“All right.” She sounds relieved. Did she really think he was planning to force himself on her tonight? Or any night?
Yet another awkward silence ensues, but Cerian makes no effort to fill it as he fiddles with the telescope. Arisanna seems content to let him entertain himself.
“There it is,” he says after quite a few minutes have passed. It’s spectacular. He can actually see the color striations of the rings. “Here, look.” He steps away so Arisanna can take his place.
“Is that Arturan? That’s not what you call it, though. The ringed planet.”
“We call it Tanimos.”
“Tanimos. It’s beautiful.” She steps back and smiles up at him as the light from the lamp casts shadows around them, bringing out the reddish tint in her hair. She really is beautiful. Even if her ears are so oddly shaped. So are Viala’s, and Cerian has caught his brother affectionately running his fingers over the rounded edges of Viala’s ears more than once.
Will Cerian ever do the same to Arisanna? It’s hard to imagine. Are human ears even as sensitive as elven ears?The thought of Arisanna brushing his ears with her delicate fingers leaves him flustered, and he quickly ducks toward the telescope again.
It really is amazing. To have a simple device like this always at your disposal to view the heavens—what would that be like?
Eventually, he steps away from the telescope and turns to Arisanna. “Thank you for bringing me here. I wish we had such things in Celesta.”
“You seem to know the night sky well despite the poor view from your home.”
“Yes. I...climb the trees to see the stars.”
“You climb...” Her eyes grow large. “Do you ever fall?”
“Not for a long time. And the trees would catch me if I asked them to.”
“Plant magic. Right. Well, that’s a relief.”
She sounds genuinely concerned for his safety. Of course, if he dies, so does she.
It didn’t sound like self-interest, though. Does she feel the draw of the heartbinding already?
“Would you like to go outside now?” She gestures to a wooden door on the other side of the telescope.
“What’s outside?”
“An observation deck. We could look at the stars more. If you want to.”
“I’d like that.” Cerian helps her close the roof before following her through the door. She carries the blankets against her chest, though she left the lantern behind.
He should have told her some fire wielders can create pure light with their magic. No need to risk burning anything down with an errant flame. It’s been years since he accidentally caught anything on fire.
Thoughts of fire and light abandon him at the scene awaiting him once he steps through the door. Rising high above the castle and the capital city of Nunia, the observation deck of the astronomy tower offersbreathtaking views for miles in every direction. At least it would in the daylight.
But at night? It feels as if he could stretch his hand out and tickle a star. It’s their own private view of the heavens’ dance across the inky darkness far above the gas lamps dotting the streets of Levina.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Arisanna asks.
“Amazing doesn’t do this justice,” he breathes.
“Here.” She hands him a blanket to ward off the chill of the early autumn night, and he wraps it around himself as he gets lost in the view of the stars above them. He barely registers her laying a second blanket on the wooden platform at their feet. “To do this properly, we need to lie down,” she says.
That gets his attention. “Lie down?”
“To look up.”
Right. He looks at the blanket she laid, and as he watches, she layers another one on top of it.
“That should keep the chill from the platform away,” she says.
