Page 28 of Elemental Hall: Nautica
I slip downstairs, then out into the night air. I move quickly, heading along the path to the bay. There are other people out under the moonlight, but I keep moving, not stopping to talk to them. If I werereallytrying to sneak unseen to an assignation with a lover, I would probably hide in all the darkest spots, making sure that no one noticed me. As it is, I simply don’t talk to anyone. It doesn’t matter if they see me or not.
I make it to the bay. Idly, I wonder if the seraphin is there, but even as I wonder, a large, muscular figure detaches itself from the shadow of the rocks.
Orion looks good in the moonlight. He’s wearing a pale tunic, since it’s cooler at night than in the day, but I can still pick up every detail of his athletic form. I head over to him.
“I think enough people saw me on my way here,” I say.
“A couple of people spotted me leaving too,” Orion replies, with a smile that flashes in the moonlight. There’s something fun about our little conspiracy, letting people think what they want about us, knowing that it’s all for the good cause of keeping Orion at the Elemental Hall.
Orion holds out a hand. “Come with me, Sera. I have a surprise planned.”
“What kind of surprise?” I ask.
“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you,” Orion says. “Come on. We need to spend at leastsometime out here. We might as well do it together. Or is my company so hard to tolerate?”
I smile back at him. “It’s not hard at all.”
I take his hand and he leads me through the near dark. When the moonlight isn’t enough, he conjures an elemental spark as bright as a firefly to guide us along the path. Orion leads the way to a clearing, and in that clearing, there is a blanket spread out on the ground. For a moment, I think he might actually be planning to sleep with me out here, but then I see the small hamper next to the blanket.
A picnic. The powerful noble young man who everyone assumes will become a general of the elemental forces of Lumina has arranged a picnic. He starts to spread it out on the blanket, looking very pleased with himself.
He should. There are small cakes, delicate sandwiches, a whole bottle of blackberry wine. There’s something sweet and surprising about all of this. It’s the last thing I expected.
“How did you do all of this?” I ask.
“It isn’t hard,” Orion says. “Most of us arrange to have things brought in on the supply boats and this… well, I’ve been thinking about doing this for a little while now. Tonight was just the excuse.”
Most of us, meaning most of the nobles with the resources to arrange it. Some of the sadness I feel at that thought must show on my face, because Orion reaches out to touch my cheek as we sit on the blanket.
“What is it?” he asks.
“I’m just thinking that I don’t have the kind of people who can arrange things like this. My family… I can’t even get news to them about how I’m doing.”
“You miss them,” Orion says.
“Obviously. But it’s not just that. It’s… my whole life is changing. Even if I do ever go back, I won’t be the same person I was when I left.”
“None of us will be,” Orion says. “But maybe that just means that we get to be the people we want to be instead.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Anyone would think that you don’t relish the thought of going back to your noble estates.”
Orion winces. “That reminds me. My family wants us both to visit them.”
“You want me to go visit your family?” I say. That seems like a big step.
“It’s more about what they expect,” Orion replies. “Please, Sera. If I can get through the training without them pulling me from it, I can do what I want.”
“Were you planning to go off and become the general of all the elementalists of Lumina without ever visiting home?”
“I visit already, since it’s so close. As for being a general… I’m not sure it works like that.”
I catch a hint of something in his voice. “And you don’t want to be?”
Orion shrugs. “Not really.”
“What would you rather be instead?”
“I don’t know. Maybe an explorer, one of those elementalists who venture off into the world, searching for new things.”
