I can hear the crunch of gravel beneath Caelinus's shoes and Rhea's wheels behind me, letting me know that they're following. A large, silver archway with black dahlias crawling up the sides greets me, guarding the way into the garden. I step through it, and can immediately feel the heels of my black shoes sink into the soft grass.

The wind whistles sharply from the south, carrying with it the sounds of the revel. The music and laughter carries an eerie, disconcerting tone, as if the sounds come from a different reality. The lurking shadows cast by the looming sequoia trees don't help either, and a shiver runs down my spine as a nearby bush rustles in the levanter.

A little pond of murky water rests in the centre of the palace gardens, rippling water distorting the reflection of the night sky. A few lily pads drift lazily on the surface of the water, and beyond them, at the bank of the pond, a couple cattails and ragwort stalks.

I maneuver around the pond, taking care not to get the hem of my dress muddy. The entire garden is bordered by the sequoia trees, but the inside is divided into eight sections with the circular pond in the middle. Each part is sectioned off by immaculately trimmed hedges of dark green bushes, spotted with silver, glowing flowers. The flowers are made up of many, many flowering delicate petals that shine like moonlight, so bright and glowing that they hardly look real. It's as if someone collected the stars from the midnight sky and placed them here one by one, like lanterns to illuminate the garden. And that's exactly what they're doing. The shining flowers are the only source of light in the entire garden, each casting a pale glow onto the cobblestone pathways and soft grass of the garden. Although I've never seen these flowers before, or heard of them at all, I'm still grateful for their light as I crouch down near a bed of soil filled with green shrubs.

Reaching my hand into the overgrowing plants, I pull out various different herbs and flowers from their roots, my eyes scanning the leaves to find the best ones. I can feel Rhea and Celio breathing down my neck, staring at me as I work.  I'm sure they're confused, but i pay them no mind, instead going through calculations and lists in my head. They'll find out soon enough, anyway.

I get up from my crouched position with a bundle of limp pants in my hand, dirt falling from their upended roots. I press them into Caelinus's hand before moving to the seventh section of the garden ,where I spot flowering pink and black buds. Again, Caelinus and Rhea follow me, but this time I can hear them talking.

"What are you doing, Etharen?" Celio asks, panting slightly from running to keep up with me. I pause for a moment and look at the two of them. His crown lies askew among his raven, waving hair. It's silver colour glints in the moonlight and his pale, glowing skin makes him look like the moon itself. Next to him, Rhea sits in her wheelchair, her dark hair and Skin making her look beautiful and mysterious. Her silvery eyes flit around, an amused and intrigued smile tugging at her lips. Standing side by side, the twó siblings look as different as night and day but a warmth and familiarity radiates between them. It's quite obvious that they're family.

"You said that those boys burn you, and that there's nothing you can do about it because no one can know, right?" I say, my gaze flickering between the two of them. As I talk, their faces twist with apprehensive co fusion, waiting for me to tell them my plan.

"Right..." Rhea trails, looking at me from under dark lashes.

"What if I told you I could make you almost...fire resistant?"

Celio looks at me skeptically, something turning in his head. But Rheas face lights up with hope and she sits up straighter in her chair, leaning forward with childlike anticipation.

"Wait, really?!" She exclaims giddily. "How?!"

Celio holds out a hand, scrunching his eyebrows together. His expression is unreadable.

"Well, you'll need a basket to put these in first, right?" He says, holding out the limp herbs in his hand.

I nod, lifting my chin up ever so slightly. He's doing something, and I'm sure of it. I just don't know what.

"So, Rhea, why don't you go get Etharen a basket?" He continues, shifting his stance towards his younger sister.

Rhea hesitates for a moment, looking like she doesn't want to leave the scene, but ultimately, she rolls away, not wanting to defy her older brother. Caelinus watches her roll away, and when she's safely out of earshot, he turns to me and takes a deep breath.

"Are you sure about this? That you can actually save her from this?" He asks, dark eyes glittering with worry.

"I can't guarantee anything, but I'm pretty sure it'll work. It's a simple draught." I say, looking at him curiously.

"I just don't want to give her false hope." He says softly. "I couldn't stand seeing her get crushed again if it doesn't work."

He takes his crown of silver oak leaves off and rakes a hand through his black hair before fiddling with the edges of the crown.

"I want to help, but I won't do it if you don't want me to." I say honestly.

"She's been through a lot, and I want to help her too. But there's only so much I can do, and she won't let me tell anyone so..." he trails off, the collar of his black dress shirt fluttering in the wind. "Okay, okay. Do it. If there's even a slight chance of helping,  do it."

