When Emily entered Sun's room after her bath, dressed in her nightie, she looked around, taking it all in. Sun shifted uncomfortably; she really hadn't done much with it despite how long she had been here, and she was starting to feel a little judged.
"What's in here?" Emily asked, her fingers brushing the polished black box Kalys had given her the first day of her Revenancy.
Sun opened it, revealing the weapons tucked safely inside. She had only taken them out of the box a few times, given the swords a few practice swings in front of the mirror and twirled the pistols around her fingers just to give it a try. Not something she would ever tell anyone about.
They seemed too fine to be taking to her division to train with.
"Wow, those are the prettiest swords I've ever seen."
"Thank you," Sun replied.
"There doesn't seem to be... much of you in here," Emily pointed out.
Sun shrugged. "I'm not one for many possessions. And mostly I only use this room to sleep and dress."
Emily nodded thoughtfully before dropping it entirely, a wide grin spreading across her face.
"Come on, first we must make a blanket hut."
This was something Sun had experience in; she had done it plenty with the boys.
They pulled all the sheets and blankets from Sun's bed, using the bedposts, desk, and chair to make a roof, laying the lighter sheets over to make walls. It was a quick and dirty hut, but it was enough. They crawled under, dragging pillows, cushions and more blankets in with them.
"Do you have sleepovers often?" Sun asked.
"Not really; I used to when I was a child. It's not exactly ladylike anymore. But I knew you wouldn't care about that."
"It's a children's activity?"
Emily nodded. "What do you want to do first?"
"The thing you said about seeing our futures, I want to do that. Is it true? Does it really work?"
"Sort of," she replied. "It can be unreliable. Sometimes you might not even see anything. And of course, it's all open to interpretation."
"How does it work? Do we have visions? Hear voices?"
"Neither; we have to glean our own future from the bowl. Let's get what we need; it'll be easier to explain after that."
Sun nodded, and they both left their little hut. Emily listed what they needed so they could tell a maid, but it was all kitchen items. Sun figured they could just go and get it themselves. So she led the way through the manor. Some of the staff were still present, prepping what they needed for tomorrow.
Sun smiled when she saw Millie, their head chef.
"Hello, Millie," Sun greeted. "Dinner was fantastic; I've never seen Zen scarf anything down so fast. Or have so many helpings."
Not since they were starving kids in the slums anyway. But there was no need to add that on.
"Ah, Sun, I hope you had a few more helpings as well," she said. "Far too skinny. How you don't snap like a twig when you and Lord Illusen train is beyond me."
Sun grinned back, still happy she hadn't reverted to honorifics. It had taken a long time to get the kitchen staff to drop them.
"I did have seconds and gorged myself on that strawberry tart. It was bloody wonderful, that thing."
"I'll have to make it more often then," Millie said.
"I'd love you forever if you did," she said, taking a seat on the stool at the kitchen island, patting the one beside her for Emily to sit. "Millie, this is my friend, Emily. We're having a sleepover tonight."
"Is that right?" She said, her eyes looking to Emily. "A pleasure, Lady Intrieri."
Of course they would know who their guests were.
"Emily, please," she said. "It's lovely to meet you."
"Well, for your sleepover, you're going to need treats. We'll whip something up for you."
"Oh no, please, I don't want to keep you here longer than you need to be."
"Nonsense. Sit tight."
"We actually came to grab a few things," Sun said, looking to Emily.
"We just need a bowl, some tea leaves, some wine. The darker the red, the better."
Millie looked at them, the corner of her lips twitching up. "Looking into the future, are we?"
"You've done it?" Sun asked.
"Aye, most little girls do."
"Does it really work?"
"That's difficult to say..."
"Well, did what you see come true?" Sun pressed.
"Possibly, it can be very open to interpretation."
Sun let out a huff; so far, no one seemed to have a very clear explanation on this. Sun and Emily watched while Millie gathered what they needed and handed her a small basket of food – cupcakes, fruit, and some leftover tart.
