Drowning.
Dark water surrounds my whole body, making it hard to breathe.
My hand brushes against something, and I quickly reach out to grab it. But I let it go the moment something touches my foot. I realize it was my hand, cold shivers spreading from my foot to the tip of my head.
I open my eyes and sit up on the bed.
Eef is peacefully sleeping next to me, his chest lifting up and down.
I breathe out and calm myself down.
I silently get out of the bed and take my bag, unlocking the door and heading out. I tell the innkeeper downstairs to tell Eef that I went shopping and will return around breakfast.
Liadel turned from a colorful town to a snow pile over one night, sparkling in the weak winter sun, cold breeze creating dunes.
I walk around before finding what I was searching for, a flower shop.
To recognize each other at the ball, everyone has to wear a flower that represents what they are. Witches have chicory.
It doesn't have any special meaning. It's just Fate's favorite plant, and witches are his favorite too. He doesn't put too much thinking into things that can be resolved quickly.
Humans have roses. I pick a yellow one to match Eefs mask. I also buy the Ghost Rose Mom needs for the potion, keeping it in its bag.
I get some food earth doesn't have for us to try (mainly Eef) and a small gift for him too.
When I come back, he's sitting on his bed, looking straight through me. "I was so goddamn scared, jesus christ Lace. Why did you go without me?"
I put down my bag next to him. "I didn't want to wake you up."
Eef peeks into it with interest, slight anger immediately gone. "What did you buy?"
"Some food, the Ghost Rose. Also I forgot to tell you that everyone needs a flower to represent who they are. I got you a yellow rose because it matches your mask."
He takes it out and examines it. "What do you have?"
"A chicory."
He looks up. "Oh?"
I nod and sit next to him. "I also bought you a gift."
He frowns. "Why?"
I shrug and take the gift out. "Because I know you like to paint, and these paints are colors you won't find on earth lying somewhere. They barely cost anything here."
I take them out and hand them to him. He looks at me with a big smile on his lips. "Thank you so much, Lace."
I hum. "You still trying if the nickname Lace works?"
He purses his lips and opens his gift. "No, not really. Pretty sure of it."
I scoff and take the food out of the bag. "I bought food you won't find on earth as well. I found the eye grapes if you want to try them. They taste like normal, but sweeter. We also have Persian Bees here, they're mostly eaten roasted for breakfast, and honey candy."
He looks at all the food with carefulness behind his eyes. I can't really blame him. I'm giving him food he's never seen before.
"Don't worry, I'm not gonna poison you," I assure him.
"Why would I think that?" he asks sarcastically. "Can I taste the honey?"
I take out the bag of sweets and hand it to him. "Of course. But it's not the normal honey, it's made by the Persian Bees. It's a little bit spicy, but not much."
He takes one in mouth, rolling it on his tongue, "Oh shit, it's really good. It would make such good Halloween candy."
I eat one too. "Yeah, it's sad that we can't bring any food to our world."
"Oh, we can't? Why not?"
"Since it's reproduced or made from a living thing, it would blow up."
We continue talking as I roast the Persian Bee in the small kitchen, Eef peeking through my shoulder.
"You want to put on some makeup?" I ask, handing him the little bag.
"Yeah, sure."
He takes the bag and heads to the bathroom.
I go outside while he puts it on, watching people beneath already going to the castle. They chatter, their footsteps muffled in the snow powder.
One of the small elves notices me standing on the balcony and they wave. "Getting ready for the ball?" they yell.
I smile. "Yeah."
They nod with acknowledgment. "It's my first time."
"Well I'm sure you'll enjoy it."
Their smile shines in the sun, and they wave me goodbye.
I sigh and watch other people, sometimes talk a little bit. Eef joins me in a while. "Everyone's so nice here."
"World build on trust."
"Ah, yes. Not something you see every day."
I laugh and go back inside. I'm about to take the makeup bag when he asks: "Can I pleasee do your makeup?"
I turn to him making puppy eyes at me. "And why? You think I'm bad at it?" I ask jokingly.
"Nooo…A little bit."
I roll my eyes and throw him the bag. "Okay, but if it's bad, I'll never let you do it again."
He catches it with ease. "Of course, my lord. Now lay down."
I listen to him and I lie down on the bed. My heart skips a beat when he crouches on top of me.
"Close your eyes," he commands and I have no other option than to obey.
I can feel his hand brush against my cheek, applying eyeliner and eyeshadow.
If it goes like this for the rest of the night, I can straight up tell him not to give me blush.
I look up at the massive castle lying lazily before my eyes.
"Is…is it made of ice?" Eef asks quietly with shock and I nod.
"Yeah…Life overcame herself this year."
"But…it wasn't like this when I saw it yesterday."
