Private Tales To Eclipse Them All

[Eira]

When Eira smiled, genuinely, it warmed her entire expression. She supposed it took a lot to render the likes of Leovold speechless, but she had bared plenty to him in just one hallway. The presentation of the gift was her way of changing the subject, afraid he would ask too many questions about where her heart may be... but Eira's smile began to falter.

"Let this mark a strengthening to our friendship." Her voice was soft again, her eyes averting from his to look at the dagger handsomely fashioned with him in mind. "Perhaps one day, we should discuss what marriage will look like, but I always find allies and then friends is always a good basis of any relationship."

She held out her hand, an invitation for him to take it and lead her to where it was he had in mind. It had been important to tell him, to give him the gift for this was the first time they were alone without any other eyes on them. And should there be ears listening, then they both had not said anything too inflammatory.

 

[Leovold]

A wistful puff of air escaped Leovold as he allowed himself a lighthearted smile. After a moment he pocketed the dagger and took Eira's offered hand, pulling her to his side as the two of them approached an ornate set of double doors, high in the central most portion of the Solherre estate.

"I agree. Which is why I shall give my response here," Leovold replied simply as he pushed the doors open and led Eira inside.

Within was a chamber that looked almost like it belonged in a cathedral. Stained glass depictions of men and dragons circled the room high above, and great, gothic pillars held high arches aloft. The floor was carved stone, bearing pristine carvings of astral bodies and the patterns they hewed across the sky, and tapestries and banners bearing depictions of various Solherres and the house's insignia hung about tastefully.

By far what drew the eye most, however, was the dais at the center of the room, upon which rested a gemstone the size of a small child. The stone radiated a soft warmth and a comforting golden glow, and seemed to constantly hum a pleasant tone. Speckles of light were cast about the room by the stone, as though the sun itself was shining on a large prism.

"This is the Dawnstone. The ancient artifact which was created to symbolize the genesis of House Solherre, and the pact that we forged with the sun dragon brood, long, long ago," Leovold introduced, closing the doors behind as he let Eira's hand free.

 

[Eira]

Eira took a few steps inside to take in the entirety of the room. The stained glass held her gaze captive, transfixed on the sundrenched depictions of Leovold's ancestors and their sun dragons. The light washed over her, colouring her in warmth and the occasional cool toned glass. "This is beautiful."

The Malennis' did not have a room like this. If the Solherre's had their sunlit room, the Malennis' had a moonlit garden room.

Turning her head, she spied the stone Leovold spoke of. It's glow was as brilliant as the sun, but the warmth it gave to the room was something that felt natural upon her skin. As if they were stood out under the rays of the sun that had now lowered beneath the horizon.

"It is always a blessing to see a physical manifestation of the promise between our ancestors and the dragons that chose to bond with them." It was the very history of Thanasis. To this day, it is remembered and honoured. Eira found herself smiling slightly. "I used to admire the sun dragons before my own moon dragon had chosen me."

There was some mischief in her gaze as she slowly wandered closer to tje Dawnstone. She always ensured to keep a good few feet away, but she merely wished to witness more of it's brilliance. "I suppose our dragons will produce a mixed breed. I do hope they inherit the luminosity of the sun dragons."

 

[Leovold]

Something resembling a thoughtful grin stretched its way across Leovold's lips as he followed Eira closer to the stone.
"My father still believes it to be little more than a sparkling rock, but I know better. It is a bringer of beginnings. A spark that grants light and life where there is none," he explained, his gaze sliding from Eira to the stone. Pride and recollection shimmered across his features as he spoke. "I bathed Iralux' egg in its radiance, and from a still shell came the mightiest sun dragon Thanasis has seen in generations. When Tyafainne lays her first egg, I shall do the same again. Their lineage will be strong."

Leovold's eyes seemed to glow brighter than normal in the Dawnstone's presence, and he looked back to his bride to be.

"Our bond shall be as well," he told Eira, reaching behind his neck to undo a clasp. Shortly after, a length of silver chain was brought up, and an object was held firmly within Leovold's hand, obscured from sight.

The Solherre heir took Eira's hand in his own and placed the object into her palm: a fragment of the Dawnstone set into a simple necklace.

 

[Eira]

Eira felt something at his voiced intentions.

After all she had been through, this promise to her had struck her the deepest. Perhaps it was the kindness and courtesy extended to her bonded dragon, or the strong look he passed her way. Leovold Solherre was not one to speak of empty promises, and Eira knew he would treat her as his equal.

