Chapter 3: Why are decisions always so hard? And how did I end up dancing with a princess?

  I sat at the rickety desk in my room, staring down at the compass next to my drawing from this morning. Once again, the yellow needle had moved. It now pointed downwards, towards Hopes Fall, where the purple needle had been. ‘Had’ being the key word here, as the needle now pointed slightly more towards the coral. So either they, too, had teleportation abilities, or they were much closer, in Arang or Vilesia. Still both these needles would be far too time consuming to follow. What occupied my mind instead, was the blue needle.

  This morning, the blue needle pointed straight towards Hell Spire, but now it pointed between it and the gcier. There wasn’t a lot of civilized space north from here, which meant whoever they were, they would’ve been in Thengel and now moved south-east. Which meant there is a good chance they crossed into Argonne today and, if they maintained their course, would be on their way towards Omar.

  I had my first proper lead. Should I try and find them? Omar was not too far away from Tumblewood, only about a week by foot, only three days by horse. It would also take me further away from Marlon, since Omar was pretty much exactly the opposite direction of the capital.

  No matter how hard I tried to focus on finding my One True Love, that dream made me constantly think about Marion. I wanted to talk to her again. I had so many questions. There was a good chance that this dream meant nothing. A useless imagination with no deeper meaning. But… It just felt so right. Not just Marion as a person but also being with her. The way she peacefully id beside me. The way her body felt as I pressed up against her. The way her lips felt when she kissed me. But she was nothing more than a construction of my own mind.

  My hand reached up and slowly traced my lips. It felt comforting. But not even comparable to her. I felt that tingle begin to rise up again within me. I tried to push it down, but the memory of the kiss combined with the fingers on my lips didn’t let me. My thoughts began to fantasise about her. I felt Marion throw herself at me again, pushing me against the back of the chair, while she covered my neck in kisses. My hands started running through her raven-bck hair and pull her against me. A soft moan escaped my mouth and I lurched back into reality.

  One of my hands was pressed up against my neck, the other had slowly made its way between my legs. I was a wet mess down there. I let out a long sigh and retreated my hands. What was going on with my mind? I’ve never had thoughts about girls like this. To be fair, I never had thoughts like this about anyone other than Marlon. But then again, Marion was Marlon in a way. A version of Marlon anyways.

  My eyes fluttered back towards the compass. And the green needle I somewhat avoided to look at. It pointed roughly towards the mountain peak. The same direction as Segronne, where Marlon was headed. A feeling of uncertainty spread through my body, as I pulled the compass back and let myself fall into my bed.

  I was going to leave tomorrow, I decided. But… whether I would go to Omar or Segronne… I did not know. I was scared of the future. I was still contempting my choices when I drifted off to dreamnd.

  *****

  This time I was wildly aware that I was dreaming. I was positive I fell asleep in my bed, so when I suddenly found myself in a bustling tavern, I knew something was up. A young band pyed loudly on a well-lit stage on one side of the building. In front of them all kinds of people were dancing. I sat further back at one of the tables. Soft candlelight dancing across my form and the drink in front of me.

  I was in my traveller’s clothes: White blouse, tight grey pants and my light blue hooded coat. The beautifully made gss in front of me had some unfamiliar drink in it. It was partially filled with ice cubes and there were a few citrus slices inside the blue liquid.

  I frowned at the beverage for a few moments, until I decided that, since this was only a dream, I might as well try risky stuff. I took a sip and was immediately assaulted by a mixture of sweetness, fresh citrus and a bunch of sparkles prickling across my tongue. I raised an eyebrow in a mixture of surprise and excitement and promptly took another sip.

  “So do you like it?” a feminine voice said next to me. “FUCK ME!” I yelled out as I jumped a solid meter away from the table. There was a girl sitting right next to where I was but a moment ago. She had bck hair like Marion, but hers was delicately woven into dozens of thin braids that ended in tiny curls. Her eyes glimmered in the candlelight one was an icy blue, not unlike my own ones, the other was a piercing grey. Both were accented by bck eyeshadow, except for a tiny golden line at the outer edge. Her skin was dark and the soft lips that were pulled in a sharp grin were painted bck with a vertical golden line in the middle of her lower lip. All in all she looked like she stepped right out of some rizishman pace.

