The soft patter of rain had faded now. The last raindrops slid off leaves and branches, falling to the ground. The grass gleamed. Earthworms moved through the darkened soil, glorying in the damp, snails and slugs came out to feast on the wet vegetation and birds slowly appeared, calling out that it was over. As birdsong filled the air, people emerged from the palace. The flowers were open, breathing their perfume over the gardens and the sky gradually cleared to reveal the stars in space.
Zoisite shivered. It was all so unnatural.
They’d been here two weeks now, and he still couldn’t get used to this dome. He couldn’t help being aware of the artificiality, the glittering ceiling that arched over them. The rain, the clouds, the wind… it was all an illusion. It didn’t matter what Queen Serenity’s crystal did, the moon was still dead, and always would be. Yet it glowed with such light, such power.
He was both drawn to this world and terrified of it.
There was a flash of blue in the corner of his eye and he turned in time to see a woman make her way down the steps. She wore a dress of watered silk that shimmered like a mirage, designed so that it dipped down on her back; her skin was so fair it seemed almost translucent. She paused and her head turned slightly to one side, listening, so that he glimpsed her profile.
“Mercury…?” he whispered. He couldn’t believe it. Princess Mercury was quiet and solemn. He would never have thought her the type to go wandering about in a wet garden in a dress like that… and with bare feet, no less. He took a few steps forward, not really thinking, his eyes fixed on her. And she turned around and looked straight at him.
Her eyes were blue and cool and unfathomable. They sucked him in like whirlpools and he lost himself utterly and drowned in them. When he came back to himself, he found he was standing in front of her. He didn’t remember moving.
“What did you… do?” he asked, his voice still no more than a whisper.
“I did nothing,” she said, looking up at the sky, where the Earth hung like a blue jewel. It cast its own faint light over them, a strange shade of lavender that made Mercury’s hair glimmer. “It is you, my lord. You are alternately fascinated and replled by our kingdom and our ways. So you are drawn, then you pull back.Why are you so afraid?”
Zoisite swallowed a sigh. “Everything is so different…” he said, knowing it was impossible to explain. No words could express the deep primal unease he felt, that they all felt. All except Endymion, who was wholly enchanted. “The stars should not be so close. To know there is nothing protecting us except a dome of crystal… it is just unnatural.”
“Oh, you do not see space from Earth all the time, do you?” she said, turning to him.
He shook his head. “Only at night.”
“And you are shielded in the day by your ‘sky’. Does infinity scare you so much?” Strange lights flashed and died in her eyes, caushing him to shiver. He was fixed, rooted to the spot by those same eyes. Again his body trembled between fascination and repulsion.
“We are not used to it, my lady,” he said. “We are not used to infinity… or immortality. And people fear what they do not know.”
“Do you fear me?” she said, her lips curving upwards slightly.
“No,” he breathed immediately, taking another step closer. She smiled at him openly, amused, but she said nothing, forcing him to elaborate. “I am not afraid, but I am puzzled… why are you here? You always stay inside, never draw attention to yourself… You are a respected scholar.”
Mercury’s eyes flashed. “And a respected scholar must not go walking barefoot in the wet grass, must she?” she said, her voice so cool that it could have easily frozen him.
“Forgive me,” he said, bewildered, “I did not mean to offend-”
“Yes, I am a scholar, but that is only one part of me, Lord Zoisite,” she went on, ignoring his clumsy apology. “Nobody is one thing all the time. We are multi-faceted. I have an affinity with water, and when so much of it falls… another facet comes to the fore.” She lifted her face and smiled as a few drops fell onto her skin. “You might say my… elemental self emerges.”
The sight of her, head tipped back, eyes closed and smiling, was so powerfully arousing that Zoisite made himself take a deep breath and two steps backwards. Even then his blood continued to race through his body. Mercury’s elemental self was more disturbing than he could ever have imagined.
“I shall leave you to enjoy the wet, my lady,” he muttered.
Her eyes opened, fixing him again. “Leave? Already?”
Silence and the sound of water, falling all around them. Still she held him. He had no idea of time. He had no thought of anything except these eyes, as calm and black as well water, drawing him deeper and deeper down.
“No, my lord, not just yet,” she whispered. “I will not have you leave just yet…”
DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters or their environment. It all belongs to Naoko Takeuchi.
