Play It Again

Stolas' enthusiasm to see Fiametta again was momentarily put on pause when the fire-marked girl giggled and shushed him quietly, then glanced up to one of the pillars. A raven perched atop made him wonder if perhaps she was being surveilled and this was a clandestine rendezvous of sorts. The notion was intriguing and exciting! Stolas gave a knowing look and snickered as well, nodding his head to show he understood. They were being sneaky tonight, it seemed. Fia led the way around the old ruins to the place where they had met, choosing it as their rest for the evening. That suited Stolas just fine; the spot had offered an excellent view of the heavens the last time, after all!

At the Mendacium lady's behest, Stolas settled his larger form down on the grasses beside her, not so close so that they were pressed together, but near enough that he could share his book with her without issue. While Fia rolled and stretched to get comfortable, Stolas kicked back his legs to stretch out his muscles and get settled as well. He slid his satchel off from over his neck and lifted the flap covering the top. Producing his grimoire, the Ashen prince laid it out on the grass between them—although he supposed she wouldn't really be looking at the pages while upside down—and flipped open and past several chapters until he reached the category for fall constellations. Despite not being able to read all of the strange runic markings and characters on the old pages, the illustrations were enough for him to get an idea of what he was looking for, and he had learned to decipher a good amount of the words of the text from practice alone.

"Happy birthday, by the way," he said with a smile before they got started. He knew he was still early, given Fia had said she'd been born in late autumn, but the sentiment was the same. He hadn't forgotten. His stargazing companion then challenged him to give her something fascinating, dubbing him with a new nickname that made his cheeks grow warm. Thank the gods for fur and the dark to hide his blush. "Very well, let's see..." Stolas' paw ran over the lines of text and pictures, glancing up every now and then to the sky above to get his bearings. "Ooh! There!" A dark onyx paw pointed up to a cluster of stars to the north. "That's Scorpio, the scorpion sign. That's your star sign there!" They'd already spent a good amount of time talking about the astrology behind her star sign before, so he spared her most of the repeat conversation. "With your star sign now in full control of the heavens, you'll likely feel its influence more than ever. You might crave a change in your life, something to break up monotony or the expectations. You might also feel a desire for more physical closeness, like..." Stolas drifted off for a moment, trying not to think about the intimacy he'd shared with Widow. He definitely didn't need to be talking about that! "...Like forming new friendships, or strengthening your existing ones." Good save, Stolas.

Looking back down to his book, then back up to the celestial heavens, Stolas pointed out a bright cluster of stars toward the southern horizon. "See that bright bundle of stars to the south? That's the phoenix constellation. It symbolizes rebirth and second chances. It's named after a bird that supposedly never died. Instead, the bird would burst into glorious flames upon its death and be born again as a chick from its ashes!" Stolas didn't know much about birds, but the concept of eternal resurrection was fascinating for his mind to try to wrap around.

"Stolas"