Smoke and Mirrors (30)

Thirty

There Was Ramen

---

I knew little about the Merfolk. I mean, when most of your life was spent in a normal, entirely human society, things like Mermaids were. . . well, useless. They were the things of bedtime stories or cheesy Juvenile Fiction novels.

They weren’t real.

Except, I knew they were real. My father asked them to sing at my Welcome Ball when I was formally introduced into society as the daughter of the king of Aquilai. They were lovely, but I never imagined they had a whole kingdom I could explore. The idea thrilled me–but also worried me, since we’d only journeyed into two kingdoms so far and Adrian had been kidnapped and Sterling almost slipped into a permanent coma.

“I don’t think we have a map for the Merfolk kingdom,” I said behind Sterling, pushing away my doubts. We still rode the horse, which meant all I had to look at was my satchel and the gloomy forest around us.

“Of course we don’t,” he replied, like I was stupid for stating the obvious. “We’re going to the Southern kingdoms to visit the. . . well, basically Air fairies. They help maintain the sky. We’ll get a map there, as well as something they make to help us breathe underwater.”

I gasped. “We get to see fairies?!” I saw them when they helped dress me for my Welcome Ball, but exploring a whole world of fairies would be way cooler.

Any doubts I had about visiting either kingdom vanished. I was living every little girl’s dream.

Later that night we reached a statue of a hedgehog-looking creature with the face of an eagle and the hands of a monkey. Sterling called it a ruggle. We decided to stop and camp there, since before long the landscape would shift and we’d lose ourselves in the Shadow realm. It was best to stay where the landmark was and wait out the shift, even if it was beside a weird hedgehog creature.

***

“Wake up, we need to get going.”

I groaned as Sterling’s voice awoke me from my wonderful dream in which fairies handed me bowls of ramen noodles and promised me I’d never have to get married if I didn’t want to.

Dreams are funny, aren’t they?

I peeled my eyes open and rubbed the sleep out of them, then sat up.

–And screamed.

That weird statue of a ruggle loomed above me like a terrifying monster. In fact, I thought it was a monster at first until I realized it wasn’t moving and the spikes on its back were too pale and blanketed in black moss to simply be a regularly moving monster.

“Will you calm down?! You’re going to let every Shade Bandit within four days’ journey know where we are!” he exclaimed.

I blinked and shut my mouth, then drew my knees up to my chest and hugged them. “Sorry,” I mumbled, forcing myself to stand.

He sighed and checked the saddle and bags to make sure they were firmly secured to the horse. “Hurry up. We have fifteen days of walking to get through before we make it to the fairies.”

I gasped, my sore legs turning to jelly at the thought of that much longer in the saddle. “You’re joking!”

He turned and raised a pale eyebrow at me, which oddly contrasted his dark hair. “Do I look like the kind of person who jokes?”

I swallowed my next insult and turned away so he couldn’t see my unstoppable eyeroll. My eyes seemed to have a mind of their own when it came to dumb answers and I just couldn’t control them.

“If we take a steamer–the contraption we took to get here from my kingdom–it should only take us four days,” he added. “But either way, we need to hurry.”

I turned back to face him with a sigh of relief. “Yeah, I vote the steamer.” I patted the horse’s head. “Old faithful here has been nice, but I have never missed cars more.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Cars?”

I swatted away the question. “You wouldn’t understand. You weren’t in my world long enough.”

“I can peer into your world any time I wish. I can look through reflections, remember?”

I shrugged. “Alright, fine. A car is one of those loud machines that look like a steamer, but they don’t need rails to drive on.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “But remember, you owe me an answer if I have something about the Inside world I want to ask you about.”

“Fair enough.”

We finished packing up our campsite and hit the road. My legs and back were so sore from the last couple days on the horse. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could take this.

“When do we get there?” I whined. Yes, I was technically eighteen and shouldn’t have been whining, but at that point I didn’t care that I sounded like an immature kid. I wanted to get to that steamer as quickly as possible.

“When we get there,” he returned, much to my annoyance.

I sighed and continued to gaze boredly at his back.

We rode for about an hour in silence, then I realized that I could take advantage of our predicament and get some long-awaited answers to some of my questions.