I nod, and give him a small smile. "I'll need boiling water, a knife, and a rag. All the herbs I need are here already." I say, and Caelinus immediately leaves towards the palace, presumably to collect what I need. I'm left alone in the palace gardens, and for a moment, I worry that someone will find me here, wandering around in the dark. That would be sure to raise some suspicions, which is exactly what I don't need.

I shake my head slightly to clear the intrusive thoughts and begin to get to work, pulling out some more plants. Once I've collected all the herbs I need, I lay them down on the grass and sit down next to them, pushing my dress out of the way and crossing my feet under me.

I begin to separate the roots from the stems of the plants, and pluck petals and leaves off. As I wait, I organize the petals and leaves into tiny little piles, but in the process I scratch myself on the thorns of a flower. The scratch is small but fairly deep, and black blood starts to bead at the wound. My first instinct is to quickly cover it, to wipe the blood away and glance around furtively in order to make sure no one saw it, but I suddenly remember that I'm in Xeoria now, where it's normal to have black blood, where no one will throw me in jail or exile me for it.

A sense of adrenaline courses through me, and instead of wiping away the blood, I rest my hand on my knee and stare at it, all out in the open. Anyone could pass by here and see me like this, but nothing would happen because this is normal.

I give out a breathy laugh, marvelling at this indescribable feeling. I want to prance around and show everyone my hand, to tell them to Look! Look here at my hand! Do you see the colour of my blood? It's black, dear god, it's black!

A rustling pulls me out of my thoughts. Snapping my head up, I find Celio walking towards me, a small black cloth wrapped up in his arms.

When he reaches me, he sets down the black cloth and unravels it to reveal all my requested supplies in the middle.

"I got everything you asked fo-" he stops mid sentence and peers at my hand, noticing the scratch and tiny droplets of blood. "What happened?"

"Scratched my hand on the thorns." I say nonchalantly, holding up the rose stem in question.

"Oh, alright" he says, not even giving my hand a second glance. I smile inwardly and wipe my hand on my dress before helping him set everything up.

                                   ☾ ☼ ☽

Rhea returns soon, a basket resting in her lap. She looks crestfallen when she sees us already at work without her, and indignantly socks Celio in the arm before dropping the basket into his lap unceremoniously.

"Hmph. I thought you "needed a basket"." she mocks in her older brother's voice as Celio rubs his arm sheepishly. She rolls up next to us and crosses her arms, glaring.

"In my defense, a basket would have been useful." Caelinus says, creeping a hand up Rhea's side and tickling her waist playfully.

She swats him away, trying to remain serious, but soon, giggles escape and her glare fades away. As the two of them chatter, I cut leaves and roots and petals into neat little bits, then toss them into the little jar of boiling water Celio brought with him. The brew changes colour with each added ingredient, first a deep magenta, then sunset red, a canary yellow, dark serpent-like green and finally, a clear, opalescent colour, a different hue from each angle that the light hits it.

I let it sit for a couple minutes, cooling as I listen to Rhea's and Caelinus's conversation, something about a shenanigan Triton pulled that ended up in Celio taking the blame. My eyes dart between the two siblings, watching as they poke fun at each other in between sentences. Rhea talks with her hands, waving them around wildly as she recounts stories, and a few times, I need to duck in order to avoid getting hit. Celio, on the other hand, talks with his face, dark eyes glinting and a smirk tugging at his lips. He's like an open book, every thought and expression written all over his face. As he talks, our gazes occasionally find each other, and at those fleeting moments, his eyes sparkle and his smile deepens by just a fraction. I blink and it's gone, as if it had never been there in the first place.

After about ten minutes, during a lull in the conversation, i unscrew the lid of the jar and test the consistency of the draught. It's condensed and jelly-like, exactly as it should be.

"Want to test it out?" I ask, holding the jar out to Rhea.

"Do you have to ask?" she replies, that joyous excitement returning to her features.

"We'll need a match." I say as Rhea pulls up the hem of her skirt to expose her scarred skin. Using my finger, I scoop out a small amount of the salve and spread it over a patch of her skin, to use as a test area.

"I think I have a pack of matches on me somewhere." Caelinus says, patting his pockets down in search of the potential matches. "Oh, found it."

He pulls out a small black capsule and unscrews the lid to reveal a row of little black matches with silver tips. He takes one of the matches out and inserts it into a little hole in the bottom of the capsule, and when he takes it back out again, it's lit, a small orange flame dancing at the tip.

I make way for him at Rhea's foot, and wait for him to test out the salve. But instead of touching the flame to the skin, he wavers there, only centimeters away from Rhea's shin. His eyes look troubled, and the flame sputters away in the wind. Rhea and i wait in silence, watching him curiously.

