Mentions:Farim[@Lavaboi] : Anastasia
@PrincessRumors spread fast in Sorian, even without the gossip papers being passed out. It wasn’t long before Callum heard all about how he’d been seen sneaking around the woods with Ariella. He knew that family well enough to know that was causing trouble for Ari, mostly his fault since he was the one with guards watching him all the time. Despite how bad yesterday had felt, Ari was the bright point, she had taken the time to cheer him up and shared her personal oasis with him. He wasn’t sure how to return that; he spent most of his time in the palace library or a tavern. It couldn’t be the tavern, the longer he was there the more he’d drink and the worse he’d be. Hanging out in the palace library would also mean at least one guard staring at him the entire time which made him cringe just to think about it.
So there was a lot of pacing. A lot of writing letters that got crumpled up, tossed in the fireplace, and burned. He couldn’t figure out why he was feeling this awkward just trying to write a letter alone in his room but a couple of drinks eased the feeling. He settled on the space observatory; it didn’t seem like anyone could turn that into a scandal and the mandatory guards could watch him well enough from a distance.
Sorian’s space observatory was opened for summer tours, what better way to impress all their guest than by showing off their new telescope? The large dome-roofed tower was an impressive sight in itself. Large windows, a massive skylight, and all manner of astronomy instruments and models inside. It felt a lot like a public library, a place of knowledge and insight, and its doors were opened to anyone who wanted to venture in. Right around sunset, as the bright colors from the day began to fade into dark hues of blue, Callum paced around the entrance of the space observatory.
Ari had received a letter from Callum the morning after the explosive fight with her parents. It couldn’t have come at a better time but also couldn’t have been worse either. Thankfully many of the help around the manor were partial to Ari over her parents so when the letter arrived with a seal and her name on it they hid it rather well. Having snuck the letter to Ari, she opened it uncertain of who it may be from.
The letter appeared as if it were written in a hurry or perhaps nerves as the writing seemed scribbled and rather quick handed. The letter was simple just normal pleasantries and a request to meet at the Space observatory. It was signed by Callum.
Ari didn’t waste much time, thankfully for her all the pruning and outfit changes had been done much earlier in the day. She headed off to the meet-up spot with the letter in tow nervous that perhaps something was wrong. She couldn’t help but wonder if the rumors had reached him, they had already reached her parents so it wasn't out of the realm of possibilities. Ariella started to nervous now.
As she walked towards the building she was greeted by the sight of Callum pacing around the front. She walked up nervously, the thoughts of what he may have heard spinning around as she expected another explosive conversation.
“Hello..” she said her voice soft as she tried to gauge the atmosphere of this meeting.
“ I hope I’m not late.”“Ari!” Callum’s smile lit up, she didn’t look mad at him, so he offered an explanation.
“Apparently someone saw us going out to the woods. That’s probably my fault,” he paused to point out exactly where a handful of guards were standing around watching him.
“They follow me everywhere now, it’s very dramatic. Anyway, I am sorry if these rumors caused you any trouble but I wanted to check in and see if you wanted to look at stars with me.” Ariella's shoulders relaxed as she felt a breath escape her lips. She had been so nervous riding up here she thought he was going to be upset with her.
His smile and the way he said her name so excitedly made a smile appear on her face aswell, matching his own energy. It was refreshing to have someone excited to see her.
“Yes…The news has traveled and I got an earful about it last night. They also found my - collection. They were accusing me of all sorts of things. However, I just told them it was some random man I met at a bar, I didn’t feel it right to drag your name into all of that. she waved her hand around
“ Lets save that conversation for later though, I would love to look at the stars!” She took a second to take in her surroundings
“I’ve actually never been here before, the building is beautiful.” “They know about the book…club?” He asked with a noticeable pause between the two words, wondering if her parents had gotten their hands on Starcatcher. If they had, even if they didn’t suspect Ari was using that book it would be bad. And if they did suspect Ari was using that book it would be a lot worse than just bad.
“Right, stars, I’ve been here a couple of times, it’s pretty great. Probably not as great as your spot and we definitely have to wear shoes but much less stuffy than Prince’s Court or fancy balls.” He gestured to the tower and lead them both inside.
