Between the Veil and Crown

Kylin 22

Amelia wasted no time in setting the two men to work right after breakfast. While she cleaned up from breakfast, she had them working on the last of her ingredients and food items that needed to prepared to survive the winter.

The light at the end of the tunnel was drawing near, as there was only so much left. By midday, there were only a couple of crates left, waiting to be filled with preserved items so Amelia could load them on Selim to take to the root cellar. Before she sent them down, she counted each jar by hand, labeling the tops with symbols to help her decipher what was what and she did not accidently give honeyed pickled vegetables to someone seeking medicine.

The whole time she worked, Amelia sang in a low voice. The songs would change suddenly, and often without warning, when she realized that she forgot the lyrics, or how the melody continued. If she did bring a song to its completion, Kylin noticed that it was a combination of the Harlofelp language, the Elven language, and some kind of mumbled gibberish. He could certainly understand how the mix up happened- it had been his mother who taught her most of those songs. However, his mother, Sweetwater, spent time both in the Veil villages and the Elven kingdom, her husband's homeland. Whenever Sweetwater came into Amelia's village, she would sing the same songs in a different language.

Kylin would have corrected Amelia, to help her remember how the songs actually went, but she clearly was not aware that she was even singing out loud. It did not seem Selim would have appreciated the interruption either, as every time she stepped close to him, he would pause in his work and stare at her, caught up in the melody she was working through at the moment. Had he not been under the influence of the obsession potion, it probably would have been quite sweet.

As they continued, Amelia got more into the songs she was singing, choosing more and more upbeat songs that required her to increase her volume in order to get all the notes out.

Losing herself completely in one song, she burst out in the very cheery chorus, unable to stop herself from giving a twirl every time she needed to turn around.

Right in the middle of the chorus, she twirled around to face the window facing out of the cottage. There she stopped, midnote, as she stared out the window.

Both Selim and Kylin looked up, alarmed at the abrupt halt to the singing. She continued to stare out the window, mouth still in the middle of forming the next syllable. Her eyes grew wider every fraction of a second she stayed quiet. Kylin stood up from where he was seated at the table to look out the window, to see if he could see what caused her to stop.

Then, the corners of her mouth lifted and her jaw dropped further down. She whirled around suddenly, smacking Selim across the face with her long braid as he stepped over to see what was the matter. He stepped back, holding a hand to where the hair had hit, though it was hard to tell if it was because it had actually stung or if the potion was causing him to dreamily savor the moment.

"Kylin!" she said breathlessly.

Selim's dazed look immediately switched to a glare.

"Kylin, you're not going to believe it!" she said.

"What is-"

He apparently wasn't going to find out what it was. Without explaining, Amelia bolted to the door, threw it open so hard there was sure to be a dent in the wall it hit, and flew across the threshold.

Kylin stepped around the table, ignoring that Selim was following suit, and headed out himself.

When he walked out of the cottage, he could see exactly what had caused Amelia to be so excited.