Page 25 of Waves
Avia
One calm evening from our early arrival was all the reprieve life had in store for me. A good night’s sleep and it was back to chaos. Today was already a mess of hand shaking, tours, and meetings with local trade guilds.
My smile started to feel as stilted and painted on as a jester’s as the sun set and the water turned a light lavender around us. Not because I didn’t enjoy meeting the people up here. In fact, they all seemed quite enthusiastic and welcoming, which was a wonderful change. But I could only put on my public persona for about five hours straight without feeling the strain of expectations and manners. Far better than Bloss who was utterly impatient, but still, I was reaching my limit. We were on hour nine and Kremos had only barely begun to show me its true colors.
Apparently, Sahar had specifically scheduled the third tournament event to correspond with Banishment, a regional holiday where dead souls were sealed off in the afterlife and prevented from returning. An ironic ceremony considering their burial practices.
Sahar’s expression was full of regret as we returned to my room to prepare for the festival, which was set to begin promptlyat midnight. “I thought we’d be symbolically banishing your mother. Not…this.” She gestured weakly at my window, but I understood the flick of her wrist to encompass all the recent deaths.
Exhaustion and sorrow weighed down my bones, but I took a deep breath that tickled my nose as I tried to focus on the positive. While we prepared for this evening, I had a brief reprieve from every eye in the room studying me for flaws. I had a few hours to breathe. No sleep, but the solitude rejuvenated me. Even if the event turned into a sad affair, the moments I got alone before would help me through them.
“You couldn’t have known everything that was going to happen.” I placed a comforting hand on my adviser’s arm before a throat-clearing noise made me turn.
Gita hovered in the doorway, golden tail flickering back and forth. While my mer maid was normally unassuming, today she carried an air of serious intimidation. She held two large silver cases, one in each hand, and they looked heavy. The expression on her face was fiercer than it had been even for the ball.
“I have plans for you,” she stated ominously.
Sahar immediately rushed over to help her. “Let me help.”
“No, I’ve got it,” she insisted, lunging away from Sahar and swimming in a lopsided fashion across the room. “But you need to sit down, Majesty. There’s no rushing the work I need to do tonight.”
“Do I really need to be that dressed up?—”
“Yes,” Both Sahar and Gita cut me off with firm insistence.
“Banishment is one of the most sacred holidays we have,” Gita declared as she set the cases down on my mother-of-pearl dressing table with a loud thunk. “And my personal favorite.” Undoing the latches, she opened each case to reveal a rainbow array of paints and tiny jewels. “Now, sit down so I can transform you into something eerily beautiful.”
“I’ll do it on one condition,” I told her as I bit down on a grin, inspiration striking.
“What?” Gita’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“You have to spend at least an hour with Humberto at this festival.”
Gita’s eyes widened and her cheeks turned as red as coral. “He’s a competitor. A champion!”
“He’s not interested in me.”
“He didn’t withdraw!” she argued.
“Because he wants the chance to get to know you,” I countered.
She bit her lip, but I caught the hint of a smile forming anyway as she stared down at her hands.
“And I’m interested in his happiness. And yours.”
“I—I…”
“You have to agree, or we don’t have a deal,” I pushed, knowing she was close to the tipping point.
Her eyes narrowed. “I’ll say hello, but when he leaves my side, and he will, I’m not chasing him.”
“Deal. Because he definitely won’t leave your side,” I gloated as I rolled my shoulders and let my wings stretch out one last time before I dutifully sat. “Alright. What exactly do you have in mind?”
“You’re going to become a mermaid skeleton,” Gita grinned.
I glanced over at Sahar in surprise.
My adviser smoothed down her graying hair as she nodded. “To intimidate the dead, we imitate the dead.”
