" What?" Diana frowned.
" It's your ears! " Rumius gushed excitedly.
" Don't you get it? It's about frequency!"
Diana's frown deepened.
" Frequently?"
" No! Frequency! Sound frequency!" Rumius explained. All those hours of reading in the library had finally paid off! In the end, it was all a single line had made the difference.
" Demihumans can hear the cries of awakened mandrakes right? Those.. screaming plant things." Rumius started.
Hearing the name, Diana made a face.
" Yes….but why?"
He pointed to his ears, smiling.
" Humans can't."
Diana didn't seem to understand too well.
" Can't.. ?"
Diana's eyes quickly widened, but only a moment later, she balked.
" You want us to squeeze a mandrake over the town?" She grimaced.
" No!" Rumius exclaimed.
" But.." he wagged a finger, " Im going to make you sound like one."
" Eh? No."
" It won't be too bad, trust me." Rumius grinned.
Rumius raised his hands vertically such that has palms were facing each other. In an instant, all sounds in the world faded out to nothingness. It was as if the world was emptying itself of substance, and he was the only thing left in it.
Rumius's gaze landed on a point in the air between his hands. He imagined it vibrating, shaking. In his mind, it would tremble, flutter like a flag in the wind. It would sound like a rushing gale, whooshing and thundering. It would feel like a passing current, gentle and ticklish perhaps but it would stay in his very hands. The instant the image formed in his mind, the sensations became real. He could hear the rushing of wind, the fabric like fluttering feeling and the power of the trembling air.
The sounds and colour of the world came back like a returning tide, giving it all back to him in an instant. Almost nothing had changed, except now, in his hands was a spherical area of rapidly pulsing air. Looking at it, it looked like a rift in space, or a distortion in the fabric of reality where everything seemed to speed up and vibrate wildly. Yet in reality, it wasn't even a spell.
Rumius was just dumping mana into the air between his hands at high speeds. But perhaps it was with great luck that he'd figured out how to do this when trying to learn his first spell.
Rumius raised it his hands and showed it to Diana.
" Wow.." she breathed. " What is that?"
" It's what we're going to use. To make your plan work." He grinned smugly,
Rumius raised his hands and placed the vortex over his mouth like a mask. It was strange feeling, as if his cheeks were being mushed up and squeezed a dozen times at different places.
*" Hi, Hi, can you still hear me?" *He asked.
Diana nodded.
" You're speaking normally."
Rumius smiled. It was perfect.
*" How do I sound? Is my voice garbled or unclear?!* He parted his hands and compressed, manipulating the area of the vortex.
" No. It's pretty clear. But..I feel like it's clearer when you.."
She made a gesture of pulling her hands apart.
" ..make it like this."
Then she frowned.
" What does this have to do with making our plan work?"
*" Because I can't hear what I'm saying right now at all."* He smirked.
Diana was surprised to silence.
" Actually?"
Rumius could only guess how much alike a Cheshire Cat he was right now.
*" Actually." *
He took the vortex from his face and held it out to her.
" Here, you try."
Rumius had to stand on his tiptoes to keep Diana from having to bend down as she awkwardly pressed her lips into the space between his hands.
Her mouth moved, and Rumius could see the pink tongue beneath her pink lips enunciating the words, but there was only silence. This was what they needed. Perfection.
' How am I such a genius?' Rumius thought as he pulled away.
" What you say?"
" You actually couldn't hear me?"
" Not a word." Rumius quipped.
Diana stepped back. Her face brighter than he'd ever seen it. He could understand her feeling. Or rather, he would like to think so.
" So, when are we doing this?"
A knocking on the door interrupted whatever Diana was about to say.
" Young Master Eldmich, it's time. Have you prepared?" said a voice Rumius didn't recognise from the other side of the door. His heart leapt to his throat.
" Young master?" The voice sounded a little more pressing now.
" I-I'm coming. I know the way. I can meet you at the cathedral myself." he answered hurriedly.
