#lunari

Until that late afternoon, hours before Aphelios’ next mission, when your defenses lowered, surrendered by the trust his touches had been earning from you. Of course, you two had never moved toward that kind of intimacy before, but this time passion managed to cloud both your reason, letting heated emotion guide the rhythm of your touches and the intensity of your desires.

However, it couldn’t lull the traumatic scar in your spirit to sleep; when Aphelios guided his hand to the waistband of your pants, a surge of self-protection shot through your body like electricity, burning the passion before it could be fulfilled, bringing flashes of memories, invading your mind like shards trying to cut you from the inside out.

Suddenly you pulled away to the other side of the bed, leaving Aphelios confused and frozen in place.

Had he done something wrong? Had he let himself get carried away and hurt you unintentionally? Had he done something you disliked that much?

The look he gives you is anything but condemning; it is worried. Aphelios notices how your chest rises and falls faster from your quick breathing — and he knows that isn’t a consequence of the moment you were having, because your expression looked frightened and ashamed, as if caught about to commit a crime; he notices how you wrap your arms around your abdomen and grip the hem of your shirt, as if suddenly sensing a threat that wanted to invade you and…

When the pieces begin to fit together, Aphelios feels his blood run cold.

The silence that follows makes your discomfort clear; even though you try to smile and hide it, Aphelios can’t be fooled: something more serious happened before you met.

You try to leave, giving an excuse about needing the bathroom. He holds your wrist loosely enough for you to decide to go if you wanted, but firmly enough to convey that he wanted to face it.

— Phel, please, don’t make me talk about it.” you sobbed, the tremor in your voice making his heart tremble too. “I just… I just want to move on and never again…

But a simple stroke of his thumb against your wrist was enough to silence you. A gentle, understanding look to make you hesitate. And an embrace to make you fall apart.

(……………….)

From behind the wall, hidden by shadows, Aphelios had his target in Calibrum’s sights for some time. In tense, worried silence, Alune waited for the shot that would end the mission.

The shot never came.

— Phel?

The ethereal voice sounded in Aphelios’ spirit the instant he lowered the weapon.

Your restrained sobs and tears; the scars on your soul; the scenes of violence and abuse Aphelios’ imagination formed as you told him fragments of your past. He simply couldn’t take it out of his mind, couldn’t forgive what left you marked like that.

He looked once more at the Solari guard invading Lunari lands; he realized he wasn’t able to shoot because, for the first time, his heart wasn’t there, wasn’t in the mission: the target he truly wanted had another name, another face, and was an invader of another sacred ground for Aphelios.

He would not let the one who did that to you go unpunished.

Clouds hid the moonlight the moment Aphelios’ expression darkened with that decision.

His sister’s spirit stirred his, and the poison seemed to burn his throat as he tried to ignore her; the internal war clouded Aphelios’ thoughts just as the clouds covered the night sky.

The beam of white light in that storm was Alune’s reason:

— Brother, your mission is not this man. It is (_); do not let anger divert your focus now.

The first raindrops fell; the Solari guards began dismantling the camp.

Aphelios tightened his grip on Calibrum’s barrel, seeking a focus there so his will could choose which side of the war to take.

— The moon placed these Solari as an obstacle, Phel, not a diversion. I hear in it no desire to place itself between you and (___).

That was enough; Alune was right. Aphelios couldn’t take out his anger on the one responsible for the pain of the woman he loved, but he could redirect that hungry ember toward the task assigned by the moon.

He let Calibrum break into lunar dust, walking out from his hiding place; the rain wasn’t strong enough to muffle his steps, and he immediately drew the attention of the five Solari.

Tense seconds followed as the warriors recognized Aphelios as a Lunari enemy. They formed into battle stance — the poison in Aphelios’ throat burned stronger. They raised their weapons and shouted through the rain for Aphelios to surrender — your frightened look, when you thought he might hurt you that way too, served as fuel for Aphelios’ boiling fury.

Just as the Solari ordered, Aphelios raised his hands — but only so Infernum could materialize, loaded with all the energy the moon could give him.

(………………)

Aphelios slowly opened the bedroom door even knowing you weren’t asleep — even though it was past three in the morning.

— I thought today’s mission would last two days.

You spoke without turning toward him, sitting on the bay window seat, letting the cold raise goosebumps on your skin and the faint moonlight illuminate the room; not that such low light bothered Aphelios. Still, unhurried and almost silent, he approached to close the window, drawing a sigh from you, but nothing beyond that.

He doesn’t know exactly what to do; if it were possible to erase that distant, fixed expression from your face with a single shot from one of his weapons, Aphelios would do it that very night. It was agonizing to feel so capable before the thing he most wished he could fix.

Aphelios didn’t regret listening to Alune. You were far more important than the man who caused that to you. Being with you carried far more weight than trying to erase a ghost that would always follow you in your past — whether he was alive today or not.

With a quiet sigh of resolve, he brushed your shoulder as he passed, taking a blanket from the wardrobe and bringing it back to place over your shoulders. You accepted the gesture, curling further into the soft fabric, leaning against the window and its cold glass, letting the journal and pen fall into your lap — tools you had been trying to use to find comfort in words during Aphelios’ absences.

Aphelios sat in front of you and looked outside with you, his hand absentmindedly playing with the edge of the blanket covering your feet on the cushioned bench, nervous and undecided; he wanted to pull you close and be your support himself, but he didn’t want to pressure you or make you feel suffocated — much less pushed. Unfortunately, none of his lifelong training prepared him to deal with the gravity of a wounded heart like yours.

