The expression Mikhail wore gave Korin an acute sense of dysphoria.
His smiles were usually large, making his eyes crescent sweetly and drawing those around him in. But this smile was small. It didn't reach up to crinkle his eyes. It was different from the smiles he gave to the world. This was miniscule and doughy. It was the first time she had seen him deviate.
"The wheel of fate." He held the card out for her to view.
It took Korin a moment to look away, her eyes lingering a few seconds more on his strange smile. With a bit of drag she did finally see the card. A simple wheel in choppy print sat center of an otherwise empty rectangle. "What does it mean?"
"Divine destiny. It symbolizes the beginning of fated change and transformation."
Anxiety mixed in with her dysphoria at his words. That softened smile still pressed into his features suddenly felt as if it were just for her. When their eyes met again, Korin found herself doing something unexpected. She reached out and gently set her hand upon his, lightly pushed the outheld card down from the space between them. She wanted him to put the card away. She didn't want him to smile at her like that.
Hands still touching, contact that felt like cool static, she watched Mikhail's eyes just slightly widened and his smile faltered, drawing his lips into a flattened 'o'.
...
"What are you guys up to?" Talis' voice suddenly cut through the tension between them. She gracefully crossed her legs coming to sit with them, skirts fanning around her. "I almost didn't see you back here in the shade."
It was Korin who answered Talis, Mikhail's gaze not ready to leave the sight of her yet. "Mikhail was just showing me the stuff he bought." Her hand finally retreated from his, feeling safe now that the card was not held in front of her and that his expression was gone. "Did you find anything you liked?"
Mikhail had hardly heard a word the two women spoke to one another. Instead most of his focus had been trained on his hand that lay in his lap. Still pinching the oracle card.
When Korin had touched him, cool static had leapt into his skin. Like the chilled winds of an endless chasm.
She had slowly yet firmly pushed his hand and the card down. He was so blown back that he lowered his hand with her, letting her guide it down. The only time she had touched him was when she had dressed his burns and even then she had deftly avoided direct skin to skin contact. The gauze served as a barrier while she wrapped up his wounds.
For a moment it had excited him. The whisper of static. The promise of endless depth. Almost enough to lull the demon out of the corner he had shoved it into to keep it out of the sight of the witch.
The way her eyes had hardened and her unspoken disregard of the oracle card felt like a stinging slap of silent rejection.
It left Mikhail blinking. She had spoken to him bluntly before, told him no, leaned away from him, outright avoided him, but this was different. As soon as the card was out of sight the tension that swam in her eyes dimmed. The card that he had pulled countless times. The card that had led him here. The very same card that she had now also drawn. As soon as it was away from her she looked relieved. It was as if she had simply rejected fate. Rejected him.
Oh gods. Mikhail internally shook his head. He must be overthinking this right? He hadn't been pursuing the woman romantically. She was small, bordering androgynous, not necessarily his type. Sure he and the demon really liked the mystery of who and what she was, but it wasn't like his interests had been so meaningful. So why did his chest ache a little? Was it because of the oracles and their occasionally intimate readings?
"Are you okay?"
Huh? His attention was brought back to the moment to find that Korin was staring at him, head slightly tilted. He was faintly aware that Talis had dismissed herself while he had retreated into his thoughts.
She looked at him with her big yellow eyes asking of his well being after she had rejected him. He wanted to be annoyed. No, no, no. He was making this into something it wasn't surely. If she had rejected him the skittish woman would have already excused herself, right? She always had his thoughts reeling. You make me feel so uneasy sometimes.
Korin's neck pulled back ever so slightly and her muscles seemed to tense as she looked away from him. "Oh. I… I didn't know you felt that way."
Mikhail's eyes popped open in horror. He had said that out loud! "Fuck. I didn't mean it like that." He was shaking his head, waving hands. "You just…"
Shit. She wasn't looking at him and it made his earlier speculation of rejection hit harder. His heart raced a little and the demon stirred. It was angry. Upset at him and his fumble. Angry he'd ruin the chances of piecing together her puzzle. Pissed he might have hurt her feelings.
