"Young Master! Young Master, where are we going, the Mistress said not to leave the manor without a servant!"
"Well I'm bringing you along, aren't I?"
"I don't think Mistress meant that…"
Stopping so suddenly that the younger boy ran straight into his back, fifteen-year-old Roman Sinclair turned to fix his ten-year-old friend and servant with an impatient stare.
"If you're so scared, Kevin, why don't you just go back to the manor first?"
"No!" Startled by his own outburst, the younger boy bit his lower lip.
Kevin knew that if Mistress found out that he had let the Young Master go out to the city alone, he would be lucky to get away with just a beating. And Kevin would never forgive himself if something happened to the Young Master when he wasn't there.
Gaze softening, Roman held out his hand. "Come on, then. We'll go together. It'll be fine." When Kevin hesitantly placed his own hand in his, he tightened his grip and gently tugged the smaller boy forward. "Mother is taking her afternoon nap and I told the maids that we'll be playing in my room and not to disturb us. We just have to make sure to be back by the time Mother wakes up. No one will know. All I want is to just go out to the city for a little while. We're in the capital Sablier, Kevin, you can't tell me that you aren't curious about it at all! You know we won't have a chance otherwise. Mother will want me to go with her to visit all her friends and attend those stuffy parties. And she would never let you come with me. So if we want to explore the city, the real Sablier, we have to do it ourselves."
He glanced back at the younger boy. "Anyway, I told you to call me Roman, didn't I? You're going to spoil our disguise calling me Young Master like that, especially after the trouble I went to exchanging these clothes with the stable boys. Got it?"
"Yes, Youn- I mean, Roman," Kevin stuttered.
Roman smiled. "That's better."
They continued in silence for a while, skirting away from the main roads where they would run the risk of being stopped by passing carriages, instead taking a winding route through the forest. Roman's steps were quick and sure even though no path marked the way.
But when Roman took a turn that led them not to the busy cobbled streets of Sablier but to a quiet garden that was clearly part of some nobleman's estate by its pristine lawn and neatly clipped shrubs, Kevin knew something was off. He tugged nervously on the back of his friend's shirt.
"Young Mas – R-Roman, what are we doing here? I thought we were going to the city…"
The older boy hardly seemed to hear him, eyes faraway.
"The lights, they've been calling me to this place all along," Roman murmured, steps never faltering despite Kevin's efforts to make him turn back. "I've found it at last…"
As he spoke those words, they emerged in a clearing filled with light and it was there that Roman finally stopped. Hands slowly unclenching from Roman's shirt, Kevin looked up.
There was a man standing in the middle of the clearing – a tall man with wavy hair black like the night, slim figure draped in an equally dark coat. Mourning clothes, Kevin thought immediately, that endless black that seemed to suck the light from the day.
But when the man turned his eyes were golden, such a colour that they seemed to glow in the reflection of the sun. Gold, the same colour as the droplets of light that hovered over the world, the ones that only he and Roman could see. Those lights danced around the man now, similar yet so different from the sunlight.
"Mister, do you see the drops of light too?" Kevin blurted out impulsively, even though it was to a stranger. Because someone with eyes like that, could surely see those specks of light of the same gold.
Cool fingers feathered against his cheek, brushing away the messy locks that shaded his eyes. Red eyes, the eyes of a Child of Misfortune. Only Roman had never looked at him differently for it, had accepted him as a friend and servant, had made Kevin promise that he would become his knight. Roman, and now this man, who smiled ever so kindly and gently as he answered, yes he could also see the drops of light. Just like them.
"It's nice to meet you, Roman, Kevin. I am Glen Baskerville."
But Kevin thought, even as the man smiled, that those beautiful golden eyes which should have been filled with light were the saddest that he had ever seen.