These Ephemeral Eternities

Chapter Two

(A/N: Before we start, I'd like to give a heads up about a rather... questionable "ship" in this chapter. It exists for plot purposes so there's no need to take it seriously, and there won't be romantic scenes between them. The main pairing is Valt x Shu. With that being said, happy reading!)

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Lifetime: One

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"-sama? Shu-sama?"

Shu blinks and finds himself staring at the frantic face of the worried handmaiden. She is holding a brush in one hand and Shu's face in the other as she bends down to reach his sitting level. Shu squints in confusion at the cacophony of colours that blooms around him as his vision clears.

"Shu-sama?" The handmaiden repeats, lowering her brush. "Are you alright?"

Shu considers her words for a second as he wakes from his hazy state, before replying, "I'm alright, Hisui. I was just... remembering something."

Hisui nods and smiles. "I get that sometimes, Shu-sama. Whenever my mind isn't occupied, this humble one drifts away into the land of daydreams. I sometimes wonder where we go when we dream," she converses.

"I don't remember my dream at all," Shu says, wracking his mind for a small thread of memory but to no avail. "It was so blue though, so bright. It seemed so pleasant as well. I wonder what it was."

Hisui dips the brush into a small pot of pearly white power sitting on a delicately crafted wooden stand and brushes the powder on his face. "Dreams are very common among humans, or so I heard. They say that it is remembering another life," she idly comments. She puts away the brush and dips another, smaller brush into a pot of powder rouge, before dusting Shu's cheeks rosy red.

"Maybe," Shu smiles and leans into the brush. "I wonder what is so blue and beautiful that I dreamed of. I don't remember what transpired, but it was the sunshine warmth of a lover's touch I felt."

"Don't go talking about another lover so casually, Shu-sama," Hisui chides. "You know Lord Spryzen doesn't like it when you mention other men or women. Less if human, more if kami."

Shu chuckles, "I'll be foolish if I were to speak of a lover in front of my lord, especially today. He will not hesitate to ignite every party guest on the fire of his temper. I am not as merciless as that," he assures. "...Oh, Hisui, perhaps a lighter shade for my lips? I don't want to look too bold."

Hisui twists open a little pot containing camellia pink balm. She takes another, even smaller brush, and applies the balm on Shu's lips. "Splendid choice as usual, Shu-sama. The lightness of the pink accentuates the redness of your eyes, just how Lord Spryzen likes," she praises. "But not merciless? You? Nay, my sire. Humans call you a god of infertility and beg you at every sunrise to undo a mother's greatest curse. Are you sure you are merciless, Shu-sama?" She asks, eyebrows raised.

Shu laughs. "Perhaps you are right. But they also call me the god of culinary and food and pray to me every time oil hits the wok. I pray that I am at least more useful to mothers in the kitchen than those in labour."

"Your makeup is done, Shu-sama. How would you like your hair to be groomed?" Hisui says. "And yes, this humble one takes back her word. While men and women at war pray for Lord Spryzen's blessings, mothers and husbands of the hearth hail you as their god, Shu-sama."

"I'd like my hair braided to the side," Shu says, looking at himself in the mirror in front of them. He looks every bit the consort of an emperor should be, graceful and gentle but no less godly. His hair is short but Hisui's talented fingers are skilled as an embroiderer. Swiftly, she weaves Shu's snowy hair into an elegant style, a braided piece sticking to the side.