Episode Seven
About an hour since I woke in Selene’s bed. My eyes have been open for a while, but I can’t bring myself to get up.
Selene isn’t beside me, but there are sounds from the kitchen, so she’s probably making breakfast.
I want to ask her properly why she did what she did. I’d told myself I’d forget it all, but we’re going to go on living together after this, and carrying around a fog of unsettled feeling doesn’t seem like a good idea.
That’s what I told myself, and yet here I am. I can’t find the courage to face her, and I’m just lying here clinging to the pillow.
Being swept along was partly my fault too, but ultimately what Selene did was wrong, I think.
I turned the embarrassment into something closer to irritation, made up my mind, and pushed myself out of bed. A vague heaviness lingered in my body, but nothing I couldn’t ignore.
“Good… morning.”
Even braced for it, what came through my throat and reached her was a voice so thin it seemed about to disappear. Pitiful, honestly.
“Good morning. Did you sleep?”
In the light coming through the window she looked somehow more beautiful than usual. Hair neat, already changed. The morning after all that, and she looked entirely like herself.
“Yes. Thank you for breakfast.”
“Eat quickly and get ready.”
What was in front of me was a perfectly composed figure and a flat, familiar voice. Whatever happened yesterday was apparently a dream. I wanted to believe that, but I couldn’t lift my gaze from the table.
I sat with my eyes down and brought the cup to my lips.
The tea Selene made in the mornings changed on a whim, but today it was the blend I liked.
At home she rarely opened her mouth as usual, and I on my side was too awkward to know what to say. I was quietly eating my way through breakfast in the still room when the doorbell rang.
“Who would that be at this hour?”
“I’ll get it. Sion, keep eating.”
I left the door to her and turned back to the table, when a familiar voice reached me from the entrance.
After a moment, Selene came back with a slightly troubled expression.
“Hey! Sion, you all right? Selene, you’re adorable even first thing in the morning.”
Under her Association robe, fashionable clothes and a small bag. Rizett, shaking her deep red hair, appeared behind her.
“Oh, good morning. This is a surprise.”
I was about to stand and go to her, but she waved me back down.
“Sorry, sorry, I interrupted your breakfast. Stay there.”
She dropped into the chair beside me, cheerfully, and started rummaging through her bag.
“Can I make some tea? I know where Sion’s favourite blend is.”
A small smile, and Selene reached for the leaves from the shelf. I hadn’t seen the two of them talk like this often, but they seemed comfortable together.
“Thank you! I’ll take you up on that. Selene, you always think of everything.”
I watched the two of them from the corner of my eye, chatting warmly, and brought a small piece of bread to my mouth. I was glad Rizett had come. I don’t think I’d ever found her brightness so reassuring before.
“Anyway, what brings you? Coming all the way to the house is unusual.”
“It is. Something came up that I needed to tell you both straight away.”
I glanced sideways at Selene while Rizett rummaged noisily through her bag.
I’d only meant to steal a quick look, but the timing was wrong and our eyes met. I looked away from her small, questioning tilt of the head and lifted my cup.
“Found it! My bag is a complete mess. Sorry for the wait.”
What Rizett produced was a single envelope. The seal of the Magic Association was pressed into the back.
“It’s going to come as a bit of a shock, so take a breath before I start.”
Her voice kept its warmth but dropped into something more serious.
Rizett, who almost never came to the house, had arrived at this hour of the morning. That alone was enough to feel off. And in her hand was an envelope bearing the Magic Association’s seal.
A different kind of tension to yesterday’s ran through me as I fixed my eyes on Rizett, waiting for her to speak.