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Clorinde could see her reflection in her pearl mirror. She was using a blue blush brush to spread a light pink tint over her cheeks. Furina’s eyes glazed over to Clorinde, where she smiled with her teeth.
“Don’t worry, I’m almost done,” Furina giggled.
Clorinde could not help but blush at her smile. She was so beautiful even in the simplest outfits. She had no idea how she managed to pull it off. She looked stunning, no matter what she wore, whether it was a suit, a dress, or some cross between the two.
Clorinde desired her to be by her side more than a bodyguard or duelist. Her feelings for Furina grew each passing day, like a sprout finally taking root. She wondered what kind, maybe a sunflower to signal her loyalty.
“Take all the time you need, Lady Furina. We still have thirty minutes before the show begins,” Clorinde forcibly pulled her eyes away from Furina to look at the clock.
“And it's always good to be fashionably late to these events. The show tonight isn’t my personal favorite, but I’m in a forgiving mood and don’t want them to get bad press just because I decided to skip.”
“I think it would be alright if you skipped it,” Clorinde inferred.
“And miss spending time with you.”
Clorinde’s heart skipped a beat as she felt a sharp pain in her chest, making her wince, but it seemed Furina was busy with her makeup once again.
“My dear, can you come here for a second?” Furina called her over.
She called everyone that she called Neuvillette and Escoffier that. She was sure if Wriothesley ever left his liar, she would call him that too. Clorinde moved quicker than she anticipated. Furina held out a pearl necklace for her to take, and without any explanation, Furina parted the back of her hair.
Clorinde nimbly moved her fingers, trying not to get too close. She so badly wished to drop short kisses down her spine as the pain spiked in her chest again, as she let a short coughing fit.
Furina looked up at her through the mirror. “You should get that cough checked out like I said.”
“I’m probably coming down with a cold.” Clorinde hooked her necklace on.
“It sounds serious,” Furina spoke with concern. “You never know. I’ve heard other people say that and end up needing a transplant of some kind, or form a serious illness. One lady even got lung cancer. If you will not do it yourself, I will have Neuvillette pen a letter to Sigewinne to have you checked out next time you go down to the fortress.”
“You do not have to.”
“But I am worried about you,” Furina spoke quickly. “Someone like you is not easy to replace.”
-
Clorinde found herself in a medical bed next time she was sent down to the fortress by Moniuser Neuvillette to help Wriothesley out with a small rebellion inside the prison. He had a tear in his sleeve from a wound that recently stopped bleeding after Sigewinne stitched it up. He looked over at Clorinde from the wall with a smile on his face.
“Another one for the record,” he commented. “And what should I say I got this one from?”
Clorinde rolled her eyes and paid him no mind as Sigewinne made her way over with several tools in hand. “Open wide.” She held out a wooden stick to check Clorinde’s throat.
“It's just a cold.” Clorinde shook her off.
“If you would like to be on Lady Furina’s bad side, by all means,” Sigewinne threatened her. And as much as Clorinde loved her, Furina could be a pain to deal with when she was in a bad mood. Clorinde opened her mouth as Sigewinne smiled to herself, satisfied. She placed the wooden stick on her tongue, looking at the back of her throat. “Interesting.”
Sigewinne pulled out her spirometer as she listened to Clorinde’s breathing. “Wriothesley, can you leave the room?”
“Is it serious?” A panicked look struck his face.
“I don’t know,” Sigewinne replied. Wriothesley left the room as Sigewinne quickly locked the door. “I am going to run some tests, okay?”
Clorinde nodded her head, wrapping her hand around her shaking fingers.
Sigewinne ran several tests that day, monitoring her heart, looking at her blood samples, and even x-rays, as she finally smiled at Clorinde with an answer, “To put it simply, you’ve been cursed!”
“Cursed?” Clorinde repeated.
“Yes, don’t worry, it’s an easy cure,” Sigewinne informed her. “I will have to conduct an extensive surgery on your lungs, basically cleaning them out. It will take several hours and weeks to recover, but...”
“But what?” Clorinde eyed her. “You have not explained what this is.”
“I don’t know how it came about. Maybe someone put it on you, or you touched something, but this is not the first case I’ve seen. It’s just been a very long time since I have,” Sigewinne trailed off. “It’s normal for people to have unrequited feelings for someone. It could be because they don’t think they are deserving, they are out of their league, a ton of different things, but it changes when that person falls deeply in love with them. This is usually when this curse comes about.”
