The Ghost of Atlantis (BL)

"Welcome, Nikola of Troy! I already have dinner prepared. I am adding it to your rent, don't worry. But do you look handsome now! Like a cultivating immortal, yes!"

 Nikola knew what that was, doubted that he really looked like one. Still, he straightened his robes a little.

"Well, this was what the seamstress made me. I think she was trying to make me the most expensive thing she could out of cotton," he was wearing a dark robe with green trims and his under robe was a nice blue color.

 All in all, he rather liked his look. He patted his sleeve in which his feather was, and he sat down in front of the small table. There was rice with seaweed for dinner, steam rising from the food.

He was sure he could appreciate it.

"Now, tomorrow when we go out to sell the buns, you have to show new tricks! Can you break boulders on your chest?" the old woman asked all business-like and Nikola winced. That sounded positively painful. Was that what the people around here did to pass the time?

"I can't. Although I can dance with fire," Penemue had taught him how to be graceful with a torch in hand. They had danced together like that more than once, the angel liking the danger of catching fire.

"Oh? Show me!" the old woman said, and she picked up a candle from the table and handed it to Nikola.

 Nikola removed the little plate from the candle and stood up. Then he began to dance.

He imagined it was for a festival for the birth of one of his grandchildren.

Or better yet, the harvest festival!

He threw the candle, and it flipped a couple of times before it fell in his hand again, still lit. He quickened his tempo and imagined a festival for Tangra. Even though the people knew of the God that the angels served, they still had worshiped their totems.

Nikola had never been one to deny free worship. His leg made a circular motion, and the candle was in the air again. He spun wildly and then knelt down in one swift motion to catch the flying candle.

Then he jumped up and placed his arms around himself as if he were about to hug Penemue, and he spun once more, candle still in his hand. His leg extended forward, and his arms moved as if to hold the invisible body of his lover lower so that he could kiss him.

His nose neared the warm candle, and he blinked.

The old lady was up on her feet with her hands clasped in front of her in a heartbeat.

"Can you do this with a lantern? One on a chain?" She asked excitedly, and Nikola placed the candle back in its place.

"It would be easier for me, in fact. But the lantern could ignite. It would be better if we keep it to candles."

The old woman pouted and then pointed at the rice.

 "You finish this and then go straight to bed. If we make twenty silvers tomorrow with your dancing, I'll lower your rent to ten coppers."

Nikola groaned. That meant he'll be dancing the whole day. He finished his rice and then received a blanket which he put on the wooden floor, slowly falling asleep as his breathing calmed.

His dreams took him to marble palaces, to a warm embrace. Without knowing it, the ancient emperor took the single black feather from its hiding place inside his sleeve and hugged it close.

It could not warm him up, it could not bring him joy. He had nothing else. A stranger in a strange world. No place under the blue sky would ever accept him, his demons yelled in his ears. Penemue would never fly back to him.

Nikola was a survivor. He had always pushed against the odds. Always refused to simply lay down and die. He had done the unthinkable when Atlantis had faced its first crisis.

And now?

Nikola woke with a start, as the question swam inside his mind. And now? What did he have now?

Nothing.

 Just a feather. No soft lips to kiss, no brown locks to run his fingers through.

With a sigh, he washed up and went to the seamstress, who had worked after closing hours to make him another change of clothes, to dress, and then he was back at the stall.

The old lady excitedly gave him a candle, and he began his dance. Soon a crowd gathered to stare at him. All captivated that the candle was not going off, which he managed with magic, and at how he would twist and bend and catch it every time.

In an hour all the buns were sold, and the old lady had another sign which prompted people to leave a copper or two if they enjoyed the show. He was balancing the candle on his nose, body bend backwards and leg raised high behind him when he heard the commotion.

 A man in a litter had his servants push their way to the front. Many grumbled as they saw that, but the man took out a gold piece and had a servant woman give it to old granny Nuo Nuying.

"Don't stop now!" the old woman scolded him when she noticed that Nikola wasn't moving. "Spin around and do that thing where you almost hold someone. The same as you did last night!"

Nikola didn't like this. He had seen the same look the man was giving him many times at court. It had driven Penemue to jealous bouts and had resulted in more than one duel.

 The angel winning each time.

Still, he did as he was told, and he ended up balancing the candle on his closed hands. The man in the litter clapped and suddenly, everyone was clapping. Another gold piece was given to the old granny, and the man left just as he had appeared.

Strange, Nikola thought. As he started to dance once more. Glad that no trouble had come of it.