I think there's plenty of ways this bond story can be read. However, this is how I ended up reading it. You get to see my thoughts alongside the bond story, so you can decide for yourself if my interpretation is what you're seeing, too.
The City of Wizards stands still. Aside form the low hum of magic and the faint rattle of the machines, the only signs of life that can be heard are the occasional rustling of pages in the library and Moonlight Cookie's breathing.
Every once in a while, sound flows into the City of Wizards. Some days bring the sound of raindrops falling, others echo with the whistling of the wind passes through the streets. But on clear cloudless nights... a faint song could be heard. Moonlight Cookie knew the song, for she had heard it from time to time in the City of Wizards as well as the dream world. When awake, it blew by like the wind, and when asleep it passed by like the clouds.
The source of the song was too far away to make out any words, but the melody itself was still captivating. Perhaps that is what gave Moonlight Cookie the urge to follow the melody one day as she was examining the dream world when she heard the familiar tune, clearer and stronger than usual. To find the source of the song, which seemed to be coming from beyond a large cloud, Moonlight Cookie rode her friend Moon to get a better look from above the clouds.
I want to take a brief pause to go over our setting- this is pre-comatose Moonlight, meaning this happened quite a while ago. This is also their first meeting, as Moonlight is tracing the source to figure out where it's coming from- she would know otherwise. Thus, this is not indicative of their current feelings for each other, or, at the very least, the complexities of them. Let's continue.
It was Sea Fairy Cookie she saw, standing in the middle of the vast Milky Way, singing with a voice resembling the sound of waves. Sea Fairy Cookie was singing with her arms outstretched towards the sky, and nothing else seemed to be able to catch her attention. Sea Fairy Cookie's only focus was the moon, its reflection brightly shining in her eyes. Moonlight Cookie carefully sat down atop of the cloud and quietly watched Sea Fairy Cookie sing.
"The backwards current crashes,"
"the water drops leaving the ocean scatter,"
"but even knowing this truth,"
"the calm ocean will reflect you."
"The burning heart melts the frozen body,"
"the calm waves flow freely on their own,"
"deep in the night as I look up to the sky,"
"I remember when I submerged you."
"The serene sea where countless ships come and go,"
"o, Sea of Life with sweet memories immersed,"
"on starry nights when the waves do not crash,"
"it will be because the sea wanted to engulf the moon."
"My deep longing for you rises to the surface of the water,"
"on starless nights the waves crash and rage,"
"drop after drop of longing freezes,"
"frozen rain falls on the starless night."
Oh, oh, so much to deconstruct here: Sea Fairy reaffirms to us that with her hope and love, her heart is thawed, much as we've seen before, but here, she confesses something deeper- when she cannot see the moon or the stars, that hopelessness returns to her and she retreats deep into the depths of the ocean, her pain and rage and sadness throwing the water into turmoil. Her pain is so strong that it freezes the water around her (not a surprise, as she does control the sea.)
It only makes sense that later, when Moonlight is asleep, Sea Fairy, too, falls into a slumber- she already struggles to make it through the day when she can't see the sky. Originally, I couldn't exactly figure out why she struggles so much with it, as they haven't met before, and it seems as though she's only talking to the moon here, right?
But there is... something more, is there not? She says she remembers when the sea submerged the moon- and yet, the two have never met. I interpret this as Earthbread's moon coming from a chunk of rock laying underneath the sea bed (or, perhaps, a magical object held within the waters itself,) before Sea Fairy and Moonlight were ever cookies, knowing each other, in some way, before birth. Sea Fairy longs to embrace the moon again, and if Moonlight is to the moon as Sea Fairy is to the sea (though, maybe not, as it says that the moon is Moonlight's friend,) it needs no explanation that it's Moonlight she longs to hold.
There is something here that piqued my interest far more than the moon, though.
Moonlight Cookie didn't know why, but the song reminded her of the wizards. The large smile that greeted Moonlight Cookie the moment she first left the oven, the large hand that taught her about magic and dreams, the voice that grew louder in discussions but always turned gentle in front of Moonlight Cookie, and then their visages in the final moments...
Yes. You read that last bit correctly- Moonlight witnessed the death of the wizards. She is living in her tower alone, learning to live her life after loss, and I do mean learning. Come read more.
For some reason, Moonlight Cookie felt like the dough in her heart had hardened. The cookie wanted to stay there and get lost in the song, but at the same time felt the urge to run away immediately to somewhere far away inside a dream.
Moonlight doesn't want to run away here because of her affection for Sea Fairy- after all, they've never met before, correct? And she wants to stay to listen to her song, comforted by the love she remembers and longing to feel loved again. No, Moonlight is wounded by the trauma of their deaths and the pain of the loss of those she loves, so much so that she is unable to fully feel that love and be open to it again. She is averse to affection and to vulnerability of all types (at least, to me, that's what it looks like here.) This bond story is a love story, but only between Sea Fairy and the Moon, yet it would be foolish to ignore that it's the start to an even greater love story between Sea Fairy and Moonlight.
