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It was a nice autumn morning in Corona. The city was rebuilt, everyone was happy to have found their place in the vast kingdom and outside its borders. Outside…
Rapunzel was at her window, pensive, her eyes lost toward the horizon, behind the hills that surrounded Corona on the mainland. Outside those borders, she had a friend, a very important friend. Days after days, she felt something missing. She knew who it was. Her friend.
Should she still call her friend? A part of a mind wanted to call that friend something more. She bit her lip as another part of her mind reminded this wasn’t only her decision to take.
She missed Cassandra. Each day that passed she missed her more and more. There had to be a day when she would come back. Instead of her presence beside her, Rapunzel had letters. They came, often at first, but then there had been more and more time between each. And she had to wait. And the wait was never easy.
Someone knocked at the door.
“Come in.” The princess said, mindlessly.
The door opened with a light creak she had asked to never repair, and Faith entered. Her new lady-in-waiting, who had taken the place when Cassandra had decided to leave, came in with a smile that Rapunzel had learned to recognize. It was a smile she had when only one thing happened. When Rapunzel received a letter from Cassandra.
The princess jumped from her pile of cushions next to the window and ran to her, grabbing the letter she had in hands. These days when Rapunzel often was forlorn, it was always great to see her face light up. Faith curtsied and left the room, leaving her to read her precious letter.
It was dated from the day before. Cassandra was close. During all of her travels, Rapunzel had mapped where her friend was, depending on how long the letter took to arrive. When Cassandra must have taken a boat, or slowed down to walk on foot, or journeyed with a caravan, she could tell nearly everything of her travels. She had taken the quill her friend had once put on maps, and mapped her journey, so a part of her would still be with her.
This time, the letter wasn’t alone. With the thin paper, there was something else. Something fragile, something green and blue, dried, with the fragile little spikes around blue petals. A flower. A beautiful, delicate flower.
A flower Rapunzel didn’t know the name of. Yet.
She left it on her desk, leaving it carefully as she went to her library to take her botany book.
Pages turned and turned as she searched. Then, hungry for knowledge, she found.
There it was, on a page alone for it to spread on the paper. The flower was blue, a kind of blue that wasn’t without reminiscing part of her past, of her friend’s past.
The page was folded, a discreet bookmark on an angle. Discreet, so discreet like her friend. Many could walk past her and not even notice her. But Rapunzel would never. And like she had seen Cassandra, she had seen the bookmark. Who had folded the page? Rapunzel had her own idea, and a happy smirk appeared on her face.
On the page, the title said, in cursive, love-in-a-mist.
Love in a mist. A poetic name for a flower as poetic.
Her love was away. Coming back, it seemed, as there was less and less time between each letter.
Mist… there was mist, usually on the mornings, around the island. But the mist was wide… Where to find her love there?
It was no flower.
It was a date.
Rapunzel beamed joyfully as she read one more time the letter with the blue flower. It was simple, short and concise.
I’m coming back. You’ll know when and where.
Love.
Cassandra.
That was it. The words Rapunzel couldn’t take her eyes from. And among them there was one more important than the others.
Love.
Cassandra had written love to her. In the other letters, she had always written take care, or I miss you. One time, it had been can’t wait to be by your side again.
Sighing at the thought of how important waiting was to Cassandra, Rapunzel couldn’t help but feel a little twinge of guilt. Yet it was over, wasn’t it? Now Cassandra had all the time she wanted, no waiting, no orders, she was as free as a bird. And the thought of the hour they spent as birds shoved the sadness away.
They had a great time together. If only… if only Rapunzel had had the mind she had now, she would have seen what was wrong, she would have talked more to Cassandra, and perhaps, none of the Moonstone and Zhan Tiri situation would’ve happened. And perhaps, if Cassandra hadn’t betrayed her, Rapunzel would be dead.
A shiver shoot through her back.
She had received great news. Why couldn’t she be happy, when her memories of guilt came back again and again? Because Cassandra was coming back for the first time in years, and Rapunzel would face her, and she knew she couldn’t stay silent about all that had happened. She needed to be the truth, the acceptance, parting the mist of uncertainty and unsaid apologies that blocked the light between them.
And she would do that. For her, for Cassandra.
That day, Rapunzel took a boat, a small rowing boat, and went in the bay. These weeks, the weather was clear, the waves in the sea were calm. Cassandra had planned to meet her somewhere they knew… Or not, and it would be a surprise of the best kind. Rapunzel loved Cassandra’s surprise. Well, except the Moonstone one, but it was one of a kind and a regrettable mistake both had made amend for.
