Nyx (Complete✅)

Chapter 74

   Though the whole gathering migrated eventually to the community dome back in the village, Beth still found her mind at the altar, her hands clasped in Liam's to form a circle even stronger and more perfect than the rings they now wore.

   The white tables were arranged in a spiral, with Liam and herself seated at the one in the center. Was that another Viscordian tradition? She couldn't remember, and she didn't try to. Her mind was lost to the euphoric melody of emotions that had twined themselves around her heart.

   Draping tendrils of sweet-smelling blossoms had been hung from every available surface, transforming the wide room into a paradise. She'd heard from somewhere that she couldn't quite remember that these flowers only grew high in the mountains. It had been quite a trek to gather them all.

   It was worth it. Everything was worth it. The look in his eyes, forever sealed in her memory, was worth it all.

   Liam's hand never left her own, not even when they began to eat. She wished she could pull herself out of the daze to truly appreciate the hard work that had been put into the Viscordian wedding dishes, but her mind refused to focus on anything but the man at her side. One of those light, unstoppable laughs rose from her chest.

   She took a bite of a sweet jellied vegetable, some sort of preserve.

   "I love you." Liam's voice tickled her ear as he leaned over to whisper the words.

   She laughed again. "I don't think I'll ever hear that enough..." she turned to him and planted a light kiss on his cheek. "I love you, too."

   His smile was brighter than the golden light that fell from the Viscordian sun. "And I'll never stop saying it."

   The ethereal Viscordian night slowly fell as the dinner came to a close. The two bands from the altar had somehow appeared again, and the tables and chair were cleared out of the center of the room before she even realized what was happening.

   And earth tradition, the father gets the first dance. Kelbar was playing the role of her father for the night, so for just a moment, she allowed her hand to slip from Liam's grasp as the first Viscordian she'd ever met led her into the glowing center of the dome.

   Moonlight filtered through the perfectly structured glass, casting almost prism-like light onto the pure white flooring. Someone, a genius, had built the structure in such a way that it came to life under the cycle of the moons, transforming into a wonderland of fractured light.

   Kelbar swirled her around, leading her flawlessly in a dance she'd been given a crash-course on not hours before. He'd recalled the steps with flawless accuracy from whenever the last union between the Viscoridans of his village had taken place.

   The movements felt surreal—something she never would have thought she could do. Today was a day for the impossible to become possible.

   Her body was as fluid as the light that shattered into rainbows around her, and when the dance ended, she was almost disappointed.

   The joy of returning to Liam, however, drowned everything else out. They were magnets, drawn together by a law of the universe more absolute than even gravity: love. She could feel the connection as if a cord of pure light had been strung between their hearts.

   Their dance wasn't nearly as elegant as the one Kelbar had led, but it was something special and entirely their own. No one had ever danced in that exact way before. No one like them had ever existed before. They were the first, and somehow the last.

   She was dimly aware of other couples starting to trickle onto the floor as the music continued, but she was lost in Liam's eyes. It was only them, for all she cared. The rest of the world could cease to exist, but if she had Liam, she would be content.

   He had saved her life. She didn't know what she would have become if she hadn't met him. Something inside her had been coiling tighter as she lived her life, and if he hadn't come along to loosen that spring, she was sure she would have wound herself to death. Just thinking about how different things would be if she hadn't signed up for the New Hope Program seemed less possible than flying.

   A shaft of pure light illuminated him like a beacon in the night, perfectly describing her overflowing feelings in one, simple picture. Without him, she was lost, she was nothing. She knew he felt the same.

   They were the two pieces of a very small puzzle, fitting perfectly. She stepped closer, burying her face in his chest and hugging close to him.

   "Can you imagine how different things would be?" she asked softly. "Any one of so many things could have gone differently, and none of this would have happened." It felt like a miracle, as she thought of it. The universe had woven it's events in the only way that they ended up like this, swaying gently under the fractured light of an alien planet's moons.

   "I can't imagine. I don't want to." Liam's words dissolved into a chuckle that sounded suspiciously mingled with tears. "This is perfect. Now is perfect."

   She couldn't have said it better herself. And she knew that every moment she spent with Liam would be the same. They would be in that perfect now for as long as they lived.

   This day was the beginning of her life. The thought almost startled her as it resounded deeply through her soul, so true it almost hurt. She might have done so much, but all of it felt like air rushing through her fingers when she thought of what the future held.

  So much was going to happen, and she was going to live through it all. Life was unfolding before her, as delicate and unspeakably beautiful as a rose, unfurling from its bud to drink in the sunlight, to get covered with dew, to live its life to the fullest—the only way it really knows how to live at all.

  She could have spent the rest of her forever there, suspended in time at that perfect, untouchable moment. But the night stretched onwards. Time marched on.

   And she had a cabin to go home to, each board planned out in love, and built on that same foundation. But more importantly, she would be going home with the love of her life—the perfect piece to fit in her puzzle.

   Liam's hand never left her own, not even when he opened the door and led her into the dark interior of the cabin. Moonlight danced through the windows, a ghost to remind them of the otherworldly display they'd danced beneath.

   She had once looked at the Earth's destruction as an end, but it was really, truly a beginning, at the core.

   The night etched itself in her memory. Forever, as eternal as time itself. Years could pass and she would still remember everything as clearly as she did now.

The perfect beginning to the perfect life...