Chapter 28 #2
“Is it ever? I cannot say. You have to figure it out for yourself.” He pauses, weighing his words. “You shall find help in unexpected corners, Mailene, but you’ve got to have faith. Not only in them, but most importantly, in yourself.”
The sky turns pink and gold, with hints of orange and purple interwoven as well.
It’s a masterpiece that reminds me of the coloured glass in the Sanctum.
I’ve always loved sunrises, I remember that now.
They remind me that time moves forward, whether we fear it or not, that endings are always beginnings in disguise.
A tear falls down my cheek and a calloused phantom finger wipes it away. I still felt it, catching the faint scent of peonies and smoke. “Can I see you now? The real you, I mean, not just a flickering of light.”
A rumbling laugh bursts from the man, it sounds like the crackling of fire. “No, I’m afraid not. You will see me when the time is right.”
I sigh. It was worth a shot.
He is silent for a couple of heartbeats. “There might be something else I can tell you.”
A small piece of paper floats from the sky and lands into my waiting palm. The edges are a little uneven and black, the words glow in a fiery gold.
I shaped the path the flames embrace,
A guiding spark, a vanished trace.
I do not speak, yet leave my mark,
A hidden glow within the dark.
Though turned to ash, I still remain,
A fire lost, yet not in vain.
I read it over once. Twice. And after the third time, the words become one golden splotch. I don’t need the paper, it has been engraved in my mind and I know I won’t forget it. “Thank you.”
As I finally turn around, I’m not surprised to see that no one is there. I laugh. “You’re fast for an old man.”
The rumbling laugh sounds again and it tickles something in my brain. It is the last thing I hear before I wake up to the morning sun caressing my face, just like it did in my dream.
I know I had to remember something, something that was said to me but it slips right between my fingertips.
Intense heat makes me burn, but it doesn’t come from a fireplace. No, this searing intensity is wrapped around me like a second skin. It comes from within me somehow. The faint smell of something charred clings to the air, but I’m sure they wouldn’t leave me in a room if it was on fire.
My eyes flutter open, but it takes a lot of energy to do so. Escaping into my dreamworld sounds much more pleasant now. I do have the feeling of smoke burning my throat, so there was a fire?
The room looks different as well, first off, it isn’t my room, I’m in the sanctum, but also…the colours are sharper and brighter, more intense and vivid, and everything looks more defined somehow. The air shimmers with small golden sparks and they drift closer to me, the more the panic rises.
The clothes I wear cling to my body, completely soaked.
I lift the sheets, noticing I’m not wearing much at all, only a top and shorts.
My hands look different as well. The scaring is still there, but glowing lines seem to run through them, as if there are actually embers burning underneath my skin.
What the hell is going on?
Panic seizes my chest and I scramble backward, bumping into the nightstand and nearly tumbling off the bed as I try to escape myself.
My body doesn’t feel like my own and no matter how hard I shake my hands, the glow doesn’t fade, it only burns brighter, and the pulsing heat beneath my skin gets to a scolding hot temperature.
I think I even see it evaporate, rising from my skin in small wisps of smoke.
The handle of my door goes down and I look up, like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. Althea’s tall figure enters, a concerned expression on her face.
She flicks her hand and some of the heat cools down, with it the panic that has me in its grip.
“Better?”
“What is going on?”
She doesn’t answer my question, only grabs a cloth and a basin of water and walks over to me, sitting down on the chair next to me.
She gently pushes against my shoulder, ushering for me to lie down, and starts dapping away the sweat.
“It is not my task to explain it to you, but I promise it will become clear very soon. You are physically alright.”
“Alright? I’m like a glow stick?! I already had everyone’s attention without the glowing skin, but now? They will mock me even more.”
She smiles gently at me, although I don’t understand why she doesn’t run away or shrinks back from my touch. “I understand this is all very confusing, but no one will look at you like that. On the contrary, they might see you with reverence and awe.”
Don’t see in a million years how that would be possible, but she seems certain of her case. “What is happening to me?”
She rinses the cloth and does the same process on my arms this time. “What do you remember?”
“Heat, Scorching heat. The ground beneath my hands that trembles and…Amira!”
There were whispers outside my door that suddenly fall silent.
A knock follows shortly after. The door opens and the figure that enters is definitely female, but she must be a creation of my imagination.
Her beauty is overwhelming, her features fine and delicate, her eyes glow and there is a white aura surrounding her that seems to pulse like a heartbeat.
I blink and the woman is replaced by Mrs Delalune. I desperately look back at Althea. “I don’t know what kind of sedatives or drugs you gave me, but my mind isn’t working as it should. I’m seeing things that don’t make sense.”
The extreme migraine attack I had yesterday has lifted, but I do feel a slight pounding coming up. I rub my eyes and open them to see Althea rising from the chair and leaving the room, Mrs Delalune takes her place instead.
“What if I told you all of it is real?”
I open my mouth and close it again. “No offence, but I would tell you you’re on drugs too.”
She laughs. “None taken and I can imagine that, yes.”
My smile falters. “But I’m not, am I? On drugs?”
Mrs Delalune tilts her head, offering me a compassionate smile. “Althea gave you something to ease the pain, but that is not the cause of what you’re currently seeing.”
I look outside the window, watching little snowflakes fall from the sky in the morning light. They too look different, or… I see them differently now. I could easily draw every little detail, my sight somehow impeccable. I turn back to Mrs Delalune. “Am I losing my mind?”
“You’re not.” She pauses, contemplating what to say next. “What do you see that is out of the ordinary?”
Everything? Where do I even begin? “My skin looks like it is set on fire from the inside out.” I look above my head. “And then there are the little fiery sparks that fly around me. They are around you too, but less.”
I don’t mention that my vision is picking up colours more vibrant or the shimmering aura that is around her, just in case she changes her mind and does think I’m going insane.
“What do you think it means?”
I wave my hand around the sparks, but they move with me instead of away and when I take in my hand that is now right in front of my face and notice how it is glowing even more now, only one thought comes to mind. “Magic. It looks like magic.”
“Correct.”
I look up, shock going through me. Yet, somehow it doesn’t surprise at the same time. “I know?”