Starsinger

The Luminarium

In the wake of harsh words, there came something worse: a week of stinging, sterile, saccharine politeness.

Delia and Raelyn had chosen to bury their fight rather than resolve it, to keep the peace and the friendship. Still, in their muted exchanges and slightly formal laughter, Aaron could hear a space between the princess and the mage that hadn't been there before. A distance. It pained him not to address it, but he knew those wounds had deep roots, and he couldn't trust himself to find the right words anymore. So they rode along with the caravan until they reached their destination, pretending everything was alright.

The Luminarium rose like mist on the horizon, a mass of pale blue crystal rising overtop the surrounding town. The crystal had grown in tabular plates rather than spires, almost transparent in parts, and Aaron could see human shapes moving behind the veils of delicate blue. Celestite, Raelyn had confirmed, when Delia had marveled at the beauty of the light filtering unevenly through the layers of sea-colored stone.

The town around the Luminarium grew from convenience, clinging to the Old World structure like moss to rock, life finding a useful purchase and taking hold. Low-slung wood houses sprawled over the earth and each other. Delia led them through the streets, clutching the address that Jace's inquiries had turned up. Sapphire took up the rear, fidgeting at her violet head scarf, painfully alert.

In her eagerness, Delia tripped on a loose stone and swore. Jace reached out to steady her, but she caught herself and blazed on, unaware.

"She's going to crack her head open if she doesn't slow down," Raelyn muttered. Her typical enthusiasm for new people and cultures seemed dulled by the constant presence of the Faith. Temples stood at every corner, and roughspun-clad luminaries and novices thronged the streets, in parts nearly outnumbering the ordinary folk.

Aaron tried to think of something to say, then remembered the feeling of the emptiness that swallowed up words in his mind, and thought better of it.

"Red door." Delia pulled to an abrupt halt. "There should be a small house with a red —yes!" She dove to the right and their team followed, clustering behind her as she drew up short in front of a faded maroon door. She knocked quickly, loudly.

The door swung wide and Willa Redwood beamed up at her daughter. "You made it!" Before Delia could get out half a sound of greeting, her mother swooped her into a tight hug, no easy feat for a woman nearly a head shorter than Delia. "I missed you, baby girl."

Something shuddered loose in Delia's shoulders. "I missed you too, mama."

At last Willa drew back, her eyes drinking in Delia's face. "You made good time. These are your friends? Come in, all of you. You're very welcome."

Introductions were made and Willa hugged each of them in turn, startling an involuntary squeak from Sapphire that sparked in Aaron's chest like a firework.

"That's it, have a seat, I can put some tea on?" Jace tried to say that wouldn't be necessary, but Raelyn piped up that she'd have some tea, if it wasn't too much trouble.

Willa set to work in the boarding house's narrow kitchen, lighting the stove and busying herself with a loaf of bread. She was short and slim, with none of Delia's broad build. Her hair was reddish-brown, just graying at the roots, and soft crinkles around her eyes and mouth foretold the day when her face would become a map of every laugh she'd ever shared.

"Delia gets her height from her father," Willa explained. "Height and hair and eyes and just about everything. Pierce, too. Only things he ever gave them, the rat." She poked at Delia's right cheek, prompting her daughter to grin and pull away. "Except for this. This dimple is mine, and I take full credit for it."