#and i'm always eager to write galaxia

[radiantseraphina]

*clears throat* garlude and galaxia, but they're lesbians. galaxia is a magic golden lady that garlude met in her dreams and was like "oh no she's hot" and since garlude knew she was doomed, galaxia trying everything in her power to make it not so but ALAS

Here’s to hoping Tumblr doesn’t kill my formatting! EDIT: So…that looks horrifying. Here’s the AO3 link until I work out the kinks. Yikes.

It has to be me, SirArthur.

Jecra’s blond hair was matted, caked with mud, and stuck upin every direction. Dried blood cracked along the side of his face, and hisclothes were torn so badly that it was a miracle they were even still holdingtogether. It was his first knightly quest, one that was supposed to be a simple find-missing-children-and-save-them-from-the-demonbeast.Unfortunately, it had turned into a village-elders-are-trafficking-the-children-of-poor-people-and-scapegoating-this-outcast-in-the-woodssort of mission.

“Garlude!” Jecra exclaimed, absolutely beaming. “Look! Ifound a new Star Warrior! This is Meta Knight!”

Jecra enthusiastically pushed forward a dark blue puffball,who looked as bad—if not worse—than Jecra did. And although the puffballshivered from exhaustion and anxiety, Garlude saw only his eyes. They were thebrightest possible gold, holding the radiance of the sun and the calmness ofthe moon and the fire and sacredness and warmth and light of the Golden Lady’sown sacred forge.

“We don’t know if I’m a Star Warrior,” the puffball repliedawkwardly.

He didn’t feel right. Garlude, herself, wasn’t a StarWarrior, but she knew what Star Warriors felt like. This puffball wasn’t enough of some indescribable, namelessthing that Garlude had felt dozens of times. He was a tangle of stardust anddark magic, two forces that should have torn one another asunder, but somehow,they had found balance in this—

This boy, really. This puffball was no older than Jecra, whowas barely at the cusp of adulthood.

“Sure, you are!” Jecra replied, winking. “No need to be somodest, pretty knight!”

And Jecra must’ve felt it. He must’ve known that Meta Knightfelt wrong, and yet Jecra laughed andsmiled and flirted so easily.

When Meta Knight looked directly at her, Garlude saw all herdoubts reflected in his face. Even if Jecra didn’tknow Meta Knight was wrong or broken or torn apart and stitched togetherlike some sort of perverse ragdoll of light and darkness, starlight andshadows, Meta Knight knew it.

And Garlude knew at the moment that she had found the GoldenLady’s champion.

I know Meta Knight isto be her wielder, but I was one of Galaxia’s priestesses.

 Garlude’s life was one of light and goodness. She lived in theGolden Lady’s temple, promising her chastity, her life, and her loyalty, to theGolden Lady. While some maidens struggled with this choice, Garlude never had.She had never desired a man, and the only woman she desired was an unreachable,celestial being.

Garlude was never entirely sure when her devotion to theGolden Lady became love to the Golden Lady, but Garlude nevertheless replicatedall the courting rituals that she would have performed for anyone else. Shewrote poetry in hackneyed meter and softly sang her words at the foot of theGolden Lady’s pedestal, where her blade rested and always caught the light ofthe sun and stars.

And one day, Garlude approached the pedestal, and lightburst into the room like a diamond shattering. The Golden Lady stood beforeher. She looked like a member of Garlude’s own race and had draped herself incloth of gold. Her eyes were soft and kind and the color of rubies, deep andradiant.

Hello, the Ladywhispered.

Garlude tried to swallow past the lump in her throat, andwhen she failed to speak, the Golden Lady laughed.

My dear, I love you,too, the Lady said. Doesn’t it seemright that we should finally meet?

 And warmth burst into Garlude’s chest. She nodded hastily,so happy that she scarcely understood how she could hold the strength of suchfeelings within her. Never had she imagined that the Golden Lady would look so luminous, so beautiful, so utterly human. So perfect.

 I have a duty toprotect her as she protected me.

