Chapter 53: Our First Date

The next few days came and went in a blur of training: knife throwing, swords, summoning, magic, the Guttervine. The only real breaks I got were when I had to clean because of my grounding, and I spent as many of those moments with Emma as I could.

Tonight, none of that mattered. Lucarion was fast asleep. I had made sure of that. I didn't need to split my attention between two bodies, remember which hand was holding a sword, or notice Raven correcting a foot that existed somewhere else. Tonight, there was only Olive.

And Emma.

I found her waiting near the edge of the church. The torch beside her was probably doing more work than usual because there was no moon at all tonight. Its light caught the gold along Emma's white clothes and made her hair shine whenever the flame moved.

She looked pretty. Really pretty.

I stopped walking, and Emma smiled, then seemed to realize I was staring at her. Her smile got smaller.

"Hi."

"Hi."

That was good. Excellent start.

Emma's eyes traveled over me in a way that immediately made every bit of effort I had put into getting ready feel worth it.

"You look pretty."

My face warmed. "You too."

Her smile came back. Very excellent start.

For several seconds, neither of us did anything except stand there smiling at each other like two idiots. Then I remembered we were supposed to actually go somewhere, so I held out my hand.

Emma took it, and my heart immediately decided this was much more important than all the other times we had held hands. This was date handholding.

Emma's eyes dropped to our hands, then to my wrist.

"Is that a corsage?"

"A what?"

Emma leaned closer, still holding my hand. One of the Guttervine's little tendrils shifted against the back of mine. "A corsage." She smiled. "It's a little flower arrangement nobles wear for special events."

I looked down at the Guttervine curled around me. "Well, no. He’s a Guttervine. Actually, he's my secret weapon."

"He is?" Emma asked, puzzled. "Are we doing anything dangerous?"

Which was fair.

"No, not at all," I told her sincerely. "We're going to a safe place."

"Then why bring the secret weapon?"

"He doesn't like to be left alone. He's kinda attached to me." I joked before adding softly, "Though I guess this is a special event."

Emma's smile changed, and she looked away for a second. "Yeah," she said softly. "I guess it is."

One of the Guttervine's tendrils curled around my wrist.

"Does it have a name?" she asked after a moment.

"I was thinking Grippy."

Emma looked at me. "Grippy?"

"What? It grips things."

That was a very good name.

Emma glanced back at my wrist. "What about Corsie?"

"Corsie?"

"Because it looks like a corsage."

I considered that. Grippy was better. Obviously.

But Emma had come up with Corsie, and if corsages were for special events, and naming a pet was a special event too. Well, then having Emma name my pet was extra special.

"Okay." I looked down at him. "Corsie."

The little vines shifted around my wrist, and one tendril curled tighter against my hand.

Emma smiled. "I think he likes it."

I watched Corsie settle against my wrist.

Maybe he did.

I prepared to cast my spell. This was one I had only used a couple of times. My dad had taught it to me for hunting. It wasn't meant to be used while moving, and I certainly wasn't good at It, but as long as nobody saw us until we got out, it would be enough.

Light fractured around us, bending and reflecting back toward where it had come from. The torchlight warped around our bodies until Emma's hand became strangely difficult to see, even though I could still feel every one of her fingers wrapped around mine.

Up close, the distortion probably made us look suspicious rather than invisible. From across the square, though, anyone looking our way should see little more than whatever was behind us.

"Ready?" I whispered.

Emma squeezed my hand. "Ready."

We slipped away from Tillshade.

For the first few minutes, I couldn't stop smiling, and Emma couldn't either. I knew because every time we passed somewhere the trees opened enough to let starlight through, I caught the shape of her face turned toward me. Then the trees thickened, Tillshade disappeared behind us, and the stars vanished above the canopy.

Neither of us said anything. Our boots pressed softly into the forest floor as branches shifted somewhere overhead and leaves rustled around us. My hand remained wrapped around Emma's, and we kept walking.

I had imagined this part several times. I had definitely talked during those versions, and Emma had too. We had been very good at talking. Now I tried to think of something. Anything. I knew things about Emma, lots of things, and that was somehow the problem. If I asked her about the Church, I already knew about the Church. If I asked what she wanted to become, she wanted to become a cleric.

Her fingers tightened around mine as the silence stretched.