Inside the observatory were several bookshelves dedicated solely to astronomy. The walls not adorned with large windows were decorated with star charts and paintings of the night sky. Models of faraway moons and planets dangled from the ceiling just out of reach for even the tallest visitors. Smaller telescopes sat around the windows and people lined up to look through them. A twisting staircase led up to a much larger telescope, probably not the best in world as the many liked to claim, but the finest in Caesonia.
“So I heard from Farim you guys had a very eventful dinner.” Ariella followed beside Callum taking in the beauty of the building. Her eyes lit up at the copious amounts of books with beautiful bindings and engravings on the spines and they sat neatly on their shelves.
“ They don’t know about the book club..no” she said as she continued to look around.
“Thankfully it was all the other things they found just some beautiful plants and such.” She tried to keep it as vague as possible knowing he would likely pick up on it.
“ They thought that something regarding the book club was taking place however, it's why I kept your name far away from it…Although, I will be doing a lot of reading soon. “ “I appreciate that, but feel free to drag me into it if I can help.” Cal offered.
“All for one, one for all, right?” She took a long sigh, the whole situation got so out of hand so quickly that Ari still had yet to make any sense of the matter. She was in survival mode during that whole conversation trying to find a way out of it, however now she was trying to find a solution to a growing problem and using Starcatcher was likely her only option.
“ It is a beautiful spot, thank you for showing me. I’ve been put in a shoe-wearing prison though so I suppose it's alright. “ She offered him a smile.
“ I’ve been told that if I'm caught without them any time soon I will likely not be seeing the sunshine for a long time after that.” Ari’s voice dropped as she told him. Feeling that connection was what kept her going and to lose that would be a painful death sentence to her.
Ari walked over to one of the telescopes and looked through it, although the sun hadn’t gone down enough to see many of the stars it was still rather magical just the views that could be seen from this place.
“A shoe-wearing prison?” He repeated the odd punishment aloud, wrapping his head around how upsetting that would be for Ari.
“Do you think they’d make an exception if say, a prince stopped by, with his very intimidating babysitters who would certainly be making sure nothing shady was happening, personally asked if you could go barefoot hiking with him?” He wondered out loud, and he knew enough about Dutchess Edwards to know that the look on her face when presented with such a request would be priceless.
Ari bit back a chuckle as she continued to look through the telescope.
“ I know it may sound silly…” she said regarding her shoe situation.
“It's the only real escape I have…” She pulled back from the telescope and offered him a smile
“ However, I think that would really put her in her place, I would love to see the shock - “ she giggled slightly at the thought of her mothers faces.
“I really couldn’t ask that of you there is already so much heat on me because of the book club that I really would be worried if somehow that was brought onto you.” Her voice was genuine with concern. Her mother would run with any gossip she could get her hands on, twisting it in ways that Ariella never knew what the actual truth was.
“If it’s important to you, then it’s not silly. And you didn’t ask, I asked, to make sure it wouldn’t cause more trouble for you. I can handle the heat, but I think doing something even semi-normal with someone who isn’t nefarious, would draw heat off of me.” Cal pointed out, he took a moment to look through the telescope as well. He was certain his family would just love to hear that he was spending time with Lady Ariella Edwards, who came from the right sort of family, instead of drinking at the tavern or sneaking off to illegal parties. They could all think what they wanted and he could hang out with Ari who didn’t act like other nobles he knew and didn’t expect him to act either.
Ariella smiled trying to hide her excitement
“ Alright, sounds like a plan.” “ How are you doing by the way? Sitting here talking about me so much, are you doing alright with everything? Did you and Ana end up speaking? “ she asked curiously remembering that night in the tavern.
“OH! Before I forget-” she jumped slightly before reaching into her bag that hung loosely around her side. She pulled out a book that appeared to be well-read. She handed it out towards him, the cover would feel familiar as the book was the one she was reading in the Tavern that same night.
“ I promised to share it with you when I was finished. Maybe you would be interested in a read…” She smiled at Cal with a grin.
“The tragedy?” He asked, excited as he accepted the gift. Callum felt the slight wear on the spine and the pages that had lost their crispness and softened from all the times they had been flipped through. Not a new book, one that had been well loved and read more than once since its printing, elevating it from just an object to a cherished object.
“Thank you, I’ll read it soon.” He promised.
” You’re welcome. It had a nice ending actually…was surprised.” She pulled back from the telescope and shifted her focus back toward Callum.
“And I haven’t talked to Ana, not sure I really want to.” He admitted.
“Why? Did she say something to you? 
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