Pearl Before Swine ch 8: The Roommate

~THE PEARL~

“I bet you have a fascinating story.” An airy, high voice greets me as I sit up. Thin sheets entangle my legs, and a soft mattress groans beneath my weight.

Only an imprisoned flame on the desk lights the room, robust in its ire, and Tulip’s body blocks most of it. She slouches over a book, back toward me. Papers cover the walls, some with sketches, most with columns of crudely written text. A second bed above casts me in deeper shadow.

My head pounds, and the scene swims. I bring my fingers to my temples, but that does nothing to still it.

“Do heroes have headaches?” The words claw through my dry throat.

Tulip swivels her chair and pulls her glasses to the end of her button nose. “Short answer, yes. Long answer, headaches are inglorious, so unless omitting them would significantly affect one’s understanding of the story, minor pain like that is usually left out of legends. Why, you dream yourself a hero?”

She lifts a slender, black eyebrow. The angle of the light paints her in high contrast, shading held within strict borders against her deep, ruddy skin. The brilliant tint of her twisted hair brings out too much red in her cheeks.

The disjointed angles and hues are a comical sight, but I stifle my laugh behind a hand when her expression does not lighten.

“You think that’s funny? Perhaps I should charge for the entertainment.”

My gaze dips to my empty hands curled in my lap. “I have nothing to give you.”

“Didn’t I just say you have a story?” She leans over her crossed knees, and a wave of sweet air strokes my face. “Everything in this world has a price, so appreciate what you’ve got.”

I mouth the last few words, stumbling over the slurred way she molded them. What things do I possess?

This animate form, and with it, a chance to win my freedom. Would it not be preposterous to expect a human to fall in love with a rock that cannot even speak?

What else do I have?

Just before I met the dean, Pike promised to gift me a performance. Though I cannot hold it in my hands, I can in my heart. It is a thing, and all he asked in return was that I go to dorm room four-twelve.

Regret hisses in my bones, and my hands clench in response. I broke that promise. Did Pike stand there, hoping I would remember as I once longed for someone to notice me beneath the waves?

My constricted fingers do nothing the quell the ache, and the sting of my teeth sinking into my lip offers little more distraction. Will Pike forgive me, or have I shattered any chance I had with him?

“Pearl, you alright?”

Tulip sounds so distant. Though close enough to touch, she is so much further than the screams reverberating in my head. Instead of keeping my promise to Pike, I followed a different song outside. Curious of Jun and intrigued by Sal, I forgot all about him, and then…

The screams ring so loud, my vision blurs behind boiling tears. What were those creatures? Why are they still in my head?

My fingers knot in my hair. “Is Jun alright? Where is Sal? Where are we?”

Each question bursts out as a sob, and Tulip places her hands on mine, coaxing them free of ebony strands. “It’s okay. They’re all fine. It’s only been a few hours, but last I saw him, the islander was bandaged and returning to his room like everyone else, including Sal.” As my hands rest limply in hers, she shrugs at the walls. “This is my room, or our room, I suppose. We share it with one other. That’s her bed over there, but we won’t see her much. I have the bunk right above you.”

I glance at the planks that form my low ceiling and attempt a smile. “As if we are family?”

“Exactly.” With a nod, she sits back and adjusts her silken robe. “Anything you need, I’m here for you.”

“Except, you said everything in this world has a price.” Head leaning to one side, I blink at her.

Tulip grins. “You’re sharp.”

“Yet, generosity must not have abandoned everyone here.” My hand rises to my collar and rubs the soft fabric. “This golden uniform was given to me.”

With something between a huff and a snort, Tulip removes her glasses and twirls them around her finger. “That’s because the dean considers you an investment. You think you’d be allowed to just walk out now, after what they’ve seen?”

My cheeks puff as I exhale through a locked jaw. They mean for me to be a prisoner? What right do they have to say so? If I run, what will they do to stop me?

My heart quickens as I recall sparring with Sal, how movement coursed through every stitch of my being. Would running from them feel like that? Or would it be like the dying screams of the mysterious creatures?

If I leave this place, will more sentient auroras come for me? Will they drag me back to Mare and on the seventh sunset tell Terra that I have abandoned him?

My hand falls to its partner, and they squeeze each other. “Why do others wish to own me?”

“Greed. Power. A hundred reasons, really.”

