Haunted tree house, actually!  According to local legend.

It certainly looks like it's been abandoned for a while, from down here.  The chopped-up 2x4s serving as footholds have certainly seen better days; they're covered in a thin, slippery moss, and there's more than one screw that he's not entirely sure will hold his weight.

But they all do.

Inside, it's similar.  Worn wood, a pile of weathered blankets, the smells of mildew and neglect.  A stack of water-wrinkled books in the corner most protected from the elements.

And one book, in the middle of the floor, open.  With two rocks on it, weighing down the pages on each side.  The book itself bears the same signs of decay as all the others, but Lucien can immediately see that the exposed pages are less decrepit than they should be.  It rained just a few days ago, here, and yet—these pages are in better condition than some of the ones underneath them.  In better condition than the cover, should he check.

(It's Banners and Watermarks.)

This is honestly confusing! Maybe someone else was checking out the supposedly haunted tree house? But the other stuff is pretty clearly damaged... Also whoever it was stopped just right before Dyrrm's (subtly flawed) tirade against the Shen for failing to use wind geists for naval logistics during their last major campaign, which was one of Lucien's favorite parts of the second book! Modern novels don't really work out the details of their fantasy infrastructure nearly so well. Lucien is just going to quickly reread up to that bit. Since it's right in front of him.

Twenty minutes later Lucien is interrupted by a dm.

found any ghosts?

Oh, right.

No, did find a copy of Banners and Watermarks though, which is really better than I expect.

if you say so. 
did you know that bruce springsteen is hot?

Isn't he like, 70?

sure but he's still hot

I prefer guys who aren't decades older than me.

Lucien doesn't actually need to be up here anymore - the internet seemed to be off the opinion that something about this place would seem so obviously ghostly that anyone would change their mind but all Lucien feels is a bit chilly. He's going to call it a day and go home, climbing down from the not-very-haunted-it-turns-out treehouse. 

Quite chilly indeed.

One of the screws that held up on Lucien's ascent - doesn't, this time.

Ah- maybe this flailing attempt to grab a different handhold will help.

It doesn't.  Something - he doesn't see what - slams into his shoulder and sends him falling off the tree and down the hill.  And into the creek that runs through the property.

Fu-

He scrapes his knees on the bottom, but not in a way that gives him a stable enough base to get his head above water.  It feels like something is pressing down on him, here, on his leg, and then there, on his back.  Could it be a branch?  It's so hard to see, down here; he can't make anything out.

Hopefully the correct response is desperate flailing!!

That does briefly get the whatever-it-is loose.  Another one hits him a few moments later.

What if he tries to flail and surface somewhere else?!

No.

In that case. he is. going... to... try.... some....thing...

When he wakes up there's someone else's face on his face.

What. 

He pulls back when Lucien jerks and looks him over.  "- Hey.  Hey, you awake?"

Lucien blinks.

"Um." Hot. Wait no don't say that. Say something normal.

"Wet?"

"...Yeah, you are."  The guy with the face mostly isn't.  "What's your name?"

Ummm.

"Lucien." 

That was a ridiculous pause, wasn't it.

"Hey, Lucien.  Do you know what the date is?"

"September 30th?"

"Okay.  You seem lucid, mostly.  Are you, I don't know, cold?  Should you come inside?  I don't really know how to deal with—this, with emergencies.  I don't even know CPR, I think you probably didn't need CPR, really, I don't think I did it right—I'm rambling.  Come on inside."

Oh yes CPR that make- wait no that's nothing like how he was taught to do CPR. Probably not all schools have those lessons.

"That sounds good?"

"Yeah.  Yeah, it's, uh.  It's this way."  He leads the way to the front door.  Opens it, after pausing with his hand on the knob for a moment.

The house is in nicer condition on the inside than the out, if decorated somewhat over-cozily and kind of retro.  The incandescent lights turn on fine and it's pretty dust-free; it certainly doesn't look abandoned.  "I'm Jeremy, by the by," says the first-although-perhaps-not-best responder.  "Do you want some water—you maybe don't want some water."

"A towel would be nice."

