Chapter 8: La Vie En Rose

Dear Blumiere,

Happy birthday! I hope you have a great day with your friends and family. Things have been more of the same for me lately. I learned a new spell the other day. Now, I can float in the air for short periods. My mentor, Coda, says I need to keep at it to stay up longer. Maybe, I can even start flying eventually! Wouldn't that be cool? Sometimes, with all my studies, it's hard to stay in touch with my friends from home. That's why it's so nice to send you these letters, even if they are short. I'm glad that we're friends. You bring me so much comfort and a perspective that's unlike any other. I wish we could see each other more often, but since we can't, I look forward to the one night each week that we can spend together.

From, Timpani

Blumiere smiled a little as he read the letter. It had been nearly three weeks since he and Timpani had agreed to start writing to each other. He was surprised at how quickly it became part of his routine. Her letters were the first thing on his mind each morning, and sending his own was a must before bed each night.

Knowing Timpani had been a new experience entirely. Blumiere felt light and happy in a way that he hadn't before. He could deal with Father's imposing presence during the day if it meant that he could write to her at night. It seemed that she was always on his mind in one way or another, and he had been trying to think of ways to impress her. If this was what friendship was like, Blumiere understood why people found it so enjoyable.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps, getting closer and closer to his room. Blumiere looked up, alarmed. He folded the letter, tucked it back in its envelope, and hid it under his pillow right before he heard a knock at the door. "Come in!"

Grandfather stepped inside with an expression on his face that was difficult to read. Blumiere grinned, hoping that he was just imagining things. "Good morning, Grandfather."

The tribe elder shut the door behind him and grabbed a chair. He set it next to Blumiere's bed before sitting down. "Good morning, Blumiere. And happy birthday…"

The younger man furrowed his brows. "Is something wrong?"

Grandfather sighed. "You've been…making good use of your early birthday present, haven't you?"

Blumiere's eyes widened. "W-What? I mean…what are you talking about? I've only used it once."

"Don't lie to me. Now and then, I hear noises coming from your bedroom at night. Whenever I go to check on you, you're not in your room. And just last week, when I looked in your closet, the cloak was gone too."

The lord felt his cheeks grow hot, abashed. "Did Tock tell you?"

"Not directly. I had to question him, but he confirmed my suspicions eventually."

Blumiere sighed. "Listen, I've just gone to see my new friend a few more times. That's all."

"That's all? Blumiere, what if your father finds out about this?"

"He won't. Besides, you're the tribe elder. Can't you overrule his judgment?"

Grandfather frowned. "He's the leader of the Tribe of Darkness, Blumiere. His judgment trumps mine. Besides, you know that he seldom listens to me."

"But you said I was old enough to make my own decisions!"

"I did not mean that you should make poor decisions, over and over."

Blumiere narrowed his eyes. Even while knowing the risk he was taking, he wouldn't think of seeing Timpani each week as a poor decision. Quietly, she said, "She's my only friend…"

"That's not true. You have friends."

"Yes, but the ones I have are all family members or someone whose parents happen to do business with mine. I mean real friends."

"The ones you have are more than enough for you."

"Easy for you to say…" The 18-year-old muttered under his breath.

"Blumiere, please stop. Just stay here, where it's safe. Your father will lift his punishment for you in due time. Don't make the situation worse by provoking him further."

He sighed, looking away. Blumiere had hoped that for one moment, he had found someone who would be willing to help him. It seemed he was wrong. "You're just like him…"

Grandfather went quiet at that. "Blumiere…"

He jerked his head back towards him. "Alright, you win. I won't see her anymore. Are you happy now?"

Grandfather was about to reply when another person opened the door. Mother walked in with a mug full of steaming liquid and some brioche with butter and jam. She grinned. "Bon anniversaire, mon petit amour," She said to her son.

Blumiere couldn't help but smile at that. "Merci, Maman."

Mother set the mug and plate on the nightstand, then turned to her father with a worried look on her face. "Papa, you're supposed to be in bed."

Grandfather stood, a playful smile dancing on his lips. "What? I can't wish my grandson a happy birthday?"

She sighed. "Just go lay down, please."

The tribe elder nodded before looking back at Blumiere. "As I was saying, happy birthday, Blumiere. I hope that you have a wonderful day today." He started to leave the room, but before he could, Grandfather broke out into a coughing fit. Blumiere's eyes widened. He hadn't noticed how hoarse his voice had been until hearing those rough, dry coughs. Nevertheless, the older man recovered quickly and left the room.

