Worlds of Light and Dark

Elentyia ••• The Blackbird Boutique

Elentyia and Ayla made having lunch at Velaris a tradition. Elentyia had fallen in love with a small cafe next to the edge of the artist quarter. 

"Here you go ma'am." A slightly plump green nymph placed a steaming cup of hot chocolate in front of Elentyia. Elentyia thanked the beautiful owner of The Taste of Music. The cup's warmth seeped into Elentyia's cold hands as she took a drink. 

Ayla let out a soft sweet chuckle from the other side of the table, "I've never seen anyone enjoy food so much." Elentyia shot her a glare from over the rim of her cup causing Ayla to laugh again. As the hot chocolate's warmth began to spread from her stomach Elentyia looked around the cozy cafe. It was small but had a homey feeling. The walls were paneled in wood and fairy lights were wrapped around the wooden beams stretching along the ceiling. Light chatter from the cafe's current customers filled the space. The cafe's owner, Jaz, leaned on the payment counter adjacent to the large floor to ceiling windows. Along the non window walls hung all different types of instruments: villains (Elentyia's favorite), guitars, flutes, and almost anything you could imagine. Occupying the back of the room stood a large circular stage for the cafe's recurring performing musicians. 

A soft bell rang and Elentyia looked over to The Taste of Music's door to see two identical men enter the cafe. They seemed to be the embodiment of winter with blue glacier eyes, white hair with little touches of very light blue, and skin so pale Elentyia might have thought them frozen if not for them moving and blinking. Elentyia sniffed confirming her suspicions, they were twins and both held an above average amount of power. The one on the left was looking at his brother, as if waiting instructions, not in charge then. He smelled of snow with a faint touch of cinnamon. The other man was looking around the room and smelled of snow and pinecones, but something about him put Elentyia on edge. 

His eyes landed on their table and he smiled. He walked towards them his brother following, then stopped in front of Ayla and Elentyia. Elentyia looked to Ayla for answers to see her smiling softly at the pinecone man. Pinecone man offered a hand to Elentyia, "I'm Aspen, Prince of the Winter Court." Ignoring his hand Elentiya smiled in return, or more accurately bared her teeth. Aspen's eyes caught on her pointed canines. He cleared his throat and lowered his hand. Before breaking her gaze she saw a bit of fear in his eyes. A part of her relax. There was no reason to feel on edge, his quickness to fear indicated he wasn't a threat. "And this is my brother Quilo." Quilo nodded in greeting to Elentyia with a kind smile causing his eyes to sparkle like fresh snow. He seemed nice enough. Aspen slid into the seat next to Ayla and kissed her check, "My dear." 

Something in Ayla's eyes flickered but her soft smile stayed, "Hey, Aspen. Elentyia," she gestured to Aspen, "this is my boyfriend." Elentyia blinked, taken aback. Ayla had a boyfriend. Huh. "He and his brother graciously offered to take us shopping for the High Lords Meeting." 

"I don't know much about the shops here but Ayla recommended Blackbird Boutique." 

"Is it a fancy event?" Elentyia inquired. 

Aspen nodded smiling, "Pretty formal." 

Elentyia suspected it was going to be a big deal but having it confirmed made her a tad anxious. She had never liked all the court stuff. But if there was one thing she liked, it was shopping, "Lead the way."

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Blackbird Boutique had all sorts of formal outfits. But everything had a considerably different style than Elentyia was used to. Most of the dresses were either black, purple, blue, or silver and many of them were designed to show skin. Dressing rooms filled the back wall and Elentyia saw a pretty dark skinned woman laughing in joy as she twirled in a lovely silver dress with a slit around her waist. The man twirling her laughed too and kissed the woman. Elentyia smiled, they were sweet together and obviously very in love. 

"Why don't we split up?" Quilo suggested to Aspen interrupting her thoughts, "I can take care of Elentiya so you guys can spend some time together." 

"Sounds perfect," Aspen replied. 

"Be nice to her ok?" Ayla teased Quilo. 

Qulio placed a hand over his heart, "I would be nothing but." 

"Good." 

Ayla and Aspen walked away towards the dresses at the back of the room leaving Elentyia with Quilo. "Would you like to wear a dress or a suit to the meeting." Elentyia cocked her head studying him. He had short wavy white hair and his features gave him a cold look. In contrast his blue eyes looked kindly and expectantly at her. He seemed like good company. 

"Let's start with dresses."

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"Will you be picking anything out?" Elentyia asked while looking through a rack of long purple dresses. 

"No, I already have a suit at home. Besides I will be going as a Prince and representative of the winter court," Elentyia found a stunning purple off the shoulder dress and pulled it out to see it better. "- and will need to dress in its style." Qulio's eyes fell on the large slit running high up the tight dress, he cleared his throat, "And the Night Court tends to be more revealing." Elentyia laughed and put the dress back on the rack. She continued browsing and moved into a section of black dresses. 

"What is the winter court style like?" 

"Mostly blues and whites. We tend to wear lots of layers to withstand the cold. Fur is very popular as well." 

Indeed Quilo was wearing a white shirt that started at his neck and a thick dark blue jacket covered in snowflake patterns. His pants were also dark blue and he wore furred boots. Elentyia laughed at herself and grinned, "I should have guessed." 

When he didn't laugh back Elentyia turned away from the dresses to look at him. He was blatantly staring at her mouth. Elentyia put a hand on her hip and cleared her throat. Realizing he had been caught he startled and looked away blushing. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to stare, I just-" He looked back at her, her eyes this time, "Are you really from another world?" Ah, he had been looking at her teeth. 

She went back to browsing the dresses, "Yes." 

Quilo let out a breath of awe, "What's it like there?" 

Elentyia paused, then breathed softly before continuing, "Beautiful." 

Quilo must have recognized the longing in her voice, "You must miss it." 

"Very much." 

They were silent for a while before he offered, "Maybe we should pick a dress similar to the style of your home." Elentyia smiled, she had decided she liked him.

(A/N: Thank you to everyone who is trying to get me to write again! Shoutouts to:

_neptunequasi_

lovelulu101

asmikaulgud

Annabeth_Chase_77

Thank you guys for being so supportive!)