"Yeah, of course."  He approaches a cupboard and produces a towel to drop into Lucien's hands.  It's kind of a weird fabric but it works fine to dry him off.

That will do.

"Um. I'm sorry for almost drowning in your creek... Also for trespassing in your tree house. I has heard this place was abandoned and didn't think to check whether the Internet was lying to me."

"You're not the first person to make that mistake.  Well, the trespassing one.  You're the first on the almost drowning one, and, uh, I don't really think you need to apologize for that."  He takes out another towel and wrings his hands in it.  "I'm—really glad you're okay."

"Yeah! I uh. Am very happy you pulled my out. Really, thank you for that."

"I mean, yeah, course.  I wasn't just going to let you die if I could help it.  Then the internet wouldn't be lying anymore and so many more people would come to my house, is I think how that works."

"Heh, you have any idea where those ghost house rumors come from?"

"When my parents bought the house we didn't really know anything about it.  Now... I dunno.  Do you believe in ghosts?"

"No, though I wasn't 100% and figured that checking out the ghost house near my grandparent's place couldn't hurt... which I guess I was wrong about."

"Maybe a little."

"Wait was that your copy of Banners and Watermarks?"

"One of them.  If you mean in the tree house."

"Yeah, wow. I've never actually met anyone else my age who read it." Much less someone who is also really hot. "Why do you have multiple?"

"The one you saw was my first copy, and then I got an illustrated set.  Which I'm much more careful with.  Who's your favorite character?  Mine's Bera; I like the way she talks.  'As the finest beads of water on a spruce's needles glint each alone, so does my interest here.  It has not coalesced; it hasn't the context to.  But I do sparkle, while I may not yet shine.'"

Oh wow he has passages memorized.

"I'm a fan of Gildas."

90% of Gildas' presence is in the form of providing numeric tables in footnotes. He appears onscreen exactly twice in the entire series. Lucien is aware this is a very dorky character to have as your favorite but it's not like he's going to lie about it.

"Oh."

"Listen, I think there's a lot you can tell about him based on what he finds interesting enough to annotate! And the tables really do provide a lot of details about how the supply chain disruptions actually interact with everyday lives!"

"No, I think it's neat that you like him.  A lot of his stuff went over my head, at least the first time."

"Me too to be honest - though I did figure out the bridge betrayal in advance because his tables were missing information about the goods that the third scribe was supposed to be tracking."

"No way!  That's really impressive; I didn't see that coming at all.  Though I did guess that Harkle was sincere and being framed all the way back from his—well, 'his'; Eresin's—letter to Neskrid's king."

"Huh, how did you get that from just the letter?"

"It wasn't just the letter!  There's all the stuff with Tcerit's Keep where it's implied that he wouldn't have any way of knowing about the romance between Jyllen and Verris, which is basically the only reason he would have to care about mining in the first place since he's going so hard on being a textiles guy, with all that stuff about it being his sacred duty to clothe the lands, and all that.  ....But partially I just liked him a lot and didn't want to believe he might be a traitor."

"Honestly I was assuming Harkle had just read Verris's earlier work on supply chain interconnectivity and was learning to appreciate the important of mining in supplying the necessary tools to make textiles - needles and spindles and whatnot. So even if he couldn't know about the romance he still might have become interested in the subject on it's own merits. Though in retrospect... he really was single minded about textiles, even after the speeches. I love the bit where he sacrificed his hand to soften the Shen storehouse fire so it dried the wet wool instead of burning it. He turned Darnya's sabotage attempt around entirely. Admittedly at too high of a cost to be worth it but it was still a really cool scene."

"I have mixed feelings about that part, to be honest.  ...Are you in town for much longer?"

"Only for the next week or so - my parents are both at conferences so I'm spending the week at my grandfather's place."

"That's a pity.  I'd really like to hang out with you some more."

"Oh, me too."

"Um, hang out with you. Not hang out with me. I mean."

"Right.  Uh, are you free tomorrow?  I might be—I have this thing.  Medically.  —That sounds scary; they're just fainting spells.  But I should probably go lie down sometime in the next ten minutes if you're, uh, recovered?  From the drowning."  He re-cupboards his towel and holds out a hand for Lucien's.  "To be clear, I wish I didn't have to kick you out and hope you come back."

