Day 27: Arrogant Red

The bushes overflowed with every shade of color, but in particular crimson. It was Shiori’s favorite color, and arrogant red flowers spilled over the blues, purples, and pinks. The other woman servants grumbled about it to each other every now and again--that many in the same soil, they shouldn’t grow like that.

Day 5: Anastoria

“I remember," she said eventually. "There was a family who always brought goats past our street to the market. One ate the flower off my dress when I was little. Their son promised he’d marry me if I stopped crying, but I think I hit him. I don’t remember if I said yes or not. I might not have stopped crying, either.”

Day 2: Starstruck

Something split the sky. Something so huge and burgeoning and sudden it broke space and Shiori’s eyes. The sky was bright, but this was brighter than brightness. All the light he had ever seen in his life was a shadow cast by this light. In the single huge moment it existed, time died.