“No matter what he wishes, I cannot belong to the dean.” I pour every ounce of my authority into the statement. I cannot speak with thunder like Terra or the roar of waves like Mare. In this form, I cannot even sound as I did when a stone, a voice that scared the sea swine and stilled the golems. I can only hope it is enough that she will see how immutable my stance on this is. “Even if I wanted to stay, whether I complete my mission or not, I must return.”

“Mission?” The glasses slow and dangle limply as Tulip again leans forward. “Pearl, I want to be your ally, but to help you, I have to know what you’re all about.”

She wants my story, the one where I am a hero with a headache.

I sigh. “My tale is not a very good one. It is not going as it should.”

She chews on the earpiece of her glasses. “How’s it supposed to go?”

Does she not know? I stare, eyes wide and mouth ajar, but I should not let surprise overtake me like this. It conquered Dean Smythe when I did not know a story he thought I should. I must not make the same mistake.

I swallow as I collect my thoughts and try to affect the low, syrupy cadence Terra always uses when he tells of history. “Soul mates recognize their love, if not when first they meet, then definitely by the first time they touch.”

“Let me guess, you believe your love will rescue you so you can live happily ever after?”

She does know. I release a relieved breath, but its hind trembles. Since she knows, it must be true. This is the way of human love, yet I rescued Jun and Pike from the bear, and they rescued me. When I met them again, there was something, yes, but no spark when we touched. No proof of love igniting.

Jun and Sal saved me from the auroras, but then they left when love, if it existed, should have kept one of them at my side.

Maybe the threat must be more than bears or monsters. Perhaps they must rescue me from Mare, but that is a paradox. To do that, they must first love me.

“Look at me, Pearl.” Tulip gestures from my eyes to hers. “Love is more complicated than that. Think about a plant. Does it just appear instantly?”

I shake my head.

“You have to give it time to grow, and even once it’s big, healthy, and gorgeous, if you don’t maintain it, it will wither and die.” She frowns, gaze distant as the earpiece trapped between her teeth tacks a hiss onto every word. “Dead love leaves an ugly shell in your heart. It’ll go away eventually, but the larger it was, the longer it takes.”

She, too, has a tale gone awry, and the desire to know it tugs on me. Perhaps in it, I can learn how to repair my own.

Rubbing at her eye, she swivels back to the desk. “Speaking of taking time, we’re wasting it. The doctor said you were exhausted when he had Sal carry you here. Took me forever to kick that boy out. I’ve got to finish this paper that’s due tomorrow.”

“You are making paper?”

“I’m writing words on the paper. Or trying to. Been stuck for a bit.” Darkness douses the back of her head to match her brows, and it feels more fitting, as if that is the color her hair should be.

I scoot closer to the edge of my mattress. “If you need something to write, how about the definition of love?”

“That would be great if it matched the theme at all, but I think I’d have a hard time working it into the history of drug experimentation on invertebrates.” She laughs hollowly, and a toss of her head spins her around. “No, what I want to know is why you so badly need the definition of love that you’d ask for it twice in one day.”

“I need a human to fall in love with me.”

“At least a human is more plausible than a tree. Go on.” She shifts in her chair until her chin rests on her folded hands over its back.

I take a deep breath. “How will I know when a human loves me? All the stories involve humans loving each other. If I cannot feel love myself, is it even possible for a human to love me?”

The glasses fall. “Pearl, what are you?”

“A Creature of Essence.”

She considers that for a beat, face carefully held still, then lowering in a nod. “Of which realm?”

I squirm, wringing the blanket. “That is where the complication rests. When I am with Terra, I am happy. Before that, I was lonely, trapped in the sand beneath shallow sea water, and Mare says that because I came from the sea, I belong to her.” My fingers clutch the front of my jacket. “She wants me for her necklace.”

“But you want to stay with Terra because that’s where you’re happy.”

I nod, and Tulip straightens.

“That’s part of your answer, Pearl. You love Terra. It’s not a romantic love, I don’t think, but it’s a form of love nonetheless.”

I shake my head, loose hair slapping my cheeks. “Terra says Creatures of Essence cannot—”

“Why do you need a human to fall in love with you?”

I gnaw at my lip, catching the question she did not let me ask and piecing together a response to hers. “It will prove my value to Mare. If before the seventh sunset, I return with a human who loves me, I will win my freedom. If I fail, I will become nothing more than a pendant.”

One dark brow rises again. “What happens to your lover?”

