a/n: hey, thanks for checking out Starry Veins! This is the novel I
wrote for Round V of LMS, and it's still a first draft! While I don't
discourage any feedback, I prefer not to receive feedback on grammar!
I'm not polishing this draft up yet, so I'm not as concerned about
editing. I am, of course, open to all feedback, but I ask that you keep
this in consideration! Thanks <3
*
Hypatis
tapped Cassius on the shoulder as the others began to ready for the
caravan, incoming in just under an hour.
“Hi,”
Hypatis said, flashing him a smile as they ducked away from the
others, not quite out of eyesight.
“Hi,”
Cassius said, breathless all of a sudden. He was glad for the cold in
this moment, because it meant his hands couldn’t possibly be
sweaty.
It
was hard to hold Hypatis’ gaze because of how badly his stomach was
fluttering, but at the same time, Cassius couldn’t pull himself
away. Hypatis was still smiling, but it was rueful now, as he gently
reached up and brushed his fingertips against Cassius’ cheek.
Cassius blinked, his breath leaving him all at once now, completely.
“I’m
sorry we’re parting so soon,” Hypatis said softly. “You’re
really sure that you don’t all want to come with us? There is
safety in numbers. Chromium’s pretty far.”
The
lightness that made him feel airy turned heavy and sour, weighing
down in his chest and his stomach at the mention of Chromium. Alanna
hadn’t said anything yet, and so neither had he, but it was hanging
above them like an unwanted raincloud.
“Are
you
sure you want to be going towards the contention point?” he
countered. “Summermount and Glacier’s Keep don’t exactly have a
good history together, and you’ll be walking right along with them
if you go.”
That
earned him a smile. “Caddy and I will be fine, though I will miss
you. But I didn’t pull you aside to talk about my sister.”
Something darkened in Hypatis’ eyes, for just a second, before it
vanished.
Cassius’
face flushed and he laughed nervously. “Uh, and what did you pull
me aside for?”
Hypatis’
cheeks went red. “I wanted to give you a going away present,” he
said.
Had
Hypatis not kissed him then, he might have rolled his eyes, for as
sweet as it was, it was horribly cheesy. Also, the eyeroll might have
been Ember’s influence, so maybe he wouldn’t have.
It
was much better than the time he had tried with Ori once, to see what
it was like, and Hypatis was a much more active and pressing partner.
But it was still nothing like the way Isadora had described it. It
was warm, and damp, and his heartbeat thundered in his ears, but
there was nothing especially magical or life-changing about it.
Hypatis
pulled away, but he was still close enough that Cassius could feel
his breath ghosting over his face. He kept his eyes shut, savouring
in the way his face warmed and the thrill rushing through his veins.
From
somewhere nearby, Cadelia whistled. Closely followed by Alanna’s
cries of, “Ugh!”
He
pulled sharply away with another nervous giggle but found that
Hypatis was also chuckling under his breath. His cheeks were red as
Cassius was sure his own were.
“I
think that might be our cue,” Hypatis said. He took one of Cassius’
hands and patted it with his own. “I know I’m not leaving this
instant, but I still want to say it now, properly. Goodbye, Cassius.”
He smiled. “You’re an enigma.”
Cassius
frowned. “Is that a bad thing?”
Hypatis
shook his head. “It’s an interesting thing.”
He
smiled, a little uncertain, and ducked his chin. “Goodbye,
Hypatis.”
Then
Hypatis was gone, back beside Cadelia. His sister slung an arm around
his shoulders, shot a glance over her brother’s shoulder towards
Cassius, and winked. His face heated and he tried to hide it by
covering it with his hands.
Footsteps
crunched in the damp grass as someone slid up next to him. “That
one for the poetry books?”
He
kicked in Ember’s direction, but with his hands covering his eyes,
he missed by a mile. She laughed as he dropped his hands and glared,
half-hearted, at her. Then he began laughing with her.
“Any
better than Ori?” she asked.
“Way
better.” He frowned. “I hope I wasn’t dreadful at it. What if I
was terrible at it?”
She
shrugged. “I don’t know. Isn’t it weird? Smushing your mouths
together?”
He
wrinkled his nose. “Well, yeah, when you put it like that.” He
glanced back towards the others again, and found Alanna watching him
with the kind of intensity made worse by what a striking, icy blue
her eyes were. He swallowed and ducked his head. “Hey, Em. Jax…
uh, he told us where Isadora and Mishal are.”
When
he glanced back, she was frowning at him. “Sure, I know, what about
it?”
