MARBLE & SALT (Lesbian)

Chapter 24 (Part 3) HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VELIA

A phlegmatic witch named Sapphire (the same woman with blue eyes and colorless voice who first took me to the royal chambers to talk to Angerona) walked behind me. Hebe, to my disappointment, was terribly late, and I was accompanied by women from the Angerona's retinue. The Queen in long weblike tunic walked in front of us, thus I was easily lost among other nicely dressed witches.

She appeared unexpectedly when Sapphire was leading me out of the Hebe's room. She smiled affectionately at me and touched my shoulder, which made everything inside me go cold with embarrassment and fear of her who could easily break my neck a couple of weeks before. When we reached the inner garden of the residence, she went ahead of her retinue, greeting the women. There was no servility in the eyes of other witches, but a light awe was definitely read on their faces. Some, of course, looked at me, but still the Witch Queen was drawing the most attention.

My weaves were white and gray, which made me different from the rest, but the 'snakes' turned so pale with fear that in the light of the blue magic lights and the Moon above our heads, they could pass for blue weaves like of all witches there.

While I was soaking in a milk bath that someone had prepared for me when I was slowly walking, accompanied by my tiny familiar, back to the residence castle. It rested on a hillock in front of the lake on the right side of Green Navel and the valley that was stretching out as a monstrous wrinkled carpet. I began to have the sense of direction in the residence closer to the castle or how they called it sometimes 'headquarters'; I even remembered how to get from izba to the lake, despite the fact that Leshi tried to distract us off the right path a couple of times. I saw him in the branches, and I found nothing better than make a gesture with my fingers as if I was making a cross in the air. It was, of course, very stupid (the witch who was blessing Leshi with a holy cross), but it helped. He grunted laughingly and disappeared between the fluffy spruce branches, happily wiggling his stick-ears.

Resting in the bathroom, I had enough time alone to examine the ring. It was silver or, perhaps, made of white gold; it was hard to say, for I didn't understand the difference. On the inside, it was smooth; on the outside, it was as if woven like a braid of the finest twigs or stalks interspersed with very small green stones no larger than the smallest eye of a needle. If you turned the ring towards the light, the green gems sparkled like diamonds.

Maybe it was her ring that accidentally fell into the folds of the dress when she was folding and tying it with a golden ribbon. Maybe it belonged to the dressmaker who made the dress for me, or maybe I just went a little crazy. Hebe and I met not so long ago... Even in my wildest dreams, I could not imagine my marriage with a woman, especially with my Princess (who was also a strong witch). What if it were true, would I hide my marriage from my parents for the rest of my life? What would Angerona say? Probably, she would put me on a chain in the dungeon, feed me sometimes, and ask me if I see any visions useful for the royal clan!

I could not resist: I put it on the ring finger of my left hand. I was constantly confused where was actually the ring finger – on the right or on the left hand, since in different countries it depends on religion.

"Bahala na," I repeated Amihan's words and crawled out of the milk as Cleopatra probably would do. I remembered our code word with Dasha, but I was sure she did not remember it then. She was so self-centred, so egoistic, and I was so weak-willed, weak in general. I smiled sadly, it seemed to happen in my past life.

I wish I could keep our friendship; I wish I could officially introduce Hebe to Dasha and Danya, but some things were not destined to happen. Maybe if Hebe propo... I shook my head. I didn't want to think about the proposal. I was so closeted in my soul still, that it was hard to imagine me getting married to Hebe.