“You’re wrong.”

“It’s a matter of opinion. There is no right or wrong.”

“No. You are firmly wrong.”

“Fine. I don’t care.”

“That’s no fun! Argue! Stake your claim! Hold fast to your–”

“You. Aren’t. Worth. The breath!” Ben rounded on Spidena and stared down at her with weary exasperation.

“That is even worse! I-”

“Is there anything I can say that will change your mind?” Ben interrupted passionately.

Spidena frowned, and her eyes narrowed unhappily. “No.”

“Right! It’s a waste of breath. You will believe that potato wedges should be crispy, and I will believe that they should be hearty and soft. Stop. Arguing.”

“But you’re wrong.”

“That is a matter of opinion!” Ben burst out, his fingers pinching together as he tried to emphasize his point while he strolled along with the most infuriating woman on the planet.

“You were in the army devoid of real world interactions. I bet rat poison tasted good to you!” Spidena scoffed haughtily.

Many would have thought her a wench for saying such a thing.

However, she actually had a wonderful instinct around the fact that Ben didn’t want platitudes and gentleness when it came to his past.

He also didn’t want persecution, but rather a mild ambivalence.

In this case brash insults also worked.

Which Spidena happily delivered in spades.

“Because I didn’t get to try as many foods I’d say I have a more sensitive palette. Just like when it comes to detecting magic,” Ben announced with a feigned air of superiority.

Spidena rolled her eyes.

“Now that you’re in a better mood…” Ben’s thoughtful tone hinted at a change of topic.

Spidena literally growled, and Ben raised an eyebrow in her direction.

But she wasn’t disagreeing, so he shrugged and asked his question. “How is it you managed to move bottles and summon things in your shop but you can’t do that out here? I asked you this before, but you… Well. You were being a being a bit of a bitc–”

The flash in Spidena’s eyes had Ben clamping his mouth shut again and prompting him to clear his throat. “A bit grumpy,” he finished safely.

“It’s because the more effort and magic you pour into a space, the more powerful and connected to you it becomes. Remember how I said it took me ages to weave the spell for the roof not to leak…? Well, on top of weaving the spell, I rarely left the house, and interacted with the space a lot. Rearranging things, filling jars… That kind of stuff.”

“A lot of people spend time in their houses. I take it there’s something about you being a witch that helps that?” Ben reasoned slowly.

Spidena nodded. “Yes. While magic is its own entity, we can move it and give a bit more power to an item or place by doing so. Especially if you do it consciously. Even dodders can do this, though it takes them a lot longer. A house can gain impeccable shields and protection from sickness if a family of dodders stays in one house or on a piece of land for generations. It’s also why homes that have stayed in a family of dodders can look as magical as a witch’s house.”

“Wait. So I could start making a magic house?”

“Yes.”

Ben blinked and fell silent while he started attempting to organize the information.

“Just let me know when you go cross eyed,” Spidena chortled at his expression as he once again struggled with trying to grasp how magic worked.

“You can even build that kind of magic connection to another person or situation. An easy name for it is manifesting. You can manifest a home where no one gets sick and every birth is safe. Or, you can manifest a positive relationship with someone,” Spidena continued, as though hoping to torture Ben with overwhelming information.

“You mean someone could magically force feelings on a person?” Ben stopped walking, the look of horror on his face sobering the mood between them.

“Oh that’d go horribly unless it was already meant to be, or they already had those feelings. Weren’t you listening? You can manifest a connection. It just won’t be predictable how it goes. Though some witches do specialize in… increasing your romantic odds. Even so, if you’re a rotten person it probably will have some hefty price with awful consequences if you try to force a romantic connection on someone. If you’re a good person generally you aren’t looking for that kind of thing.

Ben slid a hand to his forehead. “I need to write all of this down.”

Spidena laughed. “I’m surprised you’d bother. There’s no need for you to remember this. You aren’t a Hound any more, and once we get to Kintel you’re done with me.”