"Are you sure it'll work?" he asks, not taking his eyes off the dead match.

"It should." i say truthfully. "I've used it before and it never hasn't."

He stares at the match for a moment before raising his head and saying, "Test it on me instead. In case it doesn't work."

Rhea scrunces her eyebrows incredulously. "Even if it doesn't work, I still won't feel anything. You do know that, right?"

"I know, but I don't want to burn your skin for no reason." he says firmly, already rolling up his sleeve. "Plus, if Etharen said it works, then I trust her."

I look between Rhea and Celio, unsure what to do. Ultimately, I shrug my shoulders and apply the salve to the inside of Celio's right forearm. Grabbing a match from the capsul and lighting it the way I saw Celio do, i bring the tip of the flame close to his skin.

Celio tenses, his muscles going taught in my hand. When I press the flame onto his arm, he flinches, but relaxes when he realizes he can't feel anything. Instead of burning his skin, the lick of flame bends the opposite direction, an invisible barrier between it and Celio's arm.

"It works." he says, smiling in relief.

"Told you so." I say proudly, and begin to dip the rag into the salve, in order to spread it more evenly over Rhea's skin. Once the task is done, I place the remainder of the salve into the compartment behind her wheelchair, so she can use it whenever she needs to.

"The salve will harden into a clear wax after a while, so it's water repellent in addition to fire repellent. That way it won't come off in the rain, but it also means that to take it off at night, you need to use some sort of oil. Store the rest of it somewhere that is cool and dry, and make sure you don't leave it out in sunlight. Remind me later to write down the instructions for it so that when it finishes, you can make yourself some more." i explain, ticking off the basic rules. Once I finish, I notice that Rhea's eyes have filled with tears that are threatening to spill over the edge.

The little girl holds out her arms and beckons for me. When i near, she pulls me into a fierce hug, wrapping her little arms around me with surprising strength. She smells like lilac and campfire, and her hair tickles my face.

"Thank you." she mumbles gratefully into my shoulder.

I rub her back, an immense feeling of happiness swelling in me. "You're welcome." I whisper back. "I'm glad to help."

We pull away, and she wipes her tears away with the back of her hand. I glance at Celio, who's watching with a small, proud smile on his face and when he catches me looking his way, he steps closer and pulls me into a brief hug. He smells like vanilla and pine, mixed with something sharp and metallic that I can't put my finger on.

"Thank you." he whispers too. "You helped me as much as you helped her."

I nod and smile, glad to have been able to help. My chin bumps into his shoulder, and we separate, a good three feet between us once again.

"We should get back before Malcolm has a heart attack." i joke, tilting my head in the direction of the revel.

"Malcolm is the least of my worries." Celio says. "It's my mother I'm worried about. God forbid I leave the revel for two minutes. All hell breaks loose."

He shakes his head as Rhea laughs, probably recalling times that this has occurred. The trio of us begin to make our way back to the revel, but instead of taking the hallways inside the palace, we choose to walk from the outside, even though the path is longer.

As we walk, I feel quite satisfied with myself. Although my idea to help Rhea and the warm feeling that came with seeing it actually work stemmed from an honest place, I can't help but feel proud of myself for gaining a bit of their trust.

By solving one of Rhea's biggest problems, I not only gained Rhea's and Celio's trust and lulled them into a false sense of security around me, but I also provided myself with an information source about all of Celio's habits. By becoming Rhea's friend, i would be able to coax little pieces of information about Celio that i normally would not have been able to find out for myself. 

Watching the two of them laugh and joke around with each other drives a stake through my heart. It pains me to imagine Rhea before Caelinus's casket, tears brimming in her eyes, a slideshow of him and her playing through her mind. They won't ever laugh with each other again, won't ever fight or squabble, won't ever hug again.

I squeeze my eyes shut and try to drive away all these thoughts. My hands find the necklace Caspian gave me, and I fiddle with it as  I will myself to become like Caspian, steely and unmoving. But all I can think about is how I'm the wrong person to be doing this, that Caspian, or anyone else for that matter, would have been a better option. I can't seem to get a hold of my emotions, and Silas's parting words ring through my head.

Don't let your emotions cloud your judgement.

That simple piece of advice seems so unattainable right now, so impossible with all the scattered thoughts tumbling through my brain. I can't decide whether I feel proud of myself for making headway with my mission, or guilty for being proud at all, and for being the one who has to ruin Rhea's and Caelinus's relationship.

I can't believe that I'm going to be the one to break their bond in a way that won't ever be mended again.

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