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The lights went out in the club, except for a tiny light on the mixer. There was movement on stage as the previous DJ left. And then the screen at the back of the huge hall lit up again in an animation of a solar flare, morphing into the text DJ SOLYARIS in an ornate font.
Then all was dark again, and the crowd was quiet and still, or as still as thousands of standing people could be.
As the first tones of the music began, tiny golden lights floated over the stage, gradually brightening to reveal the woman who stood behind the mixer and decks. She moved her arms gracefully as the ethereal chords grew.
“Here we go!” said someone excitedly, somewhere in the crowd near Aleksander. The music and the lights built, both those floating over the stage and those clearly part of the club's gear.
And then with a flash of light, the beat dropped.
The crowd exclaimed and danced and jumped, swept up in the music and the excitement of the evening. DJ Solyaris adjusted her headphones over her close-cropped black hair, and did something with the knobs on the board in front of her. She pulled her hands back from the controls, bringing them together as part of her dancing. Little lights sparkled around her as the music shifted, morphing into the next track.
“That's gotta be drones,” someone said near Aleksander.
“Yeah,” someone else said. “Look, they've just got the regular lights and those six strobe towers. There's nothing else that could do that.”
Aleksander smiled. He knew better. After all, she was his wife.
*
All of Ravka knew the stories. Every child learned the history, and scholars of every generation studied and debated the details. The long awaited Sun Summoner had carved tunnels through the dreaded Shadow Fold. The Sun Saint's light had smote the corrupt Lantsov Tsar and his unworthy heir, and the Saints had looked kindly on the second son of that house, Nikolai. With the wise advice of the Sun Saint and her Shadow Summoner husband, Ravka under Nikolai had prospered and Grisha had finally found safety there. Nikolai, inspired by listening to his people and the radical ideas he had encountered in his travels, had created a parliament that had drafted a constitution for Ravka. His heirs had served as heads of state beside the elected prime minister, before eventually stepping down and giving Ravka fully to her people. The Summoners of Sun and Shadow had receded from the spotlight, commonly assumed to be dead. Shrines were set up throughout Ravka to the Sun and Starless Saints.
It was a pretty story. The broad strokes were basically true, although nothing had been as simple as the most flattering legends made it sound. And the Sun Saint and her beloved Starless One were very, very much alive.
Aleksander had found it strange but wonderful to have a partner in his fight for Grisha. And even stranger to finally find himself in a world where he didn't have to fight anymore.
He and Alina had moved to Ivets for a few decades so she could spend time by the True Sea. Eternity stretched before them, and they could consider what they might want to do with their time besides being Saint and General.
Alina had wanted to travel more, far more than Aleksander had wanted to. He had wandered so much early on in his life, and the thought was no longer appealing to him. He didn't want to get in her way, though. He had accompanied her for a time, and then they had both decided it would be better if she continued to travel on her own. They were immortal. They had time. And there was the tether to connect them, a sweet reassurance whenever he missed her.
He had sought training in astronomy at the restored Spinning Wheel, then worked there for a few decades. Alina had roamed all over Ravka, then Novyi Zem, then went to the University at Ketterdam, once things were safer for Grisha there.
They always met up, sometimes briefly and sometimes for years. They would always come back together.
And they both were interested in music. When he was ready to “retire” from astronomy, Aleksander had taken up the fiddle again, delighted to find people still playing the music of centuries before. He'd also learned all kinds of new tunes, including some from Wandering Isles. Alina had gotten to know some Durasts who were working on new technologies to create music. She had learned to produce music and blend songs together on these devices. In the past few decades, Ravka had developed a thriving electronic music scene, and Alina had become a DJ, most recently touring under the name DJ Solyaris.
Ravka wasn't the only place that had changed. Alina had just done a residency in Shu Han, at last able to safely visit the country her mother had come from. She'd traveled to Ryevost, Chernast and Os Kervo afterwards, finally coming to Os Alta for the final show of the tour in a Durast-owned club called IRIDIUM, located in a refurbished steel factory.
“I want to stay there for a while,” she had said the night before in their shared dreams. She had kissed him, her lips warm and real in the liminal space where their souls connected. “With you, of course.”
“I would like that,” Aleksander had murmured.
*
Alina's set was coming to an end. As she had played, Aleksander had made his way closer and closer to the stage, moving through the dancing crowd.
The last chords receded, and Aleksander felt her eyes meet his. Desire shivered across the tether.
She left the stage, flanked by the club's crew and security. Aleksander walked toward the barricade where she would be passing. She paused, as he knew she would.
“He's with me,” Alina said, and someone moved the barricade aside. She swept him into her arms for a kiss, and she was solid, and warm, and real. The tether meant they were never truly apart, but there was something special about being back together in person.
“Welcome back, beloved,” Aleksander whispered, holding her close.
“It’s good to be home,” Alina breathed, and the tether reverberated with their shared delight.