The silence and the wind against the window had been filling the space between you for so long that he startled and immediately turned toward you at the sound of your low, hesitant voice:

— I never had the courage to talk about this because… Many times, I feel… I feel dirty after everything that happened. And I was… I still am afraid that you might also…

His fingers closed gently around your ankle. Aphelios’ expression tightened enough to make it seem as if he were drinking mission poison again. He could withstand pressure and tension — his entire life demanded it — but there was a limit to what Aphelios could endure, and hearing you even consider that kind of feeling from him… it was too absurd for him to let become words.

Before you could continue or withdraw completely, Aphelios took the journal from your lap. You let out a small protest of surprise, but he quickly turned to the page you had been writing on, not reading a single word you had written. On the blank page, his flowing, almost italic handwriting formed a single sentence in the middle:

“Nothing changed in what I feel for you.”

So simple. So direct. Practically without the sweetness expected from a boyfriend trying to be the comforting romantic. But it was so, so real — your eyes filled with tears before you could reorganize the emotions tangled inside you. Just as uncontrollable were the sobs that followed, spilling with the force of water released from a broken dam after years and years of being suppressed and stored.

You leaned forward and Aphelios didn’t hesitate to anchor you, letting you cry against his shoulder while he stroked your back with slow, continuous, steady motions.

When you pressed closer against his chest, he lowered his head nearer to your neck, closing his eyes and holding you tighter, as if trying to pull your pain into himself so it would be felt in his heart, not yours.

Aphelios knew that nothing in the world that could be said would lessen your pain — nothing would erase what happened. All he could truly offer was the silent promise that with every step from then on he would be with you, never looking away from the scar you carried, but certain he would love and kiss even your pain.

Hope you enjoyed!

Update 2: With the final season approaching I'm noticing this is getting some attention again. I would like to say that if I could write this from scratch again I'd say it's more likely the princess is from Ionia now, which doesn't up end the Lunari theory.

Previous League canon confirms the Lunari faith does have ties to Ionia. A good portion of the Lunari are Ionian in descent, and Diana, their aspect of the moon (essentially their demigod), currently lives in Ionia. League even created skinline for Ionians blood moon worshippers, an edgy offshoot of the Lunari faith. It's all very interesting and a bit complicated because Riot loves to drop plot points in the lore and never come back. I'll try to clean something up for a longer explanation later. What's crazy is the Medardas are still the aggressors because Noxians and Solarians, which the Medardas are both, terrorize Ionians and Lunaris respectively.

When I designed Nova to be Lunari, the Lunari Moondreamer really kicked off her design process. Years ago I probably would have chose Ionia instead, but thanks to Aphelios, Alune, AND Diana, I decided to commit to a Lunari OC instead, thus Nova was born.

So the true Lunari Moondreamer goes by no name as far as I'm aware of, and Kulun is her big fluffy friend. The small bits of info we have is really through the wiki link, provided with voicelines, is that they are a whimsical, light-hearted individual who loves nothing more than to talk about what the stars say in the sky and share them. A Moondreamer is an interpreter the constellations and stars, but it's not exactly explored on what that entails. They could very well be some version of seers, but it gets pretty muddled here.

"...using her[Alune] luminous magic to reveal hidden pathways and truths by the moon’s light." -about Alune, extracted from Aphelios' history bio.

But the key thing is that it's possible Lunari Seers use their abilities to listen to the Moon herself, making them likely more powerful in terms of foreseeing visions and likely very regaled, Alune much more because she is super gifted. So to make it short: I feel Seers are more prophetic of the future and therefore more reveled within the religious sect, while Moondreamers are focused on the past and current, basically they find pathways that are in the now, rather than later, but also telling stories of past histories and from what stars show, to understand and learn from them. IDK that's how I see it.

With this in mind, I like to think they are more cohesive to the Lunari society, basically much more approachable. They are by no means less important, but with story-telling you can't tell me that people and children come to them to hear about the stars at night.

The other side of the coin is that they are weird. Weirder than an entire Moon cult. As the Moondreamer's voicelines depict, she's pretty out there, her lines indicate she's pretty playful and odd, which is why I made Nova's personality as she is: Dotty, oddball, with her head-in-the clouds, but she's very sharp-minded and perceptive, she just has her role as a Moondreamer tacked on so she's automatically considered a loony to some. Basically Luna Lovegood from HP, 100% that is what I try to roleplay her as because it just fits.

So why didn't I design her exactly like The Moondreamer? Well I like to think the official design is more ceremonial, so Nova DOES have a headdress like that, but its reserved for official ceremonies. Otherwise she looks like the average girl doing not-so-average things. However I decided to take elements from the Moondreamer art, specifically the crescent moon pendants dangling all over her headdress and added it to Nova's design. I feel those are very identifiable of her role in Lunari society, and she makes a bunch of those as charms to distribute to her people.

The nameless Moondreamer I like to think is like an instructor, and Nova learned from them when her abilities started to show. Nova's abilities are more enhanced as instead of interpreting the stars like a fortune teller with minimal magic, she can HEAR the stars. Constantly. With every star and constellation at night, she knows every personality, habit, like/dislikes of the stars that visit, don't ask me how, only she knows. This just adds to her odd nature because she spends more time conversing with the stars more than people. When she's truly in the element, she bluescreens because she's that far into a trance--

I'll leave this long past at that.

...

And yes, Nova does take naps on Kulun. He's very fluffy, 100% recommended.