“Who are ‘the Fates’?” I questioned, remembering that they were the ones I had to thank for being betrothed to the silent boulder in front of me.

He sighed. “I knew the quiet was too good to last.”

“Oh, come on. I told you what a car is. You owe me this one, remember?”

He was quiet for a while and I thought he wasn’t going to reply when suddenly– “The Fates are just what they sound like. They decide which prophecies to unveil when. And sometimes they know things about the future–like the fact that we are. . . supposed to fight some kind of evil or something.”

I grinned. “And how you fall desperately in love with me. You forgot that part.”

“Oh, shut up.” He paused. “Yeah, they know things like. . . like that. They have talents just like any other person, but no one is ever born with the Talent. They’re chosen.” He inhaled. “Actually, one of my ancestors was one of the first Fates. She was the second queen of Mirrors.”

I nodded at his back. “Impressive. I guess.” I furrowed my eyebrows. “I’m assuming it’s impressive anyway.”

“Yes. Not many are chosen as one of the Fates. It’s a high honor. Some say only the wisest and most intelligent are chosen for the spot.”

“Ah. Got you.” I paused. “Wait, if they’re so intelligent, why did they pick you to marry me?”

He breathed a deep sigh. A very deep sigh. “That, I’m afraid I will never know.”

We settled back into silence for a while. I took to watching the trees, mulling my brain over what someone from the Fates would look like and act like. For some reason, I imagined they’d have a British accent. That just seemed fitting for someone intelligent and wise. But maybe that wasn’t an accent here. I snickered. For all I knew, the Fates were a bunch of hillbilly hicks with cheesy southern accents and the elegance of a goat.

That would really be funny.

“If. . . you know, we ever. . .” He stopped and cleared his throat. “Well, since we have to get married and all, I think maybe. . .”

I raised an eyebrow at his back. “Yes?” Where was he going with this? My stomach felt odd at the thought of what he was about to say. Here I was thinking about hillbilly prophecy-guardians and he was thinking about our. . . future.

“I just think that maybe we should have separate homes. You know, to help preserve our mental states.”

I snorted. “That can easily be arranged.” Well at least he didn’t say anything creepy, like, ‘you should live in the dungeons’ or something.

But the thought of living such a lonely life. . . didn’t appeal to me. I always dreamt that one day I’d meet ‘Mr. Right’ and he’d ride in like a knight in shining armor and sweep me off my feet with love ballads and chocolate. Lots of chocolate. But here he was–not Mr. Right, but the dude I was supposed to marry–and he wanted nothing to do with me.

To be clear, the feeling was entirely mutual, but it still annoyed me.

***

We arrived at the steamer stations and traded in the horse for a steamer. I couldn’t have been happier.

By the next day we were speeding out of the country, the world a hazy blur around us. It actually only took us three days to get to the fairy kingdom rather than the four Sterling said, but I definitely wasn’t about to complain. The journey allowed me the chance to let my muscles recover and freshen up at the few rest stops between the Shadow kingdom and the Air kingdom.

The Fairy kingdom was the coolest I’d seen yet.

Back when the fairies helped me get ready for my welcoming ball, one of them mentioned that fairies could hop between the Inside and Outside world, so it was common for fairies to have ‘Outside’ technology and trends.

However, I wasn’t prepared to step out of the steamer station and see the holy grail of all things wonderful.

What I saw was lovely. It was golden and warm-looking and absolutely lovely.

What I saw warmed some cold spot in my heart that I hadn’t even realized had appeared.

What I saw thrilled my entire being and caused a smile to appear on my face, even though I was tired and cranky from being cooped up with Sterling for three days and wanted a nice, long nap.

What I saw, dear reader, was a glorious sign advertising a ramen noodle shop just a few feet from us.

I clutched Sterling’s arm tightly to ground myself to reality, which of course frightened him since I never did that.

He jerked his arm away. “What’s your problem?!”

Half-dazed, I raised a shaky finger to the splendorous sign before us.

“This is it,” I said solemnly, my eyes fixed on every golden noodle that sat in that bowl. “My entire life has led up to this moment. We–we have to get some.”

