A groan of relief escaped Arwin’s lips as he sank down onto Lillia’s bed, letting himself completely relax for the first time since he’d started learning Dwarven Smithing from Wallace. He’d managed to drain his magical reserves completely in the process of helping Lillia prepare dinner. She’d had several new ideas she’d wanted to test out, all of which had ended up consuming a whole lot more magic than either of them had thought. The results had been an incredibly delicious dinner and a rather exhausted Arwin. They’d made so much food that it had taken the entire Menagerie — and Wallace — nearly two hours to finish everything. The dwarf had then proceeded to collapse on the spot, dozing away in a content slumber.
A weary grin tugged at Arwin’s lips. It had been a stressful day, but a good one. His muscles almost seemed to murmur their approval as all the strength finally fled and he let the tension leave his body. He managed about a second of blissed and utter relaxation before he heard something moving through the air above him and a poorly suppressed snicker that spelled doom. The air was knocked from Arwin’s lungs in a surprised grunt as Lillia flopped down on top of him.
“The Demon Queen shows her true colors,” Arwin groaned as Lillia wound her limbs around him like an octopus and let out a content yawn — one that he suspected had been stolen from his own lips.
“No complaints allowed when you’re in my bed,” Lillia replied into the side of his neck. Her tail wound around his leg and she relaxed into him. “It’s not my fault you’re so comfortable. I’m glad you weren’t wearing armor, though. That might have been painful.”
“Can’t you see in the dark?”
Lillia mumbled something in response, but she’d buried her face into the bed and his neck so closely that he couldn’t make out what she was saying.
“What?” Arwin asked, holding back a laugh.
Lillia let out a muted sigh, her breath tickling against his skin before she scooted back a bit so her head was rested against Arwin’s chest instead of his neck. Arwin drew on a force of will and lifted one of his arms, slinging it over her back to return her embrace. Lillia let out a small noise of approval. “I said I was exhausted. I really thought we were going to have to fight Wallace.”
“It definitely got a little close,” Arwin agreed through a yawn of his own. “I’m glad things worked out. He’s a bit stiff, but I think his heart is in the right place. It’s a damn good thing he doesn’t know what class I took, though.”
Arwin couldn’t see Lillia, but he could somehow feel her eyes narrow. Her tail tightened around his leg. “I don’t know if I like the sound of that, Arwin. What happened?”
“I took a risk,” Arwin replied. He briefly filled Lillia in on the details of the class specialization he’d chosen as well as the title he’d gotten along with it. She remained silent until he had finished. Arwin felt her nose scrunch against him.
“I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same. You definitely made the right call in not telling Wallace. He’s too stuck up in right and wrong. Maybe he’ll learn, but it would have just caused issues if he found out.”
“Yeah. I think I can manage it,” Arwin said. “I suppose I’ll find out. It’s going to be a busy few days.”
“Make sure you save some energy to help me cook. I need to test some more ideas, but I’ll have to slot that in between working on the Devil’s Den. I need to start preparing to expand it. I’m thinking about contacting Ridley and having him do some work.”
“He was affordable. Good choice,” Arwin said. A thought pushed through his weariness to poke him in the back of his mind and he blinked. “Oh, right. You might have some extra stuff to play with as well.”
“Extra stuff? What do you mean?”
“Well, while I was working, I had to feed the Infernal Armory the Crag Lizard in order to make my mithril item,” Arwin replied. “It ended up eating about half of it, but I made sure to make it promise to save the other half for you.”
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Lillia stiffened against him. Her head lifted slightly off his chest and she scooted forward so they were nose to nose. “You’ve got half a Crag Lizard just… sitting in the armory?”
“It’s magical,” Arwin said. “I’m sure it’s got a way to preserve it. I mean, things can’t start to rot if they’re in some extradimensional space where there’s nothing to rot them. And there’s no way the lizard is physically in this world, the building isn’t big enough. I’ll help you get it out tomorrow.”
Lillia hesitated for a second. Even as tired as she was, Arwin could practically read her thoughts. A chance to cook with a new powerful ingredient wasn’t that much different from him getting a new type of metal to work with. It opened up new dishes and techniques she could try to learn, not to mention a way to advance her class.
