The Venantium Auallonia Trilogy: Midsummer Sky

Chapter 13: No Light, No Light

"At times I almost dream I too have spent a life the sages' way, and tread once more familiar paths. Perchance I perished in an arrogant self-reliance ages ago; and in that act a prayer for one more chance went up so earnest, so instinct with better light let in by death, that life was blotted out -- not so completely. But scattered wrecks enough of it remains, dim memories, as now, when once more seem the goal in sight again."

˗˗Robert Browning, Paracles

The pulls of the silent lake dragged me and Gabriel further and further into the white mist. It left my eyes fluttering like butterfly wings while trying to see our course. Time didn't seem relevant here, but after some moments of drifting; a door appeared on a small stone dock. There was nothing else around it; it was just a plain, ordinary door. I looked at it curiously, and then to Gabriel who seemed to have disappeared. Turning to peer around at the mist around me; he was nowhere to be found as my boat gently bumped against the dock of shiny marble. For some reason, I didn't find the need to worry. I knew he was somewhere nearby; just waiting in the wings because something as keeping him from this door. He feared it when I didn't. Deciding not to linger on the thought, I rose from the boat a little wobbly; climbing up upon the stone to reach for its brass doorknob. I moved it slowly, but then realized it wouldn't make any sound; I trekked on cautiously.

The door opened gracefully without objection to a strangely bright room with mirrors; nothing but mirrors. They were the ceiling, the walls, and the floor. None of it was entirely clear at first, as if my sight was being blurred and darkened. There was some sense that I was dreaming most of this, which I knew since I remember going unconscious. Then with the blurry dizziness came an old sensation I hadn't felt in a long time. It was an old poignant fuzzy feeling the eroded softly into my mind. I had to hold onto the door as I closed to before I regained a steady bearing. It was the Custode Di Anima bond, I hadn't felt it in such a long time that I felt foreign to me until my eyes focused.

I must have lain down, because I was lying on a feathered, downy bed upholstered with silks and furs. The velvet feeling of the furs was as soft as the silk that ran through my fingers. Something brushed my face gently, and I looked up to find the room raining in bloody red and brilliant white rose petals. Rose petals? Their delicate frames fell quietly on the reflective floor. I was entranced; I never knew such a room existed in the world. My eyes regarded me in search of more to find a single blackened tree that was hidden away in the corner; filled with blooming Gerber Daisies'. Daisies didn't grow on trees, I thought. My breath puffed out into little clouds that disappeared as they ascended to the mirror upon the ceiling, but I didn't feel any sense of discontent.

"My, silk is quite becoming on you, love," sighed a voice; luxuriously.

Whipping my head around, I found Emery leaning casually against a mirror wall that reflected his stance; hands in his pockets of the familiar black jeans and Doc Martens that was styled differently with a clean cut, black silk shirt; revealing a sliver of pale white chest. He was smirking like the cunning Zmey, the snake of Eden, in a way that made me want to slap him; hard.

If I were awake now, my heart rate would be running a mile a minute. Instead I glanced down at myself to figure out what he was talking about and gasped. I had been dressed in an ivory, Grecian style gown that sparkled from the light of the mirrors. The fabric had been gathered with silver cuffs under my breasts empirically; also making straps with a deeply plunging neckline. The silver and sapphire locket Emery once gave me hung from my neck. My eyes followed to a mirror wall in front of me to find my hair had been arranged into a curly halo and dark makeup adorning my eyes and lips in shadowy shades of black and red. Something else caught my eye that seemed odd: a pale silver crown of swirls and vibrant diamonds had been placed perfectly within my halo of hair. It was very old, but I could make out other gems along the rim with stars and daggers in between them. My mouth dropped in a very dramatic way. That wasn't the only thing that was different; no wonder why I had a hard time seeing. My eye color; it was swapping back and forth from my normal mossy green to a harlequin green that was stark and almost frightening.