(A/N: Still hoping to laze around but just to make sure everyone see this, I'm putting it here. 200 powerstones by the end of today and we get an extra chapter this weekend. I enjoy writing but go ahead and do me a favor, keep those stones to yourself so I can irresponsibly game instead lol. My laziness aside, I'll actually be surprised if we manage to hit that number.)
Irina fought down winces, smiling as best she could while listening to the tune being played.
Tune might've been…was putting it nicely. Most strokes and plucks produced grating sounds that threatened to damage the hearing of any who heard it. Those that weren't so bad were completely off tune, what was being played right now far from music and more a weaponized form of sound.
A sigh left Father, the instrument no doubt placed aside. "Perhaps it'd be best if I left this sort of thing to the rest of you."
"I'm sure you'll get better." Irina said. "You just need to keep trying."
There was another sigh, but, after more shuffling, the grating tunes started once more. And as painful as it was, her smile was in no way forced.
That same ugly part of her that managed to somehow find gratitude in the horrible circumstances that led to meeting Onyx was rearing up once, bits of guilt bubbling up. So many had died in Castle Morne. Knights, servants, and countless others. None any less deserving of life than her.
It was a horrid tragedy that never should've been allowed to happen though its not like she was in a position to say that. She'd never had much interaction with the misbegotten, never once holding a conversation with one and so never thought beyond what others said.
The Golden Order helped them by providing food, safety and work.
If that were true, the act as noble as it had always been explained to her, all that death wouldn't have happened.
And yet it did. And that very same event was what led to this.
She and Father sat outside their shared cabin on a pair of chairs he built himself. They creaked at times, both from weight and when especially strong winds blew by, but they were comfortable enough for them to sit for what felt like hours testing out the instruments Onyx either built himself or traded for with the merchant he frequented.
Her father, stoic knight commander, now builder and possibly musician.
A particularly painful sound from his playing forced yet another wince out of her.
Probably not musician.
Either way, she never would've imagined him doing any of this. Father was still as quiet as ever, no circumstances would really change that about him, but conversation or not, it was nice to just spend time like this together. The vast distance she wished to close yet so long ago accepted as just a fact of life didn't feel quite so big between them anymore.
Her father's playing came to abrupt end.
"A warrior, sorcerer in training, and a carpenter?" A voice she didn't recognize filled the ensuing silence, a gathering of footsteps approaching. "You truly don't restrain yourself to any one thing, do you, apprentice?"
"Don't see the point in doing that." Onyx's voice followed it up as they closed in, Irina quick to set aside her own guitar and stand up, the creak of Father's chair telling her that he'd done the same. Though she refrained from heading straight ahead. She was sure that the person he was speaking with was the sorcery teacher he talked about when she asked about his forays across the Lands Between, but Father had yet to move either, still hovering a step in front of her.
"Those things you've brought back with you. They're dangerous." Father said firmly. What was he talking about?
"Ah, you've prior experience with marionettes I presume?" The woman from before questioned. "I'll be repurposing them to aid in the defense of this place. I trust your experience has made you aware of how effective they are at driving back trespassers."
Father didn't move from his spot.
It was only after a short silence that he did. Irina imagined it took some form of confirmation form Onyx for that to happen. Onyx had been an exception given how they met, but just as he was slow to exchange words, Father did not trust others he didn't personally know quite so easily.
Her path cleared, Irina carefully made her way down the front steps of their cabin and soon found her way to Onyx, wrapping him in a hug.
"Hey, Irina. How have things been here?" For a moment her stomach turned to a pit, thinking she'd got the wrong person, but his reassuring voice did away with that mortifying possibility. As she placed her head to his chest, the shape and hardness of it different than what she expected, the same steady heartbeat she'd become familiar with remained below.
"Quiet." She murmured. Boc was still skittish and Father was Father. Even Melina, soft spoken as she was, provided more conversation than the two of them combined. "But good."
"Quiet, really? It sounded like someone was dying to me."
"He's trying." Irina wasn't sure she could say much more than that to defend her father's musical talents. Despite trying to reassure him herself, she still wasn't sure if he was making any of the same headway he did when he was picking up building from Onyx.
