POV - Emilia
El sol se filtraba perezosamente a través de la ventana, acariciando mis mejillas aún adormiladas.
Me giré lentamente sobre las sábanas. Mi cuerpo me dolía un poco, probablemente por el entrenamiento, por la emoción de la fiesta... o por correr como si mis pies no tuvieran límites.
Pero lo que más dolía era... sonreír.
Sí. Sonreír.
Porque todavía no podía dejar de hacerlo.
"Anoche fue... perfecta", susurré mientras abrazaba mi almohada.
Y en mi mente, la imagen de Luahn bajo la luz de la luna seguía volviendo, sus palabras, su hielo cristalino dando forma a recuerdos que eran solo nuestros...
"¿Estás despierto o fingiendo ser parte de las sábanas?"
La voz de mi madre me hizo saltar.
"¡Mamá!"
"¡Buenos días, joven romántico!" dijo con picardía mientras entraba en mi habitación sin anunciarse.
Traía una bandeja con té de flores azules y bollos recién tostados.
Se sentó a los pies de mi cama sin ninguna vergüenza.
"Vamos, cuéntamelo todo."
"¿Todo... qué?"
La miré, fingiendo ignorancia, pero mi rubor me traicionó al instante.
"Oh, por favor, Emilia. Soy tu madre. No es que no haya visto cómo sonreías cada vez que se acercaba a ti anoche."
"¡No es lo que crees!"
"¿Entonces no te llevó a una cueva secreta iluminada por lunas y esculturas de hielo mágicas con recuerdos de tu infancia y su voz diciendo 'feliz cumpleaños' como si fueras el único sol en su vida?"
La miré boquiabierta.
"...¿Cómo lo sabes?"
"Leyla. Tu mamá. Una mujer. Y tengo ojos, cariño."
Me cubrí la cara con la almohada.
"¡Mamá!"
Ella solo rió y apartó la almohada.
"No huyas. A estas alturas, podrías gritarlo desde la plaza del pueblo y nadie se sorprendería."
"¡¿Qué?! ¡Jamás haría eso!"
"¿Y por qué no? El niño es adorable, valiente, considerado, tiene unos ojos que te derriten el alma y te mira como si fueras la única estrella en el cielo".
"Mamá..."
"¿Sí?"
"Yo... creo que me gusta. Mucho".
Mi voz salió más baja de lo que esperaba.
No por miedo, sino con una suave calidez que se instaló en mi pecho.
Mamá se sorprendió, pero sonrió de inmediato. No era una sonrisa burlona.
Era una sonrisa suave, tierna y cálida.
"¿Y sabes qué es lo mejor, Emilia?"
"¿Qué?"
"Que no estés confundida. A tu edad, todo puede parecer grande y dramático. Pero no estás exagerando".
La miré fijamente.
"¿De verdad no crees que soy... demasiado joven para esto?"
"Emilia". Me tomó la mano.
"Los de nuestro clan maduramos de forma diferente, lo sabes. Y tú, hija mía, tienes un corazón fuerte y claro. No es solo un capricho."
"Papá también se enamoró a tu edad, ¿verdad?"
Ella asintió, con un brillo nostálgico en los ojos.
"Tenía diez años cuando me vio pelear por primera vez. Me dijo que su corazón se congeló... y ardió al mismo tiempo. Nunca me dejó sola después de eso. Aunque no fue hasta años después que lo aceptamos."
"¿Y sabías que era amor?"
"Al principio no. Pero había algo dentro de mí que latía diferente cuando él estaba cerca. Como si todo en el mundo tuviera más sentido cuando me miraba."
Me mordí el labio.
"Así es como me siento con Luahn. No es que lo necesite todo el tiempo. Pero... cuando no está, es como si algo faltara. Y cuando lo veo... todo parece estar bien."
Leyla me apretó la mano.
"Eso se llama amor, Emilia."
Guardé silencio.
Y entonces sonreí.
No una de esas sonrisitas.
Sino una sincera.
Una que venía de lo más profundo.
"Así que... supongo que estoy enamorada".
"¡Oh, por nuestra Diosa, mi bebé está enamorado!"
"¡Mamá!"
"¡Quiero nietos! Pero todavía no, ¿de acuerdo? Primero crecer, luego sálvale del fin del mundo, y luego hablaremos". "
¡MAMÁ!"
Ambas reímos.
No hicimos nada extraordinario ese día.
Solo compartimos muffins, hablamos de tonterías, recordamos viejos tiempos y... soñamos un poco con el futuro.
Pero dentro de mí, algo ya había cambiado.
Ya no era solo una guerrera.
Ya no era solo la hija de Fortz y Leyla.
Ya no era solo la amiga de Luahn.
Ahora también era una chica que amaba.
Y eso, de alguna manera, me hizo sentir más fuerte que nunca.
*
From the morning after my birthday... something changed.
It wasn't something that could be described in exact words. I didn't wake up and think, "I feel different today." No.
It was more subtle. As if the air had become lighter.
As if things hurt less.
As if... I were floating.
"You're smiling again, huh?" said Liifa, biting into a muffin.
"I'm not smiling!"
"Of course you are. You're so radiant that if you shone any brighter, we'd have to put a blanket over you."
"Leave her alone, Liifa," Selena interjected as she checked her study board. "At least today she didn't sigh ten times before training. We're improving."
"Selena!"
"You said it yourself yesterday! That you dreamed of a cave, ice, and moons. Who dreams that if they're not completely..."
I lunged at them with the energy of lightning.
"Silence!"
"I plead not guilty!" Liifa sang.
We laughed together as we made our way to the academy.
Yes.
They had noticed me.
