8. Risking a Few Lives for the Perfect Dessert #3
Sapphira appreciates it because of the effort put into collecting the fruit.
Plus, she watched Isabel work so passionately to create it.
At the castle, Sapphira never saw the bakers work or knew them very well, and she definitely never helped in any way.
It never even crossed her mind. She had a place as the Princess of Dansui, soon to be queen, and she never imagined she could be anything more.
“Are you a cook?” Sapphira asks in disbelief, the flavors blending on her tongue. Each flavor pops, making her mouth tingle. “I thought you were a healer, Isabel. But apparently, you’re just perfect.”
Isabel giggles, her cheeks getting pink.
Over a spoonful of cake, Kaelen says, “No need to flatter her. You only have to ask for more.”
“Maybe you should flatter me more, Kaelen,” Isabel says to her friend. “I think you’ve become so used to my cooking that it’s grown stale.”
Kaelen makes a wounded face. “You know I love your cooking, Isabel.”
Isabel smiles, her face softening. “I was only kidding. I know how much you love me. Yo también te amo, Kaelen. And as long as you keep taking me to the stars, I will make you all the cake you want.”
Sapphira’s stomach sinks a bit at that word. Love .
Isabel and Kaelen are so close that it makes it difficult for me to like him.
Isabel said that he and I are so similiar that she’s sure we’ll eventually get along, but that might be why we won’t.
I refuse to accept that I’m jealous of the dragon, I don’t get jealous.
I’m a princess for Gods sake. But, knowing he has something I don’t.
Isabel’s attention. Her… affection . It’s grating.
To Sapphira, Isabel says, “This is my mother’s recipe. I only tweaked it a bit, as it’s usually made with a warm sauce. But I like the blend of cold and warm.”
“Well, you are a genius, and so is your mother. I keep hearing so much about this wonderful woman. When will I get to meet her?” Sapphira asks. “Does she live nearby, or is she in another village?”
Isabel’s smile falters before growing wistful. “She’s buried near here in a grassy knoll by the rain tank. It’s surrounded by her favorite flowers.
Sapphira’s eyes widen. “I— I’m so sorry,” she gasps. “I shouldn’t have—”
Isabel waves. “No, it’s fine. You didn’t know. Today is actually the anniversary of her death. That’s why I wanted to do something special for her.” She touches the tapa over her shoulders, and Sapphira finally connects the dots. Isabel told her earlier that she wears it only for special occasions.
Isabel adds, “I’m glad you could be here with us this year to celebrate her.”
Tears gather in Sapphira’s eyes. She doesn’t feel she’s earned that praise, but it touches her all the same. She doesn’t remember ever receiving such moving words. She smiles and says, “So am I.”
After dinner, Sapphira jumps up to help Isabel clear the table, and once Kaelen has left, stating that he is going to find a tree to sleep in, it’s only the two of them alone in the kitchen.
There’s a soft glow filtering in through the windows and melting the shadows.
It highlights Isabel’s face in a romantic, cool tone and spills upon the cluttered furniture.
“Can I show you something?” Isabel asks, her big eyes looking up at Sapphira in the low light.
Sapphira nods quickly, her mouth gone dry. “P-please do,” she whispers.
Isabel’s soft hand takes Sapphira’s, and she leads her outside. The princess stumbles after her, climbing up the chilly hillside, where tepid air is blowing, and lets herself be pulled down in the waving grass.
“Just wait,” Isabel says.
Sapphira sits beside Isabel, their thighs and shoulders brushing, sparking with warmth between them. Isabel looks up at the sky and the waning sun, but Sapphira looks at Isabel.
It doesn’t take long for daylight to disappear. And when it does, Isabel turns to Sapphira. She takes Sapphira’s jaw between her fingertips and points her face upward.
“Look,” she whispers in Sapphira’s ear. Sapphira watches as the stars begin to sink. Her eyes widen in awe as thousands of blue lights tumble down and down and down until they hover around their heads and in the sky all around.
“At nightfall, Astralorn drops the star veil, and all the stars float to the Earth,” Isabel explains as Sapphira strains her neck to look at the star hovering just above her. Isabel reaches out her hand, and the star floats upward, away from her touch.
Sapphira does the same. She can feel the warmth emanating from the orb, even as it moves away from her like a flash of heat.
“This is our life force,” Isabel says. “It’s everything.”
One of the blue orbs higher in the sky begins to flicker, the light coming in and out. The sky becomes dark and then brightens again in the distance. Isabel’s smile stretches wider across her lips as she scrambles to her feet, grabbing Sapphira’s arm and pulling her up.
