Worlds Away - Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven - Reflection

Albarasque was beautiful at sunset. Or rather, the capital, Di'alsol was breath-taking and magnificent. The entire capital city sprawled out around them, the center star of a desert oasis, and it was one of the most beautiful sites Ami had ever seen. During the day, an opalescent sheen covered the city; a shifting and changing rainbow-hued fire that blazed beneath the stones. And during sunset, the effect was even more spectacular. Every building, every rooftop, caught the red and orange hues and painted themselves with them, covering themselves in multi-colored cloaks.

Standing on the balcony, watching the sunset, had become one of her most favorite pastimes since her strange and still unexplained arrival in this world nearly two weeks earlier. This habit of hers was the one thing that was a constant in a world that she did not understand and yet found herself becoming more and more comfortable with each passing day. She stood here, every night, and drank in the beauty of nature while replaying the day's events in her head. During this time, her quiet time when Nynie left her to her own devices and even Sephrine did not bustle and flutter about in the background, she tired to make sense of it all; she tried to find some clue or some hint to how she had gotten here -- and how she would ever get home again.

Of course, most nights, nothing came to her. And this night was no exception.

Ami knew no more of how and why she was here tonight than she did any other night. What she did know was that with each passing day, this place became less and less strange to her. The halls of the Sun Palace were now nearly as familiar to her as the streets of London; the language of Albarasque sounded as common as English.

But the familiarity came slowly; the first few days had been an adventure to say the least.

First had been the great undertaking of the veils. Until her third day here, when she, Nynie and Sephrine had ventured beyond the walls of the Sun Palace and into the city proper, Ami detested the very idea that she would be made to hide her face, "for modesty's sake." Her opinion changed very quickly however when she realized the veils actually served a practical use - in a desert kingdom like Albarasque, the veils were a wonderful armor against the windblown sand. Perhaps that was why the women continued to wear them, and the custom remained strong even though in her first few days it became very clear to Ami that this was a matriarchal society.

Although Ami would admit to enjoying the protection the veil offered -- trying to understand the different types of veils -- was quite the undertaking when she was supposed to already be in possession of said knowledge. There were three types of veils -- four if one included the suldan, or the headscarf which covered the hair completely. The first was the kita, or the partial veil, usually made of lightweight lace dyed dark that wrapped around the head and draped the shoulders, covering only the nose and mouth. The second, the kitara, was made of the same material as the kita -- sometimes it was the kita -- only it covered the entire face, but was light enough that someone standing close to a woman could make out her general features. The fourth, the shoufa, was the most formal -- and thankfully, the least worn -- of all the veils. The shoufa was a heavy brocade lace, sometimes woven with silk and other materials, and draped over the entire head and shoulders, usually falling to the ankles; always dark in color, it could not be seen through and was quite stifling. The shoufa was reserved for young, unmarried women, priestesses, and important formal occasions such as funerals and worship services.

One minute in the shoufa had been fifty-nine seconds too long for Ami - and it had quickly made her decision that she would avoid leaving the grounds at all if it meant suffering in the shoufa for hours on end. At least within the Sun Palace, she could wear only the kita; although Nynie and Sephrine seemed to prefer the kitara any time when they were not alone in chambers. And in the privacy of her chambers -- and within the inner chambers, Ami was permitted to wear only the suldan.

Of course, standing on the balcony where anyone could catch sight of her meant the kitara, but that was a minor inconvenience. Anything to avoid the shoufa.

Veils aside, that had not been the only source of her adventures. The second had been the meeting of her parents -- and for the first time in a very long time, Ami actually missed her mother. For the first time since she could remember, Ami actually wished that the woman who was the reigning sovereign of Albarasque had been more like Sharon Jackson. Yes, her mother was overprotective and overbearing at times, but Ami understood that her mother's action came from love and fear. The Damia Reina, the woman who was her mother here -- or at least Amideira's mother -- was more of a stranger to her than the servants in the Sun Palace.

