The day, Emily spends her m w on a new spatial ste. She crafts a small bag holding several spaces within, liogether like her belt, which she sorts through, moving the excessive magical materials within to the bag. Afterwards, she begins the slow process of taking apart the pipe system in her room, diseg every mae and stowing them in her new long-term ste. Her friends join her after lunch to help. Before evening es, the room is back as it was when Emily moved in a year and a half ago.

  They spend the remainder of the evening rexing in Emily’s room together, talking and ughing about their time in The Dome until the early hours of the m. As everyone leaves to make their way back to their own rooms, Emily and Juliana are left alone.

  Emily approaches Juliana, hugging her from behind as she waves their friends goodbye, resting her on her shoulder.

  “Hey, Jules?” Emily asks softly.

  “Yes, Emi?” Juliana responds, leaning bato her.

  “Let’s go on a date tomorrow.”

  Juliana tilts her head to face Emily with a smile.

  “Gdly,” she whispers against her lips, letting Emily close the distance.

  ***

  In the m, Emily and Juliana leave The Dome and board the train together, dressed casually, with Emily’s ons in her belt for once.

  “Do you have any pns in mind for our date?” Juliana asks excitedly as the train leaves the station.

  “Well, I don’t have the full day pnned out. Only the evening,” Emily replies. “Is there anything you’d like to do in town?”

  “I’d quite like to visit Auntie Annie, and you could do with a haircut.”

  “Fair point,” Emily says, running her fihrough her long hair. “I’ve been putting it off for a while and it’s gotten quite bad.”

  “Perfect! I kly what you should get,” Juliana chirps, her eyes lighting up in anticipation.

  “So, you’re choosing, are you?” Emily asks with a raised brow, a teasing smile pying on her lips.

  “Yep!”

  “Haha, fine. Would you like to help me pick my piergs too? I want to get some more.”

  “I’d love to. How many more are you thinking?”

  “I’m not sure. Maybe five or six.”

  Juliana nods enthusiastically, reag out and tug Emily’s hair behind her ears to get a better look at them.

  “I definitely have some ideas. This is gonna be so fun!”

  The train carries them out into the city, towards the ercial district. They first visit a popur hair stylist, where Juliana happily debates with them about what to do to Emily’s hair while she simply sits bad watches on, happy to trust her girlfriend’s judgement.

  “Have you finally decided?” Emily asks as Juliana bounces over with the stylist, Roberto, in tow.

  “Yep! We’re trimming your fringe and bringing the rest of your hair back to shoulder length,” Juliana expins.

  Emily nods, sitting bad letting Roberto run a brush through her silky locks.

  “It’s such a shame to cut all this off. You nobles always have such lovely hair,” Roberto mutters wistfully, pg down the brush as he doesn’t find any knots.

  “She looks prettier with shorter hair!” Juliana states resolutely, making Emily chuckle.

  “It also gets in the way less when fighting,” she adds, receiving an eye roll from Juliana.

  “Your hair didn’t seem to cause you any issues in The Gde.”

  “I’m just that good.”

  They joke and ugh as Roberto cuts Emily’s hair, removing the long excess grown during months of disregard. By the time he’s done, Roberto ’t help but agree with Juliana’s judgement as Emily pulls silver from her belt to pay him.

  “It was a shame to remove so much, but it really does suit you,” he says as he takes his payment with a grateful bow.

  “Thanks,” Emily replies, turning to face Juliana. “How do I look?”

  Juliana steps forward, reag up and taking Emily’s in her hand, tilting it from side to side. A blush rises to Emily’s cheeks as she stands still under her girlfriend’s intense gaze, letting her move her to her will.

  “Stunning,” Juliana whispers, pulling her hand bad fshing a dazzling smile. “And you’ll look eveer with more piergs. Let’s go.”

  Emily nods, the colour in her face fading again as she steps forward and s an arm around Juliana’s waist, leading her out of the shop. They slowly walk along the suspended gangways, taking in the sights of the expensive shops selling their wares and the well-dressed people browsing them.

  They eventually reach the pierg studio, a small shop down a quiet alley with dispys of simple jewellery in the window. They step in, looking around at the art on the walls as their eyes quickly fall ohin, heavily tattooed woman sitting in the er drawing. She looks up as Emily and Juliana walk in, revealing her face, covered ial and smiling warmly as she reises them instantly.

  “Hello again, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you two. What I do for you today?”

  “Hey, Cudia,” Emily says, shutting the door behind them. “We want some more piergs.”

  “Well, you came to the right pce then!” Cudia says with a chuckle, gesturing to the chairs in front of her table. “Take a seat. I assume you know what you want done.”

  Emily and Juliana oblige, both nodding as they sit down.

  “I want my seds done on both sides,” says Juliana, tug her hair behind her ears so Cudia see them better.