A faint chuckle reverberated through him, something hitting the ground as Onyx shifted and returned the hug with an arm.
All the time she was spending with Father was great but having him around made it even better.
Irina sniffed, her nose crinkling as an overwhelming scent hit it. A smell she'd recently become far too familiar with. "Are you hurt?" She questioned, quickly pulling back and carefully running her hands over him in search of any fresh bandages or injuries.
"No, no, just picked up some interesting weapons. Can't seem to do anything about the blood constantly oozing from them."
Weapons that oozed blood? That sounded…disgusting. But interesting in a morbid sort of way.
As long as he, Melina, and Torrent were all back safe that was all that mattered.
XOXO
A deep sigh, from the very depths of her soul that none before it had ever drawn from, left Sellen, her lax body sunk deep within a soothing heat, steam wafting up around her.
The baths she'd taken in rivers and along the coast on their way to the island Onyx used as a home, had been amazing. Delightful even. After so long her standards for such things weren't exactly high. Not that they'd ever been. That said, this hot bath was absolutely sublime. Perhaps the single greatest pleasure she'd experience since being freed.
She'd quickly adjusted to near burning hot water, the steaming bubbly liquid now acting as an incomparable relaxant. It was as if all stress and tension were being drained out of her. The flora aroma that accompanied the wafting steam certainly helped. To think that Onyx didn't just have soap on hand but scented soap of all things.
She could almost forget that The Shattering and her imprisonment had even taken place here.
The door to the cozy cabin Onyx had so graciously let her borrow for this bath opened, but curiously enough there were no footsteps. Sellen hung her head on the tub's edge and peeked beyond the dividers around it.
She locked gazes with the golden tinged eye of Onyx's Finger Maiden, the abnormally feather footed woman, coming over, soon hidden behind the divider as she hung the pile of clothes she walked in with over it.
"Fresh changes of clothes." She said. "Irina requested that I bring them to you."
That was convenient and infinitely better than what she'd resigned herself to. Getting back into those bloodied old robes of hers would've put a damper on this entire bath.
"My thanks." Sellen said. A hum was all she got in response, Sellen realizing that the woman was walking away when the door to the cabin opened once more. "A moment if you would. I'd like to speak with you."
The door fell close again, Sellen unsure of whether she was alone until the woman approached the dividers, stepping between them. If her blank stare were on anyone else, Sellen would've assumed they wanted no part in the conversation to come and left things there, but they'd seen enough of each other, especially in recent days, for her to understand that was the woman's natural expression.
"As we'll be seeing more of each other going forward, it seems about time that we have some proper introductions." Before, though that talon shaped tattoo over her permanently closed left eye had been of interest, such symbolling and its many meanings often being traced back to death, which naturally made it a strange thing for a Finger Maiden to possess, they had no reason to speak. Neither had tried to change that during their trip to the island.
Now was the time to rectify that now that Sellen saw firsthand how closely all of them would be living together. She didn't even know the woman's actual name, Onyx never bothering with introductions between them either.
"Sellen."
"Melina."
There wasn't much more that needed saying beyond that, the both of them more or less in agreement that, despite a lack of conversation, the other wasn't exactly a total mystery.
But Sellen did have her curiosities.
"Tell me, Onyx and that woman, Irina-" Sellen began, raising her head properly. "Those two are together, aren't they?"
"I believe so." Interesting. In that case- "They were outside prepping a meal." She added, staring down blankly.
Sellen returned the stare with an equally blank one.
Melina was dense.
Normally, as a practitioner of the more logical and scientific approach to things, Sellen believed in gathering enough evidence to point out clear patterns before making definitive claims.
But Melina was dense, no two ways about it.
Even Sellen herself, someone who could count the number of times she'd been involved in conversations like this on a single hand, would've picked up on the rather obvious meaning in that question.
Either she'd been raised within whatever few of Golden Order's churches remained as an orphan and kept intentionally sheltered so that she would focus only on the oh so pious duties expected of Finger Maidens or raised similarly by intensely faithful parents. If the latter were the case, they completely failed on the whole parenting part.
