seul’s Reviews > The Sun and the Starmaker > Status Update

"You will bear it, because you are able to."

"How do you know that?" Aurora asked, her voice trembling.

"Because you were born for this. You have the fire of the Sun in your blood, Aurora, and with it a strength that defies logic. It won't be easy, and there will be days when you forget that your heart is still beating, but you will find meaning and purpose in other things. In lasting things."

His breaths were exaggerated, and he let them out slowly as Aurora did the same, following his lead. His heart was a slow and steady rhythm that soothed the frenzied beat of her own, and he never took his eyes off her, breathing with her until Aurora felt herself coming back, climbing her way out of the panic.

The Starmaker seemed to make a decision then, and slowly, so very slowly, he took her hand and placed it against his chest, pressing firmly. "Breathe with me."

The Starmaker inched closer to her, and he reached out his hands before suddenly pulling them back, seemingly at war with himself over something.

"Look at me," he said, awkwardly holding his hands in front of his chest as if he was unsure of where to put them. Aurora's breaths were quick and shallow, and she was suddenly aware of how litle control she had over herself, but she did as he said.

The Starmaker looked over at her, bending to meet her eyes. "What is it?" he asked, but Aurora could barely hear him over the pounding of her pulse in her ears. He pulled back on the reins, and the snow deer slowed to a stop.

She didn't understand why he was doing this, and it was unsettling.

Unsettling, and somehow exactly what she needed.

It was strange to see the Starmaker in her home, sitting at the table where she'd had countless family meals as if he'd been there a hundred times before. He wasn't comfortable, exactly, but he was trying. He smiled at the appropriate times and nodded as he listened, and it did something weird to Aurora's heart, as if it were beating in an entirely new rhythm.

"I do not like to think of it," Aurora said. "Taking your magic." She knew that as soon as all of it transferred to her, he would be mortal, susceptible to all the things he had once been protected from-aging and illness and death. It tore at her insides.

"It is the way things are," he said simply.

Even if Aurora hadn't already been fighting against her changing feelings, his words would have all but ensured that there was a shift between them. She couldn't name it, couldn’t even describe it, yet she knew it had happened. She forced her eyes from him and took a breath, big and deep, as if she'd gone without air for too long.

Everything was silent.

Then she heard his laughter burst forth and bounce off the castle walls, reaching her all the way back in the kitchen.