“You have two options, Ms. Clorinde. You can explain your feelings to whoever this person is, and just like most curses, kiss them. Or you can go through with the surgery, but by doing so, you will lose all feelings for them in the process.”
“And what if I don’t do either?”
“You die,” Sigewinne said with a blank expression. “A plant is growing in your lungs; it's taken root and it will grow bigger over time, extending to your throat, suffocating you. That’s the reason why you're coughing so much: your body is trying to naturally get rid of it, much like a food particle that went down the wrong pipe. But you still have some time to decide on what you want to do.”
“How long do I have?” Clorinde weighed her options.
“Days, months, years, it’s hard to estimate how quickly it grows,” Sigewinne answered. “How about this? I will make you something to deal with it, and when it gets serious, when you start experiencing chest pains when you breathe, you come to me immediately, and we go through with the surgery. There is no feeling worth dying for. You will find someone again eventually.”
Clorinde nodded her head, and Sigewinne got to work making her a liquid potion that would suppress her symptoms for a short while.
-
Clorinde went back to work like nothing happened, taking her drug every morning and evening, making it part of her normal routine. Her coughing slowed down, only spiraling out of control once a day, usually when she was alone with Furina.
It was hard to deny how much she wanted Furina. She loved watching her eyes sparkle when it came time for her to perform on stage, listening to her voice while she would sing, or the way she would wrap her arms around Clorinde’s shoulders, bringing her into a slow dance.
A smile always hung on her face when she did, and she would gossip about everything to her like they were something more than what they were. She would give Clorinde’s hand a quick squeeze at the end.
She wanted to tell her how she felt, along with the plant taking root in her lung, but to beg for her hand and then hit her with, ‘you’re the only one who can save me,' she felt selfish. She wanted to love her and be loved back, not feel like Furina owned her and was only with her because it could save her.
Even if Furina was a god, Clorinde knew she expressed feelings like any other human. Clorinde would be fine with getting the surgery once the situation got worse enough, but for now, she would enjoy her feelings that she had as the two danced on stage with no one to see their private performance.
Time continued to pass slowly as Clorinde monitored her symptoms with little to no changes, but the world around her was slowly getting worse. The water levels were rising, people were being turned into water, and then finally the trial happened.
She loved Furina more than anything else in the world. Despite it all, she still hurt her. When she held the sword up to her throat, she saw the panic lace through her eyes as she tried to figure out what to do. When Neuvillette declared she would execute, she looked as though she had finally given up on everything.
The waters rose around them and then receded almost as if nothing happened. Clorinde attempted to search for Furina during the flood, but she disappeared to save herself from her fate.
She reappeared days later, and during the time made plans to leave the palais, choosing a small house in the middle of the court still close to the home she had once known. Clorinde quickly gathered information from Neuvillette on where she had relocated herself. That morning, Clorinde stumbled into her bathroom in a coughing fit, searching for her medication, leaning over the sink as yellow flowers fell into her drain.
She would help Furina even if it was the last thing she would do.
Clorinde made the trip to Furina’s house, noticing the poor state in which she was living at the moment. None of her boxes had been unpacked, her trash was piling up, and there was a sink full of uncleaned dishes.
“Let me help,” Clorinde insisted.
“You don’t have to. I will get it done eventually,” Furina muttered.
Clorinde did not take no for an answer as she marched through the door, opening up a box and grabbing a blue shell lamp. “Where do you want this?”
“Over there,” Furina pointed to a side table with a box also on top of it. “It matches the couch.”
“Go get dressed. I will unwrap everything,” Clorinde instructed.
Furina kind of chuckled as she stretched her face. “Well, about that…”
“You have not unpacked your clothes either,” Clorinde guessed.
Furina slowly nodded her head. Clorinde exhaled loudly with her nose as they both made it upstairs to her bedroom. She had no sheets covering her bed, just a blanket and a pillow. Clorinde got to work, and Furina followed suit as they slowly moved through the house.
The time came for the meetup as Furina sighed, knowing that now she had to get dressed into suit pants, a vest, a puffy white shirt, and her favorite pair of heels. She held out her hand for Clorinde to grab, and once they touched, a volt of energy ran through her as another coughing fit began forcing her to hunch over.
“Clorinde, are you okay?” Furina held her up.
“I will be fine,” Clorinde muttered after she finished.
“I thought I told you to get this checked out,” Furina fussed. “Something serious like this should not be ignored.”