A pause came from the other side of the door, as if hesitant.
" Young master, I'm afraid I cannot do that. I-"
" No. I'll make my way to the cathedral myself. It is my coming of age. I cannot keep acting like a child." He interrupted. He whispered a silent apology.
The voice on the other side paused again.
" But..it's customary that I.." It protested.
Rumius felt bad, but he didn't have a choice as he refused the voice again.
" I will not have my mother see that her son, even at his coming of age, is unable to walk by himself. I want to show her that I've grown and I will not tolerate refusal." He said as firmly as he could.
"…..Very well. I will inform the Lord Pastor. Please do make your way down quickly."
Rumius froze in place as he tried to listen for receding footsteps, but his ears couldn't pick anything up. It was only until Diana told him that the person had left did he breathe a sigh of relief.
" This is trouble." He winced as he looked at Diana.
Diana was biting her lips again as she looked at him.
" Would you..happen to have time after this?" She asked, her voice somehow as uncertain as when they'd first met. But Rumius could feel that something was different. This was no longer an interrogation, or a tense filled question. It was a plead. From a friend to a friend not to abandon them.
And Rumius wasn't about to let her down.
" Definitely."
He stood up and dusted himself off, straightening the robe under his waist as it had become crumbled when he'd sat down.
" I give you my word."
The smile she gave him was all worth it.
Rumius made his way over to the door, but paused, his hand on the handle. Diana who was behind him, putting on her cloak looked at him inquisitively.
" What's wrong?"
She moved to his side, and he looked up at her.
" Are you coming with me?"
" Yes? Should I not?" She asked.
" But..where are you going to be at? It's a wide hall. You're not exactly going to be able to walk inside unnoticed."
" Ah ah ah. There's where you're wrong."
Diana pulled the door open for him and a gust came through the open window to blow through the door, and down his neck. It was like the alleyway outside was a foreign land. If he stepped into it, he wouldn't be able to go back. Rumius found his heart racing, his legs were rooted in place.
" What, scared now?" A voice said.
Diana was looking at him, the cloak of her hood was pulled over her head to conceal her ears. The brown fabric fluttered in the wind draft, somehow making the fox-girl's petite shoulders look just a little bigger. Just a little wider. Just a little more comforting.
" Pfft, I-I should be asking you that." He stuttered as he stepped out of the room.
Diana seemed to smirk.
" What are you, a kid?"
Rumius didn't bother correct her. He looked down the alley and said:
" Let's go."
The cathedral was split into two parts, the outer circle and the inner circle. The outer circle contained the modest residential areas of the priests, their kitchens and the lush gardens. The inner circle was further in in an area specifically fenced off from the outer circle by a thick ring of trees that marked the end of the gardens.
Beyond this area was sacred ground, they seemed to chorus, with their ancient, wrinkled faces and hundred entwining arms. They did little to ease Rumius's mind as he walked the narrow stone path through their watchful gaze. Diana walked behind him, casually and quietly. She wasn't looking at their destination, but rather up at the trees at god knows what.
Past the trees was the Inner Circle's principal sanctuary, more simply put as the main hall of the cathedral.
It was a lone stone building, tall and spotless and white and nearly perfect in its placement. It was like a spot of simple purity in a canvas of colour. Looking upon it, Rumius could understand why the words sanctuary was apt.
When Rumius walked up the front gate, the massive oak doors were already open, and looking inside, Rumius saw a hall, impossibly tall and beautiful. The ceiling seemed like it was universes away and in every direction, beautiful tinted glass paintings cast the hall in fractured, multicoloured prisms of colour.
Rumius could see several figures at the end, waiting for him. Robed figures clad in white, a priestly figure at the central pedestal and a woman with familiar features and similar ashen hair as his awaited at the end.
' Maman.' He thought. Finally it was happening.
His heart was pounding like a war drum. He had awaited this day for so long.
Rumius turned back and his heart stopped, mid-beat, in his chest.
Diana was gone.