@beingsofkismet (<3 finally did it lmao)
the invitation had appeared without explanation.
one moment the small table beside darius’ bed had held nothing but the oil lamp and the stack of council reports he had been reading well past midnight. the next, a folded piece of parchment rested neatly atop them, as though it had always belonged there. no servant had entered. no door had opened. just his name written across the front in an elegant, curling hand that seemed almost amused with itself.
he had known immediately who it must be from. he'd heard the whispers for a while now, though truth be told, darius never really bothered to know more. maybe he should have.
few men in liathra would dare address the crown prince of vissai with such theatrics, fewer still would do so without seal or messenger or even the courtesy of knocking. master of revels of lysain, lord of festivals and endless celebrations, a man whose reputation seemed to follow him wherever he went like the lingering scent of incense and wine.
the message itself had been infuriatingly brief.
a night without crowns, titles, or expectations. come as a man, not as vissai.
darius had very nearly thrown the parchment into the fire.
it was presumptuous. improper. entirely ridiculous. and yet refusing it outright would raise far more questions than accepting it ever could. an invitation from lysain — even one delivered in such a… unconventional fashion — was still an invitation. for the crown prince of vissai to ignore it would invite gossip, speculation, perhaps even offense. diplomacy, irritatingly enough, demanded appearances.
so here he was.
seraphina’s wings beat steadily beneath him as they cut through the cool night air, the great dragon gliding with effortless strength through the dark sky. below them the land stretched wide and quiet, broken only by the occasional flicker of distant torchlight where small settlements clung to the earth like scattered stars.
arteros had chosen his timing with irritating precision. the invitation had appeared on a night when council meetings had dragged long past dusk, when reports of trade disputes and border tensions had stacked themselves endlessly upon his desk, when the silence of his chambers afterward had felt less like peace and more like a cage.
darius exhaled softly, the breath carried away by the rushing wind.
seraphina shifted beneath him then, her massive wings angling as she began a slow descent. ahead, the darkness of the landscape had begun to change. faint lights shimmered between low hills, flickering gold and amber and even from this distance he could see movement among them — lanterns swaying in the night, firelight dancing against pale stone. music carried faintly upward on the wind. not the distant, orderly sound of a court performance, but something warmer, looser. drums somewhere beneath the melody, laughter drifting upward in uneven bursts.
seraphina landed with a heavy, graceful thud upon a stretch of open ground just beyond the lights, her wings folding slowly against her sides as the dust of their arrival settled around them. darius slid down from the saddle, boots meeting the earth with quiet certainty, one hand briefly smoothing the silks at his waist as he stepped away from the dragon.
“go on,” he murmured, giving a light pat against her neck.
seraphina rumbled softly in response before spreading her wings once more and lifting back into the night sky, her dark shape disappearing into the stars within moments.
for a brief moment darius stood alone in the quiet.
then the music reached him again.
after a short pause, he adjusted the drape of the scarves around his shoulders and turned toward the distant glow of lanternlight, following the sound of laughter and drums deeper into the night, lowering his hood once he seemed to pass a ..threshold of sorts. how did this even work?