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In a season of ardor and affection, the Mih Khetto Amphitheatre was decorated in a plethora of heart-shaped balloons: reds, pinks, whites, and even a couple blues and greens. Nayra was standing by a stall, perusing a merchant's display of cookies and truffles and scones all wrapped in plastic with pretty red ribbons. She’d heard Mother Miounne had provided the confectionery. The elezen had told her herself when Nayra visited her abode a few weeks back and was treated to plates upon plates of chocolate sweets. A new recipe, Miounne had said, to spice things up. Certainly, the chocolate Nayra tasted had literally been spicy. She’d thought it a mistake, but Miounne had only giggled and said that it was indeed her intention to hide chilly or mustard among her sweets. “Think of it like a game of chance. You roll your dice; the lucky one gets the prize.” Except this prize would have their tongue burning like a dragon's spit.
Yet it did seem Miounne’s little trick managed to liven the festival. A crowd had gathered around the stall bearing the banner ‘Miounne’s Mystery Truffle’. Nayra felt them push her this way and that, from her back, right, and left. Without much thought, she swiped a couple of each, paid the merchant, and ducked under the crowd. Once she managed to put some distance between them, she drew a deep breath.
“Got them, Nay?”
Kasia trudged over to her with a bag of candy and a cup of what looked to be strawberry juice. She indicated a stall further back, right at the edge of the amphitheater, where the cooks from Bismark had set up store.
Nayra huffed a sigh and pushed one of the truffles into Kasia’s hands. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
The limbal rings around Kasia’s violet eyes glowed. “I thought you liked spicy foods,” she said.
“Not when they’re in chocolates.”
As Kasia opened the wrapper and popped a truffle into her mouth—Nayra inwardly winced at the prospect that it was some chili pepper flavor (though it soon proved uneventful since the auri frowned and commented that it was only lemon)—Nayra scanned the grounds for their friends. She had initially come here for business, but seeing as it was Valentione’s Day and knowing there was a celebration in Gridania, Raha had of course asked to come. Kasia then tagged along after hearing about Mother Miounne’s truffles, and where Kasia went, Zorig went with her. Now even the big burly Au Ra was nowhere to be seen in this heavy crowd. Honing her senses, Nayra narrowed her eyes and spotted the emissaries in their red-and-white garbs, couples sharing chocolates and intimate moments under the shades of maple trees. Her ears picked up faint traces of a bard’s song drowned beneath the chatter of people. And then there: beyond the gate, on the stage far in the distance, where Astrid de Valentione, young protege of House Valentione and now head emissary of the Valentione celebration, held a hand toward the steps, followed by a series of claps and applauses, a familiar dark figure emerged.
Nayra wondered how she could have missed him, but maybe she hadn’t thought Zorig would be standing by the stage. The Au Ra stood imposing before the young elezen, his brown skin seemed to blend well into the woods of Mih Khetto but his dark scales stood stark against the light.
“What is he doing?” Kasia, who seemed to have been taken by surprise by the sight of her friend and partner, hung her mouth, a half-eaten truffle forgotten in her fingers.
On the stage, Astrid cleared her throat and spoke into a microphone. “Care to tell us your name, good sir?”
One of the staff had given Zorig a similar microphone. His eyes flitted awkwardly. “Zorig.”
“And what, pray tell, is your heart’s desire, Master Zorig?”
In her fight to obtain Kasia’s mysterious truffles, Nayra had forgotten that part of the stage’s event was to have people come up and speak their heart’s desire. A public romantic confession, so to speak. It was nothing new, and perhaps it was the most popular event of the festival. Beside her, Kasia seemed to pick up on what was happening, because then, Zorig’s eyes met hers across the distance, and Kasia dropped her truffle to the ground.
“Kasia!” His deep voice boomed across the speakers.
“Oh dear…” Kasia ducked behind Nayra. “Hide me. I’m not here. He didn’t see me.”
“We started off at the wrong foot, and a lot of things have happened between us since then, but I just want to let you know.” Kasia clutched onto Nayra’s back. Nayra watched as Zorig’s eyes shifted and bored into her—past her—to where Kasia, her smaller stature perfectly hidden from view, trembled in mortification. A moment of silence passed. Nayra heard his intake of breath, and then:
“I love you!”
A hush fell over the crowd, more from the loudness of his voice than his declaration itself. It didn’t help that they stood right beside one of the speakers. Nayra’s ears hadn’t stopped ringing from the moment he shouted Kasia’s name.
