Dreaming for stars

Chapter XV

"Skinny love"

Anteia's POV

Rarely was it that the doors of our house were open, yet when I arrived home seeking peace from the whole ordeal at Miyoko's-- her getting a replacement maid and new guard, it was the last thing I needed. I was tired, wanting comfort in alcohol and music, but the way the wooden door creaked as I opened it told me I'd just have more to my headache. I swallow hard hoping it's not what it always is, hoping Morina only forgot to close the door on her way in, alas, it is not as I hoped. The basement's door was open, and green light poured from it. 

I sigh and close the door behind me, leaning on them just for a moment. A short moment to gather my strength, gain back my composure. 'Just one day, one day I don't come back home to this. Is it really too much to ask?', I think to myself and head downstairs. 

At some point small puddles of blood were starting to take place on the stone stairs, and I bit back my worry. 'Fine. She'll be fine. She always was. She always is.'

What would shock anyone only made me bite my lip until it bled. Again, she was on the floor, her hair soaked with her own blood, dress stained red, but she looked like as she slept. "One, two, three, four,"  my mind whispers to gain back control over my body, and it does, it always does. 

I cover my face with my hands, my index fingers pressing inbetween my brows and I take deep breaths. "I can do this, I can do this. Just let me take my mind off things," I reassure myself out loud, a habit that made me look like a loon, but it helped. It helped a lot. I look around the basement.

The basement was a small room, the ceiling, the floor, the walls-- all dirt, like someone dug out a mass grave and never filled it. Though it was a bit lighter to take than that. The walls had a precise pattern of gems and diamonds on them, and in the middle was the root of the Plorpalea tree that held the room. There was a gap in that root, big enough just to sit in it, like a pod.

I grabbed Morina's hands and dragged her over there, lifting her up and folding her legs and arms so she would fit. She was much taller than she allowed herself to look like, the glamor she used made her shorter, plumper, and hid her elf ears to some point. The reality that only I could see was less cute.

She was at least 6'5 feet tall, short for elves. Her hair was almost white--now stained with red, but her eyes were the same. One thing you can't put glamor on, is eyes. 

I escape the basement and go up to my room, where I drown myself in wine, and lay on my bed, staring at the ceiling. In my intoxicated state I say a spell for music. The breeze blows in from the curtains, taking the aroma of herbs and flowers I store in my room, and sings a soft tune. A tune for witches, for elves, for werewolves, for pixes and the other fair folk, for monsters and crystal beasts. For all in this world who are magic, and not bare. For all in this world who can either wreck or care.

And I don't care about this world. I don't care about the lord. I don't care who dies or lives. I don't care if I die or live.

All I care about is my friend. My friend who is dying. My friend whom no wreckage I create can help.

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One Week Later

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I was lucky enough to escape the council meeting the day before, but Morina's rage was hard to avoid. So to pay her back for having to fight with the council all by herself I was sent with Miyoko and a couple of her guards to Nakru village to see why they hadn't been responding to her letters. She was up in the front on her horse, Amy and her sister Nina scouting
in the nearby for thieves or possible attackers, Yukki and the newly assigned guard Ryuu behind her, and Naki, Ezamie and me behind them.