Miradey

Door of the Blue Halo

Up into the mountains they climbed.

Ben was surprised he was only a little breathless, considering how far along they were now. The path they walked along the mountainside was narrowing out underfoot.

"I suppose I'm a little shocked that I can walk in a straight line after imbibing that moonshine."

"Aged, in willow and cursewood barrels krustallias moonshine. Lunar dew drop drip method. Seven hundred years old beneath the seal," Miradey nodded.

"I am impressed."

"Erst is very proud. Makes sure none of us forget it." Miradey, cautious of distracting him from his footing bid him to turn and press his back to the mountain. She pointed downward. "The Great Willow. There. It is one of few things existing on both sides of day and night exactly as it is."

Ben clung to the craggy wall behind him with his fingertips and peered down at where she pointed. Sure enough it was The Hill and the Great Willow upon it, its split trunk forked off into two twisting halves of hearty boughs. He wanted landmarks and this was as sure as any. Behind the Willow was a finely built mansion, its windows darkened. It was what the manor on The Hill had once looked like he realized belatedly. After The Reckoning of Three Hundred Years when the First Dragon on The Hill cast a curse so powerful she shattered the house of the founding fathers in two, taking half for herself and their race, the house was split in two.

Thinking of the mighty First brought his thoughts to the present. Doria Draco had passed the torch lit by dragon's breath to Lady Drase but remained quite active in the village's affairs whether she wanted to or not. Whilst The Fourth's rule was marked by lawmaking, growing stability, and equality for their race, Lady Doria's explosive reign of fire was not one people tended to forget. Some wizards still bitterly referred to her as the Mad Lord of Weeping Embers.

"So you met The Third? As a child," Ben recalled and found himself staring at Miradey, impressed.

"I thought her fierce yet kind," she smiled. "Scary and beautiful. She saved my life. Without her aid and skill as a healer, her care as someone as close to a mother as I could remember and as a witch, I'd have perished long ago." She shook her head then turned continued on their way but the thought still came. "Perished a long time ago, suffering a fate worse than death."

Not completely dissuaded from the discussion, Ben said, "Miradey...you were wheezing something horrible as if you couldn't quite catch your breath. Are you...alright?"

"Same as I said before," Miradey replied curtly without looking his way as they were still on a narrow path in their route up the mountain. "Certain medicinal plants relieve my condition. I am fie, so long as I have some with me."

"Burning?"

"In the heart and lungs. I worked the Ironhart mines nearly from the time I could walk until I was nine. Escaped and ran away. It was there that the sickness abound."

"You..." Ben's heart hurt. He didn't want to think of Miradey being sick. "It must've been hard."

"Yes. It was. The past is the past." She paused and glanced her over shoulder just as they stepped onto a wider footing at the unlit mouth of a cave in the mountainside. "But I wouldn't have minded someone holding my hand. Be there for me."

"Is the sickness truly...fatal?"

Miradey looked at him then.

"Eventually, yes."

Suddenly, Ben wanted to be with her. Be with her without feeling as though death's blade hovered over her neck poised to strike and stop their time together. Were they destined only to have a short time together? What was this sickness?

"Tell me more about you," Miradey said abruptly as they edged around a bend. She took his arm and stepped right into the mouth of a cave, helping him inside. She spared him a smile. "You mentioned something about coin counting at our first meeting."

"Er, yes. I work at the bank. I'm a—" He stopped with a groan, closing his eyes briefly.

"What's wrong?"

"I didn't exactly request leave for vacation before I followed you. They'll be expecting me in the morning."

"This is the way for you to return and save your livelihood. It is a little further than where I was taking you before. It only needs be there when we arrive."

"What do you mean?"

"Doorways out of Nywo shift in place, time, and stability. Duration and consistency and finding them are concerns."

After a stretch of stone and dirt, a blanket of blue flowers blossomed brightly in the dark, illuminating the cave. Their scent was cool and fragrant in the night air.

"Dred's beard. They're flourishing like the fae from the hollows blessed them."

"This is the best place to harvest them. And we're in luck," Miradey announced. She pointed at an ornate wooden door sitting in the circle of flowers towards the back of the small cave. "This is the Door of The Blue Halo."

Frowning Ben asked, "Is that usually here? The door."

"Not usually, but sometimes."

"It's a door. In the middle of a cave."

"Not just any door. A door that takes you straight back to the Main Street."

Ben supposed that magic doors existed even if he'd seen one that apparently moved and followed after Miradey. They walked carefully through the flowers. Miradey stood back and opened the door.

A sheer, pale blue curtain hung inside the doorway, seemingly with no fixtures. It billowed as if in the breath of a slight wind. When he looked around the frame of the door, the curtain was not there on the other side. The doorway simply opened to Miradey standing at the door and the rest of the cave. Like an ordinary door. Ben stared at the curtain. It looked so ethereal and curious that Ben was about to question whether it was really safe when Miradey spoke again.

"I won't be able to cross back over with you. The doorway we used to get here is closed and this one is one way. It won't last long either so let us be on our way, it could disappear at any moment." She gestured him through the door.

Sure that she wouldn't send him through there if it wasn't safe, Ben nodded. He hesitated before walking through though.

"When will I see you again?" he asked.

Miradey tilted her head and smiled at him.

"Soon. I'll find you on the other side in my silhouette. Go on."

Grinning, Ben shook off a giddy jitter, grinning to himself, and walked through the doorway.