Page 75 of Of Storm and Emerald
“I um–Isawyou fall. So, I came running to the bathroom to make sure that you were okay. But in doing so, I think that I may have caused you to slip. Rae, I’m so sorry.”
“Piper, you didn’t cause me to fall. I got water on the floor when I washed my face and didn’t pay attention to what I was doing.” Auraelia looked to her friend, willing her to understand that it wasn’t her fault. But then something clicked. “Wait. You said yousawme fall? Like–like a dream or a vision?”
Piper nodded her head.
“Piper! That’s amazing!”
“Amazing? What exactly is amazing about seeing your best friend bust her ass?”
Auraelia looked at her friend with her signature ‘you’ve got to be kidding me right?’expression. “Other than the obvious reason of that being hilarious. You can clearly see that I amfine. But, Piper, your magic is clairvoyance. That’s incredibly rare and, well, pretty fucking cool!
“You know that’s not a common gift in our court, and it’s been decades since a known clairvoyant existed. And the fact that you, my best friend since diapers, are now the holder of it? I’m so fucking excited for you!”
“Well, when you put it like that, I guess it is pretty awesome.” A smile pulled across her face, and there was a light shining in her eyes.
Auraelia nodded in confirmation, then patted the floor in invitation for Piper to join her on the floor.
Piper slid down next to her and rested her head on Auraelia’s shoulder. The two women sat in silence, their breathing the only sound in the room.
“Do you think you can get up?” Piper asked.
Groaning, Auraelia pushed up from the floor and winced. “Great, not only am I menstruating, but now I have a bruised ass.”
Piper fell over in a fit of laughter.
“Oh, shut up. Come on, I’m hungry. Let's see if Chef has any snacks hidden away in the kitchen for old times’ sake.”
Pushing up from the floor, Piper took a moment to stand fully up-right. “Fucking cramps. Also, I went to find food after you locked yourself away in here. By the way, what was in the letter?”
A flush covered her cheeks, and radiated down her neck, coloring her a shade of strawberry red.
“Oh, so itwasone of those kinds of letters, after all.”
Auraelia smiled. “He also said to tell you happy birthday.”
“Well, that’s the least he could do since his letter dropped onto my face.”
Both women laughed, and linked arms as they exited the bathroom in search of snacks.
The knock at the door, and the flurry of people flitting into the sitting area of her suite signaled that it was already midday, and time for lunch. The gloom and rain that persisted outside the windows made time look as if it were standing still.
True to her word, Auraelia had canceled all training sessions for the day so that she and Piper could just relax and enjoy her birthday. She even convinced her mother to let her take the day off from magic training. And with the weather outside, they wouldn’t have gotten much training done as it was. As it turned out, staying in ended up being a smart idea anyway while Piper got used to her newfound abilities.
Throughout the night, Piper had a multitude of visions. All of them were small and inconsequential, but they still took her by surprise. Anytime she was walking, she would either freeze in place or run into a piece of furniture. Which was funny the first few times, but then Auraelia made her stay put on the couch or walked with her whenever she needed to go to the bathroom or get across the room.
There was a point when Piper grabbed her arm during one of her visions, and it was like being pulled underwater. Glimpses of them laughing so hard that they fell off the couch rolled through her mind like a memory. The reason for the hysterics was unknown, but completely probable with their history.
The projection of Piper’s visions was a new facet of her magic, and it sent them both into a stunned state of shock–it wasn’t common for new abilities to progress that quickly.
They sat there in silence, staring out the windows, and when they finallydidlook at each other, hysterics ensued and the series of events from her vision came to fruition.
Over the course of the day, they’d had the time gap between vision and reality figured out.
Five minutes.
They had approximately five minutes to figure out whatever Piper’s vision meant before it happened in real time. So far, they hadn’t been able to keep anything from happening. And any time that theydidtry, it happened anyway– just not necessarily the way that it was originally intended, though it wasn’t for a lack of trying.
Piper’s visions ranged to a variety of things. From simple things like a berry rolling under the couch, to lightning striking a tree in the garden.