She knew most of the bay. Well, nearly everything that is. She knew there had to be places she hadn’t yet been to. Places she left aside to keep the thrill of discovery for later. Places, maybe, that she would discover tonight.
It was barely midday after all. She had time. But she knew she would most likely spend the day out there, away from the castle, in the bay.
Rapunzel sailed around the bay, near the coast. There were lots of little rivers coming from the lands. Long ago, it had been a big delta, but the people who lived then built canals to use the lands not as water but arable lands. Those were some of the first Coronan fields, tormented by winds and tides, yet, they stood their grounds, and it had been that way for centuries. And Rapunzel had discovered, through the years here on the island, that those places full of water, close to the sea often where full of mist would cold come in days like this one, in autumn.
The princess opened the letter she had kept with her. The flower was still inside it. For nothing would she have let it in her room, away from her. The flower was dry after the days to arrive to the castle. Probably Cassandra had dried it before sending it too. It was so fragile in her hands, a piece of nature, of green and blue that cracked when she caressed the petals, that could break with too much wind.
She rowed away from the currents, to a part of the coast where the sea was at its calmest. It was a point where she could see most of the bay. The bridge, the island with the massive castle at the top, the hills on the mainland, with the forest, and here and there, the high rooftops of some villages. Truly, when she had the time to discover it, she realized Corona was so beautiful, so majestic, so much more than just a lone tower in a valley.
Rapunzel was lost in her thoughts. So lost it surprised her when her boat touched the coast. She smiled at her own reverie and set foot on land, catching the rope of the boat to pull it where it wouldn’t go away back in the sea. In this part of the bay, there were lots of trees. The forest here was still dense, compared to the area around the main road to Old Corona and the Corona Wall. A strong tree would suffice to knot the rope and secure the boat.
The leaves and pine needles cracking beneath her soles, Rapunzel walked against the treeline, feet halfway in the water that was calmly leaping to her ankles with the tide.
It was peaceful here. The city wasn’t far, the wilderness of the forest just a step away, and the freedom of the sea right beside her.
With the bright light of the town reflecting on the water, she could see where she was going. She could see the flowers, closed by the chill of the night. And other flowers, still open, like a path created for her to walk on. And so she followed this path of little blue flowers. The same flowers she had received during the morning. For a moment, Rapunzel wondered if the flower Cassandra had sent her came from this place, or if it came from further away, from a land of mysteries and legends that the dried petals carried with them.
She couldn’t know, and didn’t care. She only longed to see her loved one.
Cassandra was walking by Fidella’s side. The ground was muddy here, near the coast and on the other side of the forests Rapunzel had come from. In Corona, there wasn’t much sand on the coast, where there used to be a large delta. Soil and grass covered the salt marsh. These days, the tide was a small one. Tonight, the tide would be high, and on the morning, low. Perfect to see the fog rise. The mist the knight would part when would the night begin.
She had with her a lantern, and a bouquet of blue flowers. Not any flowers, of course. She was never a person much fond of hidden meanings and symbolism, yet, with Rapunzel, she had learn to open her mind to it. And her recent journey in lands she hadn’t even known yet helped her even more.
The flowers were of the same kind of the dried one she had sent to her beloved friend. She smiled as she thought those words. Maybe, after tonight, she could leave behind her the word “friend”, to only keep “beloved”. Maybe… Rapunzel had her word to say to this, of course.
Cassandra was confident. She had chosen the right flowers. If Rapunzel didn’t like their name, she wouldn’t sailing in the bay right now.
Night came slowly. A veil of clouds covered the sleeping sun, and on the other side of the sky, the moon appeared, a yellow white crescent on which circles of a tumultuous past rested forever.
With the clouds in the sky rose clouds near the lands. It came from the mainland, slowly descending to the bay, like a silent and discreet river of gray that if one wouldn’t notice it soon enough they would be trapped in it.
Cassandra wouldn’t be trapped in it.
She saw it coming, she had waited for it to come. It was here for her. And she would embrace it. Yet, not from down there on the ground.
Fidella kept an easy pace on the path. There, ahead, was the rendezvous point. Cassandra was certain Rapunzel would know where to go. This had been one of the places she had loved the most before going on their year-long journey to the Dark Kingdom.
It had also been a place built for her. One of the first buildings her parents ordered to build after the princess was found again. It has always been so special to her. This was certainly a reason why.
