The Solemates

Lore

The shoes arrived at Closet Curiosa in a box with no delivery address.

Inside was a receipt for two small miracles, one pair of laces, and a handling fee. Nobody could explain the handling fee. Some mysteries are beneath even magic.

They were handsome shoes. White leather. Charcoal panels. A thin blue shine along the soles, like the last piece of daylight refusing to leave. Tiny Miso and Mochi figures walked along their sides. On the heels, the cats sat together.

The shoes themselves sat still for almost eleven minutes.

Then Mochi knocked a jar of bottled gravity off a shelf.

Miso looked up.

The jar looked down.

A shoe performed a flying kick.

There was nobody inside it.

The jar sailed through an open window and struck a passing cloud, which immediately fell into the parking lot. The cloud was embarrassed. Nobody mentioned it.

That was the first rescue.

Since then, the Solemates have followed Miso and Mochi through places where the floor was optional and the exits had opinions. One shoe kicks trouble out of the way. The other makes sure trouble stays out of the way. They sometimes disagree about which is which.

When they leap, their soles unravel into shooting stars.

Blue first. Then pink. Then a gold so warm it makes even a cold corridor feel as though someone has left a light on. The trails linger behind them, marking safe footholds across impossible gaps.

Miso follows carefully.

Mochi checks whether the stars are edible.

They are not. This has been established several times.

No one knows whose feet the shoes remember. Perhaps nobody’s. Perhaps somewhere, a very kind giant is having a difficult time finding their slippers.

The cats have stopped asking.

There are things a friend does not need to explain before being a friend.

And when a door slams shut, or a bridge gives up, or the dark grows larger than two small cats ought to manage, the Solemates rise beside them.

Laces tied.

Toes pointed.

Ready to put a little distance between their friends and whatever has forgotten to be kind.