Page 32 of A Tale of Mirth & Magic

B ARRA

T here were only so many fake meetings that someone could invent at the last minute.

With everything that had been going on with Elikki and me, and the bounty hunters, I’d somehow forgotten that I’d made up a reason for us to travel together to Old Orchard.

I was supposed to have business in town.

Now that we were here, I found myself scrambling to come up with that “business” during the day while Elikki was working for real.

After I dropped her off at the Artisans Guild on the first morning, I’d walked—a bit dazed from the kiss she’d laid on me—toward an area where a few shops sold swords.

Old Orchard was a good-sized town, with a thriving economy fueled by, as you’d expect, its prized orchards and vineyards that sprawled for miles around, as well as its central location in the Willowisp Woods province that drew in traders and merchants of all stripes.

It was well worth the lengthy seasonal trips I took, and over my past journeys here for actual business, I’d connected with most of the middle- and high-end shop owners, showing them Ma Reese’s handiwork and building relationships.

They placed orders on behalf of their customers, and sometimes arranged one-on-one consultations with me for folks who needed more complicated repair or customization work done.

I collected all the pieces that I’d be bringing back with me to Nepu, along with half of the payment.

Our armory business had grown quite the reputation over the years.

Ma Reese’s skill was legendary, and most folks were willing to wait the weeks or months that it took for their weapons to be completed.

So, although this was an unplanned journey, there was still plenty for me to do in town at first. I visited all my contacts and picked up all the new orders that had come in.

Had a few productive meetings with potential clients.

One in particular would excite my sister Telen.

She loved doing custom design work on daggers—the more intricate the better—and this rich client had ordered four for his teenage children.

But by day three, I found myself at a loose end in the afternoon.

I hadn’t been able to schedule any new meetings, and I didn’t want to distract Elikki.

She’d been focusing intensely on her magic in our room every day after lunch, coming up with incredible creations that she showed off when we met up in the evening.

I thought often about telling her the truth.

That I hadn’t actually been headed to Old Orchard.

That I’d lied because I was—what—worried about her safety?

So smitten that I didn’t want her to leave?

It seemed silly. Knowing her now, I didn’t think she’d really care that much.

I could see her bubbling with laughter, teasing me for it.

But it still sounded uncomfortably close to pathetic, the lengths I was going to to stay near her.

And we likely would have to part soon anyway, though a wrench tore through my chest whenever I thought of that.

Any day now, whenever Elikki decided it was time for her to move on.

If I told her, there’s a chance it could hasten that day along.

I also didn’t want to distract her, shake her focus.

Ever since we arrived, she’d been so concentrated on her art, both with jewelry making and magic.

I could tell it was draining—particularly her afternoon mage-crafting sessions—but she was absolutely brimming with cheeriness.

And she always seemed to revive with every meal we had together…

and every night we spent making love and snuggling in our sleep.

Everything was good. Better than good—marvelous. Perfect. And I couldn’t risk breaking this spell of happiness we were in together.

So that’s how I found myself on a long, winding walk through one of the town’s infamous orchards on the afternoon of our fourth day here.

I’d spent the morning semiproductively at a nearby pub, sipping cup after cup of green tea while I worked: organizing all my notes from the past few days’ meetings, sketching out a timeline for each of the orders, and sorting them by priority.

I wrote and mailed another letter to my family; the first one I sent via messenger hawk should have arrived by now.

Ambling slowly through the ordered rows of apple trees, I let my feet wander and lost myself in thought.

There was a fantasy that I’d been letting myself imagine sometimes over the past few days, when I was alone and feeling a bit overcome with the bliss that was my life right now.

As I walked along, lifting my face to the sun’s soft rays, I pictured my gray stone house in Nepu, with its tidy thatched roof and window boxes spilling with cheerful blue and yellow flowers.

I walked through the door into the large front room.

It was a modest home, nothing extravagant, but had very high ceilings for me, which made it feel grander than it was.

Today it was a bit messy, and I tidied while making my way through the room and down the hall—folding a blanket here, righting a teetering stack of books there—before I reached a doorway.

In my real house, in real life, this was a spare bedroom, most often used by one of my sisters when they visited me.

In my daydream, however, I pushed the cracked door open to a workroom, unkempt and a bit cluttered.

The wide windows that looked out into the back garden were pushed open as far as they could go, a gentle breeze lessening the heat coming from the small forge set in a corner of the room.

One whole wall was filled with shelves containing every manner of handicraft items: boxes labeled with different metals, jars of jewels and stones, trays of hooks, wire, and countless tools.

It’s warm, but not unpleasantly so, and my heart fills with the feeling of being home.

Being exactly where I’m supposed to be, with the person I yearned to see whenever I’m away from her for more than a minute.

Because at a large workstation in the middle of the room sits Elikki, her pointy ears perking up at the sound of me coming through the doorway.

I stepped close, careful not to jostle her as she finishes setting a stone into a piece of bronze.

Brushing the auburn tendrils of hair away from her neck, I press a soft kiss just behind her ear.

When the setting is complete, she turns in my arms with a wide smile and kisses me, pulling me closer to her.

My dream ends there, us holding each other tightly in the studio we built for her together. In the peaceful, snug home we shared. Sometimes it seems impossible, a ridiculous fantasy concocted by my most desperate desires.

Other times, like today, with the sun shining down and Elikki’s post-lunch kiss still lingering on my lips, it didn’t seem silly at all. It felt like the most real, true version of my future that I’d ever let myself imagine. It felt like love.

I halted at the thought.

I loved her.

“I love Elikki,” I said out loud to the silent trees lined around me. No one was around for miles. It was just the orchard, the occasional bird, and my heart pounding in my chest.

“ Fuck .” Head in my hands, I stood there until I could think clearly again.

I was a fool. This is exactly what I’d told myself I couldn’t let happen.

Daydreams were one thing, but Elikki had made it clear from the beginning that we don’t have a future together.

This was just supposed to be fun. She was always going to leave, and she’d never pretended to want anything different.

But—what if her feelings had changed? Mine had, over the course of our time together.

From lust to affection to infatuation to now, a ridiculous all-consuming, head-over-heels love.

We spent every spare moment together. I trusted her more than any other sexual partner in my life.

We talked and made love late into the night, every night, and woke up tangled in each other’s arms every morning.

She kissed me like she was marking me, making me hers. And she still hadn’t mentioned anything about where she planned to head next. Or asked me when I was returning home.

Was it outlandish to think that she’d changed her mind?

If I was picturing a possible future for us together now, maybe she was too.

A glimmer of hope sparked, and I tried to squash it down quickly.

I couldn’t assume anything. She’d been honest about what she wanted from the beginning.

Sex and a traveling companion. Did I really want to confess my feelings to yet another person I’d naively fallen for, just to have them reject me?

I continued walking, now heading slowly back in the direction of town. Mind full of Elikki, I tried to sort out my thoughts and decide what to say to her, if anything. Breathing slowly in and out, counting my inhales and exhales, helped to calm my racing heart and leech the stress from my body.

I needed to wait for some kind of sign from her. An indication that this was more than just fucking and friendship. More than likely, she’d get bored of me soon and want to leave for the next town, the next person, and the next adventure.

The thought left a dry, acrid taste in my mouth. It didn’t ring true—but if I believed it now, it would hurt less when she left me.

Maybe.

Reaching the edge of town, I went down a side street that was a shortcut to the main road.

The best bakery in Old Orchard was tucked along here.

Drawing up to its faded turquoise door, I ducked inside and found it mercifully empty.

It was a tiny shop, and my height and breadth tended to make things uncomfortable if there were other people in the small space.