“What am I?” LoVelly repeated back, confused. “Is that like, a philosophical question?” Rather than answering, Mez reached out and took his chin in her hand, turning it this way and that, her eyes narrowed. There was a slight zing, like a tiny current that zipped between them.
“No, I mean what’s wrong with your face?” She tipped his head back and forward, ignoring the strange sensations that came with their connection.
“That is deeply hurtful,” he said, narrowing his eyes back at her. She rolled hers with a huff.
“What I mean is that I think you have some sort of glamour.” She leaned in closer, trying to see the edges of the mask, if there were any.
“What? No,” he whined, “But I like this face.” She released him and sat back, out of each other''s space.
“I wonder if anyone can see it or if it’s just me,” she thought aloud. LoVelly reached up to place a hand to his face, patting gently like he was suddenly unsure if it was there or not. The mien, forgotten in favor of the mystery of LoVelly, let out a long, desperate whine for attention as it rolled around between them. LoVelly relented and resumed petting the needy thing, stroking between its ears and earning a rumbling purr in response.
“Do you think I did it myself?” He paused, looking thoughtful, “Actually, can you even place a glamour on someone else?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. I’ve never met anyone who could do it and I didn’t read much on it growing up. Wasn’t really my natural disposition.” She shrugged once. “There are way too many layers to whatever is going on with you.” She gestured vaguely at him.
“Yeah,” he sighed, “I don’t even know where to begin. I tried meditating while I was in the bath but everything’s still a big, blank space in my brain.”
“I think maybe we could try the central archive. They have books and documents that were saved from the old world, or at least they did last I knew. They’ll probably have something on convergence points and I think that’s where we have to start with you. Before that though,” she braced her hands on her knees and pushed herself to her feet, “I want to see what the papers are saying.” She offered a hand to LoVelly and helped pull him to his feet as well.
“That sounds reasonable,” he agreed, “but I really think we should be keeping a low profile from here on out. We’ve kind of made a mess up to now.” She didn’t think it was his intent but the words made her mind flash to the husband and wife and the gory scene they’d left behind in that home. How long would it take for someone to miss them? How long until someone found them?
“Mez?” His voice drew her back. It was a gentle question, a check in that did not necessarily require an answer because he reached out and touched the back of his hand to hers, just barely, enough to let the emotion flow freely between the two of them.
“Yeah. Yeah…sorry. A lot going on in here,” she excused, pulling away and waving her hands around her head. “I agree though. Low profile and we might not want to stay in one place too long so we’re going to need to figure out money.”
“One thing at a time, right?” he asked, turning for the door.
“Yeah I guess…” she agreed, reluctantly, because he was right. There wasn’t much they could do yet but they would do what was in their control: get the paper, go to the library, find work.
The mien followed, padding lazily after them and even following them down the stairs. When they reached the ground level it quickly trotted to LoVelly and threw its body against his leg, rubbing its face a few times before trotting away, across the little alley.
“I told you mien like me.” LoVelly said with a grin and raised eyebrows, clearly pleased with himself. Mez in return shoved her hand in his face, threatening to literally wipe the grin away. LoVelly of course fought back and they scuffled back and forth until they reached the end of the alley where LoVelly nearly ran into someone rounding the corner. They apologized and took a moment to collect themselves before opening the front door of the building. This time it was not only the plants that greeted them but also the smell of food and the sound of chatter.
The door to the kitchen stood open now and they were unsurprised to find the owner and several others that Mez assumed were other patrons. There was a woman standing near the stove as the owner spooned the fragrant contents of the pan from earlier into her waiting bowl. Several pairs of eyes met them as they entered the room and Mez suddenly felt distinctly uncomfortable. It was a strange feeling, she’d never really been shy before but now the weight of those eyes was something she wanted to be excused from immediately. She’d forgotten already but the threat of having to eat, or pretend to, once again reared its head as well. She quickly averted her gaze away from the others’, scanning the room for anything except someone else’s face.