They all did.
Even in class, the instructors said my balance had improved, that my strikes were more fluid. That there was something different about me.
And of course... they noticed it too.
Across the training field, I saw Remin with some boys, talking to each other, some even looking in my direction.
It wasn't unusual. I already knew that my words a few days ago had not gone unnoticed.
But Remin... he didn't say anything.
He just stared at me. Silently.
With clenched teeth, with narrowed eyes.
And then I understood.
He knows.
Or at least, he suspects.
It was a blow to him. And what hurt him most was not being rejected. It was understanding why.
Because someone like Luahn... someone he despised for his origins, for his "strangeness," for not being one of "them," had achieved something he had not.
My heart.
And he couldn't stand it.
That afternoon, after class, I decided to take a detour on my way home. I needed to talk to someone.
Someone who also knew Luahn as well as I did.
I climbed the western hill, where the minor shrine was being restored. And, as I expected, Grisel was there, carefully collecting sacred branches marked with runes.
"Grisel."
"Emilia?" she greeted me with a slight smile, her braids tied back with a new ribbon.
"Do you have a moment?"
"Sure. You give me a break from this madness."
We sat together on a large rock, in the shade of a young tree growing near the waterway. I was quiet at first, nervous.
She glanced at me sideways.
"Is it about Luahn?"
I looked up suddenly.
"How did you know?!"
"Because it's obvious."
"You too?!"
Grisel let out a small laugh.
"Emilia, you're not exactly subtle. Besides... I know you."
I looked down.
"I guess... I can't hide it anymore."
"And why would you want to hide it?"
"I don't know. Maybe because I thought he was mine, but not in that way. That... he was like a part of me. My family, my partner. I never stopped to think if it was love."
Grisel looked at me intently.
"And now you think it is?"
"Yes. It is. When I'm with him... everything seems to make sense. And when he's not there... I feel incomplete. I don't know when it started, but I don't want to deny it anymore."
Grisel closed her eyes for a second. Then she nodded.
"I'm glad."
"Really?"
"Yes. Luahn is... many things. Confused, stubborn, sometimes very clumsy, but also sweet. And I... I just want him to be happy. If you're the one who can give him that, then I'll be grateful."
"...Aren't you sad?"
"No."
She looked at me firmly and clearly.
"I was never a rival, Emilia. Luahn is my friend. My only and most precious friend, but what I feel for him is not like what you feel. It never was."
"Grisel..."
She took my hand.
"You are the person he looks at when he thinks no one is watching. And that... cannot be learned. It is felt."
I wiped my eyes, which were shining without my realizing it.
"Thank you."
"Just don't make me vomit with kisses in public and we'll be fine."
"GRISEL!"
We laughed together.
And I understood that everything I felt...
Everything that was happening to me... was more real than I ever imagined.
Because when your friends support you unreservedly, even in what is left unsaid, you know you are where you should be.
*
POV - Grisel
The air was cleaner at this time of day.
The breeze blew down from the branches of the Hypnos Tree like a living sigh, stirring the soft leaves she had gathered for the offering seals. She was sitting under the young tree near the minor shrine, her feet dangling over a small hill, when Emilia arrived.
I had already sensed her coming before she spoke.
She's not good at hiding things.
Not when she carries such big emotions in her chest.
Not when those emotions are called Luahn.
"Grisel."
"Emilia?" I replied with a half-smile. "Do you have a moment?"
Of course she did.
I always do when it comes to him.
Or her.
Hearing her talk about Luahn didn't surprise me... but it affected me more than I thought it would.
She described him with a warm, intimate emotion. The kind of affection that isn't forced. That isn't coerced. That simply... grows. Like the bud of a flower you didn't know you had planted.
And I smiled.
I told her what I had to.
I congratulated her.
Because that's what you do when someone important to you confides in you about something as delicate as that.
But inside... something stirred.
It wasn't sadness.
It wasn't jealousy either.
Or at least, I didn't understand it as such.
It was more like... a crack.
Small.
Almost imperceptible.
A voice in some corner of me asked:
"And you? How do you feel?"
I saw how her eyes sparkled when she talked about him.
How she clung to his words as if they were a coat.
And I said to myself, "It's okay. She loves him. He'll be happy.
And that... that should be enough for me."
Right?
"You're the person he looks at when he thinks no one is watching," I said, because it was true.
I had seen that look.
Luahn couldn't hide it.
Not from me.
And yet... I was never the focus of that look.
Emilia was.
After she left, I was alone.
I picked up the last stamps.
The sun was beginning to set, tinging everything orange.
I didn't think too much about it at the time.
At least, I thought so.
But as I walked back home, with the branches hanging from my cloth bag and the runes echoing faintly against my waist, my steps were slower.
My chest felt a little tighter.
"He'll be happy..." I whispered to the wind.
And a part of me...
A silent part... wondered if I would be too.
Not because I didn't want him to be happy.
Not because I wanted to be in his place.
Just... because I didn't know what space would be left for me when his world had another center.
He was my only friend.
The only constant.
The only one who never expected anything from me.
And now... someone else would be that for him.
Not in my place, but... deeper.
I sat on the threshold of the main temple when I arrived.
The stone was cold. The sky was already purple.
I clasped my hands in my lap.
I didn't cry.
I didn't get upset.
I just thought.
And I understood something:
I loved him too.
Not like Emilia.
Not with the urgency of love.
But with something more... subtle.
More tangled.
More difficult to name.
Maybe I didn't understand it completely.
Maybe I didn't have to yet.
But that night... when I closed my eyes in my bed...
For the first time, I wished I wasn't the only one who always stayed on the sidelines.
Just that.