“No. Now hurry up and come on.” He started forward again.

My jaw dropped. “Wait–you can’t just say no!” I hurried to catch up to him and grabbed his arm tightly. “Please–I love this stuff! Can’t we get some?!”

He stopped and looked down at me in bewilderment. “Are you seriously asking me that? No.”

I sank my nails into his arm. “We have to.”

Immediately tentacles of mirrors began to slip out from his hands. They puddled on the ground and took the form of silver hands, prying my fingers off of him.

“No, we do not have to. Now come on!” He grabbed my wrist and began dragging me forward.

I gritted my teeth and felt fire flare up inside me. “Yes–we do!”

He hissed in pain and yanked his hand off my wrist. “Ow–you’re hot!”

A wicked grin twisted my lips and I flipped my hair. “Thanks. But not as hot as that ramen bowl. Now come on–have you never seen ramen before?! It’s beautiful!”

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, I saw it when my guards informed me that you requested it in my prison cells. You know, before you destroyed my beautiful glass and knocked out one of my guards with a bowl?”

My wicked grin died to a guilty grimace. “Alright, fine. Sorry about the guard. But you need to try it. Seriously, you haven’t lived until you have ramen.”

He pursed his lips and groaned. “You’re incorrigible. We’ll go in, but you’re paying and I’m not getting anything. I really don’t want to run out of money here–you never want to owe a fairy.”

My grin returned and I squealed. “Thank you!”

“Yeah, well this is only happening because you burned me. I am not doing this for you, got it?”

I nodded solemnly and raced up to the ramen stand. I told the fairy I’d like a bowl and she happily gave me one, complete with a fancy chopped up egg and herbs on top. However, the egg had a purple tint to it unlike the normal chicken eggs back in the Outside. I was too hungry to question it.

The fairy gave me two spoons and a paper bowl. “For your boyfriend,” she said and winked.

My nose wrinkled and I thought about correcting her, but decided against it. “Thank you, you wonderful bearer of light and goodness.” I accepted the bowl and walked back to Sterling, who sat nearby, impatiently tapping his fingers against the wood bench.

I placed three noodles in the spare cup for him. “Try it, okay?”

His lips thinned, then he exhaled and accepted the paper bowl and spoon. He ate the noodles but said nothing. Seriously, was he a statue?! Had he no heart? No taste buds?!

I thought he didn’t care about them. I mean, he didn’t act like did. But I began noticing his occasional glances to the bowl as I ate. I grinned. “You did like them! Do you want some?”

He shook his head and stood. “Just hurry up so we can get going.”

I finished up the last of the noodles and returned the bowls and spoons to the fairy.

“That will be twenty quartz,” she said sweetly, holding out her hand.

I blinked and glanced at Sterling, whose arms were folded. “Uh–what is quartz? Like the rock?!”

He looked down his nose at me. “You should have looked at the prices first.”

I threw my arms out in a dramatic shrug. “I didn’t see any! Besides, we have money–not quartz!”

He sighed and dug in his pockets for a moment, then handed the fairy a large purple crystal and grabbed my wrist again. He pulled me away.

“Thanks,” I mumbled. “Sorry–I haven’t had that wonderful, genetically modified heavenly goodness in such a long time. I thought I’d never see it again.”

He grumbled something under his breath and continued to drag me through the city.

Then I was struck dumb by something I’d never seen before.

Floating above us in the sky was a huge chunk of land. Clouds swirled around it slowly and fairies sparkled in the sunlight as they shot to and from the floating land.

“Welcome to the capital of the fairies,” Sterling said, noticing my dropped jaw. “That’s where we’ll be getting the air jelly from.”

I blinked and looked at him. “Air jelly? That’s going to help us breathe underwater?!” I returned to looking at the floating island. Magnificent roots dangled from chunks of mossy dirt, which was all suspended somehow in the air.

“Yes.”

“I should have brought some bread and peanut butter,” I mumbled to myself.

“Come on.” He pulled me forwards again and an elevator floated down from nowhere at all. It landed in front of us and we stepped on.

