one moment to last seven years
There are moments in your life that you can play from memory with vivid detail. Without many years under your belt these may amount to the mastery of a skill you worked hard at, praise from someone you admired, a first kiss. Perhaps as you are older these become more particular. Your wedding, a first child, when you receive a grand commendation. If you had asked Vesion to pick just one he would laugh and tell you that so many wonderful things had happened that it was impossible. And he was correct, his life had in fact been wonderful and each new pleasantry was just as remarkable as the one before it. Until the ball.
It was lovely, as balls that your mother had asked you to attend went, celebrating some fund or such he couldn’t remember. And he was enjoying himself in the way that young men do, finding something amusing here and there while being pawned off by his mother on needful matrons. Cali was here and she was alternating between fidgeting in her fancy clothes and beaming at everyone around her in pure delight at having been allowed to participate. He didn’t remember if this was the first time she had joined her parents at one of these, but they were of an age and he did send her encouraging smiles when he had the chance.
After a rather enthusiastic dance with a girl who had insisted on stepping on his feet at every turn, Vesion retreated to a balcony and the cool gardens. He leaned into an alcove and propped his feet on the railing, wondering if his boots would be permanently marked by the heels of the clumsy lady. He knew his mother would find him eventually and he really did love to please her, but this moment with the stars and the moon and the dark was for him. And his poor toes.
His lids slipped closed as he listened to the muffled sounds of the ball and the creatures in the garden below. Mild thoughts of who he might pretend to be when he next ventured into town moved through his head. Perhaps the bar singer again, he did enjoy the attentions she received, and he rather thought that learning from the other side may give him some sort of-
A sharp sound knocked him from his thoughts and almost cost him his balance on the railing. He looked out onto the balcony and at the offender of the sound. And there it was, the moment that he would be able to play, his vision sharpening as if to pause what would be the beginning of something terrible and fearsome in how it wrecked all other memories before it.
A slim creature stood several paces from him on the balcony, surrounded by shards of glass that glittered threateningly in the moonlight. Though he could make out little of their form, he could tell they wore a dress and from the way they had entered the scene, were furious. Their body seemed to vibrate with emotions that they desperately wanted to unleash on something greater than his mother’s crystal ware. They turned towards him and past his alcove, taking everything in in a circle. Though their gaze was downcast, Vesion was delighted to report that they appeared to be a rather stunning young woman. A terribly angry, but gorgeous, young lady.
Of course, being of that age where beauty is something most appreciated, and being of the gender who believes that it exists to be appreciated by them, Vesion intended to meddle. Or perhaps she had meddled in his affairs first by arriving on his balcony. He pulled up the many times he had been told he was charming (often by his mother) for courage and dropped his feet onto the stone. “Was the punch not to your liking?” A step into the moonlight and the dangerous shards (what was one more affront to his boots?).
The vibrations stopped and he watched in amazement as she tucked all of that passion back into the places it belonged until she seemed to be simply bored, her expression wiped of it all. Of course first impressions were everything, and having seen what she looked like in a fury, he desperately wanted to know what would unleash it once again. She raised her chin and her face turned to the light, tucking everything untoward behind manners and breeding and perhaps just a touch of condescension while she decided if she would like to reply to him at all. “I prefer brandy.”
Her voice sounded smoky and he was suddenly overcome with a bout of prose regarding Elusi and their smoky traits which was ridiculous considering all biology said they were _entirely_ made of smoke and she could not have somehow been the smokiest of them. Oh god he needed so stop thinking smoke. Smoke.
Vesion didn’t know if she said this to be shocking, or if she actually did prefer to imbibe spirits in place of a light punch. He knew that ladies generally did not admit this in public and his closest friend who was also a lady certainly would have pinkened to try it even in private. “Perhaps we have some in the library. If that is not available, do you take port? Ale?”
“Are you asking me to join you in the library?” Her tone was curious.
“I believe my father has a lovely set of crystal glasses in there, should your mood return. Heirlooms. If you’d like to cast them from the window.”
She laughed then and looked surprised to have done it. But glancing down to the shards around her feet and then back to him, she smiled away the lingering sound. “I am not going to apologize.”
His smile matched her own. “I’d rather you tell me why you smashed it. Was it poisoned?” The idea of nefarious activity at one of his mother’s charity events was humorous in its impossibility.
She shook her head, sending waves of, well it was hard to tell in just moonlight, but it appeared to be blood-colored hair. He wondered idly if his own hair would reflect any light and make him easier to see. Seconds passed and she did not reply further. This seemed like an excellent moment to be staring out into the gardens instead of directly at him, but he got the sense that she would never be anything less than direct. So he waited.
“What would you do for your family?” Came the quiet question. It wasn’t really an answer to their previous topic but he knew it was very important.
“Anything.” This response was instant and sure. Impulsive but true. He was an only child of parents who were terribly in love and who shared that love with him in turn.
“What would they do for you?”
“Everything.” Again, he felt sure in saying this. And as he watched her turn to the garden and look at it, he knew he had given her the correct answer but one she did not want. He joined her at the balustrade and stared into the night. The critters in the garden resumed their conversation as if in contrast to their silence.
In their proximity he felt her vibrating again, not physically but with the strained emotion that she had bubbling beneath the surface. She looked as if she was contemplating leaping off the balcony and disappearing. He wanted to tether her here.
And after a while Vesion reached out again and asked her of the stars. They both knew little but each in a different manner. This morphed into other general topics of how the world and the people around them worked. They talked of nothing and everything, they didn't speak much in the way of personal goals or wants. They spoke of the world as a whole and what they knew it to be. They carefully avoided discussing their families or their positions and they simply let it be. It was delightful. Just to be in the moment and not know the other person but feel like you know them perfectly.
Time passed without them noticing, and the candles dimmed, the rumble of the ball behind them softened as people began to find their way home. Something caught her attention inside and her ears fell back against her dark hair and the vibrating returned to her form. Without a pause she leaned up to kiss his cheek and whirled back into the ballroom, as if they had not just spent forever together on this balcony. As if they were not meant for a forever after this.
He rejoined his mother in a haze, pulled to her side by habit and self-preservation but he did not register what she happily murmured to him. “.. and I was shocked to hear she had disappeared. She had a child you know, a daughter. She named her… something with an E that I cant remember. Ellie? Perhaps. What a tragedy.“ A tap on his arm, loving but forceful. “Vesion, where are you?”
He thought about the creature he had just left, a girl that he had barely met yet felt chained to. Someone he had not fully seen but would be able to know anywhere. And he answered as best he could, given that his world had quite possibly changed forever. “I’m here, mother.” And when he leaned down to kiss her dimpled cheek he tallied it as possibly the first lie he had ever told her.
