By the time the Scintilla reached the harbour of Enleen, Cora was certain she would never step foot on a ship willingly again.

A pale silver sun shone through the clouds as the anchor was dropped, and cold wind from the sea blew through Cora's hair, stiff with salt. The town of Enleen was small, but the port was crowded with fishermen and minor merchants at that time of day, so they lifted their hoods and moved their belongings quickly, avoiding the curious gazes that were sent their way at best. There was no time for extensive goodbyes; they were an odd group amongst the families on the streets. Harry paid a gentleman that lived near the docks to hide the Scintilla after their departure, and then they split into smaller groups.

Cora looked over her shoulder as Saiph trotted down the dirt road after Harry's horse, heart clenching when she caught a last sight of Iris's hair in the distance, shining like spun starlight. She'd known this moment would come for days, but it didn't ease the pain of parting in the slightest.

Harry's horse fell in step next to Saiph. "You'll see them again on solstice," he whispered. "Now look ahead, you're attracting attention."

Enleen was nothing more than fifty or so buildings scattered along the coast, a village more than a town, and it didn't take them long to leave it behind them. They rode along the woods at a sustained pace as the sun drew the final end of its arch in the sky, painting the sea red.

"We have a long ride ahead," Harry warned, lowering his hood. His blue coat was hidden in their bags, too recognisable to be used to make a quick escape. The wind blowing from the sea mussed his brunette hair, and it too looked reddish-golden in the sunset. The road they were on was tilted up, deserted and peaceful. Seagulls crossed the orange sky squeaking, waves rolled into the rocks below them.

They took a break to let the horses rest when they reached the top, and Cora sat on the edge of the cliff and glanced down at the shining water. It looked so calm, now, almost dreamy, but she still hadn't forgotten its thundering anger on the night of the thunderstorm. How could the same thing have two so different faces? Was it the essence of water to be so eclectic?

A slice of seed bread touched her face, and she took it with a smile. Harry sat next to her, holding a slice of his own, and lifted his knees to his chest. They ate quietly, watching the sun sink lower and lower, until it touched the sea. Only when it dipped beyond it and the trail of pink clouds was the only proof such thing as the sun had ever existed they stood again and resumed their trip.

The sky was that blue-Skat-grey shade it turns before sinking into black when they reached a fork in the road, half hidden by greenery. "This way," Harry instructed, turning into the woods. Saiph followed him, and Cora squinted as darkness fell around them. It was colder, there, and she pulled her cloak tighter around her frame with a hand. The horses moved slowly, the path unsure and half-hidden by sticks and fallen leaves that smelled of earth and humidity.

They strayed off the dirt road not long after, and proceeded in a line for a very long time. Birds of the night cried in the branches above their heads, bats fluttered in the shadows just beyond their gazes. Harry's fireflies shone around them, but they were too few to illuminate more than a few feet ahead. Distant creaks kept making Cora jump, but no big animals nor people crossed their path. The stiffness in her lower back told her they'd been riding for hours, but she didn't ask for a break. If she slid off Saiph now, she was so tired she'd never find a way back up.

The night was so dark she didn't notice the woods had opened until the horses picked up their pace. She looked up; they were in a large clearing swept by midnight wind. The black sky was a dome over their heads, and the air in her lungs was sharp cold, not so heavy anymore. They were riding towards a building, but it was too big and dark to make sense of it. No light came from the windows, and the white particles in the air made it look as if it'd been abandoned.

The horses slowed down as they neared it. When they were close enough Harry snapped his fingers, and the two torches on either side of the main door turned on. Cora's eyes stung at the sudden light, that was so bright she could hardly make out the lines of her surroundings.

They stopped in front of it and the front door opened.

Cora slowly slid off the saddle, looking up and discovering that life had slid into the building sometime while she was distracted.

There was now a light at every window and four women had stepped out, wrapped tightly in robes that didn't do much to shield them from the cold. One whispered something in another's ear and they tittered, earning a glare from the eldest by looks. She stepped forward. "Welcome home, sir," she said. "We weren't expecting your arrival so soon."

"Things happened." Cora didn't miss the slight tremble of Harry's voice, but the others didn't notice.

A man came and took their horses away, not uttering a word.

"Will you be dining tonight, sir?" the woman asked.

"We will."

"We'll get the dining room ready. Dinner will be in one hour." The woman turned and disappeared into the depths of the house.

Harry's gaze landed on the other three tiredly. "Show her to her room, please." He stepped inside, leaving Cora standing outside in the company of the unknown women without as much as a single word.

