Ristriel whirled around, obsidian eyes bright and disbelieving. The godlings were so still they appeared no different from the rock formations around us. Saiyon’s eyes brightened, and His brow lowered.
“You cannot. He must pay his price.”
Ristriel looked at me the way he had the first time I’d thanked him. Like he could not believe I would make such an offer. Like he might weep.
Like he could not believe I loved him, too.
“Is it law?” I begged, voice shaking.
Saiyon nodded, once.
“Then he will serve beside me.” I stepped forward, until Saiyon’s heat flared across my body. “I will serve half his time. If it appeases the universe, let him start before I do and finish first, too. But I claim three hundred and fifty years of my own. Surely this is just enough for a creature wrongfully imprisoned!”
Saiyon’s mouth set in a hard line. I remembered our argument outside of Nediah. I have claim on him!
Saiyon hadn’t denied me then, and I knew from the anger lining His face that He would not deny me now.
Perhaps I understood more of the laws than I had believed.
“Ceris, no.” Ristriel’s words were strained with emotion, like it physically hurt him to speak.
I did not look at him. I held Saiyon’s gaze defiantly. My starlight uncovered itself, burning brightly, a soft, cool light against His vivid, scalding blaze.
Even now, I could not tell you how long we battled each other in silence, unblinking, powers pulsing. It might have been only seconds; to me it was years. And years to gods were as inconsequential as seconds to mortals.
“I will accept your offer—” Saiyon growled.
“No,” Ristriel begged.
“—on one condition,” Saiyon finished.
I squared my shoulders. “Name it.”
Saiyon sheathed His sword. “You will spend your years in My kingdom, with Me.”
My starlight dimmed, leaving me with that powerless hunger. Despite my previous dealings with the Sun God, I had not expected this.
I would not be beside Ristriel in Oblivion. I would not be able to reach out to him, comfort him, console him.
But nothing in all space and time could stop me from loving him.
“Agreed.” My voice remained steady.
Saiyon’s relief was almost hidden. Almost, for I noticed the breath that loosened His shoulders. “So it is done.”
“Wait.”
Saiyon flared, His patience thin as eggshells.
“I swear an oath of truth that I will give him to You.” Now I did look at Ristriel, and the pain in his stance, in his countenance, made my spirit weep. “But give us until dawn. You stand on the Earth Mother and judge during the moon’s reign. Take out our sentences when Your sovereignty is in full.”
I could not separate from Ristriel without saying goodbye. Without touching him one last time.
Saiyon’s lip curled. He did not like this.
Ristriel murmured, “I, too, take an oath of truth. I will not run or flee. I will return to my chains at dawn.”
An explosion popped overhead, drawing Saiyon’s gaze to the ongoing war above. “Very well.” His tone was low and sour, but resigned. He said nothing more, only waved His hand to the godlings surrounding us. They dispersed in flashes of Sunlight. Saiyon lingered only a moment, watching me, before He, too, returned to His war.
I exhaled, and my strength fled with the breath. I fell to my knees in the dark, the clouds coming together once more, the ensuing thunder sounding more like an oncoming storm than a fit of godly rage. Perhaps in Her dreaming state, the Earth Mother cared enough to shield us from celestial carnage. In Saiyon’s absence, beneath the growing cloud cover, Ristriel was again whole.
He knelt beside me and took me into his arms, pressing his forehead into my hair. “No, Ceris,” he whispered, his tears against my scalp. He spoke as though he could still convince me to withdraw my claim. “No, please.”
Pulling back, I cradled his face and kissed his lips, tasting his sadness and mingling it with my own. “I will not leave you to the darkness.” It was a truth, a promise, and a sacrifice. “I will always come back to you, Ris.”
I held him, and he held me, and we mourned together, though in truth, in the deepest parts of our hearts, we had both known this would be our fate. We were both beings trapped outside of time and punished because of it. And we would pay it back together.
We had only hours before dawn, and we did not waste a single minute. We made our promises and whispered our prayers. Lay against the Earth Mother and discovered each other slowly and thoroughly. It took only a glimpse of moonlight for Ristriel’s clothes to become skin, and I knew him as I could know any man. We came together, learning, moving, shuddering, and I understood then what lovemaking should be, and I held it in my heart, protecting it with every ounce of power my star had bequeathed me.