The Damia Reina -- Ami found it hard to call her "Mother," although it was the title that the woman preferred -- was a leader and queen in every sense of the world. She held herself with a regal poise and grace that Ami truly envied; but she also held her family -- which included her husband, the Regent, Ami, and Amideira's brother, Prince Calend'et -- at arm's length. Ami had seen no love when she looked into the Damia Reina's eyes; heard no love when the woman said her name.

That hurt in ways Ami didn't even want to begin to consider.

It didn't matter that her father was kind and loving, or that her grandmother let it be known in no uncertain terms that she cherished her grandchildren, the rejection by her mother -- correction, Amideira's mother -- hurt. The woman had shown little interest in her daughter, or the report that Amideira -- never Ami, always Amideira -- had taken ill. And she discussed the upcoming wedding with boredom and disinterest; more than disinterest really, reproach was more like it. The Damia Reina wished to have nothing to do with this wedding and clearly considered her part in it, which entailed leaving the country for nearly three months, a colossal waste of time.

It didn't help matters any that Prince Calend'et echoed his mother's sentiments and had spent the entire meal attempting to bait Ami and coerce her into an argument. The prince, with all of the knowledge and wisdom of his seventeen years, was more than happy to repeatedly enlighten his 'sister' on the barbaric practices of the Stibornians, and to remind her of how unhappy he was certain she would be away from the Sun Palace.

Ami required no great leaps in logic to discern that Amideira and Calend'et did not share the most loving of sibling relationships. Particularly when it was apparent that he looked forward to her leaving and to her marriage - with Amideira married and living in Stiborn, Calend'et would rule as regent until such time as Amideira provided a daughter to heir the throne -- or Calend'et procured a bride that gave him the same.

A race to throne for two siblings, but not by clawing at one another's backs. No, this race was a race for children, a race for an heir. The Damiar Princess had a leg up in the race -- after all, she would be married soon -- but that didn't guarantee an heir. Particularly if her husband did not appeal to her -- if he was all those things that the Stibornians were rumored to be.

Instinctively, Ami's hand rose to clutch the pendant at her throat. It was a thing of beauty, perfectly shaped and molded. Each time she touched it or looked at it, it gave her some small measure of peace. If she was to remain here -- playing a role that she had not chosen and pretending to be someone that she wasn't -- then it gave her some small comfort to think that the man who could fashion such a gift was not a rude, self-centered animal. A gift like this spoke of a soul and of depth; it spoke of passion and --

Ami snorted, dropping the pendant. Two weeks here and she was beginning to sound every bit the hopeless romantic that Sephrine was.

Worse than that, she was beginning to *accept* her fate.

That couldn't be tolerated.

Action was what she needed; action was what she took refuge in when she began to feel herself slip into the casual acceptance of circumstance. In this case, action took the form of quiet introspection followed by a gentle tapping into the soft flows of elemental power that surrounded them. Amideira was supposed to be a High Mage, and Ami figured that it was only a matter of time before she would be expected to put some of that talent to use.

But first, she had to tap into it.

The first time, she had been nervous. Ami didn't know anything about magic here -- it's rules or anything else. She questioned Sephrine as covertly as she could and then set about testing the waters that night in her bed. The results had been surprising -- she had felt something burning inside of her, coursing through her. Raw and untamed, trying to mold her to its whim while she tried to grasp what it was; pure power like nothing she had ever encountered. Pure power that eventually won out against her -- Ami awoke the next morning to a splitting headache, mild burns on her hands, and a thirst that she thought could never be quenched.

If she had wondered if she shared Amideira's ability to use magic, she wondered no longer.

She also wisely knew that to continue her 'experiments' unchecked would be very stupid and very dangerous.

Slowly, and with more covert skill than Ami knew she possessed, she wheedled some basic exercises out of Sephrine. Those basic exercises were now what she practiced quietly at night, alone in her room. And so far, since that first night, Ami had done nothing more than blow out her candles by accident - she couldn't even light a fire of her own accord.

But the night was young, and there were still two weeks before she set sail for Stiborn. Several days that she would be at sea. There was time to learn everything that she possibly could - just in case magic turned out to be the only way she could get out of this place.

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