Walking amidst intrigue

I stood within Theresia's kitchen, which sat horribly underused. Even in a home kept in a state of perfection, I could see the dust basking in the rays of sunlight that beamed through the drawn satin curtains.

The chopping noises against a wooden cutting board filled the open and quiet air of her home. Quickly and carelessly I chopped away at a vegetable I did not know the name of, and quickly and carelessy did I cut into my flesh in the same way.

Carnelian filled my sight like like pooling waterfalls upon the ground, and I stopped my heart in that moment to spare myself the ache of its beat.

In absence of thought, the knife I had been carelessly using had dragged itself through my flesh.

My eyes shuddered in the face of ruby, and I had to drop the knife lest my shaking hands force me to regardless. My breath grew thin, and in parallel my lungs ached.

More than that, my mind felt cloudy, and louder than it always had been. I knew then that there were more trains of thoughts than before, but in the face of my own blood, they were vague and dull.

I felt horrible.

"Agreste...?" A quieted voice spoke from the hall beside the kitchen.

Underneath the beams of sun, radiance emerged.

Over her carefully-sewn shirt of pearly-clouded white, she wore a black-buttoned bodice of midnight, and a pleated skirt that revealed the pillowy nature of her thighs which seemed more akin to a noble's than a playwright's.

In the face of Theresia, I wondered if I could still continue to tell myself I was okay.

She stood beside me with an abject face of worry, and as she tilted my head with her hand to meet her gaze, all I could do was try and smile.

But that lie was something that Theresia no longer fell for.

So, after she had helped bandage my wound, she did all she could, at least in ways that she knew how, to soothe my aching heart.

Theresia wrapped me in a blanket that seemed as it had been interwoven with soft, fluffy clouds, and then held me close as if to warm the damp cold of my emotions.

In her arms, upon the wooden-floor of her kitchen, I fell fast asleep.

And when I awoke, for a time she was gone, and I felt lonely in the softness of the blanket.

She came back to me, however, with a warm gentleness resting on her face.

“I’ve drawn you a bath, Agreste.”

The 'shower' I had once come to know of served dual-purposes, suspended high above a tiled pool of glimmering water, sootless in its appearance.

Steam permeated upon the ground, falling up towards the ceiling that stood the sky within the room. Even inside could you not escape the haze of Crelle, the lamplight of the ceiling illuminating it a bright, flamboyant orange.

Floating in the water, to my humour, was a bough of trimmed lilac flowers.

“A bath of lilacs…” I laughed softly. ‘Is this your humour? I learn so much of you from simple things…”

Slipping into the lilac-stained water, small bouts of warmth cascaded against my skin which sat prim and bare against the mirrored rippling surface.

I let out a sigh as I slid back against the carefully polished surface of the bath,

“Do I deserve this…?” I wondered in silence. “Can I really tell myself that…?”

I bit at my lips, and forced the words out of my mouth hesitantly.

“I deserve this…”

I sank back into the warmth of the water, and tried desperately to feel at peace.

///

“To think, deep within this city of iron and bronze, flora sits so peacefully…” I marvelled, looking high above my head where vines hung gently.

We had been taking a walk through the bronze city, and ventured into an alcove of iron where the world around me seemed to shift into a semblance of normalcy, at least for my mind which did not belong to the world of steel. The grass underneath my feet was a bright-emerald, and the dahlia's that blossomed amidst the foliage so vividly.

“The curators of this garden are from Esprium, the land where thorns and grass flourish.” Theresia smiled, her beaming expression as bright as the lanterns that were interwoven between the leaves of the canopy. “Kitsch was kind enough to get us in here, so we should thank him when we next have the chance…”

“A man with every seeming connection in the world, isn’t he?” I laughed.

We soon came to a tree that stood in the center of the garden, waving gently against the warm wind like a dancer.

It was a waving willow in the wind.

“What were you most surprised about, coming to this world?” Theresia asked of me.

“Just being in a world completely different to my own was a shock. However, how the seasons do not change very much was very surprising to me, above all else.”

Her face held a look of surprise in that moment.

"Will you tell me... of Earth's seasons?"

I thought for a moment before replying with a smile.

"The summers are hot, but not so much that the air would dry up. Autumn brings the leaves to pour down like rainfall in bright brown and yellow colours..." I spoke gently. “And in the winter, the emerald needles of the pines fall towards the earth, which had been lain bare with snowfall that had been threaded into blankets by winter’s loom."

“Snow? What is that?

“The clouds grow dark and gloomy, and the air sits so cold that the rainfall freezes and turns a glimmering pearl-white. It’s like an ocean of chilled clouds upon the soil.” I smiled softly. “When it touches against your skin, it bites cold, and the taste upon your lips is alike to nothing at all, for it is made of water.”

"I would like to see snow, I think." Theresia whispered.

"Then I will show it to you, as akin to starlight."

In response, she simply extended her hand towards mine.

“Did you know you need eight to ten minutes of physical touch to maintain physical and emotional health?” Theresia spoke with a smile. “So... will you hold my hand?”

There were many ways to hold hands. With her smaller hands, I could simply grasp the whole of hers with mine. At times we could interlock fingers, or I could hold her by the fingertips as if I was leading her somewhere.

But she was the one leading and directing my heart.

I took her calloused hand gently, and felt the constant warmth of her beautiful skin.

I wanted to try out every way of holding hands with her.