Korin wasn't necessarily hurt by his unexpected revelation. A small piece of her had expected it. After all, even the kindness of Etan and Sira held a certain level of refrain. But she did wonder why the pretty man continued to hang around her if he was disquieted in her company.
He raked a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry, Korin. What I meant was that you confuse me. You can be very mysterious sometimes and I don't know what to think." He was suddenly rambling, and it was so unlike him. "You… I'm so… It's just…"
Korin lightly sighed at the sight of Mikhail becoming flustered. He was showing her new sides of himself the longer she knew him. But she supposed that that was how new social interactions played out. Two people would show each other more complex aspects of their personality in a sort of trial period before genuine friendship was established. "It's alright. You confuse me too."
Mikhail clapped his mouth shut.
Korin wore the same bored expression as usual when she met his gaze again, and yet, a weird sense of relief filled him at the eye contact. "You don't treat me how everyone else does and I don't understand why you hang around me. Everyone thinks I'm..." She pulled a hand up to rub the ends of her hair. An anxious action. A list of descriptors running through her head. "...different."
Mikhail winced at her words. He'd seen first hand how the people treated her and now he was worried that she would think that he also secretly harbored those discriminating feelings.
"I want to be your friend, Korin." He was a liar and there were other reasons he wanted to know her–to unravel to the wheel of fate, discover her strange powers and how he was involved, but that still didn't belittle the honesty in his words.
Korin nodded once then twice. "It makes me uncomfortable," Mikhail's breath hitched, fresh thoughts of rejection squeezing his lungs, "but I would also like to be your friend." Her voice was small and, for once, didn't carry a monotonous tone. It came out in a timid whisper. The prospect of a friend had her stomach fluttering in new ways she had never experienced before. Korin couldn't tell if she wanted to vomit or laugh. Maybe both.
He let out an enraptured breath, his lips curling into a smile, slightly different from the one earlier that had Korin on edge. Both were genuine and deviating. This smile, however, looked easier in its curve, more plush in its twist. "Shall we head out then? It's starting to get a little late."
Sure enough the sun was starting its descent into the horizon and lanterns and torches were beginning to light the markets.
Korin took a moment to appreciate the development. There was still a dull and melancholic smog to the world she saw. Everything was hushed and muted but the fading sun and glowing light of flames added a sultry wash to the people and their stalls. It was something stoically intimate, like steaming cream and sugared tea, sweet and bitter, sipped in funeral attire.
Before the two, so opposite yet similar, left the hidden corner, Korin spared one last glance into the forest. A final look into the darkness where the dog had no doubt grown rigid, fresh for decay.
The day had been sweet and bitter, indeed.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Era had lived in the astral plane for countless millennia now but the three days it took Korin to return felt like the longest days of his entire life. His Skyhaven terrace having crumbled, he'd fallen to the Still Sea after being smacked into the Gate of Dreams. The gate was eternal and would reappear elsewhere as if it had never been damaged, but the Skyhaven would take time to rebuild itself.
Pieces of it were sluggishly floating upwards on a slow mission to reform. Granite rubble littered the sky, the largest of the pieces had still not left their positions upon the surface of the water. An ominous red sky hung overhead, clinging like an unshed skin of doom upon the reflection of the water. Despite the flood of red on the world, Skyhavens ruins remained unstained and creamy white, refusing to accept the intrusion of scarlet color.
He weaved through floating wreckage in a sedated pace. Every second seemed to tick by with nerve grating slowness, but he did his best to appear calm. He kept his shoulders pressed back and his expression level. The only indication of his inner turmoil was the gentle pace of his travel, moving in circles through the rubble.
He must have been on his thousandth figure eight when Korin finally appeared. He had made one turn alone, crossed between ruins, and on the next turn, there she was. Picking herself up from being planted facedown on the Sea.