Her eyes dropped down to their hands, where he took her own and deposited the gift into her palm. The metal chain was warm, his doing, but the fragment that mirrored the Dawnstone was a different source of hear. Eira's breath hitched when she realised what he had given her, and with incredulous eyes, looked up to meet his gaze. "This... this you should keep, Leovold."

Something so precious to his family's lineage... she almost forgot that this alliance between them, this marriage, was real.

There was no way out of this, not in any way that Eira felt she should. What Leovold offered her in terms of her future was more freedom than any other noble son would extend to her.

Andso her fingers curled over the stone, and Eira gave him a genuine smile. "Will you help me with the clasp?" One hand went to brush the long waterfall of her hair aside to aide in securing the chain around her neck.

 

[Leovold]

For a moment it seemed that Eira wanted to refuse the stone, and Leovold was prepared to insist. However, that reluctance gave way to acceptance after only a few moments. This much earned another smile from Leovold.

With a nod, he rounded her side and took each end of the chain in his fingers and fastened the clasp behind her. The close proximity between the two of them was not lost on him, but Leo remained respectful.

The young noble could see Eira's reflection faintly in the facets of the Dawnstone, and the fragment that now hung from her neck scintillated gently .

"It looks much better on you than it ever has on me," Leovold commented with a soft chuckle.

 

[Eira]

Eira placed her hand over the fragment, feeling the warmth against her skin. She noted how soft his fingers were when they brushed at the back of her neck, a precision to his movements with within seconds she felt the warm chain fall against her. She turned to him, smiling, to show him how it now hung around her neck.

His words elicited a loud burst of laughter, a hint of her nerves for it struck her that they were both together in this surprise of an arrangement. "I must say it certainly is quite the statement piece I have ever worn." It felt more grounded, more Thanasis in history than all the other fashions she was known to wear.

She was used to being dressed in silvers, in blues, and purples. To always reflect the colours moon dragons liked best in the night, and that black attire never looked like mourning colours on a Malennis.

"I adore it, Leovold." Eira's hand returned to lightly clutch the fragment. "Thank you."

There could have been worse men to be betrothed with, and yet despite her wanting to be against this marriage purely to spite her brother's choice, she knew she was lucky to have made a friend of Leovold Solherre. He was in this for the advantage, and so was she. These gifts solidified their promise to each other.

 

[Leovold]

Eira's laugh caught Leovold off guard, but he melted into laughter of his own after only a moment. The solar rune on his forehead and his irises flared a moment as he made his next jest.
"We Solherres have never been ones for discretion, I fear. Sun dragon magic doesn't much allow for things like subtlety...or muted colors."

As his laughter died down he returned to a neutral smile, his eyes looking downward to see the shard in her hand, then back up to meet her gaze.

"I'm glad. It's my honor to have you wear it," he concluded. It occurred to him thereafter that he didn't really know how to proceed. This was all unfamiliar territory to him, despite being in his own home. "Well...shall we continue the tour? Or, was there something else you wanted to discuss? We won't get much better privacy than in here."

 

[Eira]

She wondered perhaps if Leovold had thought of someone else wearing such an heirloom of his family's. So quickly came the thoughts of not wanting to part with this gift, and her reasoning came to be that there was no moonslight without the sun's brilliance. Leovold was not wrong in that the Solherres echoed this ever burning presence.

"We continue on." She decided. If they stayed too long in places, Eira did not want to give the staff reason to gossip untruths.

"Is it true you have the prettiest library this side of the Palace Quarter?" Of course, society events often took place in homes of the rich and the nobility, but nothing beyond parlour rooms and ballrooms. She had heard only of gossip and information being passed around, but never seen any of it with her own eyes. "I... like to read when I do find the time. Sometimes I merely wish to be in a quiet room."

 

[Leovold]

"So we shall," Leovold replied, taking Eira's arm in his own and beginning to lead her back out of the chamber of the Dawnstone. He cast her a curious glance at her question, but she quickly clarified, and Leovold chuckled.

"I cannot say that our library is any more or less pretty than those belonging to the other houses, but mother and I do try to keep it well kempt," he jested as they arrived back in the hall, the Solherre noble pulling the door firmly closed behind them. "That's one more thing for me to admire about you, then. I don't often find the time for reading these days, given my responsibilities, but study is important. My father would've had me believing that sun dragons were meant to be as small as the current generation of them are, had I not decided to go looking at our history."

 

[Eira]

It was becoming easier to take his arm and feel at comfort with the action, for Eira knew she would have to pretend even if she could not bear to be on anyone else's arm. Leovold made it easier to bear, for being patient with her and trusting her, she felt compelled to play her part in this and tell their respective demons in their lives that they would not go quietly.

