My mind which had been flowing widely was now still. I didn't know what to do, I didn't know what I had done. So I left. I got up and bolted toward the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. I glanced over my shoulder and all the women looked very confused except for the girl in Black who had not even turned to face me. She was a statue of the moment I had unwillfully pointed to her. I turned back to the door and with a renewed sense of urgency tried to open the doors, but it was predictably futile. Then I tried again, only the doors flew open. The woman who had brought me there narrowly missed being hit by the doors which she had opened. "Have you chosen?" She said. I nodded. "Who?" she replied. I stood to the side to show the strange painting which stood behind me, the girl in black still frozen. "Oh…" She replied, "Both of you come with me". The girl in black still stood. The woman came up to her and lead her with her hand. They walked ahead of me back the way we had come in.
"I will ring the bell twice and then call out your names and titles, then you will both walk out holding hands to the feast table at the other end of the courtyard. The crowd should create a pretty good path, and sit down at the raised chairs." She explained, "You both understand?". I nodded, and the women looked at the girl who did nothing. The woman walked through the doors, and the crowd clapped. She rang the bell twice and pronounced " Kai Gao, son of General Hiro Kane Gao of the Royal Army, and of no house, has chosen Guen Liu.." The crowd gasps and murmured and the woman stopped for a moment "daughter of Uru Tay Liu, Grand Judge of the Crown, of the House of Hututhero. Let us welcome the new pairing." I stood stiff and glanced at the girl who still looked down, I grabbed her hand and began to walk, and she walked with me. We rounded the corner to now be seen by the crowd. The crowd looked confused, we kept walking through them, and then a few scattered claps, turned into a sustained, although unenthusiastic, applause. We made our way through the maze of the crowd, overhearing whisperings about her hair, House, and father. Eventually, we found ourselves on the other side of the courtyard where many tables were set up, but one was elevated above all of them. The girl in black and I ascended to our seats and the crowd followed and sat.
Again in the silence, I felt the weight of this mistake. The seated crowd talking and catching slight glances. I had not seen my mother or father yet. I leaned over to whisper to the girl in black "I'm very sorry, I don't know what happened". She looked up and our eyes for the first time since the room, it scared me.
"What may I call you?" She replied.
"Kai, Kai is fine. And how may I address you?"
"Guen"
We sat in silence for a moment.
"Do you know who I am? Was this planned?" She asked.
"I don't, and no it was not planned. I was supposed to pick someone else. I don't know what happened." She looked confused and the silence needed to be cut "What happened to your hair?"
"I cut it before entering the picking room, my mother will be furious"
"Why did you do that?"
"I didn't want to get picked."
"Then why did you stare at me?"
"You reminded me of someone I met in a dream."
Guen was very strange, and we sat in silence for a bit longer while the crowd settled in and everyone got seated. Then our parents came to our table. Her mother was short and a little plump and looked at her daughter's hair if it was her dead body, with all her theatrical might. Her father was tall and wearing the attire of a Court Judge which was a long, fine, orange robe and a kind of wide-brimmed black hat. My parents looked stoic, but behind that mask, I knew of my mother's anger. My father, a short tubby man, adorned with many medals and wearing his military uniform, white and orange. Her parents approached me closer, her mother's horror quickly turning to a polite smile.
"Well I can't say this was expected but…" Her mother stammered trying to find something to say.
"But it'll really be interesting" Her husband finally butted in, and then gave me a slight smile and a handshake. They took a glance at their daughter and then took a seat at a table close to us. My parents then came up to Guen and shook her hand and then sat down, without a single word to Guen and without a single glance at me. I had a feeling it was in real trouble now.
There was more than enough to fill everyone's stomachs, but Guen and I barely ate anything. I wonder if she faced a similar dread, or whether she was taken aback by these weird events. My parents had still not even glanced at me throughout the entire meal. After the feast me and Guen were put in a carriage and carried off to an unknown destination.
"Now that no one is listening, why did you pick me?" Her words pierced through the awkward atmosphere.
"I was being honest earlier, I really didn't mean to."
"How can you point at someone without meaning to, tell me why you picked me"
"I got panicked and my body moved without me, sort of like a flinch."
"Do you really not know anything about me or my family?"
"No, I don't. I don't really know anything beyond the books at my family's estate or what the servants taught me."
