Chapter 3

Rumi chooses the seat to my right. I spot the pile of gifts next to him, but I make a point not to stare so I don’t appear greedy. Everyone else takes their cue from Rumi and shuffles between each other choosing seats on either side of the room.

Except for Sai that is. He stands behind Rumi, glaring at his back. Rumi for his part, acts like he doesn’t notice.

Per tradition, the person sitting to my right is meant to be the oldest male family member. But it’s an old tradition and no matter what side, my two favorite people are here with me. So, I pat the seat to my left and offer Sai a reassuring smiling.

He holds his stare for few more seconds before giving in. After grabbing a few gifts for himself, and, accidentally hitting Rumi on the head with a box, Sai slides into the seat on my left.

“Are yoo alright?” Rumi whispers to me. “Was it the voice?”

“Yeah, but I’m good.” I squeeze his hand under the table almost believing my own words.

If I wasn’t so adamant about not talking to the voice, I would ask it what it meant when it said I would die. But I’m stubborn, so I guess I’ll have to wait and find out.

Once everyone is sitting, I clear my throat. “First, I want to thank everyone for being here today. Cyra, Lady Auclair, thank you for hosting this event for me.” When I get two corresponding head tilts from Cyra and Lady Auclair, I continue. “Also, I saw the lantern. Whose should I thank for that?”

“The idea and purchase were done by the two sitting next to you. They were adamant about getting one made,” Doll explains.

I look to my right, then to my left. Neither Sai nor Rumi are willing to meet my gaze, but their expressions reveal that Doll’s telling the truth.

“You guys collaborated. For me?!” My voice pitches higher than I thought it could go. That lantern without contest will be my favorite gift of the evening.

However, as soon as I move pass the pure joy of having a lantern made for me, I can’t help but calculate the price. Dread crashes over me like an ice bath pulling all the air out of my lungs. Before when I thought it was a group effort, the weight of the price was lessened. But now that I know that it was just Rumi and Sai—

“Don’t worry about the price. It’s something that yoo wanted so just enjoy it.” Rumi offers, but it in no way consoles me.

“I got a job to earn money specifically for this, so don’t over think it.” Rumi scoffs at Sai’s statement earning a death glare from Sai. “What?”

“Don’t ask me to say what I’m thinking, because I gladly will.” Rumi’s voice is taunting, and there’s a threat that simmers behind his eyes.

I wave my hands up and down in both their directions to signal for them to stop fighting. “Alright, withdrawal. No fighting allowed today.”

As a way to change the topic, I ask Rumi to grab the first gift from the pile. Doll, recognizing her silver cloth wrapping, walks over to our side of the room. The tense air between everyone visibly lifts as she takes the gift from Rumi and presents it to me with an infectious smile I can’t help but return.

Carefully, I untie the cloth and reveal a leather pair of black flats. I breathe in the scent of leather and oil rising from them as my thumbs gently brush the sides of the shoes.

“I knew you wouldn’t splurge on some, so I got you a pair.” Doll says this nonchalantly, but this isn’t some small gift. If I had to guess, these shoes likely cost her three months of pay.

“This is real leather Doll. And they’re new.”

Doll waves her hand signaling my concern is unnecessary. “It’s your coming-of-age ceremony. If there was ever a time to get you something nice, it’s now.”

I smile pushing down my unease at accepting such an expensive gift and thank her. As Doll goes back to her seat, Sai retrieves the shoes I’m clutching to my chest and helps me put them on.

They slip on my feet like they were made for me. There’s no slight pinch on my toes or uncomfortable pressure on the sides of my feet. And the callous skin on my heel created after years of my shoes being a bit too tight is no longer an extra level of protection my feet need. It’s only for the sake of my make-up that I’m not crying.

“Alright, if you spend too long looking at those shoes, you won’t finish going through those gifts until Dia’s coming-of-age ceremony,” Autumn jokes.

She’s right. So, I take a breath to steady myself and move on. This time, Sai holds out a gift from his pile. It’s Autumn’s, but she tells me to just open it without coming over like Doll did. I go ahead and read the name on the box out loud before untying the fabric wrapping. I gasp before shoving the gift back in the wrappings before anyone, mainly Sai, has a chance to view the contents.

“Autumn?!” I scream.

The laughter she’s likely been holding back for a while burst from her chest. “Well, as you said, you are an adult now. You’ll be needing those.”

Rumi snatches the wrapping from me and looks inside. “Nice color choice. I would have gone with a light pink instead of a blue, but I get the meaning behind it.”

Burying my face in my hands is the only thing I can do as Rumi waves the private undergarments intended for my use in the air for all to see. I peak at Sai and see that he’s lost all color in his face.

Great, another childhood memory to haunt him. No one wants to see the laced undergarments of their older sister. And now that we’re here, have I ever talked to him about this stuff before?

To my horrification, Sai ask me, “Are you supposed to wear that? But what is it supposed to cover?”

That would be a no.

I yank the undergarment from Rumi and stuff it and the cloth wrapping under the table. “Moving on.”

The glare on my face is provided to both Rumi and Autumn who are stifling laughs. This time, I select the gift. My eyes lock on a plain white box with a light blue ribbon tied on top. I see my name written in Honey’s handwriting and my gut tells me that this is the safest gift in the room.

After Honey’s gift, I open the next one. And for close to an hour, we work through the pile. The last gift is one that I was saving until the end per Kitten’s request. It’s a small jewelry box with my name written on the bottom. The whole room seems to hold their breath as I expose what lays inside.

Blue green stones in the shape of a tear drop dangle from silver ear cuffs. When I hold the earrings away from my shadow to inspect the stones closer, it’s no longer a single color. The stones change from blue to silver to green, and every shade that’s in between. Each time a flame dances, the coloring becomes a bit different. Doll is the first person to approach.

“Tears of the sea. I’ve never seen them in person before.” Doll pulls my hand close to her face so that she can get a better look at the earrings. “The tales say that these jewels were quite literally formed from the Divinity of Water’s tears.”

Rumi holds out his hand, and I place one of the earrings into his palm. “I haven’t seen one since—” Rumi doesn’t finish his sentence, but there’s no need to.

“I brought a few with me when I left Cope Nilea,” Kitten confesses as if what sits in front of me isn’t one of the rarest stone in the world.

I turn towards the left side of the room where she’s sitting. Pulling myself off my floor pillow, I crouch low letting my forehead touch the ground. “From the depths of my heart, thank you. May the Divinity of Water grant you prosperity.”

Kitten doesn’t look at me or respond to my blessing. The gift alone though says everything that needs to be said. Kitten whose always been the toughest person I’ve known, will never openly say it, but I know she misses her home. Probably more than I can ever grasp.

Her family, people, everything that made her who she is has disappeared from this world. If that happened to me, I might just break.

Kitten clears her throat before saying, “the story in Cope Nilea says that if you keep a jewel with you, you’ll always have the Divinity of Water’s blessing. And if you get lost, she’ll always lead you back home.”

Autumn’s scoff echoes through the room. The next sound we hear is from Doll slapping the back of her head.

“Yeah, well worst-case scenario, sell them and you’ll make a fortune,” Kitten provides in a half-hearted chuckle.

Autumn physically deflates over Kitten’s words. “You can’t sell a sacred jewel. It’s priceless.”

“Oh, I assure you they have a price, and it’s high.” Doll replies still looking over my shoulder observing the earrings with a worrying amount of interest.

I close the box preparing to place it with the rest of the gifts when Sai grabs the back of my neck. He forcefully shoves my head under my table just as he falls flat to the ground beside me. Less than a second later, the first bullet pierces the wall and flies right over my head.