The birds are singing in your eyes today
Sweet flowers blossom in your smile
When the scrolls had been dropped from the sky, Fiona had read all about the festivities that Denocte was going to be hosting, with no intention of going. Perhaps if parties and crowds were her thing, if intrigue and mystery appealed to her. Even, perhaps, if it were not for the heartbreaking truth she had returned to when she had returned to her home in Terrastella with the other members of her court.Sweet flowers blossom in your smile
She had no home to return to. She had, instead, only a shell of a home; a burned structure with black scouring the walls and ash covering the floor. The rains had been heavy enough to put out the flames before they had reduced the entire thing to rubble, however much of the furniture within was unable to be saved. All the things that reminded her of her father, things he had built himself. Her books, sketches, notes.
Coming to terms with that truth did not make Fiona want to attend any sort of celebration, even one involving the magical and dreamlike. That was until the letter arrived, carried on the wind from Delumine. Rolled within the parchment had been a few herbs, and the script, flowing and elegant, belonged to Atreus. He asked her to meet him in Denocte for the ball when the time came, and Fiona could not find it in herself to turn him down. Perhaps, even, her heart beat a little quicker at the thought.
So, when the Dusk Court champion finds herself once more among the walls of the Night Court, she couldn’t help but remember how difficult the first trip had been. But standing there inside the citadel looking at all the glamor that surrounded her, Fiona was quickly swept away. Just inside the doors the room was lined with tables covered in masks and finery of every kind. She let herself be drawn through the crowd like a leaf swept away by a river, until she was standing before a table, alone in a sea of horses bustling around her.
Fiona looked down at the masks, overwhelmed by the selection as she tried to select one for the ball but instead found herself bombarded. One woman, dressed in silver and black draped a sheer scarf around her shoulders. It fell against her skin light as a breeze, covering part of her back and wrapping twice around her neck. She tucked the ends in so that it wouldn’t snag.
Another, wearing colors like the sunset gently placed a mask over her face, tying it with a gossamer ribbon. The first held up a mirror for her to see herself, and Fiona thought for a moment that she was in a dream. The metal of the mask was thin and flexible, and it hugged the curve of her face almost like fabric. It was silver, slightly lavender in color, and as delicate looking as the butterfly wings it was designed after. She was in awe, and wished that she could thank them properly, but they had already moved on, leaving her once again alone in the crowd.
@
