Chapter 31: Please Don’t Sing the Incantation

Dante declined the microphone from the pub doorway. He had imagined claiming rooms through sheer presence, but Professor Vale’s chorus had already claimed this one, and Professor Bell looked ready to arrest the song. Dante needed a drink before competing with that.

Rhea introduced her mother, Mrs. Mori, a dark-haired woman with a red tail and reading glasses who set water out for the patients. Dante climbed onto a stool that rose until his feet dangled, and Rhea fixed its setting while Jett asked whether it had measured his emotional age.

They carried their drinks to a warm table. Dante kept his dressing dry while asking Rhea about growing up here. She said serving people certain they were right had prepared her for debate. Excellent, she had trained specifically to handle him, although saying so might get him charged tuition.

Posey went next door with Anika to collect Lucan’s replacement pudding, leaving Dante with Jett while Rhea helped her mother. He showed Jett the flying-lane photograph, and his friend suggested a trick that sounded like foreplay with an ambulance.

Dante proposed learning to stand first. Jett called this an attack on their dignity, then agreed to watch before trying. A future master of the skies needed ankles, regardless of how ordinary that sounded. The women returned with Lucan’s replacement pudding and Posey’s dessert, and Dante offered to guard both from Jett.

Jett pulled the napkin holder between them and used two salt packets to demonstrate his proposed landing. One hit the sauce bottle and the other fell off the table, which Dante considered a clear argument for keeping both feet indoors. They revised the plan around a bench, a helmet, and somebody competent enough to tell them when they were being idiots. Rhea passed with a tray and asked whether they intended to pay that person overtime.

He asked whether Posey’s dessert came with a seat beside him. She smiled and said she had already saved him one at breakfast, which seemed like a reliable beginning. He admitted he was asking because he wanted her closer now, and her fingers tightened around the plate.

Posey moved her chair closer, pink around the ears as she asked for room for her plate. Her knee brushed his. Dante passed the napkins with the care of a man handling ancient treasure. Move naturally, he told himself, then wondered when he’d last done anything naturally around her.

Posey offered him a bite of dessert, then hesitated with the spoon halfway across the table. He moved his plate closer so she could set it down without deciding what to do with his mouth in front of everybody. "I wasn’t going to make you work that hard," she whispered, and his ears warmed while Jett inspected the ceiling as though saving ammunition.

Professor Vale finished to relieved applause while their residence supervisor, Mrs. Han, offered her a honey drink. Nearby, Iris, who had helped preserve Jett’s agreement, filmed another market tip beneath her skeleton hair clip until a notification ruined her advice about staying calm.

Posey asked whether the message at the shelter had upset him, explaining that she’d noticed him put his phone away when they arrived. Dante told them about the old recording, keeping his eyes on the table until he realized nobody had asked to see it.

"I still like doing the voice, which is probably inconvenient for anyone hoping I’d become normal," he admitted. Jett said normal sounded expensive, while Rhea pointed toward the bingo notices and suggested a use for dramatic announcements that didn’t involve threatening an audience.

Dante asked Mrs. Mori about calling bingo. Clear numbers, time to check cards, no invented rules, she explained. He accepted the microphone. At last, an audience had requested his voice, and if destiny started with pensioners disputing numbers, he would make the numbers magnificent.

"Your numbers will be called clearly, and attempts to bribe the caller will be reported unless the fries arrive hot," he announced, feeling his first breath catch before the words settled. Someone laughed near the bar, encouraging him to finish the sample.

Jett requested drinks with his bribe, and Dante grandly announced that water remained available for men under medical supervision. The laughter felt friendly enough that he kept the microphone until Mrs. Mori invited him back for practice after class.

Mrs. Mori suggested leaving longer between calls. Dante accepted the advice. A threatening pause could become a helpful pause without changing much, which meant several hours spent addressing his wardrobe had finally become useful training.

He saved Mrs. Mori’s number and sat beside Posey. When she asked why the invitation mattered, he admitted that a girl had once accepted his school lunch invitation as a joke. Everyone had laughed, and he’d spent the rest of that year eating in a bathroom.

Anika let him finish before saying nobody here had invited him as entertainment. Jett disagreed while sliding his water closer, adding that his own jokes couldn’t carry the friendship forever, and Dante laughed without wishing he’d kept quiet.

When Mrs. Mori put on music between the microphone checks, Anika asked whether Dante felt steady enough for a slow dance. He said yes before courage escaped, then followed her to the small clear space beside the stage.

Anika placed his good hand at her waist and counted their steps, keeping his injury clear. He had rehearsed commanding an army, yet one woman’s waist had left him unable to operate his feet. She asked whether he intended to dance or inspect the stitching.

"I haven’t done this properly before, and I’d like you to survive wanting a second attempt," he admitted. She moved a little closer and told him she would handle her feet if he remembered to move his, leaving him aware of her perfume and the small distance between their mouths.

Anika agreed to another dance when he asked, and he returned to the table believing her answer. Before leaving for an equipment appointment, Professor Bell reminded him to bring his stopping notes and medical approval to their next lesson.

By early evening, they took the shuttle back with Dante carrying Lucan’s pudding and Posey guarding her own dessert. At residence, Lucan accepted the replacement like a returned family treasure, while Jett’s offer to check it for damage earned a look sharp enough to close the box for him.

Dante wanted to stay until being included felt ordinary, but he needed an hour alone to think. Even men chosen by destiny apparently needed quiet after holding a woman’s waist. He headed upstairs, where Anika caught his sleeve without pulling him back.

"Ask me again when there isn’t an audience, Dante, because I might want to do more than count your steps," she said, glancing at his mouth before letting go. He reached his door with her answer still in his head and his good hand on the handle, suddenly facing the possibility that she meant exactly what he hoped she meant.