Sophie intends to ask Valash to attend her closing ceremonies for the Virgo Festival in secret, but he has other plans.
~1300 words
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In the days leading up to the end of September, Valash ventured out into the city on more than one occasion. Sophie woke to find him gone from their bed, no note left in her room or messages left with any servants. Only when he returned in the evening did she have the opportunity to ask where he had disappeared to. His only response had been a vague, noncommittal “Out.” She had several reasons not to trust him, but she also wanted to be the one to make the steps to do so, so she let him continue the routine again.
But the final day of the Virgo Festival came and with it an event that required her presence. She would perform a small ritual for the Spirits, thanking them for their blessings and wishing them well for the rest of the year. She wanted Valash to be present for the holiday’s tradition. Though with his disappearances, she found no appropriate time to ask him.
On the eve of the final day, she cornered him in his separate room, packing a small bag. “Valash?”
He glanced to her as he collected a few necessary articles from around the room. “Ah, Your Grace, I’ll just be a moment. Dinner?”
The Virgin Queen shook her head. “N-no… Why are you packing?”
The muscles of his jaw worked under the skin. “Headed home.”
Her brow lifted, a weight in her chest. “I… I thought this was your home now?”
He glanced to her again before turning to face her, his eyes wide. “Oh… Your Grace-“
“Don’t call me that!” She felt tears prickling at her nose. “You’re leaving!”
His wings fluttered ever so slightly. “Sophie.” He took a slow breath. “There’s just something I have to do. I’ll be back in a few days.”
She sniffed. “Then why the secrecy, why the formality? What are you hiding?”
Feathers fluffed and he reached into his pocket. “I… I just didn’t think anyone else would care.” He produced a handkerchief and offered it to her.
Frustration built up in her chest, her fingers tensed into claws. “Of course I’d care if you left! Why would you think otherwise!”
The handkerchief hovered awkwardly between them. “I had every intention of returning so… I suppose I didn’t think about how the leaving might affect you.”
Her eyes rolled, her nose stuffy from unshed tears. “Where are you going, then?”
He looked to the handkerchief and lowered his arm. “Lotuserna.”
The Lotus Capital had fallen into disrepair in the years following the Great Cataclysm there years prior. It existed primarily as a den for Ophiuchus and the Serpentarius people even after the defeat of Ophiuchus herself. The new Djinn would require years to fully cleanse the area of the deity’s influence.
Sophie furrowed her brow and gently drew her finger along her lower lid. “You’re going to work on the seal with Idania and Tristan?”
“No.” The handkerchief returned to his pocket and he returned to his packing routine.
“Then… Why are you going?”
“Visit my parents.”
Sophie blinked. “But… They… Valash, you don’t think-“
“Their grave.” He pushed the items into his pack with an aggressive force, his wings rustling a bit.
His sudden flare of quiet frustration caused her to shrink into herself. “I’m sorry… I just… I have the closing ceremony tomorrow and I hoped you might be able to attend.”
His brow furrowed for a moment. “I’m supposed to be your dirty little secret. Why would you want me there?”
Her teeth clicked as her jaw clenched. “I do so hate when you call yourself that. Though I will admit that I had intended for you to remain… backstage, most likely cloaked to hide your presence. I… I meant to ask you sooner and I’m sorry I haven’t, but you’ve been so secretive and I didn’t want to make you think I didn’t trust you but I’ve been so nervous and-“
His hands found hers, a warmth exuded from his that felt uncommon, though she knew better. He drew her attention to his eyes, a bid for her to focus and not get lost in her own anxiety, her rock in the quaking of her mind. She smiled at the beauty in his eyes, the colors that mixed in his irises and made them unable to categorize with one simple utterance of blueorgreenor even gray. She had yet to find the precise poetic phrasing to describe them, or the rest of him. But he grounded her, and she nodded.
“I’m sorry I didn’t think about the ceremony. It’s not as if it would fall on any other day. I just… This will be the first time I can visit my parents with a…” A meaningful expression softened his features. “With a happier story.”
The warmth from his hands spread through her arms, over her neck, and onto her face. How much of that warmth actually extended from his magic, she could not tell, but she felt the flush on her cheeks and tilted her head down to look at him through fluttered lashes. A rakish smile flashed on half his lips for the barest of moments.
“But… I’ll come back as quickly as I can to hear all about how it went.” He lifted a hand to her chin. “Is that satisfactory, Your Grace?”
She allowed him to tilt her face back up to gaze at him fully. That softness existed on his visage for much longer than any other instance. Home. She felt a deeper understanding of the word spread between them. A sudden need to stay with him bubbled within her.
“Take me with you.”
The words tumbled out of her without her permission, a thought given voice that had barely tickled at the edges of her consciousness.
His wings fluffed slightly, a muted surprise on his face. “You have to perform the ceremony, Sophie.”
She laughed once, more an exhalation than mirth. “I… Of course. I do. I have responsibilities. As a Queen, to my people, and to the Spirits. I just… I want to… share everything with you. To help tell your… happier story with your parents. If-if that’s all right with you, of course.”
That half-smile appeared and lingered for a few moments. “I’ll stay in Lotuserna for a few days, then, and await your arrival.”
Her brow furrowed. “Can you not wait to leave? We could go together.”
The smile disappeared immediately, his eyes away to any other section of the room. “I have to be there tomorrow. I’m sorry.”
She tilted her head to follow his distraction. “Why?”
He inhaled slowly, one hand drifted to the back of his neck, his wings flittering a bit. “It’s my parents’ anniversary.”
The weight of the date hit her. The last day of the Virgo Festival and the even of the Libra Festival. “Oh. Well. Do you at least have a place to stay?”
He looked to her, his hand dropping from the back of his neck. “I… I made arrangements to stay at the Virgo manse in Lotuserna. My sister is still staying there.”
His sister. A smile spread her lips but did not reach her eyes, a motion she practiced daily in the court. “Then you two can have your private memorial.”
He glanced sidelong at her. “And you will come after the ceremony…?” She heard a hope, a plea, on his voice.
Her smile brightened. “If you will have me.”
Valash’s wings almost spread, but he rolled his shoulders to control them. A quirk of having gained the limbs so late in life, this inability to control them as well as Alden or Idania could control their tails in response to emotion.
She grinned as a flush spread to his cheeks. He cleared his throat and nodded. “I’m sure my sister wouldn’t mind seeing you.”
