Cerian eyes the telescope uncertainly as she places the mound of blankets on another table, and then he looks at the ceiling. “How does it work?”
“We have to open the roof.” She tugs at a metal hand crank on the wall and frowns. “I might need your help. I rarely come up here alone.”
Cerian easily turns the lever, and the roof above them parts. How do they keep the rain from seeping through the crack in the opening? Some clever interlocking design, perhaps?
Arisanna steps toward the telescope and presses her eye to a small hole at the lower end. “Oh, good, you can see something. Here, look.”
She moves to the side, and he takes her place. A bright star fills his vision in far greater detail than even a naked elven eye could see. It’s incredible.
“I think it’s pointing at the dragon constellation,” Arisanna says as she squints at the sky above them.
Cerian looks up, trying to get his own bearings in the early night sky. “We call it Zelovon. The first fire wielder. He was an air wielder, too, and so adept at magic that he couldcarry himself on the wind for miles, raining fire down on his enemies. My father is an air and fire wielder like Zelovon. He can fly, too, though he doesn’t do it often.”
When Cerian glances back at Arisanna, her eyes are wide.
That’s probably the longest string of words he’s said to her since he arrived. He clears his throat and gazes through the telescope again.
“Tell me more about your magic?” she says quietly.
He exhales slowly. Today, he promised her many things. Sharing his life with her being one of them. He can’t hold her at arm’s length. Especially not with the heartbinding.
“I have dual affinities for fire and plant magic,” he says.
“Is that why you like the forest? Because of your plant magic?”
He glances at her and nods. “That’s part of it. My magic is most comfortable when surrounded by that which responds to it. It’s...soothing.”
“That’s why you throw fireballs?”
He looks away again. “Yes.”
Curious, Cerian adjusts the telescope slightly to see if he can spot the rings of Tanimos, the easiest planet to find in the night sky. It should be overhead now if his memory serves.
Suddenly, everything blurs, and he can’t make out anything.
He didn’t break it, did he?
“Is it blurry?” Arisanna asks. “I think if you turn some of those knobs, that should fix it. You’ll have to play around with everything to figure it out. I spent more time learning elven history than astronomy, I’m afraid.”
“You learned elven history?”
She nods. “I even learned something of Zelovon, though my tutors never told me he could fly. If I’m not mistaken, you’re descended from him, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” Cerian hesitantly turns one of the knobs, but that just makes it worse. Perhaps the other way. If only she weren’t standing there watching him fumble with it.
After a few more tries, he manages to bring everything back into focus.
“Take your time,” she says. “We can stay here all night if you want. Unless you were planning to...” Her voice trails off, and he stills.
Perhaps they should talk about this instead of dancing awkwardly around it forever.
“I think we should wait.” He barely forces the words out.
Whistling wind, why was that so hard? Not that this isn’t an awkward topic to discuss.
“Wait? To...to...”
“Yes.”
