Hearth hummed an agreement. She even reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder. He looked at her, tears in his eyes. His Lumani’s avatar was that of a tiny mouse, the white glowing form buried in pebble’s tangled tousle of thick, light brown hair.
“After that, I was allowed to stay in my aunt’s house, no one else claimed it. But I was young and didn’t know how to take care of it. By the time I was ten, half the roof had caved in. I was hungry all the time.” He looked at Hearth with these words, a bit of longing in his gaze, not for her, but for the warm and full life she’d led. “I had to beg or steal for food. When I was old enough to go to The Choosing, I did. Though I didn’t know it was a thing until I was already seventeen.” Only then did a hint of a smile find his lips. “That’s where Haleia found me.” He reached up and gently stroked the luminous fur of the mouse with one finger.
Wow, if he was seventeen, he was small for his age, but then, if he had been living alone and starving, that might explain why he was so skinny. Yet there was a strength to his emaciated frame, and I had seen just how nimbly he moved, how quickly he could run. And now, after a couple months of eating well, he was starting to fill out a little. He could be a handsome man someday. Though, handsome or not, his eyes still drew me in. I could see in them his compassion and tenderness… and grit.
“I… I never thought I’d be Chosen.” His brief elation fell into melancholy. “And now I may end up back on the streets.” Haleia must have said something to him as he said a moment later: “I know, I know.”
It was a bit odd to hear someone speaking out loud to their avatar.
My heart broke for the young man. “You’ll Bond, I’m sure.” Before he could comment with something negative, I kept going with: “I know we’re all feeling down right now, which is why Master Crown was right, we just need to enjoy today. We can worry about everything else tomorrow. Let’s forget our worries, at least for the moment and—” I drew in a heady breath of the summer’s air. “—just enjoy this beautiful day.”
He smiled faintly and nodded. “What about you?” Pebble asked after a moment. I thought I heard just a hint more strength in his voice. “Who were you before?”
It was my turn for a sad, nostalgic smile. “My name was Sara, and I was the daughter of two scribes who worked at the Library of Miraline. Though, they weren’t my parents in truth. My birth parents were merchants and… never returned from one trip east into Vauphan when I was four. We got word that their small caravan was hit by bandits and none were left alive.” I swallowed hard, a single tear in my eye. It had been so long ago, and yet still stung me. “So, friends of my family took me in. My best friend became my sister. She’s now a Noble in House Pegasus. She’s… frightfully smart. Her name is Dove.”
“I’ve heard of her,” Pebble said, sounding a bit surprised himself. “The grounds of House Pegasus weren’t far from my aunt’s house. They’re pleasant and calm, and I used to sneak over the wall to sit on their lawns some days, when I needed a break from the city.” Ah, so Pebble was from the capital, for which the nation was named: Elista. Most of the Noble Houses had their physical house there, including Pegasus. “They say she is going to remake the city, that she has plans for tearing up the streets and adding something called sewers.”
That sounded like Dove, always with a project in her head.
“I hadn’t heard that,” I said. “But it sounds like her. Anyway, we grew up a bit wild and free, but well educated.” I sighed. “I’d always wanted to be Chosen but had to wait for my last year before Auwei found me.”
And I’m very lucky I did.
Thank you, Auwei.
“Everyone thought you’d be one of the first to Bond,” Hearth said. I looked at her, a bit shocked, and she only then seemed to realize she’d said it out loud. She blushed a little. “Well, you were the first to find your avatar. All the girls thought you’d be gone in a week.”
Really?
I’d thought they’d all hated me. “I… didn’t think anyone else thought much of me.”
“You made quite an impression that first day,” Hearth said.
Pebble nearly choked, coughing a bit to cover it up.
“Well, other than that,” I said. “I’d thought everyone had forgotten about that quickly and just… avoided me.”
“Well, yes, some did. But many others were intimidated by you.”
“By me?”
“I’m not sure why you’re surprised. You’re older and towered over most of them. And you’d found your avatar on the first day. And all the boys seemed to have eyes for you. You were everything they wanted to be.”
“Oh…” I said.
You never know what others think; hence, it’s never that good to dwell on it. They don’t matter in the end. Only you matter, as well as your friends and loved ones.
I nodded to that.
“It was all just a show, a joke,” I said a bit softly. “A couple of the other girls, Cedar and River, had stolen my other dresses and—”
“Oh, I know, everyone knew. Everyone hated them for it too. If they hadn’t done that, then you’d never have stolen the attention of most of the boys. Those two weren’t particularly popular either.”
“Oh.” There was so much I hadn’t known anything about. “Was the attention of the boys really that much of a thing?”
Hearth stopped and stared up at me. I stopped too, and Pebble made a slow arc around to the other side of us, stopping. Hearth shook her head. “You… you have no clue, do you?”
Apparently, I didn’t. “About what?”
