The Trouble with Time, Part 2.15 - Shiny

Alice can't decide if she's embarrassed or horrified with herself or angry at Kevin or all three at the same time. She hadn't meant to say those things. Everything from the days since they came to Fey Wilds simply boiled over and began spewing out, completely uncontrolled. But at the same time, she wasn't wrong. And she refuses to feel bad for being right. She can, however, feel bad about literally everything else. And even if she is right, it doesn't necessarily mean she should shout it out. The tears are still trying to make their way back to the surface. Everything is too much right now.

They round the last corner, following the.. Star? She said star, right? What.... How is that even possible?

The questions vanish from her mind as the tunnel gives way to a much, much larger chamber of the cave. For a moment she has only mind for taking it all in, and nothing else. The walls open up into a chamber the size of a big church, its ceiling high above and the dark, black walls just at the edge of how far she can see in the dim light of the flowers all around them. They seem like they are greedily sucking in all the light the flowers have to give. Out here, where the dim light of the flowers is even dimmer it seems that the woman leading them is also glowing faintly, far to dimly to be noticed if they were anywhere brighter. For all Alice knows she might well be glowing.

At the other end of the cathedral-like cavern is what almost looks like a home: a plush armchair, a tiny kitchen no more than a stove, a cupboard and a table, and a bookshelf Alice is somehow surprised to find not only full of books but also in what seems to be multiple different languages. Or at least multiple different alphabets.

And then there's the wall all of this is tucked against. It's a work of art. The stone itself is black, like all stone in and around the volcano, but it's been filled with tiny, tiny dots of paint, shining the same pale blue as the flowers. It looks like the night sky. No. It looks like what the night sky would look like if it was perfect. Alice doesn't know what's wrong with the night sky as it is, but looking at the thousands upon thousands of shining painted stars against the darkness of the wall, in the darkness of the cave, she knows that this is perfect, and the real sky isn't.

"Sit down. Wait here," Deneb tells Sam and Kevin. Then she turns to Alice. "Come with me."

Alice drops her backpack by the table, and follows her deeper into the chamber. They're following the wall, curving lightly to the right, and soon Sam and Kevin have disappeared behind the bend of it. It's just her, and the flowers, and a Fallen Start, walking through the dark.

They walk a few minutes until they come to a spring, water bubbling out of the wall and pooling into a bowl it's carved for itself over who knows how long time. Somehow it looks snug and comfortable in its small corner of the vastness of the cavern. It leaks over on one side, and a small stream runs along the cave's floor for a little bit before it disappears into a hole in the wall.

"This is my pool," Deneb tells Alice. "Do you like it?"

"Yes." It's barely more than a breath, a small exhale of air. Deneb nods.

"You look like a weary traveler. One of the weariest I've seen in a long time. You should wash up, splash some water on your face, have a bit to drink."

She looks at Deneb for a moment, then at the pool for another one. Then she crouches down, cups some of the water in her hands, and washes her face. The water is a perfect temperature: warm enough to not feel freezing, cold enough to feel cool and refreshing on her skin. The water is dripping from her face as she cups another handsful of water, lifts it to her face and drinks long and deep. The water tastes clean, like the shine of the stars on a still lake.

She stands, feeling better than she has in days, and wipes off some of the water on her face with her equally wet hand. Drying it on her sleeve seems like a thing to not do.

"You are far away from home, searching for something precious," Deneb says. It takes a moment for Alice to realise she's expected to respond.

"Yes," she simply says, and even though she didn't try, she can hear all of the emotions in turmoil inside her bleeding into that one word.

Deneb thinks for a time, looking at her, looking into her in a way Alice didn't think was possible. From someone else it would feel unnerving, but somehow, from a star that came to live on earth, it seems only right.

"I don't know what you're searching for," Deneb eventually says. "But I can see that nothing in the world matters to you more. At some point, you will need something to light your way."

She puts out her palm, and for a moment Alice doesn't know if she's expected to do something. Then she sees light beginning to pool in the cup of Deneb's palm. It's a faint light, glowing with the twinkle of starlight on a cloudless, moonless night.

The palm fills, Deneb digs out a small glass flask, pours the contents of her palm into the flask, closes it and hands it to Alice. She looks at it in wonder.

"Come, let's go back to your friends."

Deneb turns back they way they came, and Alice follows her, tucking the flask of starlight into her pocket.

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I am so, so tired today, you'll just have to make do with a short part.

About the Omashu tunnel from Avatar: to be fair, I wrote the thing fully knowing the only reasonable thing for you to do is more or less copy Avatar, so. I set it up not quite intentionally, but fully knowing I was setting it up.

(If there's a reader who don't know what we're talking about, you need to stop reading this and go watch the Last Airbender. Because yes, it's a kids' cartoon, but somehow it is also some of the best storytelling I have ever seen in any medium. So go. Shoo.)

Also, apparently we're borrowing stuff from LotR now too, so... 

(I don't actually think that light was starlight, though, was it?)

The topic for tomorrow is Left.

~matleena