The room was nearly dark. Flames flickered on the walls, casting whisper-like shadows across the stones. Rhaegor had not yet removed his sword, though it hung idle at his side. His chest still rose and fell with the fury of battle.
Eiryn stood across from him, her gown shimmering with gold patterns that danced in the light. The faint smile on her lips… soft enough to drive Rhaegor mad, yet distant enough to wound him.
> "I want to know that you believe in me," Eiryn said, the gap between them still unclosed.
"I did," Rhaegor replied, his voice low. "But when you smile… my heart breaks. If that smile doesn't belong to me… I can't stand there."
Eiryn stepped closer.
Each footstep felt like it pressed into the fabric of time.
> "Was the man I met on the battlefield so easily broken?"
"I don't break from blades. I break from you."
Silence.
A gaze.
Then Rhaegor added:
> "Every touch I give you feels like it steals something from my soul. But you… you sometimes look at the sky instead of me. I am not the sky, Eiryn. I am the man who wants all of you."
Eiryn closed the distance.
Her face now just in front of his.
> "If I can break you… doesn't that mean you love me most?"
"Loving you feels like toppling kingdoms. Beautiful... but bloody."
Then her fingers pressed softly against his chest.
She felt the rhythm of his heartbeat.
> "Your jealousy doesn't hurt me. But your silence—your silence kills me."
"It's not jealousy," Rhaegor said, lowering his gaze. "I just don't want anything unworthy to come near what is mine."
Eiryn didn't flinch.
She lifted his chin gently with her fingers.
> "Then convince me I belong only to you. Not with words, not with touch... but with yourself."
"How?"
"Not by watching me… but walking beside me."
"I'll walk," he said, with a boyish flicker of hope in his eyes. "Even if it takes a hundred years to catch up to you."
She leaned in.
Her forehead rested gently on his.
> "Then let time fear us… not the other way around."
⛰️ Scene: The Valkyrie's chambers –
They sat beneath the open archway now, the torches long since extinguished. The moon painted her silver light across Eiryn's cheekbones, and Rhaegor… he didn't look away. Not once. Not anymore.
Her hair flowed freely, untamed like the northern winds she once ruled.
His armor was gone. Only a loose linen shirt clung to his frame, making the mighty barbarian king look human—terribly, beautifully human.
Eiryn broke the silence.
Her voice was soft, but not fragile.
> "You asked me once… why I look at the sky instead of you."
Rhaegor tensed. Not from fear—he never feared battle. But the sky? That was a war he never understood.
> "Because the stars never lied to me," she said.
"And I might?" he asked.
> "You already do," she whispered. "Every time you pretend you're not afraid to love me."
He reached out—just one hand. It hovered at the side of her neck. Not to pull her closer, but as if asking for permission to exist beside her pain.
> "I'm not afraid to love you," he said.
"I'm afraid of losing myself to it."
Eiryn leaned into his hand.
> "Then lose yourself. I will be the one who remembers who you are."
A shiver ran through him.
Not from the cold. From the way her voice filled him like fire.
> "If I give you my name, my crown, my scars…"
"I don't want your name, Rhaegor. I want your nights. Your mornings. Your quiet. Your rage. I want the man no one else gets to see."
> "The man who burns when you smile?"
"Yes. Especially him."
He kissed her.
No battle cry. No storm behind it. Just the weight of a warrior surrendering everything to someone who never asked—but always deserved.
And when their lips parted, she didn't speak.
She simply rested her head on his shoulder.
The sky could wait.
Tonight, she would not look at the stars.
Tonight, she looked only at him.