• Someone New by Hozier •
As the water near their feet gurgled, Jade let out a low "not again" before she, Larimar, and Mewton were pulled in. Only this time, the fall was short and they landed gracefully on wet grass. The calico promptly jumped off Lari's shoulder and stretched to weed out the exhaustion that sitting on her bonded human's shoulder must have brought upon her.
She purred, claiming the women's attention to the cottage that stood in front of them. In the absence of moonlight, they would not have been able to make it out if not for the feline's direction and some flickering candles casting minimal light through the ajar windows.
"I believe the Moon meant for us to stay here," Jade stated the obvious, holding out a hand that the Princess didn't take.
They knocked on the door and a woman opened it, standing in a dress and an apron, and with a ladle in her hand. "Your Highnesses." She acknowledged them, beaming. "Please come in. We've been waiting for you. Please make yourselves at home. Avento!"
"My name is Citra." The woman continued. They could hear her smile as she spoke. She had made her way to a corner of the room that the door lead them to, casting long shadows on the walls with every step. The candles displayed a neat, little kitchen there, with utensils overturned onto a yellow slab and a fire where the woman stirred her ladle in a bowl of...something.
"Nice to make your acquaintance, Citra." Larimar bowed, prompting everyone else in the room to follow the etiquette.
A child soon walked in from an adjacent room and stood awkwardly beside a cot. With his klutzy hands, he tried to sway it and was stopped immediately with a low reprimanding sound from his mother.
"You'll wake her," Citra rebuked, raising her ladle again before turning to the royalties. "Your Highnesses, this is my son, Avento." She pointed to the boy and then to a very young baby sleeping in the cot. "And this is my daughter, Jada. We named her after you, my Queen."
A deep blush spread over Jade's cheeks. In a world where only the older, and the more experienced held positions of power, she had become a Queen too young, too soon. While many scholars and recorders of history criticized her triumph, her people adored her for driving out a tyrant and deemed her worthy of the several titles they came up with - Youngest Queen, the Vigilante Queen, One True Jahiman Monarch, the Ironwood Warrior, Protector of the Woods, and Saviour of the Trees.
Yet, this felt like one of her greatest achievements. "I'm honored," Jade said softly, bowing.
Avento tugged the women into the room he came from, making them face to face with what The Moon must have meant by, "everything you need".
There was one pallet on the floor that looked nothing in comparison to the comfortable bed Lari was supposed to be sleeping on that night. Opposite that, sat two wooden boxes, tightly shut.
The boy pointed a candle at the boxes and the women glided towards them, distinguishing their own by the color of their realm. The boxes looked small but held an impressive amount of things - the depth magically immeasurable. As expected of Arcane deities. Other than items of basic necessity, they had weapons.
The blue one had a bow and a quiver, albeit void of arrows, for Larimar. On the quiver was a note in beautiful handwriting. "May your quiver never be empty, and all your enemies defeated."
The sword that Jade pulled out of her green box had another note on its sheath. "This is no Laz-killer, but something I blessed with as much power as I could ~ Sol."
"I can only assume they meant we'll have to fight soon." Jade extended her arm and swung the sword, measuring the might of the longsword.
"Or maybe they just want us to be in practice," Lari replied with a smile and in the flickering light, Jade couldn't tell if it was sarcasm or innocence.
In her box, Lari found something else that piqued her interest - an untouched deck of tarot cards. There was no note, but it called to her. She felt the same tingling sensation of magic she had felt several times that night, like the fuzzy electricity of an aching foot.
"Bath." The ten-year-old waved his candle in the general direction of the back of the room. "Can I go now?"
"Yes, thank you, Avento." Larimar nodded.
Citra had prepared for them a simple meal of mashed potatoes with peas, some soup, and bread. When her guests sat down in front of the plates she had set out, she lowered her head and fiddled with the corner of her yellow shawl. "I know it's not much-"
Lari stopped her. "This is great. An hour ago we were walking hip-deep in water. This looks great. We can't thank you enough."
Her elbow shifted to poke her companion. "Yes, we're...very grateful," the young Queen said.