"Oh um. I have to attend my classes on zoom but I should be free after that?"

"Sure!  Around what time will that be?"

"My last class ends at 2:55?" He should also do homework but he can schedule that later.

"Great."

"Should I just come by then or... I don't think my grandfather's place works. We could meet in town?"

"No, here's great!  My parents are out of town, too.  But I'm over 18 and it's not a problem."

"Um."

At Jeremy's place is the less date-like of the options up until Jeremy mentions his parents are away and then it becomes. ...Maybe not more date-like perse but certainly more exciting. Not that Lucien is thinking a bunch about this or anything.

"Yeah. That works."

"'Groovy'.  2:55, then?  Or—3:00, or 3:10, or something; I don't know how far away you're staying."

"It's not a long bike, 3:05 should work."

"3:05 it is.  Now uh, please leave."  He winks.

Honestly that is very confusing but sure Lucien can leave! And overthink the wink. For what is really an unreasonable amount of time.

The house is still there the next day.

During Lucien's last class he is allowed to have his camera and microphone off, so he puts on his helmet and waits by his bike until the teacher dismisses the class. As a result he is at Jeremy's house ringing the doorbell at 3:04.

The answer's quick enough to imply Jeremy was waiting pretty close to the front door.  Maybe right on the other side.  "Hi!"

"HI!"

On no wow he's still hot why is that a surprise when Lucien has been picturing his face so mucha perfectly normal amount.

"Come on in.  I, well I tried to make some snacks but it turns out I might be really bad at baking.  But you can try the results if you're adventurous."

"I'd be happy to! Uh, is there somewhere I can put my helmet?"

"Yeah, on the table's fine, or you can hang it on a coat hook or whatever.  Wherever's fine."

Lucien can do that, and also follow to the baked goods.

"So, uh, do you know the movie that French director tried making about Daggers and Brand-Irons?"

"The what!"

"Oh huh, I didn't expect that to be the surprising part. A French director who's name I can't remember tried to make a big budget adaptation of Daggers and was maybe a bit overambitious and eventually had twelve hours of movie planned, only a small portion of which got filmed before they ran out of money."

"That's incredible.  No, I hadn't heard of that—what's the actual surprising part?"

"They edited what they had into a straight to VHS movie that was only available for a year and almost no one bought it but I have a copy on a thumb drive."

"Woah!"

"So uh, if you wanted to watch it we could. Do that?"

"Um, we don't have to. Obviously. If you didn't want to."

"No, I do want to.  But I don't have a, uh, 'thumb drive player'.  Did you bring one?"

Heh.

"I do have a laptop with me - uh do you have a TV with HDMI or a Chromecast or something?"

"Nope.  My parents are kind of Luddites, sorry."

"Well. We can sit close to the screen I guess."

Oh was that too flirty oh no.

"Yeah.  —Right, the dubious cookies."  He finishes his walk to the counter and presents a tray. "I tried one and, let's just say it really wasn't for me, but y'know, you're welcome to them."

They do look like cookies, although not of any particular or identifiable kind.

Crunch.

Huh. That.... that was not what he expected??

But...

"Huh, I think I like them?"

"Nice.  You can have all of them, if you want."

"You really don't like them?"

"I really don't."  He takes the tray and—after a brief hesitation—Lucien's arm.

Jeremy leads Lucien out of the kitchen, playfully bumping into his shoulder along the way.

Most of the house is decorated pretty similarly to what Lucien's already seen.

But Jeremy's attic room has a very different vibe.  It's still over-decorated and warmly lit, but more along the lines of retro band posters than crocheted doilies.  It's dense with CDs and eclectic wall-hangings.

"Oh wow." Lucien's bedroom is nowhere near this good.

... also Lucien didn't actually realize that they were going to be watching the movie in Jeremy's bedroom. Lucien will just have to have a totally normal reaction about this.

"Oh wow." Fuck.

"You like it?"  He releases Lucien's arm and hands the cookies back.

