Page 34 of The Cerulean Sister
When I open my eyes again, I spot a curious package on his desk, one I did not notice before. The black box looks out of place and about the size of my palm with no dust on top of it like the items surrounding it.
"That's for you, Priestess,"he whispers in my mind.
"What is?"
He laughs just a little and reaches for the package, a tiny morsel in his hand.
"Is this the thing Lady Anne said was delivered?" I run my finger across the fine fabric holding it closed.
"It is." He looks unsure as I take it from him.
The bow is a velvet ribbon remarkably close to the color of my light, which Lady Anne has never seen, so 99 must have been the one who requested this color. I picture him ordering such a specific bow in his stiff, stoic way of speaking, a task that would be normal to another person but painful but well intended for him.
I crack open the box and can feel him watching my face as I work. There, nestled inside a soft velvet bed, is a metal fern pin the length of my smallest finger, the light catching it just right and showing off the expertly carved fronds dancing in an elegant gold cast.
"It's beautiful."
"I saw it at the market, reminded me of you."
The symbol of a fern is not something I would think to associate with myself. A pen, a book maybe, and before perhaps an altar candle. A fern reminds me of Frith, Calliape running through them, her elegant lines.
Suddenly, my overthinking comes to a halt and I'm transported back to Frith. In the moss-covered ground withferns sticking out of the green sponge, I can see myself walking and glancing back to smile at him as we hike the mountain.
99 is showing me a memory through his eyes as I watch myself lying in the field of ferns when he came back from scouting that day, my light unfurling from my hands like a fern frond blooming before I knew he was there. Then a vision of me running to him as he reached out.
I sway at the memory of crashing into him in an embrace, ferns brushing against my legs.
"I love it." I try to form more words to express how I am feeling but fail, too stunned by the gift and the intention behind it.
"Turn for me," he whispers.
I try not to let the tears brimming in my eyes spill over as I look up at him. I don't want to turn away even for a second and miss his expression. But he is waiting, so I reluctantly turn to the side for him to place it in my messy hair. He gently finger-combs through a piece and intentionally places it in a section, sweeping it back.
The fern is a symbol of how 99 sees me, not how I see myself. A symbol of us and the emotions we shared on Frith. Of the day when he came back for me, when I crossed the field of ferns to reach him, and the relief he felt in our embrace, knowing that I might feel the same way he did.
"Perfect." His hand draws over the placement of the pin and then across my jaw.
He seals the word with a kiss in a way that makes me think he wasn't just talking about the gift, and I know at this moment, I have never been happier or felt such joy as I do with him.
Chapter
Nine
The Viathan beacon room doesn't shock me as much as I thought it would. Maybe if it was the first thing I experienced here, I would think differently, but it seems tame, sensible as this part of the capital building is all Viathan technology and metal.
99 speaks with a small man seated at a boundless control station, housing panels and screens in front of it. Three other workers sit at stations with flashing buttons and strange listening devices. They pause for brief moments, touching the little black shells on their ears as if they whisper to them, and then press buttons that are no more than bright, perfectly round pebbles.
"This is Lee, Viathan's lead transmitter to the beacon." 99 invites me to come closer, pulling out a chair for me to sit next to the man at his control panel.
"Hello, Priestess Ferren." He awkwardly stands to bow his head.
"Blessed afternoon." I smile and gesture for him to sit with me.
However, my greeting earns me a nervous laugh from him. The words are still a leftover habit from Cosima. 99 is the onlyperson to say it back naturally. Most Viathans grant me a strange expression and then their faces tend to fall when they realize where I came from.
99 hovers as close as possible behind us, a watchful presence that feels calm and secure. It has the opposite effect on Lee as he fumbles to remove his ear shells.
"Forgive me, I—" He glances over his shoulder at 99 standing with his arms crossed.