  Cudia leans forward, narrowing her eyes for a moment as she focuses before she sits bad nods.

  “Sure, you have plenty of room. What about you, Emily?”

  Raising a brow, slightly surprised the woman remembers her name, Emily grins.

  “I want a lot.”

  Cudia’s eyes light up, but she quickly schools her expression, Emily a warning.

  “How many? It’s not a great idea to get too many at o will slow down your healing.”

  “It’s fine.” Emily waves off her . “I heal very quickly anyway. I was thinking of seven.”

  Cudia excitedly leans fain, her caution abandoned with Emily’s disregard of her clear warning.

  “All on the ears?”

  Emily quietly shakes her head, and Cudia cps with joy.

  “Finally! It’s been ages since I did something other than ears. e on. Give me specifics.”

  “I was thinking two more on my left lobe,” Emily starts, tug her hair behind her ears and pointing to the inner left fold. “And one here. Then on the right, two up here.”

  She runs her finger along the cartige of her ear as Cudia nods along, iing the pts with a practised eye.

  “And finally, a lip and eyebrow on the right side.”

  “Good choices,” Cudia says after a few moments of silence, leaning ba her seat. “Asymmetry suits you.”

  “Thanks!” Juliana chirps, having suggested most of the pts herself. “That’s what I told her. It matches her eyes.”

  Emily doesn’t react, remaining still despite the bubbling disfort that rises in her chest at the mention of her mismatched blue and green eyes. her Juliana nor Cudia notice as they keep talking. Cudia rises from her seat, gesturing towards the dispys at the front of the shop.

  “Take a look and choose the jewellery you want while I prepare,” she says before turning to the drawers behind her.

  Emily quickly presses down her disfort and moves with Juliana to the dispys, looking over the various hoops and studs presented. Juliana picks a pair of simple silver-coloured hoops, while Emily chooses an assortment of bck studs and hoops.

  By the time they turn back, Cudia has rolled her chair over to the padded table in the middle of the room, with a small portable table beside her holding needles and cmps.

  “Right. Whie of you wants to go first?”

  Juliana eagerly steps forward, sitting down on the edge of the table.

  “Me!”

  “Haha,” Emily chuckles at her enthusiasm, pulling over a chair to sit beside her as Cudia grabs a needle, cmp, and hand mirror.

  “Could you hold this for me please,” Cudia says, handing Emily the mirror.

  Emily plies, holding up the mirror for Juliana to look at as Cudia moves the blunt end of the hollow needle along her earlobe, adjusting the pt until Juliana is happy. Emily lowers the mirror after she’s happy, pg it down and taking Juliana’s hand in hers.

  Cudia cmps her ear in pce, putting the sharp end of the needle to it and notig Juliana tense slightly.

  “I’m going to t down, and I want to you take a nice deep breath for me on two,” Cudia says gently. “Owo.”

  On two, Juliana takes a long, deep breath, and on three, she csps Emily’s hand tighter as the needle pierces her flesh. Emily strokes her hand in a soothing motion, and she rexes after barely a moment.

  “There we go,” Cudia says, hooking one of the silver hoops into the end of the needle and sliding it into the new hole. “Now for the other side. Do you he mirrain?”

  “No thanks,” Juliana replies. “Just make them match.”

  Cudia nods, grabbing another needle and positioning it, following the same process of ting down for her. After Juliana’s finished and has a satisfied look, she and Emily switch pces so she hold up the mirror as Cudia starts on Emily’s left lobe.

  They choose the pce for the first pierg quickly and, as Juliana pces the mirror down, Emily offers her hand with a grin. Juliana happily takes it as Emily calmly waits for Cudia to start.

  “Would you like a tdown as well?” she asks.

  “No thanks. I’m ready whenever you are.”

  Cudia nods, pushing the needle in without hesitation. Emily focuses on the sensation of the etal sliding into her skiing out a sigh of satisfa that even surprises herself. Her eyes widen, and a light blush appears on her cheeks as Juliana gives her a curious look.

  “Metal feels... fortable,” Emily admits quietly, struggling to put her feelings into words.

  “Haha,” Cudia ughs at the exge, patting Emily on the shoulder after putting a cap on the back of the ud in her ear. “o be embarrassed. I feel the same. Why do you think my face looks like this?”

  The slight tension in Emily’s shoulders rexes at the reassurance, and Juliana silently squeezes her hand, trag her other hand up Emily’s arm in a soothing motion that warms Emily’s heart.

  “Thanks,” she says with a grateful nod as they tio the one.

  After finishing her left lobe and the two new piergs in her right ear, Cudia asks Emily to lie down for the rest. Emily finds the process rexing and, by the time they’re done, she’s almost tempted to get more.