Maybe dates were just walking quietly while both people thought very hard about the fact that they were on a date. If so, we were amazing at them.

The river saved us.

I heard it before we reached it, the soft, uneven babble of water slipping over stones. The trees opened gradually until faint starlight returned above us, and the dark surface caught enough of it to show where the water wound between the banks.

"We're here."

Emma's shape turned toward me. "Wow!"

I led her to a spot near the bank where the ground sloped gently toward the water. The river was shallow here, no more than ankle deep through most of the stretch, moving slowly over stones worn smooth beneath it.

I sat down, and Emma sat beside me. We finally let go of each other's hands, and I immediately missed it. The night air felt colder now that we weren't moving, so I drew my knees up and wrapped my arms around them. Emma did exactly the same thing beside me.

For a while, we watched the water. At least I assumed Emma was watching the water. I could see her outline beside me, but not much else, while every little ripple caught some of the sky before disappearing again.

I tried desperately to think of what to say. I knew I'd already thought of a few things, but now that the date had actually started, I couldn't remember any of them. I couldn't talk about the things I had on my mind either. The war, the Godsworn ceremony, none of it was stuff to talk about on a date, right?

"So," Emma said.

"So."

"What do you like doing?"

I turned toward her, and she turned toward me. We stared at each other's silhouettes until Emma started laughing, and I followed.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I couldn't think of anything."

"You know what I like doing."

"I know."

The river filled the silence for us, water curling around a stone near the bank and making the same little bubbling sound again and again. Emma pulled her knees tighter against herself.

"Maybe we're bad at this."

"It's our first one."

"Maybe everyone is bad at their first one."

That made me feel better. "Probably."

A question popped into my head. "Why are you in Tillshade all alone with the Church? Where is your family?"

Another silence passed, this one painful.

The question had seemed much better before I asked it.

"They're dead."

My stomach dropped. "Oh."

Emma pulled her knees closer to her chest. "They were adventurers. There was an attack, undead, and they..." She stopped. "I was little."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

It very obviously wasn't okay.

The river bubbled between the stones in front of us. I stared at the water because I couldn't see Emma's face anyway, and maybe that was better.

"The Church took me in afterward," she said. "I didn't have anywhere else to go."

I waited.

Then, quietly, she said, "The clerics went after them."

"The undead?"

"Yeah. After my parents died. They hunted them down." Her voice changed slightly. "I remember everyone telling me that part. That they were gone. That the clerics got them, so I was safe." She paused. "I... I didn't feel safe."

I shifted a little closer.

"My parents were adventurers, so I thought I was supposed to want to be one too. For a while, I did." She rubbed her thumb against her knee. "But they were the ones who left, and the clerics were the ones who came."

Emma went quiet again, but then she suddenly kept going.

"I don't mean they left me. They didn't. They were just working. That's what adventurers do." The words started coming faster. "And they weren't doing anything wrong. I know that. I know they didn't go out thinking they were going to die, and I know if they knew what was going to happen they wouldn't have gone, but sometimes I used to get angry at them anyway."

I looked toward her. Her outline had folded tighter around her knees.

"And then I'd feel horrible because they were dead, so what was I even angry at them for?" she continued. "And everyone at the Church always talked about how brave they were, and they were brave. I know they were. I just..."

She stopped.

I waited.

"I wish they hadn't been."

The river kept moving.

Emma sniffed. "I've never said that before."

I didn't know what to say to it, so I didn't try. I moved closer until my shoulder touched hers. For a moment, she stayed curled around her knees, then she leaned against me.

"Everyone at the Church already knows," she said after a while. "Not that part. Just... what happened. It's always been something everyone knew about me before I could tell them."

"Oh."

"I don't think I've ever actually told anyone."

Her hand slipped down between us, and I found it in the dark. Emma squeezed my fingers.

"I think that's why I want to be a cleric," she said. "Not because I want to kill undead. I mean, I wouldn't mind if there were less of them."

I smiled a little.

"But when something bad happens to someone, I want to be one of the people who comes afterward." Her voice had gone quiet again. "Or before. Before would be better."

I squeezed her hand. "Before would be better."

"Yeah."

Neither of us said anything after that, but the silence didn't feel awkward anymore.

***

Emma lowered her feet to the ground and leaned back on her hands. I couldn't see much of her expression, which meant she probably couldn't see mine either. I pressed my chin against my knees. The water kept moving, and it was easier to look at that than at the dark shape beside me.

