Luvena
This winter had been hard. Granted they were seldom easy for her, but every year they seemed to worsen. Every winter after Elysium fell turned into a stark reminder that she was no longer meant to walk the world of the living. She had been called to waltz in the stars among her ancestors, but Vega had called harder.
Even without that, it was a rough winter. The winds seemed to howl through Denocte, and the chill in the air was bitter and unforgiving. Herbs had been low throughout the year, and those she did have were given up to patients who sought her out looking to remedy a cough or a fever that had crept in through the drafty housing of the markets. More than once Picoro had told her to close, and save the rest for herself. Luvena though had never been one to take good advice. The result was a winter full of fever and coughing for herself, and even now days into the spring a rasp lingered in her voice, and a cough behind it whenever she moved too quickly, or spoke too loudly.
But spring had come, and she was determined to make something of it. She had heard the rumors of portals opening to a castle in the winter, but she had been too ill to go see them for herself. Now word had spread through the wind that doors had opened to new lands. Perhaps it was time to go see some new lands for herself.
Only Picoro accompanied her this time, clinging to her mane with a ferocity she hadn’t felt before. She had scared him too many times last year. He seemed furious with her, and yet unwilling to leave her side for even a moment. He was right to be. She had been more foolish this year than she had ever been before. Normally she was calm and clear headed. Unmoved by the cruelty of the world, statuesque in her strength. She didn’t know who she was anymore, who had come to live in this frail body of hers. Luvena had been weak in body for as long as she had known, now it felt like she was weak in mind as well.
The pathway behind the portal was dark, and eerily silent. Or was it peaceful? A feeling of indecisiveness seemed to linger in the air around her, just behind the crackle and pop of energy that seemed to sizzle on her skin. She could feel Picoros fur rising around her, and her mane and tail seemed to frizz, pulling towards a clearing up ahead.
It was the portal full of stars that first caught her attention, drawing the air out of her all at once. They sparkled within the limestone, echoes of past lives, her own and those of strangers. Before she could think to stop herself, she had stepped through the shimmering entrance.
She found herself in a fit of coughing, as the cold air hit her on the other side, and she stumbled into the snow dusted steppe. She took a moment to catch her breath, before turning her head skyward, watching the sky above with a wonder she hadn’t felt since… Well truly she didn’t know. She was utterly lost in the feeling
Table © Camy
