“Two parties in a week, you really are on a roll!” said Finley to Iniya Arceloza – one of the tenders of the Rum Baxters – as they strolled the farms behind the villa, the residual noise of its dozens of inhabitants leaking out and providing a pleasant lively air to the evening.
“Would you believe it if I said that we are not the partying kind?” she responded with a laugh.
“I would if you provided evidence.” he responded.
“So the first party we did on the fifty-fourth was actually at the behest of the officials themselves.
They wanted to scope out whether there were any drifts in our midst that could be hired for the purpose of getting them to the Buried Man.”
“And this one?”
“Well, it is to celebrate you all and your victory.
It is as joyous an occasion as those prone to partying could ask for.
Despite our drift’s general laziness for organising social events, it was quite unanimous when we were discussing about holding a celebration.”
“Quite an admirable sentiment, Ms.
Arceloza.
But I must say that the intended recipients of the celebratory arrangements may not all be in a condition to enjoy it fully.”
“What nonsense!
It is no rager that we are hosting at our villa.
The poor old thing could not survive something ever so wild!
It’ll be relatively tame – a night of music, drinking and dancing nonetheless, to be sure.”
“Great.” he said with a sigh.
“I could do with some drinking.”
Finley had been one of the many archers in that morning’s battle and unlike most others had not engaged in any physical combat.
While he was a hand-to-hand fighter, his training with Alaric had seen the vampire neglect that completely and focus solely on making him a better archer and being able to enhance whatever physical capabilities he could in that regard.
Finley had failed to understand why until the following day.
Any hand-to-hand combat with an unnatural would have resulted in almost instantaneous death for him.
This knowledge had been humbling in and of itself but to see the unnaturals in action had been a further blow to any sense of self-worth he felt as a fighter.
With Yvindrael, Finley had fared well to an extent that he had surprised himself.
The nimbleness and hand-to-hand combat skills that he had complemented the essentials of fighting with a knife and were exactly what was needed against her roots.
Coming off from that high to where he had essentially been useless – that too, after his insistence that he be let into the fight – was demoralising.
The only consolation he had was that the unnatural he had gotten off two volleys on had never made it into melee.
But the fear that had gripped him at the very beginning of the battle – when things looked the bleakest – was a disturbance greater than the blow to his self-esteem.
Had even one of the unnaturals broken through, Finley knew that he would have been good as useless.
He could not have inflicted even a scratch on it.
He had never felt the inability to protect himself this sharply and though he had felt it in its milder tempers, he had never felt the responsibility to protect and fight for someone else.
To feel this responsibility for the first time in a battle where we was so glaringly lacking… it made him feel despicable, ignorant, someone with his head in the clouds – even though by any and all metrics, the situation he had found himself in itself had been an outlier to begin with.
As Wairodon transpired, Finley – having been left alone by Iniya around an hour back to make arrangements for the party – started getting up from the ground.
Shades of red and orange still remained in the sky, barely illuminating the cow field he had infiltrated.
They mooed at him as he walked past them, happy to be rid of him and ushering him to get on his way back to the Rum Baxters’.
But even though Finley had gotten up, he did not want to go back to people just yet.
And the sky was just beginning to reveal the golden-blue stardust gracing it that night.
His eyes stayed on the sky as he walked in no particular direction.
He caught on obstacles and misanticipated slopes many times but never lost his balance so much as to give up on star(dust)gazing.
He wondered how bizarre he would seem to an external viewer.
It was not a self-judgemental thought, merely an indulgence that made him smile – certainly a more welcome kind of self-critique than anything that had been occupying his mind throughout the day.
After a half hour of walking around like that, Finley finally accepted that the level of introspection and self-appraisal he had breached might not be healthy – it definitely was no fun -, which gave way to the excitement at the prospect of a party, heightened by the fact that it would be starting soon.
It got him to tear his eyes away from the cosmos and start walking back.
He soon broke into a run – letting his brain concentrate purely on maintaining that physical activity and feeling free.
The noise emanating from the house was much higher already as compared to when he had left it.
He could not help but feel some warm happiness within him as he entered through the back entrance to the house to a lot of hustle and bustle.
Everyone seemed to be in a state of great activity and even the participants in morning’s combat seemed to have perked up and recovered sufficiently.
Finley had only made it to the kitchen and grabbed a muffin when he was pulled into conversation by Venedir who was talking to Vixie – a tender with the Eventide Drifters, and also an expectant mother by the looks of it.
Finley did not wish to assume, however, and wait till it was brought up in conversation to congratulate her.
Their conversation was soon interrupted with a steady stream of guests that started to arrive at the front door.
His fellow interlocutors were reminded of their duties and Finley managed to sneak a muffin into his pocket as he slipped out of there, his attention going to Linny immediately as he entered the living room nearest to the kitchen.