"Yes!" Lucien nods, probably over enthusiastically. 

"I've."  He cuts off.  "Thank you."

"Where uh. Should we watch the movie?" Lucien is not going to suggest the bed because it would obviously be weird for him to do that.

Jeremy pulls a wooden chair up next to the bed and sits down on it, somewhat abruptly.  "You can use the bed."

Oh no what did he do wrong.

"Okay."

He does that.

"I'm a gentleman," Jeremy asserts.

That doesn't explain what Lucien did wrong.

Laptop. Right. Lucien should get that out.

Jeremy watches the process of laptop extraction while noting, "I'm not just going to—I didn't think you would want me to, to also be on my bed?  This soon?"

Lucien squeaks in splutter.

"So.  This is fine, for now."  He scoots the chair to be more properly parallel to the bed.  And puts a hand on Lucien's.

...

Lucien. Will squeeze back. 

...And place his laptop on his lap real quickly.

Jeremy politely focuses on the laptop screen.

Thankfully for Lucien's ability to form coherent thoughts, he doesn't notice Jeremy noticing anything.

Lucien logs in and finds the 'The_Pirates_of_a_Distant_Land.mp4'. 

"So heads up that it's not... good? It's not entirely bad either. It's very obvious that something like half the people making it really cared about the source material. Unfortunately that didn't include the editors. Or the marketing team, clearly. But when it's still better than no adaptation, I think. Not everyone agrees."

"Noted.  I'll keep an open mind."

And Lucien presses play.

He's mostly engrossed enough in what's happening in it to not freak out over holding Jeremy's hand, except during one of the desert scenes cut together using B-roll to pad the movie. He mostly spends that bit being nervous about whether his hand is too sweaty but eventually things start happening again on screen. 

"So, yeah. What do you think?"

"It's... really something.  I'm glad I got the chance to watch it with you.  The bit where—did they just cut the book two duel scene into the middle?  And set it on a pirate ship?  That was...fascinating."

"I think the actor they got to play Eresin for that was great and clearly knew his way around the character and managed to get that across even if he was only in that one scene. But yeah, would have been nicer to get more of him. And not on a pirate ship."

"Were they planning to make movies of the whole series, and just already filmed that part and threw it in because they had it?  But then why was it on a pirate ship...  Book one is the pirate ship book, if, y'know, any of them are."

"I think the director planning to incorporate bits of it in to Marlan's prophetic dream of conquest and then have it appear it again in a second movie in its entirety. Which, I think is actually really clever."

"Huh, yeah, I can see that.  And I did really like Eresin too—he looks really different from how I'd imagined him; it took me a bit to recognize him.  Same with Thenia.  And I do appreciate they put someone who was very obviously Gildas in the background of scenes he totally didn't belong in; that was a nice bonus."

"Oh huh, I actually didn't like that bit, but I guess I see where the director was coming from."

"Oh, I thought you would.  To me it was kind of like, y'know, his presence is felt throughout the books, but you don't really see him, and this felt like—kind of the same thing, just in a movie way.  But I guess you like him because of the detail and admittedly this version didn't really have that."

"A lot of people said it humanized him and made him feel more like a real character and I guess that sort of irked me since I feel like those people are missing the point of his tables. I guess this isn't actually a good reason to dislike the inclusion on its own merits."

"But he only showed up in the background!"

"Which is too much. I think Gildas' should only show up in person in the scribe's lecture hall and to give testimony at the embezzlement trial. Anything else distracts from his work and I'm sure he'd agree."

"Pffft.  Surely he has a house, at least.  Or, quarters.  Of some sort."

"He travels a bunch, just only after the plot has already happened."

And because Lucien can't help himself:

"... Also yes I think he has a house because based on the merchant records he has access to he probably spends a lot of time near the Shen Academy and there is one bit where he talks about changes in the prices of window glass that comes off as personal experience. So probably he owns a place near there."

"You're really...  I like you."

"Eep."

"Um. I like you too."

Jeremy just kind of stares at him for several seconds.

"You should tell me about your life."