“You
don’t want to see Belle and Mishal again?”
She
looked towards the ground and toed a loose rock. “I do, but they’ll
be off going to the ruins. Jax said so, remember? Who knows how long
they’d be there, or how much effort it would take to try to find
them. Besides, that’s like, a whole season’s ride or something
with the chance the Grey Masks will come back. Enoch’s tough but
there’s a bunch of them, isn’t there? Chromium is closer. Why?”
Her frown deepened. “You want to go there, instead of coming with
me.”
“I
didn’t say that,” he protested. “I was asking.”
“But
you’ve thought about it.” She glanced up and sighed. “We knew
they were going to be gone a while. We’ve never had a chance like
this. I’ve wanted to see Chromium since forever, you know that.
Home is gone, only the Sun and the Moon know where our parents have
gotten too, and maybe they took the road west to Chromium. I don’t
know. I know Chromium’s got the best smiths and the hottest forges
in Stellarsyl.” She bit her lip, and suddenly, she looked
vulnerable. “Cassius, if anyone is going to know about strange fire
magic, I doubt I’ll find it anywhere but Chromium.”
The
pieces clicked. He let out a sharp exhale. No wonder she wanted to go
to Chromium, only why hadn’t she just said that in the first place?
“A thousand years ago, I would have told you to climb up the
mountains and see if you could find yourself a phoenix.”
She
smiled. “It might be hard to learn from an extinct bird.”
They
shuffled back towards the others, but as soon as they had drawn
closer, Alanna glanced up. She looked determined. Cassius’ chest
contracted.
“I’m
going to the City of Bells,” Alanna said, and glanced towards him.
“I’m going back to Belle and Stormy.”
Ember
looked taken aback, and even Ori raised their eyebrows. “But we’re
going to Chromium,” Ember said.
Alanna
shook her head. “You’re
going to Chromium. But I don’t want to go there. I want to see
Mishal and Isadora again, and we know where they are, and the Citadel
is gone, and Mishal will keep us safe.”
“Hang
on, we can’t split up,” Ori said, frowning deeply now. “The
Grey Masks will pick us off like a magpie spotting a silver
bracelet.”
“Or
not. Maybe it’ll be harder for them if we split up,” Alanna shot
back.
Ember
crossed her arms over her chest. “But we’re not splitting up,
we’re going to Chromium.”
Alanna’s
nose wrinkled. “I’m not going to Chromium. I’m going to Isadora
and Mishal. And I’ll probably find our parents on the way, and I’ll
tell your mums what you’ve done and that you didn’t come back
when you could.”
“Enoch
was going to take us to Chromium. You can’t simply go
to the City of Bells, not alone,” Ori said.
Cassius
wrapped his arms around himself and Ember side-eyed him. She
squinted. “You knew about this, didn’t you? That’s why you
brought this up before. You want to go to the City of Bells, not
Chromium. You want to go with Alanna.”
He
glanced over towards Alanna. She watched him with wide eyes, hopeful
eyes. She looked small, smaller than he remembered. She’d done her
hair back into a plaited bun, sloppily, but he knew it was one of the
ways Isadora used to pin her hair back. She’d tried to recreate it.
His
heart burned and he looked away. “No,” he said, almost too soft
to be considered words at all. “No, I’ll come with you to
Chromium.”
Footsteps
squelched in the ground. Danica was stepping towards them, moving
away from Hypatis and Caddy who looked surprised but curious,
watching her walk away, then exchanging a look.
“Hypatis
and Caddy can look after themselves,” Danica said. She crouched
down, not low enough to drag anything along the muddied ground and
held out a hand to Alanna. “If it is truly your wish, I’ll take
you south to reunite with your family.”
Alanna’s
eyes were glistening with tears. She sniffled and nodded at Danica,
then threw her arms around Danica’s neck. She whispered something
Cassius couldn’t hear.
Ori
looked bewildered. “That’s it? We’re really splitting up?”
Ember’s
shoulders had tightened, and she stared at Alanna like she’d been
hit in the teeth. “Yeah,” she said, voice thin and drawn. “Where
are you going?”
They
looked between the two groups. Cassius had little doubt in his mind
where they were going to go, and it came as no surprise when they
tilted their head and said, “I… I really would like to see the
ruins.”
Enoch,
leaning on the barn nearby, crossed his arms over his chest. “Well,”
he said. “This is the worst fucking idea I think I’ve ever
heard.”
word count:
1,565
Points: 29825
Reviews: 465
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