Page 2 of A Minotaur Tale
Cheeks hot, Cora snapped her head to the cart controls, as if she'd find life's answers hidden there. She squeaked an affirmative answer, and hoped he'd drop the subject. Theyhadlived there, but she wasn't sure she could handle knowing he was thinking abouthercurrent residence, she'd simply die of mortification.
"What a wonderful idea... what a gift..." he mused, eyes roaming once more.
Asterion kept quiet as she steered them to his cubby and was just about to leave him, when he spoke again. "You're so lucky to work someplacesobeautiful," he said, but he looked ather.He placed his hand on hers, gently, as if she were a skittish animal he was afraid to drive away."I do wonder though, if you ever leave... to go out to eat, perhaps?"
The eye contact, the heat where his hand touched hers, and thequestioncollided in a roar that had assaulted her entire being. Heat pulsed from where he touched her and she felt herself immediately blush. He wasflirtingwith her, it had just taken her too long, again, to realize it.
It was a common problem, with her being a nymph, she received more overt passes regularly. The subtler ones though, often eluded her as her mind seemed ever so slightly out of lockstep with everyone around her. As a child, raised lovingly by a family of dwarves, she'd assumed that she looked at the world differently because she was not a dwarf. And while that was likely at least partially true, her subsequent experiences with other beings, nymphs especially, led her to believe that there just might be more to it.
As a nymph, Cora was cute and seductive. Her white skin was marbled with gold and accented with beautiful gems, not wholly representative of the mountain rock of which she'd been formed, but of her mother's desires for her instead. While she was perhaps plumperthan some peoples' tastes, she had grown up in the dwarven city of Berggeheimnis and followed their shape. As she’d never left the underground city, nor would she ever be able to, she’d been glad to blend in where she could. As a child, the library had been a refuge for her, a place where she could escape and explore the places that she would never be able to, and escape the noisy overwhelm of the city. She’d worked hard to become head librarian at twenty-six, and she couldn’t afford to be distracted by the heartache that would inevitably follow any attempt at romance.
Coming of age had introduced further difficulties, as she learned that many nymphs were often polyamorous and regarded as being free, easy, and fleeting with their affections. While she wasn't averse to friendship or romantic entanglements, she found that she sometimes had difficulty forming connections, and that others expected her, by virtue of her race, to be easily wooed and easily left. Often, she'd not realize that someone was trying to get her romantic interest until they were quite forward. If she found herself interested, one of two things would happen. She'd quickly realize that they were not looking for a relationship, but instead a brief affair, or they'd be put off as soon as they picked up on her quirks.
So, after learning a good many hard lessons in the first ten years of her adulthood, Cora had resolved herself to being alone. She quite liked her own company, though she still enjoyed time with friends and her correspondences. As a young child, she'd always imagined herself with a partner, though she was growing increasingly convinced that it was simply not a viable solution. As such, she'd taken to gently dissuading anyone from setting their cap at her as quickly as she might.
That moment, when Asterion combined those three actions into an equation that finally computed, she was instantly transported back to the first time she’d thought herself in love… and realized it wassomuch worse this time. Not only was heboundto be disappointed in her, as that was always the case, but she’d been actively avoiding her own attraction to him for months.
No, it had to be stopped, before he discovered what she was really like and decided she was not worth his time. Luckily, if there was anything she knew, it was what people didnotlike about her and how she could wield them to drive them away. Not one to beat around the bush, Cora resolved to start strong.
Her own fondness for Asterion put her in a uniquely precarious position, so she'd wanted to deal with it as quickly aspossible. Instead of treating him coldly or ignoring him, Cora unleashed what she considered to be her secret weapon, shells.
When she was quite young, Cora had spent a great deal of time traveling through the rock of her mountain, melding through it, so as not to disturb its intricate makeup. It was comforting, the entire lack of sound as she was consumed by the steady, comforting pressure and silence. She’d been confused as a child that rock was solid for everyone else all the time. When she willed it, she could move through or mold the rock as if it were air or clay. As she’d explored the interior of her mountain, though, she had encountered curious formations within its strata. According to their best records, the world was less than 10,000 years old, these deposits, called fossils, still dotted the insides of her mountain. To theirbest guesses, fossils should take thousands and thousands of years to form.3
Even though they should not exist, the fossils remained littered throughout her mountain, little nuggets of joy for her to find. Her favorites, she had quickly decided, were those of fossilized sea creatures, and shells. They differed from the present-day shells she could find along her mountain's tiny beach, and she loved imagining a time where her own mountain had been entirely different.
Though she found fossils to be infinitely interesting, their varied textures and colors uniquely adapted to their purpose, she'd learned that sadly, most others did not.
