INT - Windgrace Manor, day
Dorian knocked a rhythm on the door to Dinah's room the moment before opening it a crack to admit his voice to venture its way in pleadingly, "Diiiiiiii! Can I... show you something?" Though he demonstrated an overweening familiarity, he did not burst in at least, not entirely. Even a very old dog could learn new tricks about boundaries, perhaps.
Dinah was at her vanity, combing her hair. When the door knocked, she turned and smiled towards the door, pulling it open with her mind.
"you don't need to knock, darling. you know that" she chided him playfully. "The gardener lads have just finished. I had them put all my pictures up again. let me know what you think" she set her brush down, turning on her seat.
Dorian held something behind his back, something ostentatiously covered by what looked to be a pillowcase, gripped with a palm around its base. As he was fully admitted he'd look around her bedroom, forgetting himself for a moment and then fully as he stared at her sitting there. Without giving it very much thought he was drawn toward her apparent spill of hair, toward the peerless proportions of her face. On the way he'd remark, "It is lovely as suits a Divine One. All of these lovely things and yet here you sit among them, rarest of treasures and most radiant. You are most beautiful."
He'd come to a stop just behind her moving to place his free hand upon her shoulder. Staring at her, he forgot why he even came into the room in the first place.
Dinah grinned at his praise and she stood, standing on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek. "you flirt." she grinned, resting her hands against his bracers. "I was worried it would be a little oppressive. But I like it. I wanted it to look a little less..." she considered the words for a moment "...princessy" she chuckled, remaining close against his chest. "I wanted to ask you something, too. Would you object if i were to want to come along on your morning rides?"
Dorian beamed as he received his kiss and his scruffy cheeks pinkened for it. He'd blink then blink silvery eyes again as she asked what she did of him, as though he was certain he had heard wrong. Reaching his free hand to hers to entangle fingers, he'd answer, "You're a queen, no one's princess. And... you--you know I take her out in the mornings...? The paths and the light are best then. Clear and untrod." The last was spoken gently so as not to discourage, but normally he was out of the house for his rides early in the mornings.
Dinah fingered the straps of his bracers, nodding again. "mm. I was thinking. about..." she made a vague gesture with her fingertips. "Everything. just lately. And I wanted to show you that you are and always will be my heart. And so, I wanted to make sure to show you that" she said softly. "i cannot promise I shan't fall asleep in the saddle, but I will do my best not to. you must remember that brigand and i do not have magic horseshoes though" she smiled playfully, searching his expression for his reaction as her fingers closed around his.
Dorian: "Oh Dinah," he'd remark as he pulled her closer and let the length of his person rest against the length of hers. She might feel his excitement, for the moment he understood she meant it, though it was late, his heart was leaping, causing him to get out ahead of himself, totally forgetting what he had to hand behind him. "I should love to have you with me. The things we can see together. You won't regret waking for it. There is... majesty and magic in the world then. When the day is still quiet. We will feel like the only two people on this earth."
His wide smile was toothsome with the understanding that she wanted to spend time with him at all, as well as the promise of what these blessed morning rides would be like. She'd renewed the morning ritual's potential to a more profound level, and one that made his very soul sing.
Dinah giggled as he tugged her closer, slinging her arms up around his shoulders and burying her head against his chest, a smile on her face that only deepened at the feeling of such excitement he shared. "I know that words have some value, but actions are better, arent they? that's always how you've been. We'll have fun. Just you and i. A slice of the day away from any interruption" she wrinkled her nose just a bit at just how little sleep she'd get, but it would be worth it, if it made him smile like this. She stood on her toes again to press a kiss against his jaw.
"...if it rains though i reserve the right to complain" she added playfully.
Dorian was kissed again and made to feel like he was going to be able to do two of his favourite things at once, and it had him distracted again from his original purpose as he was considering ways to take advantage of being the only two people in the world. His mornings were set to become the best part of the day. Dorian's cheeks were a dark pink that was spreading to his ears with the thought, but he'd clear his throat, half thinking he'd get an advance on their new morning adventures but when he swung his arm around to encircle her, there it was. The large object covered by a pillowcase which looked likely to be a globe of some sort given the outward expressions of its outline. "I shall not make you take Brigand out in the rain. I do not want him cross with m-- Oh! This! Look! I...I found this."
He'd then unveil the armillary with its graven symbols, taking his actual pillowcase from it. Looking between the object and her he'd expain, "If I put my blood into it then... something happens."
Dinah had stepped back a little as the hand that was around his back came forward, looking momentarily intrigued as it was his pillowcase there. She peered up towards him, smiling and reaching for his blushing cheeks, but then the globe-type creation with the symbols carved onto it gave her pause. She knew what those thing were.
"...dorian, where did you find this?" she asked in some hushed excitement, reaching her fingers to trail her fingers across the markings. "...your blood? what happens?" she looked up towards him in some surprise.
Dorian: "It was the strangest thing, I thought it was all a dream but when I woke.... it was there. I dreamed about it and then I was at the warehouse with it. I brought it home, have been trying to read it, but... I think it is more your language than mine. Look." He'd show her how he'd been doing what he'd done, namely he'd set the armillary down upon her vanity, then using his pocketknife cut his thumb and feed his blood into a certain groove which activated the thing. As it came to life it showed a certain alignment of celestial bodies which meant absolutely nothing to him. He thought, "At first I thought perhaps it was meant for me to do something with, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what it is. I brought it home and forgot about it, really, but I do not know...." He stopped talking to lick his thumb clean then put his hankie around it. It'd heal rather soon, and his digit was the least interesting thing in the room what with arcane machinery whirring to life to click into place in a certain spot.
