This Is What It's Like To Be Lovers [ON HOLD]

10: All The Loneliest Stories Will Fade

• The Moon was Red and Dangerous by Gregory Alan Isakov •

"Say, Princess, can Missy speak?" Jade asked as she came out of the bathroom, rubbing her dripping hair with a rag.

The Princess was transferring plates and bowls to a low table set in front of a mattress. She giggled. "She sure does. Mew-mew is very talkative. Why? Has she spoken to you?"

Jade nodded, but hesitantly said, "I think she did. She said my name, but she was in the dark so I could only see her eyes. If it wasn't her, then our house is haunted."

She stopped in her tracks. Our house.

"That's weird," Lari concluded, without catching onto her words. "I've only ever read that familiars can speak to their bonded humans. I didn't know they could speak to someone else. Maybe she's special."

She turned to Jade jovially, adding, "or maybe you are," and winked. "Oh, by the way, I should give you a heads-up. I am very lightweight. So please excuse me beforehand. What else can I do, Citra?"

Jade watched, smiling, as the Princess joined Citra in the kitchen. The host looked happy to have them in her house, dressed in her clothes. But then, she seemed like a person who chose to be happy all the time and sought out the positive in people.

When Jade entered the kitchen, Citra was dipping pieces of chicken in batter and sliding them into bubbling oil. The scent from the mix of spices she used was filling up the entire house and Lari mentioned how that was making her hungry.

"Nothing else, Princess," Citra replied. "Why don't you sit down, or...take a tour of the house?"

"Come, Princess," Jade offered her arm and Lari took it easily.

They took a turn. As they had noticed earlier, the house was larger than theirs, the inside modestly decorated, tapestries and suncatchers hanging from the walls. Misshapen candles and lanterns sat on different surfaces, illuminating the house.

"It has a sort of strange warm friendliness about it," Jade remarked to Lari. Just like the blonde family themselves.

Citra worked in the kitchen that opened into the sitting room, the tapestries giving it a covenish look. Baby Jada was sitting near the mattress, speaking to her brother in her adorable slurried baby voice. And while Avento replied only in hmms and okays, she told him very many things.

As they were about to take a turn, Jada crawled between their legs and grabbed the hem of her namesake's skirt to lift herself to her feet. She opened her arms wide to the Queen, and the woman smiled at her innocence, picking her up.

Horizontally, the house narrowed past the living area, a passage leading to a backdoor. Lari brought a lantern with her as they entered the dark passage.

"Kaaamaaa...," the baby pointed to the door on their left. Jade laughed, congratulating her for identifying her room. The child giggled and pointed at the other door, saying, "pooo."

The Queen and the Princess walked back, freely cackling, to where Citra called them to. She had set out the dishes and a porcelain drumstick bottle of rice wine on the round table and rested some cushions against the maroon tapestry.

On the other side of the table sat was a straw mat Citra had laid out for herself.

Jade and Larimar sat down on the mattress, baby Jada still in the Queen's arms. "Oh, give her over, my Queen," Citra requested, producing her arms. "Or she'd topple everything over." The Queen assured her that it would be okay and the party began like that.

In time, the baby fell asleep in Jade's arms and Mewton Pie crawled into Lari's lap, as the three women jested to their hearts' content.

Jade revealed to Lari that Citra's partner, Mali, was an acquaintance of her. He used to work in Jahima as a woodworker's apprentice and was one of the five craftspeople anointed to carve The Ironwood Warrior's throne. At present, he had a shop of his own on Markkinat Tie and only got to meet his family once a month.