Happy Tuesday!!
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In celebration of Valentine's Day I wrote a cute short-ish story about Rayla and Sadek from Desert Flower! It brought me so much joy to write this story and get to revisit Rayla and the Triadic Kingdoms world! In Xion, where Rayla and Sadek are currently staying, they celebrate a day called Divasan. It's a day to celebrate love in all its forms from romantic to platonic to familial and friendship. Divasan is one of the biggest celebrations of the year for Xion. Everyone celebrates with lots of treats, time spent with loved ones and a big festival at the end of the day.
Here's the first chapter (you can find the rest of the story with this link:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_MQ5wvoHitJM3kQMNl6d3PJ6VtAkK8H27Q8QpIfKv6I/edit?usp=sharing
Also, if you haven't read Desert Flower and Heart of Xion there are some spoilers in this story, so just fair warning. But if you would like to check out those two books, you can find them at these links:
Chapter One
Heart Day
Rayla crossed her arms on the balcony and watched decorators put up the last of the pink and gold banners. They draped over the whole city along with little hearts in pink and red and gold made of shiny material, while vases sat on every windowsill and balcony full of flowers in pinks and purples and blues and whites. It was her first Divasan in Xion and her first with Sadek. She’d never even heard of Divasan until a month ago when suddenly everyone was talking about it. Sadi started wearing pinks and reds and purples and golds a month in advance exclusively. Sadek said she did that every year. Divasan was her favorite holiday. It was full of love and light and the prettiest colors, according to Sadi.
Within a few weeks, silken pink and gold banners appeared in the castle halls and the city streets. Rayla woke up to vases of fresh flowers decorating her rooms and a wardrobe full of the most beautiful dresses and clothes to match Sadi’s Divasan color palette. Sadi had declared that Rayla had to experience her first Divasan. She had to eat all the foods, wear all the right clothes and do all the traditions.
The sound of her doors opening made Rayla glance over her shoulder. She winced when she saw Sadi gliding into the room. Usually, she always wore harem pants and crop tops, but while in Xion, she wore clothing befitting a princess, which made sense since Sadi was, indeed, a princess. What didn’t feel right was the fact that Rayla wore the same kinds of clothes. Clothes made of the richest and softest fabrics dyed in the most expensive and beautiful colors. It still felt strange after living her whole life in a small village where colorful clothes were a luxury. Hence, she had left a two-piece sari Sadi had left for her on her bed. Rayla stood on the balcony barefoot in just a pair of silken harem pants and an oversized tunic.
“You're not dressed!” Sadi said, stepping through the balcony’s glass doors. Sadi looked stunning in a pair of pink harem pants with shiny gold geometric/floral patterns and a matching tunic top with a circle in the center of the chest and a high collar. The middle of it was cinched with a single strip of fabric, pulling it in and hugging her curves in all the right places. Sadi’s brown hair fell around her shoulders with little braids here and there woven with pink and gold strands of fabric. Even her eyelids had been dusted with pink and linked with kohl. She looked like the embodiment of Divasan.
Rayla turned her attention back to the city. Sometimes Sadi looked so pretty and put together it was hard for Rayla to not compare herself to her. She did not stand up to Sadi. Or Laurel, for that matter. Compared to the two of them, so sure of themselves, Rayla felt like the uncultured, inconsequential villager she was.
The city was all so beautiful, and she could see people way below wearing the same color scheme as Sadi. Pink and white, or pink and gold. She just didn’t feel like she should be celebrating. Divasan wasn’t even her people’s tradition; sometimes, Rayla didn’t feel like she deserved to wear bright, pretty things. This was a holiday meant to celebrate love. Romantic love, platonic love, familial love. Those in Xion took the day of Divasan to reflect on all the love they had in their life. To take time to be thankful for their loved ones and to spend time with them. Rayla had a lot of love. She had the sisterly love of Sadi and the romantic love of Sadek, and what was starting to feel like familial love for Aldric and the twins’ brother Kadin and his wife, Laurel.
But instead of dwelling on all the good and love in her life, she had woken up feeling sad and empty inside. She couldn’t stop wondering what her parents were doing today and if they missed her. If they knew today was Divasan in Xion and that their daughter was wishing she could celebrate their familial love.
“I know… I just… Do you really think it’s Okay that I join you guys for your family breakfast?” Rayla asked, glancing at Sadi, who came to stand beside her on the balcony.
Sadi waved her concerns away. “Of course! You’re a part of our family, Rayla. Everyone wants you there.”
“Even Kadin and Laurel?”
Rayla knew Sadi, Sadek, and Aldric, but she was still trying to figure out Kadin and Laurel. Kadin was the king of Xion, and Rayla couldn’t help but feel intimidated by him. And Laurel… Laurel was just… Laurel. She was loud and brash and flirty. If Kadin and her were in the same room, she had her hands all over him. Gripping his arm, rifling through his hair, or loosening the collar of his tunics. Kadin never seemed to mind, though he sometimes got flustered. Rayla just didn’t know what to do with them. They were such a strange couple. Kadin was so sweet, generous, and kind, and Laurel was a bit rougher, a bit more pointed, and always seemed to think violence was the best answer for everything.
