Break of Autumn, Week 3, Day 7

“Just Jenny is fine.”

I opened my mouth to say something –anything. It hung open for a half second before I caught myself. I found my voice and said, “Excuse you?”

“I said–”

I held up my hand and shook my head. “No, I heard you.”

I took in her appearance again, the way she was clutching her skirt nervously, the tight pull of her crimson hair in her braid, the way her eyes were searching my face for a hint of understanding. I took a slow breath, processing the words.

Just Jenny is fine. I replayed it in my head once, twice, three times, before making a decision.

“Let’s start again then,” I said, my voice slow and measured as I held out my hand, “I’m Eunora, but you can call me Nora.”

Jenny looked at my hand, hovering between us, and she looked as if she was fighting the urge to kneel and kiss my knuckles. Then she gripped it with both hands, and I watched as a smile formed on her face.

“I’m Jennifer. You can call me Jenny.”

I didn’t meet her smile with one of my own. Instead, I nodded lightly and looked forward. Pulling my hand free, I laced my fingers behind my head and leaned back on my heels. “Where’s the cafe? I could use a coffee.”

I could feel Klein rolling his eyes beside me, though I didn’t see it.

Pulling her hands back to her sides, Jenny gave a strangled laugh and took the lead. “Follow me.”

It wasn’t more than fifteen minutes later before we’d found ourselves seated at the center of town. The cafe wasn’t quite nice, but it was clean and well-organized. There wasn’t much decoration inside the wooden building, and the furniture didn’t look particularly comfortable. Still, the staff was friendly, and neither Klein nor Arlen swiped the coffee from me. Whether that was out of ignorance or fear, I didn’t care –I just enjoyed sipping the bitter drink and looking out the front window of the shop. It overlooked the town center that Jenny had guided us through the day before. She had incidentally not mentioned this place during the initial tour, which was unsurprising when I thought back to how standoffish she’d been.

In the half an hour we spent in relative silence, I watched as the people of Perry lived through their morning. A man sluggishly making his way to an apothecary, a woman unlocking a clothes shop, a couple placing out display pieces of furniture. The town was alive. And it deserved protection. It made me feel more settled about sending out the Dusk. If the Perrys lacked manpower, the Dusk Knights would protect them. Even if their Baroness was a pedantic, manipulative, classist –well. Even if Lady Perry was their Baroness. That was hardly their fault.

“Later–” Jenny shifted as she spoke, “If you want –if you’d be interested –you said you were. Would you want to hear me play? The harp, I mean.”

I set down my cup and looked away from the square. Settling my eyes on Jenny’s own, I nodded. “To be honest, I heard a bit from the hallway yesterday. It made me want to hear it closer.”

Jenny blinked, then perked up. “So?”

“Yes.” I gave Jenny a small smile as her whole countenance brightened.

“Then, after lunch?” Jenny beamed.

“After lunch,” I confirmed.

While we finished our food and drink, I tried not to think too hard about how Sir Limrick and Dame Arella were likely having their first fight of the day. I tried not to think about how there would be wounds and sprains and injuries of all sorts. I tried not to think about what I would do if they came back with grave wounds –or worse, not at all.

I want to pray for their safe return. I bit my lip, But not to any of the damned Gods of this world.

I released a sigh before taking one last sip of coffee. I focused on the way the flavor made my tongue tingle, on the way the cooled drink slid down my throat, on the way I could feel the fullness in my stomach from the splashing of the drink.

I tried to tell myself I didn’t need to worry so much, but the memory of Captain Rellar struggling to walk on his own was burned into my mind so harshly it was impossible to forget. The Dusk, no matter how strong, was not invincible. No one was.

Not even the Gods. I thought darkly.

I returned to myself with a jolt, realizing I’d gotten carried away in my thoughts. I had to stretch my hands out to stop myself from clenching my fists in agitation. When I tuned back into the conversation around me, I found that there wasn’t any such thing. Jenny was sitting silently, staring into her empty tea cup. Klein and Arlen were scanning the room. And the Perry guards were a table away. I frowned. That was on me.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“All right, how about a proper tour today, then?” I half-laughed as I spoke.

Jenny jolted up and nodded, a sheepish look on her face. “I can show you some better sights.”

As we left the cafe, I smiled at the serious look on Jenny’s face and followed her lead. Around us, the people of Perry lived their lives. There was a chill in the wind, and all the leaves had long since fallen from the trees, but their deep blue and green bodies decorated the center of town like pieces of art. It was such a contrast to elsewhere, where it was summer all year round. All the trees within the Dome had deep orange and red bark due to the chemicals that kept them alive, but here, the skeleton trees were all shades of blue and green. In the light of day, with both Suns shining brightly and not a cloud in the sky, it was beautiful.