The walls of the elevator were glass, allowing the warm sunlight to pour through it. I was grateful for the warmth of the sun after the last several days of shadowy darkness. It felt good on my skin, as if it was waking me up after a long sleep.

However, when the elevator began to rise and I was forced to stare at the ground retreating from under my feet, my stomach dropped violently. I swallowed and placed my hands against the glass walls, as if that would keep me from dying if this thing suddenly dropped.

“Calm down, people have ridden this for years without dying,” Sterling said soothingly. “Deep breaths.”

The ground grew smaller and smaller under our feet. “I–I can’t. I–can’t do this. I need off!” I was hyperventilating now. “How do I get off?!” My heartbeat thudded in my own ears as I clung to the wall.

“Hey–it’s okay. Don’t look at the ground.” He grabbed my shoulders and looked down into my eyes. “Look at me.” I could feel the warmth of his hands through my sleeves.

I stared up into his face and a kind of numbing haze fell over my fear. His silver eyes were cold and sharp, but they were also captivating. It felt awkward to stare into his eyes, but the ground was far worse. Fear won out over awkwardness in the end.

The elevator stopped moving, but I barely noticed it. I was too busy focusing on the way his dark lashes framed his eyes. The way his faintly-reflective skin was marked with small, tiny acne scars. Hey, at least he wasn’t entirely perfect looking.

Then in a moment the doors slid open and he released my shoulders and walked out, the warmth from his hands lingering only slightly longer.

I blinked and whatever haze I was in dissipated. I felt my face grow hot and I hurried after him.

What was that?! Why were his eyes so. . . well, the only word was captivating. I hated him. I had to hate him–for my own safety. I had to stop thinking his eyes were nice–he was my enemy!

I mean, if Adolph Hitler drove up in a ferrari I wouldn’t fall all over him because he had a nice car, so why was I thinking things like this about Sterling? He had, you know, decent eyes. Alright, some might even dare to say nice eyes! But he was bad news. He tried to kill me multiple times!

But then. . . hadn’t he just payed so I could eat a bowl of ramen? He was rude about it, but he still helped me. I never would have done that for him. I would have laughed in his face and left him to do whatever the fairy wanted him to do to make up for the bowl.

So in the end, which of us was worse?

Definitely him. I’d never tried to kill a–

Wait, yes I had. Hadn’t I killed one of those Shade Bandits out of self-defense? So now the question was, was Sterling truly bad because he wanted me dead to save his kingdom, or was I just as bad because I had killed for basically the same reason?

These thoughts were too much for my tired brain. I shoved them away and decided to deal with them later.

The fairy capital was actually very lovely. Tall pillars of glass stretched towards the sky and caught it, reflecting the light down over the hovering chunk of land.

Since the fairies were pretty small, most of the homes were tiny. However, some of the businesses were pretty big in comparison–big enough that we could crouch down to get inside anyway–and other tiny businesses had little windows with signs written in multiple languages, including the universal language spoken by the Insiders.

‘Your size matters to us! Purchases can be made at the window.’

I laughed. “It’s like a drive-through, but for people too big to fit in the store!”

Sterling looked at me oddly. “Aren’t there small people in the Outside world?”

I shrugged. “I mean, occasionally there’s someone born that’s really small, but you’ll never see a large group of people this small. This is entirely new for me.”

“Really? How do Outsiders have plumbing? Or other things you need fairies for? Some jobs are way too small for a human to do.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, but we’ve managed it.”

We continued walking, being extra careful not to step on any fairy yards or cars.

“You’re going the wrong way.” Sterling nodded towards a turn in the pebble road below us.

I ducked my head in embarassment. “Sorry.” I felt so big and clumsy with all the tiny buildings around us.

“It’s the next house down,” he said, moving to walk in front of me.

I threw him an odd look as he passed me. “Have you been here before?”

He stopped in front of a house with a sign in front of it that read, ‘Tap the door gently for business. We are size-friendly!’

“This is it,” he said, ignoring my question. “Bend down so they can see us.”

Both of us crouched near the door and Sterling lightly tapped the door frame. The door opened and a tiny fairy walked out, her pale blonde hair pulled into a braid the size of a toothpick. She had to have been a child. She looked up at us and waved, then hurried back into the house.

