It didn’t take long to get food for the both of them, in fact, it was quite easy when the king was having another one of his moments with communing to the God of Death, Astra, from within The Shadowing. Despite the king, apparently, being a powerful Seer himself, Zhafiran still found it hard to believe he was able to communicate with Astra from within The Shadowing.
It just wasn’t possible in his mind, but then again, he did fall in love with a Kitsune princess so maybe a lot of things can happen without being planned. He grins at the thought of it; being in love with her. He was one lucky guy having such a sweet soul who loved him back.
The king did try to command him to gather Nayrorei for him to scold before Zhafiran, disguised in Lunistria’s identity once more, waved it off and decided to cover it up with excuses that she was tired and didn’t really feel well today. He did rough her up a bit, so he figured she deserved to have a break from training and/or dealing with her horrible family for the day.
She deserved a lot more, but this is what he could do for her for the time being.
So, here he was, walking back to her room with a few buns in hand and a few of Nayrorei’s favorite flowers to eat. During the time that they’ve been living under the same humongous and over fancied roof, Zhafiran discovered the difference of their diets and just generally how he lived as a prince of Aeternum compared to Nayrorei’s lifestyle. Zhafiran loved meat, where Nayrorei would rather have nothing to do with meat entirely as most of her diet revolved around flowers and herbs.
She was a complete vegan, while he was the complete opposite to that. Which meant, naturally, the kingdom was accustomed to the Kitsune kinds’ diet, which also meant that they had absolutely no traces of meat whatsoever in the entire castle. The man had never had to devour plants before, and it definitely didn’t help that he craved a good curry or meat casseroles every night, only to be greeted by yet another green vegetable.
Luckily, the diners still had one thing that he didn’t mind living off of: bread. Bread being the one thing that kept him and his sanity intact when it came to food. He wasn’t a picky eater, and sandwiches were one of his favorites when it came to a simple lunch. Unlike his Eternal life, he doesn’t require food at all as a Crystalian, but it didn’t mean that he couldn’t indulge himself in his previous life’s lifestyle.
He wondered if life would have been different if he met Nayrorei in that life, whether things would have turned out the way it is now; though he highly doubts it. The only reason why he became an Eldian in the first place was because he trusted Faron, and then Faron dragged him into the trials literally moments later.
He’s a fool, a kind hearted fool, which is why he didn’t trust people as easily as before. If he had the choice to lay his life in Nayrorei’s hands, he would, because that was the only person left for him to trust; everyone else was swallowed by The Shadowing.
He arrives at her door and opens it again, sliding past it before closing the door once more. Upon glancing at the girl snuggled on his side of the bed, he reverted his appearance back to the blue haired prince before he placed himself next to her. He feels bad for waking her up, rubbing her cheek with his pinkie finger, whispering sweet words into her ear to coax her awake. She finally stirs awake, creaking one of her eyes open and contently smiles at the boy in front of her.
“Hello there, my love.” He greets with the same content smile before he gently places his lips upon hers. She keens into him, wrapping her arms around his head to bring him closer; he pushes the plate of food on a spare space on their bed before he returns her embrace in kind. He feels her face radiate in her blush, even after everything they’ve done, she still blushes at even the smallest displays of affection; he finds it simply adorable.
A small flick of her tail and tap of her finger against the base of his neck was enough to tell him that she needed air, something he didn’t specifically need anymore as a Crystalian. He pulls away, hearing her gasp for air while he delves down to her neck to kiss instead, feeling the hairs on her skin raise as he lovingly drags his lips across it.
“D-Door.” Nayrorei stutters breathlessly, dragging his attention elsewhere from her to lazily slide his hand to motion some gravitation powers to lock the door. He then remembers what he brought, and that maybe his little Seer did deserve a break from his treatment; so with a mental pout, he slides the plate of food in between them.
“Are you fluent in Common?” He asks, holding a small piece of bread with a nutritious flower on top of the slice to Nayrorei’s lips and her attention is immediately taken away as she noms onto the bread. He must have guessed right that she would love to eat this type of flower, while he simply picked it out because the chef said it was nutritious.
She shakes her head after a while, “I know bits, Kitiri is mostly similar. If I know the words, I can just say it how I would say it in Kitiri.”
“Is that why you didn’t talk to me at the beginning?” He tilts his head, watching how her expressions changed when he asked the question, as if she’s hesitating to answer.
“...”
She looks sad for a moment, sitting up straight and holding the bed sheet to cover her body. Zhafiran chuckles at the girl’s struggle for a moment before taking his own shirt off and sliding it onto her. She pauses for a bit, as if to comprehend the situation before snuggling his shirt. He figured she’d like it, adjusting the pillow behind her so that she could lean against it as he drew another piece of bread to her lips.
“I know words, but even in Kitiri, I can’t say them…” she bites onto another piece, her ears flick upwards as she chomps down onto a specific crunchy part of the flower. “So I never bothered to talk because I would probably say the wrong thing than what I wanted to say, if that makes sense.”