“Trezza, you join us for lunch!” The old man motioned excitedly for them to come closer but Mez found it impossible to move. She felt all but pinned to the spot despite the fact most eyes had left her and gone back to their own business. A soft touch to her elbow surprised her and she glanced briefly down to see, of course, LoVelly’s hand gently resting there. When she glanced at his face he seemed none the wiser that he’d even done it, focussed as he was on complimenting the man’s cooking, making conversation. He said something to the woman who’d been at the stove before them and she laughed, nodding enthusiastically at whatever but Mez couldn’t have told anyone what was said, focussed instead on how she was going to decline the food politely in front of other people. The old man told a joke of some kind, the punchline went over her head as the joke was in heavy Lelistik, but LoVelly laughed. She wanted to laugh anyway but all she managed was what was likely just a pained grimace.
She was struggling to tune back in, desperate to get out of her syrupy head, she didn’t even understand what had brought it on and then suddenly she was being gently guided away and the old man was wiping his hands on a rag tucked through a loop on his pants as he wandered back toward the office. Mez was confused and she realized she’d missed the entirety of the conversation already.
When she stepped back into the front she immediately realized how much harsher the light had been in the kitchen. Here it was just two small lamps and lowlight from the street lights on the driev cycle. She felt the fuzz in her head lift slightly, enough for her to hear LoVelly quietly thanking the man as he placed a newspaper in waiting hands. LoVelly turned and took one of her hands and placed the paper into it. The feeling of the paper against her skin brought her back into herself, the texture and realness of it helping her find her way back.
“We really appreciate it.” LoVelly said one last time and the man excused himself back to the kitchen. Once it was just them, the soft sounds of life a room away from them, LoVelly turned and put his hands on her arms, just below her shoulders. It was only a gentle pressure but the brief shock of fen that snapped between them brought her all the way out.
“Hey,” he said and their eyes met.
“Sorry I…I don''t-” She tried to push the words from her mind to her mouth but they came out in a rasp.
“It''s okay.” He shushed her. “All I want to say is that you should at least pretend to breathe when we''re around other people.”
“Oh.” It came out as barely a huff of noise from her lungs. It was only then that she realized that she hadn''t been breathing. For one panicked moment she wasn''t sure if she remembered how. Thankfully instinct quickly kicked in and she gasped, taking in a deep lungful of air. It strangely did not bring a feeling of relief, only a slight coolness in her chest but even that was short lived.
“I''m worried someone might notice because it is… oddly unnerving.” He dropped his hands from her and the static in her mind suddenly jumped in volume again and she quickly reached out and caught his hands, holding them in a vice grip in her own, crinkling the paper where it was clamped. She took a deep breath and released it, then another; she raised her eyes to meet his and nodded.
“Yeah…yeah okay. I don''t know what happened. It just, it felt like stage fright but that''s never happened to me like that before.” Instinctively she listened for her pulse, trying to calm herself but there was nothing, only an eerie silence within her that she wasn’t quite used to yet. She laughed once, dry and raspy. “I can’t believe now that I’m dead I get panic attacks.”
“We don’t know for sure that you’re dead.” LoVelly countered. Mez gave him a rather unimpressed glare, eyebrows low.
“Says someone who just reminded me to breathe around other people,” she scoffed. He rolled his eyes at her but she rolled hers right back, finally releasing her death-grip on his hands, holding the paper out and smoothing the edges where she’d nearly put her fingers right through it.
“Can you read it aloud, please?” LoVelly asked softly when Mez was silent for several moments, eyes scanning the page.
“Yeah, of course. Sorry.” She tore her eyes from the page momentarily to meet his before dropping back to the top of the front page article.“We’re putting ‘teaching you to read’ on the list of priorities…” The words were half mumbled to herself as she scanned the front page.
“It says ‘political unrest threatens to spill over’-” she skimmed the first bit again, “I’m going to paraphrase most of it but it says ‘ongoing crisis since twelve Trilles’ so this has been happening for more than a luel…And you don’t know anything about this either?” LoVelly just shook his head so she continued on. “There was a coup, or something, it sounds like. They have a large group of Ellani priests, wizards and oracles and they’ve occupied several cities on the Lorn side of the mountains.
