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The sky was dyed in orange and red, the embers of the day fading towards night as you felt the sand on your toes. Most often it was simply easier to float effortlessly, just as the Emperor did at your side, yet moments like these…
“It is good to be grounded,” he agreed, the soft echoes of his voice a comfort in your mind.
“Thank you, for indulging me.” You could feel the warmth of a smile from him as you replied, no sound disturbing the peaceful silence of the air around you, but thoughts shared as direct words imbued with feelings in ways you would never have been able to describe before you joined him.
“It is necessary to rest,” the Emperor as always kept you calm with his presence. Thoughtful, in a way some might describe as calculating, but the tickle at the edge of your mind told you he was merely making more excuses to spend time together away from the work that remained.
There was so little time, it seemed, to simply be. From the moment you had awoken in a strange pod, terrified and alone, it had been one crisis to the next, solving everyone’s problems but your own, yet through it all… He was there.
A different face at first, a necessary precaution, and a memory that was not unwelcome either. The Emperor chose a form that would bring you comfort and safety until he could be himself with you, and until you could truly become yourself with him.
For a while, you simply walked along the sand, side by side. Two sets of footprints behind you leaving a trail across the empty beach, slight breeze stirring the fabric of your cloak. He didn’t need to touch you for his warmth to be palpable at your side, the soft embrace of simpler thoughts merely caressing your mind instead.
This was the perfect place, one where you both felt at peace – where the sea and stars meet, he would say, where the moon herself can kiss the waves. There were those rare moments when his pragmatic nature fell away to a hint of the poetic in its place. Moments that you treasured, savoured, and held close when you had to be apart.
Your thumb idly ran across the ring on your finger, a symbol of your devotion, a promise made as hearts entwined. Before you could stop it, a slight wistful sigh slipped out into the twilight.
“Is something wrong?” The Emperor’s concern tentatively reached out, a question rather than delving into your thoughts without permission.
Rather than replying, you opened your mind to him, inviting his consciousness to dip into the surface of your own. Memories and emotions, affections and longings, each one drifting by like reflections on a pond as he observed with the same detached calm that made his presence ever more reassuring to have at your side.
He beckoned in return, bringing your thoughts to his own, sharing a gallery of beautifully painted memories and bathing you in the warm light that came with them. “It is rare we should have such a peaceful night, we should make the most of it.”
You nodded, feeling a slight heat rise to your cheeks as his hand sought yours, entwining your fingers in a simple gesture that felt like so much more with the weight of emotion it carried.
“You are an island in the sea,” the Emperor stopped walking, gesturing to the water gently lapping at the sand, the deeper ocean reflecting the last embers of the day as starlight began to pierce through the gathering darkness above. “A haven, somewhere a weary sailor can rest.”
“You are the waves on the shore,” you squeezed his hand gently, “washing my troubles away.”
The tip of his tentacle came up to your cheek, a soft caress that lingered for a moment like a kiss, tracing the constellation of freckles that dotted your skin even as an illithid. Your tail curled around his lower legs in a motion you had come to know as an embrace as his head bent down to meet yours, foreheads pressing together as you shared the moment together.
You found yourself opening your mind more, showing him the depth of your affection for him, the truth behind it, and finding the sentiment met tenderly but no less passionately with the tide of his emotion washing through you.
At times like these, you wondered if perhaps it was some unknown magic, or simply a quirk of illithid nature that found time around you standing still. The whole realm melted away, leaving only you, your lover, and the soft lullaby of the sea.
Your feet left the ground as the Emperor levitated with you, both rising from the sand as his arms wrapped around you in a protective embrace. At least like this you could adjust a little more for the height difference, return the gesture with your arms around his waist, feeling the soft rumble of that noise – the one between a growl and a purr – that bubbled through his chest when he was truly content.
And he was – as were you – utterly enraptured by the warmth of being close to him, of feeling so completely adored for everything you are and everything you could be. More than accepted, cherished. The Emperor could think of no more precious treasure than to share his heart with you, to build a future by your side. Thought and emotion ebbed and flowed between you both, banishing the shadows of the day until only serenity and starlight remained.
Eventually you parted from the embrace, yet your hands remained entwined, footprints in the sand ending where you had stopped to face each other as you continued along in effortless flight side by side.