18th of Inandyl - 3rd Velron - Dusk

  When I get to our door, I’m disappointed when there is no answer to my knock. Even though I should know better by that empty silence, I am disappointed again when I peek my head inside to find it dark and still, the only light from the blush of twilight in the windows. Heaving a sigh, I enter, closing the door behind me and sulk to my bed where my mask box lay.

  I find Chou resting on it, her spindly legs outstretched to the front and back so her body is resting flat on the box top. Her wings move slowly open and closed to the rhythmic pulse of a soft aetheric glow at her core. I smile down at her “sleeping” form, feeling not so alone after all. I wonder idly for a moment if she really does sleep and dream like any other creature on Akeroth.

  As the blush of twilight fades, however, I know that I am running out of time before the festivities begin. So with reluctance I wake her gently by brushing my finger over her front legs. “Chou, I need my mask to get ready.”

  She hums to life, the patter of wings beat as if taking flight and her glow becomes more steady. Soft, sleepy trills emerge from her as she flutters her wings to test them. Once satisfied, she floats up to my shoulder, vacating the closed box with black and white ribbons.

  I mutter my thanks to her and she makes sleepy incoherent noises in response. I chuckle at her disorientation as I take the box and sit where it once was, placing it on my lap. “Shall we take a better look?” I’m asking more myself than Chou, but including her makes me feel a bit more brave as I untie the ribbons once more. Chou makes soft affirmation sounds as I open the plain white box. Removing the cover, I reveal the mask inside.

  I still think it an odd little thing, this black feathered eye mask with a small beak protruding at the nose. The feathers are mostly jet black but when I pick it up to examine it more closely, some of them reflect a dark green or blue depending on the sheen in the low light. They are quite beautiful in a simple way and it is easy to imagine all but my jaw covered in shiny black feathers that extend beyond my face at the temples.

  I turn it over again in my hand carefully. While I can tell by the mana it holds that it is enchanted, I feel a bit let down by how plain and, well, ordinary it looks. This small thing is supposed to change all of me on the outside, right down to my toes, and I can’t help but wonder what will appear in the mirror when I put it on? Surely, something bird related with all the feathers. It is not lost on me that I might end up looking very much like the birds on my neck, but since everything about me should be completely different, I doubt that will matter much.

  I move the box to the floor as I continue to examine the feathered mask and ponder how the enchantment will work once I put it on. It’s a shame I couldn’t watch Cira put hers on. If I had watched the enchantment activate on her mask, I would have been able to see how the enchantment actually works. Glancing toward Chou, an idea springs to mind.

  “How does mana look to you, Chou?” I ask with not a small amount of interest as this hasn’t been a topic of any of our conversations thus far.

  She adopts a thoughtful posture that she must have learned from observing others as it is far too human a gesture. “Is mana the word you use for quintessence?”

  I blink in shock, where had that come from? And what is quintessence? “Uh, maybe.” I respond intelligently. I set the mask on my lap and spindle some leyline energy from one of the lines nearby. I am careful not to manifest it, but instead wrap it delicately around itself in a little ball of potential. “This stuff.”

  Her wings flutter as she takes off from my shoulder to land on my desk in front of me. “Oh, yes! This is quintessence from the World Tree!”

  “You can see it?”

  She trills excitedly, “Yes, of course! It is part of me, too.” Her two middle appendages rub the metal casing where her core is held like a child holds their plump stomach after a large meal.

  It is my turn to find a thoughtful posture as I dissipate the unused mana and a litany of implications flit through my mind at this new information. A quick glance at the darkening sky, though, has me flustered for lack of time. I point toward Chou, “I will come back to that conversation, but for right now, I want you to watch what happens to the mana—uh, quintessence, when I put this mask on.”

  She nods at me in her enthusiastic way, watching me intently to see what will happen.

  Even though I had asked her to watch, her gaze honestly makes me a bit nervous. I stand up with the mask, trying to dissuade the sudden wave of anxiety. I take a big breath before muttering, “Here goes nothing,” and place the mask on my face at the bridge of my nose.

  I feel the enchantment activate as soon as it touches my skin. The mask itself affixes to my face, but thankfully feels nothing like the silk-like substance over my eyes from the lectern. My arms wrap around myself, an instinctive reaction from the simultaneous hot and cold sensation that courses through my entire body in ripples and waves. Every now and then it is more like a lightning strike and a gasp of breath is forced from me at the sudden, shocking vibration. While it is not altogether unpleasant, it is not exactly comfortable, either. Especially the red hot burning sensation that undulates from the mark on my neck.

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  Just as suddenly as it had come, the waves and pulses of surging energy abate. I clutch at my chest to feel my heartbeat slow as I find Chou hovering close to me now.

  “You have…changed.” Her breezy voice resonates in the space between us and I straighten from my hunched-over position to look down at myself.

  Where once I was wearing comfortable cloth pants and a loose fitting top a moment ago, I now find myself in much different attire. I feel at my neck where a collar of black feathers encompass all the way around and note the similarity in texture to my mask. The gown I now find myself in has a black bodice with boning like a corset and I revel in this tightness in my posture, having never experienced it before.