I look over the ice railing in the deep crack that surrounds the castle. The walls of it are covered in snow, breathing with freezing atmosphere. One of the big icicles suddenly snaps and falls down, but the sound of it landing doesn't happen.
"It's the first winter day, at least for Liadel. In here it starts on the first Sunday of December. The whole town changes itself depending on the season."
"That's…insane."
We and a bunch of other people walk towards the ice castle that's stretching into an enormous height.
"It kinda looks like Elsa's," whispers Eef into my ear and rearranges the dress thrown over his shoulder.
I laugh. "The ball starts in a few minutes, so go change into your dress and we'll meet at…You know what, I'll find you somehow. Look for a big table with food. Also try to find a dark black punch."
"The Death one?"
"Exactly. We'll take a bottle of it and run away."
He nods and I take out the yellow rose from my bag. "Shove it somewhere on your dress so it's visible."
"Okay."
We get to the big glass door where a guard in white armor stops us. "Are you two together?"
"Yes," I reply.
"Okay, name, age and what are you?"
Eef frowns at the last part but I answer for both of us. "I'm Lucien Lefèvre, seventeen, a witch. He's Everest Silas, eighteen, human."
The guard writes it down and lets us inside. "Thank you for coming, enjoy the ball."
When we cross the door frame, freezing air punches us into our noses.
Eef sneezes. "I'm gonna freeze to death," he says with a sore voice.
I smile a little. "What happened with: "I don't get cold easily?" This is just an effect, don't worry. It'll be warmer the further we go."
I look around and spot the changing rooms. "Okay, follow me. You're going to dress up and walk out of the door on the other side."
I hand him his mask and disappear behind one of the doors. I try to change quickly, but the dress has too many laces to oblige, so I spend around ten minutes putting it on.
I leave the villager clothes in the room and shove the bottle up my sleeve, binding the chicory around my wrist and finally put on the high heel shoes.
When I get out, there's the presence of the gods flying in the air. The sight of hundreds of people makes my legs go weak, but I breathe in and out and straighten my back.
I walk to the big table with difficulty, the shoes making my feet hurt. I try to find Eef in the mass of people, but there are too many at one place.
I move my gaze to the thrones where the gods are sitting one by one. In the middle, there's a purple haired boy-looking-like god with a long and slim black dress on, a lazy smirk resting on his face while observing everyone with his glowing purple eyes with black selera, like all gods have.
No one else than Fate.
His legs are thrown over the armrest of the throne, silver crown shining in the chandelier lighting.
Our eyes meet.
I bow my head like the protocol says and then look up. He's still staring at me, his smile now gone.
I gulp.
One thing is very certain in this world. Fate staring at you while not smirking is a very, very bad thing.
Suddenly, he brings out his dark purple mask from somewhere and brings it before his face, smiling omnisciently.
We stare at each other for a bit longer before he goes back to examining other people.
I quickly turn away, searching for Eef in the crowd.
And then I see him.
His eyes are shifting around the ballroom with a spark of excitement behind them. His bright yellow dress is made of an unbelievable amount of layers with silver glitter sparkling everywhere as if he was the sun. He walks elegantly in golden high heels, swaying between people, smiling nicely at them and them returning the smile.
My stomach does a cart wheel.
I quickly go to him, tripping over my legs on the way. "How can you walk so easily on them?" I ask and he turns to me with relief. "I've been going to these balls since I was eight and I still haven't learned it."
"Honestly, I have no idea-"
He stops halfway into his sentence, staring at me.
I feel as if his eyes were his arms, and I try to cover myself. "What?"
He blinks and moves his gaze away. "You look…beautiful."
I press my lips together to hide my smile. His red cheeks match with his dress perfectly. "You look beautiful too."
I hang myself on his arm and lead us to the big, as if naked ice table. "We have to steal the punch before the dancing starts, or everyone will see us."
"I think I saw a glimpse of it exactly around the middle."
I glance up at him. "How long have you been walking around here?"
"Around…ten minutes?"
I frown. "Ten minutes…? I walked out of the changing room maybe five minutes ago. How did you change into this dress so fast?"
He shrugs. "Don't know. I thought it took really long."
I hum and move my gaze back to the table. After a while of walking, we finally find the punch.
Unfortunately, too many people are standing around it.
"What now?" Eef whispers into my ear.
"We wait," I respond in the same tone. "Maybe not a lot of people are going to be standing around it after the dance, but…we'd have to dance."
"What kind of dance?"
"Probably Fate and Time are gonna start with Varsovienne Waltz and then Life and Space will join, then the rest of us."
"Oh, fuck yeah I know that dance. It's from Cinderella, right?"
