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2085-12-24
The
candles flickered, filling the darkened room with dancing lights
and the smell of honey. Faint streaks of smoke curled up towards
the ceiling. Candles made of honeycombs loosely rolled around a
wick, placed touching each other on a plain dish, that was all
she could afford for christmas decorations.
Four
candles, their natures determined solely by the honeycombs used,
and so all the candles were different: one thin but dense and
smoothly rolled, prepared to support the others despite its
fragility; the next one tall and heavy, its honeycomb secured
with small staples; the third was light and malleable, causing
funny structures of wax to form on its rim while it burned; the
last one...
...the comb had
broken when it was rolled, causing dark streaks to crisscross the
honey-colored stem like scars, yet it stood as tall as the second
and equally tight, not allowing the molten wax beginning to fill
up the space between them to leak out where it touched the first
candle.
Niko sat silently,
allowing the dancing flames to become ghostflames on her retinas,
filling the darkness of the empty cadet quarter at the Ranger
Academy with even more lights. The candles burned quickly,
flickering wildly, each struggling against the dark on its own
until the central void was filled and the inner walls were melted
by their combined heat.
The
candle flames stilled, calming the ghostflames in perfect
patterns around their pools of lights now embedded in a single
sea of molten beeswax between the filigree of honeycombs
surrounding them. A face framed by ghostflames formed in the
golden dome of light above the now-joined candles.
...You
are abiding their traditions, aren't you?... Ariel's mental voice
whispered.
...yes...
The
mental image of a smile crossed the undefinable distance on the
mental plane before her mentor's beloved face began to lose
contour as the dark lines of the broken candle ceased in the warm
glow of the others.
...why
four?...
...I don't know, it
seems right...
END
Seasons
Greetings, everyone!
:) Ann |
