Sybil

After I finish lunch, I rouse Via so that she can eat before we head into town. It’s a hot walk and by the time we make it to Maggie’s house, Via runs ahead to let herself into the mayor’s home to get some cool air and a beverage. Maggie is, frankly, fairly in love with the little goddess, and has been treating her like her own daughter for the past three years.

I hear the tell-tale sound of Haven’s hammer pounding metal. I crouch down in the dusty town street and thread my magic to the blacksmith’s shop. She’s wearing leather boots coated in old bloody residue. I press against the organic matter with a tendril of magic that snakes up her ankle and hear something clatter in the distance. I retract my magic and stifle a chuckle, drawing myself up. “SYBIL!” I hear her yell over the tops of the houses, but I’m already walking towards Soleil’s.

I know he’s fast asleep, avoiding the hot of the summer, so I don’t let myself in. I do, however, leave a small bag of vegetables and a little pouch of bugs we’ve trapped as a treat, in the parcel box he’s built outside his home. Then I finish my trek to the tavern, where Yvolstein has supposedly thrown together a new drink for summer. I find a seat along the edge of the large dining room. He waves pleasantly from behind the bar and turns to mix his magic. Yvolestein is Reisau’s resident satyr with curly golden hair that covers up the little horns atop his head. During the day, he uses the apothecary’s glamour potions to appear as human as he can, in case of surprise visitors.

It seems exhausting, frankly, but no expense is spared in the protection of our town.

He sets down the green, minty drink in front of me and returns to work when Haven barges in. “Did you have to scare the fire-loving–”

I push the glass towards her as she collapses into the chair, untying her hair to fall around her face in auburn waves. She tips the glass back and glugs it down gratefully, and I watch her with tented fingers. “You were saying?” I grin.

She sets the emptied glass on the table and shakes her head, trying to catch her breath from her run to the tavern and chugging the cold liquid. “Whatever,” she grumbles. “I’ve missed you,” she mumbles and I squeeze her hand affectionately.

“Didn’t like my surprise?” I tease.

“I thought you’d be up at the farm all week.” Her change in subject isn’t lost on me but I let it go and shrug.

“Vi wanted Yvolstein’s new drink–how was it, by the way?”

She leans back and taps the side of her glass, “Going to need another one, I couldn’t tell,” she grins knowingly at me and I roll my eyes.

“Yvolstein?” I turn and he grins, ducking back beneath the bar to make another. I sigh, returning to Haven. “You’re going to drink me out of house and home.”

“It’s only half of what you deserve–thank you!” Yvolstein sets another two glasses in front of us and winks, whisking away Haven’s empty glass.

“Thank you,” I smile back at the satyr and take my own drink into my hands. Cold condensation has already beaded on the outside of the glass. I take a tentative sip. The delightful refreshing flavor of mint and cucumber fill my mouth. “Oh, that is nice,” I whisper, closing my eyes.

“Yvolstein is practically a drink-god,” Haven agrees.

“I’ve not been gone that long,” I argue, returning back to the previous subject.

“Long enough that Soleil is winning all of my hard-earned money.”

I smile, “You’re just upset you don’t get to take all of mine.”

Haven runs her fingers over the rim of her glass. “I’m back to being the bottom,” she smiles teasingly, “Soleil is just too good.”

Our regular poker games had been put on hold since work picked up on the farm. “It’s only been a week,” I remind her.

She squeezes my forearm, “A week is a long time.” Her brown eyes meet mine longingly and my stomach drops out. “Even Sol is hiding from the sun. I barely see him either. And he misses you.”

I can’t help the warmth in my face and I drop my gaze, squeezing her arm back. “I can’t convince you guys to come up to the farm? Take a vacation?”

Haven shakes her head and groans. “There’s an order coming up from Torsen I have to fulfill.”

“You hate taking orders in the summer,” I point out, tracing my fingers over the back of her wrist, biting down the butterflies that fill my stomach.

“I do,” she sighs, eyelids fluttering closed. She sets her forehead on the wood of the table and groans. “I have to get back to it. He’s paying me a lot of good money.”

I smile and sit back. “Want me to come? Keep you company?”

She shakes her head, standing. She leans on the table and pushes my hair back from my face, pressing her soft lips into my forehead. My arms automatically circle her waist. “You’d be too distracting,” she tells me. “Besides, it’s too hot outside.”

“I work outside.”

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“Not in a forge, you don’t.” She pulls away, “Take a nice break. Go wake up Sol, he’d like that.”

“Are you sure?” I ask. “He won’t be too grumpy?”

“He’s been a puddle of mope this past week, grumpy is the last thing he’d be.” She assures me. She looks around. “Where is Vi, anyways?”

I shrug, “Maggie’s got her.”

She grins, “Such a grandmother, that one.” She squeezes my hand again. “Okay, bye.”

“Bye,” I smile up at her and with a hesitant sparkle in her eye, she returns to press a gentle kiss against my mouth. Her lips are cool and minty from the drink, but also cracked. I return the kiss and grasp her chin, pushing her gently away. “Promise me you’ll drink some water?”

“I will.” She kisses me again. “I’m really, really happy to see you, Syb.”

“Me too.”

She hurries out before she can change her mind and I lean back in my chair, stretching my arms above my head. I wait a bit for Vi and Maggie, but when they don’t appear, I pay Yvolstein and thank him again for the refreshment. I leave him some money in case Via shows up.