"All right, off you two go," Millie told them. "And if you're going to drink the wine afterwards, try to limit yourselves."
Both girls gave her a mischievous grin and called out their thanks as they left, scurrying back to Sun's room with their arms full. They pushed everything into their fort before crawling in themselves.
"You're so informal with your staff," Emily noted.
"You're not? Doesn't that get tiring?"
"I've never even been in our kitchen."
Sun tilted her head curiously. "How do you get food when you want?"
"I summon a maid to fetch it," she replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I like stopping in and chatting with them; they're really nice," Sun shrugged. She couldn't imagine having her every whim seen to like that. The maids, the cooks – they all had jobs to do. It seemed kind of rude to her to interrupt it because she felt like a muffin.
She supposed she had seen Jinn and Kalys ask one of the maids to fetch tea now and again...
Sun shook off the thoughts, watching Emily set up the bowl, pouring some of the wine into it.
"Do you have a knife? A sharp one?" Emily asked.
Sun nodded, reaching around to her bedside table, pulling a dagger from the drawer.
"You keep knives in your bedside table?"
"Just the one; the other is in my desk drawer and a third is hidden in the bathroom."
Emily looked at her like she was trying to figure out if she was joking. "Is that a Revenant thing?"
"No, a common sense thing," Sun replied.
She probably should have hidden some daggers in her room at Solaryse given what had happened. But then, she had been drugged; it was possible she wouldn't have gone for them anyway. Since she couldn't remember it, it was hard to figure out what she might have been thinking at the time, if she'd been thinking at all.
"All right," Emily said. "You have to cut open your palm and let your blood drop into it; it has to be a decent amount, more than a few drops. Then you look into it closely, stare deeply into it and say, 'In the depth of my heart bloods flow; through shadows of time, I seek to know.'"
"This seems like blood-witch territory," Sun said.
She didn't know much about the women who drew their power from blood; their order was purposely kept shrouded in mystery, but for the right amount, they could accomplish things no one else could. Their spells broke the laws of the natural world, and the more powerful the spell, the more blood required. She didn't know their limits, if they had any, or how one even learned how to become one. But blood-fuelled power, that was their speciality.
"A little maybe," Emily agreed. "But we're certainly not going to be sacrificing people or animals. And it's just a bit of fun; children do this, Sun. Do you want to go first, or should I?"
"You go," Sun said, wanting to watch first and get a better idea of what would happen.
Emily nodded, taking the dagger from Sun and cutting open her palm, letting the blood run into the bowl. She wrapped her wound to stem the blood flow before she leaned over the bowl, peering into it.
"In the depth of my heart bloods flow, through shadows of time, I seek to know," she whispered.
Sun watched intently. It took a few moments, but Emily's eyes glazed over, and she went unnervingly still. Was she even breathing? Sun wondered if she should shake her, try to snap her from this trance. Or was this meant to happen?
"Emily?" Sun whispered, unsure if snapping her from it could have negative consequences.
It took a few minutes before she seemed to come back to herself, looking up at Sun with a grin that Sun had to wonder if it hadn't all been a trick.
"Did you see something?"
Emily nodded. "A boy."
"Your husband?"
"No, a little boy. I think he was my son. He had my eyes."
"Can you tell how far into the future it is?"
She shook her head. "It doesn't work like that. It really is just a little glimpse of a possible future. Maybe if we were real blood witches, we could get more out of it. Your turn."
They took the bowl to the bathroom to empty and wash it; they had to make sure none of Emily's blood still lingered in there. Then they did it again, pouring in the wine, then slicing open her hand to let the blood run. Same as Emily, she wrapped her hand before leaning over the bowl, peering into the dark depths. Would it even work for her? Her ability was rooted in water; it was a window to the Traverse. Could she really use it to see the future? Maybe it would work because it was wine, not pure water.
