Chapter-XIII

Trystan chuckled at Twyll's befuddled expression.

"Líçé, see something you like?"

Twyll looked at his face with a dazed look on her face.

He was naked. Twyll couldn't fathom how weird this was.

" Why are you in my room Líçé?"

"Your room?" She asked with confusion.

He shook his head. "This is my room Twyll."

"But I-" she stuttered in confusion. That's all she seemed to be feeling right now it seemed. Confusion.

" This house is- complicated, to say the least. It was built with magic. The house is endless with no particular design. You picture or wish for a path to where you want to be and keep walking. The house will accommodate you." He explained.

"That is impressive." She admitted.

Then she looked down involuntarily.

Trystan laughed.

Twyll couldn't take her eyes off of his body. Till now she had only seen him in full sleeved suits. His body was almost perfect. The most prominent thing about it was the tattoos that covered his entire body.

His hands were mural of all the elements. Water laced with fire and then disappearing in a sea of mud that was then blown away in gusts of grey wind. Between the columns of elements were butterflies. Dozens of them coloured in with sapphire blues, ruby reds, emerald greens and pearly whites, flitting in and around. His torso was just as beautiful with the left shoulder covered with a map coloured in an aging brown with darker brown lines marking the territories of Stoechìa and Rhodesïa. A dragon head peeked over the right shoulder and the twin of it over his left one as well, looking as if it was devouring the map. Their serpentine bodies coiled around his stomach and lower abdomen, crossing over to the opposite hips and down his thighs and calves. Their tails ending just above the ankle. Twyll avoided looking between his legs in her perusal of his tattoos. His back was mostly dominated by the coiled bodies of the dragons, the empty places were filled with indiscernible text which she guessed were written in Anglia from the curving ends and slanted letters.

"These are beautiful." Twyll admired.

"They took years to complete," Trystan stated.

Twyll walked back to his front. He was a literal walking piece of art. His arms and back were roped with hard-earned muscles. She admired his defined arms and chest.

"Are you done making eyes at me Líçé?"

"Almost. It's been a while since I've had some eye candy." She quipped back, her eyes still going up and down his body, still avoiding his crotch for obvious reasons. His shifting stances betrayed his discomfort at being stared at completely nude.

"Didn't Cadence satisfy your needs?" He asked with no subtlety of the fact that he wanted to know if Twyll was with his brother or not.

Twyll decided to have some fun with him.

"Well... He refused to put out." She pouted. "It was rather disappointing."

Trystan was surprised at the sudden tightening of his jaw. Something about Cadence and Twyll together didn't strike well with him.

"How are you feeling?" Twyll asked in a concerned voice mistaking his actions for something else.

This made Trystan happy for some reason. That she was concerned about him when the question resonated in his mind and he immediately clammed up.

Jenny's funeral.

This realisation felt like a thousand bricks on his heart. It was a confirmation of the fact that one of the only good things in his miserable life was gone. Permanently.

Twyll catalogued the flurry of expressions on his face. First, there was the realisation then there was guilt. It left his face right and tense with darkening shadows under his eyes. His sunset eyes were hidden by a translucent shield. His emotions vague.

She sighed. These Stoechìans were the most reserved people she had met. Good thing she knew how to deal with emotionally closed up people, she thought with some humour.

"I am fine Twyll. Now if you will excuse me I am very tired and today was exhausting for everyone. I'm sure you must also be extremely drained. Let me get some clothes on and then I will guide you to your rooms."

This reminded Twyll that he was still unclothed. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I'll just wait outside then." And she walked out hurriedly with Trystan's amused chuckles in her ears.

She waited outside in the hallway while filing through her emotions. She did Indeed feel drained but yet energised. Her senses felt awakened and her chest felt warm. Her whole life she had felt cold and empty in that suffocating town. Rhodesïa always felt like a noose that got tighter and tighter every year that she had lived there. Now that she was here, in Staklovía she felt free. Her body thrummed with life and she felt invigorated. The crystals in her pockets felt lighter all of a sudden. She removed them and held them in her hands. They glowed with suppressed light. The aquamarine, her element crystal glowed a bright blue. She willed the air around her to make a little cocoon around her and then she wielded it into an airtight shield. Her body was alive and then she rose. She willed the house, as Trystan had told her, to make the hallway ceiling higher. Her feet left the ground and she then called to the flickering flames of the candles in the light fixtures and wielded them around her. She called for water and sent little tendrils of energy out and prodded around until she found it. She called to it, a sweet, pure melody. It came to her. The cool liquid climbing up he arms in rivulets. They rose above her head and whipped out like strands of hair. She wielded them into little animals and figures. She wielded dancing flames around her to reflect on the water droplets and that formed dozens of tiny rainbows. She laughed. Her wielding came to her so easily. Like they were now a part of her. Back in Rhodesïa every time she wielded, her body felt weathered and every move was filled with a sense of foreboding and wrong. Like there was a weight instead of this freeing levity. She felt tears snaking down her face. The euphoria brightened her body exuding a warm glow. She felt at peace. At home.

She grounded herself before freeing her power over the crystal energies. The candles lit again and the water vanished without a trace leaving behind only a stirring of air.

Looking towards Trystan's door she noticed him standing there with a befuddled expression on his face.

"You can wield all the elements together?"

"That was the first time it came together so flawlessly." She replied nonchalantly, not realising the incredulity in his tone. "Why?"

"No one with an affinity to more than two elements can wield all of them together Twyll." He whispered.

When his words registered Twyll fell silent. This was another fact that her aunt had hidden from her.

She looked away. Tears still dripping down her cheeks, but now they were just there. The freeing in her chest was once again filled by the weight of the knowledge that her life had changed and not for the better.

She looked at him and said, "lead the way."