My face wrinkles and my eyes lose focus. Mare mentioned no fate for the human I bring, so what happens after I win must be up to me.

Warmth simmers behind my ribs and blossoms in a smile. “He will always be free. If he wishes to remain with Terra and I, that is his choice, and even if he desires to leave, I will request that Terra reward him. I will look after him always, and he will lack nothing.”

“Except your love since you can’t love him back.”

My gaze falls to my hands. “Does that disqualify me from being a hero?”

“No, but you’ve chosen an interesting challenge. Everyone at this university came here with an agenda. If you can get one of them to love you enough that he can’t see his future without you in it, then you’ll have won much more than a bet.”

As I look up at her, her chin tilts, and she puts on another worn grin.

She raises a finger. “His plans may also be a way into his heart.”

Eyes wide, I scuttle closer and nearly fall off the mattress. “What do you mean?”

“Love is sharing and helping one another. If you want them to help you with your goal, try asking about theirs. Then do what you can to help them reach it.”

That makes sense, like the light and shadow, one taking over where the other leaves. It is balance. The embers within my chest burn, and I can barely sit still.

“What is your goal, Tulip?”

“Mine?” Face twisted, she looks at me with such weight, I cannot move. “My goal is to never be told ‘no’ again.” She stands, folding her arms behind her. “This experiment falls neatly into my field of study. Did the dean know…”

As her gaze releases me in favor of the dark ceiling, I shrink. Her words in this one conversation are worth more than a thousand stuck in my own mind. It is only right that I give whatever aid I can in return, yet I do not know how. She is far stronger and wiser than I, all around more superior, and she speaks with such confidence, I cannot imagine anyone telling her no.

She shakes her head. “You have excellent timing anyway. The Sky Dance Festival is at the end of the week, and it’s considered bad luck not to have a partner there.” Spreading her hands, she studies her nails. They were once painted to match her strawberry hair, but most of the color has chipped away. “If the Essences are real, maybe that superstition is, too. Been a while since I held someone in my arms.”

If the experience is anything like being held, I cannot fathom why someone would put off engaging in it again. The warmth of Sal’s embrace as he carried me lingers as a ghostly reminder, and my skin prickles beneath my sleeves. He only held me because we were under attack, yet I hope it will not be the last time arms wrap me tight. It spoke to my heart and said this one would protect me no matter what.

Pike’s hug outside the dean’s office was nice, too, a pillar holding me up when I could barely stand and a place to hide in a moment when I could not face the world. It almost felt like home, like the safety of Terra’s cave.

“Speaking of myths and superstition,” Tulip says so loudly I flinch, “don’t tell anybody what you are or what you’re here for. Most wouldn’t believe you anyway, but those that would might not take it well.”

Within my mind’s eye, I again watch Jun’s falling gaze when he learned I was named for something of the sea and his ire when I inquired if he knew Mare.

As if an echo, Sal’s voice floats through my mind. “See why you shouldn’t ask about Mare?”

Lip trapped between my teeth, I send Tulip a nod. “If I cannot tell him, though, how will I get him to return to the Essences with me?”

“You’ve got to get him to love you first. Then we’ll think of something.” She plops back in her chair and spins a complete circle.

“You will tell me when one has fallen in love with me?”

While I am glad for the support and the certainty it carries, a bit of me wilts as the question too eagerly flies off my tongue. I want to know what love is for myself. Am I incomplete because these humans can experience something that I cannot?

“I don’t think it’ll be that hard for you to recognize, actually.” She shrugs. “Scientifically speaking, love is only chemicals. You just have to know what to do to get those chemicals to activate.” She winks. “Jun was injured fighting for you. Professor Baker had to order Sal to leave your side. Those boys will be back.”

My head tilts, and I lean forward. “Do you not agree with Jun, that love is wanting to protect someone and not wanting to miss the things that make them smile?”

Before she can answer, a rhythmic knock comes from the door, and both our faces whip toward it. To all appearances, the corner remains unchanged.

My ear angles closer, alert for further blows. “If they wish to break it, they will have to hit it harder.”

Moving toward the entrance, Tulip tosses me a look with her eyebrows hidden beneath her bangs. “They’re asking for it to open.”

“They ask by hitting it? They bully the door?”

With a roll of her eyes, Tulip straightens her robe, then pulls the door open a crack.

Continued in chapter 9: Sea and Sky

Thank you for reading!