Lux [h.s]

forty-six

Cora was woken up the following morning by the sunlight peeking through the gossamer curtains. There were heavier silvery curtains on each side of the window made to keep unwanted light out, but she'd forgotten to pull them close the night before.

She opened her eyes and sighed, battling the instinct to close them again and pretend she was still sleeping for a while longer, but she suddenly remembered where she was.

Harry's home.

Now she surely wouldn't be able to fall asleep again. She'd been in his wagon, she'd also been in one of his hostel rooms, but this was different. It was his home, a place he'd owned for years, a place he'd created just for himself. It could be an open door to his soul, if only she knew where to look.

Cora stood up and went to the bathroom, fixing the golden mess that was her hair in the mirror and making sure she looked presentable before going back into the bedroom. She still had nothing new to wear and Dwyn had taken her travel clothes the night before, so she resorted to putting the clothes Harry had so kindly lent her the night before on again.

She neared the window and pushed the curtain aside, a mixture of relaxation and uneasiness finding its way into her chest when she looked at the trees that were on the other side of the glass. Judging from how distant the ground was, Cora realised she was on one of the upper floors of the residence.

Cora waited around the room as the sun slowly rose higher in the sky, not wanting to go out in fear of getting lost in the enormous maze that was the house, but she grew bored fairly quickly. After a few moments of insecurity, she finally decided to go out and familiarise herself with the building.

Under the light of day the house didn't look like an impossible maze anymore. Sure, it was full of stairs and rooms and half-floors in a continuous path that made little sense, but Cora had the startling sensation that every room and staircase in the building could bring to any other part of it, if only she'd be patient enough.

Now that the sun was up and sunlight was peeking through every window, Cora could see that the floor under her feet was made of marble and the mess of plants she'd seen the day before was instead little trees with odd fruits hanging from their fragile branches on the side of every room and corridor. There weren't many flowers that weren't roses, that she only came across to every once in a while. They were unfamiliar but reminded Cora of the flowers Harry himself liked to create, so they made her feel oddly at home.

The marble on the floors and staircases changed colour under her feet, and after an initial moment of confusion Cora realised it seemed to be a way to tell which area of the house she was on. The floor of her bedroom was black marble, the one in the entrance cream-brown marble and the one under her feet in that moment was light pink. She had the feeling she'd need weeks, not days, just to make sense of the way that peculiar building was built.

Somehow she made it down to the entrance of the house, and a little sigh left her lips when she saw that the lights she'd seen the night before weren't on—another reminder that Harry wasn't there.

"Oh, hi! I was starting to wonder where you were."

She turned around quickly. Dwyn was glancing down at her from the top of the stairs. She was no longer in a robe, but her hair was still pinned behind her head.

"The master left earlier this morning. He asked me to remind you that you can go everywhere in the house, aside from the blue room."

Cora furrowed her eyebrows. "What's the blue room?"

"His bedroom."

"Oh." Now that she knew entering the room was forbidden, the urge to do the opposite of what Harry wanted came strong to her. But he'd shared his own bed with her for months, and he deserved to get back his privacy.