 Garlude was a young woman when the Golden Lady’s sacredsword was stolen and her priestesses all slain, save for Garlude who had—by chance—beenaway. With tears branding her cheeks, Garlude watched her home blaze, embersrising into the sky. Her gaze was drawn to a glimpse of gold, the Lady watching.Garlude struggled for words. She wanted to scream and cry and hurt the Lady fornot doing more, for not saving everyone, but the Lady’s face gave Garludepause.

Never before had Garlude seen such despair in the face ofanother living being. The Golden Lady was hurt, too.

The Lady walked to Garlude’s side. She offered soft smilesand gentle caresses, which Garlude accepted with hitching breaths and freshtears.

I am so sorry, mybeloved, the Golden Lady whispered. Hadthis been in my power to prevent, I promise I would have. The best I could do was send you away and hope that you survived. I may twist the strands of fate, but I may not weave them. I may delay the inevitable for a season or two but nothing more.

 Of course, she would have prevented it if she could have.Garlude knew it, and she wept harder with the admission. The Golden Lady wassacred, but she was not all-powerful, and without her wielder, she wasincapable to striking down the dark forces as she had in centuries before.

“I love you,” Garlude whispered reverently.

And I, you, the GoldenLady replied. My dearest Garlude.

 For a long time, Garlude stood and sobbed and let the GoldenLady hold her. Eventually, Garlude knew she would have to leave, but in thatmoment, she just wanted to be held by the one she loved most of all. And later, Garlude would realize what the Golden Lady had meant by delay the inevitable, and Garlude would realize with dawning dread that she was meant to be dead and that Death would come. And the noble Golden Lady would be able to thwart Death’s cold touch as she once had.

 I know that I willlikely die on this quest. I have seen it in my dreams.

 The Golden Lady’s face was sad, her red irises carrying adepth of pain the Garlude would have thought impossible. Garlude had seen thispain only once before, when the Lady’s sacred abbey burned. They didn’t need to exchange any words; Garlude could sense what was coming. She had escaped death before because of the Lady’s gracious hand, but the Lady could not thwart Death forever.

My dearest, I shallsee you once your time is done, the Lady said. You will join your kin in the stars, and I shall always delight in your warmth and light.

 Garlude drew in a deep, steadying breath as her Lady’s handcaressed her hair so tenderly. “Does it have to be him?” Garlude asked.

Why can’t it be me?

 Yes, the Lady murmured, her beautiful face pinching in sorrow. “Destiny has woven a web abouthim, and even I have no power over such things. If Meta Knight has no companion, he will die. I know I ask a high price of you, my dear heart.

Sometimes, it seemed incomprehensible that the sacred GoldenLady would be incapable of anything, but Garlude understood the gravity of the Lady’s words. The Lady would never lie. 

 But I love Meta Knight,and I love Galaxia.

Sometimes, Garlude watched Meta Knight and Jecra, who wasforever around. They grew closer over the years. Jecra’s touches grew lessfriendly and became more intimate, more communicative. Jecra learned to speakentire sentences with the way his thumb brushed against Meta Knight’s armor orflesh. And Garlude watched as Jecra slowly coaxed Meta Knight out of hiscoldness and shyness, chipping away at his ice until Meta Knight blossomed likean iris after the last frost of winter.

 And maybe Garlude began to love him, too. Some nights, Garludewould find him staring at the stars; Meta Knight never seemed to tire of them.

“How are you, Meta?” Garlude asked one night, as Meta Knight’sgaze remained fixed on the winter sky.

“I’m well,” he replied. “Just thinking. Do you ever feellike the stars are calling for you?”

“I think all Star Warriors feel that.”

Meta Knight shook his head. “No,” he said. “Literally calling for you. Actualvoices.”

Garlude grew very still. Meta Knight’s bluntness had snappedsomething deep inside her. Noting her silence, Meta Knight’s gaze met hers. “Inever said anything,” he said carefully. “Not to Father, not to Jecra. But I havealways heard her.”

“Her?” Garlude whispered.

And although Garlude knew the name before he spoke it, MetaKnight’s answer still shattered her world.

“Galaxia,” Meta Knight said, gently and reverently. “Butthat doesn’t make sense. That’s just galaxyin another language.”

Galaxy and so much more.

Therefore, Sir Arthur,allow me to join Meta Knight in retrieving the sacred sword Galaxia, so that Imay serve my beloved, golden lady one last time.