Entering Soleil’s house is always easy. In the time that I’ve spent getting to know him and Haven, I’d learned that he is as ditzy as he is clever. I’d learned that his nose is always stuffed into his books and his mind is always somewhere else. I’d seen the first of his clumsiness when it came to my roof. Even while I was terrified of him, and Haven needed to mediate between us since I could not hold even a hammer near him without trembling, he was particularly endearing. His hair had been pulled into a high ponytail and his spectacles tucked into a shirt pocket. His brow had furrowed and his porcelain face shone with sweat. Every time he dropped a nail, it would roll past the reach of his long, spidery legs, and he would panic, four eyes widening as he dashed to the edge of the roof to catch them. He blanched at the size of Henry when they’d first met, but quickly became comfortable with the hulking construct who was his primary ally when it came to dropping nails.

Henry liked Sol. If they liked Sol, I could too.

The room was dark when I entered. Haven had installed his summer shades on the inside of his windows: keeping the heat and sunlight out and the cool air in.

I hear his gentle snores before my eyes adjust to the light. He’s curled up in a nest pulled together with straw and open books. A thin sheet of paper clings to his arm, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, crossed over his black, fuzzy abdomen. I cross the room and gently peel the sheet of paper away from his skin. There’s a vial of spilled ink he must have knocked over when he fell asleep. His eight legs are curled beneath him, his bulbous abdomen arched into the air behind him, and his black hair spreads out in a pool around him. He moans in his sleep and one pair of his eyes blinks open at the brush of my fingertips. “Wha–?” His lower eyes pop open and he sits up. “Syb is that you?”

I close the book he’s fallen across, using a few strands of straw as a bookmark and lift his face. His study has exploded since I was last here, the usual mess approaching catastrophic levels. “What have you been working on?” I ask him, bewildered.

He blinks blearily at me, as if he can’t believe I’m not a dream, and worry wrinkles his brow. “Don’t be angry,” he murmurs, pulling me into him. His clothes are rumpled and his hair is greasy, and he smells like ink and paper and sleep.

“I won’t be,” I tell him.

He snuggles his massive body around mine, eyes drifting back into sleep. “Good,” his deep voice thrums in his chest. His arms are warm, and his spider body is soft against my legs. It takes all of three deep, sleep-ridden breaths, before he freezes beneath me. He sits up again, black eyes shooting open. “Sybil?” I smile and sit up, pulling straw from my hair, but he barrels into me, pressing me into his nest. “You’re really here?” His abdomen sways in the air, like a puppy wagging its tail.

“I’m here,” I tell him, snaking my arms around his neck.

He presses his lips into my neck and inhales deeply. “You feel real.”

I kiss his cheekbone. “I don’t think I’m a dream.”

He sighs contentedly and settles me into his lap, his many legs building a soft cage around us as he nuzzles into my hair. “How is the farm?” He asks, resting his face against my head.

“It’s great.” I tell him gently. He’s trying to stay awake for my sake, and I fight against the wave of guilt for waking him up.

“The harvest? Is it going well enough? And the bones?”

“Bones are all good,” I say. “What kept you up so late?” I pluck a paper from the straw and wave it in his face.

He blushes and reaches for the sheet. “Nothing.” I pull it away from him and look at the ink. It’s written in glyphs I don’t understand, so I let him swipe it away, his free hand gripping my waist. “It’s just… work.”

I capture his face and make him look at me. All four eyes take me in, unblinking. “Did one of your essays get accepted?” I ask.

He grins sheepishly. “Too soon to say,” he says it quietly, like a secret. He sets the sheet of paper down and tucks his face into my neck again. “I’m afraid that I may jinx it.”

“You are a jinx.” I tease him.

He doesn’t answer, but I feel him smile.

“Haven tells me you’ve been stealing all of her money.”

“You’re her luck,” he tells me, voice vibrating pleasantly against my skin.

I smile, “I’m your luck, too.”

He pauses for a beat, then squeezes me into a hug. “You are, yes.” He pulls away. “Have you seen her? She’s been missing you.”

I cradle his face in my hands. “I did. I didn’t want to wake you.”

“I’m glad you did,” Soleil tells me, “Did she tell you to?”

“She did.”

He hums approvingly. “I thought you were a dream,” he says. “Do you have to go?”

I wrap my arms around his shoulders and squeeze him tightly. “I do. I’ve got Vi with me.”

“I like Vi,” he tells me, voice drifting into sleep.

In the past three years, Via has been a staple in my daily life. After she realized she couldn’t get answers about the war from me, she stuck around. She said that eventually I would cave, but I think it was just that she liked hanging around. We liked her, too. Not that I thought I could get rid of her at this point, even if I wanted to. I didn’t. Want to, that is. “I do too,” I tell him.

He kisses my shoulder and pulls away. “Alright. You better go then.”

“Can I clean up a little bit for you?” I ask, looking around his nest that looks like it had been set upon by the gremlins of Bookvale.

He smiles sleepily at me and shakes his head. “Thank you, it’s okay. I have a method to this madness,” he says it like an oath, and I crack a grin. He captures my lips in his and I melt into him. He leans me into his front legs, curling himself around me. He breaks it and presses his forehead against mine. “You better go before I keep you for myself, Miss Whitman,” he threatens. I squeeze my arms around his strong middle and extract myself from his many appendages. He watches me go with a sleepy grin. “When I see you next, I’ll have an essay accepted by the Academy of Magic,” he promises me.

“I believe it,” I tell him, dropping a kiss onto his head. “Rest now, though.”

He folds into himself and is asleep before I can grab him a blanket.