It looked suspiciously similar to the clothing Robin wore in the forest. Sol thought she looked beautiful. The Majis women wore clothing that was suited to work and movement. This Meena felt like someone he knew.
“Oh, the candle,” Meena said, pointing back to the lit candle on the desk.
“I got it,” Sol responded. He’d been waiting for her to get out of the window before extinguishing their light source.
With a nod, she slipped over the ledge, clinging to it with her hands as she found a steady foothold for her feet. Their particular window was situated in the wall of the fort.
“They probably put us in this room, thinking the window would be too difficult to climb out of,” Meena whispered as he followed her.
“Little did they know, our keepers were actually making our task easier,” Sol responded lightly.
Meena smiled. Somehow, despite the darkness, he could hear it.
Climbing carefully around her on the outer ledge, he led the way over the wall and showed Meena the steep path to the shoreline.
It took quite some time to get all the way down the path, even after their eyes adjusted to the bright light of the moon and the stars.
“What do we do now,” Meena asked as they stumbled onto the sandy shore.
He was not tired from exhaustion, but his body was ready to stop moving for a moment. “Now, we look at the stars in the sea,” he replied.
“Sol, we don’t have all night,” she replied. “Literally. We need to get back before the sun is up.”
“Our search will be better served if we rest for a moment. That was a long climb, and it was only the downward one.” He wanted to see the enchantment on her face again as she looked at the sparkling blue waves. It was a selfish desire, and he knew it. But his words were also true. They would spend the rest of the night climbing up canyons. They both needed to catch their breath.
Meena had already turned from him. A smile lit her face, and she didn’t even know that she hadn’t seen the best part yet.
“Go,” Sol whispered, “step on the wet sand.” He stood back, not wanting to spoil the surprise.
Meena tentatively stepped forward, slipping off her leather shoes and carrying them in her hand. As her foot pressed into the wet sand at the edge of the incoming waves, blue light shot through the sand she’d displaced.
She gasped, lifting her foot up. The face she turned to him was pure jaw-dropping joy.
Sol smiled, stepping forward to join her as she traced her toe in the sand, creating a stream of blue light wherever she touched.
She ran down to the water itself, watching her footsteps shimmer and fade in the sand behind her. The moonlight was bright enough that Sol could see the way her hair danced over shoulders.
Dropping his own shoes in the sand, he ran after her.
“You’ve seen this before?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said, drawing to a stop next to her. “It happens in Istroya every few goldenreign seasons.”
“I love it,” she said, throwing her arms wide open as if to embrace the sea.
Sol understood the feeling well. The sea had always represented something bigger to him. Something beautiful and different and beyond himself, but something that made him feel more whole.
He was looking at Meena, though, and not at the sea.
He could feel the radiant delight on her face.
He could not take her with him, but he could leave her with the one thing which always brought him joy.
Stepping behind her, he placed his hands on her shoulders. “Close your eyes,” he whispered.
He could not see her face, but he assumed she did as he had asked. He could feel her shoulders rising and falling gently with each breath she took.
“The joy you feel right now, that’s the magic.”
