I could not move.
I could feel my body, stiff as stone, trapped in place against the hard floor. As much as I tried, my eyes refused to open. I searched my remaining senses for any clues to where I had been transported to in the gust of sands.
In the distance, I could hear the gentle taps of feet crossing on tile or stone -back and forth, but the sound was muffled behind either wall or door. I strained my ears, but could hear nothing else but my own shallow breath.
I inhaled as much as I could through my nose, and was met, to my surprise, with a delightful combination of vanilla and cinnamon. A bizarre choice indeed for what I anticipated to be some sort of Guide-created prison cell for Blood Mages and other nefarious fiends.
There was a sudden murmur of muffled voices nearby, followed by the sound of a door creaking open. I tried again to open my eyes, but still no luck.
“Girl?” came a man’s voice from above me, “I can’t believe she’s still out. Must be the first time being transported by sands.”
I felt a slight kick at my foot, sending an uncomfortable shiver of tiny pins up my leg.
“Do you think we should just lift ‘er up and bring her there? She said it was urgent,” came another voice, still low but with a slight whine.
“Nah, just give her some time. We’ll come back later.”
“Fancy armor she got.”
“Aye - Think she’ll let me have it when she’s done with the lass?”
They both then laughed, uproariously, until suddenly shushing each other when there was more commotion outside the room.
“Come now, let’s see what they have left in the dining hall. Still a lot of leftovers from yesterday’s celebrations I heard.”
“Aye.”
And with that, both voices left the room, leaving me once again alone in the darkness.
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It felt like hours before I was able to finally open my eyes. To my surprise, I was in a white room, wall lined with lush green ivy hanging from the ceiling in laced chains. But the more I looked, the more familiar it seemed. It took me a couple more minutes before I realized - this indeed was the room I saw in my dream all those nights ago, hidden away behind the hand mirror on the beach. Before I destroyed it, the hand mirror had almost the exact same layout. Thankfully though, this room did seem to have a door.
After several minutes of effort, I was able to move my toes, fingers, loosening my body as much as I could under the tight armor, until I was finally able to sit up on my own. I sighed, feeling the weight of my unfortunate circumstance wrapping around my stomach like talons.
A Blood Mage - brought in front of the Guides themselves to answer for my… crimes?
I made a mental list.
So far I had run away from home, escaping from an inevitable trial by the Seven High Judges, brought back Gaelenod from the dead, took a dragonrider’s life. Perhaps that was enough to bring me in front of the Guides to answer for.
But what about Lumo?
Would he be married off to Herculea before or after my untimely demise?
I smiled to myself, shaking my head in disbelief to the madness of this all. Perhaps I should have just stayed in the cave with Ciro. Everything seemed so impossible. Who knew that this was where my path would lead all those days ago when I did the Solia Ceremony, revealing no flame?
I leaned to the side, resting my head on the side of the lavish heavy bedframe where I sat on the floor, stiff armored legs in front of me.
I was so completely exhausted. After about a week of sleeping on the cold hard ground, even though Lumo did his best to make things hospitable, I was yearning for the promised comforts of the heavy blankets beside me. It may not be home, but it sure looked comfortable.
I waited for any sound of guards at the door again, making sure to fake my still paralyzed state whenever anything stirred outside. Their sounds seemed regimented for a while, passing by the door every twenty or so minutes, but eventually I was met with only silence as the night grew long.
I bit my lip before making a hasty jump into the thick covers of the bed, not even bothering to take off my armor - just in case. Although it wasn’t completely comfortable, it still felt light on my skin, and I needed whatever magicked protection I could get.
I laid my head down on the pillow with a sigh, letting the soft fabric fall around my bare face. If I were to die soon, I might as well get a good night’s sleep.
After what seemed like only a few quick blinks, I was out, deep in the gentle embrace of sleep.
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Perhaps sleeping in the armor was not the best idea, as I was awakened to a sharp stab in the crook of my arm where two of the enchanted onyx plates met. How in the world did the Cursed Queen wear this for all those years? I shuttered, thinking of her dust-body as it lay in a heap on the ground.
I rolled over, both annoyed at the pain and disturbed at the uncanny image, and paused.
Through the dark, I saw something laying on the floor, twinkling just a sliver in the blackness. I braved a look over the edge of the bed, surprised to see Lumo there, fast asleep on the ground.
My head buzzed with questions as my mouth went slack.
How? When?
I carefully slid out the bed, lightly kneeling beside his head. I wasn’t sure what my intentions were, but something inside me kept pulling me closer to him. I sat in the dark, silently studying his peaceful sleeping face.
After all this? After all that we have been through so far… was it for nothing?
I was to be sentenced to death, all without saying goodbye to Mother, Father, Limenta… Even Gaelenod. I thought of our last conversation - of promising to return to Yormen, and felt my eyes begin to well with a familiar sting.
Everything, all for naught.
I hadn’t even…
I hadn’t even seen Lumo’s face.
I looked down at his golden mask, twinkling with new streaming light through the lens of my tears.
If I was to die - perhaps… Perhaps he wouldn’t mind.
Just a single look, then I would put the mask back on like nothing ever happened. He seemed to be in a deep, deep sleep. I doubted that he would notice.
I looked around nervously, and, as expected, the room was empty except for us. I took a deep breath, placing both my hands carefully on either side of the mask, feeling my heart almost shatter though my chest in my anticipation. I closed my eyes and gently lifted.
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My breath caught as I finally looked at his face. I strained my eyes, trying my best to make out his features in the dark room. There was a sharp nose, sunken cheeks, delicate long eyelashes under a strong, dark brow. Although he seemed young, he had a strange, uncanny beauty, unlike any I had ever seen before. His dark locks waved around his face in soft ringlets, begging to be touched and swept away from his sleeping face.