Once he was gone, Mother sighed. "Your grandfather hasn't been feeling too well as of late. Sadly, he won't be able to join us today for your birthday celebration."

Blumiere looked at the door, ashamed for how he just spoke to him. "Is that why he wasn't at the last tribe meeting?"

Mother nodded. "Thankfully, it's not too serious. Layla says he just needs more rest and exercise. Now, go on and eat. We have a big day ahead of us."

The rest of the day was a blur of birthday wishes, sweet songs, and laughter. Blumiere received plenty of gifts from his family, including new books, sheet music, and clothing made by hand. It was nice to have one leisurely day and yet it wasn't the same without Grandfather. Blumiere hoped that he would start feeling better soon.

The celebration with the other nobles took place that afternoon. This was the first public event that Blumiere had attended with a certain young woman at his side. He had proposed to Arianna the other day while she was visiting the castle. Father was pleased, even if it had been done in a more private setting than he would have preferred. As such, he allowed Blumiere to have his public celebration outdoors.

While the young lord was thankful for this, he couldn't help but worry about Arianna. Most people were genuinely happy for the new couple and gave their congratulations, but other women their age glared daggers at her. It was as if they were saying with their eyes, Why did he choose you? Blumiere made sure to keep an eye on his fiance. He couldn't stand the thought of her getting hurt because of him.

Even with the tribe's future chief at her side, Arianna still noticed all the harsh looks and grew anxious. "I don't like this," She whispered. "It feels like everyone is looking at us."

Blumiere grabbed her hand. "Ignore them. Just focus on me."

"Okay…" Turning to look at him, she asked, "Are you sure you picked the right woman for this?"

He couldn't help but chuckle at that. Blumiere never thought he would meet someone more reserved than him, yet here she was. "You doubt yourself too much, Arianna."

"Hmm…I suppose you're right."

The noblewoman grew quiet again. She looked down at the ground, biting her lip. Trying to find an easy distraction, Blumiere looked at the dance floor and had an idea. "Arianna, do you know what I just realized?"

She looked up at him. "What?"

"You were one of the few potential suitors I didn't dance with that night. I'd like to make up for that now, if that's alright with you," He said.

Arianna blinked, taken back, before a small smile appeared on her face. "That sounds lovely." With that, the two were off.

When they arrived at the dance floor, the area seemed to clear just for them. Noticing this, Arianna took a deep breath before smiling once again. Blumiere took her hand and put his own around her waist before leading her in the dance.

It was a breezy day, yet nice for a November afternoon. There was serene music playing in the background. For that moment, it was just the two of them. The atmosphere was perfect for a romantic moment, yet Blumiere still didn't feel the spark that he had been trying to incite for weeks now. He scolded himself mentally. What is wrong with me?

"Blumiere, can I ask you a question?" Arianna asked, taking him out of his thoughts.

"What is it?"

The lady looked down, her cheeks turning plum. "I know this whole arrangement wasn't your idea, but…we will be together for the rest of our lives." She looked up with a new optimism in her eyes. "So, we might as well make the best of it, right?"

His eyes widened. In the few weeks that they spent together, Blumiere hadn't mentioned his predicament with love to her. On one hand, it was obvious why he kept that kind of information from his fiance, but at the same time, a conversation like that would have prevented this sort of thing from happening. He swallowed hard, his throat made of cotton. "Are you wanting to pursue that kind of relationship?"

She grinned. "I am. I don't think I ever really got over my five-year-old crush on you. Besides, out of all the women at the ball that night, you picked me. That has to count for something, doesn't it? We can make this work, can't we?"

Not knowing what else to do, Blumiere gave a shy grin. "Only time will tell."

Arianna's smile widened. During the rest of the dance, her movements became energetic and certain. Blumiere couldn't help but feel for her, knowing her feelings weren't reciprocated.

The following night, Blumiere decided to meet Timpani on his own, without Tock's guidance. If Grandfather could get the Pixl to reveal the truth with little questioning, then surely Father could do the same. Besides, he had been to their hill a few times by now. Unlike the first time he went to visit, he had an idea of where to go. Even so, Blumiere kept the cloak with him, as it was too valuable to leave behind.

Leaving without Tock wasn't the only risk he was taking. At some point in their writing, Timpani had mentioned that it was getting colder and colder, and soon it wouldn't be comfortable to be outside anymore. Her solution? He would come to her mentor's house each week instead.