  The sleeves, if that is what they are, drape off my shoulders with thin layers of lacy, black, nearly transparent fabric that billow and flow with the slightest movement. The sleeves end in a cuff of black feathers to match the mask and collar, hiding the back of my hands in the soft, dark down.

  To match the top, the long skirts are made from a similar textile to the sleeves, but more opaque, and layered in such a way that the color fades from black at the top to white at the bottom in a jagged, alternating pattern. A sense of awe fills me as I touch the flowing tulle skirts to find that they are not an illusion, but that the attire is well and truly real. What I must look like, I cannot even fathom as I know this is finer than any gown I have seen in any shop in Tranmere.

  I move to my desk, Chou dodging out of my way as I nearly trip from the black, heeled shoes I am now wearing. Have I ever worn such a thing before? If so, I can’t recall it. Searching the drawers of my desk quickly, I find my hand mirror, a gift from my mother on my twelfth name day, and I brace myself for what I will see.

  Holding it up to my face, the first thing I see is the mask covering from my nose to my forehead. Turning my head, I find that my hair, while the same, normal blond color, has changed in tone and been swept up into a beautifully messy updo with braids and feathers mixed in. A few loose strands hang free as if I have just come in from the wind; as if I could fly. I wince when I notice that the bird-shaped mark on my neck is not only still there, but with my hair fully up and off my neck, is plainly visible.

  Other than the mark, I appear nothing like myself. Even my face shape and eyes have changed in subtle ways so as to be distinctive from the real Serea under the enchantment. I look graceful and elegant for maybe the first time ever, like a real lady. I gaze in wonder and awe at the transformation even with the mark still visible. I find Chou again who has followed me to the desk, hovering beside me. “What did it look like?”

  Her legs twitch awkwardly and her voice has a shake to it, “I’m not too sure… There was quintessence and something else. Swirling. Mixing. Mingling. All around you…”

  “Something else?” I ask straightening and feeling taller as I find my balance in these shoes.

  “…Something… old.” There is a note in her voice like fear.

  I feel my skin shift under the mask which remains in place as I frown. “Do you think it has something to do with the change? Cira says my aura will change, too, though I don’t know how to read those like she can.”

  This idea seems to perk up Chou’s mood, her voice becoming her regular kind of breathy. “Oh, yes! That seems older, too, and would explain the strange color!”

  “What strange color?”

  “The p-pa-par—“ she stops short, as if trying to recall something. As if her memory were old at all! “Purple? It is a strange color.”

  I lift up my arms, black sleeves billowing over pale skin, trying to see a purple color without success. “Like the energy of lightning? That purple?”

  Chou trills sadly, body fluttering in a wayward pattern. “No, not like that. It is older. It is deeper.”

  As I try to puzzle out her cryptic words, my eyes are drawn to the last drops of red fading through to blue in the sky and I receive a sudden surge of urgency. With it comes an explosion of what is to come that I had not considered before.

  All these thoughts bring a rush of understanding that I did not have before putting on the mask. A compilation of all the events of the day which suddenly makes sense. The mask has made me different and it will be the same for everyone else at the Masquerade. Who would we meet tonight that we would not have if we were in our own skin? This is what all the girls were trying to tell me during our lunch which leads me to another topic from our conversations.

  Munsa said Cira wants to find love tonight and my cheeks heat with the thought. Everyone we meet tonight will be mysterious and familiar all at the same time, won’t they? The scribes we know and don’t know, all under this shroud of anonymity. Would Cira really be able to find a mysterious romance this way?

  In the same vein, I idly wonder if Zhenya and Mazron would even be able to find one another. But, I suppose they would if they put on their masks together. Surely, they did this. It is hard to believe that they could be out of each other’s arms for so long for this not to be the case. I wonder, too, if I will recognize them just based on their behavior when yet another epiphany comes to me. My focus shifts to Chou, my gaze uneasy.

  “You have to stay here, Chou.” I blurt as the thought comes to me.

  She reacts with two of her spindly legs clasping over where her mouth would be if she were a living creature before she slowly descends, floating down to the desk. “Oh…” Her usually bright and airy voice has taken on a melancholic tone.

  I wince at the rejection she must feel. “I’m sorry, Chou, but look at me! I’m—“ I pause not knowing what to say exactly, grasping for the right word, “I’m changed, like you said. No one will know who I am, which is what Cira said is the point of this whole event.”

  I gulp down a lump in my throat that she won’t be there by my side. “If I take you with me,” I continue softly to Chou, a feathered hand reaching out to comfort her, “others would know it was me, just from your presence.”

  Chou takes my fingertip in her thin front legs and holds it close to her little body in a hug. “Please take care of yourself… ” She bleats, disappointment still heavy in her breezy tone like a cloud with light rain.

  I smile at her sullenly, still trying to be a comfort and bid her a fond farewell until I return. She lets me go and I stride gracefully to the door, exiting the room into whatever this night has in store for me.