Was Melina even aware of how she looked at Onyx?
"Are they courting each other?" Sellen asked bluntly, no room given for misunderstanding. This time Melina nodded, surprisingly sure enough to give a simple answer. Sellen briefly considered poking the woman's likely dormant feelings but let that be. It wasn't her place to interfere in that. "A shame but not unexpected I suppose."
She was about to ask more, specifically about Melina herself, but thought better of that as well. They'd all be in the same place for some time so it could wait for a more appropriate time. Until she was done enjoying this bath at the very least.
With the exchange of a few more words, they let the conversation go, Melina leaving after a slight nod.
Sellen kicked back in the tub until the water turned lukewarm and her stomach began to growl, the aroma of whatever had been prepared beckoning her outside. She followed its call, drying herself and throwing on the clothes that'd been given to her.
A plain button up brown shirt and long modest skirt of the same color that ran down to her ankles. Not ideal but she didn't mind them. Well, except for the tightness of the shirt around her top half but a few undone buttons saw to that issue. As long as it was loose and comfortable, it was fine with her. After that long imprisonment she wasn't going to bother with any sort of restriction if she didn't have to.
She stepped out into the darkened night, the golden branches that stretched out high above and at a distance, keeping everything visible. Everyone was gathered around a campfire, different logs set up for them to sit on as they ate from wood carved plates.
Different types of seared meat with visible seasoning and cooked helpings of vegetables to go along with it. Quite simple but she couldn't help but take in its aroma and taste, Onyx handing her a prepared plate as she joined everyone. She wasn't sure how he managed such miracles with simple pots, and a campfire, but she knew that if the day truly came where their paths diverged, she would find no satisfaction in anything she could prepare.
Sellen didn't so much participate in conversation as listen as she observed the group.
Onyx and Irina sat together on one log, he taking what food she didn't finish for himself. Edgar, who'd greeted her with a dose of suspicion she could respect, silently watched over the group and their surroundings from a log on Irina's side. Boc kept his head down and to his food most of the time, the few times he looked up to timidly speak ending with him dropping his head once more if any, aside from Onyx, caught his eye.
And then there was Melina who sat on the log to the side of Onyx who Sellen had opted to take up a spot next to, the horned steed they call Torrent, curled up behind them. Melina spent much of her time quietly eating or taking in their surroundings, only stopping to respond to Irina who was clearly making concentrated effort to talk with her.
Of course, something Sellen still wasn't sure the woman herself realized, there were times when Melina's gaze lingered on Onyx. Perhaps nothing worth looking into given their connection, but there was a longing in her typically blank gaze. A want for something.
They made for a strange group in equally strange times.
A demihuman, former knight, a blind woman, a finger maiden with a tattoo related to death, and now she, a sorcerer expelled and once imprisoned by the Academy.
And at the center of it all, her unique apprentice.
For tonight she'd enjoy the lax atmosphere but come tomorrow she'd get to work.
Preparing the marionettes. Truly putting this body and invigorating font of energy in her to the test without worry about something attacking them. Studying Onyx. And perhaps learning about Melina if she had the time and opportunity.
How odd it felt to actually plan out her day.
She'd never put much stock in them while dedicating her life to the study of glintstone and all it held but she finally understood sayings about it being the little things in life that truly made it worth continuing on.
Good food, baths, the freedom to keep to whatever schedule she pleased. Just breathing in fresh air.
Losing and regaining her freedom had recontextualized plenty.
XOXO
(A/N: More of the subplot that is Irina and Edgar's relationship and Sellen being an absolute yapper. Oh and Sellen and Melina actually beginning a friendship? Not 100% sure where that will go. This really was Sellen week though. Our sorceress is absolutely going to be enjoying her new found freedom for sure though. I never planned on it but that island really might end up becoming a whole village if the pattern persists.
Oh, and we got 13 reviews and have finally reached around 100,000 words here on this story alone. Didn't know I could write that much in such a short span of time. Go me!
For those who to read ahead and throw some extra support my way:
patreon .com/thirdratewriter)