Page 14 of The Lost Art of Revealing Hidden Truths (The Lost Arts #3)

But he did understand that it had looked like absolute chaos when Brannal and the others arrived. For all they knew, something might actually have been wrong.

But no, it was just Perian being ridiculous.

They parted ways, everyone heading off to their own rooms, and as soon as they were in the door, Brannal pulled Perian into a hug, which Perian returned happily.

“You are ridiculous and absurd, and I love you,” Brannal told him fervently.

Perian could only grin. “I love you, too.”

Perian felt like he was settling back into the castle routine. Renny had been given a clean bill of health from the doctor (as clean as she ever got, anyway), and so they were back to picnics outside and the normal allocation of Perian’s day.

The feeling of being torn apart from Brannal had settled as the days back at the castle grew. He and Brannal had separate things that they needed to do, but they were still spending their evenings and mornings together—and nights, of course—which was hours of time which Perian thoroughly enjoyed.

They’d started making their way through the book just like they’d said they would, trying out one new position a day and then ranking it.

Molun had, predictably, asked if they could do the same thing, and now the two of them were also ranking experiences, and then they all periodically compared notes.

It was absurd, and Perian loved it. They weren’t trying the same positions, necessarily, agreeing that it was better to let each couple decide what they were in the mood for and not try to force them to keep a schedule.

“The last thing we want is for this to feel like work ,” Arvus said with a wink, and Perian had laughed and agreed.

He couldn’t actually imagine anything that could make him feel like having sex with Brannal was a chore, but he didn’t want to be proved wrong.

It was nice to have this new adventure that had come out of their holiday but carried on back at the castle, even amidst the regular calls on their time. It helped make it feel like they were advancing.

Brannal had to go away overnight, and he took Molun, Delana, and Simiala with him.

There was a report of a concerning nest of wraiths not too far away from the city, and they wanted to deal with it immediately.

Water was still the best way to combat wraiths, but the nest was apparently big enough that the patrolling group who had found it didn’t want to approach on their own, afraid the wraiths might overpower them and flee to attack the nearby town.

Perian was pretty sure Arvus hadn’t been invited along only because then Perian would have been on his own.

“You can go,” Perian told him. “I’m sure you want to be with Molun.”

“Brannal and the others will take care of Molun,” Arvus said calmly. “I wouldn’t be particularly useful against wraiths.”

Wraiths were rarely in physical form, leaving a lot less for Arvus to be able to fight against. Shadowy creatures that earth would pass right through wouldn’t have much to fear from an Earth Mage.

“Wouldn’t you rather watch his back anyway?” Perian worried.

“I wouldn’t want to be a liability,” Arvus said simply. “It will be all right.”

Maybe Arvus had a lot more practice with this sort of thing, or maybe he was able to quell any of his nerves by attending to so many of Perian’s. Maybe he was just a lot calmer than Perian was .

By unspoken accord, they hadn’t gotten up to anything sexual while the other two were away, not even jerking off for one another, which would have fallen well within the parameters of what was allowed.

It might even have been a good distraction, but it definitely wasn’t what Perian was feeling right now, and Arvus seemed to be of the same mind.

After dinner, they just spent a few hours chatting by the fire, and then Arvus towed Perian into the bedroom and curled up around him, much to Perian’s relief.

It wasn’t as good as Brannal, but it was so much better than being alone.

The whole group returned the next day without a scratch on them, and Perian felt like he could breathe again. It didn’t hurt that the first thing Brannal did was haul Perian back into the bedroom and take him to bed.

“Well,” Perian said afterwards, sated and happy, “I can’t say that I don’t mind when you go off into battle, but this is certainly a positive aspect of it.”

Brannal laughed. “Sometimes the energy of being so ready for a fight needs to go somewhere.”

“I’m always willing to help with that,” Perian agreed fervently.

He wasn’t sure that he was ever going to be used to Brannal and the others getting called away to fight demons, but he did understand it was a critical part of their job.

He was very grateful that they were living post-Great-Cataclysm and there were so few demons in the world compared to how it had been.

How terrifying must it have been, when it seemed like the world was going to be overrun, and there had been constant battles and so many kept dying? This was hard enough.

As much as Perian didn’t want Brannal to ever go, it did actually help a little bit every time he went and fought and came back unharmed. It didn’t mean it would always be like that, but it did serve to remind Perian just how good Brannal was at what he did.

Life in the castle had settled to a good sort of routine.

Perian felt like he was filled with energy.

He didn’t know if it was the season—everything bursting with life in nature—but he seemed to be unable to help himself, and he gave a lot more “nudges” to potential relationships than he had before he’d gone away.

He tried to keep in mind what Brannal had said about being careful, but the thing was, there seemed to be so many people who were interested in one another, and it was so evident to Perian that ignoring it felt harder than doing something about it.

Brannal had just looked bemused when Perian had tried to explain it to him.

Brannal had assured him that it wasn’t so obvious to anyone else.

“In fact, I’m not sure it’s something that other people would even notice.”

Perian had looked at him skeptically. “I hate to say this, Brannal, but I’m pretty sure you’re blind.”

Brannal had only laughed. “It’s not something that I pay very much attention to, that’s true.”

Being Summus took a lot of Brannal’s energy.

Perian didn’t have a job that was as critical to everyone’s overall safety, but he liked to think he was making a difference with their happiness.

To be fair to Brannal, Perian couldn’t actually remember noticing attraction this readily in the past, but he was spending time with a lot more people these days.