“It does, I sorta feel the same way.” He adjusts himself next to her, hooking an arm around her waist to keep her close to him, to which she snuggles closer when realising his intent. “Though feelings and vocalising it are difficult things, I do find one thing easy to do now.” Her attention is brought over to him as she quizzically waits for him to continue, one ear drooped down while the other remains tall.
“To express how much you mean to me,” a gentle kiss is placed on her forehead, her ear flicks. “How much I adore you,” he kisses her nose, making her blush once more. “Even if my words fail me,” he kisses her cheek, “I’ll always stand by your side and speak through my actions,” he places another in kind to her other cheek. “Even if the world is against you, I will always find a way to keep you safe.” As if placing all of his love for her into one kiss, he rests his lips upon hers for a moment before pulling back to allow her to continue eating.
Instead, he finds tears exit the corner of her beautiful violet eyes, he swiftly brushes them away with more kisses. He feels her tail wrap around his leg, rubbing his nose against hers once her tears stop.
“Tir mien siu aarmbru teuyu.” She whispers breathlessly, hugging his face closer to hers as she wraps her legs around him from under the sheet. “Whatever you just said, I feel the same way,” he accepts her embrace, returning it in kind as he chuckles. He has no idea what she just said, but he had a feeling it was something romantic.
“It means… like… ‘I... was meant for you’... or something.” She’s uncertain how to translate it for him, but it was roughly the aim of that sentence that would send him the right way, nonetheless, he places another kiss on her lips.
“I definitely feel the same way then. But please eat something before we get carried away.”
“Okay, hehe!” She giggles. Zhafiran had barely heard Nayrorei laugh or giggle, so when she does, it’s like a spell for him to try and make her laugh more just to listen to her - it meant she was happy, something she didn’t really experience much when outside of their room.
It wasn’t long for Nayrorei to finish her food along with the rest of the day to fly by; they had fun, just the two of them. Nayrorei mentioned Ither knocking against the door in the morning, but neither him nor her father bothered knocking on the door, even later on.
Zhafiran hated to think of it, but he guessed it was because of Nayrorei’s noises from the morning that led to them thinking of… something else… and chose not to interrupt them. He was kinda thankful in a way that they didn’t bother her for the day, but it also concerned him to an extent. Her father, as usual, seemed more worried about her fulfilling her duty when he saw him after their activity, so maybe he didn’t hear her?
Either way; it was worth it in the end because of the amount of fun they had. As the soft winds wafted against her window, and as the soft breaths of her slumber brush against his neck, he can’t help but ponder about the hard truth incoming.
The Shadowing. Zhafiran clearly remembered handing the Sword of Eternal Shelter, Eldhiviren, to his friend.
He never returned back, otherwise he would have known.
Szaren Issombral; another blue haired Eldian like himself, who happened to be the son of Faron and Shina, the God of Alchemy and Knowledge and Goddess of Light and Lightning. Szaren was an odd one as he had a slightly darker shade of blue hair when both of his parents had majority white hair, with Faron having black strands that streaked across it. Shina was an old childhood friend of Zhafiran, and he knew that her father and mother both had dark blue hair; so he figured Szaren skipped Shina’s albino gene and took after their gene instead.
He fought alongside Zhafiran and Rhaeth, Nayrorei’s mother, in the war against The Shadowing. And after Rhaeth and many others’ sacrifice, it was only Zhafiran and Szaren left on the field.
It was too painful to bear that weapon, the same weapon that contained the souls of the millions of people that fought against The Shadowing… all trapped inside its stomach inside that sword.
He remembers Szaren limping towards him, his arm missing, part of his face dissolved - he was a wreck while he, himself, had not a single scratch on him. He remembered why because he admits it wholeheartedly, without a doubt; he is a coward. Why else would he try so hard to make up for his mistakes? That monster took his life before, and he couldn’t bring himself to fight it again.
He froze, just as the girl that he loved so dearly, mother pushed him aside and evaporated right in front of him. The least he could do was protect her daughter, the least he could do was love her more than she could, because her life was brought to an end solely because of him.
He could hear her voice; ‘it was my choice’, because she was always that type of woman to say that sort of thing. She did what she wanted, and he admired that, she was his teacher and he followed her ways. But he failed to bring her back home to her daughter. Maybe Nayrorei would have loved to see her mother for the first time, given that her mother was called to battle literally a week after giving birth to her and Nayrorei would not have a single chance of remembering her face at that age.
Her father would have entered the battle with his Knight Rhaeth, sheltering Ither and Nayrorei to lead the kingdom for them, instead of laying all hope and faith into the little Seer he protectively held close to her father’s role in fate.
“I’m sorry, Nayrorei…” He whispers into her hair like a prayer he wishes for her to hear. She’s deep asleep, snuggled into his embrace, too far gone to pay attention to the world outside of her dreamland. It’s his fault her mother is not here with her today, and he will do everything in his power to make sure she doesn’t join her in The Shadowing’s abyss.