"I practiced asking you," I whispered.

"You did?" she asked just as softly.

I nodded. "I like being with you."

Emma didn't say anything, so I hurried on. "And I like holding your hand. And I think you're really pretty."

The words had become increasingly difficult to get out, and I buried the lower half of my face against my knees.

"I... I thought about asking you. Well, then I wasn't sure if you... I'm older, and maybe..." she said nervously.

"Mm-hm." I nodded enthusiastically.

Emma's hand moved between us, her little finger touching mine first before the rest followed. I turned my hand over and held hers, smiling into the darkness.

Neither of us said anything for a while. We didn't need to.

The river sounded nicer now.

Eventually, Emma shivered, and I felt it through her hand.

"Let's go warm up."

"Al-already? Don't you want to stay a little longer?" she asked, sounding a little desperate.

I stood and pulled her up with me. "I don't mean end the date, silly." I giggled.

"Oh."

It only took a few moments. The riverbank quickly led up a hill, becoming softer beneath our boots as we went. Emma followed close behind me through the darkness until I found what I was looking for.

"Watch this."

"Watch what?"

Instead of answering, I pressed my boot hard into the ground.

Soft green light bloomed beneath it.

Emma gasped as the glow spread through the thick moss around my foot, bright enough to illuminate the grass and the bottom of my trousers before it began fading. She stepped beside me, and another patch came alive beneath her boot.

"Oh."

Emma stepped again, then again, leaving another glow each time. Within seconds, she was walking in a little circle just to watch the moss light beneath her.

I laughed. "I knew you'd like it."

Emma crouched and pressed her palm into the moss. Green light spread between her fingers, and when she lifted her hand, the shape remained for a moment before slowly disappearing. I crouched beside her and pressed both hands down.

Mine was bigger.

Emma placed hers beside it, leaving two glowing handprints after we lifted them. She stared at them until they faded, then looked at me. There was enough light now that I could finally see her face properly again.

"You really love this forest."

"Of course."

The answer came automatically because it was obvious. I knew this forest, and I wanted to know more of it. I wanted to spend years learning everything about every beast and strange thing growing beneath its trees.

My smile weakened.

If I really was the next Answer, I wasn't going to spend my life here.

The thought felt much worse tonight than it had while I was training. Getting stronger had been easy to understand. Train. Learn. Prepare.

Leaving was different.

If what I believed was true, whatever I was supposed to do wasn't waiting in Tillshade for me.

Emma's voice softened. "Olive?"

I pressed my hand into the moss again, spreading light around us, then stood and held out my hand. "Come on."

Emma stared up at me. "This isn't the place we were going."

I shook my head.

That got her moving. I pulled her to her feet and led her away before the sadness could follow.

The hill darkened behind us as the trees grew closer together. Branches crossed high above our heads until the last scraps of starlight disappeared completely.

"How can you see where you're going?"

"I can't."

Emma's hand tightened around mine. "Olive!"

"I know where it is."

I slowed until my free hand found the first hanging ribbon. It slid over my fingers, and a clear note sounded in the darkness. Emma stopped as the note lingered before something farther away answered it with a softer tone.

"What was that?"

I smiled even though she couldn't see me, then pulled the ribbon aside and let it go. It swung through the darkness, making one note, then another, then three quick sounds as it struck the ribbons around it.

Emma's fingers squeezed mine.

I stepped forward, and something brushed over my shoulder, making a low tone hum beside us. Another ribbon dragged across my hair with a much lighter sound. When Emma moved beside me, a scattering of notes followed her.

For a few steps, that was all we did. Walk and listen.

Every movement changed something. A ribbon brushed my cheek, another slid over Emma's sleeve, and my shoulder pushed one aside before it swung behind me into something I couldn't see. The darkness filled with sound. Not a song, not yet. Just us bumping into things.

Emma let go of my hand, and I stopped. A few steps away, several quick, high notes moved through the dark, followed by silence and then another little cluster farther to my right.

I understood.

I swept my arm through the ribbons beside me.

The result was awful. A deep hum collided with three sharp notes and something that sounded like I'd dropped a stack of bowls.

Emma laughed somewhere ahead.

I swung both arms this time.

Even worse.