And he had himself and Brannal as models, so maybe that made him more aware of the potential in others.

Whatever the reason, ignoring it was more difficult—certainly compared to catching someone’s attention so they accidentally bumped into just the right person at just the right time or inviting someone to sit down next to him because the right person was on their other side.

Only once had he resorted to knocking a glass of water on someone so that the passing Warrior offered their handkerchief and then offered to go and help them clean up.

Brannal seemed to think that was pushing it a little, although Perian had tried to claim that he’d just been clumsy. (Brannal knew him too well.)

Overall, it was just a few small things here and there. Sometimes, it seemed almost as though people were sort of… drifting closer to him, like they were putting themselves into his sphere to see what happened? But that might have been his imagination.

It wasn’t like he noticed connections all the time.

There might be none, or it could appear to be one-sided, and Perian always left those ones alone.

The only people Perian nudged were those who seemed to him to be equally interested in one another.

It made him feel better when people were together rather than apart, but only if they wanted to be.

And of course, even if people wanted to be together at one point, it didn’t mean they stayed together.

People came together for all sorts of reasons, not all of them good ones, and not all of them meant to be.

People grew and changed all the time—or sometimes started seeing someone else at the same time when it was clearly not a mutual decision.

Perian wasn’t the only one who had borne witness to that altercation.

In fact, pretty much everyone in the training yard had, though Perian had done his best not to laugh too hard when the Warrior in question was pelted with what proved to be overripe tomatoes.

It was hard to feel very much sympathy for him, even though it was probably quite disgusting, because it became quite clear thanks to the yelling and his attempt to exculpate himself that he’d told this lover they were exclusive but had apparently changed his mind without informing her.

Onadal seemed to also feel that this punishment was pretty well deserved, because he didn’t let anyone intercede, just let the wronged woman vent her ire. Overripe tomatoes were kind of gross, but they didn’t do any real harm.

When she finally ran out of tomatoes, Onadal told him to go get cleaned up.

“And think about how you’d like to be treated,” the captain of the Warriors said sternly. “If you treat people poorly, then you shouldn’t be surprised if you get treated poorly in return.”

That stern glare was enough to cow just about anyone, and the man slunk off to get cleaned up while one of the woman’s friends swept over and headed off with her.

Perian hoped she was going to be all right. It had been clear from her reaction that there had been lots of feelings with her attraction, and he hoped she recovered soon. There were obviously times when attraction was not enough.

Perian kept his eye out for that sort of…

bashful mutual interest that most benefited from a nudge.

His time in the castle had clearly honed his people-watching skills a lot.

He was also trying more seriously to figure out who Cormal could get together with, but so far, this was an abysmal failure.

As far as he’d observed—though admittedly, he wasn’t in Cormal’s company all that often—the man wasn’t really attracted to anyone.

(Well, apart from the obvious. But not only was Perian obviously not going to give Brannal up, it wasn’t quite attraction.

Well, it wasn’t not attraction, but maybe it was more…

habit? Perian still didn’t know how to describe it.) As far as he could observe, others found Cormal superficially attractive (was that what Cormal felt towards Brannal, with memories of their past mixed in?), but there wasn’t anything resembling a pull strong enough for Perian to feel like he should intervene.

Setting Cormal up for a failed relationship was the exact opposite of what he intended.

And Cormal had been in a foul mood in the dining hall yesterday.

Perian was pretty sure this was the worst time to try to set him up with anyone.

He’d keep watching. Maybe now just wasn’t the right time for Cormal, even if it was working well for lots of other people.

People were in high spirits in the summer.

As the Fire Festival approached, people were pairing themselves up with wild abandon all on their own, and Perian was happily leaving them to it, liking to watch when matches succeeded, even if it made him wince a little when it didn’t always work.

He was going to the festival with Brannal, although it wasn’t quite an evening off, since Brannal was nominally patrolling.

Normally he would be entirely patrolling, but Perian had been so excited about his first festival in the city that Brannal had arranged to split the shift with Molun and Arvus, and he was prepared to intercede only if necessary.

Delana had volunteered to remain on duty at the castle (Onadal, too, what a coincidence), along with a number of the Warriors and Mage Warriors.

Nisal was one of the many Mage Warriors who’d been loaned out for a full patrol in the city, along with a number of the Warriors, including Onadal’s second-in-command, Yallon, who’d just got back from an extended inspection of the watch stations, which was why Perian hadn’t met them before.

Molun, Arvus, Perian, and Brannal got to roam the festival and take turns half relaxing and half being ready for anything.

Since Brannal was half-ready for anything pretty much all the time, it didn’t feel a lot different than normal.

There were barrels of water and earth that were placed strategically around the various city squares in case of wraith or nightmare attack, there were Warriors and City Wardens at the gates of the city, and even more Warriors, Mage Warriors, and City Wardens patrolling.

It was actually a really nice occasion for them to wander together and enjoy themselves.

Perian had asked Bennan if he and Chamis were going to be at the festival, and Bennan had laughed and said that they’d volunteered to stay behind and guard the castle. Perian thought about it for a minute.

“Oh, far too many people for Chamis?”

Bennan nodded. “He offered for me to go, but I’d much rather be with him.”

Perian grinned at him, nodding, because he would have chosen the same. “Anything I can bring back for you?”

But Bennan shook his head. “Everything I want, I’ve got right here.”

Perian nodded, because that was exactly it. They were so lucky to have found the people that matched them. Bennan was staying in the castle for Chamis, and Brannal was taking more time to enjoy the festival with Perian.