“Come on!” she shouts, her laughter echoing through the night as she races across the hills with Sapphira chasing after her.
Running and without her staff, Sapphira notices the severity of Isabel’s limp.
She’s seen it before, but in this state, the injury is more pronounced, and Sapphira wonders how she hadn’t noticed before. And still, Isabel runs.
The stars drift away, moving around them as they run. A pathway opens as Isabel stops and looks up at the fluttering star. Out of breath and smiling, Sapphira joins her under it.
The chimera’s voice is high and excited as she shouts, “Hold out your hands!”
As Sapphira stands there with her palms cupped, the star slowly drops, the light waning until it goes dark. It lands in Sapphira’s hand, a glowing black orb that stretches from palm to fingertips as it emits a chill frost.
Cradling the fallen starstone, Sapphira looks down at Isabel in awe.
“Keep it,” Isabel says. “It could be a treasure to take home with you so you never forget Cielo and the Land of Stars.”
Sapphira nods, trembling.
The stars continue to fall on this night in Sule?hare?n, melting the night dew and lighting all that they touch.
Sapphira looks at Isabel, whose face is turned up in wonder and lit with a cerulean glow, horns curved like branches as they frame blushing cheeks, and suddenly she knows.
She knows that when she returns home to Dansui, it won’t be the stars that she remembers. It will be the chimera Isabel .
In the morning, Kaelen leaves to hunt and shifts into his takops form, his rosy tail nearly thwacking Sapphira on the way out. So Sapphira and Isabel head out to forage alone.
Isabel takes her to a different part of the jungle today, as Sapphira is feeling much stronger. The twinge in her ankle is a slight nuisance, but she can keep up with the chimera now.
“So, what’s the plan?” Sapphira asks, batting a tree branch out of the way. Isabel is walking in front of her, pace brisk and focused. “You got somewhere to be?”
Isabel slows, her face flushing. “Sorry. I was . . . Well, today is just a scouting day. I’m adding to my observations of the local wildlife.
I have books full of records of the flora and fauna, but most of them are incomplete.
” She tugs at her horns, a crease deepening between her eyes in frustration.
It’s cute, the way her mouth pinches tight.
Isabel stops at a huge tree, the leaves thick and curling like Isabel’s hair.
She looks up at the tree and then back down at a small critter crawling across a fallen fruit that looks like a sort of large coconut with a spongy, yellow flesh.
Sapphira realizes that quite a few things here look sort of like things back home, if not the same.
“Show me?” Sapphira asks, peering over Isabel’s shoulder.
The woman doesn’t cease her adorable mumbling, eyes still trained on the creature, but she turns the book so Sapphira can see it.
On one page, there’s a rough sketch of a giant mollusk from every angle, along with scattered notes.
The second page is sparse. Sapphira, assuming Isabel plans to fill as much of that space as she can today, recognizes a long day ahead.
Instead of feeling drained at the prospect, she’s excited.
It’s more time she’ll get alone with Isabel.
“See these markings?” Isabel asks, drawing Sapphira’s attention back to the creature.
She doesn’t touch it but runs her finger through the air a breath away from the translucent shell.
Markings dot the back, appearing like wings with fine, gold lace patterns.
“It’s an angel snail. Angelicoclea cocoivora .
They’re the largest recorded snail type.
Well, recorded by me. And people I’ve spoken to. ”
She bites her lip and tucks a curl behind her pointed ear.
“Anyway, angel snails are born a starspan and can grow up to five times that size. There’s a belief that they used to get even bigger.
They’re not actually native to Bastama, or Cielo as a whole.
They were once inhabitants of C?rn?s, but they’ve since adapted to this climate. ”
“The land of giants?”
Isabel nods, and Sapphira shifts to look at her.
She tries to remember the map that hangs from Isabel’s ceiling.
C?rn?s is a dominion to the far north, at the other end of Sule?hare?n.
It’s an arctic region. Bastama is located in a tropical region in the Shire of Lomadku, which is a part of the Cielo Dominion.
She decides that the angel snail had to have come a long way to get here and probably stopped, making many adaptations along the way.
Sapphira chuckles when she realizes she’s starting to think a lot like Isabel. Hearing her, Isabel turns and smiles. The laughter fades instantly.
Sapphira’s heart beats faster. Why does Isabel make me so nervous? she wonders. Then she asks, “Um, how do you know the angel—er, Angelicoclea cocoivora ’s name?”