Era stilled, smiling at the sight of the hauntingly ethereal girl rising off of the sea. She was pale and glowing in that special way souls from the material realm did. She lit up the red dyed world like an alabaster and moonlit yellow flame. Skin and eyes aglow, stained by the beauty mark above her lip and that black hair that ate up all the light.
He had loved the look of her the moment he had seen her in the Skyhaven. She was morose yet surging with inner power and authority, the quiet kind. The kind that sat below the surface yet didn't remain unrecognized. She is what he had wished to look like. A wistful kind of envy tickled his throat.
Era held his breath, waiting for her to see him. Korin was using a special part of the soul that traveled to the astral realm while the body slept. It was a part that was not apt to carry the capacity for memory, feeling that it was a distraction to raw experience. It took repetitive visits and practice to remember dreams and he was unsure if she would recall her first visit.
She went to wring out the water from her clothes on instinct, but every drop of the Still Sea always remained in its body, and she found herself dry.
Korin's eyes caught his before she had even released her clutch on her night shirt. During their meeting he had admired her observant spirit. The way her eyes scanned over her surroundings, like she was trying to see every last little detail of the world around her. She did that now. Eyes flowing over rubble and sky and sea and him.
A slight smile lit her porcelain face. "Era, right?"
Era silently nodded, returning her smile.
"...we've met before?" She hadn't remembered their dream from last time but she somehow knew the man standing before her. He was a distance away but if she got closer she knew she would find tiny white flowers woven into soft chestnut hair and tucked and pinned into the folds of his attire. One hand twisted into the cloth of her pants while the other stoked her chin.
"We have."
Whispers of memories playing behind her eyes. "A dream." She said, becoming more confident in her vague recollections. There came a stillness between them, Korin in concentration, combing through thoughts and Era patiently waiting.
"We were interrupted." Korin looked at the red sky then and a little tenseness returned to her posture, which had momentarily eased at the sight of Era.
Era held out a hand. "I think it might be best to head a little further in. It'll be safe to discuss things if we put some distance between us and that." That being the red coating upon the sky.
Korin didn't think twice about accepting Eras' hand. The seemingly long distance between them fell in only a few strides and her fingers readily slid into his light grip. The warmth of their touch creating a hearth between their skin.
She looked around as she relaxed into the feeling. "Where do we go?" The Still Sea encompassed their existence, no end in sight.
Era looked down at the waters beneath them.
Korin gasped as she realized the depth of the water they stood on. Its clear waters fading into an abyss with no floor in sight. For a brief second she thought she was going to fall into its surface.
Eras' grip tightened on her own. "You will not fall in. It takes great physical force to break the surface of the Still Sea."
"If we can not break the surface then how do we travel further in?" Era watched as Korin flickered, her image waving and blurring as she questioned the reality of the world.
He began to rub lazy circles on the back of her hand. "Take deep breaths. Don't question it too much. Or else you'll think yourself awake. Remember, I'm here to guide you. Do you trust me?"
Korin took breaths choosing to maintain looking at Era instead of the surface of the water. Her pulse became more steady until her image was once again solid. She slowly nodded and the words came easy from her lips. "I trust you."
"Physical force can not break its waters but other kinds of force can, magical powers and mental fortitude."
She tilted her chin. "I don't know how to use magic."
"Don't worry for now, I can take us in." He gave her hand another squeeze. "Are you ready?"
"Yes-
Before she could finish her words, Era was falling forward, pulling Korin with him. His pretty silken robes swallowed her body as small petals of tiny white flowers littered their path of tumble.
Her heart was swelling in anticipation of feeling liquid upon her skin, and then water was spraying between them, soaking fabric and chasing out all the oxygen around their bodies. Korin pulled in a surprised lung full of air right before water pulled her under and filled her ears. The sharp sound of their splash becoming deep and baritone.
And in the next moment her head was breaking the surface, Era pulling her up as the world pitched forward beneath her, butterflies filling her stomach.