Under the Same Moon | Levi x OC

Prologue

As the first whisper of twilight began to drift across the ruby-hued sky, accompanied by a faint sprinkling of glittering stars, a young, dark-haired woman looked up and released a shuddering sigh. Molten tears escaped from her amethyst-blue eyes and danced their way down her face, and she did her best to focus on the magnificent sky as she tried to quell her anguish; to do anything but think about her failed relationship and terribly broken heart. It had been many weeks since things had ended between her and the man she thought she'd one day marry, and yet her pain was only just starting to fade. She shifted her position atop her favourite stone parapet and cast her gaze towards the lush, shadowy forest that surrounded the castle she called home. Resigned to her melancholia, she willingly wandered forth to get lost in her thoughts and memories despite their bittersweet aftertaste. When she at last returned to her present surroundings, the icy light of the full moon illuminated everything in an ethereal glow. Now considerably calmer, as though she'd finally begun to piece her shattered heart back together, she took a deep, luxurious breath, closing her eyes and savouring the scent of gardenia and honeysuckle woven into the night-fresh air. When her lids fluttered open again, she stared up at the moon, wondering who else might be gazing at it with her.

***

In the dreary depths of the infamous Underground city below Mitras, a single shaft of cool, silver moonlight shone down through a large drain in the street above, cleaving through the gloom. A young, pale man on his way back to the ramshackle building he called home stopped directly underneath it and squinted up through the drain, his deep blue-grey eyes hungry for more of the light that so rarely graced that miserable place. As though the moon itself was privy to his desire, it crept out from behind the wispy clouds to reveal itself in its entirety. The man's night-black hair shone pearlescent as the gleam intensified, and his lips quirked up in a small, lopsided smile. He wondered who else might be looking at the moon at that moment, able to enjoy it in its full glory nestled amongst the stars of the vast, open sky instead of peering up at it through a dank hole beneath the dirt like some wretched captive animal deprived of the natural elements. No...even the rats had it better than the human inhabitants of the Underground. His smile waned, and he took a reluctant breath of the damp, cloying air and vowed that someday soon, he and his friends would escape that place and the three of them would look up at that moon with freedom in their souls and hope in their hearts.