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“I’ve never said that before, so I don’t know. You tell me. And maybe you can also tell me your name, Little Bird.”

“It doesn’t work. Thank you. Now maybe you should leave before I tell the inn keep that you’re hanging around the rooms suspiciously.”

Enid grinned, then put a key in the lock,and opened the door. She looked over her shoulder. “This is my room.”

“Of course it is,” Avenay groaned.

Enid cocked her head to the side. “I have a feeling about you. About our fates being intertwined.”

Avenay’s face screwed up. “Oh please, you can try your lines on someone like Carlotti, but they’re wasted on me.”

“Ah. Is that what this is? You know the seraphe from downstairs?”

“I do, but that has nothing to do with whatever you think ‘this is.’”

“What do you think ‘this is,’ is?”

“What?” Avenay frowned and crossed her arms.

Enid mirrored her stance, also crossing her arms but still smiling, a warm one that made Avenay’s stomach tighten. “You seem awfully mad at me when I saved you downstairs.”

Avenay scoffed. Enid wasn’t wrong, but she didn’t have words at the moment to explain why she was so mad at Enid. It didn’t make a lick of sense, which only made her angrier. She needed quiet with a quill to write out her theories on why her body was acting so irrationally, despite her mind’s best attempts at control.

“You stepped into that situation unbidden,” Avenay responded. “I never asked for your help. Besides, I already thanked you.”

“You’re feisty.”

She said it like a compliment, her raspy voice going low. Avenay’s mind emptied of all thoughts again. Which only infuriated her more.

“If you think that’s feisty, then I’m not certain you can handle me.” Avenay didn’t know where that taunt had come from, but it felt dangerously close to flirting.

Enid laughed, the sound like black velvet caressing her. “Should I stick with calling you Little Bird, or can I at least have your name?”

“What’s the point?” Avenay asked, taking another step back into her room, hand on the doorknob. “So you can add it to the collection of names you’ve already forgotten tonight?”

“We’ve already run into each other twice now. I’ll remember. Besides, I think it’s usually the course of things to introduce yourself to someone you’ve only just met.”

Only just met.

Enid spoke with such smooth, confident tones. But Avenay’s stomach dipped in irrational disappointment that Enid didn’t remember their youthful tryst on the balcony in Lesern. And Avenay hated nothing more than being irrational.

“I don’t plan on repeating this experience of running into you, so there’s really no point.” With that, she shut the door and locked it, leaning against it as she composed herself.

Enid was as the papers said, and she was right across from her at the inn. And she was maybe, possibly, flirting with Avenay. AndAvenay had maybe, possibly, flirted back with her, but there was really no way to tell.

Wonderful.Great. Things were going so absolutely swell for her.

Chapter 7: Avenay

Avenay’s hands shook.

She was only a few hours away from her presentation. She’d spent the morning listening to the brightest minds from all over the world present in their areas of expertise. From the differences in magical endowments amongst races to the current use of elvish enchantments to create power reserves for farmlands.

She sat in the back of the auditorium, chewing her nails and looking over her notes. She muttered a few of the points under her breath, receiving a look from one of the nearby attendees. Giving anapologetic smile, she turned away. Her presentation was over the findings of the use of old Entailish by the working class of orcs in the mid-centuries. They had used it to communicate with one another so the upper classes didn’t know. This led to them forming together powerfully and overthrowing the wealthy, who were using their money and influence to keep the wages low. It had been a mystery for ages how they organized so quickly and easily, with no one catching on. But a few stray notes Avenay had found when she visited descendants of the rebellion had led to the discovery. She’d already written a book over it and was about to send it off to be published, but she’d wanted to present the highlights at this summit beforehand.

The coordinator came in and introduced the next presenter. It was Carlotti and Avenay would go after her. She didn’t need to listen to whatever useless drivel Carlotti had put together. She had a winning personality so she could talk about how to moisturize skin and she would have the audience’s rapt attention.

Avenay continued to look over her notes, memorizing and repeating them in her head. She practiced how she would say it and at what time. She told herself to make eye contact with the audience, even if that was the most mortifying thing. If she could pull her mouth into aneutral position, that would be great, but an occasional smile would be best.