"He's always a little short, you needn't bother with him," the one that had spoken in her companion's ear said, letting out a little chuckle. "What do we have here?"

"I say gold like her hair!" her friend chimed in, and the first shook her head.

"Nonsense, it's light green, like the first buds of spring! Not yet blossomed, but promising."

"You're both wrong!" the woman that still hadn't spoken said loudly. "It's silver, like her eyes. Elegant and rich, but as deadly as iron."

The second tilted her head. "A future as unclear as fog! I see it."

Cora raised her hands, slowly taking a step back. "Oh, I—"

"Then it's official!" the first exclaimed. "She's silver."

Cora tried to speak again, to tell them she had no clue of what they were talking about, but before she could they gripped her wrists and pulled her inside the house.

The door was closed loudly behind her, and for some seconds she stared around in amazement.

The entrance to the house was big. The walls were dark wood, the kind of shade that collects shadows yet makes beautiful artwork out of them. In front of her, up to the ceiling, there was a large mirror, that reflected all the lights of the room. On her sides there were two sets of stairs that brought up, one per side, and plants lurked everywhere. Flowers on the windowsills and shelves, small trees in the corners. There were no frescoes on the ceiling nor paintings hanging on walls like in Count Watillon's house, but it still looked like the residence of a prince—one that didn't need to surround himself with expensive, beautiful works of art to communicate his worth to everyone else.

There were no chandeliers, but white fire burned into large crystal spheres that hung from the ceiling and reflected its light like suns.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" the woman that had pulled her inside said, noticing her fascination. "The stars shine as long as the master is inside the house."

"There's no time to waste!" another said, grabbing Cora's wrist and dragging her up the staircase on her left.

Cora had no clue of what they were talking about nor what the haste was, but she did her best to rush after her and not trip, worried that she would keep pulling her at the same speed even if her chin met the floor.

The staircase was of the same dark wood of the entrance, and there were plants there too, hidden in every available nook. The entire mansion seemed to be built on half-floors and almost no logic, a perfect maze of dark rooms and small sets of stairs that—Cora came to realise—moved in a circular motion around the centre of the house.

There were multiple windows on one side, but it was impossible to see anything outside because of the late hour. The three women pulled her along before she could take in anything, and now they were walking past a heavy tapestry that depicted stars and oceans and fires and forests and cliffs.

"Sorry about earlier, we looking for your colour," one of the women said, and Cora gave her a little nod, even though she didn't get what she was talking about.

"There are as many rooms as there are colours here!" the one still pulling her along interjected, and Cora wanted to stop and ask how many they were, if ten or a hundred, but it was so late, and it was so hard to keep her presence of mind.

"Every time a guest comes along, we put them in the room of the colour that feels right for them!" the first said. The candlelight in the corridor shone on her auburn-brown hair, that was tied in a braid secured in place behind her head with shiny hairpins. "Colours are just as important as abilities, you know."

"I don't doubt it," Cora said quietly, and the third chuckled.

"Sorry if we're being obnoxious, we don't get many visitors. It's always exciting to meet new faces."

They went up another small set of steps. The windows were bigger, here, and the plants were only on the windowsills, and the candles did little to bring illumination to the shadowed corners the dark wood of the walls brought about. They'd pulled her up and down stairs so often that Cora had completely lost her way. She felt oddly safe though, and that was enough.

Then, they suddenly stopped.

"Here we are," the woman with the braided hair said, opening a door in a dimly enlightened corridor.

Cora took a step inside and gasped.

The room was large. On her left there was a bed with a heavy off-white blanket and silver bedsheets. The walls were grey, a shade of it that made her feel warm and relaxed and so at home. Next to the bed there was a large window with thin gossamer curtains, that waved slightly in the faint whiffs of air coming from the closed, old window. Next to the door there was a table with a mirror framed in finely decorated silver, that reflected the pot with a single silver rose in front of it.

Some steps and a half-open door brought to what looked like a bathroom at first glance, from which the trickle of water could be heard. Even the light oddly seemed to have a silver glow to it—or maybe Cora's tiredness was playing tricks on her eyes.

The three women walked inside and fretted around her.

"We'll need to know your sizes—"

"—for a gown, of course...."

"So many gowns!"

Cora realised that it was her time to talk. "Oh, I don't really like skirts," she admitted, "is there any way you could swap those with trousers?"

They stopped talking for a moment, but then one nodded.

"Certainly!"

"See, I told you—"

"Are you planning on terrorising the poor girl?"