“I’m going to kill him,” Kasia said under her breath.
Nayra nudged Kasia out, but the auri refused to show her face.
“You need to respond,” she whispered.
“I’m not going out there!” When Nayra made to move aside, Kasia tugged her back into her place, hissing, “I’m going to kill you, Nayra, if you move from this spot!”
But the moment passed, and an applause started at the front, followed by hoots and whistles, rippling farther until the entire amphitheatre was clapping for him. Nayra joined in, glancing at the Raen still hiding behind her back. She couldn’t help her smile. “It was cute though.”
Kasia hit her spine. “Wait ‘til Raha gets on stage.”
“He wouldn’t.”
He did.
Because after Astrid thanked Zorig for his heartfelt confession and hoped that his partner return the feeling, Zorig stepped down from the stage, only to exchange fistbumps with a familiar redhead. Nayra’s jaw slackened at the sight of Raha striding across the stage.
“See?” Kasia murmured, peeking over her shoulder. Her eyes flitted over the crowd, then, seeming to notice a certain dark head moving towards them, quickly offered Nayra a farewell before scurrying away. Zorig soon emerged from the thick mass of people. The Xaela looked at her questioningly, and Nayra surreptitiously tilted her head toward the marketplace where Kasia had made her refuge. He grinned and dipped his head.
“Good luck,” she mouthed. He was going to need it. The least Kasia would do was present him with a mustard-flavored chocolate truffle to get back at him for embarrassing her. At least he seemed to know what he was getting into.
Nayra was too preoccupied with her younger friends’ plight that she had missed Raha’s introduction. When she returned her attention at the stage, she found Raha was already looking at her.
“...and I asked myself,” he was saying, “‘where is she?’”
Nayra blinked. The lines he spoke sounded familiar to her ears.
“The eastern sky grew bright, yet dawn was bereft of its gentle light. Could she truly be gone? Could we not spread our wings any longer, as yonder birds in joyous flight?”
A distant memory rose to her mind, of a play they once did when they were children—a play he had once shown her—as written in one of the books he had brought from the Baldesion library.
“I sought her, writ to her, yet the star seemed fit to see us apart. For five long years had I lost her in the fires of the Calamity. Ne’er again, I thought. Ne’er again shall I let her slip from my fingers.”
No, Nayra realized with a sudden jolt. This wasn’t the play. This was their story.
Raha’s voice rang clear and true. It shook Nayra to her core. His time at their alternate future had been a sore subject to broach, as well as the time she’d spent after Dalamud fell. They had discussed it in passing, but neither wanted to relive such harrowing moments of their lives. And so they had let it rest, opting instead to focus on the future they had promised to build together.
“I must have faith!” he went on. “Even should this body burn or crumble to dust, even should I need to traverse time and space, she shall appear if I only believe.”
He stepped down from the stage. Unbidden, Nayra found herself moving forward.
“Hence, I beseeched the moon that gave her succor: o wondrous moonlight, grant me my only wish.”
She met him halfway toward the stage. Raha was looking at her so earnestly, the only hint of a playfulness was the little smirk that tugged the corner of his lips. Then he spoke the final words that Nayra knew by heart because he had liked to recite the passage to her, except back then, he had used the character’s name instead of hers.
“Bring my beloved Nayra back to me,” he whispered.
“‘I Want to be Your Canary,’” was her first response, which prompted a grin from him.
“I might have tweaked it a bit.”
“Of course you did.”
It had been years since she last saw him act. He was never the best actor, but he had always liked reciting dialogues, as though it would transport him across time and space to where the heroes of eld had lived. It had transported her, albeit briefly, to a time when all was still good and well and her parents were still alive and the only thing they had to worry about was when to see each other next.
Nayra vaguely felt everyone’s stares, heard their bated breaths. She cleared her throat. “So, what is your heart’s desire, Raha?”
“To forever stay at your side.”
In another time, such a bold profession would have sent her blushing—sent him blushing, more likely, because the Raha she knew would never make public confessions like this. She blamed Zorig for roping Raha into this. But while their younger companion’s confession was brief, Raha had taken his time to recount his favorite passage from one of his favorite plays. Perhaps Valentione indeed had love in the air, because Nayra then leaned forward and brushed her lips against his in a light kiss. All around her, the audience broke into a collective aww.
If the stars willed it, she would want to never be parted from him again.
~ END ~