"Hmm.." She waited in silence, I could tell she contemplated telling me something. She opened her mouth, and it hung there and then closed. I felt the awkwardness of the situation creeping in, two strangers soon to be married, with a complex political situation only one of us even partly grasps. I needed to stop the silence.
"Do you know where we're going?" I asked.
"No," she quickly replied.
I don't know how long we stayed in the carriage but when we finally stopped it was sunset. The beams of orange filling the carriage through the silk curtains. I heard the breeze crackling through the tall trees. Guen pulled back the curtain and left the carriage, I followed. And was immediately hit with the beauty. Tall evergreen trees all around us. Me and her on the side of a mountain overlooking a great blue expanse of water. And a large summer cabin situated right on the edge.
"Woah, it's amazing" Escapes my mouth. Guen doesn't seem to notice, or atleast pay it any attention as she walks towards the cabin.
"Is that the ocean?" I shout after her.
"No, that's just the noth lake"
"Just!? It's amazing!" She entered the cabin leaving me right outside the carriage staring at the most whimsical thing I had ever seen. I don't know how long I stood there, but even the carriage got fed up and left. I entered the cabin. It was furnished with the finest furniture and curtains, and had pottery and art of all different styles and from all different places. Some of them as far east as the trade cities and some as far south as Umbree. Guen was sitting on the couch gazing out at the lake view.
"Did you look at this art, I recognized one of the styles of being from Umbree!" I couldn't hold my excitement. But my excitement was met with her look of disinterest.
"You recognized the North Lake, have you been here before?" I was desperate for conversation.
"I grew up not far from here, in a border town of the Gamogreen Forest." How did she grow up all the way over here when her family is entrenched in the capital? I shouldn't pry.
"Isn't that the forest with all the myths and tales?"
"They aren't myths" she said in a startlingly serious tone.
"Do you know what we're doing here?"
"I guess we're just supposed to relax and wait for the ceremony tomorrow."
"What do you want to do to "relax""
"Want to walk down to the lake?"
"Sure"
We left, and it was almost dusk. She led the way down a precarious and overgrown path toward the lake. She effortlessly vaulted over roots and ducked under branches as I stumbled skidded down. It was almost dark and we reached the lake.
"When it gets dark the fireflies like to gather around the lake"
"I've never seen a firefly before, are they pretty."
"Yeah, they look like little flickering candles all around you, it's like a dream"
We waited a little while and then I saw I little flicker in the distance and then a couple more and then even more. I was surrounded by them, it looked at though I had been transcended to be amongst the stars. My grin was ear to ear. Instead of looking at the fireflies, Guen looked at me, and must have caught a little of my ignorant joy, because for the first time I saw her smile. Then she got up and grasped her hands in the air and then holding something walked towards me. She lifted her top hand and a flicker illuminated her hands.
"Want to keep him?" she asked. I nodded.
"But then he needs a name"
"Kuiy Hium"
"Is that in another language?'
"It means Birth through Fire in Tiri, a dialect in the forest."
"That's perfect"
We made our way back to the cabin amongst the stars, Kuiy Hium confined to the elegance of Guen's hands. We got back to the cabin and placed him in an upside down glass. There was only one bedroom, and I had enough kindness to let Guen have it in isolation. I changed into the silk pajamas left for me to use and curled up on the couch to try and drift asleep after the strangest and most consequential day of my life.
There was a smog of black smoke behind me holding my face forcing me to look at myself. The smog consolidated forming a humanoid shape, no longer transparent. A golden crown adorning its head as it towered above. Forcing me to submit I stared at myself in the mirror, my face changing and morphing as its giant hands clasp my head. The figure bagan to speak in a deep tone, which did not originate from its form, but enveloped across all space "Wake up, Kuiy Hium, break free." then it twisted my head quickly to meet its own corrupted version "Wake up!". I jolted up on the couch gasping for air. A faint orange glow illuminated the room, I laid back down and closed my eyes. I heard something move outside and opened my eyes to see the orange glow was much brighter, it was fire. I sat there half in confusion and half still in sleep. The orange glow grew brighter and brighter. Then I heard metal. I was startled awake, and peeked out the door, armed men were marching up the street with torches. I ran to Guen's room and barged in, and shook her awake. I heard a violent bang on the door. Me and her frozen, another bang and I heard the door crash to the ground, and several sets of military boots clanging against the floor.