After the fight, there had been no point in keeping up with pretenses and Linny had let go of even the illusion, which had been positively received and that favour seemed to have carried well into the evening.
The hero of the battle was receiving commensurate treatment.
It made a smile appear on Finley’s space as he leaned against a wall and pulled the muffin out of his pocket.
“Are you sure that’s hygienic?” a voice said out of nowhere.
Finley – who had been under the rare but at that instant false impression that he was wholly unobserved in public and could be at complete ease, forsaking awkwardness – jumped a little but luckily did not lose his grip on the muffin.
His eyes turned to the intruder, his back straightening before seeing that it was only Perisone with her violet eyes shining with amusement.
Finley relaxed a little, slowly falling back against the wall with a smile and shrugging.
“I don’t know.
I do wash my clothes, so…”
Perisone raised her eyebrows in mock surprise at his declaration.
“I’m glad that you do.”
Finley broke the muffin in two and offered a piece to her, which she accepted with a smile and joined him against the wall.
“So, how are you holding up?”
“Meh.
My arms are all battered and my back hurts.
But it’s a good kind of hurt.
Alicia saw to me.
‘Seems to be nothing serious.
You’ll be fine.’ she said.
I trust her, even though it doesn’t feel fine in this moment.”
“I get it.” he murmured before taking a bite.
“And you?”
“Me?
I didn’t fight.” he said, trying to not sound sad or embarrassed about it.
“You did, though.
I was right beside you, if you remember.”
“Then you know I didn’t join the melee.”
“The melee was nothing.
Our arrows and your demon driftfellow did most of the work.”
“Do you think non-humans can be part of a drift?” he asked, looking towards Linny.
“From what I have seen of him and how he is with you all, I can venture so far as to say that I think he already is.”
Finley turned his head a little to see the sincerity in her tone being reflected in her countenance.
He smiled a little and nodded.
“I think so too.”
“What’s your drift’s plan after dropping the officials off?” he then asked.
“We’ll go to Noirskov.
We were on our way to deliver some precious metals, other high-grade electronic components and such to Plemos when we were hit with tidal waves caused by volcanic eruptions to our south.
Hence our eventual detour to Kinamel.”
“Fate, huh?” he muttered as she finished her muffin piece.
“Shall we get another?” she asked immediately after swallowing.
Eating muffins soon morphed into drinking and as the party grew bigger that soon blurred with dancing.
Through it all, Finley stuck – hopefully in a good way, he did not receive any indication to believe otherwise – with Perisone.
As he set his empty beer bottle down on the nearest table, he remembered the stardust and realised that the sky would have grown fully dark by then.
He asked Perisone whether she would want to see it.
She laughed and squeezed his arm.
“Have you ever known a navigator to say no to sky-watching?”
The villa had three stories in total and the third opened out to a nice balcony which afforded a beautiful view of the midhills.
But the climb was almost as much a cognitive challenge as dancing was and the railing became Finley’s new best friend.
Perisone could have helped but she was too busy giggling at his state.
“Do you not drink, Finley?”
“I do!” he said defensively but it sounded whiny even to his own ears.
“I just don’t drink this much.” he muttered, then smiled as he realised his left foot rested on the landing of the second floor.
“I made it!
Now where was that balcony?”
The balcony was not as evasive as he had imagined it to be.
Rather, it had not moved even an inch from its original position.
But it had one extra wooden chair.
Finley pointed this out to Perisone who was not so intrigued by the imposter and did not wish to aid in its discovery.
By then, Finley had grown enraptured with sky above.
A mask made of gold, emeralds and sapphires ran across the length of the sky.
The daughters of Kriene became the sky’s watchful eyes, peeking over the mask at the farers.
He sat in the chair next to Perisone’s, gaze unwavering from the heterochromic until Perisone spoke.
“Do you ever miss home, Finley?”
His eyes turned to her.
“No.
School was unremarkable and ordinary.
I miss its natural surroundings, but I miss the environment of every place I leave behind… Do you miss the ninety-sixth?”
“Yeah… I do.
I thought I could adjust out here with all of my friends but it is not the same, no matter how much I try to be happy.
Lament is so much more vibrant and there’s a lot more going on there.
And it’s considerably less detrimental to my poor body.
I don’t think I’ll make it in Apricity.”
“What will you do?”
Perisone shrugged.
“I don’t know.” she was quiet for a moment.
“I think I’ll leave the drift after this assignment.” she sounded increasingly certain as she approached the end of the sentence and then spoke with confidence.
“Mark my words, Finny, I’ll be on the first flight out of Plemos after the consignment is delivered.
I just hope my drift will not feel bad.
It would make leaving them feel even worse.”
Finley smiled a little and placed his hand on hers.
“I’m sure they will feel bad.
Consider it as a token of love and how special you are to them.
Even if it has been terrible so far, I hope you don’t feel as sad for the rest of your time in Apricity.”
