Chapter 22 #2
This put that star show to shame.
Beads of light twinkled in a swirling sky of black and indigo. Thicker swirls puffed into clouds of grays and violets, like various rivers pooling into brighter bursts of lilac, some glowing white. It was endless, the magnitude of it stealing what little breath she had left.
But what dominated were the spheres.
Like glass marbles, they bobbed, suspended in the air by some cosmic force. In the spheres that orbited closer, Lia could see entire worlds within. Her papa’s drawings had not done them justice. The spheres were like viewports to worlds she had never seen—never imagined before.
These were not like snow globes, showcasing a world in glass.
No, the spheres, varying in size from one to the next, were gateways.
The one closest, roughly the size of a two-story house, held a castle.
Crags of earth pierced the mist as dragons swooped in from out of sight.
Their mighty wings were soundless when they swerved behind the turrets.
Another sphere caught Lia’s eye. She may have well been standing before Jupiter. Within was a desert, dunes of sand rolling as wind whipped around small domed houses. Two suns shone, a white and red orb both dipping into the horizon.
And no less beautiful in its intensity was a smaller sphere full of lush fields and a horse riding across, a singular horn on its head. A little girl clung to its white mane, peals of laughter unheard to the two viewers.
The spheres went on, an endless sea of dreams that stretched out before them, becoming the beads of light that Lia had believed to be stars in the distance. But, no. There were no stars here at all, rather the billions of stories and dreams spun since the moment humanity gained a heart. A soul.
The nightmares were there, but Lia refused to look at the realms with spheres of fire and shadow. She’d had enough nightmares for a while.
“Aurelia,” Kayce whispered, his voice a strain between shock and awe. “Don’t look down.”
“What?” Lia mumbled, hardly enunciating the word before she unconsciously did what he explicitly told her not to. Her stomach bottomed out as she clambered for his arm, nails digging into the muscle.
“Breathe!” he choked. “Focus!”
She jerked a nod, staring beneath her.
They stood on nothing.
Well, nearly nothing.
A vaporous cloud of periwinkle had formed around their feet, but it was more likely to function as some comfort than a true platform. Beneath, the realms continued. More spheres moved below, the worlds continuing on within.
Lia’s vision ebbed as the blood rushed from her head, sagging against Kayce. He held her tightly. “Come on, now. In and out.” Kayce breathed in a steady rhythm.
She wrangled her thoughts, screwing her eyes shut so she could breathe with him. Eventually, the lightheadedness faded.
“Excellent coaching!” a disembodied voice called to them. “Flailing about first thing is not starting off on the right foot.”
Opening her eyes, Lia witnessed a flash of light, a sunburst in its flaring intensity. Once it dimmed, a young woman appeared before them, the light pulling back into two arcs over her shoulders.
Wings, Lia thought. They were like twin cosmic clouds, a hazy prism of refracted colors known for their nurseries of young stars.
The guardian was a year or two older in appearance than Lia, though she knew the celestial being had to be far older.
Nearly as old as Time. Her skin was smooth ebony, her hair a shocking shade of silver, blues in varying shades curled throughout.
“Aurelia Corvine,” the guardian said, smiling wide to showcase straight teeth. “An honor it is. What a mind you have! And you started working on the Norenth sphere at eight? I can’t!”
Finally, something a bit more tethered to reality for Lia to focus on.
Who was she kidding? They had left reality behind.
Far behind. Might as well roll with it. She was done deluding herself into thinking she was crazy.
With a shake of her head, Lia chuckled. “Thanks, but my papa helped a lot.” Her cheeks reddened. “Which I’m sure you know.”
The guardian sniffed, her hair a dandelion puff of shifting curls. “Here and there. You did most of the legwork.”
“Considering I was the one running around most of the time,” Kayce inserted, “I would argue that I did most of that.”
Both Lia and the guardian leveled a gaze at him, staring until he looked back and forth between them. Finally, the guardian could no longer contain herself, rolling her star-filled eyes. “The boy spends a few days outside his sphere and he thinks the world revolves around him.”
Lia opened her mouth to point out that in a sense it did, according to the Floating Kingdom series, at least. But the guardian glared at her, the smirk she wore lessening its intensity.
“Don’t even try to deny it.”
Kayce scoffed. “Unbelievable.”
The humor anchored Lia further, her shoulders relaxing from where they jacked to her ears. Seeing Kayce’s usual demeanor return was equally grounding.
“What’s your name?” Lia asked.
The guardian smiled. “Fiducia. But you can call me Fee.”
“Well, Fee,” Kayce crossed his arms. “Aurelia needs her pen. The Order mentioned something about seeing a Smith.”
Fee arched a pale brow. Those eyes—a cloudy haze mimicking the cosmic atmosphere—narrowed on the prince.
“Obviously. I’ve been patiently waiting for the day Lia would arrive.
I refused to miss more than the two minutes I did when you first got here.
” She waved a hand around her. “And obviously, you needed a moment. This is a lot to take in.”
“No kidding,” Lia said, but smiled. It didn’t slip past her notice that Fee used the name she preferred on Earth. It was a small thing, but it made her feel…seen. Comfortable.
“Is it far?” she asked, her gaze darting back to the celestial maze around them. “The Sphere of Malletor?”
“Home to all things crafted and made. Gives the ugly brute Hephestus a run for his money, but don’t tell him that.” Fee smoothed her brows. “I just groomed these and have no desire to see them singed. Or to be blinded.”
She held out her hands. Lia took one readily, Kayce a beat behind.
“Let me guess,” he said dryly. “Hold fast, or dinner may revisit us?”
Mirth clung to the curve of Fee’s mouth. “Absolutely.”
And in that moment, Lia knew she never wanted to tick Fee off. Kayce was going to do plenty of that on his own, and Fee was likely one to know exactly how to make him pay for it.
Lia couldn’t wait.