Something was odd though, even through the dark, there were still glimmers of gold dancing around his face, where his mask once lay even though I now held it in my trembling hands.
I reached to put the mask back on but hesitated. No, just a moment longer.
But it was then that Lumo’s eyes opened.
They gleamed, bright gray even in the dark as he smiled the same familiar smile, now completely uncovered. He gave a quick inhale of surprise.
“Mira-” he whispered, before his eyes glanced down at what I was holding in my hands. I watched, shaking as he reached for his face, mouth agape.
“No… No… Mira what have you done,” he whimpered, staring at me.
“I’m… I’m sorry,” I managed, shakily holding out his mask as I closed my eyes tight. “Please, I just thought… I thought that if I am going to die then at least… at least…”
I waited for his anger to reach me, half expecting him to scream, shout, chastise me. I waited for a familiar slap, like Limenta had done, time and time again when I had disappointed her. Perhaps I did deserve death.
But before my thoughts could grow too dark, I felt something touch my face.
I opened my eyes to find Lumo’s face, still close to mine, still unmasked. His thumb was gently tracing my bottom lip, as his gray eyes burned a stare through the darkness, looking intently at my mouth.
“Lumo?” I whispered.
“Mira,” Lumo spoke, soft and low, “I would… I would very much like to kiss you. Is that okay?”
I felt what could have been a burst of lighting snap through me as every single nerve in my body seemed to seize. I tried to speak but only an odd sort of choking noise seemed to escape my lips.
“Mira?” Lumo said again, brow furrowed and full of concern.
I swallowed hard, then gave what was perhaps too enthusiastic of a nod, hoping he would see through the dark.
To my mix of relief and embarrassment, he responded with a bright grin, before leaning forward.
It was then that Lumo kissed me with a surprising, gasping desperation. As one warm hand lightly grasped the side of my neck, his other held around the small of my back, clenching me tightly against his warm chest. As his soft lips parted mine, my entire body grew slackened beneath his, and with a familiar aching tremor, I surrendered.
But just as my hand reached to grab his, he suddenly pulled away from me, eyes staring intensely into mine, still burning.
“Mira, tell me - what do I look like?” he whispered, urgently.
“What?” I started, still dazed.
“Do I look like… do I look like someone you know? What do I look like?”
“I - no… you look like… I suppose you look like I’d imagined you did, beneath the mask. You are… very… very good.”
Very good?
I cringed at myself.
He smiled, looking down.
“You do have… gold though - on your face… little flecks where your mask was… did some of it come off?” I asked.
I then raised my finger, lightly tracing over the tiny sparkles that dotted his forehead and high cheekbones. As I touched him, he closed his eyes, slowly exhaling.
“Interesting,” he said, leaning into my touch, lightly closing his eyes. “Very interesting.”
“So why… Why were you hiding this from me? You’re…”
Perfect.
I let the word hang in my mouth, not yet brave enough to speak it.
But he was. He was perfect.
He was everything I imagined his face to be, but more.
“Mira, I suppose… I suppose I can tell you now,” he sighed, placing both my hands in his, holding them gently on my lap. “When I was created - me and my brother both - the conditions of our appearance was that we would… we would look like ‘one’s most desired.’ It was sort of a failsafe for both Herculea and Selphena. That no matter how old we become, we would always appear to them exactly how they would like us to. However, it is not only them we have this effect on,” he gave a sad smile, looking away.
“I remember,” he continued, “I remember the first time I wandered a city by myself - I think it was somewhere on the Fell Isle - and men and women both began to call to me. ‘Ah my Fernando, I thought I would never see you again’ or ‘Talia, you are much taller than I remember - why haven’t you returned my letters?’ It was rather unbearable, if you can imagine. It was then that I was given this.”
Lumo reached, grabbing the mask off the floor and holding it gingerly in his hands.
“It was Tumet who made this for me - after seeing my frustration,” Lumo bit his lip, “He admired how much I wanted to see the realm for myself really experience it in person. Siegfried got his shortly after… I think he was jealous,” Lumo smirked.
I nodded, considering his words.
“I didn’t…” he cleared his throat nervously, “I didn’t want to show you because I…. Well, at first because I suppose I was afraid of what you would see?” he laughed, “Perhaps I would appear as some girlhood crush of yours, how awful. No, I also didn’t want to show you since I… I wanted you to join me in this fight - wherever it may take us, without worrying that you would be in some way only convinced because of… because of what I looked like? I’m not doing very good explaining this, am I…”
He sighed, shaking his head.
“I’m not mad at you, Mira. I’m just afraid.”
“Afraid?”
He bit his lip again, now staring at the ceiling instead of the floor.
“Afraid that they might use it against us, now that you’ve seen me without my mask… but - let’s not worry about that now,” he said, placing a warm palm on the side of my face, sending new shivers through me. “Let’s get you back to bed. Long day tomorrow.”
Before I could protest, he lifted me off the floor, and placed the heavy comforters around me. He then sat beside me on the edge of the bed beside me, giving me a curious look.
“Are you sure you want to sleep in all that armor?” he asked, shaking his head in disbelief.
“I mean - what if someone steals it from me while I’m asleep?”
He smiled and shrugged, shaking his head. He then leaned forward, kissing my forehead, lingering there as I held my breath, before leaning away quickly.
“I should go,” Lumo said, standing up and placing his mask over his face briskly, “Or I fear I may never leave.”
And with a swirl of his cloak, Lumo was gone.
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