Faeted Lovers [Sample Only]

Chapter 9

This was the best day and turning out to be the best night of my life so far. It was so exciting compared to what I was used to! Although we were all exhausted, Vlaric, Vladimir, Missy and I, were not only safe in Doven Falls. We were free to explore for the night.

This was due to Rexion being held up in Hawkeye with a sudden illness, Missy could see this through her Mind's Eye. So, we had an entire night to do as we pleased before we worked out how to explain away the fact we were alive to Rex and the Nightingale Army when they eventually arrived in Doven Falls later, possibly tomorrow night.

However, that was a problem for another day.

"Look at them dance!" I giggle to Missy, far too drunk, as Vlaric and Vladimir jump around the massive balcony with the other town's folk that served us all plentiful free food. Everyone who lived in Doven Falls were genuinely sweet and generous with full hearts.

The entire town lies nestled in deep forest, along a beautiful river that flows at the base of grey cliff boulders with a cute waterfall embedded into the rocks, flowing from higher ground. It's like a tree top town, with the trees apart of the homes which lie at the bottom and slowly extend up.

It's paradise, hidden from the rest of the comparably bland and formal world I had known. Although, to be fair, I had not known anything outside the City of Bird Song, so who was I to say this was paradise? However, even if there were greater places beyond, it sure felt like a small utopia all on its own.

Missy and I were being fed whatever we wanted while Vlaric and Vladimir seemed to be... a part of something greater. People knew them. Missy commented on it with a hint of mystery in her eyes.

If they really were princes, or past royalty as 10 and 7 year old boys, perhaps people from that time still knew their faces and secretly celebrated a forbidden kingdom's doomed rule.

I still wasn't sure how powerful these Eioth people were if they lost a war, but I was, deep down... feeling full of tumultuous existential questions.

Part of me remembered the way my murdered parents had run a small farm. They made cheese and honey. They were extremely gentle and I think they were believers in Eioth.

They were alive before what I know now as the Brethren, came and slaughtered any followers of the faith my parents followed... I didn't know why this perfect happiness was killed away from so much of my world. I didn't understand.

I'm thinking about the Eioth faith now from the particular pattern of vines on the ceiling. It likened to the shape of a peanut, a fat rounded curve, a thin middle and a smaller round end. It was a sign that the people of Doven Falls were in fact Eioth believers.

I understand that that is why Vlaric and Vladimir were so celebrated.

It was intoxicating watching it happen, and not because of the ale. The power they had here was a little hint of what they could have. Of what we all could have.

I didn't know much about the core things Vlaric and Vlad wanted to fight for, but I had a strong desire to fight for them and by their side.

I look over to see Missy's black hair being braided by the Inn's father's daughters while mine is being threaded with flowers.

"...I actually do have a sixth sense..." Missy whispers to one of the daughters and she asks her more about it, while a girl on my side pokes my shoulder while threading through the flowers.

"What about you, flame?" she asks, "Do you have any powers?"

"Oh, no," I shrug, "Unless you consider being a rebellious little shit a power, then... maybe. But I can cry on a whim. That's true of me. Oh and... also... why did you call me flame?"