She uttered the words and just stared; she could barely make out her own reflection. For the longest time it felt like nothing was going to happen, until she saw movement in the wine. A ghost on the other side? She saw a face but couldn't really make out the features. It slowly started to clear, just a little, and she let out a gasp as she saw his eyes. One black, one blue, just like hers. Beyond that, all she could make out was pale skin and dark hair. Typical Illusen colouring. Was this a future Illusen? A past one? The ghost of one on the other side? She stared harder, leaning closer, hoping to glean more of this mystery Illusens features. Her own reflection was gone, but that still didn't answer if this was real or a vision.
Both girls shrieked as the wine in the bowl exploded up, drenching them both. They stared at each other, wide-eyed, dark red rivulets running down their faces, staining Emily's bright hair.
"What happened?" She gasped out.
"I don't know," Sun replied.
The door to Sun's room burst open, and the blanket was thrown off of them. Mika was standing there, eyes sharp and a blade out, assessing.
"What the fuck?" Mika asked, looking at them.
She really had dropped a lot of her formality now that Sun knew who she really was. She was almost like a different person at times.
"I don't know," Sun said. "It just..."
She mimed the action of the wine exploding out of the bowl. Mika did relax a little, sheathing her dagger. Sun noticed some of the manor guards were at the door as well, ready for a fight. Sun could feel her cheeks heating up in shame. Some of them looked amused, and she could only imagine the gossip that would spread through the staff after this.
"Gods, are you two trying to see your futures?" She scoffed.
Both girls nodded. Why did everyone know about this but Sun?
"Is it a bad sign that mine exploded?" Sun asked.
"It's probably not a good one." Mika looked to the guards in the doorway. "False alarm."
With that, they dispersed, returning to their posts.
"Do you want me to get the maids to clean this up and deal with your laundry?"
The wine was everywhere, staining every blanket, sheet, and pillow they had around them.
"No, my mess; I'll take care of it," she sighed.
She wasn't looking forward to it; she could already feel the wine getting sticky.
"I'll take the bedding to the laundry room and bring back some more; you two focus on the wine and getting yourselves cleaned up," Mika said, taking pity on them and helping them out.
"Thanks, Mika," Sun said, rising to her feet.
They helped Mika gather it all up, and the other woman left them to it.
"Who was that?" Emily finally asked.
"Mika, my handmaid."
"She cursed at you."
"Hardly at me, more at the situation."
"She came running in with a dagger; I thought she was going to attack us."
"No, no, she's also my... bodyguard? I guess she heard the screams and assumed the worst."
Given what happened in Solaryse and with her brothers' absence, everyone was probably on heightened alert. Despite the embarrassment of the situation, she was impressed with how quickly everyone reacted. If only she'd had the presence of mind to scream when she was attacked last time.
"Does everyone that works here act so informally?"
"With me they do, because I've asked them to. I don't like titles and formality."
She wasn't comfortable with it; she didn't like the feeling of separation and isolation it brought up.
"Does it make you uncomfortable?" Sun asked her.
"It's strange, but I see the appeal," she replied as they headed into the bathroom to clean themselves up as best they could. "Oh, I love your bathroom."
Sun grinned as the other girl took in the artful space. It had taken Sun's breath away when she'd first seen it too.
"You can have the shower first," Sun said, grabbing a towel to squeeze as much of the moisture from her hair as she could and wipe off her face.
Emily was a guest after all. Sun would clean up the mess while Emily bathed.
"Thank you. So, did you see anything before it erupted like that?" She asked as she turned on the taps in the shower.
Sun considered it, whether or not to tell her at all. What she saw might not have had anything to do with the spell they'd tried. It could have just been her innate ability looking through to the other side.
"Maybe," Sun eventually replied. "It was difficult to make out before it just..."
It wasn't exactly a lie, and there was no way for her to be sure of what she had seen, not really.
"That was so strange," Emily mused. "I've never seen that happen before. But then, your family's power is centred around water; maybe that had something to do with it?"
Sun could only shrug.
She was curious to see what might be on the other side once she went to sleep.