A long, detailed speech covering her favorite topic usually dissuaded even the most determined suitors, a fact she’d been confronted with repeatedly before learning her lesson. And that was fair enough, she figured. She didn't havemuch interest or enjoyment in listening to someone blab on, however excitedly, about something she cared nothing about, either. But, in the past, ithadbeen a foolproof method of stymying interest. It didn't matter, anymore, if the interest would be welcomed or not, her hobbies were an important part of who she was, and though she could see the appeal of how other nymphs seemed to share affection, people were just too exhausting for Cora to see it as a viable option.
With Asterion, it didn't seem to work the way she'd planned. She'd droned on and on about shells, specifically mollusk reproduction which she assumed he’d find interminably boring, but he'd only nodded. He didn't interrupt her, nor look at her dreamy-eyed as some had done. Instead, he seemed... engaged? Interested? Intrigued? Hell, he'd even asked questions, though not until she'd wound down what she was speaking about, which was evenmoreinfuriating as she hated being interrupted. Perhaps, she'd hoped, he'd go home and contemplate a lifetime of shell lectures and think better of it.
Instead, he'd brought cookies.
1. Never mind the fact that shrieking was also against the rules of her library, but food, of all things, merited a special dispensation.
2. For those unfamiliar, Berggeheimnis refers to both the city and the mountain which houses it. Situated on Caihalaith’s eastern shore, the city was housed in a massive cavern and had access to land, sea, and air, via it association with the dragons that roosted on it’s peak and the cove hidden amongst it’s rocky cliffs.
3. The timeline the Lady has shared and the geological record are often at odds with each other. Though some posit that instead our Lady operates on a slightly different reckoning of time than mortals, my reading leads me to believe it is more complex. From her journals, we can see how much of the creation of our world was instinctual and based on her observations of other planets. If, for example, she observed fossils from ancient seas in rock on other planets, she’d have included them in her creation of Timonde, though she may not have understood their significance at the time, or ever.
Chapter two
In the weeks thatfollowed the cookie debacle, Cora began to think her methods were working. Asterion still came to the library–as well he should–but he kept his distance and only spoke with her within the confines of her position. His reading still ranged widely, but she found... inconsistencies with his reading habits.
It was possible, of course, the first few times, that he simply picked a book on accident.When she'd pick up his stacks to re-shelve after he dropped them off, or from his study cubby, they would largely be on a single topic, whichever he was interested in at the time. The outliers though, began to show a suspicious pattern. First, it was a book on various races and their characteristics among his research on the history of the Empire. Next, there was a book on geology amongst a series of culinary works. An anatomy text on nymphs among a grouping of political philosophy texts and finally, the real kicker, shells.
Though he might have been trying to be discreet, when he checked out multiple books on shells for several weeks in a row, Cora knew that she had not actually succeeded. Every one of the extra books had some tangential relation to her, though he'd not tried to engage her in conversation any further. Instead, Asterion was cordial, helpful but not overbearing, and scrupulous in his adherence to the library's rules.
As the seasons changed and the winter solstice neared, his topic of interest shifted once more, with a notable exception. For several weeks, his book choices were entirely uniform. All covered holiday traditions among different cultures, not a shell among them. Perhaps she'd finally lost him? Perhaps she’d misjudged his interest in her and his reading choices had been nothing but a coincidence? Normally, she excelled at spotting patterns, but perhaps her confusing emotions around Asterion interfered with the ability. Regardless, his behavior surelyhadchanged of late. He came earlier, stayed later, and took more notes that he had in the past, even falling asleep on more than one occasion. She worried about him actually, but considering how little he engaged with her, she didn’t think it would be appropriate.
Why then, didn't she feel relieved? Surely she should rejoice at the reduction in his attention. Shouldn't she be happy that he seemed more intent on study rather than creating conversation with her? At least she should have felt an ease of the fluttering she felt in her stomach when he was around. The man had made her nervous for months, and yet when faced with his waning interest, she felt no triumph. She dragged on for weeks, having difficulty, for the first time, enjoying the holiday season.
She felt no joy at the first touches of snow on her slopes, no comfort in feeling it settle it's calming blanket over her mountain's peak. The chill in the air normally invigorated her, and she'd always loved seeing decorationsgo up all over the city. She maintained her holiday traditions for the library of course, holding her seasonal story times and highlighting old favorites, but it all felt... hollow.
The bells and holly that so frequently decorated door fronts only annoyed her with their jangling and prickly leaves, and she had trouble mustering the enthusiasm for even wearing her normal ridiculous seasonal wear.
As she sat at her desk, the night before solstice, she slumped in her chair, propping her arms on the tabletop. Outside the library's two-story windows, couples rushed by with last minute purchases or strolled with intricately wrapped packages to visit friends or family. Because it was the first year when there were more than dwarves settled in the city (aside from Cora herself, of course), there were plenty of decorations she didn't recognize, but they all served to evoke a sense of joy and hope... in theory. Itshouldhave been the most exciting holiday season of her life. Instead, Cora glowered at the wreaths hung in windows and the mistletoe hanging in the doorway of the library.
"Cora! Cora!" A small voice rang out through the stacks. Another voice shushed it and a few seconds later, Broderson and her three children emerged.