Nightfire | The Whispering Wall #1

Thirty: Memories

"You've done it wrong."

"Where?"

Nova pointed. It wasn't an awful mistake, but she was getting annoyed with how easily Grace was picking up the Nictavian script, petty as she knew it was. Growing up in Caelum, she and her siblings had had the best tutors the city could muster and none of them had picked it up this quickly.

Grace pulled their last smuggled sheet of paper towards her and began the alphabet again. Her lines were far from confident, but when Nova snatched it out from under her hand a few minutes later she couldn't find any faults. She shoved it back harder than necessary.

"That'll do, I suppose," she said. She faltered as Grace glowed.

"I got it right?"

"Yes," she said, grudgingly. Her face was hot and she didn't know why; she put it down to embarrassment, since a moment later Grace hissed 'Yes!' and punched the air like a child. A few faces from around the kitchens turned their way, but no one had come to bother them in Nova's habitual corner. She didn't think she was imagining that the staff weren't quite as hostile as she was used to; when Grace was with her, their looks were of mild curiosity, sometimes even doting, rather than open dislike.

Nova stared at the otherworld girl's head as she bent over her work. There was something about her that brought people's barriers down; innocence, maybe. Though the girl had her serious moments, she approached the world with a wonder that Nova hadn't known since she was a child, all those years ago. No matter what she saw or what was done to her, Grace managed to find a smile for the little things.

"Are you alright, Nova?"

Nova blinked. Her face heated. She blurted, "Why are you so happy all the time?"

Grace frowned. "I'm not." She shrugged. "I'm actually pretty miserable most of the time. I miss the light. I miss home. I miss Jordan all the time, even worse because I know he's within reach." She tilted her head to one side and considered Nova with a gleam in her eye. "But you take some pleasure where you can get it, don't you? Jordan always says if we didn't laugh, we'd fucking cry."

Nova was suddenly aware of how close they were. She didn't remember when the work sitting between them had moved into the corner, so that their knees were almost touching. She battled an urge to scramble backwards, out of reach. The last time she had found herself in this situation, with someone else, when she was someone else, it had all gone wrong days later. Sometimes she liked to kid herself that that was nothing to do with it, but she tried to imagine those days as they played out without that betrayal, and knew that it had made it so much worse.

"I knew someone once," she said, unsure where she was heading with it, "a very long time ago, before I was here. I thought he was perfect. I think he thought he was perfect. Invincible, even. The world was joyful, nothing could hurt us, as long as we lived the right way. It ended very badly." She toyed with her chain, savouring the pain as it grated against the blisters around her neck. "I'm glad you don't think like that."

Grace shuffled closer. Nova stiffened, but held still as Grace's fingers lightly touched her cheek, the pads feverish-warm from holding her pen for so long, and Nova's skin erupted with pins and needles. She felt almost disappointed when Grace moved away, but then she realised someone was standing behind them.

Grace scrambled to her feet, wiping her hands on her skirts and smearing ink over her apron as Brillan cleared his throat. Nova was in no hurry to get up. She could still feel Grace's touch on her face, though it felt cold now, and strange.

"Your presence is required in the lord's study," the butler intoned, though his eyes were flicking between her and Grace as he spoke.

Nova held out her hands for her chains, making sure not to break eye contact with him as she did so. He tried equally hard to pretend it didn't bother him, but Nova could see the truth in his aura.