* [This scene contains content some might find upsetting. Please check the post/chapter titled Episode Six: “Monsters” Content Warning List and Pronunciation Guide for a list of content warnings.]
[This scene also has a plot summary at the end for those who need to skip this scene but still want to know the important plot points of it. Happy (and safe) reading!]
Belle lay across Richard’s chest in a bed almost as big and luxurious as his bed back at Broken Earth—Lady Qatra had spared no expense in furnishing this guest house for the Crown Prince. The curtains on the four-poster bed had been drawn back, as had the curtains on the wide windows across the room, to reveal the inky-blue sky and all its twinkling stars
(so like his magic)
shining down on the city below. Some quiet part of Belle’s mind, the part that had handed the reins off to Lady Belle for the remainder of this trip, wondered at the lack of a moon watching over them. It was only a few days past the full moon, and the few smokey clouds here and there wouldn’t be enough to hide her. So where was she?
(Has she left us?)
“It must be a weapon,” Richard was musing at the ceiling, speculating on what it was Aran had ordered him to Toll to see as he traced absent circles on Belle’s back.
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His magic was crackling all over her skin; that combined with the obscenely fluffy mattress beneath them made Belle feel like she was floating inside a thundercloud—the ones that came on hot summer nights, that lit up with silent lightning and refused to cry out their rain.
“Some genius Elleipsium invention,” he continued. “A thing that could kill the Serpent in one shot. What would those bastardbeasts on Monster Island say then?”
“They wouldn’t,” Belle fed him, her tone full of hollow moonlight. “They’d be too busy shitting their shorts.”
He laughed, full and loud. It was always odd when Richard laughed so genuine like that—the ripple of mirth across his magic, the earnest joy in his voice. It was those moments more than any other that reminded Belle that he was just a person. Just a man who had once been a boy. It was those moments that had made her think, in the early days, that she could help him.
“It’s a weapon, I’d bet anything,” he said.
Belle’s gaze parted Richard’s magic, focusing once again on the incomplete sky. If she has left us, said someone in Belle’s mind, at least the stars
(so like his magic)
are still there to light our way.
Until they get blotted out by thunderclouds.
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SCENE SUMMARY FOR THOSE WHO NEEDED TO SKIP THE SCENE:
That night, while Richard mused about what they might find in the mines tomorrow, Belle looked out at the starry sky and couldn’t help but be reminded of Daivad’s magic.