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Some days it is only Lantis, fingers curled loosely around Eagle’s wrist or resting gently on his ankle. Eagle may not be able to see him but he can always, always feel him – a heavy yet comforting presence, like the looming shadow of a mountain. Lantis sits by his side for hours on end, as still and unmoving as a statue. They don’t speak often. Lantis is waiting, Eagle knows, for the day he is recovered. For the day they are able to look into each other’s eyes once more. It will be easier, then, to say all the things that they have kept from each other.
(For now, this silence is enough.)
Other days bring Hikaru, and with her comes brightness and a vivid sense of levity.
She likes to tell him stories, about her family and her classmates in school and her “dog,” whatever that might be. Her world – this “Earth” – is bewildering to him. Complex and indescribably vast, but also somehow… rustic. A world with no magic, and only the first stirrings of technological revolution, and yet the skies are blue, she says. They have deserts of both sand and ice, and rivers so clean you can drink from them, and forests of real, living trees that stretch for miles. The thought of such pure, unadulterated life awes him. The people of Earth are lucky, he thinks, and she laughs.
“I wish every one of them could hear you say that,” she says, her small fingers intertwined with his own.
She likes to ask him questions, too, infinitely curious about the inconsequential details of their lives.
“What was Lantis like at the academy?” she asks one day. Her voice is eager. At his side he can feel Lantis shift, and pictures his expression: wry and pensive, his dark eyes soft, lips quirking into a half-smile.
Oh, he was terribly somber, Eagle thinks. Even moreso than he is now, if you can believe it. I would always invite him to parties and get-togethers and he would refuse, saying he had studying or training to do.
“It wasn’t necessarily a lie,” Lantis protests. “Not all of us were as naturally adept as you, Eagle.”
And all the girls liked him, Eagle adds. They found his constant brooding alluring, I think. Though I don’t believe any of them ever confessed to him. He was much too unapproachable.
Hikaru giggles at this, and Eagle feels Lantis sit up a little straighter.
“… I had no idea,” he murmurs, astonishment tingeing his words.
You see, Hikaru? Eagle thinks, and where once he may have sounded bitter, now there is only fond exasperation. When it comes to matters of the heart, he is oblivious.
.
.
One day Hikaru comes with stories of her cousin’s wedding. She describes the “cake” in loving detail, and mentions how beautiful her cousin looked in her white dress, and repeats all the jokes her Uncle Kazu told her, few of which make any sense to Eagle and Lantis. (They laugh anyway.)
What is a wedding like on Earth? Eagle asks. It sounds far more lively than Autozam, where the legal union of people is a rather tiring, clinical affair.
“Well… It’s different all around the world,” Hikaru says brightly. “But where I come from there’s a serious ceremony first and a fun reception afterwards. The ceremony usually takes place in a chapel, and it’s really pretty – the father of the bride walks her down the aisle and gives her away to the groom, and after they read their vows the minister marries them and they kiss.”
Bride and groom? Eagle echoes, questioning.
“Oh, right! The bride is the woman who’s getting married, and the groom is the man.”
Only one man and one woman can marry on Earth?
“…Yeah,” Hikaru says, and he can hear her frowning. “I never really understood why, but… That’s just how it is.”
If his eyes were open, he and Lantis would undoubtedly be exchanging a baffled glance. Earth only seems stranger and stranger the more Hikaru speaks of it.
“Anyone can marry on Autozam, as long as they prove their love,” Lantis says. “It is much the same here in Cephiro.”
Yes, has anyone told you about Cephiran weddings, Hikaru? Eagle asks. They’re quite elaborate, or so I’ve heard. The celebration usually lasts for days, sometimes even a week. It all depends on the complexity of their tapestry.
“Tapestry?”
“It’s an old custom here,” Lantis explains. “The guests at a wedding are expected to create a gift for those being married. They take turns stepping away from the ceremony to enter a special room, and there each person uses a bit of their Will to weave a tapestry. Just a few threads at a time. Once it’s finished the tapestry is supposed to represent everyone’s feelings and well-wishes for those being wed.”
And it’s said, Eagle adds, that ‘just as a tapestry woven from Will shall never fray, neither shall the bonds of love.’
A silence falls over the room, and then:
“Oh wow,” Hikaru whispers. Her fingers curl a little tighter around Eagle’s wrist. “That’s – that’s amazing!”
You think so?
“Yes! It’s so beautiful!” She pauses, then, and hums thoughtfully. “I wonder what my tapestry might look like… I bet Umi would put in some blue, and Fuu would put in some green. And Presea would put in some reds and pinks and oranges, like a sunset! And my brothers…” She trails off, a sudden hesitation in her voice. “Oh, but if I got married in Cephiro, would they even be able to come? I’ve never thought about that before.”
She sounds saddened by the thought.
Beside him Lantis chuckles softly and says, “I’m sure something could be arranged.”
.
.
When finally he wakes, the world looks different. Brighter, and more distinct, like a veil has been lifted from his eyes. The details seem sharper and the colours more vibrant, and he lifts a hand to the light, examining the pattern of veins beneath his pale skin. Can he really be alive? Does he really have a future? It all feels too good to be true.
“Ah,” a familiar voice says. “You’re awake.”
He turns his head and sees Lantis there, seated in his usual place at Eagle’s bedside. He is smiling gently, a book balanced in one hand, Hikaru leaning against his shoulder as she sleeps.
“Apparently they had a ‘cultural festival’ today at her school,” he explains. “Her class ran a ‘haunted house’ and two people were out sick, so she ended up taking on some extra responsibilities.”
Eagle raises an eyebrow. “A ‘haunted house’?” he says. It’s been a while since he last spoke aloud – his voice is rough and low from disuse. “Goodness. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say that sounds downright dangerous.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Lantis murmurs, shaking his head bemusedly. The motion disturbs Hikaru, who sits up with a yawn, rubbing at her eyes.
“Sorry,” she mumbles. “I didn’t mean to fall… asleep…” Her words fade away into nothing when she looks at Eagle. She tilts her head to the side. She blinks a few times. And then, slowly, a smile spreads across her face.
“You know, I had a dream that you woke up,” she laughs. “What a funny coincidence!”
Eagle’s chest hurts. His throat feels tight. He smiles back at her and reaches out to touch her cheek, fingertips trembling as he brushes her hair from her face and tucks it behind her ear. Lantis’s hand comes to rest on the nape of his neck, a warm and solid weight, like an anchor keeping him tied to this place, this moment.
“There’s no such thing as coincidence in Cephiro,” he says softly, and pulls them both in close.
.
.
(They may have invited a few too many people to this wedding, Lantis says. Their tapestry is little more than a jumbled, chaotic muddle of colour, purples clashing garishly next to yellows and greens.
“It’s perfect,” Hikaru says, beaming.
And it is.)