At first, Blumiere was against it. What would Coda say if he saw him, a tribesman of darkness, staying at his house? However, Timpani explained that he would be out that day. Apparently, his sister-in-law just gave birth, so he left her with some work to do on her own while he went to give her and his brother his congratulations. That meant that this time, Blumiere could visit with no repercussions. (As for future meetings, Timpani would ask her mentor about doing assignments by herself on Sundays.)

The lord knew that the safest option would be to turn down Timpani's invitation and miss one of his weekly meetings with her, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Seeing her in person made him even more content than reading her letters. So, he went to their hill as normal, then followed Timpani back to her mentor's house. Once they were there, she stopped at the front steps. "Well, here we are."

"It's less spacious than I remember…" Blumiere remarked.

Timpani shrugged. "It isn't a whole lot, but we make do." She unlocked the door and stepped inside. As the tribesman followed, the human muttered under her breath, "Where is that light-switch? Ah, here it is."

With that, Blumiere heard a soft click before the entire room went bright. He jumped, looking around. Timpani furrowed her brows. "What's wrong?"

He didn't answer, his mind eager to find an explanation for the sudden change in the environment. When he realized what this power was, Blumiere turned to Timpani in disbelief. "You didn't mention you have electricity here."

The young woman blinked. "Well, we do. Your tribe doesn't have any?"

"No, we have it. However, it's more of an…experimental thing for us. We have street lights near the castle and we've begun using electric motors for things like running the printing press." He looked around, in awe. "Nothing like lighting whole rooms…"

She furrowed her brows. "Wait, so the castle really has no light at all?"

"Well, that's not necessarily true. A lot of the time, we use magic, like I did to see your photos the other day. Sometimes, the servants use kerosene." His eyes wandered around the room before he noticed a blocky switch and walked over to it. "Is that the switch you used?" Before she could even reply, he began flicking it on and off. The lights obeyed the switch's every order, turning on when the switch was up and fading to darkness when it was down.

Timpani chuckled. "We have plenty of more things like that. Come on." With that, she half-led, half-pulled him away from the switch.

It turned out that humans had much more than electric lights and colored photos. Timpani showed him other advanced devices that he could only dream of back home, including a large unit that kept food cold for weeks or even months on end without the need for ice, a small device with an odd, twisted cord that allowed people to talk to each other from hundreds of miles away, and a compact box that transmitted moving images and sound.

Is it possible that the tribe could have this too, if we weren't so distant from the rest of the world? Blumiere wondered. However, a mere moment later, the treachery of the thought made him grow tense and he did his best to shove it down.

The last thing that Timpani showed him was a black compact device from her room. It was smaller than the moving picture screen, but still dense. "This one is my favorite out of all the things I've shown you." She set it down and then opened a thin case, pulling out a shiny silver disk. "This is a CD. This little disk has all the information it requires to play music. Coda says he got this one while visiting a faraway dimension. It just needs a CD player." She pulled the compact device closer to her and patted down on its surface. "And this is my CD player!"

Blumiere tilted his head. "I don't understand. How is that tiny disk supposed to play music?"

"Here, I'll show you." She inserted the disk in the CD player's slot. The machine sucked it in, and all was quiet for a moment. Then, to Blumiere's astonishment, it began to play a song. He stared in awe; that small, thin disk somehow had a singer's voice and accompaniment rolled into one.

When the vocalist began to sing, he was surprised to find that the song was not in English, but French. "What is this song called?"

"La Vie En Rose," Timpani replied. Smiling a little, she added, "I don't speak French, so I can't quite understand the lyrics…but I've always found the language beautiful."

For the next few minutes, Blumiere listened to the song with her, taking in its meaning. If he saw the lyrics on paper, he would've dismissed it as too sappy. However, there was just something about the singer's delivery and the atmosphere of the song that made it resonate with him. When it was over, Timpani asked, "So…what do you think?"

Blumiere turned to look at her. "I like it. It is a very sweet song. It's about how when you fall in love, you see life through rose-tinted glasses."

Timpani's eyes widened. "Wait…You know French fluently?"

He nodded. "My mother taught me. I've always found the language beautiful, too." After a moment, he sighed. "It must be nice…"

"What is?"

"Falling in love," He explained. "I've never felt that way about any girls in the Tribe of Darkness."

Timpani hesitated. "Not even…Arianna?"

