Name: but i still have my secret weapon
Story: Starfall
Colors: Colour of the Day (18th August 2022 – arcane)
Supplies and Styles: Graffiti (Lilith Faire – Day 1, Village Stage, Sarah Slean Hopeful Hearts) + Charcoal + Canvas + Seed Beads
Word Count: 551
Rating: G
Warnings: None.
Notes: 1303; Marran & Lona Delver. New canon is still very new (but getting much less woolly in my head).
Summary: There’s a secret underneath Shara’s Garden.

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“Shall I tell you a secret?”

Marran lifts his fair head, his face lightening briefly with curiosity. “What?”

Lona feels a brief, unaccustomed pang. There’ve always been too many years between them for closeness, but it’s only now that she takes in quite how young he still is; how much lonelier home will be for him once she’s gone into Aliah’s Tower.

“I’ll show you.” Lona holds out her hand to her little brother.

Shara’s Garden is not her new home, but it and the Tower are connected enough that she’s been shown a few things that outsiders aren’t privileged to see. And Marran’s been so patient this afternoon, hanging around the water gardens and staring for ages at all the memorial stones for the past keepers. He ought to have a reward.

“This way.” She takes him round the side of the structured waterfall, into a way hidden by the moss and hanging trails of alionrel that not even the greediest would dare harvest, not from here. The distinctive, damp-bitter scent of it haunts them as they walk along, Lona pulling Marran behind her.

At the end of what is actually a narrow walkway between the stones of the waterfall and upper pool and the wall to the flower garden, there’s a tiny stone set of steps leading down into an equally narrow tunnel.

“It’s all right,” she says, when she feels a slight pull on her fingers; he’s uncertain they’re allowed. “I promise it’s a good secret, love.”

The sound of their footsteps on stone echo in the chamber below until they reach level ground, and Lona gently pushes him in front, so that he can see.

Marran catches his breath. Then down on his hands and knees by the pool before she can tell him to. He touches the surfaces of the water, as if trying to reach the lights that shine from deep below.

“What are they?” he asks, after a few minutes of fascination. Again, she feels that illogical stab of guilt: neither she nor Karr would have been so silent in their admiration at that age.

Lona crouches down beside him, and puts a hand on his shoulder. “Nobody knows, little one.” She stretches out her hand, runs ordinary water through her fingers. “Not everything can be explained, no matter what some people think. It’s a lie – there are always secrets in the land. No High Governors can make that be untrue.”

“Why?” he turns his head to her, coldly lit in the gloom. “Why would they lie?”

Lona shifts back and strokes his hair, smooth and fine under her touch. “Not all the secrets are good ones. Some people aren’t brave enough to face them. But we don’t forget them here, love. We’ll have to remember for the rest.”

“Yes. We don’t lie.” He meets her gaze. Then he transfers his attention to the water and the star-like lights underneath again. He leans over, dangerously far, his nose almost touching the water, and she tugs his jacket back, biting away a smile. Not so different from Karr and her, after all.

She rises, and he follows, more slowly, head turning back to the pool.

“You must always be brave, little one,” she says and absently straightens his jacket. “Always see what’s true.”