“Three driev ago they publicly executed the members of the Grand Council that refused to relinquish power to ‘The Reign of Ashka’. From the list of names though it looks like that was most if not all of them…” She stopped to take a deep breath before releasing it in a tremendous sigh. “Despite this action there is still an overall approval of the drastic change in governing body. A large majority of citizens report being in favor of returning to a single monarch-led government.” The look of disgust on her face was impossible to disguise as the words left her mouth. “People here are worried about them coming over the mountains.” She quickly flipped the page to follow the article and felt the dread rise up in her when there, front and center, was a colorless image. The quality wasn’t great, likely taken from a distance, but still she knew it was him.
There was a boy, truly just a boy, he barely looked like an adolescent yet, and he stood between an older woman on his left and there on his right was the man from the TVE. The man whose cold words had started the nentemare she’d been living since. The caption below the picture labeled the man as Grand Wizard Teramyn, the boy as ‘King’ Ashka, and the woman as Grand Wizard Sahayna. Mez did not recognize the woman or the boy from the beach or anywhere since then.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
“Mez?” LoVelly asked when she’d been silent for too long, her fists clenching the edges of the paper where she held it.
“That’s him.” The words came out surprisingly steady and she released her grip to point to the grainy picture. “That’s the man that did this.” She thought to herself that it had also been the old woman at the ritual but she was already dead. “Grand Wizard Teramyn.” LoVelly craned his head to see the picture until she turned the page for him to see.
“Who’s the kid?” he asked after a moment.
“The king.”
“You’re kidding. That’s a child.”
“The majority of people are fine with that, according to this.” They both jumped when suddenly the front door opened, the little bell jingling. The man that entered was dressed warm like they had been when they arrived, a thick jacket with a hood that came up high to protect one’s face when needed. It was undone now and the first few buttons of the jacket were open.
He blinked at them a few times and they stood there silent and motionless, staring at each other. After a moment the man shifted on his feet, clearing his throat.
“I’d uh…like to rent a room?” He didn’t sound especially sure about that but it was enough to spur the other two into action.
“Oh, uh. The owner’s back in the kitchen.” Mez hooked her thumb over her shoulder, pointing him to the open door at the back of the room. The man said his thanks and shuffled past them. Mez laid the paper on the counter, smoothing it out as best she could before abruptly heading for the front door.
Outside Dhelarly was high in the sky and the city lights were on the driev cycle illuminating the city as much as could be done without Sol. It was still rather cold, not only being much further away from the Solrise but also over the mountains. It would take some time before it began to warm up. Mezalie expected to feel the chill creep in, afterall she’d spent her entire life in the heat of Sol, but she didn’t feel cold at all. She could see her breath leave her in a cloud of fog from time to time but that was her only indication.
“Where are we heading?” LoVelly asked when they continued on past the side of the building that led back to their room. He didn’t seem to mind, keeping pace with her as they wandered down the street. The streets were alive with other people passing them on their own business. A woman walked past them with her children in tow, the smallest one held in her arms. The baby held Mez’s gaze for a moment as they walked past and she found some comfort in the perception.
“To be honest with you I’m not really sure. I haven’t been here in solcen. I was a child last time we came through.” She stopped to turn in a small circle, looking at the things around her “Some things are broadly familiar like the skyline and I remember some places I visited but I don’t know where they are or if they’re even there anymore.” She shoved her hands into the patched pockets on the sides of her overalls to hide the slight shake of her hands. There was no actual reason for the tremor and it frustrated her that she couldn’t will it to stop. If LoVelly noticed he pretended not to.
“I suppose that means we’re exploring then. Just don’t lose me. I won’t be able to find my way back.” He stepped in close and quickly looped his arm through hers, securing himself to her side. “Can you imagine? ‘Where are you staying?’ They’ll ask and I’ll say ‘I don’t know. ‘what it’s called?’ I don''t know. I can''t read.” LoVelly let out a hearty laugh but Mezalie was struck by the realization that LoVelly did not know these things and getting lost would truly be a danger. It hadn’t occurred to her just like it hadn’t occurred to her that leaving a note was useless.
