Midnight oil

chapter 1

Slowly, she was climbing up the rock behind which she had hidden. Several minutes had already passed since she last heard something that could have been of danger.  Despite her knowing it would most likely be safe now, she carefully placed her bare hand and feet on the rock’s sharp wet surface, causing barely noticeable cuts in her hands which stung like set on fire due to their roughness and the wet that immediately met them upon touching the rock again. It was hard to hold on, yet she somehow managed to keep the amount of times she slipped low.

Eventually, she reached the top and was met by the lights emanating from Panoem. Her city. At least it used to be when she had been younger. The walls she remembered from when she was a child were long gone and replaced by streets that made access from all sides easier. Probably too easy, she thought to herself. There surely had to be a new technique they were using to keep the citizens, or more likely the politicians who thought highly of themselves, safe. She skimmed the outskirts further, but without any success of finding out things that were of importance. No visible guards, no open artillery, not even a single tower like they had still used them years back. Although it seemed harmless to enter, it was far from safe for someone like her to just enter the city unprepared. She would wait a few more hours watching, waiting for nightfall and its perks only known to the chosen few.

Time passed and nothing changed. The city stayed as calm as she had hoped it would not. A single riot, a minor crime, really just anything that would have hinted at the security’s way of acting and she would have taken it with pleasure, but not this. She needed to act and she had to do so soon, no matter how little intel she had on who supposedly was her enemy.

5 years prior

“Just look at you,” a fair-skinned woman said as she braided luminescent red flowers into the silver hair of a girl whose skin contested with her hair on who was lighter, even enough for hints of blue to shine through. “You look all grown up for once my dear. I do admit that I am kind of envious of Cassio getting to look at your beauty all night long.”

The girl burst out laughing. “Are you flirting with me Reina? You are what is closest to being my mother, you have no need for envy. Plus Cassio isn’t even interested in me. Only in being my father’s heir… which, unfortunately for him won’t be a thing without asking for my hand.” She sighed as she picked at one of the strands of hair that had already come loose. With a pleading look on her eyes she continued, “Why is everything always about power? I mean, we are only 14 and his parents are already making him want to marry me for what I will be one day? This is nonsense. Can’t you marry me or something Reina? Then I would at least be sure of not dying as soon as I am not of use anymore.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Reina teased the girl as an innocent smile spread across her face. “What if I am only singing you lullabies to influence that pretty little head of yours Thera?” 

“Then I would still love you more than that godforsaken title of mine”, she said with a straight face and a look on her eyes, so stern it could have killed if someone did so much as look at her for too long.

“I know you would. But remember the favor I asked of you: Do not put too much faith in anyone at all costs, not even me. Especially not me for people know how close I am to you,” She brushed her hand against her cheek, leading to Thera leaning further in towards the warmth of her hand against her cold skin. “And how easy it would be for me to touch you, hurt you if I must.”

“For the odds are but a risk,” she recited. “I know Reina. I know…” Thera sighed as she sat back up  straight and looked at her reflection in the mirror. She really did look more mature than usual despite her urge to feel anything but like an adult in this night that might set her future in stone. The night of Verbund was nothing to toy with because it was the festival of sacrificial promises and lost love. The bonds there would be created tonight would last forever, making the two bound together one.