"Precisely what led me to pursue reading texts. Every rider that has bonded to a Moon Dragon has been able to keep journals of their experiences. Actually, writing about our dragons becoming mates has been quite difficult to put to quill." Eira smiled. She had wondered if she should include it, for fear that it may not last, but she recalled her father once telling her everything may prove useful one day. "Perhaps you should take some time in the library with me? We could write a shared experience of the cross breed of two celestial dragons."

Oh, perhaps that was... Eira's face fell only slightly. "I mean that in a more studious manner, Leovold. I did not mean to come across as... demanding for your time. " She looked up at him sheepishly. "Never mind that."

Turning her attention to the halls as he lead her through, Eira took in the quiet opulence if this residence. She could see the warmth in which the Lady Solherre kept up, but also the pride of this home Leovold held. It made the prospect of living here, being the next Lady Solherre, and more forgiving outcome.

 

[Leovold]

A soft chuckle escaped him.
"As you wish," he answered, walking onwards down the hall. "It's a ways down, but we can access it from this story."

He pondered the thought of what sort of hybrid Tyafaine and Iralux might produce. Such a union really hadn't been heard of in any of his experience. Dragons of opposite natures tended not to intermix, if the history of sapphires and reds was anything to go off of.
"I'll be very curious to see what comes from those two..."

Then he quirked a brow at the woman as they walked, momentarily confused.
"Should a husband not be able to make time for his wife?" he asked plainly, seriously. Platonic and arranged their partnership was to be, but that did not influence the way Leovold viewed his duties as a husband.

 

[Eira]

Eira met his inquiry, her own brows furrowed in uncertainty.

"Those that wish to, I suppose... but I only wonder..." She pursed her lips a moment before releasing them and wetting them with a quick run of her tongue. "What would our arrangements be in our alliance of marriage? What role would you like me to play in order to... defy your father." The last words came in a soft whisper, only meant for his ears.

She turned her gaze forward, a hand straying towards the pendant that he had gifted her. It's weight was warming, welcoming, and touching her fingertips to it brought her a sense of calm.

"With a union between Malennis and Solherre, and our dragons now become mated despite their bloodlines rarely cross breeding, already I have heard whispers in society. Some think we are beginning a new age, that any heirs we produce will carry that legacy." Only a slight pink settled at her cheeks. This was not proper talk between intendeds, but Eira had always given her all in order to come out on top.

If Leovold won, then so did she.

"We would have separate bedchambers, yes?" As was tradition among nobility. Eira spoke as if this sort of topic was to be expected of them, that they were to make plans and assurances. "And we would need to figure out how we serve in the Thunder once married. Often, noble women retire in favour of putting their attentions to family. I... I do not wish to step away." She was a Malennis. To fight, to defend, that was all in her nature.

 

[Leovold]

A set of oaken doors awaited the pair at the end of the hallway, and for a time they lingered outside of it. Eira's question gave him pause. Details were not often Leovold's strongest suit.

"That is...difficult to say. I mean to show to all of Thanasis his incompetence, his wanton ignorance, while positioning myself as prestigiously as I can. Then, either by trial or by duel, I intend to depose him as lord of our house. But I don't yet feel that Tyros is sufficiently shamed, nor do I feel sufficiently decorated..." he spoke low in turn, explaining his position as best he could as simply as possible. "Iralux is still my shining key to that goal, and in spite of him pairing with Tyafaine, he is ultimately a male, and can be used to sire a stronger generation of sun dragons. Even if artificially."

He sighed after a fashion and shook his head.
"Unfortunately, my father has put a damper on that plan by way of that Thagretian abomination he calls a dragon, Magnus. I had no idea he'd been having it bred and raised until he unveiled it at a parade a few months ago. That, along with this arrangement between you and me, were meant to be insurmountable setbacks, I'm sure..."

So focused was he on these plots and schemes that it took him several moments to register the words "heirs we produce" and the sentences around them. He paused a moment and blinked, looking down and noticing that subtle blush. In that moment, he the sentiment was shared.

"Ahem, yes, well, um...that, and the bedchamber arrangement, is certainly something worth considering."
The solar rune on his forehead burned a bit hotter, a bit brighter than normal, and his smoldering eyes could not meet Eira's gaze for a few moments. "...In any case...I would not ask you to retire from the Thunder, any more than I could step down from the Scaleguard. We are both warriors. Even should we, er...carry a legacy...then that legacy should be raised to know what strength is, by example."