“The place we’re staying is called Frinnedot Len. It’s on Rels flat.” She looked over at him with no trace of the humor he had about the situation. “If we find something to write on I’ll write that down for you in case you forget. You could show it to someone.”
“I’ll remember,” he said with confidence. Mezalie however gave him a rather skeptical look. “What? I don’t remember anything from before. I remember things now just fine. But I think writing it down is too risky. With the last driev we’ve had I don’t think we can be too careful.” Mezalie released a sharp huff at that. He was right but there was a feeling of shame rolling around in her mind somewhere telling her that she needed to be more mindful of these things with LoVelly.
“I’m sorry.” She squeezed his arm close where it looped through hers. “It just didn’t occur to me that you wouldn’t have known those things. I’ll be better about it.”
“It’s okay.” He squeezed her arm back in forgiveness but it pulled them slightly off balance and they took several lurching steps together to one side and then the other. Mez used her greater stature to stabilize them as LoVelly let out a huff of laughter.
“We are so uncoordinated.” She groused despite the smirk upon her own lips. They managed to keep their arms linked and continued down to the main intersection at the end of the street. It was even more populated there with what looked like a street car station with multiple tracks criss-crossing an open plaza and people waiting on multiple platforms. Mezalie dropped her arm down from LoVelly’s forearm and slid her hand into his as they entered the crowded area. There was a station directory and a map, she was thrilled to see.
Mez led them across the plaza, squeezing between people as they made their way to the huge board that stated the various routes and approximate times they arrived on one side. The other showed a large city map that detailed the sectors of the city by color and a variety of locations within each of them. It didn’t take her long at all to spy the place she was looking for. She pointed up to a spot on the board, grabbing LoVelly’s attention.
“That’s the City Archive. That’s where I want to go.” She moved her finger down. “This is where we are.” She dropped her arm and turned her attention to the streetcar schedule and then back to the map. “I think…I understand how to get there.”
“Lead the way.” LoVelly replied and she pulled them further across the plaza to the platform she’d seen on the board that ran to that part of the city. It was still two sectors away from the city''s main temple and she felt okay about those odds. She would still be on alert anyway. She was increasingly worried that that was going to be her new normal anyway.
“I want to see what I can find about that man. You don’t just end up the royal advisor to a child monarch who overthrew the local government without some kind of paper trail.” She kept her voice low and leaned her head close to LoVelly as she spoke. The article had said that people mostly disapproved of the situation, not that everyone did. There were still likely to be people who agreed with what was going on.
“Yeah, that makes sense,” he agreed. “We might be able to find records about you know what too.” He dropped his voice into an even quieter hush on the last part.
“I guess we’ll see, won’t we.” Mez shrugged because really she wasn’t even sure how to go about looking for information about it. Even if the thing cohabitating her mind and body was what she thought it was, she didn’t know that there would be all that much information to find. Any real, reliable records from that time were destroyed in the war.
They waited with others on the platform for several dib. Mez occupied herself eavesdropping on conversations around them, watching as a man towed a little wagon with two toddlers in it up the ramp to the platform. They were cute with round, rosy, cheeks as they smiled wide in excitement. The man and woman to one side of her were going shopping and he was reading back their list. It was mostly fruits that stored well, things that were on the verge of being out of season as Sol would begin to rise. When her eyes flicked over to LoVelly she was disconcerted by the vacant look upon his face, eyes unfocused. She shook their joined hands sharply, startling him from his reverie. He shook his head and blinked several times over.
“What realms are you wandering over there?” She teased him but he laughed along with her.
“I wish I could tell you but even I don’t know,” he admitted.
