Lilyana and Nihli were gone, Rosalin too. Seasil's tears were dry, as were Orion's. The not-so-sublte pair had gone about their day preparing to embark bright and early the next morning.
Still, Seasil spend much of the day ruminating on the tasks yet to come and the potential war to be won. That, and contemplating Lorem and his potential existence. There seemed to be so many variables and so many possibilities. So many of the aforementioned variables could not be properly accounted for.
Yet, through all of these, Seasil was able to find a number of constants. Orion was one of them, or he'd made a promise to be.
With a sigh, once the sun had begun to set and the oceanic vistas became alight with stunning colors on both sky and sea, the Dragonelle arrived at Orion's Quarters. The heavy wooden doors were still polished and new, touched by few hands. She traced the Zodian Navy's crest that was so lovingly carved into the hard wood. She knew, as per usual, she was shaking.
Orion had seemed to take the talk of Lorem rather well on the docks, but she both wanted to see his real thoughts and to try to reassure her... fiance.
With a soft knock on the door, Seasil allowed herself in (only after weeks of being told she was always welcome). Her pink eyes scanned the room, coming to rest on Zodia's new king, she struggled to not look down to the floor.
"Orion...? Do... do you have a moment?"
Orion was in the midst of preparing letters of intention to just about everyone that needed one - He had already prepared such a letter for every single member of the Lagallan military, both magical and not, all five archbishops, the magisters and the other prominent nobles, and the major players of the rebellion. He was currently penning the eighth copy of the sixteen letters he was preparing for the individual(s) known as 'Reynard,' the clandestine leader(s) of the Council of Vermin. With them, he hoped to clearly deliniate what he planned to do in Lagalla, and that he had every intention of pledging his people to a future for all citizens of Orn.
He did not realize that his hand was getting sore until Seasil peeked in the door. As he saw the dragonelle, his expression softened. "Seasil? For you, I will always make time. Besides, should I not take a break from these missives, I might not be able to properly hold a quill!"
Orion moved the copies and missives over to the side and stood up. "Shall we sit in the parlor?"
Her eyes flickered to his desk, she smiled weakly, nodding in agreement to go sit with him in what would soon be her sleeping space once more.
"P-please, don't over tax yourself. T-the harder d-days are yet to come." Her brow wrinkled. "Were I able, I would send some of those myself to save you from burning the midnight oil."
She sighed, rounding one of the plush couches and settling herself in. Teal wings folded down and clutched to their common position in front of her breast.
"I... I th-thought, before anything, that I should speak to you about what Nihli had b-brought forth before she departed..." Seasil looked down, guilty and concerned. She wanted nothing more than to rip the bandage off. Yet she sat, watching, to gauge his reaction word by word.
"Ahh," he said, gently, but with a degree of uncertainty in his voice. "Yes... Nihli's 'brother,' as it were. If I am remembering her tales correctly, his name was Lorem... yes?"
Orion chuckled to himself. "With what time she and I spent together, she spoke much of him. I... I suppose I just did not realize that he was the one with whom you were once promised to."
Orion cleared his throat.
"...Or that he might still be alive, out there. Somewhere."
He let the silence hang in the air afterwards, unsure what to say. He offered a nervous smile to the dragonelle, sitting not to far from him.
Noting the waiver in Orion's voice, Seasil flinched and her wings tightened further around herself. Once more, she nodded, affirming what he'd asked.
"Yes. He was the very same." She paused, looking between Orion and her hands"... Is the very same. The world is still small, even after I th-thought everyone was gone."
She took a breath and straightened up, struggling against herself to keep looking towards Orion. "I am... s-sorry. I'm sorry, deeply, that I said nothing about him before this. I've... I've struggled to find the words. Still, I'm n-not sure how I should feel... about him, about him surviving, about the fear... about..."
Seasil felt small within her wings as her words petered out. She shook her head and took a shakey breath. "I... I w-wanted, I want you to know... everything. B-but, I don't think I know where to st-start. It feels like there's so much, Orion, not just about Lorem."
Searching her betrothed's face once more, she did her best to convey an honest stance, one that hid nothing, one that was brimming with care. Still, she was unsure how well it came across when she felt her eyes glass over.
Though she let the silence hang for a tense moment, uncertainty thick in the air, she broke it again with a barely audible, "I'm... I'm scared. I don't want anything to change."
Orion gave Seasil a soft smile before leaning over and placing a hand on hers. "Seasil... please, do not fret overmuch about this. I suppose this information is a bit... unexpected, but..."
Orion thought hard about what he intended to ask. After a moment of getting his thoughts together, running his thumb across the top of her hand, he looked back to the dragonelle and squeezed her hand gently.
"...I suppose I merely wish to know what you fear might change from this? Or... or if we were to discover his whereabouts?"
Searching her feelings and for her words, the silence after Orion's question hung in the air. Her gaze followed his hand until it came to rest atop of her's. Seasil's own hand gingerly turned and clasped onto his. Regardless, she could not stop herself from shaking.
