Ascension of the last Celestial

A soft glowing mana orb was hovering in the air, illuminating the room. The room was messy with books and pieces of paper thrown around.

On the foot of the large bed that is standing at the end of the room sat a 15-year-old boy, and on his lap lay the head of a 15-year-old elven girl. He was leaning against the footboard, holding a book with one hand and gently stroking the soft platinum blond hair of the girl.

The boy’s long white hair fell behind him like spilled milk, creating a striking contrast with the onyx black horns resting on his head. His slitted purple eyes were focused on the book he was reading, but his hand never stopped stroking the girl’s hair.

If you are wondering how we got here, we need to rewind a few hours...

"I will name it... Primal Origin Aether, or short: Aether!"

"Aether?" Valerian looked at Seraphine, taking in the adorable sight of her being so excited.

"Yes! I have been researching if there is a different kind of energy in our universe, or perhaps an evolved version of mana. It was nothing more than a side project really, but your mana might be the thing I have been searching for. Just thinking about all the different things we could do with your mana makes me excited."

A soft chuckle escaped his lips at her enthusiasm. "So? What do you want to test? I’m all yours."

Like she waited for him to say that, she immediately pulled out a device from her space ring. The device was relatively small, only a bit bigger than Valerian’s hand. It looked like a thick slab of stone with countless runic symbols engraved on it; a blue gem sat at the top of it.

"First, I want to know just how much purer your mana is. Hold the device and just let your mana flow into it, like this."

Mana left her core and went through her hand into the device, and the mana crystal began to glow. From the crystal, light mana escaped and formed something in the air. Hovering in the air was a clean: 150%.

"150%? What does that mean?" Valerian asked Seraphine, bewildered.

And she looked at him with a proud smirk. "That means that my mana is 150% of the normal purity, making my spells 50% stronger whenever I use them."

Nodding in understanding, Valerian took the device and began to channel his mana. He only used a small fraction of it, afraid he would break the thing Seraphine built.

The second his mana touched the device, the gem at the top began to glow in a blinding light and the mana around it became unstable. Realizing what was about to happen, Valerian activated his space affinity. At the same time, the device began to glow with a light so bright it would leave anyone who saw it blind. Seraphine shielded her eyes with her hands. A wave of pure mana escaped from the device and it exploded into a million pieces, but before they could leave a 10 cm radius of the explosion, they just stopped moving, held in place by a space lock.

When she opened her eyes again, all she could see was the gadget she spent hours building, floating in small pieces above Valerian’s hand. When she moved her eyes upward, she saw his guilty eyes.

"I’m sor—"

Before Valerian could finish his sentence, he felt a hand on top of his head. Looking up from the broken device, he met Seraphine’s smile. She was patting his head like a child, which was quite comical to look at since he was a head taller than her.

"...What are you doing?" More bewildered than embarrassed, Valerian asked her with puzzled eyes.

"Comforting you. You feel guilty for breaking my invention, do you not? When I was younger and did something wrong or felt bad, my parents would pat my head and it made me feel better. So, do you feel better now?"

Too stunned to answer, Valerian just nodded. "But still, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that."

Seraphine stopped patting him and turned around. Putting her hands behind her back, she began to slowly walk to her desk. "I know, it’s not your fault. It just means my invention was lacking, or..." She spun around with a cheeky grin. "...you are just too amazing, my dear Val."

Valerian didn’t understand why, but when she called him Val, his heart skipped a beat and made him feel like there were butterflies in his stomach. With an overconfident and teasing grin, Valerian answered: "Val, huh? Well, you are right. I am amazing, and handsome, and just the greatest, my wonderful Sera."

Seraphine stiffened at the nickname but didn’t back down. She stepped closer to him. "A bit narcissistic, aren’t we, Val?"

Valerian recognized the challenge and closed the gap between them even further. "It’s hard not to be when I am just that perfect. You should call yourself lucky that you can look at my face, Sera."

Seraphine scoffed, rolling her eyes but her red cheeks showed that she was affected.

"The arrogance of the solarian royalty, truly amazing," she murmured, but she didn’t step back. Instead, the sudden wave of adrenaline from the explosion and the fight finally caught up to her. Her shoulders dropped and the exhaustion from days of no sleep and constant research washed over her all at once.

With a tired yawn she didn’t even try to hide, she walked over to her large bed and just fell onto the mattress. "I’m too tired to argue with you, Val..."

Valerian watched her with a soft chuckle. He walked over and sat down at the foot of the bed, picking up one of the many open books laying around out of curiosity.

Seraphine was half-asleep the moment her head touched the sheets. Shifting around and seeking warmth, she unconsciously crawled closer towards him and softly rested her head right onto his lap.

Valerian froze for a second, his heart skipping a beat. But looking down at her and seeing how peaceful she looked, free from all the heavy stares and expectations, his eyes softened. His hand moved on its own, his fingers gently sinking into her platinum blond hair, beginning to stroke it.

They continued to lay in peace with Seraphine sleeping peacefully in Valerian’s lap for the next few hours.

In this time, whenever Valerian lost interest in one of the books, he turned to the sleeping Seraphine and just looked at her, appreciating her perfect beauty, or just teleporting another of the dozens of books laying in the room.

He flipped through her notebook, reading her messy handwriting about spell structures and the eight elements. It was mind blowing how her brain worked; she was looking at magic like a complex math problem, trying to solve the secrets of the universe. Once, she mumbled something incoherent in her sleep and hugged his leg a bit tighter, shifting her face deeper into his lap. Valerian had to hold his breath, his hand freezing in her hair until her breathing became steady again. He couldn’t help but smile down at her, feeling a strange sense of warmth he hadn’t felt in a long time.

Their peaceful and intimate moment was interrupted by a knock on the door, which caused Seraphine to wake up with a dazed expression.

From the other side of the door, the voice of the same maid who was sent to retrieve her earlier was heard. "Your Highness, the guests for your birthday have arrived, and you are expected to attend."

Seraphine was shocked. ’Didn’t I just lie down? What time is it?’

When she finally got more awake, she noticed that the soft, warm pillow she just lay on wasn’t the usual white, but a black fabric with light golden and purple ornaments. On top of that, she also noticed that she was laying rather low and not on her bed.

She turned her eyes upward, and then she saw the person this "pillow" belonged to. Looking down at her with a barely suppressed laugh was Valerian, his cosmic purple eyes glowing softly in the dark.

A wave of heat raced up her face, neck, and ears, turning them a bright red. ’Did I sleep the entire time on his lap?!’

"Your Highness? The Empress made it clear that you need to attend."

"Yeah, yeah, I’m coming!" she yelled at the maid, completely flustered by her odd choice to take a nap on Valerian’s lap.

Looking up at Valerian, who was still trying to suppress his laughter, she began to hit him lightly with her fists. "Why didn’t you wake me up! No, why did you let me sleep there in the first place!"

As the dam finally broke, Valerian couldn’t hold his laughter in anymore and erupted in a fit of unrestrained amusement. This caused Seraphine, who now resembled a ripe tomato, to only get redder.

"Just leave, I have to change! I can’t go out there like this!" She gestured down to her dress, which was now completely wrinkled. Even her hair was completely messy thanks to someone who spent hours stroking it.

"Okay, okay, I’m leaving. See you later at the party, Sera."

Valerian stood up and walked to the door. When he so casually mentioned her new nickname, a happy smile appeared on her still slightly red face.

In a low voice that no one heard, she whispered: "Dummy, stupid handsome dummy."