Chapter Text
There was something luminous about her.
Before he met her again in this life, the stars in the sky were simply beautiful, sparkling diamonds for them to gaze up at in the dead of night when sleep eluded them both. He could vividly recall spending countless nights with her, lying in the grass of different parks or even that of Elpis on the rare occasion he'd bring her along on his work as a member of the Convocation. There they would lie, hand in hand, watching stars dart across the ocean of darkness that welcomed them time and again.
From the ground staring up into the swirling colors and twinkling orbs, he swore time stood still and all of Etheirys disappeared beneath their bodies. The sound of the wind would fade. Distant chatter nothing more than white noise. His hold on her hand would tighten as would her hold on his, and together they'd drift through the starry ocean. It was fleeting, of course. Their time together was as ephemeral as the trail falling stars left behind. Their very bond mirrored through the stars and the sun.
"Imagine if our roles allowed us to simply be together," she'd whisper beside him. Her eyes would remain locked on the stars and there he could see all their brilliance reflected in her. A soul that shined more radiantly than any of the stars above. A refulgent diamond unlike any other.
"We are together. In this moment, we're together, are we not?" would be his hushed reply. Her once serene smile would falter and a slight tug on his heart would force him to give her hand a light, reassuring squeeze.
"You know what I mean, Themis. I don't want our work to constantly separate us."
"It's the nature of our positions."
A sigh escaped her. "Then, I wish upon the brightest star of them all to one day allow us the chance to work together."
"And which star is the brightest?" He'd ask.
Her attention, for the first and only time, would shift to him. "The sun, of course."
The sun. Was that how she saw him, he wondered. Did she see him as he saw her: a blazing beacon that she had no choice but to be drawn towards? Though that begged the question if he was her sun and she was all of his stars, then...
"Eli!"
A shrill call of his name that fell away into warm giggles shattered his reverie where he sat at the base of a large tree. Blinking, the bright blue of his eyes shifted to the lilac hue this young woman knew them to be as she drew closer with two taller men following close behind. One walked with nearly the same enthusiastic skip as she did while the other, less fortunate of their quartet, was being dragged along by the sleeve of his robes. The woman who completed their small family kept a firm grasp on the fabric, not allowing him the slimmest chance of escape.
"Azem?" He tilted his head to the side slightly, the blood-red of his mask glinting in the gentle light from the night sky. "And you've brought Hythlodaeus and Emet-Selch both..? Is something wrong?
"Wrong?" Emet-Selch repeated with an added scoff. "The only thing wrong is that these two have prevented me from working for the last four hours in a vain attempt to perfect her newest spell."
Hythlodaeus, the only white-masked individual among them, offered their gloomy friend a soft smile. "Come now, you can't honestly tell us you haven't enjoyed watching the amazing things she's conjured for us to bear witness to."
"It's the middle of the night. If I wanted to see stars, then I could simply look up."
"And where's the magick in that?"
Azem shook her head, long strands of her ice-blue hair slipping out from behind her cowl and down the sides of her chest. "Don't mind him, Hythlo. Hades is just upset because he isn't the center of my attention tonight."
Emet-Selch immediately glared down at her. "Excuse me?"
Elidibus continued to sit with his back against the base of the tree while the welcomed trio went on with their familiar bickering. He listened to them as his gaze inevitably traveled back up through the rustling leaves to the stars beyond. They were the same as they were when she was here. And yet, they had never looked more foreign. His stars were closer than ever before─so close she was unrecognizable.
Reaching out to her side, bright amber aether began to coalesce and gather until Azem had fully formed her mage's staff. "Okay okay! No more fighting about whether or not this is a total waste of time and let's instead show Eli here what I've been cooking up for us all to enjoy."
Emet-Selch sighed beside her, crossing his arms over his chest. "Pray tell how some mere light show is meant to be enjoyable?"
Hythlodaeus looked down at Elidibus who was still quiet. "Oh most eminent Emissary of the Convocation of Fourteen, would you not agree that even beautiful displays of mastered aetheric manipulation hold priceless value?"
Placing a hand to his chin, Elidibus thought for a moment as Azem walked a little ways away in front of the tree and towards the center of the clearing. "I am sure Altima would be able to best even Igeyorhm on such a debate if it was the question of artistic expression, even that through manipulation of aether, does or does not hold value to those on this star." His eyes followed Azem's languid movements. Her slow and whimsical dance with her staff, calling forth aether from currents not even the most practiced on the Convocation had access to, had begun. "As Emissary, I must agree with the majority. Besides," pausing to steal a glance up at Emet-Selch, he smiled, "I know you too think our dear friend is a practitioner of the most beautiful magick. Just one of many reasons you and her have long since been inseparable."
Emet-selch rolled his eyes from behind his mask. "I regret opening this discussion."
"As you should." Hythlodaeus mused. "Now shush, I wish to watch her work. 'Tis rare we're present to see her truly in her element when not on the brink of death."
Silence fell between them while their eyes focused on the amber aether trailing all around their dear Traveler. Her staff flowed up and down while she turned circle after circle to continue weaving the strands of aether into a new incantation. Her cowl had long since fallen back, long ice-blue hair reflected the light from the night sky as it swayed in the gentle wind. Truly unrecognizable...
Coming to a stop and lifting her staff high into the air, its tip pierced through into a rift beyond what any one of them had seen before. She tore it above her. Tattered edges spread and rippled until the tear had become a large opening. Though where normally he would have expected to find an empty void, instead he saw those same twinkling diamonds once so far away now no more than a small reach away.