“It’s not going anywhere overnight.” Arwin rolled to the side and Lillia let out a startled yelp a moment before she partially swapped places with Arwin. He pulled her closer to his chest and rested his chin on top of her head. “Get some rest. I’m too tired to follow you out of bed if you get up, so I’m just not letting you leave.”
“You make a very convincing argument,” Lillia said, letting her head drop back to the bed. “And a surprisingly good blanket. Fine. I suppose I can wait until tomorrow. I’m not sure I’ve got the magical energy left to actually cook anything worthwhile now anyway.”
“Tomorrow,” Arwin agreed.
They both fell silent, and their breathing soon slowed as they drifted off to sleep.
***
Arwin awoke, rested and prepared to face the day, to find something chewing on the nape of his neck. He wasn’t a complete stranger to the sensation. He’d had a number of things try to take a bite out of him in his life. Some of them had even actually pulled it off to varying degrees of success.
He jolted, momentarily forgetting where he was as his mind raced to try and relocate itself. By the time he remembered that he was lying in Lillia’s bed, he’d already gotten halfway through sitting up.
They’d managed to roll over in the night so Lillia was atop him once more, and he only managed to grab her before she was launched off the bed through sheer instinct. She let out a startled yelp.
“Huh? What’s going on?” Lillia asked, the weariness evaporating from her words by the time the sentence had finished.
“Sorry,” Arwin said. “Something woke me up. I didn’t mean to sit up so suddenly.”
“Oh. It’s fine.” Lillia shifted to wipe at her eyes. “I think it’s probably for the best. I’m so excited to start working with the Crag Lizard that I think I was dreaming about it.”
Arwin paused for a second. “Did you happen to be tasting something you cooked in your dream?”
“I… yeah, actually. How did you know that? Was I talking in my sleep?”
“We can just call it an inkling,” Arwin replied, fighting to hold back a laugh. “Did it at least taste good?”
“You can’t dodge the question like that, but of course it did,” Lillia grumbled. “I made it. Why wouldn’t it be good?”
“I’m glad to hear.”
“You’re glad — what? I’m confused.”
“And possibly hungry,” Arwin said as he scooped Lillia up and swung his legs out of bed. He took a moment to find his footing before setting her down in front of him. “Did you want to go find Ridley before you start messing with the Crag Lizard? We should probably leave it as it is for as long as possible. I don’t think you’ve got enough ice boxes to hold even half of it.”
“Definitely Ridley first,” Lillia said. “I was exhausted last night and wasn’t thinking straight. I need to prepare before I start working with the Crag Lizard. I’ll have to plan the dishes I’ll make and spread word in the city that I’ve got something new on the menu. No point passing up on the opportunity to drum up extra business. And if I do that, I might need to expand first as well. Just the size of that thing alone is too much for the inn as it is. Can you find out if it’ll stay good in your smithy?”
“Sure,” Arwin replied. “I’ll do that before I get started with anything else.”
“Thanks,” Lillia said. She made her way across the room and Arwin heard a soft thump as she pulled her nightshirt off and swapped to something new. She headed back over to him and paused for a moment before wiping at Arwin’s shoulder with her sleeve. “I think you were drooling a bit.”
“I suppose I was hungry as well. You must have been passing your dreams onto me.”
“That’s acceptable. My cooking is pretty good,” Lillia said in a smug tone. She put a hand on his chest and her words turned more serious. “Be careful with that new class specialization, would you? Wallace is a tightass, but Cursed items aren’t exactly children’s toys.”
“I will. There’s no point taking a risk if I’m not around to take advantage of it,” Arwin promised. “I’ll try to leave some time and energy toward the end of the day to give you some help on any cooking escapades.”
“Thanks,” Lillia said. “I’ll see you tonight. If you do end up deciding you’re going to do something insane, let me know first so I can help.”
Arwin laughed. “Deal.”
Lillia pressed her lips to the corner of his mouth, then snagged his wrist and dragged him out of the darkness and toward the day lying in wait for them.