Part I - Summer (Late) - "I took him to our secret place." (1/2)

The summer was already beginning to fade.

He could feel it in the way the sun set just a little earlier each night, how the air was growing cooler with each passing day. Soon his summer in Lazumere would be over, and he would have to head back to the Academy.

… Time was running out. He still hadn't asked Miyu's father what he needed to ask. He didn't know how to go about it. At night, he lay in his futon, idly twirling his handcrafted crystal engagement ring, trying to come up with a some kind of plan.

First off, Miyu's dad didn't even speak Common. When Yuka'd still been around, he had asked her to teach him some pertinent phrases—he couldn't ask Miyu, for obvious reasons—but learning languages had never been Cameron's strong suit.

And now, as he followed Miyu on this late summer morning up the slopes of the mountain behind Lazumere—the "tall hills" as she called them—her finger pointing out here and there dangerous spots to look out for (M: "Watch your step here. It's pretty steep. Here. Grab my hand." C: "How do you know this area so well?" M, winking: "It's a secret …")—he came no closer to figuring out how he was supposed to get Miyu's father's blessing to marry his daughter.

… Of course, with the way he was panting and sweating, it wasn't easy to think straight.

Miyu looked back at him, concerned. "Wanna stop for a break?"

"No," he panted. "Let's keep going."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. … But you still … haven't told me … where we're going."

Miyu smiled, brought a finger up to her lips, and winked.

"It's—a—se-cret."

And so they kept going.

About half an hour later, when they finally reached what looked to be the summit—a small clearing where the woods gave way to a plateau, the sun shining overhead—Miyu grabbed his arm.

"Miyu?"

She shook her head. "No, not there." She nodded toward the trees to their right, where a narrow break in the brush—barely perceptible unless you were looking for it—seemed to lead to a faint, barely-worn path. "That way."

And she took him by the hand, and guided him through the brush, the two of them emerging after a short distance into what could only be described as a sort of small, hidden glade along the side of the mountain, Cameron gasping at the sight before him: the sunbeams gently streaming in through the canopy above, the entire ground here carpeted not just in green but also in cerulean—yes, that same brilliant tint of crystal blue he was oh so familiar with—from the sea of azure wildflowers that dotted the grass, a flower he felt he had seen somewhere before, but couldn't remember where …

"Lazubloom," Miyu said. "They're really rare, you see. They don't grow so easily. There's just two places I know of where they grow, and this is one of them."

She sat down on a log, and gestured for him to join her. He did.

"Archie and I used to come here. Even before he got sick. It was our secret place. Just the two of us. We used to come here if one of us got yelled at by Mama for whatever stupid reason, like if we forgot to do our homework or something. Or we would come up here together if we just wanted to get away from everyone. Sometimes Archie would bring a book, and he would read, while I just sat here and listened to the sounds of the forest. Or other times we would just do nothing."

A bird chirped somewhere.

"We never told anyone about this place. Not even Elegia. It was our place, nobody else's. A hidden sanctuary where we could just be ourselves." She bent over, and plucked one of the blue flowers from the ground. "Lazublooms were his favorite. I remember, he used to pick these and press them in between his books, and use them as bookmarks." She smiled, at the memory.

"We weren't related by blood, you know. My parents adopted him. He was an orphan from the Kingsdusk Rebellions. … I was still young when all that happened, so I don't remember much. Everybody shielded me from the horrors as much as possible. They were all scared, you see, because—you know, in times of elfen wars, back in the olden days … They would kidnap avatars like me, or force them into war. To fight, yes—the ones who could fight. But for those who couldn't, it was enough to … 'borrow' our spiritual power. To repurpose our divine connections, to serve their own twisted machinations. Because after all, we're attuned to the deities we embody. … Well, I don't know if they still do that in this age, but …" She trailed off, thought for a bit. "… Anyway, Lazumere wasn't much affected by the Rebellions, even if it was a terrible time for the elfen countryside in general. Famine. Civil war. Coups nearly every week throughout the Kingdom."

Cameron listened, not sure what to say. Not sure if he should say anything at all.

"… I still remember when he first came to our home. It was the first time I had ever seen anyone with red hair." She laughed, remembering. "But we became close pretty quickly." She picked at a spot on the log. "… When Archie first got sick, when he could still make the climb—he would come here a lot. And it always made him feel better. The forest is kind, Cameron. It heals. … Later on, when he got worse, I would still bring him flowers from up here. Papa noticed the flowers I brought, and even he tried his best to grow them in his garden. … Eventually he succeeded, but not until after Archie—… Yeah. He never got to see them grow in our garden, in the end. But I'll pluck them for him, from the garden. And place them on his altar. I think … I think he would've liked that."

(… Oh. So that's where he had seen the flower before.)