this was supposed to be angsty, but whatever
Talisto Week Day 1 - Oblivious vs. Obvious
She stands in a cold throne room, clad in pristine white next to a man she knows little to nothing of, feels the temperature seep into her skin like the dark magic that resides in the castle of the enemy. No, not anymore; Talia was the sacrificial lamb for that peace after all wasn't she?
Her face masks all fear, all pain and the betrayal she feels - not for her family who did everything possible to stop this marriage from happening but at their allies for forcing her hand. For using her loyalty and goodness and the need to stop this pointless war, the senseless death of her people, to accept the proposal of the enemy - a Xerin princess in exchange for peace (there was no question between the strong and capable Queen to be and the second born).
The 'I do's fill the hall as joy fills the streets of all Ephedia; they mark this as the end of one of the longest wars of the planet - she marks this as the end of herself. After all, all truces can be broken and peace can only last as long as it is desired. And she had just been left in enemy territory forever.
He doesn't touch her for a long time, not until they are forced by tradition - as time goes by she starts to suspect he might've had someone in his heart and had been a victim of diplomacy just as much as her but discards the empathy that wakes within her. He is the enemy and she will not let her guard down (she will not let her heart fall in the wrong hands, not again). He is gentle and careful and in a weak moment she wishes he could love him - but the moment is gone and he leaves her in a room that feels cold and not at all home.
Weeks turn into months and he does not touch her again - not like the night their marriage had been consummated.
He instead brings her books - ancient tomes from times their countries had been one - full of magic both light and dark, song and crystal - and her heart melts a little. (She does love books very much.) Than he brings her flowers; roses red as blood, lilies as white as snow, smiling sunflowers, tulips colored like the sky and Talia stands in her chambers dumbfounded when she walks in on him trying to wave a flower crown and bursts out laughing before she could stifle it and teaches him once he admits he wanted to surprise her (Auriana did love making them and she was a good teacher).
His antics are contagious. She finds herself trying to come up with plans to make him smile - she did grew to like his smile, the ones that reached his eyes and made them sparkle - and so she studies him reverently until she knows his likes and dislikes, what he treasures and what he doesn't.
She finds their values are not so different afterall.
She finds his country is not so different from hers after all.
As time goes by she lets him in; its slow and measured - a part of her still thinks of this place as enemy territory but another is starting to think of it as home. His sister warmed up to her and she to the elder twin - their relationship is more sass and competition than anything but it went from cold and restrained to warm and friendly - and her own sister had grown close to the twins. The peace seems to settle in, trade restarts and grows, ancient laws are overruled and two countries separated mend into a budding alliance.
It is too good to be true, really.
She is attacked in her chambers one night when she is down with sickness - though she suspects poison as it blocks her magic and makes her limbs limp - a sorceress from her country shouting and calling her a traitor and all sorts of slurs before her door burst and her attacker is swept away through a window. He is by her side checking her for injuries and not noticing the other intruder before it's too late - the staff rips through flesh with a sickening sound and the Xerin royal watches in terrified horror as the man she is finally warming up to and considers a friend collapses on her in a bloody mess, unable to move.
It isn't exactly Shanilla, but the power is familiar and surges through her as her staff materializes without transformation and impales the attacker right through the heart and against the wall. Her senses pan and once she detects no more treat the magic leaves her.
She calls for help and before the guards and healers arrive turns the man on the bed so she can see his face. Olive orbs look into her golden eyes and her breath catches at the soft smile aimed at her.
She wants to hit him. She really wants to hit him. He almost died (he still might die) for trying to protect her - a person he was forced to marry, an enemy he must share his life with. She tells him just as much. He laughs weakly as his hand rises to tangle in her hair and the light in his eye fades the slightest bit. She bites her tongue trying not to curse, where the hell are the guards and the healers?
"I thought I was pretty obvious."
His voice is hoarse and the healers finally, finally, arrive and take him away while others stay and force her back into bed and under a sleeping cell before treating her too.
Once she is up she doesn't leave Mephisto's side - not even the Queen can force her to leave for more than the time the elder twin spends with the man.
She spends the times as he sleeps holding his hand (though she drops it whenever someone enters) and muling his statement as she thinks back to all the things he had done - he brought her things she loved, things that made her remember her friends and home with a smile instead of a bitter and empty heart. He held her hand and showed his kingdom so she could feel it was home too, he made sure she feeled welcome and not alien. She remembers his smile, the slight color rushing to his cheek when she did something he was not expecting - a smile, a praise for his country, treating him like a friend - and she is suddenly embarrassed.
Was she that oblivious?
It takes a week for him to regain consciousness and three more until he is back to his normal state. She wanders how to answer what he said to her.
She wonders if he even remembers.
He doesn't.
Talia calls him an idiot and a horrible liar.
Mephisto answers that his heart is just as breakable as everyone else's.
Than proceeds to try to teleport away in embarrassment once he realises what he just blurted out but she keeps him there with a firm hand on his arm, and enabling his magic, and says hers isn't any different from his in that matter. His smile is uneasy but he is not trying to run away anymore so she lets a warm smile stretch her lips and squeezes his hand in answer before pulling him back to the tea party they not so ceremoniously left.
They gradually spend more and more time together chatting and sparing and studying magic. He is scary good with enchantments and long spells and she levels him on the training ground (only Carissa was stronger than her afterall). They bond, they laugh, they tell stories.
It's a long time before he admits he was the one who persuaded Praxina to speak to the previous Queen for the treaty - and that's why he initially accepted the role to be the husband of whichever princess the Ephedian Queen sent for the peace. Talia asks what made him change his mind and he tells her how he got injured in battle - he was not wearing royal garbs but just the Zaterran uniform - and an enemy healer still helped him. Healed him and left enough provisions to last till he was found. Once his magic replenished he teleported away but he soon went back - and saw how Xerin was treating the captured soldiers; they were healed and fed and clothed and while Zaterra treated his captives the same that was not what he heard of the Ephedian troops.
So he investigated and realised his enemies weren't the evil people he was taught for a very long time.
Talia looks on with a thoughtful expression before she lets a smile split her lips and simply states that then they both were wrong. He smiles in answer and pulls her to her feet - there is something like mischief alighting his eyes and she instinctively knows that her will either make her smile or hit him . Or both.
"But imagine my surprise," Mephisto starts as he pulls her into an impromptu dance in the garden, their footwear forgotten next to a half empty picnic basket, "standing at the altar, giving up my life as a free man, and suddenly the person who saved my life is standing next to me looking gorgeous and giving me the coldest glare ever."
His grin is cheeky and reaches his eyes, so Talia purposefully steps on his foot before she becomes airborne ("Not so happy you've taught me to fly, right, pretty boy?") and his joyous laughter fills the air as he flies after her.
He takes to kiss her goodnight every day. He also takes to kiss her anytime he can.
On the anniversary of their wedding, she kisses him goodnight.
And stays the night.
Izira and Praxina are the worst aunts ever. They spoil the twins horribly in Talia's opinion and they just seem so oblivious about her dislike of it. Maybe she should just take a page from her husband and be more obvious in that matter.
It worked for him, after all.
welp, length wise it's gotten a bit out of hand
at least they all live :)