Cold Waters

[Morgan LaLuna]

A quiet stole over the captain as he sat cross legged on the beach near the Gloaming District with his hands palm up in his lap, holding the impossibly cold opal in the loose lotus his fingers made. Through dinner with those he held dear, he’d kept it tucked safely away in a space between armored plates. Encouraging words had come from Isaac, and Cane recounted the bouts with some amount of enthusiasm, giving Morgan the point of view the two men had where they had been seated. Morgan had managed to text Mart during this, and the Moon Elf surprised him by appearing just where they were all planning to have dinner… A celebratory one, in this particular case. There was a not-so-brief moment where the two were entwined, and had it not been for a well-timed counter spell, Morgan would have disappeared with his fiance firmly in his grasp.

Through dinner, he hardly thought of the opal itself, distracted by food and friends and the rowdy atmosphere his victory had lent their table. Afterwards, when all of the goodbyes had been said, all of the texts and calls taken care of, he finally got a chance to breathe. And even then, he nearly forgot the stone in the armor until he was removing his clothes gingerly for healing until he saw the glimmer. Carefully, he removed it, and again marvelled at how very cold it was. He set it aside for a time… But eventually, his curiosity had taken over. In the middle of the night, when all was still and next to him there were only the slow and steady breaths of sleep, he stole out of bed and took the opal with him down and out onto the sands.

And so he sat, for what seemed like hours. The wash of waves had become a lullabye, and he might have started dozing off, had he not heard a voice that blew like a wintry breeze in his head.

”You need sleep.”

He blinked and sat straight up, looking down to the stone in his lap before he lifted it closer to his face. His thumb ran across IceDancer gently, and he couldn’t help but smile. “I’ll get there eventually. I’m… Oh. Am I keeping you up?” He paused a beat, brow furrowing. “Do opals need sleep?”

There was a long silence, and Morgan was beginning to think he’d said something wrong, before he heard the reply. ”No.”

“Oh. It’s… nice to finally meet you.” He cleared his throat, and looked around. He suddenly felt very silly talking to a stone in his hands. The beach was clear, and most of the lights of the houses in the district were off or dimmed. Koyliak had told him to show the opal some respect, so he quickly pushed any embarrassment from his mind. “I just… wanted to do that.”

”So you waited for me to speak first.”

“I wasn’t sure you would.”

”And now that I have, what will you do?”

“Oh… uh… I guess I’ll go to bed. We have plenty of time to get to know each other, right?”

”Good night.”

Morgan stood, and started to head toward the cottage. There was a moment of realization, and he paused. “Oh! One question. Would you be mad if I wore you?” He continued his trek across sand and into the little home while he waited for the answer. Again, it was quite some time. So long, in fact, he thought that perhaps he’d offended the opal. It wasn’t until he was sliding back into the sheets of the bed that IceDancer finally responded.

”You may do so.”

Morgan beamed at IceDancer where he’d set her next to the bed. “I’ll make sure it’s perfect.” He whispered as he tugged the sheets further over himself and settled in with a yawn. In the morning, he would figure out how he’d make it happen. For now, he would sleep. For now, he just hoped he’d made a good first impression, at least.