When Summer Dies

“Congratulations on winning over Dannet in the archery contest. You should be proud.”

Maria smiled warmly at him. “Thank you, I am,” she confessed, and held out her stemmed glass for a refill of champagne. “As should you.”

“Oh?” Cerron said, and poured the golden liquid into her, and then his, glass. “How so?”

“They’re talking about you in the villages,” Maria explained, and leaned against the stone railings with a soft smile cradling her lips. “They’re saying you’re a great leader. You’re much fairer, now, they say.”

Two years ago, the implications that he hadn’t been a fair leader would have offended Cerron terribly much. He had been a fair leader, sure, but… sometimes one can be too fair. Too harsh. “Do they say anything about you?” he asked, instead of commenting on her remark.

“No,” said Maria, and shook her head. “Or, they probably do, but I haven’t heard anything. Most of the fire about me died away some weeks ago.”

Cerron hummed. “They should be talking about you,” he muttered. “You make most of the important decisions, after all.”

Maria waved a hand dismissively, nearly breaking the glass in the process. “It’s fine. I work in the shadows, and people tend to pay more attention to the King than the Queen.”

Shrugging, Cerron turned towards the sunset and took a sip of his glass. “If it does not bother you, I see no problem with it.”

“They’re saying that I have changed you,” Maria said, instead of answering properly. “That it’s I who made you into the great leader you are today.”

When Cerron looked over at her, she was frowning at the sun as if it had just handed her a complex puzzle she couldn’t quite solve. “It is you,” Cerron said. “You changed me.”

Maria smiled. “And you changed me, Cerron. I believe we bring out the best in each other.”

Cerron laughed heartily. “Yes,” he said, and the warm heat of pure happiness glowed in his chest. “I believe we do. I am happy you chose to stay.”

“I am happy,” Maria said, and then she said nothing more.

In the distance, the ocean swallowed the sun, and Cerron smiled.

He knew what was coming. Yet he wasn’t worried.

How could he, when he had Maria by his side?

And the stars in the sky twinkled, as one by one, they faded away.