Cursed with immortality, Mars goes on a journey with his lifelong more-than-friends partner Astral, a painfully average future-seeing mage, to find the root of magic, in an effort to ease the side effects of Astral's visions - and to finish their th...
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My stomach turned as we waited. Venus was preparing some herbs into a stone bowl, occasionally looking up to smile at Astral and assure him, everything was going according to plan.
The stars and the moons were lighting up the night sky very prettily, one moon half, the other full. Astral seemed a lot less nervous than what I was expecting. Or projecting. I was so nervous I was about to shake my skin off. What if something went wrong? What if something went so horribly wrong and I lost him.
As if he could hear my thoughts, he gave my hand a squeeze. I glanced at him, catching a supportive smile. He leaned in and kissed my cheek feather softly. It warmed me up immediately and it did calm my nerves, slightly.
"Come, Astral," Venus said and held her hand out towards him. She was dressed in this silk robe, and I had no idea why that was at all necessary. Seemed perverse, to be quite honest.
Astral kissed me again and rose from the stone bench we had been sitting on. I wanted to tell him to not go through with it, but I had promised to be supportive.
Even despite Venus having done her black hair up in the most ridiculous hairdo, I didn't get why she needed the theatrics to do any of this, and quite frankly, it seemed like she only did it because she could.
She handed a stone cup to Astral, having poured the remedies from the bowl into it. A stone cup. Who had stone cups?
"Drink, my friend. This will secure your future."
Astral glanced at me and clenched his jaw. "I'm sorry," he murmured and then he drank.
Sorry? What was he sorry about?
The stone cup dropped from his fingers the second he swallowed the first time. His body convulsed and I almost sprang to him.
"Astral!" I cried out, grabbing his arms.
He stared up into the sky, the stars reflected in his eyes. Only they were no longer just reflected. The white in his eyes turned progressively darker and darker, the brown disappearing too. His knees gave out and he sank down to the ground.
"Help him!" I almost screamed at Venus.
"I already have, Mars," she replied with an annoying amount of calm.
I crouched down in front of the love of my life, watching his eyes turn completely black before white dots sprung to life.
"Astral, talk to me, please," I begged, holding his face in my hands.
Black tears filled his eyes and then ran down his cheeks, leaving black lines on his golden skin. I tried smoothing them away, but they came out too fast. It was as if his eyes were being entirely replaced by the night sky.
"Do not worry, Mars, he will be fine. More than fine. He'll be immortal."
I whipped my head around, feeling blood drain from face. "Wh-what?"