The lighthouse was standing proud on a big piece of stone that pierced through the sand and the water. For a long time it had been suggested to build a lighthouse on this place, but boats never went there. There had been no need. The royals found the need when their precious daughter came back home. To celebrate their sun’s return, they brought the sun to the sea.
For years now it had been alight. Days and night, like the sun around the Earth. Never tired to shine in the sky.
The lighthouse keeper’s house was on the road, and they had only a little path to walk on to get to the lighthouse. It was at this house that Cassandra left Fidella, before walking on the narrow seawall overlooking the sea below.
As she walked on the path, she felt the weight on her heart going away, finally close to the one she loved, one step by one step. The sand crunched under her boots. She threw her cloak above her shoulder to protect her as the wind of the sea rose, scratching her skin with the salt it carried. What a mess would her hair be when she would arrive on top of the lighthouse, yet she didn’t care.
The wind called for the mist to cover everything around her. Good thing the seawall wasn’t too long, or she couldn’t even see the lighthouse’s wall at arm’s reach anymore.
The door was right here. In the grayness of the fog, she heard Fidella neigh. She knew her mare. It meant she was fine. In the silence they ensued, Owl hooted too. An “everything’s fine” hoot, Cassandra knew at once. She smiled to herself, and to her animal friends, before putting her gloved hands on the door.
It opened as she pushed the heavy wooden leaf. It creaked in its hinges. Though the building was only a couple of years old, neither sea, nor storm, nor salt, nor sand had helped the door keep its youth.
Inside, there was no wind. Cassandra brushed through her unruly hair with strong hands, hoping it would better her look. She wasn’t sure as she walked to the center of the room, if she should take some of the flowers she had, and put one in her hair. She knew Rapunzel loved that. Better let the flower girl do then, she would know best how to arrange the flower in her lover’s hair. At the thought, Cassandra sighed, and smiled a content smile. Only a couple of minutes left before she would see Rapunzel.
A couple of minutes, and a good hundred of steps to get to the top of the lighthouse.
She looked above her, and saw, through the roofs of the couple of rooms the lighthouse had, the oculus, to bring the firewood up the high tower. It was a window toward the evening. She could glance, at a certain angle, the fire flickering through the oculus.
Then, she knew it was coming. The time to climb all the steps up the lighthouse. Someone was waiting for her up there. She had waited so long herself. No more waiting. For neither of them.
Something flapped in the emptiness of the high staircase, and fell through the oculus. Cassandra stopped at mid-height in the room, leaning on the forged railing to see what had fallen.
It was unexpected, and yet, she thought with a smile, somewhat predictable.
A rope ladder, golden of the hemp it was woven from, falling from the top of the lighthouse.
Cassandra walked back to the floor, and approached it. It rested on the hard stone floor, caressing it, as she grabbed the cord, and pulled, testing the resistance. It seemed to hold. This would do.
One foot after the other, arms reaching high for the ladder, she slowly climbed through the holes in the floor, up, up and up, toward the room at the top floor. Soon, she felt the rope ladder move with her. Someone up there was pulling it too, and she knew who.
I’m coming, Raps, she thought, and reached even higher than before, catching a piece of rope and hoisting herself always higher.
Higher. To the sky. To the sun, up there, reaching for her. For the love, in the mist around the lighthouse, calling for her.
One hand, and pull to get higher. Another, and through the window she could see the strong light of the lighthouse’s top floor piercing through the fog.
She had reached the first floor. Cassandra would be up to climb such rope, yet that night, she wanted more than anything to get quickly up the roof.
No more waiting.
She could still climb the rope ladder again for the last meters. Let her loved one be the princess welcoming her knight after a long climb.
One hand after the other, meter after meter, she reached the final floor. Her hands rested on the oculus’ hard and cold stone as she hoisted herself out of it. And she wasn’t alone to do it, as a shadow she knew well and hands she had missed so long caught her under her shoulders to help her up.
Yet doing so, her hand opened, and the bouquet fell. Like blue rain, petals and flowers covered the floor of the ground level.
As soon as Cassandra was standing in the room at the top of the lighthouse, Rapunzel let the rope fell behind her to the ground, and closed the oculus. No need to leave a hole in the floor.
Cassandra had barely time to catch her breath that it was stolen from her, as Rapunzel seized her in a tight embrace.
“Miss me much, hey?” she asked with a lopsided smile.
Rapunzel humphed a giggle against Cassandra’s shoulder.
“How could you know?”
“Just a feeling, dear,” replied Cassandra.
“I’m glad you’re back,” sighed Rapunzel. “It hasn’t been the same without you.”