They turned their heads in unison with everyone else as a smooth tone played from a single speaker near the top of the platform, indicating a streetcar was approaching. It looked remarkably similar to the one she’d seen before with bright, glowing, floral markings. This one was blue with delicate rytzykel petals where the previous had had purple clusters of baane which she wasn’t surprised to see considering how widely renowned the hospital in Temal was.
The doors hissed open and a handful of people shuffled out of the car before their own crowd shuffled in. It wasn’t as crowded as the last one they’d taken and they were able to snag seats this time with LoVelly taking the seat nearest the window. Everyone swayed together as the car picked up and took off.
It was slow at first, crawling through the busy inner city pathways. When the track began to rise and the car began to climb up above doors and windows, then roofs, it picked up speed. By the time the track had leveled out againg, running along over rooftops and around other infrastructure the scenery was speeding by outside. LoVelly leaned in close to look past Mezalie, out the window, as they zipped down the track.
“Wow this city is bigger than I realized,” he said, leaning back just a bit to meet her eyes. “I really could get lost here.”
“It''s one of the biggest cities on the pellan zeit,” she answered. “I think only Clovrae is bigger but it''s a port city so that''s to be expected really.”
They spent the ride pointing out strange and interesting things on the Temalen skyline as the streetcar took them to stops all over the city along its route. People joined and departed at almost every stop along the way, shuffling the seating time and time again. When the display at the front of the car read the same as the stop number that she’d seen on the board Mezalie reached over and tapped LoVelly. At first she pointed to the display but halfway through the motion she realized her mistake and instead said aloud, “This is our stop,” before moving to sit up.
An audible crack sounded in the car when she withdrew her hand from LoVelly’s shoulder. They were both so shocked that they jumped in their seats as the sharp zing of energy shot through them both. All heads immediately turned this way and that at the noise but everyone else seemed as confused as they were and nobody had quite figured out where it had come from. Thankfully the car slowed and gently lowered at their stop and despite a few scrutinous stares they were able to slip out the doors without confrontation. They both walked as normally as they could down from the platform but about halfway down the long ramp they both turned to each other with wide eyes and bewilderment on their faces. At that they both burst into barely stifled laughter.
“What was that?” Mez asked, stifling a cackle.
“I have no idea.” LoVelly giggled. “I literally have no idea what’s happening, ever. I thought that was what this adventure was about?” He straightened up, taking several deep breaths to calm himself down.
“Hin hin,” she said, laughing out the last of her breath. She pointed up ahead of them and when he followed it was easy to spy the building up ahead. It was nestled among smaller shops and buildings that made its looming height stand out among them. It was three storeys above ground and likely four or more in total as almost every public building was built with a basement for sheltering in place.
It was a little bit of a walk, which was fine except that it was all uphill. It wasn''t especially steep but it was a continuous gradual incline that left LoVelly breathless by the time they reached the top, heaving and winded. There were large, beautiful steps with various designs set onto the rise of them but neither took note of the beauty as LoVelly all but collapsed on the bottom step. He narrowed his eyes up at Mezalie who, for the most part, seemed entirely unfazed by the trek. He certainly wasn’t the only one though. A variety of people also rested on the steps, some out of breath like him and others simply sitting with friends or family, children played games jumping up and down the steps and chasing each other. Mez waited patiently while he recovered and took long labored breaths leaned back on his elbows against the steps behind them.
“Time to see what we can find out about your weird-” She made a circular motion, gesturing at him, “everything.”
“Yeah,” he sucked in a breath, “and your-” he repeated the motion back at her, “unpleasant passenger.” Mezalie immediately pulled a face and LoVelly narrowed his eyes as he rolled the words over now that they''d been said.
“Oh, no, I hate the way that sounds. Call it a monster before you call it that,” she complained.
“On reflection, I hate it too.” LoVelly wrinkled his nose as he nodded at her. “Let''s just go inside and see what awaits.” He pushed himself off the steps and to his feet.
“After you,” Mez told him, and so he took the lead up the steps with her on his heels. They went, hopeful that they could find something to help them make sense of their strange situation because really, neither one of them knew what else to do.