She murmured again, "What would change?" Another pause, "I... I f-fear that my bloodline would hinder progress, for you and f-for Zodia. I... fear seeing him, Lorem, again. There's a part of me that doesn't want to d-disappoint him, b-but I was told to... I was told to be with him. I'd never thought of anything different..."
Squeezing Orion's hand, she took a shaky breath. "... until I met you."
Tentatively, she tried to look Orion him. Her look was fond, sad, and far away, all at once. "I'm... I'm also afraid of h-how this millennium may have... ch-changed him. I don't know what he'd do, or what he'd... expect upon a hypothetical meeting. I- I don't even know how I... I would feel, how I should feel. Uncertainty is... far too f-frightening."
She seemed to shrink. Still holding onto Orion's hand, she looked down again, failing her resolve. "M-most of all, I... I think, I think I d-don't want you t-to see me differently. I... I just don't want you to doubt the p-promise I made... or doubt how I feel about you, if nothing else. I... don't want this t-to change."
In the moments after she spoke, Seasil still failed to look at Orion.It was clear that the dragonelle was waivering. A multitude of emotions flickered over her face as she awaited her judgement for being so selfishly certain and yet so overwhelmingly uncertain all at once.
Orion smiled at hearing her affirmations, his cheeks rosy. "Seasil... I would be lying if I feared for the worst for a moment. After all, You are a manakete, and I am a human. To know that I will only be around for... a comparatively short time is something I cannot imagine."
Orion shifted in the seat for a moment, scooting closer to Seasil. "...But Seasil, this ultimately changes naught. If Lorem is out there... if we can find him, we will simply have to speak with him and learn what kind of person he has become. If he is half the man he has been made out to be, then I daresay he will be a staunch ally and friend. And I would lie if I said it would not be a comfort to know that others who care of you may be able to do so after I am gone..." Orion said, shaking his head and interrupting his own train of thought.
"... But that is neither here nor there. Seasil, no matter what happens, this shan't change. You have been nothing but honest and true, and the courage it must have taken to speak plainly of your past in such a way is proof of that. But the past has come and gone, and the future is a shadow full of uncertainty. But as it comes closer, I plan on meeting that frightening spectre here. With you."
Orion chuckled and ran his hand through his hair. "...And no number of immortal ex-fiances will change that, I wager... though we seem to have accumulated a shockingly large number of those, between the two of us."
Seasil watched and listened to Orion as he spoke. Her brow never unknit itself during his words. She was clearly still brimming with tension-- almost disbelieving what she was hearing. Still, she managed a chuckle of their strange, mutual, history involving near-immortality and fiances.
Thoughts flickered onto her face, left unsaid, during his words. Memories, fond and otherwise, as Orion spoke of Lorem. (A strange thing, really).
"... Y-you're too kind, Orion." Despite her shaky words, Seasil clutched his hand with even more resolve. "Perhaps it's a scale of time, p-perhaps I'm s-still just, well, nervous. That... that isn't v-very hard, though."
Seasil laughed humorlessly.
"Out of all things, I d-did not want to frighten you. I d-do with that I could have g-given you a solid answer, a decisive, reassuring word. B-but, upon further inspection, I d-don't think I have the right answer...
"I still want Lorem to be well. He was always kind, even as a young drake." Seasil sighed and looked beyond Orion for a moment, reminiscing. "If that day comes, if he is alive, I would not want you to confuse the care I have for him for the..."
Seasil paused, coming back down to Orn with a fidget and a blush as her present situation re-dawned upon her. Still, concern for the aforementioned reasons was still etched between her bashful display.
"Well, f-for the care I have for you. For however similar it m-may feel, or seem, I am most certain that it's different."
Orion smiled. "I believe you wholeheartedly, Seasil. Fortunately, I understand how you feel rather intently, albeit I had the privilege of going through such an ordeal already. I do not believe I will ever stop caring for Alstroemeria. Stars, I was raised to care about her. But she and I have gone drastically different paths, and though I still hold hopes that she will live a happy and full life, and that we may be able to work together, I understand far too keenly how much a person can change."
Orion's smile faltered for the briefest of moments.
"...But I also understand how... powerful a person's words can be. How intrinsic the truth is to a person. Seasil... you are one of the most honest people I have had the privilege of knowing. I know the words you say are nothing but the bare truth. I... I think that is why I have grown to care about you so deeply, so quickly." As he spoke, a flush of red worked its way over his freckled cheeks and up to his ears.
"I... ahh, I suppose that... what I am trying to say, Seasil... is that, for Alstroemeria, and, I suspect for Lorem as well, there will always be a part of us that care about them. Perhaps that part will wax or wane in the future, perhaps not. But... But we were told to care about them. Raised to care about them. Conditioned to care about them. But... no such direction truly occurred between the two of us."
Orion swallowed the butterflies that tried to fly from his mouth. He could hear his heartbeat ringing in his ears as he prepared to say what he wanted - no, needed - to say.
"... I-I did not have to be told... to fall in love with you, Seasil. You did that all on your own."
There it was. The word, floating, now, in the air between them.
"...And that is what made all the difference, I believe."