Fanfare

Lost in the Crowd

Trenna's eyes snap open in the darkness. Her breaths are short and sharp to the point of being painful in her chest. She turns off her magic, not wanting to face the light as her mind struggles to piece together what she just saw, just felt. Pierce's arm around her shifts as he pulls back a little, his forehead against hers as he looks into her eyes.

"Alright?" he asks, voice husky from sleep. She feels him jolt, his eyes widening, and frowns. He shakes his head slightly, laughing at himself. "Sorry; your eyes are yellow. Scared me." He watches her, his fingers grazing her ribs as he patiently awaits her answer.

"I- it was just a dream," she says.

He narrows his pale eyes slightly, the ice inside of them hardening. "Nothing is 'just a dream'," he says, pushing her roughly. "Get up."

She turns on the light in the rock below his shelf, swings her feet off the bed to the floor and bends over, slipping on her shoes and lacing them up. Pierce does the same beside her. "What did you see?" he asks. 

She stands and ties her hair back, the unruly strands already trying to spring free of the tie. "We need to go to the north market," she says.

Pierce stands. "Is it urgent?"

"If it wasn't just a dream, then yes."

"We can get there quickly, then," he says, stepping closer and taking her hands.

She raises an eyebrow. "I didn't think you could do that with your magic?" It's more of a question than the statement she meant it to be.

His lips quirk. "It's an emergency. Tyring won't hurt."

"Just try not to kill me," she says, closing her eyes, her lips curving in a smile as his fingers tighten on hers.

"We're here," he says.

"What?" she opens her eyes, confused. The music of the market bleeds into her ears, gaining in volume.

Pierce grins at her bewildered look. "That was... fast," she says.

"Simple as breathing."

She looks at him for a moment, disorientated, her mind still trying to process the fact that she was in one place but is now in another. Then she shakes her head and turns, following the tug in her mind towards the scene of her dream. "Come on."

"What did you see?" Pierce asks.

She remembers anew the memory he shared with her, her father's voice and Michael responding: "Enough to take her away from this place." Her dream: her mother's eyes, unnaturally blue. "I never realised they were that colour," she whispers to herself. And then she breaks into a run, Pierce jogging beside her. He doesn't question her, doesn't hold her back. When she runs faster, he lets go of her hand and picks up his pace, focusing on not losing her in the crowd.