The fallen's lament

Sophia was already putting on her clothes, this time a ruby red elegant dress, coupled with ruby coloured boots and ruby shaded fingerless gloves with reached to her elbows.

Rose, for the first time, blushed a bright pink shade. “Sophia sweetheart, you look adorable, even I want to kiss you.”

Sophia looked startled at this as she finished washing her hair. “R… Rose! I... I didn’t know you were… that way…”

Rose, ignoring Sophia’s stuttering words, hurried her along towards the market, where Autumn was setting up her stall. Autumn looked up as Rose let off a whistle. “Ah, Sophia! Wearing my clothes again I see. You’re just in time to help me set up; could you get those clothes from that box and hand them to me?”

Sophia walked as calmly as she could towards Autumn, bending down and reaching into the box, pulling out all kinds of luxurious clothes. Some even seemed to meld colours, as though they had melted into each other – beautiful dresses, one of which was a long dress, with colours of cyan and lilac whirling into each other, giving a calm and tranquil touch to it.

Sophia looked up to watch Autumn carefully place the clothes on the stall, making not only the clothes blend into each other, but the stall itself turn into an array of colours, none clashing with each other, all of them blending and melting into each other, so the stall itself seemed to vanish.

Autumn was now standing behind the stall as she placed the more single colour clothes on the back side of the stall. Sophia walked round cautiously to see Autumn reach up for some teal shaded silk sheets, carefully placing the sheets on the stall’s counter. Autumn began to run her fingers across it, spreading and bringing her fingers together in a slow rhythm, flattening the creases to make a sheet completely flat.

Sophia was unable to take her eyes off Autumn’s fingers as she worked, running her fingers and occasionally some thread through the sheets here and there to make a plain teal shirt, lifting the shirt up and wafting it for a few minutes, Autumn then proceeded to hand it to Sophia as she finally spoke. “Could you take this to Tobias at the leather stall? He asked for this last night.”

Carefully resting the shirt against her to keep it neat Sophia nodded and made her way through the slowly filing market place, approaching the leather works stall to deliver the shirt. She saw Rose and Tobias engaged once again in conversation; as Sophia slowly walked forward, Tobias’ eyes shifted towards her, raising his hand in a greeting gesture as she arrived at the stall, handing the shirt to him. Rose watched Sophia with a smile on her face. “Having fun I trust? Her fingers are wonderful aren’t they? It’s my day off today, so I’ll be home when you get back Sophia.”

Sophia nodded as she walked back, waving goodbye to Tobias and Rose until they had gone out of sight. From his spire, the Everseer was busy watching David work his art, with most of the villagers watching him run his hands through the wheel with the cloth, slowly forming the threads and patterns into a rug of a base of cream with a red diamond in the centre.

The crowd watched again with keen interest as David sat down with the leather and fur he had been provided, sowing them together carefully, forming a beautiful brown furred carpet of the same size as Rose’s front room. Back at the stall, Autumn was showing Sophia what price the clothes were and where in the sheets to make the cuts, pointing here and there with the different tools but always stopping to listen and answer Sophia’s questions and statements.

*

*

As the days went on, Sophia and David both applied their trade. Sophia was now able to make gloves and shirts, David was making new friends and learning names until at last, the seventh day was here, and Rose escorted David and Sophia back towards the building that the spire tower stood upon. Walking back through the ice cold marble doors the figures once again waited for them. This time Rose did not speak, she simply waited behind them, half consumed by the darkness that covered the outsides of the room.

The tall figure stood up, and with a hint of happiness in his voice he said, “David, Sophia, you two have both done exceptionally well in adapting to our ways, giving something to the community, and of course, making sure everyone is happy to the best of your abilities. Sophia, Autumn has told us what you have learned, and you have been deemed worthy to stay. David, your skills of providing comfort have been proven exceptional for resting our bones and minds. Our warriors and archers in training have been improving greatly since you began your trade, so, even though I have one slight worry –”

David, Rose and Sophia all seemed taken aback at this as the figure carried on talking – “You two arrived together, but Rose has told me you do not sleep in the same bed. If you two are not together you will have to have separate homes. This council will be re-united in two days time to hear what you would like to do about accommodation. Dismissed.”

Rose smiled faintly as they walked back to her home, David and Sophia deep in thought. A few hours later during dinner, Sophia leant across and planted a small kiss on David’s cheek to everyone’s amazement, before quickly leaning back across and busying herself in her dinner.

Everyone was staring; David was frozen in his place as Sophia kissed his cheek, Sophia herself was turning redder then the wine, after a few minutes of staring, Katie coughed loudly as she turned to face Sophia, leaning towards her she whispered. “Sophia, I didn’t know David was your special one...”

Rose and Howard both looked at each other and nodded. Howard stood up and walked out the room with his plate, Katie followed with her dinner in hand; Rose followed after Katie, but before leaving the room, she turned her head and said, “Play nice, you two” then proceeded to walk out the room, closing the door behind her.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, David turned his head to Sophia, the look of shock still on his face. His voice was quiet, so quiet that it was almost a whisper. “Sophia, I... I had no idea you saw me in that light...”

Sophia did not reply, but simply looked down. David decided to go on. “How long have you had these feelings?”

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Sophia replied slowly, turning away shyly as she answered, “Since you rescued me.” Sighing once again, David managed to smile, as he answered back, “but you’re a Princess, I’m just a servant, you could do...” David fell silent as Sophia’s finger was over his mouth. Leaning forward to him she whispered, “I could do better, I don’t want better.”

An eerie silence descended over them both as Sophia continued to hold David’s lips together with her finger, blushing redder then her dress.

Sophia, after a few seconds of silence, removed her finger from David’s lips as she sunk back into her chair.

David decided to move things along as he stood up, reaching down for Sophia’s hand he pulled her up and held her close as they opened the door and walked out of the room, into the room where Howard and Rose sat by the fire, Katie fast asleep against Rose.

Hearing them enter, Rose turned her head to see David’s and Sophia’s hands together, Sophia looking ready for sleep herself. David smiled at Rose and Howard as he sat down on the seat opposite them, pulling Sophia down on his lap. As she curled up in his lap he wrapped his arms around her, still amazed at her words to him.

Rose seemed almost interested herself as she spoke quietly so she didn’t wake Katie. “I trust you’ve reached a decision – mind you there’s no rush, and you have another day yet before you have to go back to the council.”

As the night went on, Howard, David and Rose talked on and on, with David expressing his concerns about his feelings for Sophia, what she had told him and the fact he didn’t know what to do.

Rose listened to David’s concerns, never taking her eyes off the sleeping Sophia. As the moon climbed up into the heavenly night sky, David began to feel the need to sleep, his eyes starting to become heavy, his mind struggling to remain awake.