Among Stars - 2

Once again the countless souls of the city, their burning souls. Filled with thousands of emotions, filling the air with a sense of enlightenment, of excitement, of fear and anger. All at the same moment.

Once again those were gone, displaced by the familiarized souls of those that had been assigned to guard me. To escort my being to the school that I was to attend for the next few years.

It was a sad sight, yet it wasn't. For in the days that I was here, celebrating day after day, there was only panic. Not the warmth of my home I so mourned.

Just panic, intermixed with moments of peace. Yet never warmth as in all the time that had passed. Not once had I called it mine.

For it had been Abigail's, for it had been her mother's, her father's. Yet none were mine. Only the meager belongings that I had brought with and parted with. Those I had bought and had gifted to me.

It was with only those that I left. Fingering the artifact that had allowed this to become reality. 

Yet before I knew it, days passed into days. Hours flew by like the fluttering gusts of wind. Coming and going without rest.

And when another city came into view, I was prepared. As the hundreds of thousands of souls filled my vision, I was prepared.

As I gave my identification to my guards, who then gave it to the guards who protected the gates. Who let us in without any fuss.

Countless veiled conversations fell upon my ears. Of this and that, yet the specifics, the details. I truly could not hear them. As with everything, they fell upon the other conversations, making it impossible to divine one word from the next.

As they all combined into a cacophony of noise.

One that never failed to hurt my ears.

Yet so too did it bring a smile to my face, as the carriage stopped outside of what I could only assume as an inn. For inside laid to rest many souls. Those that slumbered like a dragon and others like nothing at all.

A new facet of my sight that even now, months after I had obtained it. Where I could discern the emotions and shifts in a soul almost as well as I could see them.

And so as I was let out, an armored hand helping me to the inside. Where the symphony of voices fell. As if they had never seen a blind man.

I laughed at my own joke. Creating peals of laughter that echoed through the room. Only to stop when I heard nothing more.

I tilted my head in askance of the knight at my side. Yet she said nothing. Merely turning and asking for a key. 

One she was given without fuss. Where she led me to the room. Where I laid down, enjoying the true comforts that it gave.

Comforts that I had so longed for while traveling, only to have to abandon that desire. As we were in the wilderness, where I had no conscience to disturb those knights. Who protected me so.

…

Dreams played through my mind. Veiling the tiny little world of mine with nothing more than darkness.

There was no soul, no orb of light to guide my way. No, it was completely dark. As it was, and as it should be.

A void of nothing. Yet when my eyes opened, a hand reached against mine. A secret that should and could not be discovered.

"You've arrived." She spoke. 

And that flaming soul of hers lit the night. The void of nothing consumed with a great orb of firing. One that burst into petals of fire. 

"I have." 

I smiled and pulled her closer. Towards the crook of my neck. No matter if she was taller than me. I knew that she could not resist my touch.

Yet when I felt nothing, a touch and grope that I had expected. It was not there. She… had she pulled back.

"Abi-"

"No, I-" She turned herself against the fading night of souls. Where a symphony of lesser souls rose and fell. 

"Of course." I smiled. I knew what she meant, what her words had failed to say.

The reluctance in her parting back. Where she burned through dozens, only to fade into the background.

I ghosted my finger over the letter she had left. An introduction. One to meet with another. First thing tomorrow, at this same place. 

A knock echoed through the room. And I echoed back a confirmation, letting the knight that had so desired to enter, permission to do so.

"Is there any need that I may help with?" She asked, and I nodded my head.

"If you could…" I trailed off. My hand waving through the air, struggling for the words that I knew. But they failed to appear.

"Dress?" She asked.

"Yes, thank you."

"Of course, as it is an examination I will choose appropriate clothes."

I let go of my senses, leaning against the bed frame, hand draped over hand. All over the letter that had been written.

It was told that I was not to peak through it. That I was not to open the letter, merely give it to she who would guide me.

But curiosity beckoned and so too did my loose hand.

"Ah- Ah-" A voice spoke, spooking me and startling me from my focus.

"This is not for you, now stand."

I pouted, letting her dress me all the while. For as much as I could push and maybe persuade my way through that skull of hers. It would not be worth it.

Not the trouble.

That was why I let her dress me. In -according to her- a formal attire, pure white with a brushed down and straightened hair. To show off my cute side.

Whatever that meant.

And so I was ready. 

I let her take my hand in hers, guiding me down the stairs and into the lion's den. Where those of early countenance, who woke to the crack of dawn as I had, gathered. With a lecherous stare that I could feel through their very soul.

Sighing, I let her order a meal for me and her. She sat apart from me, all while I waited for my guide.