The Night Before

I was running through the streets, dodging passersby and carts alike, my heart thumping from my chest, my fingers tightly gripping a piece of parchment, as the evening sun started to glare into my eyes.

Eventually, I reached the entrance of the tavern where I put my hands on my knees and gasped for air like a fish out of water.

“Endurance, none,” I said to myself, as I fumbled for the door handle and barging in.

Otto seemed to be entertaining some customers so I rushed upstairs, my footsteps like thunder until I finally reached outside of Amber’s door, knocking like my life depended on it.

Amber hurried to the door, opening it and peering outside, but I barged indoors, fumbling onto the ground where I gasped for air, undoing my tie.

“YOU CAN’T JUST BARGE INTO MY ROOM-”

“I got it,” I muttered, waving the parchment in my hand.

“What?” she raised an eyebrow.

I stood back up, dusting my suit and rolling my tie around my fist, “what we have here, is proof of your existence.”

She snatched the parchment from my hand and went over to her bed to read it.

“You see, I spent all morning looking for any official document of your existence, your slavery; anything that might bring you in harm’s way.” I said, walking over to Amber.

“There weren’t any, even in a city like Luxion,” I took another deep breath, trying to calm my heart that seemed to have reached my throat, “so, I made new ones for you,”

She continued reading, her eyebrows wrinkled together, her eyes squinting at the text in front of her.

“As of now, you are officially Amber Aizawa. A traveler from the East, moving on behalf of Lord Remus’ request,”

She sighed and hit her head with the parchment a few times before turning towards me, nodding in slight disapproval.

“Care to explain why I have YOUR last name?” she sighed.

“Well, it’ll be easier to convince others that we were related and from the same place as to not arouse suspicion about your past so I thought that-”

“So, according to this document, we’re…what exactly?” she placed her face on her fist, gesturing to me to give an answer.

“Well,” I added, my voice a bit low and hesitant, “the document doesn’t really specify but like brother and sister maybe-

“BROTHER AND SISTER?” She roared, “BROTHER AND SISTER? HAVE YOU LOOKED AT YOURSELF IN THE MIRROR?”

“Rude,” I murmured.

“No-, “ she dropped her head again, clutching it with her hand, “I mean that any one with a pair of working eyes can see that we aren’t related, let alone siblings for heavens sake,”

I brought up a finger to respond, but the thought of what I was about to say made my face hot and I dropped my head in embarrassment and chose to remain silent.

Amber kept the parchment on her nightstand and covered her face in her hands again, her ears that poked out visibly red.

“So…” I finally broke the silence, kicking at non-existent dirt, “can you pack up by tomorrow evening?”

She threw the pillow behind me at her, signalling to me that it was my time to leave, which I promptly did, going into my room and lying flat on the bed.

The exhaustion of running around all day started to catch up with me as my eyelids started to get heavy and eventually, sleep took hold of me.

I don’t know how long I slept, but it was long enough for it to have grown dark outside as I woke to the sound of someone rapping my door impatiently.

I opened the door to find Amber in her nightgown, carrying a candlelight in one arm, her eyebrows tightly knit together and her lips pouted together.

“You could have opened the door quicker, you know?” she said, barging inside and placing the candlelight on my desk to face me, holding her right arm hanging down with her left.

“Look, I’ve given it some thought, and I-”

“Came to the realisation that we’re actually very alike and could pass off as siblings?”

She shot me an annoyed look, but chose to ignore my quip in its entirety, “I was thinking that if I do go with you, how can I be sure?”

“Sure of what?”

“Sure you won’t leave me and go off somewhere?” her expression softened.

“Where would I even go, Amber?”

“I don’t know…what if that lord takes a liking to you and he wants you to work with him forever and I can’t keep up with you anymore,” her grip around her arms tightening, her voice louder than before.

“I mean, it’s too late for that, he likes me enough to send me as an ambassador to the capital,” I chuckled before immediately being shot down by an annoyed look from Amber again.

I cleared my throat, “but don’t worry, there’s nowhere I’d go without you, and there’s no one that could possibly put up with me as well as you do.”

She let out a faint smile, but then her gaze shifted downwards, making me rethink my words for a second.

“You know, I told Lord Remus to prepare the documents, actually,” I said, showing her a parchment of my own, “we’re both diplomats, and we’re both going to be representing this city,”

I walked up to her and held her hand, “Listen to me, I want you by my side and I know you think it’s stupid, but I genuinely believe I came here to bring justice to all the people who had collars around their necks, to everyone who had their homes destroyed, families killed,”

She looked up at me, her dark eyes glistening against the candlelight as she held onto my hand firmly.

“I know,” she said, “and I genuinely do hope we can do it,”

“Hey, at least whatever we do, it’ll be together,”

She stood by me, in silence, her hand clasped around mine as the only sound that emitted from the room was the slow drip of the wax melting into the candleholder.