Her answer came immediately, a bright run of notes following the sound of her footsteps. I followed, letting ribbons slide over my arms and shoulders as I ducked beneath one and struck two more with my head. Emma's music moved away, and I chased it.

A soft cluster sounded to my left, then behind me. I turned, catching several ribbons in my hair and making them chime around my head.

Emma laughed again.

Something brushed my hand.

Her fingers.

I grabbed them before they disappeared. Emma pulled, and I stumbled toward her. Our shoulders bumped, making the ribbons around us erupt into noise.

We both froze until the sound slowly faded. Then Emma tugged on my hand again, and I moved with her, one step and then another. I lifted our joined hands, letting ribbons slip over our arms and sound above us as Emma turned beneath them. I almost lost her fingers, but she caught mine again, her movement sending another ripple through the grove.

I followed. She stepped away, stretching the music with her, and when I pulled her back, the sounds closed around us.

I didn't know when it became dancing. Maybe it never really did.

I spun and immediately hit something with my forehead. Emma ran into me a few moments later, and at one point we tried moving together and produced a noise so terrible that we both stopped just to laugh. Then Emma shoved me lightly, sending me stumbling backward through half a dozen ringing ribbons.

So I charged toward where I thought she was.

She escaped, and I followed the music. She could hide from me, but she couldn't move without telling me where she was.

Neither could I.

My arms swept through the ribbons as I turned, and Emma answered from behind me. I stepped toward the sound, she moved away, and I went faster. The music thickened around us. Every turn left sounds behind, and every ribbon kept moving after we passed, knocking into others until the notes followed us through the grove.

Emma reached me again, and her hand found mine.

We spun.

I didn't know who started it. Maybe both of us. Our arms stretched between us until our fingers nearly slipped apart, spreading the sound outward with us. Then Emma pulled me close, and our shoulders met.

The music changed. Fewer ribbons hung between us now. Most of the sound came from around us, where our movement pushed the hanging growth aside. I felt Emma's breath near my face before she moved away again and her hand vanished.

I followed.

No words. We didn't need them.

She moved, and I answered. I moved, and she found me. Sometimes our fingers met, sometimes a shoulder, and once my hand landed directly on top of her head.

Emma slapped it away and sent a whole line of ribbons chiming.

I laughed so hard I nearly tripped. I stopped caring whether I looked stupid. Emma couldn't see me, I couldn't see Emma, and nobody else could either, so I threw both arms wide and spun as fast as I could.

The grove exploded around me, notes crashing together from every direction. Emma answered with an equally ridiculous burst.

I ran toward it.

She ran toward mine.

We collided, her arms catching around me as mine caught around her. For a moment, neither of us moved while the last ribbons continued swaying around us and their sounds slowly faded. Emma was breathing hard, and so was I.

Then she pulled away and slapped a ribbon directly beside my ear, making a sharp note ring through my head.

I chased her again.

By the time we finally stumbled out of the grove, I could barely breathe from laughing.

Starlight returned first, then the hill. Our boots hit the moss, and soft green light spread beneath us. Emma stopped so suddenly that I almost ran into her, and we sort of slipped into a sitting position, the moss lighting up as we landed on our butts.

She turned toward me, and for the first time since entering the ribbons, I could see her. Her hair was a mess, with something small caught near one side, and her clothes had been pulled crooked from all the spinning and running. Her cheeks were flushed, and she was breathing through a smile she seemed unable to stop.

Emma reached toward me. I thought she was going to take my hand, but instead she pulled something from my hair and held it between two fingers.

I couldn't tell what it was.

She looked at me, then laughed.

I pressed my hand into the moss, spreading light beneath us. Emma looked down at herself, then at me.

Neither of us laughed this time.

The light was dim, but it was enough to see her eyes and watch her smile slowly disappear into something quieter. Emma leaned closer, and I stopped breathing properly. My heart thumped hard enough that I could feel it in my throat.

Oh.

Oh.

She was going to kiss me.

Everything I had done tonight without thinking suddenly seemed easy compared to standing still. Emma came a little closer, but I didn't move. Her eyes flicked over my face, and for one horrible moment, I realized she might think I didn't want her to.

I did. I definitely did.

I leaned forward.

My palm pressed against the moss at a bad angle, and I slid.

There wasn't even enough time to be embarrassed. My foot slipped downhill, and Emma grabbed me.

