Entropy

OUET| Chapter III: Confession Upon the Blue Star Festival

I didn't go to the Blue Star Festival in the past years for a few reasons. One, I was taking care of Teketa and organising events. Two, the reminders of suicide and the way Bracus apprehended me. Evanitarians looked at me with disgrace and that would never leave me. Now with Aelen and Teketa on my side, I will go with them this time. I shouldn't push myself away from misdeeds that are probably cleared up by now. Evanitarians saw me at Blath's coronation as the new lord.

I create a portal to Evanity. The blue star's light is so intense that I put on strong sunglasses to shield my eyes. How Verantuvians never go blind is still a mystery. Aelen laughs at me as his eyes turn Sun-like. He is wearing a baddy orange notch lapel tuxedo that looks like the Sun. Well, the jacket looks like the Sun while the inner shirt is white. He has been wearing the same mask for the past five years, but with different colours to match with his shirt. No one says anything. I'm wearing a red and white lolita dress with a long tight skirt. I have white gloves on. My mask crown is already part of my body; I expand it to cover my mouth.

"Ladies first," Aelen says while moving to the side of the portal.

"Aelen, you go," I deny, "I need to shut this portal behind me."

"As you wish." He enters the portal. I am the only one in Teketa. It feels damn silent, yet quite peaceful at the same time. The absence of the sound of birds and Teketa having a good time add more to the soundless dissonance. It's so quiet that I can hear the leaves falling. I need to go; Aelen is waiting for me.

***

Aelen and I get to sleep on one of the floors in Ourdera's palace or should I say Blathnaid's palace. Aelen explains that Teketa gets to sleep in one of the reserved skyscrapers built for travellers for the festival. They are called Yvives. He never saw them in person, but from what he heard from the Teketa, they are like four-bedroom high-rise apartments on every floor. Yvives are large, so they can fit several apartments on every floor. All of the rooms are just that. The space is livable and ridiculously clean. Why can't all hotels be like that, instead of buying an expensive suite, only to find an earwig on the wall? I give credit to Evanitarians for cleaning up for millions of people going to Evanity for the Blue Star Festival every year.

Aelen and I are sleeping on Netedinark's floor. There are no dark walls with bright annoying white lanterns. It looks the same when I was on Bracus's floor when I was detained by him. It's only in the rooms that things become uniquely decorative. My room reminds me of the Yin and Yang, but in orange and black. The decorative plaque standing on top of the door. The orange shines like the Roedie star while the black looks 3-D reflective. I swear I see the orange's light gets absorbed by it while it spins around and around, feels like a trancing illusion.

They all represent something in this solar system. Orange, Roedie. As for the blackness, it reminds me of the lens flare I always see in the night sky. Bracus informed me it was a supermassive black hole in the outer reaches of the solar system. The stars don't revolve around it because Forgison and Ourdera casted a spell to prevent the solar system from getting whipped around by it. If they didn't do that, it's said that the solar system would be dead within 200 million years. Heh, even the Gods have something against gravity and black holes when it comes to raising a civilization. They are only a last resort once the universe dies.

I'm not at the Blue Star Festival, Nao, my dad tells me telepathically, I'll still be there for Dominique's wedding in a week. I'll see you soon.

It's fine, dad, I respond with a shrug of shoulders, not bothered.

Love you and miss you. Have fun at the festival.

I'll try.

Aelen knocks upon my door. How can I tell it's him because he's the only one on the floor with me? I can hear the footsteps coming from his room since my hyper-hearing decides to kick in at this time. It acts up whenever I'm alone. I quickly get up from the bed and brush myself down.