“Did anyone see you?”

“I don’t think so,” I say. I tuck her fiery hair behind her ear, “I’ve missed you.”

She smiles that sweet smile of hers, the one that I think of each day and dream of each night.

“How long do we have today?”

“Not long, Natari can only fake a piano lesson for so long. We have an hour or two at most.”

She snickers, “Since when do you play piano?”

“Since we wanted to meet every week.“

Her smile fades, “I’ll only be in the city for another week.”

“Then tomorrow we’ll go to town together, and the day after that we’ll have a picnic, and-“

“The day after tomorrow is the grand opening of the opera house. It’s hard enough to sneak away from Father already, I couldn’t possibly get away from the entire royal guard when they’re on high alert.”

“Then I’ll just have to meet you there.”

“How?” She has a twinkle of curiosity and concern in her eyes.

“I have a friend who works there, he’s one of the ensemble characters. I can enter with him, get a spare uniform from a closet somewhere and we’ll meet by the washrooms.”

She goes quiet a moment, thinking over my on the spot plan.

“It sounds dumb,” she says.

“When am I not?”

She laughs at that, a sweet sound that I’ll miss when she goes back home.

We begin to walk down the pathway through the trees of the cliff side park. One of our favourite meeting places in this city, though we’ve only been here about a month. Marie is here with her father on a diplomatic mission, an attempt to end the decades long war between the Silverwing Kindgom and the Westwind Kingdom.

Me and Marie met a little over a year ago at a ball in the Silverwing Kingdom. I was there as the daughter of a general from the Westwind Kingdom there to ‘protect’ a merchant from an allied kingdom and be sure he didn’t ally with the Silverwing Kingdom. Which was enough layers to mean I didn’t really need to be there at all and just clung to the sidelines. But Marie, she is the daughter of the King. She was there dressed in the most beautiful golden ballgown you could imagine, she looked like a fiery star come down from the heavens. I was in awe, and she was curious. We were introduced formally, but we really met later on.

“Ember,” Marie turns, her body framed by two white leaved trees and backed by a sunset. “Do you think we’ll ever be able to be together. Truly together?”

“What makes you ask that?” I say, taking her hand and looking off the cliff side with her.

We stand for a second, quietly staring at the ocean, and then back at each other.

“You know why,” she says, “We’re two worlds apart, is it even right for us to be together when our kingdoms hate each other so much?”

“They don’t hate each other,” I say. But then I remember how many times my Mother would leave the house and I couldn’t be sure she would be back. “Sure we have differences, but remember the Opera house? We’re trying to bridge the gap. No one wants this war,” I look at her in those beautiful amber eyes of hers, “and I promise you, it will all be over soon.”

She smiles her sweet smile, and for a while we just be with each other. I stare at her, I could get lost in her eyes for hours, dancing on the speckles of white and brown, melting in the honey gold colour of them. She closes her eyes to breath in the salty air, and I join her. We feel the sun beating down, feel the wind in our hair, be as close as we can before we have to part ways again.

Two days later, and my plan to meet Marie at the Opera house is underway. My friend didn’t mind me sneaking in with him, and I was quiet enough to not be noticed when I slipped away to find a supply closet.

I keep an eye out for any staff as I make my way down the marble floored hall. There are a few bulletin boards here and there, a door to a small kitchen, a couple stray plants in overly extravagant pots, and finally a door with a small tab reading ‘supply closet.’

“This is it,” I whisper to myself. I look around for anyone near, so far I’ve been lucky.

Seeing no one, I check to see if the door is locked, and by some miracle it isn’t. I’m grateful, if a little downed that I won’t get a chance to use the lock picks I got for my birthday.

Inside the closet I find shelves of cleaning supplies, trays, manuals, and finally spare uniforms.

The bright red doesn’t suit me at all, and the only hat size is too small, but nevertheless I put it on, stash my clothes in some kind of commemorative bag and stuff that in the corner for later.

Then I slowly open the door to see if anyone’s near, only to quickly walk myself face first into someone a lot taller, and a lot more intimidating than me.

I look up to see the bearded face of a man who speaks in an almost regal voice, “Why are you in the closet?” He says this with an odd inflection, as if he’s asking something that he’s not actually asking. However I’m terrible at finding hidden meanings so I just scramble to say the first thing that comes to mind.

“Uh, my um, my hat was too big, so I got a smaller one??”

He nods, and hands me a small box, “This is the present for Princess Rosemarie. Be sure it gets to her safely, and soon. With love from the Chancellor.”

I nod, half confused and half excited that he seems to be leaving now. I quickly tuck the wooden box in my pocket and start down the halls once more.

A few twists, turns, and staircases later, I finally arrive at the box with the royal Silverwing family. I peak through the curtains to see Marie in the beautiful red gown that matched hair and complimented her eyes. We had spotted it yesterday at a dress shop on St. Bandill Street, I’m happy to see she convinced her father to get it for tonight. She looks radiant.

I knock softly on the wall by the curtain. Marie notices and gives me a wink, she then turns to her father.

I smile and head to the washroom to meet her. We don’t want to be seen together just in case, but if we happen to go to the same place, which just so happens to have an out of order sign in it at the moment, no one would suspect a thing.

“It smells odd in here,” she says.

“What did you expect, floral perfume?”

We smile at each other, happy to be in the same space, happy gaze at each others faces once more, and saddened by the fact we’ll only be able to see each other a few more days before Marie returns home.

“How long do you think you can stay away?” I ask her.

“A while I think, I’m supposed to meet the Chancellor later, I hear he has something for me. Though I’ll just say I got lost.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” I pull out the box the man gave to me earlier, “someone said to give this to you. I think they thought I work here. It’s from the Chancellor too, with love apparently.”

She grimaces as I hand it to her, “Maybe I’ll just open it later.”

“But I’m curious!”

“Then you open it!” She places it back in my hands with a giggle.

“Alright then.”

Inside is a small mechanism. One that I don’t recognize right away but that seems familiar in a way.

“What is it?” Marie asks.

I jokingly tell her it’s a wedding ring, she doesn’t appreciate the joke and hits me in the arm…

Which brings me back to a memory of my mom doing the same thing when I messed with one of her old war momentos.

“We need to get out of here,” I say, dropping the box on the ground and grabbing Marie’s arm.

I don’t care who sees us anymore, I need to get her as far away from here as I can.

“What’s wrong?!” She yells, but she doesn’t pull away.

“I recognize it.”

“Recognize what?”

We’re halfway down a staircase, people have started turning heads but no one has come to chase after us yet.

“What is it Ember?!”

We aren’t going fast enough, I remember clear as day what my mother had said. Only two minutes after opening, there’s no way to disarm, no way to escape but to maybe hide behind a thick enough wall.

I stop taking Marie down the stairs, we can’t get out the front door fast enough, but we can at least get to some kind of safe room, a closet without windows, far enough away she might be safe.

“Ember!”

I stop. I turn to look at her, maybe for the last time.

“It’s a bomb Marie.”

Before I can hear anything from her, I hear the explosion. I wrap my arms around her and duck into the nearest corner.

The walls are crashing down, the fire is coming from down the hall.

I can’t hear her, I can’t tell her I love her, all I can do is stare into those amber eyes.