Date Night

Theu tries to breath a steady beat out of despite what feels like an invisible hand griping her lungs, forcing each pronounce breath past her lips and she has to swallow each new pinprick whiff of air into her lungs.

Her hands are gripping the edge of the boat, body b with tension as they sail across the lake and, follows the windling ahead of them with a careful distance. There are other boats are beside them, hanging back and ever watchful as Theu and nerves frying at the edges just so.

The quiet chatter on the large ferry situated between drifts to the air reminding Theu that the party is still going on into the night but she recalls seeing the extensive foods and drinks lay out in front of Elders on the long table lay mostly untouched and the chatter distractive and hush and speculative about the pair on the windling not to far away from them, drifting in night sky reflected in the clear water of the Ildris Lake.

Paper lanterns purposefully hang freely in the air like scatter stars and down below on the surface of the water, captured lights of the lanterns and stars illuminate the area in a flash of dazzling light as if one is wrap up by the starry night and drifting through a sea of stars.

Theu had seen many Starry Night Festivals in her life but none this heartrendingly beautiful. Over a hundred people and over twelve days of a hard labor, all in in preparation for this one single night and all for the two most important people in Esse to lay witness to it, to be a captive audience to the most beautiful light show on Sumdra.

The Head Priestess and the Elders had planned for this event to be a romantic experience for the Regis and Consort, to bridged their awkwardness and to help further their relationship but watching them barely exchange a word between each other i, making them all realize perhaps this been a futile effort all along.

Theu had witnessed the pair of them fought for each other against all the odds, with the trials and the Imperium staunchly standing in the their way, and here they are now married and bound together by a contract made before the gods and yet they can’t even spare a look toward each other under this beautiful moonlit night.

The Starry Night festival is a celebration of romance and rejuvenate love but for this particular night it seems hopeless and barren, the romance had died long before it even began.

And Theu can neither lay the blame on either of them.

The Regis is all decked out in on one of his best dressrobes–the white and silver dressrobe with blue detailing throughout that earmarks the half-face white mask with a half moon silver metal, intricately carved like web of lace, that stretches over the top of the head and dotted with shimmering black jewels that somehow make the mask shines into the night like its own night sky; and the Consort’s outfit matches that with similar a set of colors but lighter shade of blue and heavier set of dressrobe and his head is crown with golden pair of star ornaments headpiece that had him listing to the side on several occasion due to its bulkiness. 

They should have look like a pair of well match lovers enjoying this beautiful boat ride through this celestial light show before them but they are quiet and sullen on the windling. Their body stiff and tense and the atmosphere choking with the awkwardness between them and they sit apart, sharing the small space on the windling but somehow the gulf feels vast and deep between them for all the eyes to see.

The Regis always put his duty first before anything else, and work has always kept him busy and bound to his seat of power, he is god-king before he is ever a man, and he had very little time for love let alone trying to romance his consort and their new Consort is—is well, very pitiful.

The Consort looks at their world with wary caution, their people with heavy skepticism, and their Regis with doubtful eyes like he is constantly unsure of his place among them.

It must be exhausting to live in a perpetual state fear and distrust, Theu thinks, to be on guard and to hold yourself apart from everyone else as though the ground you stand on is forever shifting and thinning under you and you can fall through at any moment.

The Consort, she thinks helplessly and with a sweeping melancholy, might as well be the most pitiful person in this country.

Alone and adrift in this foreign land he must bare it all or be buried under the resentment and hatred of an entire nation of people and he is so young too.

Nearly the same age as her child already and she can’t help worrying over him.

There are times when the Consort seem sunken into his skin, hidden under a picture of demure and hesitant passiveness that make one itch to yank him out of it but every now and then Theu get a glimpse of a flash of fierce determination buried underneath and it shocks them to see their quiet Consort rise to the occasion, head unbowed and feet firmly planted on the ground, and that makes her wonder which one is the real Donghae all along.

Maybe–perhaps Donghae is neither or both of them all along as she watches the Consort leaning over the edge of the windling, and looks down at the glassy translucent water with an open childish curiosity and wonder. It’s with somewhat hesitant that he reaches over and down the side of the windling and dips his hand into the water, shy but compelled by a force so strong that it carried him through the action.

He jerks his hand back in shock when the water gave away underneath his touch and a dark head pokes out of the water to greet him, eyes black and huge and its body glows with an eerie light. The water of Lake Ildris are home to  creatures whose bodies are almost reminiscence of the night sky, bodies filled with stars themselves, and glows with a light that shine through the night.

After that, more Dhaus pops up around the windling and they swim alongside the boat and looks up beseechingly at the Consort, and it takes a while before the Consort, with Theu and everybody else watching the scene and holding their breath as he hesitantly peeks over the edge of the boat, the Regis right next to him now and hovering near by—a silent sentinel in the dark. 

“They are called Dhau and they are completely harmless,” the Regis tells the Consort, encouraging him so. “You can touch it, don’t worry.” He puts his hand over the side of the boat to prove his point and a Dhau near him immediately responds to it. It raises it head out of the water and happily leans into the touch and basked in the attention given by the Regis before the Regis pulls away and turns toward the Consort expectantly, patiently waiting for the Consort next move.

The Consort nods his head gingerly in acceptance, eyes unsure but holds the Regis unflinching gaze, and as the Consort peers over the side of the boat once again, pushing his entire weight up against it and his head stretching over the water, the golden star headpiece tilts precariously over the Consort’s head. Theu’s breath hitches, the shout caught in and the words twisted on her tongue, and before she could even say anything, the heavy headpiece falls over and threatens to take the Consort with it.

a/n: oh donghae -drops hand to face-. i love how their one on one date is like some sort of grand show everyone kind of WEIGHING IN ON and that there is very little room to be personal and have privacy and everyone is SO INVESTED IN THEIR RELATIONSHIP more than THEY ARE lol.

*windling boat is a type of flatbottom boat similar to a Venetian gondola except it’s not human power boat but BY MAGICAL wind the pushes against the boat to move the boat along hence the name windling.

**the starry night festival is celebration of the night and stars and it’s a super romantic event that honor those you love and particular your significant other.

***the elders are basically head priests that serve and are closest to the regis b/c regis = god represented to esse so regis is closer to the clergy than he is to the councilmen (who are elected/inherited their position). I THINK IT’S FUNNY THAT THESE OLDER MEN AND WOMEN WHO ARE FIGUREHEAD OF THEIR TEMPLE AND SECT ARE BASICALLY PLAYING MATCHMAKING AND A LITTLE TOO OBSESS WITH THEIR REGIS’ LOVE LIFE. they think hyukjae is horrifying old for someone so YOUNG, like seriously cheer up kid and just let yourself fall in love but ha hyukjae of course would even make that DIFFICULT and of course we have to take in account that the consort is that donghae.