Once introductions were complete, Setare stayed silent most of the way to our pickup point, seeming unsettled in her skin and casting me curious glances. After the fifth or such time, she craned around to glance at me, I sped up to match her pace. “What?”
Her eyes darted off to the side. “How did you do it?” She asked, her hands sliding up to cradle her elbows.
“I tested it on a djinn and realized that casting transform nullifies the previous transformat–”
Setare shook her head slowly. “Not that.”
With more patience than I’d realized remained after the long day, I waited for her to explain. One of her hands drifted up to her chest, clutching above her heart. “I saw you. A few times. Before. You and a beautiful woman…”
On her left, Eliza snorted, drawing our gazes to her. “Sorry, I just can’t picture it.” By the expression on her face, Eliza very clearly wanted me to question her so she could explain in great detail all the faults that would make me undesirable.
I ignored her, remembering the dreams I’d shared with Shahrazad and asking, “Did she have a coral suit?”
Setare briefly met my eyes once more, nodding.
“It’s a long story,” I said. I didn’t completely understand it myself and was unwilling to even begin to explain our magic, much less why it was me and not Cove who shared the dreams with Shahrazad, despite the obvious difference in power.
Her lips quirked up in a smile that quickly sank away. “I know you’re dodging the question. That star–it created a connection between us, didn’t it? One that vanished once you took her from me.”
“Probably.”
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“Will she be okay?”
There wasn’t an ounce of doubt in my head. “Yes.”
“Good.” She paused, chewing on her lip nervously and shooting a few more brief glances in my direction.
Realizing now was perhaps a better time than later, I stuck my hand in my pockets, reaching into the inventory for Setare’s journal. If I didn’t, someone else would mention it soon, causing an entire set of problems I didn’t want to deal with. The journal was heavy and cold in my hand, the leather rough against my gloves. It shifted against my hand as I used the journal to prod her in the side, causing her to jump.
Her dark brown eyes filled with wonder, and she took it reverently from my hands, flipping through the pages as if to reassure herself everything was still there. Each page flip released a bit of tension in her shoulders, giving her an almost entirely different presence by the time she found her library drawing. Her hand spread across the page, smoothing out the seams on the paper as leaves from the trees above shifted the shadows overtop.
“This library must have been really important to her,” she said. “I dreamed about it often enough.”
Thinking back on all my dreams of it, I nodded in agreement. “It’s beautiful,” I admitted, knowing that out of the living, only she and perhaps Shahrazad would understand. The itch to sketch the library out for myself was buried beneath my skin, stronger than ever.
Before I knew it, we’d left the island and were standing at the docking bay, the drawbridge lowering onto the dock of Setare’s hometown. It settled with a loud groan and a clang, dust exploding beneath the end.
With her journal tucked safely beneath an arm, Setare turned, giving us a last wave goodbye. “Thank you.”
“You bet.”
“Of course!”
“No paw-blem!” Cove lifted one of Ranch’s paws, forcing her to give a little wave.
Amidst the bustling groups of people, Setare’s slim, almost childish figure appeared lonely and sad the further it got away. Her shoulders slouched forward and her face wary even as I knew she was excited to get home.
Some unknown emotion–pity or empathy, perhaps–clawed at my stomach.
I sprinted forward, clutching her shoulder and pulling her back to face me before I knew it. With my other hand, I pulled a potion from the inventory, holding it out in the empty space between us.
She took it, clutching it as tightly against herself as she did the book beneath her arm. “Thank you,” she said again.
“You’re welcome.”