“I did get it checked out,” Clorinde explained as she winced from standing up. “I will be going in for surgery here soon. They have to clean out my lungs or give me new ones.”
“When?” Furina sounded hurt by the sudden news.
“Soon, in a week, so I have some time and I want to spend it with some friends,” Clorinde confessed.
“Will you survive?”
“Sigewinne thinks so, but there could always be a chance something occurs.”
A cold look came upon Furina’s face as she swallowed the news whole, then a smile pushed her feelings down, pulling Clorinde with her as they went up to meet her friends.
Furina at first stuck to the booth, not speaking with anyone outside of carefully sipping on her drink, looking over at Clorinde occasionally when she was in a deep conversation with her other friends. Clorinde brushed it off as her being worried.
Furina slowly loosened up, talking to people and getting up to dance to the music. By halfway through her second one, she was attempting to dance on top of tables, and that’s when Clorinde knew it was time for her to leave.
Furina stumbled into her arms, smiling, “Clorinde, have you come to dance with me again?” Furina swirled her words.
“I think it's time for you to go home before you hurt yourself.”
“Noo,” Furina pushed against her, but Clorinde's grip on her was tighter. “I want to stay here with you,” Furina whined. “I don’t want you to go,” Furina begged. “I don’t want someone else I care about to leave.”
Tears formed in her eyes as she began to heave. Clorinde pulled her tighter. Furina was worried about her, and Clorinde hugged her close. “I will be fine, Furina, and after it we can go have a tea party.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Furina was satisfied with that as an answer. Clorinde loosened her grip, interlocking her fingers with Furina, and she saw a blush blooming across her face. They walked silently beside each other occasionally. Furina would slump against her or trip on her own feet, but Clorinde was always there to catch her. Clorinde would choke on her coughs so that Furina would not be concerned about her anymore than she already was.
They shuffled back into her home, and Furina flopped into her bed, laughing as she slid against her sheets. “I’m so sleepy. Is this normal?”
“You have never had alcohol before, have you?” Clorinde found her right shoe peeling it off.
“No,” Furina shook her head. “Before the trial, I did not take any substances. I was afraid of someone finding out what I was, but Sigewinne swears on her life I have grown addicted to sugar instead.”
Clorinde peeled off her left shoe as Furina continued. “Ironic, isn’t it? I spent my entire life avoiding substances and ended up getting an addiction anyway. It’s fine, though I now get the chance to try things. I want to do it all when I get the energy, too.”
“You need to rest,” Clorinde told her.
“I don’t blame you for it, you know that, right?” Furina said softly. “I don’t blame any of you for what happened. I just miss you; a lot more than you realize.”
“I’m going to go now, Furina.”
“Come here, stay.” Furina patted her mattress.
Clorinde knew she should have left, but she found herself crawling into Furina’s bed, lying beside her. Furina snuggled up against her, laying her head right above Clorinde’s chest as she softly breathed against it.
“I love you, you know that,” Furina whispered.
“I know,” Clorinde responded. She knew she did not mean it, in the way that she wanted her to. People say “I love you to their friends all the time, and Furina loved everything.
The surgery would take place in a week, and she was more convinced now than ever.
-
The flowers were getting worse with each passing day since the night she slept next to Furina. That morning, she spent thirty minutes coughing up the same yellow flower petals. Her body felt tired and weaker. Her breathing was getting harder. She put it off for too long.
She stumbled her way over to the fortress. It never felt further than it did right now, even if she had walked this way a thousand times before.
“Clorinde,” she heard her name being called. “Clorinde, wait.”
Clorinde turned around, seeing Furina running towards her. They crashed into each other’s arms, and Furina tried to catch her breath.
“I’m coming with you,” Furina told her.
“I can do this alone.” Clorinde could feel the air getting stuck in her lungs. She couldn’t bear it anymore.
“I don’t care that you can do this alone. I want to be with you. You have done so much for me even before I was allowed to be human. I want to be the one to take care of you once you recover from whatever this is,” Furina explained. “I know I’m not the best cook in the world, but I picked up a recipe book yesterday just for you.”
“Sigewinne is more than capable of taking care of me.”
“Clorinde, listen to me,” Furina’s archon voice reappeared. “I meant what I said that night. I know I was drunk. I know you probably think I was being stupid. I do mean it. I miss you so much, and I have liked you for a long time.”
“Huh?”
Furina made a noise of frustration as she pulled on Clorinde’s cape, forcing her down to her height, crashing their lips together.
And for the first time in months, Clorinde felt like she could breathe.