Moments later, a larger fairy–likely her mother–walked out and smiled up at us. “How can I help you?” she asked. Her voice seemed too loud for her size.

“Afternoon to you,” Sterling replied quietly. I wondered if fairies had sensitive hearing. “We’d like to buy some Air Jelly.”

She frowned and tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear. Her silvery wings fluttered, carrying her up to our faces. “How much do you want? I don’t know that I have a lot.”

Sterling thought for a moment. “Enough to last us a week.”

Her tiny eyes widened. “Oh, dear. I don’t know that I have that much, but I’ll see what I can do.”

She shot back into her house and we waited patiently for her.

I really liked her small house. It was the size of a large dollhouse, with wooden panels and moss growing along the roof. Flowers and vines hung around the windows, which were so small I could barely see through them at my angle.

A moment later, she reappeared with a giant piece of paper–at least compared to her. For me, it was the size of my palm. It looked like a large blanket compared to her though and she slowly fluttered up to us as if it pulled on her.

Sterling quickly accepted it and she seemed to fly much easier. “Thank you, Madam.”

She nodded. “Just go around the back and take what you need, your Majesty.”

Sterling looked at the paper and withdrew small pieces of purple quartz, which he placed on the doorstep. Instantly, young fairies came out of the house to help carry it all inside.

The fairy smiled at us. “A pleasure doing business with you!” Then she flew up and over the house.

“We’re supposed to follow her,” Sterling explained.

I nodded and we followed her to the back of the yard, where two human-sized jelly jars stood. They were the size of a normal jelly jar from the Outside. The fairy wrote on top, ‘One week’ on each jar and curtseyed in the air for us. “Remember, don’t stay underwater any longer than a week. After the jelly is used, you’ll only breathe air again. Take a small amount twice a day–once in the morning and evening.”

We nodded and picked up our jars. “Thanks,” we chorused.

As we walked home through the town again, I couldn’t help but repeat my question; “She knew you were a king–how? Have you gotten air jelly before?” If he had, that likely meant he’d been to the merfolk kingdom–which meant he could answer some of my questions about it!

That was, if he was into communicating like a normal person. Which he wasn’t, in case you hadn’t guessed.

He ignored my question–wow, what a surprise–and said, “The younger fairies will be getting out of school soon. Look out for–”

Just then, a small fairy bumped into my forehead. “Ow!” she cried, rubbing her head. She flitted off.

“Sorry!” I called after her, watching as her tiny figure shrunk in the distance.

“--rushing fairies,” he continued, then sighed. “Watch where you’re going, will you? You’d think you Outsiders never had to look out for other people before.”

I straightened at that. “Not true! It’s just”--I scanned the tiny homes and fairies below us–”other people aren’t so. . . vertically challenged.” And it wasn’t my fault the sky didn’t have traffic signs.

He scoffed but said nothing.

Soon we were back on the wireless elevator. I promised myself that this time, I wasn’t going to freak out, or hold onto Sterling, and I definitely wasn’t going to stare into his eyes like a maniac.

I forced myself to stand in the opposite corner of Sterling. I closed my eyes at first, but then my stomach dropped and I let out a gasp. I didn’t close my eyes again the rest of the way down.

Then Sterling started chuckling. Like, actually chuckling! “You’re impossible,” he noted. “This thing has held thousands of people before. We’ll be fine.”

My wide eyes flicked to him now. But not his eyes. I avoided looking at his eyes. “Glad you find me so laughable,” I said dryly.

He shrugged. “It’s not hard.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“It can go any way you want it to.”

I beamed. “Then thanks for the compliment.”

Soon after that the elevator landed. I breathed a sigh of relief and sprung out onto the grass the moment the doors opened.

“Now we’re going back to the Steamer Station?” I asked, looking back at him.

He hesitated. “Yes, but first, I am getting hungry. I. . .” He looked away and straightened his collar. “I thought I’d grab some soup for the trip.” He cleared his throat. “We don’t know when our next fully-cooked meal will be.”

I almost thought my heart was going to stop beating from shock. Slowly, a grin broke out over my face. He actually liked ramen!