"Teehee~"
The lilybell's petals waved side to side, throwing Vivia off-balance. It was hard to believe that speech could be coming from a flower.
No, that's not possible. It's just a flower…
"Was it you who laughed earlier too?"
"Teehee~"
Her knees gave out, and she collapsed on the chair, hand clutching her chest. Though she exercised caution, she didn't sense any harmful intentions from the apparently talking flower.
Sir Doloros never said that lilybells can talk.
Her gaze returned from her daze. "Can you only laugh, or talk too?"
"That depends~"
"..."
So it can indeed talk.
"Depends on what?"
"If you can entertain me enough~"
A twitch moved her brow. Zerath's words came back to her - how lilybells only chimed when they were amused.
"And what if I don't want to entertain you?"
"Then you'll never learn the secret to meeting the love of your life again~"
Her lips parted with a gasp. "You…You know-" she realized her loud enthusiasm and dialed it down to a whisper, "You know I want to meet Zerath!?"
"Maybe~? Maybe not~?"
"What do I have to do? Please tell me!"
"Amuse me~?"
That's so vague…amuse how?
"What do you like?"
The lilybell embraced silence and simply waved its petals. Vivia figured it had left it up to her to decode its mood.
"How about I dance for you?"
The lilybell neither agreed nor disagreed, so the only option was to try it out and see for herself.
"Okay, I'll dance!" Her expression brightened with delight.
Vivia made her stage at the center of her room and stood in position. She moved - like moonlight upon rippling water, graceful and mesmerizing. Her feet gingerly touched the floor, arms brushing across the air as if painting on a blank canvas. Each swirl laced with the color of yearning to meet Zerath again, to lose herself in those golden irises once again. Just once more, she wished she could rest her cheek against his chest, feeling the rhythm of his heartbeats that frenzied in her presence. The world stilled around her, breathless. Her flowing kirtle came to an elegant halt and she bowed.
"How was it?" Vivia eagerly asked, proud of her performance.
"Hmm, boring~"
"..."
"W-What do you mean by that?" Horror flashed across her face as if a mountain crashed right down upon her.
"It means that it wasn't amusing. Don't you know the meaning of boring, teehee~?" The lilybell tilted its petals questioningly.
Clutching her chest, Vivia stumbled back, the horror multiplying tenfold. It wasn't that she was overconfident about her dancing skills, but at the same time, this kind of blunt feedback was news to her too. It hurt more than the arrow that had pierced her.
"H-How could you…?"
The lilybell giggled. "You danced well, but it's also a dance I've seen before and who danced much more gracefully than you~"
Her jaw dropped, stunned. "This is a very difficult dance, you know? It took years for me to master it! Who else would've danced before you?"
"Teehee~"
"What?"
"Either I help you meet your love or I answer your question~ You cannot get both~"
Her eyes widened, and she rushed towards the flower. "Okay, okay! I won't ask any questions. Meeting Zerath is more important. Please help me."
"But I'm not amused enough to help you~"
"..."
So Vivia took the center stage again and danced a number of different lessons she had mastered over the course of her previous life, left breathless by the end of it.
"You've a long way to go~"
Her expression blackened. "You're just messing with me at this point, aren't you? Now I wonder if you can really help me meet Zerath or are you just pulling my leg?"
"If that's what you want to believe, but it'll be your loss~"
Vivia gritted her teeth.
You damn flower! I'll show you! I'll perform a dance that even the heavens won't be able to ignore!
—
"Sister!"
Sierra knitted her brows as Priscilla rushed into her chamber. "Slow down, Priscilla. That's not how a noble lady should act, especially not the blessed. Why do you look so pale?"
"I…I don't understand, sister…" she tremblingly held her hands. "I passed by that witch's Clairette's chamber!"
Her eyes narrowed. "Priscilla. I clearly warned you to take a step back about this. And mind your words about Clairette. She's the royal princess. Why are you still so fixated on her chamber?"
"No, sister! It's not about the chamber. I just happened to pass by and I saw…saw her dancing…"
Sierra blinked. "I see. So what she said earlier was indeed true. She has been practicing dance lessons by herself."
"That's not the issue here, sister!" Her heart dropped as she uttered the next words. "It's her dance in itself. She was dancing…j-just like that imposter Vivia I killed!"
"...What did you say?"
Sierra stared at her sister's pale and terror-stricken countenance in a chilling silence.
"Speak, Priscilla. Are you talking about the same woman the chaos was about in the royal court today?"
Priscilla bit her lip hard, tears brimming her eyes. "Y-Yes…But si-sister, I was left with no choice…!"
The silence that followed stung even harsher than a beast's bite. Sierra's cold, dark gaze shook Priscilla to her very soul.
"No choice…? Priscilla, do you realize what words you're spouting out from your mouth at this moment? The blessed…The divine blessed killed some no-name woman from a no-name town?"
"That's not true, sister! That witch wasn't just a no-name woman! She was out to steal my position as the blessed!" She breathlessly exclaimed.
Sierra peered into her sister's panicked irises. "Priscilla…at times you really make me wonder how in the world are we sisters. The position of the blessed - or should I say - God's blessing of being the Harbinger of the Seasons isn't something…anyone can steal. It's a blessing. One is born with it. It cannot be snatched."
Priscilla shook her head hard in disagreement. "That's not true, sister. I-It's in the prophecy!"
"Huh? Prophecy?" Sierra cast her a blank stare.
Tears spilled from her eyes, voice quivering with a looming fear of the grim future. "Madam Bette said it in her divination that my…my d-death was imminent!"
"You fool! How many times should I tell you that divination and prophecy are all a hoax. People pretend as if they can hear God's voice and fool others to loot money."
"Madam Bette is not like that! And what about Lady Melissa? She, too, claims she hears God's voice in her dreams, yet you treat her as your best friend!"
Sierra closed her eyes, trying to hold her patience intact. "How long have we known Melissa and her family? She's from a blessed family just like us. It does make at least a little bit of sense if God chooses to talk to an heir of our families. We're the blessed families, after all, but outsiders? They're just a hoax! You went ahead and killed a woman based on what some outsider had to say?"
She breathed in another quiet breath. "What was this so-called prophecy of Madam Bette?"
Priscilla trembled. "T-That there was someone else in the realm who was capable of dancing the Harbinger of Seasons Dance. The blessed's dance! Madam Bette said that this was a si-sign of my approaching death…"
Color drained from her face akin to coming across a ghost before her. "Be-because there can only be one blessed in the realm. Two people cannot hold this power at once because it'll bring a catastrophic imbalance in nature, and if this happens, then…o-one of them must die."