Back in the Citadel the Mapmaker looked over the manifest of the ship. His eyebrows sunken below his spectacles, no doubt thinking about the report he would need to make to his king.
Vienna gazed at his back and asked a question that had bothered her for some time, "Why do they call you the Mapmaker?"
His back tensed, "It is my name."
Vienna rounded his desk, "It can't be. It's a title, not a name."
A long sigh before the Mapmaker adjusted his spectacles, "The late Elem queen gave it to me as my Inheritance."
"What about..."
"I have no Hearth name."
The Mapmaker's gaze sharpened as he saw her downturned features.
"I don't need your pity."
Right as she spoke, "Would you like one?"
"You don't know what you are saying." A wry chuckle came from him.
"Then tell me how it is different from me naming the others."
"You give them an Inheritance name. A Hearth name can only be given by immediate family. If you were to proceed, we would become thus."
Vienna leaned against the table, "Would you feel uncomfortable if you became my family?"
"It would be binding, Terra širdis, there would be no takebacks."
"At the heart of Terra? Would we never be able to part or something like that? Or would you have a say over my life or me yours?"
He shook his head, "It wouldn't restrict us or dictate our lives in any way. The only thing it would do is make us unable to make future marriage bonds with each other, as we would be incompatible as family members or siblings essentially."
"Would anyone you were related to be related to me?"
He shook his head again.
It would take Vienna a night's rest within the safety of the Old One. Her thoughts transmitted through its empathetic arms, hoping that they would reach her father somehow. If he was fine with it, she would meet with the Mapmaker the next day to bestow him a name.
The next morning she could almost hear Pop's voice whisper, "Little flower, do as you must." A surge of trust and assurance warmed her very being.
She took a day to think well on what name she would give the Mapmaker.
The Mapmaker's surprised features as she knocked on his door only made her smile in return.
"I would like to bestow upon you a Hearth name if you will take it."
The Mapmaker seemed to be in shock, she suspected that he thought she had been scared off the previous day due to the permanence of such a task.
"What must I do?"
"A mother would whisper the hearth name in their infant's ear after giving birth."
"Are you ready?"
The Mapmaker seemed in shock but he nodded.
Vienna had thought long and hard and knew she needed a name that suited his personality but another that he could further grow into and wouldn't take away from the identity he'd grown into with his title.
She stood on a stool and had him bend down so she could whisper in his ear, "Renard."
She smiled at him and spoke, "A true Inheritance name as well, I believe you deserve one. Atlas."
His whole being shimmered and he gasped in some pain as wings burned a hole from his shirt's back as they unfurled to wings tinged in light like a fireside. His hair turned bright at its edges like a paper being first lit on fire and his eyes sharpened until he took off his glasses to reveal fiery golden eyes that showed from a sparkling dark exterior.
"Wow!"
Vienna watched as The Mapmaker...now Atlas Renard, turned toward a nearby mirror, his eyes wide.
"I'm a perjōs."
Vienna's own eyes widened even as her lips were in a wide grin, "Aelius has spoken of perjōs. It is rare for one to be seen above the surface. You are absolutely fantastic Atlas!"
YOU ARE READING
Villainess From the Stars
FantasyIt had just been a game. A silly otome game with yandere capture targets. Everything changes when she finds herself in the world that inspired the story she'd played. The Caretakers warned her her new timeline would implode if she wasn't careful i...