Perhaps I hadn’t been paying enough attention to the good in Maeve. Perhaps I had been focused too wholeheartedly on my pain. Now, I could acknowledge that the sights of such things warmed me. It gave me a sense of wanderlust. Because all I could think was, what else is out there? What other beauty can I find?

I was still overwhelmingly angry at times, at the Gods, at the Dawns, at the Lady Perry, at the monsters of this new world, at the voices inside my own head. But this thought, what other beauty can I find? Helped bring me some peace.

So I decided to look out for it.

One of the first things I noticed was the stained glass windows that decorated many of the shops surrounding the square. When we got close enough to one, I focused on the window as a whole. It was a blue and yellow flower outlined in gold. It was truly a piece of art, with the way small bits of glass were integrated to create shadows and highlights. It was highly detailed. Hitting the threshold in [Inspect] had been a game changer this trip.

[Inspect]

[Stained Glass Window, Tier 0, Common]

[Name: The Dream of a Garden]

[A piece of stained glass artwork meticulously crafted with glass dyed with the following extracts: Morring Bloom Petal, Landorice Petal, Extraval Petal, Opaline Petal, and Ragine Petal. It is bonded together with gold.]

[Designed and crafted by Brienne of Perry]

As I finished reading the green notice, I felt curiosity get the better of me.

“Is there a glassworks here?” I asked.

Beside me, Jenny nodded. “Yeah, it’s just outside the second ring of shops. I’ve met the owner several times. We can go look if you want?”

I waved my hand as if to shoo away a thought, my eyes drifting back to the Dream of a Garden as I spoke.

“Only if we have time. The windows are just–” my eyes flicked back to Jenny, “so pretty.”

Jenny’s eyes tracked my own, taking in the stained glass window before shaking her head lightly, “Yeah. I don’t know if the Glassworks does all of the stained glass or if it’s brought in from somewhere else, but we can ask. We can make it a part of the real tour.”

This time, when she smiled, I met it with one of my own. “Perfect.”

It was a new day, I told myself, and that meant it was time to change. To get better. Get closer to becoming the God of Nora. It was time to choose to grow. I couldn’t stay angry every waking moment, and I definitely couldn’t mope anymore. It was time to get stronger, and that included mentally. I couldn’t be a sad, loner girl. That wouldn’t get me very far. I wasn’t planning to live my days as a hermit in the woods. I was planning to live on my terms –whether I bounced from city to city or I settled in a single town, it didn’t matter. As long as it was what I wanted. And it would probably include selling my creations of shadow. It was mana made construct. It could be my lifeblood if I let it. And, oh, how did I want to let it. In elsewhere, I wasn’t crafty, wasn’t dextrous. I was simply sharp. I was strong in the way a corporation would reward me. It’s different. I was how my family in elsewhere had molded me. But here? Here I was what I made of myself.

And I was choosing to be more every day. Powering up my shadows, my animations, even the small Skills, I would master them all. And then I would take what was owed to me—a life.

I thought about activating [Sophism] as we walked, seeing what was order and what was chaos, but I was still yet to meet the competency threshold, and I was disinclined to show any of my active Skills in front of Jenny and the Perry guards. The guards lurked like shadows, listening in on every word we spoke. I wasn’t interested in what I could do being reported back to Lady Perry. Wasn’t interested in relinquishing the minimal control I had over my own Skills.

One day, maybe the world will know what I can do. I thought, and then I snorted at the very idea of being a champion. I’m not a hero. I’ll never be a hero.

With every small gesture, Jenny was opening up more and more. She was adding tidbits of information every time we would see a shop she frequented –or the reason why she didn’t frequent it.

“Oh, this is Lloyd’s Fine Linens–” Jenny leaned in close so only we could hear, “Before my–well, before, mother used to buy all our fabrics from him. Apparently, he didn’t approve of Mother as the next Baroness, and now she refuses to so much as buy a handkerchief from him.”

We moved to the jeweler next door, and her face brightened.

“The man who works here refuses to sell to anyone without land, but I like it because his daughter bakes the best cloud cakes. She sets one out every day at noontime, and if you buy something, she’ll give you a slice. It’s why I have so many necklaces.”

I nodded and gasped at all the right bits. Jenny was so different; it was like she’d been body-snatched, and the girl who gruffly said, ‘That’s the blacksmith,’ was no more.

Soon enough, we’d gone through the first circle of shops, then the second. That was when we stepped out from the formal rings of shops and made our way to the east of town, where a glass dome stood surrounded by a clearing lined with trees. Behind it, there was a tall stone building that seemed to shimmer in the sun.

As we approached, I ran my eyes over the glass dome. It wasn’t seamless, as in elsewhere. Instead, it was made with triangular panes of glass that were soldered together with shining metal to create a geometric shape. The panes of glass were crystal clear and, on occasion, dyed a pastel shade. At the head of the double doors leading into the dome, there was a sign.

It read, ‘Welcome to the Gilted Glassworks,’ in an eloquent font.