It's been sweeps, but Aranea still remembers that period in which Cronus has been a different troll, in which he wasn't completely fending for himself and the waves of his impulses. There was a time when he was very different, in which he used to spend most of his time locked up in his library and study, study hard until his back felt creaky and he had to quint to be able to read behind his rimless glasses.
He didn't use to wear that t-shirt and a pair of jeans, no, he wore much more than that: his fingers were enhanced with he most beautiful silver and golden rings, his earfins were decorated with two sober purple stones pierced where everybody could see them, and his outfit was... Peculiar. Not that the one he wears nowadays isn't noteworthy, but that dark royal purple vest, with the golden buttons and the white shirt that fell perfectly on his arms, down to his wrist, the black coat that vaguely rasembled a cape, well... That was completely another league.
They hadn't played the game yet. None of them was expecting anything as traumatizing as how it turned out to be, they were all pretty content with their lives as teenagers. Mituna was the most snarky of them, Kankri was more approachable, while Aranea and Porrim weren't having a good time, much like Rufioh and Damara. Actually, the first mentioned couple had already broke up, and both the ladies were recovering, each in her own way.
Aranea tried to contact Meenah, but she was having her own personal problems, so she decided to not be in the tyrantblood's way and just locked up in the library of the Royal Palace, since the Empress was a kind troll and let her people use her own chambers when in need.
Aranea was -and still is- a sucker for adventure books: reading of those fantastic love stories, those heroes and knights and witches and princesses and princes simply made her walk on cloud nine and forget about all her troubles for a while. Cronus, on the other hand, was in that same library because his guardian kept telling him to apply more on scientific studies, stuff that had a reason to exist and that wasn't pure speculation.
He was, in fact, trying to find a tome that had been assigned to him, but his mind was completely elsewhere as he looked everywhere for it. Why did he have to study such boring things, when he could've been studying much more interesting notions, such as how to make butterflies turn into delicate hummingbirds?
Aranea still remembers that day, because it was one of the few times where life gave her a pleasant surprise while she was moping in a closet pushed far inside her mind, not reachable by anybody. She was sitting at a table, one of those huge ebony tables that smelled of wax and honey, reading the umpteenth book about her favourite stories. She was surrounded by books that she didn't pick, but that have been left there by unknowns. She felt a tap on the shoulder that made her turn around.
"Excuse me, are you going to read those books?" it was a purpleblood, and she never saw him before. She turned back to the books to inspect them.
"No, they were already here when I sat down. You can take them, if you need them"
The other troll smiled, showing his sharp fangs. "Excellent! I really needed this one" he picked a thick tome, and Aranea could read the title very well. it was about science. Intriguing!
"Do you like reading this kind of books?" she politely inquired, looking at the other.
He looked back at her. "In all honesty, I don't. Actually, I hate them like a war ship hates a pond: they unnerve me, make me want to roll my eyes until they fall out of my skull and go on an adventure by themselves. Since I'm trapped here to study, I think that if they could, my eyes should absolutely go on a trip and then come back to me, so I can forever print in my think pan the marvellous things they've seen"
Aranea didn't quite understand what kind of similarity that was, but something in the way he pronounced those words told her she had a writer in front of her. An intellectual like her. She was... Amazed.
"Mind if I sit here?" he asked, and she scooted away with a smile.
"Of course not" they shared one last smile, before opening their books and read.
After that, they met quite frequently. Sometimes Cronus walked up to her, other times it was the opposite, but all in all, who made the first step mattered very little. What truly mattered was that they had begun to walk together.
The first steps were easy: they chatted, met out of the library, shared their knowledge and plans for the future. Aranea wanted to become a writer, or an historian; Cronus's dream was to become a grade-A wizard, or, as back-up plan, a musician.
The path then became more complex, because they understood what was really going between them. It was painfully obvious, actually. They couldn't stay much time without the other, they needed to have somebody trustworthy and as sensible as them by their side. They could just share glances, and Beforus seemed to have a sense again.
They had become matesprits.
One would've never believed it, yet there they were, sharing their happy embraces and tender kisses. They pestered each other on daily basis, and they inevitably ended up mixing their quirks, Cronus taking Aranea's habit to replace capital B's with '8's and Aranea replacing capital V's and W's with 'WV's. Their guardians didn't approve much of their matespritship, mostly because they hated each other, maybe even in that way, but the fact is: they weren't supposed to be together. They didn't care though, because they were as happy as can be.
When the game started, things went downhill. Cronus started changing, he became short-tempered and aggressive, he was like a beast who just broke out of his chains that had taken a bite of freedom and that now wanted to eat the whole prey.
"I know that's what I need to do"
"Cronus, you're crazy" It was a starry night. They were stargazing those fake stars he made with his magic stick.
"Aranea, I already told you and I don't like to repeat myself" he dryly said, laying down. She kept her eyes on the shining dots on the pitch black sky.
"And I already told you this 'Lord' is too powerful for you, he's too powerful for anybody, even admitting he exists"
"God, you sound like my dead guardian" he muttered, arms behind his head. Aranea sighed: it was pointless to argue with him anymore, they had this talk plenty of times before.
"Fine... Just turn off the lights now. Let's rest" she laid down next to him, nestling by his side.
The last thing she saw was her matesprit's hand move over the fake sky to tenderly capture in his palm the lights that he had sprinkled before to lighten up the dark night.