Chapter Text
“Then follow down from the horn of the unicorn, right down and a little to the left, that’s the tip of the dragons wing” Viren’s hand traces the sky with his fingers and he looks up at Harrow.
He is lying on the ground with his head resting on Harrow's lap which is not a position he would usually adopt. Viren is usually a little stiff, but he had grumbled about the hardness of the ground beneath them, shifted himself towards where Harrow was sitting and now Harrow finds himself acutely aware of the warm feeling of his head against his thigh, of the pale line of Viren’s throat as he speaks. It is making the astronomy lesson very distracting. He is almost having to sit on his hands to prevent them stroking over Viren’s thick brown hair and he sighs.
“You see it right? That bright star, the one right there.” Viren’s finger points and Harrow forces his eyes back to the night sky, it is only darkness and he stares.
“Uh, I think so… honestly Viren I’m not even sure if I got the unicorn right… they all just look sort of like stars to me.”
It is Viren’s turn to sigh and then he laughs. “All right, I can see why your tutor didn’t want to teach you astronomy, let’s try this another way.” He lifts up his head and Harrow is conscious of its absence, but Viren is rummaging around in the copious mass of pockets that seem to exist inside his jacket. Then he smiles at Harrow as he pulls out what looks to be nothing more than an old scrap of parchment, but is probably the remains of some magical creature, from his pocket.
“Okay here.” And it is crushed between his fingers and he pats the ground beside him. “Lie down here, next to me.” So Harrow lies, puts his head beside Viren’s and watches as his fingers trace the stars again, but this time they leave behind them little filigrees of light.
“See there’s the unicorn,” and Harrow sees it. Its outline, now purple, shimmers brightly against the stars. “Its horn…” but he is watching the flick of Viren’s hands more than the sky, their light motions through the night air. He has noticed his hands before, the strange way they combine strength and fragility, the little nicks on them from hours spent chopping ingredients, the small burn near his knuckle, doubtless from some magical accident. The way the tips of his fingers are stained by the ingredients he mixes all day for Kpp’Ar. Harrow swallows.
“Yeah, I see it now.” And Viren tips his head to glance at him.
“Alright, good, now down from there the dragon’s wing.” His hand runs down and the light stutters on his fingers. He sighs and shakes it, feels around inside his robes again. Another item, it looks like the fine wing of a moth, emerges, is crushed, and lights with a glow against his skin. Viren traces the line of the dragon and it comes to life and Harrow gazes at it, slips his head to the side so it rests against Viren’s, feels, or thinks he feels the minutest shift of Viren’s shoulder into his own.
“You know the story of how the dragon got trapped in the stars of course?” Harrow does know it, but he would like very much to hear Viren tell him and so he shakes his head.
“I might have heard it, I’m not sure…”
Viren lets out a soft snort into the dark night. “You’re impossible. Alright, fine then,” he reaches up, cups his hands against the night sky and when he opens them the illusion of a dragon sits in his palm.
“You know about the primal sources of the elves and the dragons of course, and you know that the most mysterious, the most elusive and powerful of those is the star primal, source of the deepest magic of them all. Well once it is said that star elves and star dragons fell down to this earth from the heavens themselves, but once they were here they couldn’t find their way back.”
He flicks his wrist and the dragon spreads its wings, alights into the space above them and hovers there, all iridescent beauty.
“They spent all their time longing for the stars though, they were cut off from their beautiful realm and they regretted it bitterly. The pleasures of earth seemed to offer them nothing and their hearts lamented. It was said that the music of their sorrow was the most beautiful Xadia had ever known.”
Viren shifts onto his side and leans on his elbow to look down at Harrow, there is a faint burn in his pale grey eyes, the hint of a smile plays at his lips and his chin is covered in the shade of stubble that has only started to grow on him recently and which Harrow can’t help staring at.
“So they were lost and they thought they would have to remain that way forever but then one day the boldest of the dragons and the boldest of the elves said they would fly up together into the heavens and try and find their way home. When they found it they would send down behind them a trail of stars for the others to follow.”
For a moment Viren closes his eyes and his cups his hand again, when he opens it a star-touched elf stands on his palm, white hair glowing, a delicate illusion that Viren seems to blow right onto the dragons back. Harrow lies there hardly breathing, entranced by it all, but entranced especially by his friend. He watches Viren’s head dip for a moment before he rights himself and shakes it.
“And the elf and the dragon travelled together. They flew through the firmament, they saw sights that no other living beings had ever seen, they saw all the wonders of the universe laid out before them, and they saw... the wonder and beauty of each other too.”
His voice drops, and Harrow might be imagining it but Viren seems to blush then, a little colour seems to spread over the bones of his cheeks. Viren’s hands open towards where his dragon and elf sit floating above them and he sends them drifting up, Harrow watches the fading glimmer of their light as it passes from sight into the shadows of the sky above them.
“The days passed, months passed, maybe years passed and their hearts became entwined. They found that they loved each other. They travelled far and wide across the endless skies and then one day, one magical day they found their home again. So they sent down a trail of stars for the other elves and dragons to follow back into space, and that as you know is?”
Viren blinks, and Harrow stares at the lines of his lashes and then back to where the tail of the dragon had disappeared into the milky mass that stretches like an ocean foam from the constellation of the dragon’s wing.
“That? Oh that’s the sea of stars.”
“Yeah, or the galaxy of Aerophon, that was the name of the elf. But then of course you know that Aerophon fell from the back of his love the dragon Pheresteri, that he fell into the stars and was lost. Ever since that day the dragon has looked for him, she travels through each season searching for her lost love and...”
For a moment Harrow watches as Viren’s voice catches in his throat and he pitches forwards, tries to catch himself on his hand. All the colour seems to have drained from him and his outstretched arm drops with a slightly uncontrolled force and thumps onto Harrows chest. For a moment it is all he is conscious of, the heavy weight of Viren’s limb on him. Then he has to catch his head awkwardly to prevent it hitting the earth. Viren’s body seems to have taken on all the dead weight of sleep.
“Viren?” He shakes his shoulder, “Viren are you okay?” For a moment Viren lolls limply on him, before his dark eyelids flutter open.
“Oh... sorry Harrow... I don’t know, I don’t know what happened...”
“You... it looked like you fainted or something.”
Viren seems to become aware of the fact that his arm is draped over Harrow’s chest. His head is resting on Harrow’s arm, he struggles to push himself up but it seems as if his body does not want to obey his commands and he slumps back down again. Harrow hears him draw a slightly panicked breath.
“Harrow... I feel so strange...”
His head is hot against Harrow’s shoulder and his eyelids close as he goes limp.