Chapter 22
AFTER PARTING WAYS with Solomon, Mira checked the distance to her next destination on her new map, lost in her thoughts.
Meanwhile, Lily was watching her from behind a pillar. She’d rushed through her morning duties and camped out there, hoping to get a better view of Mira wearing her technomancy robes.
Perfect. The coat flairs out just as we planned. Gives a deliciously tantalizing view of the thighs. And the skirt sits just right—not too short, not too long. Plenty of swishing back and forth. Excellent.
So enraptured in her critique of the garments in action, she failed to notice that Mira had walked right up to her.
“What are you doing?”
As Mira stared at her quizzically, Lily straightened up and stepped out from behind the pillar. “Um… Follow-up observations?”
“Following up on what?”
“Ahem! Miss Mira, you haven’t eaten breakfast yet, have you? Why don’t we dine together? Then you can tell me what you think of your new robes.”
“Fine, why not? Lead the way.”
With Mira’s acquiescence, Lily led the way to the maidservants’ quarters.
***
Why are there so many people here?
Now in the maids’ dining hall, Mira found herself surrounded by over a dozen female servants, all barraging her with questions.
“No problems with movement?”
“It fits properly?”
“We really focused on the texture of the lining fabric. What do you think?”
This left her with no time to enjoy her breakfast, and the sweet-smelling French toast, piled high with an assortment of colorful fruits, sat untouched. She could just ignore them, however, and so she carefully answered each and every question. By the time breakfast was over, an hour had passed.
Mira breathed a sigh of relief as she sucked down an apple au lait. Most of the maids reluctantly headed back to their duties, leaving only Lily, who had already completed her morning rounds. The two struck up a conversation, and that gave Mira a chance to learn more about her.
Lily’s younger sister was attending Alcait Academy, and her father had died during the Defense of the Three Great Kingdoms.
“By the way, I met with Acting Elder Amarette, and she took quite the fancy to these robes.”
“Really?! Mistress Amarette?!” Lily beamed with joy and pressed her for more details.
Mira placed her empty bottle on the table before her. “Hrmm… Well, she wanted me to pass on that she’d like a set for herself. If that’s possible.”
“Of course! Mistress Amarette has always been on our list…” Lily fought to regain her composure. “Ahem! I mean, if she finds our work acceptable, then we’re glad to do it!”
To Lily and her fellow maids, Amarette’s unchanging expression made her difficult to approach. But now that Mira had made a proper introduction, nothing stood between the maid corps and a victory for fashion.
“Hrmm, okay, then. I’ll let her know next time I see her.”
“Splendid! If you could, please also inform her that we’ll need to take detailed measurements of…well, everything. If she could let us know when works best for her?”
“Will do.”
Mira stood up, and after thanking Lily one last time, she left the dining hall. Lily immediately scurried off to assemble a crack team of seamstresses.
***
Experiencing that flying wagon has kind of ruined anything else for me…
Mira was currently in a secluded plaza in front of the palace gates, a wall away from the neighboring district. She pulled out her fur coat and looked up at the sky, thinking back to the comfortable flight with Cleos.
“I’ll just have to be patient until it’s completed,” she said to herself and then affixed a summoning point.
[Evocation: Pegasus]
As she cast the spell, a blue magic circle appeared and rose into the air, raining several bolts of lightning back down onto the ground. A pure-white form stormed out among the flashes. Then the circle shattered to form wings, and the Heavenly Horse Pegasus, Herald of the Storm, landed on the cobblestones.
Folding away its wings, it whinnied softly, but the moment it met Mira’s eyes, it snubbed her and turned its head away.
“Huh?!”
While there were exceptions, the general rule was that spirits summoned without the Mark of the Rosary didn’t speak. But even without words, Pegasus was making its opinions known.
“It’s been a while. How have you been?” Mira asked, stepping closer and looking the horse in the face.
But again, Pegasus turned away and refused to meet her eye. No words were spoken, but Mira got the gist of what was going on. Pegasus was acting just like her sister had whenever she was upset.
“Are you mad at me?” The question won her a side-eyed glare. The horse’s eyes shone with loneliness and frustration. Though she may not have understood the full extent of Pegasus’s feelings, Mira could at least tell from its actions that it was definitely angry.
Poor thing… Thirty years apart was just too long.
“Look, I’m sorry. I haven’t been on this plane for decades. I know that’s a terrible excuse, but really, I only just got back,” she said. “I apologize for not calling on you sooner.”
Right then, her small form was jolted as Pegasus headbutted her, knocking her to the ground. The horse persisted, rubbing its head against her while whinnying over and over. Mira gently held Pegasus’s head to her chest. Its eyes, dark with grief, closed shut, and a giant tear spilled out.
The sudden whiplash of emotion left Mira flustered, but she didn’t know what to do in the face of Pegasus’s sorrow. She slowly wrapped her arms around its neck and stroked its mane to comfort it. The tears soaking her chest were warm and seemed to sink down into her very heart. After a few minutes of cuddling, Mira climbed back to her feet and faced Pegasus.
“I have a favor to ask of you, if I may?”
The horse shook itself and stood, before staring her in the eyes and dipping its head in a nod.
“Thank you. I was hoping that you might let me ride you and that we could fly together.”
Pegasus’s eyes widened, and it immediately knelt before her. It prodded her waist with its nose, urging her to hurry along.
“Oho, I’ll take that as a yes! Splendid!” Delighted, Mira stroked its head and then pulled her fur coat closed as she mounted its back.
Adjusting to her weight, the steed rose back to its feet and spread its wings. Satisfied with the preflight check, it cocked its head back toward her, seeking a destination.
“All right, Pegasus. Take us that way!” Mira said, stroking its mane with one had as she pointed off southwest, roughly in the direction of the Forest of the Devout. Pegasus whinnied in confirmation and flapped its wings, cantering across the plaza.
As the sound of hoofbeats and beating wind reached a climax, she felt her stomach flip, and then the pair were aloft. Unlike when she’d flown on Eizenfald, Mira had a clear view of the plaza thanks to Pegasus’s narrower frame.
“Excellent! And very comfortable.” The cold bite of the wind was blunted by her warm fur coat.
Pegasus seemed to be in a fine mood as it dashed through the sky. Small static bursts crackled through the air as they passed overhead, creating a stream of light behind them that was visible from the ground even in the daytime sun.
Mira wrapped her arms around Pegasus’s neck and glanced back at Lunatic Lake, which was growing smaller by the second. She could still make out the academy and the other institutions that made up Solomon’s Five Elements plan.
Where to go when next she returned? She pondered the future as she looked at the world stretching out below her in all directions.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login