Cora jumped in the second a deeper voice spoke and glanced towards the door. The man she'd seen earlier was standing in her doorway.

"Oh shush, Raven," one of the women said, "I believe you have some horses you need to tend to, leave us alone."

"Actually, I was asked to make sure you weren't smothering her," Raven replied, pausing and glancing around the room. "And you are, which is... not a surprise." His gaze fell on Cora. "So you're the secret he brought from the continent."

"Her name is Cora," one of the women said, "which is a lovely name, isn't it?" Cora had the sudden realisation that she hadn't told anyone her name.

Raven narrowed his light purple eyes. "It is." He seemed to want to add something else, but he didn't. "You should let her freshen up before dinner. And you should leave her alone. I don't think the master wants the poor girl to run away so soon."

Cora tried to say that really, they weren't bothering her, she was simply a little tired, but she was once again interrupted before she could say as much as a single word.

"If he doesn't want us to bother the newcomers, he shouldn't bring around so few."

The woman with the auburn braid shot her friend a glance. "It is late, though. We should let her freshen up. We'll worry about the dresses tomorrow."

They all stepped out of the room, and Raven went away with them, bickering as they disappeared down the stairs. Cora watched them go, suddenly too aware of the silence that had fallen around her.

She closed the door and ventured to the second room. The bathroom was smaller than she expected, only large enough to fit a large bathtub that was built into the floor and some other appliances in a separate corner. The trickling water came from a rectangular hole in the ceiling and fell into the bathtub like a slow, little waterfall along the wall.

Cora waited for the bathtub to be full before stripping off her clothes and lowering her body into the water. It was cool, but not uncomfortably so. She bathed herself using the soap she found waiting for her on her left and then sat with her back against the side of the bathtub and played with water for a while, making it splash and creating little waves on its surface.

When she finally felt her muscles starting to relax, she stepped out and dried herself off with a cloth.

There was a knock on the door, and she draped it around herself, walking down the steps to the bedroom. "Come in."

The woman with the braid stepped inside, folded fabric in her hands. "Dinner will be ready in the dining hall soon," she said, putting the clothes down on the bed and walking towards her. "Have you bathed?"

Cora gave her a little nod, and the woman surpassed her and snapped her fingers. The water in the bathtub at Cora's back disappeared and the waterfall stopped, and she gasped.

"It's easier that way," the woman commented, studying her. "You can do it too, I've heard your ability is water as well." She walked back down the steps and Cora went after her, new interest in her eyes. "I'm Dwyn. I'll be looking after you while you're here. I brought clothes you can change into." She pointed towards the bed. "The clothes belong to the master, he asked me to bring them to you. We don't have anything that fits you at the moment."

"It's perfect," Cora reassured her, even if the thought of wearing Harry's clothes made her feel in a complex way.

Dwyn nodded and went outside, and Cora changed into the clothes she'd given her. She had to roll up the trousers and tuck the cream coloured shirt into their waistband so it wouldn't be uncomfortably long on her, but she made it work. She tied the trousers with a string and her hair with a silver ribbon she'd found in the drawer of the desk on the side of the room and stepped out.

Dwyn walked her to the dining room, telling her little things about the house that Cora was certain she wouldn't have remembered in the morning, that exhausted she was by the long ride.

When they entered the dining room, Cora noticed there was only one dish on the large table.

"He won't dine tonight," Dwyn said, reading her unasked question on her face. "He's also asked me to let you know he won't be in the house for the next three days. You're free to wander, but you mustn't leave the building."

Cora frowned. "Where will he be?" She didn't want to admit how much it upset her to know he wouldn't be there, because it made no sense for her to feel that way. She'd feared the idea of being alone with him for solstice for so long that she should've felt relieved to hear it wouldn't happen, but she felt lonely and a little ignored instead.

"There are things he needs to settle in the city," Dwyn replied, giving her a little smile, the thin fabric of her cream dressing gown shining golden in the light of the candles. "It's very late. I'll leave you be, then. I trust you'll manage to find your way back to your room. Raven is still awake, if you need anything." She turned and walked away, leaving her alone in the large, dark-wooded room.

Cora finished her dinner quickly and gathered her dishes, but she ended up leaving them in a corner of the table, not knowing where the kitchen was.

She found her bedroom relatively quickly and all but fell onto the bed. She briefly wondered if she should've gone looking for Harry, but the pillow was so soft and the blanket so warm, and her tiredness pulled her under.

Thank you so much for the 200k reads on Lux! It means a lot to me x
Miki