  This will do for now. I alierce myself ter. It’s not like my hands will shake.

  Runniongue over the metal loop on her lip, tasting the metal and grinning with satisfa, Emily pays Cudia. They both thank her before leaving to roam the city, eati skewers from a food stall for lunch, and visiting Ao chat and browse her clothes.

  As evening es, and Emily’s departure grows ever closer, she leads Juliana towards the edge of the city, approag the wall in the northwest from the ground.

  “Why are we out here?” Juliana asks, gng around at the quiet streets, and up at the tall buildings surrounding them.

  “You’ll see,” Emily says as they step onto a street with a clear view of the base of the wall.

  They walk closer and, as they approach the looming wall, Emily turns and sweeps Juliana up into her arms.

  “Ah,” Juliana squeaks, ing her arms around Emily’s ned looking at her sceptically. “I’m not pining, but why did you just pick me up?”

  “So I do this,” Emily responds with a grin, leaping up into the air as a green magic circle forms around her legs.

  She climbs invisible steps, rising up to the top of the wall before stepping onto the opeal top.

  “Emi!” Juliana cries quietly as they crest the top, gng around with . “We’re definitely not allowed up here. What if the guards find us?”

  “Don’t worry,” Emily replies with a fident smirk, setting her down. “They won’t e by this se again until an hour or so after dark, and they don’t have a magical warning system for people sg the wall from the inside.”

  Juliana narrows her eyes, following Emily to the outside edge.

  “How do you know this?”

  Emily simply fshes her a smile, summoning a pair of cushions from her belt aing them down.

  I don’t o tell her about pissing off the guards in frozen time to prepare for this.

  She sits down with her feet hanging over the edge, tapping the cushion beside her. Juliana drops down on the cushion with a huff, leaning against Emily’s shoulder and gazing out across the grassnd stretg into the horizon, staring at the setting sun.

  Emily silently pulls out ptters of meats and bread and they eat in fortable sileno words needed as they enjoy each other's presehe sun creeps lower the whole time, eventually bathing the pins in a golden hue.

  After they finish eating, Emily puts the empty ptters away and s an arm around Juliana, who leans her head against her shoulder.

  “It’s beautiful,” Juliana whispers, finally breaking their silence.

  “It is,” Emily agrees, trag the skylih her eyes. “I thought it fitting for our... st date.”

  “Mmh,” Juliana hums, tearing her eyes away from the horizon and turning to kiss Emily on the cheek. “I certainly won’t ever fet it.”

  She pulls away, and Emily looks over to see her reag for her neckce.

  “I’ve been trying to work out the right time to give you this, and you’ve set the se perfectly!”

  She pulls her hand back with a long, sandy browh of fabric following. One side is bare, but the other has a long of faintly glowing green runes.

  “I thought that if you were going back to the desert, you’d probably want a scarf to keep away the sun and sand,” Juliana expins with a faint blush, tentatively holding the scarf out.

  Emily smiles and lowers her head, letting Juliana the gift around her neck. She reaches her hand up to run her fingers along the soft but sturdy fabriotig a floral st and bringing it closer to her o sniff.

  “I gave it an entment for air sing,” Juliana says. “If you breathe through it, it will block all bad odours and dust. Instead, you’ll smell the lilies I imbued it with. They’re my house flower, and I hope it will always remind you of me no matter where you are.”

  Emily meets Juliana’s tearful gaze, dropping the scarf and reag out to wipe the tears from her cheeks.

  “It’s perfect,” she says, uo keep the croak from her voice as her own eyes water. “Thank you.”

  “You don’t have anything to thank me for. You’ve already given me so much: I just wanted you to have something to remember me by. I love you so much, Emi, but I ’t follow you.”

  Emily feels something in her heart break at Juliana’s straightforward admission, aears flow freely.

  “I ’t be with you forever. I’m just not strong enough.”

  Emily wants to say something. To tell her it’s fine and she protect her anyway. But images rise to the front of her mind: images of Juliana’s body, lying lifeless and broken on the dungeon floor; images of Juliana c in her arms after desding into the depths of The Crystal Waters; images of Juliana shaking in fear after Emily scared off a group of lowlifes iy.

  Her iiohe air around her, making the winds sway to a slow beat as a faint mist of water surrounds them as if the air itself was g. Juliana leans forward, pressing her forehead to Emily’s and running a hand along her cheek, releasing the tension in her jaw with her touch.

  “I’ve… accepted that,” she whispers quietly, her words dripping with pain and only fuelling the magical maelstrom around them. “After tonight, we’re done. So, please. Just for tonight. we fet about that and just be each other’s o time?”

  Emily ’t bring herself to speak, gently nodding before shutting her eyes and log their lips together in a final embrace of sorrow and desire.

  KeroKeron