I eye him up and down with amusement. "You know that dance from Cinderella?"
He nods excitedly. "Dad and Mom tried to learn it and I picked up a lot of it."
"Okay, good. We'll dance a little, steal the punch and sneak out like we were never here."
"Yeah but they have records of us so we kind of were."
I pause. "Yeah, that and the fact that Fate kind of looked at me for longer than is acceptable."
"And that's not good I suppose?"
I pick up a glass of wine from the waiter going around us and take a sip. "You suppose right. He knows something…Oh this is some good wine. It wasn't h
ere last year."
I look at all the gods. Fate is still inspecting people while Life and Space talk. Time is sitting on her throne with a straight back as if she had a broom stuck under her glorious red dress, her white hair up in a complicated bun.
"So what's the deal with all the gods?" Eef asks and takes one of the millions of small cakes laid out on the table. He eats it in one bite.
"In what way?"
"All ways."
I lean my back against a cold wall and narrow my eyes, scanning one god after the other. "Time is sort of a right hand god to Fate. You'll always find them together, no matter where you find them. They're so close because they're basically the same. Fate can't go without Time, Time without Fate."
"Aren't all gods dependent on each other?"
"In some ways, yes. But these two also have the bond of Parent and the Oldest Kid. Time and Space are twins, but Fate was always more keen on Time than Space…they were always a loner. Life came a few thousands of years after them."
I take a sip from my wine and look at Space. Their dress is as black as darkness matching with their skin, with glowing stars surrounding them complimenting their white hair. "Space is…I think the chillest one of them. They just care about their stars and space around them."
Life has a long green dress with flowers of all the colors drawn on it. Her curly red hair stands out from everyone, looking like a big crown. "Life is the youngest. She's cool too, but can get a bit annoying. She thinks she's always right, which can get exhausting since she is most of the time.
All of them have a weird relationship with each other. They would sacrifice the world for each other while murdering each other at the same time."
Eef smiles sarcastically. "Awh, they sound like a big happy family."
I scoff and put the empty wine glass on the windowsill.
But all of a sudden, the atmosphere changes.
I quickly put my hand on Eefs shoulder. "Somethings wrong."
He pauses his hand with another cake and looks at me. "What?"
I narrow my eyes and aim them instantly at Time and Space. They return my gaze. I move my foot closer to the tall window, and something pushes me inside something like an invisible box. "Fuck, I should've noticed."
Eefs eyes widen and he quickly eats the cake. "What?"
I step out of the box to the one I was previously in. "Time and Space. They made these time boxes to fuck with people, and they made them especially around the punch."
While still remaining eye contact with them, I pick up another glass of wine and chug it down. "But when?" I whisper under my breath and turn to Fate.
He's smiling, his head tilted back, his purple eyes drilling deep inside straight to my soul. He points to his purple mask with a long pale finger and shakes his head disappointedly.
I get it.
"He warned me," I breathe out with shock. "But he also told Time and Space to…Everest. We're fucked."
"Lace? What happened?"
I forgot how gods like to fuck with people.
I drag him away while turning around to check if Fate's still staring at me. I find out he still is, and I head to the crowd of people in the middle of the ballroom while explaining briefly. "When he stared at me, he lifted his mask up and smiled. He tried to tell me to hide, but I didn't get it."
"So we can't get the punch now?"
I stop in between people chatting and turn to Eef, standing so close our chests slightly touching. "Time and Space made these invisible time boxes around the whole castle. That's why I thought you were in the changing rooms for a shorter time than you actually were. In every box, time flows differently."
Eefs slides his eyes to the thrones for a second. "Why though?"
"Because they like to mess with people. Fate tried to tell me to hide, but I'm stupid and didn't get it."
"And why did he..warn you?"
"You know, only Fate knows what he's doing. Only he sees all the probabilities and realities and what comes out of them."
"Okay so now what? We can't get the punch?"
I shake my head. "No, we can. But getting out of here won't be so easy because Time and Space can feel everything moving across the Time Boxes. They'll know we're carrying the punch."
He shrugs. "We'll run."
"They're gods, Eef." I look around and spot a place behind a column. "Come."
I take his hand and lead him to the column, leaning my back against it when we reach it so gods can't see my face. "We need to come up with a plan."
Eef nods, but then Fate's voice rings out from the walls.
"Ladies, gentlemen, dear fairies, elves, sirens, mermaids, dwarfs and all the magical people here. I also see some humans here as well." You can hear the smirk in his voice. "I am very glad that you all came to the winter ball.
It's the first time for some, for some the hundredth, but for the people who are here for the first time: I am awful at these speeches, so let's dance, shall we?"
He claps and swiftly rises from his chair, reaching his hand out to Time: "Music!"