Elidibus slowly pushed himself to stand while Hythlodaeus and Emet-Selch watched Azem with proud smiles of their own. The stars answered her call and spilled down from the celestial rift she had torn wide. Sparkling orbs created a dazzling myriad of colorful lights. Mesmerizing in every right as they flew all around and circled her at the center of their orbit.
Once, so long ago now, the woman he'd lie in the grass with had said she'd bring him the stars if she could find a way. Or better yet, she'd find them a way to fly into the night with only the stars to act as their home, leaving behind their duty to Etheirys and fully embracing their star-crossed relationship. He never would have dreamt that one day, far in the future, she'd make good on her promise to bring him the stars.
Azem commanded the stars she had called to come together and form a tightly woven sphere above her. She looked back to the trio under the tree and smiled, her onyx mask now a rainbow of color from the reflected light of the twinkling stars she kept locked in stasis. "Are you boys ready?" She yelled with such excitement he couldn't help but smile as well.
"Go for it!" Hythlodaeus yelled back, Emet-Selch dismissively waving her off as his response.
When her focus shifted to him, Elidibus' smile faltered. "Bring me the stars, Aestelle."
Her smile turned blinding at his words. Looking up to the stars above her, she whispered to the celestial bodies her final command. The sphere rippled and spiked in increasing frequency until she threw it high into the air and sent a spear of her amber aether to pierce through its core.
The stars exploded in a blinding array of colors. Stars flew past in every direction, creating a dome so large he struggled to see the end of her aetheric influence. Each of the stars she expertly controlled slowly shifted into position, recreating every constellation she had memorized over the years. Closest to her was the thirteen any Amaurotine could recognize: those belonging to the Convocation. They carefully linked to one another through thin strands of her amber aether, connecting the constellations and keeping them close.
"Do you feel that?" Hythlodaeus asked softly.
Emet-Selch hummed. "The healing properties were a nice touch, I'll admit."
Rustling from behind the tree caught the trios attention.
"So, she did perfect her newest spell."
"Ah! I was wondering when we'd get to see the finished product!"
"Took her long enough."
"I was beginning to think she'd lost her luster."
One by one from behind the tree, the other Convocation members emerged and joined their audience. Elidibus' heart swelled with a warmth only Azem could bring. Such pride and adoration, respect and awe, beauty and power. She was everything a radiant star should be. To see her succeed and inspire their colleagues was truly something special.
"You know, Loghrif was telling me Azem has barely slept in weeks since she heard you'd be taking a single day break from your duties as Emissary." Mitron whispered to him. Elidibus hadn't even heard him walk over. "Igeyorhm too noted that our Traveler has been working tirelessly to present this to you."
Emmerlolth chuckled beside them. "To think she'd go to such lengths for you, but not for her beloved Architect."
"I heard that." Emet-Selch grumbled.
Elidibus looked between each of his colleagues before looking back out to the stars she continued to manipulate into a myriad of constellations. "She did this, for me..?"
Fandaniel nodded, his snake familiar coiled around his arm to sit comfortably on his shoulder. "You should have seen how she and Meteion were toying with the stars in Elpis these last few nights. You would have been hard-pressed to find a vantage point where you wouldn't see her stars illuminating everything darkness dared touch."
"She ransacked my office the other night to finalize her incantation." Lahabrea sighed. "Halmarut had to help me reorganize my tomes after she escaped with three of them."
"And that's not even mentioning the hell she razed in the Hall of Rhetoric when she somehow managed to start a fiery debate between Pashtarot and Nabriales." Altima mused. "I only wish I would have recorded the spectacle somehow."
Hythlodaeus covered his mouth some as he chuckled. "The Convocation is certainly always lively when she's home."
Home.
Elidibus followed the stars with his eyes before inevitably looking to her at their center. She had long since stopped being the stars as a whole and had become the star. When that had happened, he couldn't say. But now as he watched her struggle to keep the incantation going, he couldn't help but see parts of her sparkling through the woman he sees now. Even now, she was still his star. Oh, how he longed to one day quit being her sun and join her among the stars.
"Emet-Selch, I think you should stop her." Igeyorhm spoke up.
He glanced at Igeyorhm before sighing when the stars around them suddenly began plummeting to the ground, shattering into ephermeral wisps of aether. "Oh for the love of─Aestelle!"
There was a collective sigh among the Convocation when their Traveler slowly fell back into the lush grass, her staff shattering into amber aether as well. She had over-exerted herself for his sake. Every falling star now her's to guide right back to him, assuming she had the aether to spend. Now she laid fast asleep in the center of the clearing with Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus coming to her aid.
Just as he was fixing to go and join them in checking on her, a single star left behind struggled against the lack of aether once holding it weightlessly in the air. Its amber glow illuminated the underside of the large tree as it bobbed its way to him. Elidibus instinctively held his hands out to catch the twinkling star, the others curiously glancing from him and then back to Azem.
"One day, I'll bring you the stars," echoed her words in his mind as he gazed down at the celestial orb, "and when I do, promise me you'll keep them close. Even though we may not always be together, these stars connect us, now and forevermore."
Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes behind his mask as the twinkling star slowly began to dim. If she was his falling star, then he could only hope to one day become something more than her sun. He refused to watch her pass him by again. He'll become her sun in the night sky one day. And on such a night, forever they will be reunited with the stars as their home, just as she always wanted.