I wonder what it is she witnessed. Did they die of old age and leave her behind of no fault of their own? As implied within Chapter 15, did they truly meet their end at the hands of the cookie born of what they deemed to be imperfection? To witness murder... I can only imagine what other things Moonlight might struggle with.
As she was struggling with these thoughts, Moonlight Cookie couldn't help but sigh. Did she hear that sound, perhaps? From far away, Sea Fairy Cookie turned to face Moonlight Cookie. It was like their eyes met.
Right then, Moonlight Cookie felt as if her and Sea Fairy Cookie were feeling the same thing. And it felt like Sea Fairy would know how to describe that feeling.
That feeling, is loss. Not like I had to tell you that, or tell you this, but Sea Fairy's loss is the loss of the moon. She looks to comfort Moonlight, sensing her pain, and changes her song, as seen below.
They only held eye contact for a moment before Sea Fairy Cookie gently turned her head to look towards the moon again. The sound of singing which had been interrupted started once more. So Moonlight Cookie stayed in her spot and continued listening to the song, its melody ascending towards her like fragments of glittering, shooting stars. The night flew by like the waves of the song, and the Milky Way itself.
"Even the wind howls from unresolved longing,"
"when the frozen heart rages like a storm,"
"the moonlight melts the raging longing,"
"and shines upon the soundlessly howling sea."
"The serene sea that sounds out countless ships each day,"
"the sea of eternity into which the frozen longing has sunk,"
"on starless nights when the waves don't crash,"
"it is because even the Moonlight knows this longing."
And that last line hit me with so much emotion and feeling- Sea Fairy is comforted, too, by Moonlight's raw emotion, feeling that she isn't alone in her mourning and longing, and being in and feeling that emotion with someone else, with Moonlight having brought her company, she feels she can continue on even on her hardest nights, admitting to Moonlight that she eases her pain and brings her calm and that hope again.
This means so much to me. Loss can make you feel as though your world is ending, that nothing will ever be right again, even if you might be stuck in that emotional limbo where you don't even know you're going through it yet. Having someone reach out to you can bring a moment of light and clarity during some of the hardest times of your life. She cared so much that loss, which normally consumes us, was not enough to stop her from showing love and kindness. I came for a love story, and I got something far better than what I ever could have asked for.
That being said, I told you this was the start of a much greater love story between Moonlight and Sea Fairy, and I meant it- I think that even though they don't love each other here in their bond story, that together, they will learn to cope with their losses and move forward, and create a lasting and fulfilling bond that I believe will be quite healthy (I do not think Sea Fairy's current emotional state is a healthy one, of course, but that is of no fault of her own, nor does it have anything to do with Moonlight and the link between them- just the moon.) It's clear that they both still hold some sort of interest in each other through that recognition, as Moonlight was the only thing that could distract Sea Fairy from her mournful song, and Sea Fairy being the one to pull Moonlight from her tower for some fresh air, and Moonlight chose to stay in spite of her pain. It seems as though if Moonlight is, somehow, the moon personified, she doesn't have full access to her memories as the moon, so it's possible that if that were the case, part of their relationship development would be unlocking those memories.
They both have growing to do before they can come together, but I hope we get to see that growth happen. It's been a while since we've had any content for either of them that's been meaningful.
... Well, okay. They do end up growing together, but I have to talk about how I was SO hopeful they were going to give Sea Fairy positive traits that would stick with her. They then released the SeaMoon costume bond story.
The disappointment I felt when I saw Sea Fairy would abandon all of her responsibilities on Earthbread in favor of being with Moonlight was immeasurable. I understand that ultimately, the goal is for them to stay together, but this sort of... reinforces my original suspicion of Sea Fairy before I read the bond story- she can't actually extend much concern for anyone who isn't the moon or Moonlight. Sea Fairy knows how important her role is to the ecosystem of Earthbread, and, given what we've seen so far in Kingdom, also has a role in the balance of life across Earthbread and HAS been slacking because she simply can't give a shit about anything else. Sea Fairy has so much potential to be someone outside of her (rather obsessive at this point) love for Moonlight and yet every single time, Devsis fails to give us even a smidgeon of character. I know the romance game is supposed to be an April Fool's joke, but Madeleine gets some surprising (if subtle) character depth within the game, while Sea Fairy's route sort of reinforces that the only way you CAN get close to her is if you accept the fact that your relationship is limited to comfort while moongazing. At the VERY least, the romance game slacks the responsibility on Sea Fairy's shoulder so that her endeavors are more practical.
If Sea Fairy doesn't get some actual character development soon, I might just pop. Still enjoy the ship of course. Think Sea Fairy should try being her own person before dating Moonlight tho.