The idea of a ceremony wasn't one Luxanna deemed as completely needed. Was a union between two individuals that was closer to a mutual understanding than a bond rooted in love worth celebrating and making something as grand out of it? But as it was suggested shyly by her lady-in-waiting and another handmaid that had been by her side at the moment of the conversation: it would surely be a beneficial way to introduce the one the queen had chosen as her betrothed and to reveal the plans she had settled in the last month to the masses. The monarch decided against it nonetheless ; there was no reason to do something so extravagant in her opinion and she had already planned on having a public speech. She presumed it would be enough to answer any lingering questions about her whereabouts among her subjects.

"Tired, aren't we?"

Once everything had been settled Lux had retreated to her desk room to both enjoy some silence after the turmoil of the crowd and take some time to read a book to alleviate her high level of stress. The queen almost jumped when the emperor's voice rang in her ears all too suddenly, her attention being way too focused into her reading than her surroundings. Her surprise attracted an amused raise of his right eyebrow albeit he didn't comment on her obvious bemusement.

"Am I disturbing you?"

"As long as you aren't an entire crowd of countless people projecting your high expectations on me, you can't quite hope to begin to disturb me right now." Luxanna laughed at her own words but the sound of her own voice came out worn out. The tome that previously held her interest was put back upon the wooden desk ; Rhaast's nonchalantly paced through the room and before settling himself in against the window's frame, his eyes quickly finding the chaos of the city below before his own reflection.

"You don't have to worry about that, as far as I know, I am one single man and I would not dare having excessively demanding expectations for anyone." His head tilted to the side and his lips had this slight amused upturn that could barely be qualified as a smile. "Tasking is it not? To speak in front of so many faces."

Lux leaned her face into the palm of her hand as mismatched eyes met his golden ones.

"It's hard to get used to but I manage, it comes with the function after all… Don't you do it too?"

"I don't." The emperor pushed his cheek against his knuckles in contemplation, he looked as if he was deep in thought. "I always found it easier to simply have someone speak in my name." Despite the nature of his words Rhaast released a chuckle just as if he had told a lighthearted joke, his eyes returned to beyond the window's glass. "Unfortunately, I've never been interested in creating any sort of ties with those I was supposed to rule over." At least not since he returned to Shurima after all these years, but of course he wouldn't say that to the queen. He wouldn't speak of that past.

"Why so?"

Ah, as expected of her, she would ask about it.

"It was better this way."

"Do you revel in being an enigma?" Elongated fingers drew circles over the surface of the wood of her desk absentmindedly and her glance followed those repeated motions. She had realized that the man was a walking mystery since day one and that he liked to share little about himself so much that he resolved to cruel means. "I can't begin to understand your way of thinking."

It was the first time Lux had seen Rhaast grin in such an elated way as his gaze kept itself fixated on the outside world rather than within the room ; she wondered if that smile was the answer to her question.

"Perhaps it is better that way too, Luxanna. What were you reading?"

The abrupt change of subject took her aback and for a moment she neither answered or thought to, her mind still fixated on the oddity of his character, before she returned to her senses and picked up the book in front of her in order to show him.

"It's the book you let me borrow back in Shurima. About the Sun Disk and the Ascended."

"Ah, this one. Of course." The emperor walked over to her desk and took place on a seat across from her, he eyed the manuscript with a veiled gaze. "It's interesting, isn't it? The Sun Disk grants power beyond anything a mortal could imagine for those blessed by Sun. Alas, not everyone is meant to be gifted."

"What happens to those turned away by the Sun?"

"Their mortal shell is destroyed, burned away by the light, and turned into a living walking horror ; we call them the Baccai or the Spurned. It is believed to be a fate worse than death, which is why it was common to give them this mercy."

The queen's eyes peered into his and she noticed he had never appeared to be so serious and, somehow, ancient as he spoke about the matter. Had he seen such an event? Had he known someone that had known such a fate? There was no way she could tell.

"Can you tell me more about the Ascended? Do you know what they resembled? What was their purpose?"

Gathering knowledge was an occupation that Luxanna had grown to adore since her youth despite the strictness of her upbringing and the expectations put on her shoulders ; in this moment she was the most comfortable than she had ever felt since beginning of the month and her eagerness to know more about a homeland and its tradition that were not hers was obvious to spot. Rhaast found said eagerness interesting and her curiosity lovely.

"They came in many shapes and forms so it would be difficult to properly describe them, the easiest way would be to say that their once mortal enveloppe was…reconstructed into a greater self. They were great guardians, keepers of knowledge and protectors of that empire they loved so dearly."

A gentle chuckle escaped him as the emperor leaned his face into the palm of his hand, mirroring the queen's previous position. It soon died into a hum, his gaze grew distant.

"Until one day, after a long arduous battle against fiends, it fell. And with it, all those blessed by the so-called Sun. Poor Sunborns, don't you think? To battle relentlessly for a cause all for naught, to be rewarded by ruin."

"You… Have you known the Sunborns?"

Rhaast gave her one of his usual smiles before lazily stretching his neck, he then leaned into his seat comfortably and pushed his head back. Past was the past and he would rather leave it where it stood : behind him. Or so that was what he had told her. How hypocrite of him, he simply liked to speak about what he wanted the moment he wanted although there were still things he wished to keep for himself. Perhaps it was the way he took everything as part of a game, even his own actions, that led him to speak in half truths and truthful lies.

"I revel in being an enigma, don't you remember?"

He couldn't help himself.