Dinah reached for his finger after he'd cut it, pressing it to her own lips with a little pulse of healing chill. And then the stars were moving, and she stared, keeping a hold of his hand as she watched them spinning and...aligning.
"...it's a star map" she whispered, awed, giving his hand a squeeze. "And you say you dreamed it? do you remember anything else of your dream?" she turned on the spot, following the movement of the lights on the ceiling with the twin lamps of the crab-trinket's eyes.
"Tell me as much as you remember. what you did, saw, heard, anything. everything." she turned to stare up towards his face, eyes owlishly wide.
Dorian looked toward the ceiling as if he could find the answers by turning his sight that way, as far as his eyes would go without swiveling inside his head. He'd explain choppily, "It was some weeks ago by now. Remember when you had that bad night? It was around then. I had one of my star striding dreams. The ones where it feels like I am running tirelessly through strange reaches of space that look different than our sky... In those dreams I am hunting. I knew not what I was hunting until I found it. And when I found it, when the stars were right I woke. I was in the warehouse, my pyjamas were burned to a crisp. I think there were others there too. But they did not make it. Unless that was part of the dream..?" Things were hazey and he'd tried to make sense of it until he'd tried to forget it.... in the intervening weeks until he sought out her help. "The crate it was in was burned to ash, but it was there all brass and crystal and it had to be what I was looking for, though I know not why I would ever look for this, when I cannot read it. It was so strange, I just brought it home and... well I must admit it scared me a bit, too. So I kept it hidden." He'd shrug a little bit as he turned his attention from the device entirely to her instead, both blond brows aloft searching for answers in her countenance.
Dinah nodded as he explained his bad night, and she squeezed his hand again. When he mentioned 'hunting', she squeaked with excitement, but she remained quiet as he explained. "you were hunting. your dreams, your signs on the path, and you found something, dorian. this will be helpful to us, I know it." she gushed, giggling. "do we know if the stars change? or is it always the same pattern?" she asked as she looked back up to the constellations on the ceiling.
"..speaking of hunting, though. I have something to tell you" she said softly. "When you went to get drinks at the festival the other night, I met a very strange, very loud woman named calliope. Blake had mistakenly thought her connected to the king in yellow, but no, love. she's connected to IOD, your patron" she added in a hushed whisper, smiling. "and now, you had a successful hunt, and look at it. it's beautiful"
Dorian didn't know why she was excited until she said so, though he shared the feeling vicariously through her. His blinked rapidified for a few seconds as he let sink in that he'd done something right vis a vis their gods. That he was not a laggard in this, but instead a walker of the path. His smile redoubled and he stomped in place out of an abundance of energy, as she explained and after. "Iod... ....well Blake would already know such people would he not? I should meet with this Calliope, should I not? And... it is always this same pattern, far as I could tell. Di... is it really true, I am with you in this? I mean this was a gift from the gods, was it not?" That felt better than having stolen it.
Dinah giggled gleefully and she snatched up his hands, peppering his cheek in kisses.
"you are always with us in this darling. I told you that your way wouldn't be the way of books and scrolls. of course not.. you're a star navigator" she giggled, giving him a tight squeeze around the middle of his chest. "We should study it. we absolutely must. we shall have to find out what the date is, what it means. And then we shall introduce you to calliope. Gracious, but she was strange. she reminded me a lot of blake in that loud, vuglarish way he can be sometimes, but I saw, dori darling, she is of the outer planes." she turned her attention to the armillary again, leaning down to observe it without touching it "oh, but it's beautiful... we should try and plan the date into the orrery downstairs and see, shouldn't we? we need to find out what THAT is" she pointed a sharpened nail to the ceiling
Dorian did not know how to connect the orrery to the armillary, but he did not doubt his sister did. He realised he should have brought her the object long ago, but he had now and that was what mattered. "Do... do you want me to take it downstairs now? I.... had not even known it was... until you told me... I am glad to have contributed this." He appended with a smile about his achievement, tenuous though he felt his claim on it was. He'd been kissed and embraced and he was finding himself hungering for more of her. And who could blame him when she showed such gladsome excitement. His eyes darkened with want for more of her and turning his attentions from the rest of anything else in the world existing on a dime he was nuzzling his way to her ear to nibble on a lobe.
Dinah giggled and she reached up to cup his cheek in her fingers. "Then another thing we shall have to do, when the nights are clear, we shall go out onto the balcony and i will teach you the stars" she promised. "...we might be waiting a while for a clear night in this fog, though" she conceded. She turned her gaze from his face to look at the armillary again, which only left her earlobe open for nibbles, and she laughed again, closing her hands on fistfuls of his shirt. "we will have more contributions from you yet, darling. Stan has a name of someone involved in this. we need to find her. You, Drystan, hunter and i will find the woman" she whispered, "something proper for you to hunt" she added again, reaching her hands up for his shoulders for another kiss, this one not aimed for his cheeks.
Dorian was once again distracted away from the result of his hunt. There was only one quarry that was home and she was kissing his lips. When their lips met he'd pull himself close to wrap himself all around her, careful of where wings would be. There was only one person in the entire world who was the totality of him waiting to be reclaimed. And reclaim he would. He'd bend to reach his fingertips for the hem of her skirt, and be lifting her to carry her somewhere more stable than the middle of the room. All the while he'd kiss her feverishly as if he'd been long without her, though it was not true. Somehow he never took for granted what had long been sought after.