Citra spoke again only after they were done with dinner. She insisted on cleaning the dishes but the others convinced her otherwise. She showed Jade the way to her house and left with her children, leaving behind only a promise of visiting the coming morning.
Classic, Jade thought as she was finally left alone in the house with Larimar, and one pallet to sleep on. She had read fantasy tales before with similar settings but for that to happen in real life, that too with the High Princess Larimar.
She sighed and moved to the kitchen, trying to keep herself busy for as long as she could. Maybe it wouldn't be so daunting to slip into bed after the Princess was asleep.
Her plans slid through the cracks in the windows when Lari called out to her. "Shall we get to bed, Your Majesty?"
"Ye- yes, Princess." Jade cautiously walked up to the threshold of the bedroom. Clearing her throat, she said, "I'll just sleep outside. Please have the bed to yourself."
She saw Larimar on the mattress, sprawled, with Mewton on her tummy. The Princess had brought a tall candle close, but not too close and the light reflected only from her hair, forehead, and shoulders.
At Jade's words, she sat up. Setting her familiar aside, she said with a scrunched nose, "Don't be silly like that, Queen Jade. This mattress is big enough for both of us. I...know we may have started on the wrong foot but we should keep each other company, in case you know..."
Lari's words easily reached her and Jade agreed to sleep in the same bed.
But before joining Lari in bed, the Queen walked over to her box and dragged out a dagger she had noticed the first time she went through its contents. All the blades she had on her person were lost, either in the Eiran courtyard or during the fall to the Moon's realm.
She thanked Sol and quietly lifted the hem of her dress to patch the girdle to the side of her thigh. Her plans of eluding Lari's eyes didn't work. But when they looked at each other, the Princess didn't say a word. Only smiled, feeling the warmth of the leather scabbard of her dagger against her thigh.
Lari dropped her back flat on the mattress and sighed, stretching her arms over her head. Her lack of unease had Jade feeling a hefty amount of it.
"Is this all an adventure to you, Princess?" Jade asked, taking a deep breath in preparation.
Larimar's face went pale and the Queen raised her hands in defense and immediately apologized. "I...didn't mean it like that. I was just...expecting you to be more upset, you know. Or, scared."
"I was scared," Lari replied, adjusting her position to face the redhead more directly.
"When we were being pulled into the earth, I was scared. And then I was angry when we were in the Moon's realm. And...fascinated when we met Luna. But all of that was probably because I was hungry. So now that I'm fed, I'm feeling better."
Jade sighed. That wasn't the answer she was expecting.
"I take it you're not satisfied with my answer. How do you think you'd have felt if you were in my place?" Lari sat up and brought her knee to her chin.
Jade was quick to reply. "Afraid. I mean... I told you I was trying to kill your father. You're not afraid I'd kill you if I get the chance?"
The Princess tilted her head to one side, letting her hair spill over her shoulder. "You gave up on your mission to come to my aid, without realizing Aunt Sillia was lying to you. I don't know why you did that, but I know you wouldn't harm me. Let's...get to bed, okay Jade?"
The Queen watched with her lip between her teeth as Lari readjusted herself on the pallet. She was glad the Princess chose to trust her. The air around them was a lot lighter. And Jade knew it was because the Princess was being easygoing.
She knew she had to say something to make Lari feel better too. "Princess, I...I'll need some time to come up with a plan and maybe this is a good hideout until then. I'll go out tomorrow and explore the terrain, okay? Don't worry, I...I have your back."
Lari smiled and produced her baby finger. Jade scrunched her eyebrows but curled her finger around the Princess'.
"And I have yours," Lari said.
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"How do you feel?" Larimar asked.
They had long stopped speaking, and were on their sides of the bed now, facing away from each other, trying to sleep. But the constant shuffling behind her made Lari realize that Jade was nowhere close to slumber.
It didn't take Jade even a moment to reply. "Like it's a dream. And I don't know if it's a good dream or bad." She must have dying to speak.
"Must be bad," Lari replied. "You were betrayed by someone you trusted, you lost your favorite weapon, got dragged to an Arcane realm and now you're stuck with me."
"You see, the last part? That's not so bad."
Unable to comprehend the meaning behind Jade's flirty tone, Lari quickly shifted to a different topic. "Do you want to get guidance?"
