.

“You’re looking at it wrong, Agreste.” Sol shook his head.

“What do you mean?”

“Take it from someone who’s hurt everyone… Our guilt is ours alone. No one is looking at you in judgement. They are only perceiving you as a person who holds a gentle kindness.” Sol smiled. “You’re the only one who can tell yourself you deserve it, and only a fool would be mad at someone trying to be a better person, so carve a place in your heart for yourself... please.”

“I’m the only one who harbors my feelings…? I should treat myself with more kindness?” I wondered. “Am I someone who deserves that much…?”

“You deserve all the kindness in the world, Baron of Lilacs, so tell yourself that much.”

Even if he had told me so, it was hard to let it all go.

“I want to show all of Aethine the stars in my own way.” I spoke softly. “Will you help me as I have helped you, Demon Prince of Moonlight?”

“If that is all you ask of me, then I’ll do the best that I can.” He spoke simply in return.

He reached out a hand, and I took it in turn.

“Let’s show the Undine the beauty of their hearts, Baron of Lilacs.”