Jeremy is very hot and that several seconds of staring is definitely an experience that Lucien will never recover from.

"Oh uh, what do you want to know?"

"I don't know.  Where do you live, normally?  Did you grow up there?"

"I live in Jersey city normally - we moved there from New York when I was six."

"Do you like it there?"

"I guess? It's a much nicer place to walk around than the city. What about you?"

"I'm not really one for walks.  We've moved around a fair bit, but pretty much always in towns of this size.  Except Atlanta, for six weeks, and then my parents found out they couldn't handle cities."

"How long have you been here?"

"Since the summer before my junior year.  How are your parents; do you like them?"

"Uh, yeah. My parents are great."

"Nice."

He doesn't comment on his own.

Lucien noticed - this means he should ask, right?

"What about yours?" 

"Oh no.  They're... I'm glad they're not in town while you are."

"Ah."

"It's, it's a complicated situation.  I—feel really bad.  About some of the ways I've acted to them.  And my dad is fine.  On his own.  These days.  But—it's good.  That they aren't around right now."

Lucien is rather confused but unsure how to say anything about this confusion.

"They know in principle, but.  I'm not sure how they'd react to me actually having a guy around.  Like this."

"Oh huh. Are they really religious?"

"They used to be.  ...I don't want to bum out the conversation—more than this—do you wanna tell me about the ways in which yours are great?"

"Oh uh."

It takes Lucien a moment to switch mental tracks.

"My dad is an economics professor and he introduced me to Kite's Attending when I was 7 as a bedtime story. My mom pretends to have never read it and to only quote it on accident."



[Editor's note: Kite's Attending is the series of which Banners and Watermarks is the second book.]

"That's—really cute."

"My parents are great."

"Uh, sorry I don't mean to brag just um."

"No, no!  I mean, I'm the one who asked.  It's, nice?  To hear about parents who are nice?  I'm not jealous or anything."

This is good but somewhat confusing and wow Lucien doesn't not know how to navigate this at all.

"Sure. I uh, definitely think I got pretty lucky with my parents. I bet you'd get along."

Oops is that weird to say on the first date.

"I'd like to meet them!  If, uh—sorry if that was too forward."

"No! No uh, it wasn't. They'll be visiting town when I leave if you want to see them then, I guess?" 

"Maybe!  What day are you leaving?"

"They arrive Friday afternoon and I'll be leaving Sunday morning."

"Hmm.  I'm not sure I'm free then.  I can let you know in a few days."

"Sure. No pressure, though I do think you'd get along."

"Yeah, seems like it!  Do you visit your grandparents very often?"

"Not really? My grandfather can be... difficult to be around? He has pretty high standards for people in a way that isn't very reasonable."

"That's unfortunate.  I'd like to see more of you after this week."

"Um. Yeah. Me too."

"Just like, ever again.  No—pressure.  Or anything."  He scoots his chair a few inches away from the bed.

Lucien is so confused.

"Yeah um. You can also visit me? If you wanted."

"I'd like that.  It... might be a little difficult to arrange.  But it also might not be!  I'll keep the invitation in mind."

Lucien is no less confused but that's fine.

"Financially, and because—everything keeps kinda coming back to my parents, doesn't it..."

Lucien nods, hopefully sympathetically.

"What's, uh, your favorite subject in school?"

"Uh, I'm auditing an economics class at my dad's university, does that count? If not, math." 

"That totally counts; it's part of your school.  Ing.  School experience."

Lucien ...giggles. For a moment. Why is he like this around Jeremy.

"Mine's English."

"I suppose that makes sense with you liking Bera."

"Yeahhhhh.  She's very literary."

"I'm not any better with Gildas."

"It would seem not."

"It's not just the way she talks that's literary.  There's the thing where—things are just a little bit more of a story, around her.  In a way that I like.  I guess because of her charisma?  Like, I did not think she'd be able to pull off the negotiation at Maplecrest, the first time I read it, based on the material facts of the situation, but she makes it work.  And you believe that she can, just because the prose is so beautiful.  Or at least I do."

"Yeah I was rooting for her but assumed it was a forgone conclusion until she pulled the treaty off."