“I’ve missed you too,” she understood. “Good thing I haven’t planned on leaving soon.”
“You’re staying!?”
The joy burst in the small room at the top of the lighthouse, and to faraway ships, it seemed the yellow light of the lantern was a bit brighter for a second.
“Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou!”
Rapunzel was so overjoyed, they couldn’t stand more than a couple of seconds, and both fell to the ground. Thankfully, the princess knew they would spend the time there before going back to the castle, and had put covers and mattresses around the little room. It was their little cocoon, their secret nest up there in the lighthouse.
“Ouch,” huffed Cassandra as her girlfriend fell on her stomach.
“You okay, Cass? I’m sorry, I’m just so happy you’re going to stay…”
“Never mind, Raps, I’m happy to be by your side again. More than I could ever tell you.”
She opened her arms and Rapunzel dived in the embrace, this time more slowly.
As they rested there on the blankets, their breaths calmed. Outside, the light at the top of the tower pulsed in the night, like the steady beating of the sky’s heart. Below, down the tower where waves crashed, they drummed against the rocks, slow and peaceful on this misty night.
And with the pace of the waves and light, the mist rose too. It reached the tower’s highest room, as Rapunzel was getting sweets out of the basket she had brought earlier for them to enjoy this soothing night together.
The candied fruits were a nice treat after hours of riding on the roads and between fields, Cassandra well agreed on that. And to feel in her arms the one she held dearly in her heart, possibly the only person in the whole world she could ever feel so close to, it cradled her in peace in a way she couldn’t even remember feeling.
“Cass…” started Rapunzel in a whisper as she neared a piece of candied pear to Cassandra’s month, “do you remember what you wrote in your last letter?”
Cassandra lifted her head just enough to catch the piece of pear, and let it fall again on the pillow she rested on.
“If I remember it? Raps, I remember every word I wrote you,” she assured with a smooth voice.
“Oh…”
“What’s wrong?”
“You wrote love,” reminded her Rapunzel.
There was no accusation in her voice. She had said it calmly, a fact, yet there was this hope that pearled in her eyes that said more than what her voice had said.
“Oh.”
“You remember that, don’t you?”
“I do,” reassured her Cassandra. “Because of all my letters, this is the word I meant the most. Raps, you are the star of my life, without you, my life is like a ship without a compass, or an adventurer without a map. Without you, I’m lost. You’re my lighthouse, Raps.”
Through the light of the lantern above them, she could see tears of happiness falling down Rapunzel’s cheeks. With a slow and smooth thumb, Cassandra took it away.
“I love you, Raps.”
“I love you too, Cass,” she replied, falling on Cassandra’s chest with a gentle blissful sob.
She closed her eyes, and let sleep cover her. Below her, after leaving a light kiss on her head, Cassandra followed suit, and yawned before letting herself wander to peaceful dreams.
Resting as they were, they couldn’t see the mist rising outside the lighthouse. They couldn’t see how the sharp white light of the lantern turned yellow, and blue with each turn, and how the hues stayed on the flying droplets of water in the air. With the light the mist turned and danced around the tower.
It was magical. And yet, neither Cassandra nor Rapunzel saw it.
Until the mist droplets flew to them, little currents carried by the wind. They were like tiny gems in the air, of gold and sapphire, dancing with each slow breeze.
With the dancing of the wind, and the dancing of the mist, the tiny gems flew together, to form one. It was such an emerald floating in the air, blazing the gray night of its hues of the green of life. It was so bright, through her heavy eyelids Cassandra saw it.
On the roads, she had learned to be wary of everything. Every light that could be a torch, every sound that could be an arrow.
But this time, it was no deadly danger that awaited her when she opened her tired eyes. No, it was quite the total opposite. It was light, it was darkness, it was at the same time, life and death. The power of the sun, and the power of the moon, together forming something new.
She gently shook Rapunzel out of her sleep, and together, they watched what had left them years ago before Cassandra went away beyond the Corona wall.
And now it was back. Before their eyes. Behind the glass of one life-saving lighthouse.
The emerald gem floated before them, taunting them, mesmerizing.
A warm gloved hand rested on the cold glass of the night where fog had rested its chill. The gem approached. A second hand, ungloved, came to rest on the first. With a smile, Rapunzel looked at Cassandra, then at the gem that glowed brighter. It responded to them.
And then. It left.
It fell to the ground, falling the soil, and a short tremor was felt from the top of the tower.
“Come!” invited Rapunzel, already going down the corridor.
“Coming,” replied Cassandra right behind her.
