Light and Shadow

"Come to the temple." Her mother said with a sigh, standing from her seat and reaching for her silver cloak edged with the embroidered, glimmering pattern of nobility. The Lady swirled it around her shoulders, the beading at the end clanking against the wooden planked floor of the study.

Merallys shook her head. "Mother," she pleaded. "No. Not there."

The Lady froze in her steps, turning back after a moment. "'No?'" 

Merallys regretted the words instantly. Her mother's scrutiny could do that, as could a single look from her dreadfully beautiful black eyes. The cold, even tone made her shudder internally, made

Merallys bite her tongue and follow as her mother walked out. 

The corridors reeked with loneliness, the sharp, metallic clacking of the Lady's heels echoing through and into her ears. Merallys followed obediently, hugging her own cloak tightly around herself. The cold finally hit when the outside air made it's way through her cloak. She glanced to the guards who had opened the large, wooden doors, looking forward to her mother when the Lady's voice beckoned her sharply forward. 

She hurried to catch up with the quickly striding figure, dread filling her as the first arch to the temple came to view. Her mother passed under it without a second thought. Merallys, however, slowed, brown eyes flickering up and around the stone so her gaze touched each engraving once. Then she walked through. The routine was never left undone, her memorization of the swirling patterns some sort of comfort within the mystery of the half-ruined structure. 

The cold turned colder when she stepped through, each walk forward and chattering of teeth worsening the numbing pain. How could her mother feel nothing? Or act like she didn't? Wasn't the cold just as horrible for her?

Wind rustled the ivy curled around the columns as she passed between the doors, the trees to the right swaying their branches and letting Merallys view the crumbled stone of the ruins for the moment before she stepped inside.

"Lady Endari." A hooded woman whispered to her mother, turning to look Merallys's way and giving a dip of her head. She raised her gloved hand, the wooden doors shutting. Lights flickered above their holders when the woman gestured in it's way, casting their golden light upon the center of the room's large platform.

A statue stood on the raised podium, the steps reaching up for it spotless and reflective of the glittering jewels and fabric draped across the figure. Light shined on the two objects held in the woman's hands, all other colors pale in comparison to the shining silver of the crown held in her right. The spokes pointed upwards, and tangled around them lay lines of deep sapphires, the ends hanging to the ground and swaying gently from when the door had shut. The other one held a sword, the hilt pointed upward and point faced down, designed simply like the kind a commoner would have in their home. No precious stones adorned it, save for the few, sad-looking drops of quartz along the hilt. 

"Maelys," she heard the hooded woman murmur, her mother following in suit. "May all flourish under under your hand, whether it be the one carrying the crown or the sword." Merallys didn't recite it. Sure, the deity was her namesake, or so her mother always said, but no. She wouldn't bow to a god who seemingly disapproved of her- of what Merallys couldn't and refused to change.

"Mother, you can't do anything." Merallys said after silence rung out for the few moments after the words echoed through the chamber.

The Lady turned to her and glared. "You will marry who your father and I want you to." she spat. "And that will be a Noble- even of the other regions. I'd rather you wed an enemy rather than that servant." Her eyes flashed dangerously with a streak of shadow. "You wouldn't disobey Mealys. You wouldn't dare to."

Her fists clenched, hidden behind the draping fabric of her cloak, now suffocating in the growing warmth. "I already have." Merallys's voice didn't shake. She willed it not to. "And I would gladly marry a servant and give up this life of luxury. I've told her that I'll offer my hand when we're both of age-"

"'Her?'" The hooded woman echoed.

"A servant girl." Lady Endari hissed. "One that I should replace and have sent away to the furthest regions of this world."

The woman stepped forward to take Merallys's hands. "My child, you're confused." she started, voice raspy and hoarse, tightening her grip. "Allow me to help you. Guide you back to light Maelys has to offer."

She sneered in disgust, letting out a scoff. She waved her hand around. "There's no light here."

And Merallys fled the temple, abandoning her cloak when it flew off her shoulders. She ran back the way she and her mother had come, hardly waiting for the guards to open the doors before passing through. Her swift footsteps echoed in the silent and dark stairwells, light finally emanating down a hallway she turned into. She reached the door at the end of the shallow hall, twisting the knob and slamming the door shut as she stepped inside.

The maid rose from her seated position on Merallys's bed, placing down the half- smoothed down dress. The warm golden color receded from her fingertips and back into her palms, fading in the second it took for her to reach Merallys.

"My lady." she whispered, giving a small smile and brushing the strand of curly red hair that had come loose from Merallys's ponytail back behind her shoulder. Merallys didn't bother correcting her, the mischievous gleam in the young woman's eyes an expression she was all-too familiar with. One that she had come to love. 

Merallys wrapped the maid into an embrace, untying the white ribbon holding the girl's hair back and glancing down as it fell to the wooden planked floor. "Arja." Merallys's lips pressed to her hair before drifting down to her cheek.

Arja laughed, the sound so clear and lovely that Merallys could forget the words said by her mother. That she would send Arja away.

"Sit." Arja instructed, gesturing to the sofa in the middle of the room, waiting for her to take her seat before sitting down herself. Their fingers wound tightly together as Merallys spread a thin blanket over herself, still cold from the encounter. Their eyes met, and they both smiled. "Now tell me what that was."

"Aren't I the one who gives the orders?" she asked, smirk fading to a frown after a moment. Merallys rubbed her forehead. "Mother took me to the temple." Arja looked away. Even the mention of that building struck fear into people. Just how Lady Endari wanted with the people working under her. "And that... woman tried to 'bring me to the light.'" 

Arja's smile crept back at Merally's sarcastic tone. "I'm glad you didn't go." The laughter ceased far too quickly. "Will you run away with me, then?" 

A breath hitched in her throat at the girl's words. How she would love to run away, and find a small home in another, more accepting region and live the rest of her life with the girl next to her. Merallys didn't want to marry into Nobility, much less someone her parents- her mother- had in mind. She didn't want to marry anyone but Arja, once they reached eighteen and would have no trouble relocating in another place. But until then, until she legally could separate from her family, she would stay in the gloomy and desolate wings of their palace, happy to let Arja provide the light. 

"You know how much I would love to." she said with a sigh. "But you

know my answer."

Arja nodded. "Of course." Even curled up against Merallys, body pressed close and fingers entwined with her lover's, she still managed to look like a Lady. Her posture stayed dignified, never collapsed back with limbs thrown uselessly around like how Merallys sat. Arja looked like Nobility- and if Merallys could ever make her part of it, she would have no trouble fitting in. 

"The ball is tomorrow, Mer."

She shut her eyes, groaning and pressing her head back into the cushion. "I don't wanna go."

Arja sighed. "But you have to." 

"I'm not going."

"...Do it for me?" Her voice was soft, quiet and hardly audible. Merallys paused mid- stretch, looking over and meeting her eyes. "Make a good impression on the other regions then leave. It'll... be easier than not going." Arja paused, face flushing red. "And maybe I want to see you in a dress." Merallys raised a brow, and she shrugged, offering a flirtatious smile. "The benefits of my position."

Merallys nodded, agreeing with everything she had said. She wound her arm around Arja's waist as they both moved closer, casting out any remnant of the palace's chill. 

"If this is what love is," Arja said softly, "I don't want it to end."

"Me, neither."

And though the sun had only just started to set, Merallys closed her eyes, reveled in Arja's warmth, and didn't wake until morning.