This Isn't About Reya

Chapter Sixteen

Several days later, a peculiar phenomenon occurred in the skies above the Russian capital city of Dragotsennost'.

Usually, the unique wind currents in Aquilo-Nix's atmosphere drove the weather patterns in such a fashion that snowfall only occurred after the sun had set. Experts attributed this to the composition of the air and clouds, the relatively low gravity of the planet, and the layers of cloud coverage that built up and stacked on top of each other over the course of the season.

Every now and then, however, the snows fell during the day.

Meteorologically speaking, it was nothing to fuss over. However, to the Russians living on Aquilo-Nix, it was something special to be observed, and it symbolized good luck to come in the following week.

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Reya, who had been hoping that the academy might cancel lessons for the day due to the event, found her wishes were not met. However, the teachers were incredibly lenient, and most of the day was spent doing very little schoolwork. Reya visited Azrael after school let out and spent the afternoon discussing the peculiarity of the event (and the peculiarity of the beliefs surrounding the event) with him. She found he had quite a lot of knowledge on the subject.

******

For Svetlana, the day entailed a number of unnecessarily difficult and conflicting decisions for her. 

Most of them revolved around Daniil.

As her mother dropped her off, Svetlana stepped out into the swirling waves of thick snowflakes that fell from the sky. The wind blew, but gently, whirling the flakes more like a breeze than a wind. They caught in Svetlana's thick blonde hair and glittered like gems. Svetlana strode up the tall marble steps of the academy and found Daniil waiting for her, leaning against the wall beside the front doors.

Svetlana pulled up short and flashed a smile. Daniil smiled back and pulled himself away from the wall to stand in front of her.

His teeth were bright and cheery, and his eyes almost shimmered with a dull, wintergreen vigor. The snowflakes in his hair were barely noticeable.

Svetlana couldn't help but smile again at him. He was gorgeous. Especially with the earring.

They had been talking for about a week, since he had apologized to her. In that week, Svetlana felt like they had picked right up were they had left off, and she knew him almost as well as she had when he'd left. She felt like she had her best friend back.

As Daniil held his arm out, she grabbed it wordlessly and let him escort her through the school's hallways. Many students had already arrived, and as Daniil and Svetlana strode past them, she noticed the way the stared. The girls' eyes glared at her with an unmistakable envy, and the boys made a point not to look at Daniil at all. Svetlana saw several pures with unsurprised disgust in their eyes; Svet suspected they remembered when Daniil had still lived in Dragotsennost' and were probably hoping for a chance with him. But of course, Svetlana had beaten them to it.

Not that she and Daniil were a thing. They were just friends.

They walked together silently, content to be in each others' company. Svetlana's thoughts wandered to the childhood they had spent together, even before they had dated. She remembered visiting his house, playing with him while their mothers spoke of important topics and their fathers clinked glasses together while exchanging war stories. She remembered early school days, how they had been together through all of it. No friends at first, but even as they each made their own friends, they stayed the best of friends, the two of them. She remembered visiting off-world resorts, playing on beaches with white sand that reminded her strikingly of the snow on her own planet. She remembered playing extensively in the snow, then - and she remembered that they never, ever went into the woods.