"From whom?" She heard her companion say under a shaky breath.
"From the cards, of course." Lari returned, wondering what made her ask such a silly question.
"Tarot cards? I don't believe in them." Jade's tone was somewhat pontifical.
"What do you mean?" Lari turned towards her, drawing her hand away from her sleeping familiar. "You've been to at least one of the Arcana's realms with me. I don't know what happened before but you saw The Moon. We saw The Moon together. What do you mean you don't believe?"
"I believe in the Arcana," Jade explained, holding out her hands in the air. "I don't believe in Tarot. I don't think some cards drawn out of a deck can determine my future."
"Tarot cards don't determine your future, silly." Larimar sat up. The Tarot slandering would not be tolerated.
"Tarot cards are for guidance. They show you a way, show you what to expect. Whether you'll take the way is up to you. Okay fine, it's okay if you don't believe me. Why don't I take a reading...just for fun? Please?"
Jade sighed and sat up. "Fine," she said. "Let's get on with it then."
Lari looked away, hiding a shy smile, and dragged her deck of cards from under her pillow. "Now, I'm not attuned to the deck yet, but let's try anyway." She informed, tapping on the cards as one does with a door. "Let's do a four-card reading."
She spread out the cards in front of her companion and asked her to choose four from them. Even though Jade did not believe in this school of divination, she could not reject the overwhelming attraction she felt to the cards her hand glided towards.
One by one she dragged them out and the Princess collected the rest of the cards to put them away.
The reader brought a flat bottomed candle closer for better inspection of the chosen cards and as Jade watched, she arranged them in the shape of a hammer. Lari flipped the one at the top.
Ace of Wands.
"Guide me, Princess," Jade said, blushing at her audacity.
"Of course." Princess Larimar pulled her knees closer to her chest and cleared her throat.
"The first card shows who you are as a person. I'd say...I mean, the card would say that you are daring, bold, and sometimes even impulsive. You're someone with the passion and enthusiasm for starting something new, you're always brimming with ideas. Good ideas, fertile ideas."
"I'm flattered," Jade said, her palm pressed to her chest.
"These are the card's words." Lari smiled coyly before flipping the first card of the second row.
Four of Swords.
"This card represents your past. You haven't had an easy life," Lari said, her eyes flitting up to meet Jade's. "You have been anxious, stressed, you've known the worst fears ever felt by mankind. You know, I've read about...you. And...while you are an inspiration, I'm sorry you went through everything that you've been through."
"Thanks for saying that, Princess." Jade averted her gaze to look at the third card, still unflipped, now curious about what it would say. Larimar turned it.
Wheel of Fortune.
The eyes of the feathered puma on the card seemed to be an abyss, staring back at them in the flickering candlelight. "I can guess what this means." Jade chuckled when she read the name. "Something to do with fate? Luck?"
Her companion shrugged. "This represents your present. After what happened today, I'm sure you feel like things have gotten out of your control, and external forces are taking charge. And that is what the card stands for. A lot of changes are happening in your life right now, and although they are difficult, I want you to know that they will amount to something good. It's upright, so you don't have to worry."
The Lovers.
Larimar turned the fourth card and they both blushed. "Well, good thing all the cards are upright." The reader commented. "This is for your future. You'll either find a romantic partner, or you'll find relief from inner turmoil and...land on a state of balance."
"Overall," Larimar continued, collecting the cards and putting them back into the deck. "I think this is a good set of cards. Things have been difficult, are still difficult. There's no doubt about that. But, it's going to get more balanced, and less chaotic soon. Do you have any questions?"
Jade smirked, moving the candle away. "I wonder..." She asked, looking into the Princess's warm eyes, "...if the fact that you've read about me played a bias here."
The Princess sighed and rolled her eyes. "It's okay if you don't believe it." She pouted and fell on the mattress with a thud.
"Now don't get all grumpy on me, Princess," Jade said, again stunned by the casual flirty tone her voice was unintentionally picking.
"Sleep tight, Queen Jade," Lari replied before turning towards Miss Mewton Pie with her eyes shut and cheeks red.
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A/N: If you liked this chapter, please consider leaving a vote. Thank you for reading.