Aya is little used to having the opportunity to set her own priorities, but she likes it. She's not hurting for any material resources, and the organization of the attic would produce those more than anything else; and she has this entire bookshelf closer to hand. So the attic, which may or may not contain ghosts, languishes; and she steadily works through the book collection. Right now she is on the third in a series of myths from the old religion; this volume is about Aelare, the trickster.
anotherbreeze
He shrugs. "Anyway, I'm going to go see if Berete will let me help with something. I feel like cooking."
namesthesky
Aya goes back to the book.
She finishes the series four days later.
She draws a gently embroidered fox - it's got dragonfly wings and no other obvious impairments - with copper-colored ink from his stash, encoding nothing more significant than her idle musings on deities. She tucks it under his door the next time she's awake before he is.
She finishes the series four days later.
She draws a gently embroidered fox - it's got dragonfly wings and no other obvious impairments - with copper-colored ink from his stash, encoding nothing more significant than her idle musings on deities. She tucks it under his door the next time she's awake before he is.
anotherbreeze
It is easy to tell when he finds it, because his "Awwwwwwwww" is audible through the closed door.
He comes out holding the paper and beaming. "This is amazing, Aya, thank you."
He comes out holding the paper and beaming. "This is amazing, Aya, thank you."
namesthesky
"I haven't used up that one box yet." She rummages around, turns up the container of decorative tacks she's been using to hang pictures on her own wall.
anotherbreeze
"Thanks."
He puts it in the little front room - it just fits into the space between a bookcase and his bedroom door.
He puts it in the little front room - it just fits into the space between a bookcase and his bedroom door.
anotherbreeze
"It's sweet," he says. "It's - for me, about me, and nobody told you to, you just decided to do it because you wanted to."
Which is apparently rare enough to be this exciting.
Which is apparently rare enough to be this exciting.
anotherbreeze
"I don't mean it's a drawing of me, exactly. But it's what you said, it's about something I like, something that's important to me - I don't get many gifts like that."
namesthesky
"Clearly. I don't think I have ever managed to make anyone this happy before in my entire life."