unraveled

lunda? luna.

✵       ✵       ✵

          The next morning Nia had knocked at his door. "Ready in ten," she'd said tersely and walked downstairs.

          Without question, Acelius got dressed up and tied a green, silk scarf around his head and followed her down. He ate quickly, barely brushing away the crumbs of a wonderful ferzosk. Just as they were about to walk out of the Deveil Eggs, a voice called from behind.

          "Nia! I was wondering if we could go to..." The enthusiastic call faded out to a disappointed voice "...the Red Ruins." Christoph stood in the frame of the doorway, with a frown on his face.                 Nia looked unbelievably annoyed. Caught in seeing her face, Acelius didn't realize she was looking at him until he felt a tug on his finger. Her eyes were wide, as she murmured imperceptibly, "Take me away."

          Slipping a hand around her shoulders, he leaned on her and looked to Christoph.

          "Dear my, the Red Ruins. Sounds absolutely enchanting. Will you take me there, darling?" he said, flirtily, looking down at her face in the crook of his elbow.

           "I might, darling. But not today. We're doing something else today, aren't we?"

          "Yes." He turned his head back to Christoph. "We're going out on a killing spree. My elbows have started creaking and no oil seems to work as well as blood" he said, factually. Christoph's eyes widened at that, he shook his head as if trying to get them back to normal. "I thought you both hated each other."

          "Oh, we do. Don't we, darling?" asked Nia, looking up at him, brilliantly.

           "Infinitely," said Acelius.

           Christoph nodded and turned around and walked back into the Deveil Eggs. "Good day," he murmured.

           Instantly, Nia was pushing herself off him, and him off her.

           Fixing his clothes, he muttered, "Next time. Take care of your own admirers."

         "There won't be a next time," she muttered back and started walking.

           He caught up to her as they walked in silence for a few moments, until he finally opened his mouth.

           She answered before he could ask. "You were going to follow me, anyways. I might as well have you do it next to me, than behind," she said, with a shrug. She was not wrong. 

         "Or is it?"          

         Nia raised an eyebrow in question.

        "I suspect you really just wanted my company. A face to look at. One with beauty of course, the kind you deprive your mirror of everyday," he said, factually.

           "Yes. You are just so much prettier than I, Acelius," she said, grinning at him like a rabid dog, greedy to bite.

           "Thank you, Nia." He grinned back, in open modesty. They walked in silence, perhaps the only two not conversing in the whole street whose air vibrated with dripping gossip, and hoarse politics. Some boys whisted. Some girls blushed. Some girls whistled back. The sun shone on them in dappling golden. If he rose to his toes, he could see the largest spire of the palace, dotted with ivy. 

         He wondered if long, long ago, in a land without cobblestones and pennies and poisoned darts, in a land overrun with faisies, and raw lightning and gushing sunlight, there had been a spirit, a myth, a goddess who'd roamed these lands and grown with it. Each blade of grass grown in Yurin, would have grown on her skin as well. Each dappled cloud and snowflake that had ever existed, existed on her skin.