“You were going on about how I didn’t know anything and I should!” Ben exclaimed with such a great degree of exasperation that his voice soared up an extra octave.

“Mm… Only about the stuff I say is important. Knowing how a witch builds magic into her home isn’t relevant to you–”

“But you just said dodders can too! And I’m a dodder! Now I know that if I ever get a house I have to live as a hermit and try to convince the magic in the house to turn me invisible.”

Spidena almost laughed but instead bobbed her head side to side. “That would be a good idea for you with all those people chasing after you for your gold blob. You probably couldn’t make yourself invisible in the house, but it would become a place incredibly hard to find and easy to forget if you put a good decade or so of intentions in the house. Five years would suffice if you’re a powerful enough dodder that you border on being a witch.”

Ben wasn’t sure if he should feel pained at receiving yet more information, or delighted that it was possible for him to accomplish some sort of magic deal of his own.

“Where do you plan on settling down?” Spidena asked, pulling him free from his thoughts.

“Don’t know yet. I’ve heard the lands outside Arbal have good soil and lots of fresh water lakes.”

“The winters that far north would be awful, and it’s only just begun to develop from what I hear,” Spidena informed him while crinkling her nose.

“That usually means cheap land.”

The witch slowly climbed down a ledge that marked the beginning of their descent of a steep hill. “Are you really going to use every bit of that gold to help your friend?”

“Probably. It might not even be enough.”

Spidena balked. “Just what in the world did they do?!”

“They became valuable,” Ben answered shortly.

Sensing that he was going to hold fast onto his silence on his objectives with getting to Kintel, Spidena didn’t press the matter any more.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

Instead they continued picking their way down the hill. At the very least they were finished with traveling through the night, which Spidena had hated the most, and were it not for Wolf’s comforting presence on her shoulder, issuing the occasional warning croak when a rock, hill, or other possible danger that she didn’t care about knowing in any great detail, she would’ve been far more stressed about the experience.

Though while Spidena was appreciative of the daylight that made navigating the forest floor significantly easier, a rumble overhead soured her mood swiftly.

Both Ben and Spidena halted and looked up at the sky through the canopy of trees, right in time to hear the spattering of rain on the thick green leaves.

They both slowly lowered their gazes back to each other.

“At least it isn’t that cold today,” Ben pointed out positively.

Spidena took in a very long, deep breath, then turned and pressed on through the foliage; her weariness from lack of sleep suddenly felt completely smothering.

“Are you going to make me walk through the rain, too?” she asked dejectedly.

Ben laughed as he easily kept pace with the witch, raindrops tapping the lapels of his coat. “I doubt I could make you do anything. The only reason you’re following me around so adamantly is because you think something bad will happen to you if you don’t. Even though stuff keeps happening to us regardless.”

“I told you big magic attracts things!”

“Mhm.”

“And it also will contrive to keep us together!”

“Mm.”

“Have I been wrong before?” Spidena challenged passionately.

*

Ben turned to stare at her with a slow, wart eating grin. “You can’t even get your opinion of potato wedges right. Of course you can be wrong.”

He was in no way surprised when she cuffed the upside of his head, but he laughed anyway as she did it.

Which happened right before the sky broke and a deluge of rainwater soaked them completely through in a matter of five seconds.

“It’s too bad we can’t figure out a way to keep staying at the inn while it deposits us closer to Kintel,” Ben hollered over the rush of water striking against the lush foliage around them.

“There’s no way that doesn’t involve a big price from big magic! We are meant to go on a long journey together!” Spidena snapped while squinting against the water that streamed into her eyes.

“There’s always something…” Ben shook his head and continued to tread as carefully as possible down the hill, but his sure footedness was thwarted when his boot hit slick clay, sending him straight to his backside, and then rolling the rest of the way down the hill.

Spidena cackled merrily… Until her own heel lost its purchase on the root she had balanced upon and she, too, went tumbling down.

