Coruscate

Chapter Three

The morning of the Solstice Ceremony is dark and cloudy, a bad omen. I blink blearily as the dim morning light hits my face, blinding my vision with painful intensity. I groan and turn away from the light source, huddling deeper into my sheets in an fruitless effort to sleep for even a few minutes longer.

Rei is unmoved. "Wake up, sweet pea," she says flatly, before my covers are mercilessly ripped away from me, exposing my bare skin to the freezing air of dorm at morning. I hiss in protest, curling into a ball to preserve what little body heat I have. Rei makes a noise of dissent, throwing a clean robe over my body. "Get dressed. We're meeting in the dining hall in an hour."

"Sadist," I mutter under my breath, but pull the robe over my shoulders regardless. It's the festival robe we use for important occasions, the one that has a design sun stitched onto the back with beads, and is thankfully lined on the interior side with animal fur. My head clears a bit after a few moments, and I slip on my canvas shoes and leave the bed, taking uncertain steps to the shared vanity to grab a comb. My hair is always a tangled mess in the mornings, this one being no exception; as I glance at myself in the mirror, I can see uneven strands of oily black hair forming massive clumps that resemble the topiary outside of the Temple.

Lille and Mesalla are nowhere to be seen, their beds empty and recently made. They were giggling and whispering to each other all through last night, even when I fell asleep, so I don't understand how they can get up at such an unholy hour, and willingly, too. Perhaps they're not human. That would explain a lot, actually.

"Want me to do your hair?" Rei asks, approaching me from behind. Now that my head's a little more clear, I can see that her own black, glossy hair has been done in a spectacularly intricate braid that cascades all the way down her back, nearing her thighs and tied with a gold ribbon. Gold hair pins are arranged artistically inside the braid, creating a wavy pattern that resembles the rays of the sun as depicted in much of the Temple artwork. A yellow flower clip is tucked near her ear.

"Thanks a lot," I answer, running the comb one last time through my hair, wincing every time it meets a tangle or a knot, before I give full access to my scalp to her. She pulls back a few loose strands near my ears, holding my hair taut as she fiddles with something or another. I subtly turn my head toward the mirror, trying to see what she's done so far, although all I can make out is a few stray wisps of hair that stick out from the sides.

"Don't move," Rei murmurs, and does something complicated with her fingers that's visible even from the mirror. She bites her lower lip, grabbing a studded golden pin lying innocuously on the vanity and inserting it to secure whatever hairstyle she's just arranged. "Here. It's a braided bun. It should be secure, but if you think it's going to fall, come find me and I'll redo it for you." 

I find myself smiling again. "Thanks, Rei."

"You're welcome," Rei says succinctly. She casts a glance about the room, turning her body away from me, and giving me a full view of her back. Mesalla hadn't been exaggerating when she'd mentioned about how many weeks Rei must have worked on it. It's an embroidery image of Ja'al and Ferenne, with the two stones that represent them stitched on top, Ferenne resting her head on Ja'al's lap while small sparks of thunder appear around them. An occasional bead is stitched into the pattern here and there, creating an uneven surface that glints even now, in such dim light. It's absolutely beautiful.

I suddenly feel self-conscious about my own robe. I hadn't been that excited about the upcoming Ceremony, as I'd been to two before and could still remember the last one vividly, so I hadn't bothered to stitch any designs on the back like most of the other girls had been doing over the last few months. Now that the anticipated date's actually come, however, everything suddenly feels magnified by a hundred percent because of the atmosphere, and I regret all those times I slacked off and played games when I could have been stitching my robe or making sun lanterns.