  “How about we get to know each other first?” she giggled, a hand covering up her mouth. “What?” I asked, still somewhat catching my breath. She waved a hand dismissively. “It’s alright, just messing around. Did you like the drink?” My heart finally seemed to calm down a little, as I righted myself up. “It’s tasty… very unusual. Who are you?” I asked, trying to keep my voice loud enough to not be drowned out by the music behind me. “I’m Nydia. Though I thought you’d know that after invading my dream like that. I’d say it was rude, but I forgive you ‘cuz you’re cute.” She winked at me and then patted on my chair, urging me to sit back down.

  “I i-invaded your dream?” I stuttered as I sat back down. “Huh, so it wasn’t intentional?” she frowned. “I just fell asleep and then ‘woke up’ here.” I motioned around the tavern. Nydia became thoughtful for a moment. “Oh, I’m Stephanie by the way. You can call me Sephie though.” That seemed to shake her out of thought and she broke out that sharp grin of hers again. “Well… Nice to meet you Sephie! Wanna dance?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows. A hand reached out to me and I noticed her nails. They were painted bck, with a perfect golden circle at each tip. They were also long and extremely well maintained, like a noble’s.

  I slowly cupped her soft hand and was promptly dragged to the dance floor. Nydia walked with a swagger. Her clothes didn’t help how starstruck I became. She wore a very tight dark blue crop top with dozens of yellow little knotted bands at the bottom seam and loose, wide pants, that hung low enough to expose the strings of her cey underwear.

  Once we found our pce among the dancers she began to really move. I was never a particurly good dancer, but Nydia easily made up for that. At first, she threw me about the dance floor like a puppet, but the more the dancing went on, the more sure-footed I became, until we were dancing face to face.

  The world seemed to slow down around us as we were weaving through the dancing masses, even the music turned into a dull thumping in the background. I felt like I could hear my own heartbeat. Or was it her heartbeat? Our eyes met and I was immediately pulled into them. I had heard about people with different eye colours, but this was the first time I met someone with them. It felt like she was looking right into my soul with those sharp, piercing colours. Not in a bad way, mind you. In an… intimate way.

  I caught my breath as she closed the distance and I thought she was about to kiss me. My eyes fluttered shut and I mentally prepared, only to instead feel her embrace me. Her head nestled in my neck and her arms grasped at the cloth at my back. “Thank you Sephie. For the dance I mean. And for being here, I guess. It was a fun night,” she whispered into my shoulder. “I’m about to wake up, soo…” she trailed off as I pulled back a little to face her. She suddenly looked vulnerable. That confident, capable noble woman was gone. Repced by a shy and beautiful, lonely girl.

  A thought wriggled its way into my head. This would be a great time to kiss her. Wait. What? My heart stopped for a moment. First Marion and now Nydia, did I hit my head somewhere on my adventure? Where were also these lustful thoughts coming from? I felt my hand cup her cheek. Her eyes widened, but she looked at me expectantly. Then my vision started to flutter.

  *****

  When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back in my little bedroom.

  What. The. Fuck. I was just about to kiss her. I was about to kiss a girl I never even met. A total stranger! Probably a princess. Definitely a noble! How stupid am I?

  I pulled the compass out and held it above me. Every needle looked to be mostly the same as yesterday. Except of course the yellow one. I really did not like the yellow one. It’s like it dared me to try and catch them. Fucking teleporters. I stared at the compass for a while. My arm began to tingle when I suddenly noticed the blue needle had slowly moved. It wasn’t enough to watch it live, but yesterday it was definitely still slightly closer to Hell Spire than the gcier, but now it was clearly closer to the gcier.

  Whoever they were, they had to be close! I quickly got up and started pulling my traveller’s clothes on. Then I stuffed my saddlebag with a few spare clothes, my notebooks and a couple spell components. It still had my bedroll tied to it from my previous adventure. I swiftly swung the strap of the bag over my shoulder and skipped downstairs. When I saw Gertrude wasn’t in the kitchen, I scribbled a quick note, saying I was going to follow one of the needles to Omar. I stepped out on the packed dirt road outside the shop and locked the door behind me.

  The sun had just climbed over the horizon and a calm breeze rustled through my fiery hair. I took a long, deep breath and took my first steps of my next adventure. After a few minutes I was out of the palisade gate. Not the one I came in the st time. This one lead to a road east. To Omar.

  I pulled out the compass again and fixed my gaze on the blue needle. It was slightly off to the left.

  Something in my heart told me, whoever they were, I would find them in Omar.

  Muffin_Maeve