She placed her other hand on his and squeezed gently.
“Truth be told, I haven’t felt even the slightest bit of sadness since you shared that muffin with me.” she whispered and leaned in to kiss him.
“And to have even these few hours has been enough for me.” she said when they separated.
He gently nudged her nose with his and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“There is no reason not to keep your sadness at bay until Wairores.” He said and when she smiled, he kissed her lips softly.
“Shall I take that as agreement?” he said, his lips brushing against her nose when she nodded.
It was only after a quarter hour when it started drizzling when they went back inside, though neither of them wanted to be in the vicinity of anyone else except the other.
And so, Finley quickly went to Venedir – the man was easily spottable, if nothing else – and requested him to sleep on the couch for the night.
Though it involved a considerable amount of pleading and convincing, Venedir inevitably relented.
Knowing him, he had purposely been a bit difficult to get some coaxing and cajoling out of his driftfellow.
So with their room in the Serendipity’s villa secured for Finley and Perisone – at least until Wairores -, they quickly left the party, less than ten minutes after they had descended from stargazing.
Finley most distinctly experienced the feeling of the cold air on his hand being completely eclipsed by the warmth of her hand intertwined with his.
They walked slowly but Finley spared not their surroundings more than the necessary amount of attention.
His eyes were on her and hers were on him.
It impeded the swift completion of their journey but he didn’t mind.
He had to look only slightly up to meet her eyes, which remained warm but he could see the sadness in them – or was that just his own?
He wondered if she could read him, see him – or if she was even trying.
“Have you ever thought about assimilating?” she asked him as they entered the villa premises.
”
“I did.
But it never really felt like an option.” he said as he opened the door for her.
“In school, they didn’t expose us enough to what life on the other side could be like.
Though with how my faring has been so far, I don’t think they exposed us enough to deal with this either.” He said and then asked her if she wanted to have anything to eat or drink, to which she shook her head.
“Have you thought about assimilating?” He asked, taking her up to the room.
“I have… more and more since I left Lament.
I have not dabbled in personal technologies yet but I like the cities, I like the way everything is there.
So smooth and efficient.
I don’t know if I can join another drift and risk the pain of detaching myself from them as well should I need to leave even them.” she said as she sat down on the bed with a sigh.
“It’s like there are these different pieces of my heart and there is absolutely no way that I can have all of them.
There will always be a hole.
Do you know what I mean?”
Unfortunately, Finley did.
* * *
59th day of the 10230th year since the passing of Kriene
Finley’s eyes opened to darkness, feeling restful.
He neither felt too hot nor too cold.
The curtains were drawn just as they had been the night before.
Though he did not feel or see anything out of place, he still felt strange until he realised that it was one of those rare moments where everything was peaceful and perfect.
And then realised who made it perfect and all the etherealness of the night came back to him.
It was like a dream, nothing else Finley had ever experienced before – physically or emotionally.
Every moment of it had been graced with such love and tenderness and presence that it almost physically filled him.
He had not even realised when he had gone to sleep because even in this high of his driven by such affection and intimacy, he had known that he could not let it end and had clung to it, to her, until consciousness had been snatched from him at his weakest.
Perisone.
The name that had been on his lips and mind all through their time together.
Could there have been a name more beautiful in its utterance?
It had become etched in his mind, just like the rest of her.
Her arm was still around him, even though his hand had long slipped from hers during the course of the night.
Her breath – now that he was conscious of it – made his neck tingle.
Her body pressed up against his in warm comfort, as if tethering him to her, in the here and now.
Finley did not want to wake her but he wanted to be as close to her as she was to him and so he slowly – with almost imperceptible movements that felt like jerks when he moved a little too much or too fast – started turning himself away from her. Visit novelping . com for the full chapter.
By the time his head was directly facing the edge where the wall met the ceiling, she spoke suddenly and he flinched.
“Leaving so soon?” her voice was trying to sound amused but it had undertones of fear and disappointment.
“No.
Just the opposite, in fact.
I just didn’t want to wake you while I did this.” He said and in a smooth motion twisted completely towards her, finding her eyes on his before his could find hers, wrapping his right arm around her back.
“There’s no chance they would leave you behind even if you were late, right?” he asked and kissed her lips before she could answer.
“If they do, I’ll catch up with them on your ship.” she answered with a smile a minute later.
“We’d be more than happy to have you.”
“Pfft.
I’ll have to sleep on the floor.”
“No.” he protested and then grinned a little.
“We have a sofa you could take.”
“Wow.” she said and shoved him, not with enough force to actually move him.
“Not even going to offer me your bed as a courtesy?
And here I was thinking that you were a gentleman.”
“It is because I am a gentleman that I’m not offering you my bed.
My driftfellows have not had company in their rooms in the Oaty yet.
In fact, they haven’t even had company in this villa to the best of my knowledge.