They hadn’t taken the time to take their stuff. All was where it was. Untouched, the basket and the fruits, the covers and their resting forms, together as one.
They walked, hell, they ran down the many steps of the spiral stairs, nearly missing steps and falling down it head first. Never did they lose their grab on the railing and lose more than only time. Their pattering on the hard stone steps was like the sound of a mid-season rain on the leaves of a forest’s tree, when both the cold winter and warm summer still shared the sky and lands.
On the ground floor, the fallen blue flowers welcomed them. They were standing on the stones, as though they were still alive. And they were turned toward the only light. Toward the door, and what it opened on. The still wide open door displayed to those still hidden inside the gray mist through which one could only see the way with the flying green opal that danced around the tall grass.
“It’s… beautiful,” whispered Rapunzel, first of them to arrive down the stairs.
“It’s… gorgeous,” agreed Cassandra.
She walked to stand beside Rapunzel, and as they walked outside together as one toward the light, she took her hand.
With each step toward the gem, they saw it was not in truth green.
Most of it was yellow and blue, tints that they knew more than anything. Marvel made their eyes shine, as memories came back to them, the good, and the bad.
As they flooded her mind, Cassandra tried to take her hand back, but she couldn’t, as Rapunzel held on to it, and squeezed her hand, with a smile that was shining as much as her eyes and hope.
“It’s in the past now,” she told her.
Cassandra looked down. She knew she was right.
“Cass…” whispered Rapunzel as she saw her sad sight.
She turned to catch Cassandra’s other hand in hers. Her left hand. Her charred hand. Her burnt hand.
Did it still hurt? Rapunzel wanted to ask, but couldn’t. Instead she took it, raising her hand with one of hers and her wrist with her other hand to lean a soft kiss on her knuckles.
“It’s in the past,” repeated Cassandra.
As she said that, a tear fell on her hand. And a second one. This one wasn’t hers. They didn’t fall on the skin, nor did they roll to the ground. In mid-air, they stood, and floated, such the gem of gold and sapphire, where emerald stood between both.
And with amazed eyes they locked their gaze on the drops that stood between them. With the diffuse light of the mist, the tears were both blue and gold, with hints of green. But they knew it was only the light. Or was it?
Around them, with the mist hiding everything of the world, they were alone. In the mist, thick and snugly, they were one. One of sun, one of moon, on a green planet to hold them together as one.
Rapunzel left Cassandra’s hand fall along her body, and opened her arms. With a caring smile and teary eyes, Cassandra fell in her embrace and let her head rest on her lover’s shoulder.
“Don’t go away again…” she whispered. “Please, I barely lived without you here with me…”
“Raps… We’re together now, we’ve found each other. We won’t let anything take us apart.”
The words were velvet against her ear, the warm breath of her lover on her shoulder beating the rhythm with which they moved with little steps.
Around them, the gray mist held hues of green. The two-sided opal was back, near them, with them, in them. They were tightly holding each other and yet, from within their embrace rose the light, that green light of life, of renewal of the friendship that had preceded the love they had for each other.
It was magnificent, like an emerald flying with them. They weren’t two parts taken away from one another anymore. They were one. Like their magics had always been meant to be, they were too.
And with the magic rising, so did the water in the marshes all around them. A translucent water, pure and clean, flying drops surrounding them. A giggle. It was wonderful. The water rose, and rose, and became green of that emerald as precious as what united them. Hope. Life. Love.
The slow geyser of cold water formed like an arch above them both. Both Cassandra and Rapunzel looked above their heads, and it was like they had always known what it was for. For they knew, once they would walk through it, no one could take them away from each other, no magic nor demons nor even themselves could. They were one, now and forever.
Loosening their embrace, they held hands, and looked to the arch of water piercing the mist. They turned to gaze in each other’s eyes, and knew, it was time.
“I’ll be with you, now and always,” whispered Rapunzel as she leaned on Cassandra’s shoulder.
“Till the end, I’ll stay by your side,” promised Cassandra, leaning to give her a kiss on her short brown hair.
Light was pulsing with the water flying before them. The opal that had been theirs, the opal that was their guide, it was there too, under the arch, waiting for them to take the fateful step.
And the fateful step they took.
There had been a light, a green light many said were fireflies in the mist, and it disappeared like it had arrived. Silently. Peacefully. Lovingly.
And where old griefs had left them, where the new arch had been, where the emerald mist of borrowed magics had stood, now grew blue flowers, that many knew by their name, and yet didn’t understood why they grew there. Those flowers had a name, and held a message. Love-in-a-mists.