Blumiere shook his head. He had mentioned his engagement in one of his letters. The concept of marrying for convenience still bothered Timpani, even now. The heir didn't understand why it affected her that much. She wasn't the one in an arranged marriage, after all. "She has feelings for me, but I don't for her," He explained. "Still, I've already accepted that I won't fall in love with anyone, so at least my fiance is someone I could be friends with."

Timpani frowned. She looked away, rubbing her hands idly, before asking, "Are you sure you won't fall for anyone?"

He shrugged. "Even if I did, I wouldn't be able to do anything about it. I'm already betrothed."

The woman nodded. They didn't say anything for a while after that. A different song was playing now, but it was clear that neither of them were really listening to the music anymore. Blumiere knew talking about the engagement bothered Timpani, so he decided to shift the focus to something else. "That's how we met, you know."

She looked up with furrowed brows. "Huh?"

"You and I met because of the engagement, albeit indirectly," Blumiere elaborated. Then he explained everything to her, how he tried leaving his all because of his own selfish desires. He remembered being at the cliff base that night and chuckled at the memory of seeing what he thought was his tribe in the fog; in hindsight, it was really the human village that he was looking at. Finally, he told her how he fell from the cliff and that he was at the house the next thing he knew.

"I still think it's a shame that you can't marry for love," Timpani said.

"Don't worry about me. I'm doing the right thing for my tribe and my family. Besides, it was foolish of me to think that I had control over my fate."

What happened next surprised him. Timpani scooted closer to him and put her hand on top of his. Smiling, she said, "Well…I'm glad you did it."

"Why's that?"

She looked into his eyes and tightened her grip on his hand, just a little. "Because I had the chance to meet you."

Blumiere's eyes widened. The two stared for a while. Timpani's smile was so sweet and sincere that he felt a strange warmth in his chest. Was it happiness? Excitement? No, it wasn't quite either of those. All Blumiere knew was that he felt safe and cared for, and he really liked that feeling.

Abruptly, Timpani stood and cleared her throat. It may have been his imagination, but he thought her cheeks looked a little pinker than before. "Anyway…that's about everything. Unless you want to watch something. I don't think the TV channels are playing anything this late at night, but I could pop in a movie."

Blumiere tilted his head. "What's a movie?"

"They're basically like TV shows, just a lot longer." She glanced at a pile of thin cases, next to the moving picture-no, the TV set. She sat down and held one up to show him. "If you look at the back of the case, it will tell you what it's about."

Blumiere took the case and turned it over. Based on the synopsis, it sounded like a typical romance novel brought to life. Although he normally wasn't interested in that sort of thing, he was curious to see how the story would unfold with humans acting it out. "Can we watch some of this?"

Timpani nodded. "I'll watch that one anytime. It's one of my favorites."

She opened the case, took out another silver disk, and put it into a device that looked similar to the CD player. After making all the necessary adjustments, she put the movie on and sat down on the couch, Blumiere joining shortly after. He enjoyed the first half hour or so of the movie before a soft, sleepy haze disrupted his concentration. The leather on the couch was comfortable, and it was nice having Timpani so close to him like this. Surely, it wouldn't hurt to let his eyes rest for a little while.

As he drifted off, Blumiere thought of the woman sitting beside him. He thought of the words she sent him on a near-daily basis and how they gave him the motivation to keep going. He thought of her eyes, her voice, her smile. He thought of her sweet laugh and how it seemed to make all the difficult things in his life fade away. His last thought was something impossible. It would be a sin in the Tribe of Darkness, one that his family would never forgive him for, and yet it was there all the same.

For the first time, he wondered what it would be like to have Timpani as more than just a friend.

Yes, my boi is finally admitting that he's in love. How will he balance obligation with his newfound feelings for Timpani? Things are getting interesting, for sure.

The song is "La Vie En Rose" by Edith Piaf. They're listening to the original song here, but I also love Annapatsu's French cover. I've listened to English covers too, but it just sounds better in French to me. (By the way, Laurette said "Happy birthday, my little love" in French, and Blumiere thanked her for it. Finally, 4 years of French classes in school came in handy.) Also, this is a tiny thing, but Blumiere didn't notice the lights/electricity before because he was mostly focused on his family and all the shame he felt about trying to run away. That, and the lights were off because it was really sunny that day.

I'm excited to get Chapter 9 out. That's when things will get really exciting. ;)

-Free

Note from 1/24/23: Made a minor edit. According to my notes, Blue's birthday took place on a Saturday so he would see Timpani and discover the wonders of human technology the following night instead of that same day.