“Rayla, of course, they want you to be there. They consider you family, too,” Sadi insisted.
Rayla gave her a dubious glance. She highly doubted Laurel considered her family.
“I don’t know… I don’t want to get in the way.”
Suddenly Sadi had Rayla’s hands gathered in hers, tugging Rayla around, so her back faced the city. “Look into my eyes, Rayla and listen to what I say very carefully,” Sadi said slowly and deliberately, like she was talking to a child. “We. All. Want. You. There. Every. Single. One. Of. Us. And especially my brother.”
Rayla’s cheeks warmed at the mention of Sadek. She would like to see him for breakfast. Not like they didn’t spend almost all day, every day together already, but he had seemed very excited to spend their first Divasan together. She didn’t want to let him down. Rayla sighed. “Alright. I guess I can go. For Sadek.”
“Yess! Thank you! Now, please, get dressed and meet me in the breakfast nook. There’s going to be all kinds of treats and our special heart cakes.”
Rayla had heard all about heart cakes, and she had to admit, they did sound good. Apparently, it was a tradition to eat heart cakes on Divasan for breakfast. There were a lot of Divasan traditions, actually. Wear pink or gold, eat heart cakes, pick flowers to give to each other at lunch, and then Divasan ended with a sunset celebration where couples and family members and friends exchanged gifts and danced around a pole fluttering with ribbons. Sadi had said it was a game and that once the ribbons unraveled close enough to the ground, whoever tugged the most off got a prize from the king himself.
It all sounded wonderful, and Rayla would love nothing more than to do every last tradition with Sadek, but she also didn’t want to be a rainy gray cloud over his bright pink day. He was so excited for today. Sadek had been hinting at the gift he’d gotten her and where he planned to take her to watch the sunset and the festivities. Rayla didn’t want to ruin that. She also didn’t know if she had it in her to pretend to be fully invested and happy today when her heart wouldn’t stop missing her parents and home.
But there was no saying no to Sadi, so Rayla put on a smile and sighed. “Fine. I’ll go get dressed.”
Sadi beamed and tugged her into the room like she didn’t trust her not to get dressed. Only once Rayla was firmly planted in the middle of her room did Sadi whisk out of the room, telling her to come down when she was ready. The door shut behind her, and Rayla stood there for a few minutes staring at the door. She was doing this. She was having family breakfast with a family she didn’t quite feel like she belonged in, and she was celebrating a holiday she knew so little about.
Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the clothes from her bed and went to the massive bathroom to change. Everything about the Soroza palace was huge. Rayla had never lived in such magnificent luxury before in her life, not even when they had stayed in that fancy hotel in the City of a Thousand Lights. When Sadek first brought her to Soroza, all the vibrant greens of the jungle and the bright colors the city was painted in had shocked her. And then, when he had brought her into the palace, led her to a suite of rooms with a washroom, and said it was hers, Rayla could hardly believe it. For the first few weeks, she would wake up disoriented and unsure of where she was. Even now, walking into the washroom with its tiled floors, walls, waterfall shower, and porcelain sink gave her pause. It all felt so extravagant.
She had fought hard to think better of herself and grow as confident and strong as Sadi and Laurel, but it was hard to break old habits. Rayla sometimes felt like she didn’t deserve these rooms, the washroom, or all the beautiful clothes and gifts the twins had lavished on her.
At least Sadi knew her well. Though many in Xion and the big cities in the Badlands wore clothes that showed more skin, Rayla didn’t feel super comfortable with that yet. She wasn’t sure she ever would, so Sadi had chosen an off-shoulder blink sari with glittering gold detailing down the skirt and light-weight sleeves that went to her wrists. A matching pink sash with gold edges wrapped around her right shoulder, covering her chest and down to her left hip.
Rayla ran a hand through the thick strands of her hair as she stared at herself in the mirror. She decided to go with a simple braid down her shoulder. If Sadi wanted, she could rebraid it with gold and pink like hers. She started to turn to leave, but a cosmetics kit Sadi had gotten her sitting on the corner of her counter caught her eye. Sadi’s eyes had looked so pretty with pink and kohl, and she was sure Laurel would also be wearing kohl. She always had her eyes lined in kohl to make her look even fiercer than she already was. Rayla hadn’t dabbled in cosmetics as much as the other girls, but maybe she could try it today. A part of her did want to look nice for Sadek. More so, though, she wanted to look as nice as the other two girls did.
She painted her eyelids in a smattering of glittery gold and did her best to apply a thin layer of kohl. The line wasn’t as sharp as Laurel’s or as precise as Sadi’s, but when she drew back, Rayla had to admit she looked pretty. It made her hold her head up a little higher as she stepped out of her rooms and made her way to the breakfast nook.
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