Luckily by the beginning of Spidena’s fall point Ben had at least recovered enough that he was able to scramble up and stop her from bludgeoning her head off of a recently fallen tree by seizing her shoulder while sinking his knee into the muck.

With a groan, Spidena let out a breath of relief when she realized just how close she had been to brain damage.

Amazingly she didn’t complain as Ben then proceeded to help her stand up.

Spidena lifted her left forearm arm with a wince as she inspected its lily white underside and discovered a very unpleasant wide spread series of scrapes down her arm. Blood droplets would’ve dappled her skin if it weren’t for the rain still crashing down on them.

“Did anything fall out of your bag?” Ben asked while leaning closer so he wouldn’t have to shout quite so loudly.

Spidena shook her head. “Nothing can fall out or be stolen!”

“How did I go into your bag earlier then?”

“I granted you permission to go into my bag back when you were still asleep in the shop!”

“Why did you do that?” Ben wondered, utterly baffled as he still grasped her hand to lead her down the rest of the slope.

“I knew we would get into trouble, and there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to get to my bag.”

It was a fair assumption—her paranoia about big magic following them aside—what with Ben being a wanted man amongst unsavory groups.

Thunder boomed overhead, making the earth beneath their feet shudder ominously.

“Alright, let’s try and find a cover we can wait this out in. Keep an eye out for some pines, or a ledge of land!” Ben called over his shoulder, then started scanning the terrain for any such spot.

They managed to travel for another hour in the deluge before coming across a spot between two rock faces that had weathered away in time to form an alcove. An additional blessing was that thanks to the foliage on the cliffs above, as well as the thick pines at its mouth, it was moist, but not drenched.

Wedging themselves into the earthen nook left only an extra foot of space on each side of them, and though the alcove narrowed behind them, it did have an extra foot or two of room length wise.

Both Ben and Spidena took a moment to stare out at the watery land, and listened to the din of the storm.

Ben was the first to sit with a groan.

Spidena joined him.

“What’re the odds you know a spell to start a waterproof fire?”

The witch responded to Ben’s question with a tired, half hearted look of irritation.

“Right. Of course not… Who would need waterproof fire when undertaking a horrendously long journey on foot?”

Spidena ignored him and then reached into her bag to draw out her light blue shawl to wrap around herself.

Which made Ben notice that she was trembling from the cold and covered in goosebumps.

As much as he wanted to continue to taunt her on her lack of preparation for her journey, he kept it to himself. He knew he wasn’t the most sensitive of souls, but he didn’t want to be insufferable.

And so with a sigh, Ben slipped his pack off his back, shoved it farther into the alcove and proceeded to lay down while using it as a pillow with his arms crossed.

Closing his eyes Ben wondered if he’d be able to get any sleep… But he was distracted from this thought when a very dry, warm, wool blanket was suddenly draped over himself.

His eyes snapping open, Ben looked and saw Spidena under the same blanket, and she was still rummaging around again in her bag. She produced a clean cloth that she dabbed at her scraped arm with, then withdrew her pillow, and proceeded to place it beside Ben and flop back while pulling up her side of the blanket.

“Er… This is-”

“Touch me and I’ll have Wolf peck your eyes out.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Ben looked back upward, gave a short laugh through his nose and closed his eyes again.

“We never breathe a word of this if we see Daffy again. Agreed?” Spidena imposed stiffly.

“Agreed.” Ben nodded adamantly, his eyes still closed, then paused. “Unless it gets us another free night and food?”

“Deal.”

Ben smiled to himself.

It dawned on him then, that maybe, just maybe… That the witch was occasionally decent. And he wasn’t exactly upset about that as the faintest touches of warmth started to ebb back under his soaked clothes thanks to the blanket.

*

Before the travel weary companions knew it, Ben was fast asleep, and Spidena found herself in a similar state shortly after she managed to finally allow herself to relax while laying beside him.

The storm persisted, but it wasn’t nearly as big of a problem for the pair as they welcomed any semblance of sleep they could get after their very long, stressful night.