B-Crystal Chimes

Crystal Chime Emma tried to stay calm and not to let her nervousness
show through but it was terribly difficult. She was standing up in
front of the whole of the Northern realms and had to recite, word
perfect, the scriptures of Whai. She saw her mother was looking up at
her youngest daughter proudly. Her baby girl was about to grow up
faster than she realised. Emma had sparkling silver eyes and less
colour in her pinched cheeks than in the light, cotton handkerchief she
held in her long fragile fingers. She looked nervous at first but shook
her feathery white hair, tinged with blue, and allowed a warm smile to
seep across her face. She was quite a tall girl, tall and elegant. She
glided towards her seat at the table as though she were floating, she
may well have been. From her back sprouted two soft, velvety wings,
pearly white with a tinge of blue, the same shade as in her hair. She
had a fair complexion, a long thin nose and under that, thin blue lips
which made her look rather like an ice maiden. But the warmth from her
smile proved otherwise. Emma took in a deep breath and opened her mouth
to begin the chant, but nothing came out. She tried to clear her throat
with a little cough but once she had started it turned into a full
scale coughing fit and it looked like she was choking. She moved
backwards a little and banged into a chair which fell over with a thud.
She apologised hastily and picked up the chair, oh well, at least it
couldn't get any worse. But it did, just then she saw, sitting in the
middle of the crowd, Haio. He looked as perfect as she had remembered,
his soft blue fringe falling just over his deep silver eyes. She smiled
to herself until she realised she had just been standing on the stage,
smirking, for fifteen minutes. She shook her head and began the chant.
"Hakio Gauie Herio Keogh?" her pure, crystal voice rang through the
audience and a feeling of peace filled the room. Hopefully, her famous
voice would dull the audiences memories of the little accidents
beforehand.