I can’t sully my reputation further.” he whispered as he nuzzled her jaw.
“And there is only the one chair in my room.” he added and kissed under her chin, punctuated by the caresses on his back stopping and her slapping his shoulder blade.
“You and your excuses.
Why do we need two chairs?
Can you not sit on my lap?”
“Touché.” he muttered and then buried his face in her neck.
“Your words and actions are quite contrasting, young farer.”
“That’s only to tease you.
But that doesn’t mean you should tease me.
I’m much more fragile.”
She laughed and bent to kiss the top of his head.
“That is not fair.
Especially with me so vividly recalling you being anything but fragile last night.”
A bit of colour rushed to Finley’s face, unseen in the dark, but she knew it was there.
“That also counts as teasing.” he protested only to be embraced till he was deprived of breath.
They stayed in their slice of heaven until the sounds of activity from outside and downstairs crossed the threshold after which they could no longer be ignored.
“Breakfast with the Serendipity?
It is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Her beautiful amethyst eyes rolled, the light minimal but still reflecting beautifully from her irises.
“How could I not?
Maybe dining with one jinxed drift will cancel out my jinxed faring with another.” She said as she rolled off the bed and stood up, stretching slowly and sighing.
“And then you can stay in Apricity forever.”
“Don’t even joke about that.”
Finley grinned and went over to his bag to grab a t-shirt to put on.
“Is your body still hurting?”
“Just a little, it is mostly gone now.”
Once ready, they headed downstairs for breakfast, shoulders brushing all the way.
While the drift seemed to be in a cheery mood already, Finley couldn’t help but perceive a further uplift in their humor as they entered.
In his self consciousness, it took Finley a minute to realize that Zander wasn’t there.
“Where’s Zanny?” Finley blurted out only to realise his mistake too late.
“I think you for one could definitely hazard a guess at it.” said Gwenyth with sarcasm and amusement.
Finley sighed a little, though he was distracted as he went to pull a chair back for Perisone and realised that the only two empty chairs were side by side, quite intentionally.
“It’s like student exchange programs all over again.” said Sylviane serenely as Finley sat beside Perisone.
“We gain one, we lose one.”
“If you ask me, I’d prefer Perisone over Zander.” said Callie dryly.
“I’m sure she’s a better navigator too.” said Venedir and everyone except Perisone laughed, though even she smiled when she realised the mirth was not malicious.
As Finley started eating, he grew grateful that he was left handed as Perisone’s left hand had found his right, holding it under the table cloth.
But it was not going unnoticed.
Even Linny – who Finley had deemed as the save haven in regards to this – was quite visibly suppressing a smile.
If eyes could succumb to laughter, his would be rolling with it.
Thereafter, Finley kept his eyes focussed on his plate, finding its plain blackness quite the intriguing artistic choice.
After breakfast was done, Finley ‘volunteered’ to go and fetch Zander from the Windriders’.
The drift expressed their gratitude to him for taking up the task which no one had even deemed as something that required doing.
And so Finley set off with Perisone some time after the eleventh hour had struck to retrieve an adult man, the navigator of their drift.
The walk was marked by a silence that grew heavier the longer it stretched.
It seemed that everything of substance had been said and saying anything more could only complicate it or mess it up or open a window for some last minute communication which they may not have the time to fix – not here, nor in the Buried Man: which reminded him of something he wanted to say.
“Wait for us at the Buried Man.
Don’t be in a hurry to collect the reward money and leave.” he said to her quietly.
“I will not wait for this us.
I will wait for you.”
Finley nodded a little.
“Will you wait for me should you reach earlier?”
“I promise.
Though it cannot be, our navigator is not as skilled as you.”
“As much as I would like to refute it…”
They were quiet then until they came to the villa and she stopped in front of its premises, turning to him.
“The control room… it has radio communication systems.
You can ask Zander to put you on with faring vehicle L9ER2A.
Be there at the striking of the nineteenth hour today.”
Finley’s face had brightened considerably over the past thirty seconds and he nodded in what felt like jerks to his head.
But they expressed the eagerness and neediness in his acceptance.
“I’ll still miss you.” he said, his voice a little heavy.
She did not say anything at first and just hugged him.
“I’ll miss you too, Finn.” Finley hugged her back tightly but she did not seem to mind.
They stayed like that for five minutes until the door opened and Pelina stepped out.
Both of their gazes went to her and she started but in that instant with both their eyes on her – she realised it was not the time and turned back, leaving the door slightly ajar.
The two turned back to each other and Perisone smiled.
“Will you come inside?”
Finley’s eyes had grown wet by then and he shook his head.
“I can’t.”
She nodded as the realisation occurred the instant his face was read.
“I’ll have Zander sent out.” She said and let him go.
“You be good, nature boy.
I’ll think of you when I see the stardust.”