Page 15 of When the Moon Met the Sun

A small, unkempt child stood just inside the entrance to the room with the doors cracked behind her and my trap in pieces at her feet. She had a bewildered look on her face, like breaking a vase was the last thing she expected when sneaking into somebody’s room.

Her eyes widened when she saw me move and, realizing I was awake, she immediately began apologizing. “I’m sorry!” she said, one of her front teeth missing. She couldn’t have been older than eight-years-old.

Sleep still hovering around my brain, I slowly sheathed the dagger and asked her, “What are you doing in here?”

I hadn’t left this room since I arrived. I’d been reading the books I haphazardly threw into my chest when packing at the last minute. I had made sure to pack my favorites, along with ones about the South to try to prepare myself. I’d read them all twice over the past two days. Teagan offered to show me around, but I politely declined. She had even resorted to bringing food to me three times a day, but the more of it I ate, the worse I began to feel.

The small child placed her gloved hands behind her back, looking at me innocently with big, caramel-colored eyes. “I just wanted to meet the female who’s about to marry my brother. Teagan kepttelling me not to, but I wanted to anyways. I’ve been trying to sneak in since the night you arrived, but my sister can be hard to slip away from,” she admitted sheepishly, then looked down at the pieces of broken translucent glass. “Sorry about the vase…” she mumbled.

I swiped a hand down my face, as if I could physically remove the sleep from me.She’s just a child, I thought to myself, then realized what she’d said.No, she’s a princess. I didn’t realize there were any other princesses in the South besides Teagan.

Thinking only of gaining her trust, I slid out of bed and said, “That’s fine. Just don’t tell anybody about this next part, alright?”

She nodded enthusiastically in response, eyes still wide.

I walked towards her, careful to still keep distance between us. I motioned for her to back up, and she stepped to the side, away from the broken shards. Fortunately she was wearing shoes, though I couldn’t help but notice the colorful paint splatters on them.

I took a deep breath to help center myself, as I always had to do before wielding any of my zirilium.Being self-taught has its downfalls.

A moment later, I felt it. A slight prickling sensation under my skin. I could feel the air moving around me in a different way than before. Like I could will it to carry out my every desire.

Using the air around me, I used circular motions to surround the area where the vase shattered. Slowly with my air current, I pushed every little piece towards one another, until they sat in a neat pile in the middle of the floor.

Wielding air had always been one of the easiest zirilium to learn for me. It felt like an extension of my surroundings, and it was the simplest to control in my experience. Air had always been my favorite zirilium because of it.

Quickly before I could lose my focus, I grabbed the small waste bin in the corner of the room and sat it on its side next to the pile. Concentrating again, I used one last air current to shove allof the pieces of glass into the bin. Then I stood the bin back up, and waved a hand towards it, looking back at the young female. “See? No big deal,” I said, trying my best to sound nonchalant. Though sweat had begun to bead at my temples from the effort, I did my best not to let it show. I couldn’t show any weakness to the Southerners, even to a child.

“That wassocool, miss! I’ve never seen anything like that before! How did you do that? Do you have mind powers?” the child asked, drawing closer and holding her little hands in fists of excitement.

To my surprise, I found my lips tilting up into a smile.

“No, I don’t have mind powers. I wielded the air around us,” I explained, looking down into her doe eyes. I took this moment to get a better look at her.

She had chocolate brown hair that only went down to her chin, but it was wavy and disheveled, as if she’d just rolled out of bed. She had pointed ears like I did, and a small string of green beads hanging from her hair framed the left side of her face. One of her suspenders had slipped off of her shoulder, and a pine green shirt lay underneath. Gold bracelets hung from her wrists, clinking together every time she moved her arms. Brown, leather gloves adorned her little hands, though they had no stones on the knuckles like I’d seen some of the civilians had when I arrived. Her skin was about the same shade as Teagan’s, which adds up, since if she’s also a princess, this must be Teagan’s little sister.

Just as I had opened my mouth to speak, the doors to the room swung open and a loud voice yelled, “Margo!”

Teagan slapped a hand over her mouth once she saw me standing there with who I now know as Margo. “Apologies, my lady. I’ve been looking for this one for the better part of half an hour, and this just isn’t where I was expecting to find her.” Teagan looked down at the remaining scraps of blanket I’d used to set my vase alarm and tilted her head, but seemed to think better of asking anyquestions.

“Margo, go find Quinn so she can help you get ready. I’m going to help our new family member here prepare for the ceremony. We don’t have a ton of time left,” she said, though she seemed stiff, which wasn’t unusual in my presence.

Margo opened her mouth, probably to object by the look on her face, but Teagan met her eyes and raised an eyebrow, and that was that. Margo sighed loudly, then turned to me and smiled, revealing dimples on both cheeks I hadn’t noticed before.

“It was great meeting you, miss! I suppose I’ll see you out there!” she said, then scurried out of the bedroom.

Teagan looked like she wanted to strangle her sister as she watched her leave the room, then turned to me and plastered a smile on her face that didn’t reach her eyes. “Alright—let’s get you ready!”

Roughly two hours later, I was dressed in a flowy, white gown with a long, lacey train and sleeves stopping at the elbow. The dress by itself seemed a little simple to be a wedding dress for the South’s future queen, but I was sort of grateful since I’d always hated drawing too much attention to myself. The gown was pretty regardless, though I felt a small pang of guilt when Teagan had to cut slits in the back to let my wings slip through.

The outfit change also made it a challenge to hide any daggers, but I made sure to put the Southern dagger Dimi had given me in my corset top, close to my heart, when Teagan had turned away.

Teagan had pulled and teased my hair into a beautiful updo of elegant swoops, natural waves, and braids, and had done my makeup so I sparkled the same way the moon reflected on the ocean at night.

I was adorned in gold cuffs and anklets, which felt so foreign on my body compared to the silver jewelry Northern royals always wore. On the bright side, I got to keep my silver earrings and the necklace holding my moon stones, just tucked into my top so only the silver chain wasvisible.

Lastly, Teagan had crowned me with a golden circlet similar to what she wore which wrapped around the back of her head and disconnected in the front. I noticed it looked like the branches of a tree woven together around my head. Somehow, I didn’t mind it too much—though part of me longed for my mother’s tiara, which was now tucked away safely in my trunk of belongings.

Teagan explained that at the end of the ceremony, the circlet would be replaced with a crown, but that in a couple days I’d be outfitted for my own casual circlet to wear on the regular, like the one adorning her head.

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