(Leo)
***
"You'll be in the courtyard today," Jisoo told me at the entrance while in gold lace.
His snarky personality became diluted and turned overly serious in the span of just about a week to the point it was jarring to greet him.
I gave him a thumbs-up and took flight, going anywhere but my required destination first. Morning dew from outside coated my lower body and chilled it to slightly above my knees where the rim of my skirt ended.
Eventually, I ended up inside one of the storage rooms, playing with a few easily replaceable meal shipments. (Anyone who ever said to not play with food was probably no fun—or just a mortal who didn't know true boredom.)
While I was stressed, flour was like snow and grains were like sand to me. I closed my eyes, and inside wooden crates, I gripped the uncommonly textured (at least in the Galaxy Kingdom) substances tightly in each hand to shape spheres. Deciding then I had one of my uncanny cravings for blackberries, I removed and rubbed my palms together to dust them off.
In hopes I'd strike gold, I searched the unlabelled boxes. Yet I was already distracted by my racing thoughts from my dream the previous night, and the mental fog from a lack of sleep hindered my ability to process any sensory information. It didn't help that the storage room had forgone the inclusion of candles when built, so I couldn't see any juice seep onto the floor.
That didn't mean I couldn't feel the sticky liquid, and I was unfortunate enough to slip in a puddle of clear sap when a sudden tingle jarred my body.
"Crap!" I shouted, knowing I probably blew my cover.
(There wasn't really a reason to hide, though, since I arrived thirty minutes early to mess around.)
Footsteps confirmed my suspicion, and a gentle voice floated over the cacophony to convert it into a symphony.
"Lele? Why are you in here?"
I rubbed my wet butt a bit dumbly and stood up, successfully not slipping again.
"No reason. Just procrastinating."
I didn't look Sinclair in the eyes.
"Why are you hiding now?" they joked. "It's almost like you complained about me doing that yesterday."
They approached me with quiet, rippling steps against the stone floor. I moved away from them, hitting my back against a metal shelf and prompting a loud creaking noise.
"Ouch," I whispered and squeezed my eyelids shut.
It certainly wasn't my lucky day. The shamrocks in the courtyard probably all had two leaves!
"I'm only in here to calm down some. Jitters, you know. I could hardly sleep."
They stepped closer to me, and the action drove my pulse up far more than it should have.
Yet they simply sighed and sunk to the floor with their head ducked. I wondered if they minded being dunked in some viscous liquid. (Eh, perhaps it had a nice scent like perfume or cologne.)
"I understand," they said. "I tried sleeping for a little while but—"
"You don't need to continue," I told them out of fear they would have another anxiety attack, and they nodded solemnly.
"Thanks."
When they lifted their head to face me, red scratches caught my eye.
My face shifted from weariness to concern. "What the hell?"
I leaned down to look at them and cast a purple flame in my hand. (I could have easily used it to navigate the room, but the light would have alerted the passersby to my presence.)
Their nostrils flared slightly. "Hm?"
"Look," I said and pointed to the puddle beside me.
The faint glow reflected off its surface, drowning Sinclair's delicate features in an eerie sea of light. I changed the color to a bright white so that the fainter marks weren't obscured, and after being dyed violet, their lips—glittering like the moon—opened to reveal the pink crevice of their mouth.
"How unfortunate," they proclaimed in a way most people would have pronounced vulgarities, but they were more upset than shocked based on their tone. "I felt it hurting in my dream…"
They shook their head.
"No need to explain. Please. I think I already know."
I stroked their fluffy mess of hair as they straightened their breathing out.
"We don't have time to think about that now. Just think of the reverence we'll get from the people for saving their beloved aristocrats," I said to the sky with an egotistical smile, spreading my hands.
Half their lip turned upwards as they silently expressed their agreement.
I didn't have to tell them to stand up and follow me to the meeting site; they did so on their own. In their determination, they managed to get far ahead of me, leaving me behind in the maze of hallways. For all the times I thought I knew every bend and corner of the castle, Sinclair made me feel like an idiotic intern.
However, that was how I ran into Algor for the morning in a bleak hallway.
He greeted me with a simple wave, and I inquired as to whether he had visited the courtyard already.
"I have. Sinclair was arranging the stones in circles for us when I arrived, and then, they immediately walked inside to go find something."
Internally, I groaned. I didn't want them to waste their entire night getting crap for everyone else together! Thinking about that reminded me how, sometimes, Sinclair gave absolutely no fucks. That was (usually) respectable.
"Hm…" I rubbed my chin and looked to the ceiling to cover up any well-meaning spite I had. "What were they trying to find? I ran into them, but they didn't have anything with them."
Algor shrugged, icy blue eyes glancing to the side.
"Dunno. They didn't say, but they sounded irritated about something." He sounded oddly concerned despite his fake apathy.
"Strange."
My voice went soft, and I clicked my tongue. That made me recall an earlier discussion.
"I want to ask again: How well do the two of you know each other?" I pinched my chin between the lower parts of my thumb and forefinger while narrowing my eyes.
He sighed before giving me a dangerous stare. "How many times do you suppose you want to ask that?"
"Answer then," I directed, tilting my head to the side.
"I'm more acquainted with the bricks on King Daemon's castle," he said whimsically.
With an exhale, I stepped forward and shook my head slowly, venomously. "I don't believe that."
"You don't have a right to ask. I mean to tell you the truth because I value you dearly, but I think you should take what I give you as fact until proven otherwise."
The serious expression on my face faltered, and a suffocating feeling overtook my heart, shrouding me in a cloud of guilt.
"Sorry." I peered down at my feet.
Then, I chuckled. "I just wanted to know. You know I'm always curious about… well, everything."
After all, I found relationships between people to be the most fascinating things, unexplainable by either magic or science. Sure, everyone yapped on about chemistry, but I didn't think everything had to be turned into a systematic process to be worthy of examination.
Algor patted my silver hair, albeit awkwardly in his hesitance. (That was for the better: Sometimes the metal strands were sharp if I forgot to care for them.)
"I know what you're like. Don't worry about it," he said softly. "Just don't pry too much again."
I accepted his statement.
There was then a noise akin to the clanging of pots and pans with a heavy reverberation that drowned out the lowest tones. It was strangely harmonic, though, and I soon recognized the sound as that of the castle bells, which probably had to be dusted and cleaned of cobwebs from their prolonged disuse.
Rarely were all the staff needed at once, but I knew Sinclair, Algor, and I had to put on our masks to become the heroes—to save the day like righteous protagonists from a future comic book. I wanted to sling a cape over my back to sell the idea despite most being unable to understand the joke; my humor was simply ahead of this era.
I was anxious and excited all at once, the exhilarating feeling of receiving closure and validation prompting me to move at Mach speeds to reach the courtyard.
After all, the time was then.
Proceeding in silence, I stood in the middle of one of the three circles created by trails of gemstones—specifically, the one containing amethysts. As evidenced by the beads of sweat forming on my forehead, I was under the heated stares of all the castle employees, including the higher-ups of the Sun Kingdom. Though I naturally enjoyed having my share of the attention and spotlight, the pressure from Hikaru and Inei was palpable, and their fists to my face would certainly be as well if the search failed miserably.