This helped neither of us.

We went down together. The moss lit beneath us in one enormous green streak as I hit the ground on my side, rolled, and heard Emma squeal while we tumbled over each other. Luckily, the moss was soft.

For half a second, I saw the sky, then moss, then Emma, then sky again.

We finally stopped, and I lay there trying to figure out which direction uphill was when something warm moved beneath me.

Emma.

Oh.

I had landed on top of her.

Her arms were still around me. One of mine was trapped beneath her shoulder, while my other hand rested in the moss beside her head. Green light glowed through the grass around us as Emma stared up at me and I stared down at her.

We were really close. Much closer than we had been before gravity decided it was against us.

Emma started smiling, and I did too.

Maybe I didn't actually have to move. We were comfortable, very comfortable, and I could just stay here for a little while.

Maybe cuddle.

That sounded nice.

My face became hot, and I immediately tried to get off her.

My knee slid.

"Oh."

I rolled sideways, and the ground disappeared.

Cold water swallowed me.

I came up sitting in the river with water dripping from my hair and both hands planted between smooth stones. Emma stared at me from the bank.

Then she laughed. Not a polite laugh. Not even close. She curled forward, clutching her stomach.

"Stop!" I protested.

That made her laugh harder.

"This isn't funny," I said, grinning.

She tried to say something and couldn't.

I scooped both hands through the water, and Emma's laughter stopped.

"Olive."

I threw it.

The small splash hit her legs, and Emma stared down at herself before looking back at me.

"No."

I smiled.

Emma stepped into the river.

"Don't."

She kicked, sending cold water directly into my chest.

I gasped. "You did not."

"You started it."

I splashed her again, and Emma splashed back. I scrambled to my feet, the stones shifting under my boots as I ran upstream with Emma coming after me.

"You can't run away!"

"I absolutely can!"

Water sprayed around our ankles. I turned and kicked a sheet of it toward her, but Emma raised both hands too late. She shrieked, then charged.

I tried to escape, slipped, recovered, and nearly ran into the bank before Emma caught my sleeve. I twisted around and splashed her with my free hand, making her let go so I could run again.

We chased each other up and down the shallow river until there wasn't a dry part of either of us left. Emma tried hiding behind the bank, but I went around. She splashed me in the face, I retaliated, and she ran. I followed until eventually my legs stopped cooperating.

"Wait."

Emma leaned forward with both hands on her knees. "Wait."

I stopped several steps away, breathing hard. We watched each other for a moment before both of us started laughing again.

By the time we climbed out, my clothes clung uncomfortably to my legs, though at least the river had washed away all the leaves and twigs from our hair. The night air should have been freezing. It had certainly felt cold earlier, but I barely noticed now.

We walked along the bank until the forest opened enough that I could see a broad patch of stars above us. The road wasn't far away, hidden behind the trees.

I dropped onto the grass, and Emma dropped beside me. Neither of us bothered sitting properly, so we lay flat on our backs and stared at the stars.

For a while, neither of us spoke. The river babbled nearby, water dripped from my hair into the grass, and our shoulders touched. Emma's hand rested beside mine, our fingers touching without either of us moving them away.

A faint patch of moss grew between our shoulders. I pressed two fingers into it, and green light spread outward.

Emma's face appeared beside me, her wet hair lying against the grass and her eyes turned toward the sky. The light faded, and darkness returned.

I waited a moment, then pressed it again.

Emma reappeared and turned her head toward me.

I pretended I had been looking at the moss.

The glow disappeared.

I touched it again, and Emma's mouth curled upward.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"What?"

"Nothing."

The light faded, and I pressed the moss again. Emma was still looking at me.

"You know it keeps doing the same thing."

"I know."

"Then why do you keep touching it?"

"I like it."

Emma's smile widened.

The light went out again, hiding her face from me. I pressed it one more time.

There she was.

My heart started beating harder as the hill came back to me: Emma leaning closer, me leaning closer, then falling halfway down it.

She had wanted to kiss me.

Which meant I couldn't spend the entire night wondering what would happen if I tried.

I turned onto my side as the moss faded and Emma's face slowly disappeared into the darkness. I still knew exactly where she was.

I moved closer.

Emma didn't move away.

I could hear her breathing. My hand found hers in the grass, and her fingers closed around mine.

I leaned in. Her lips were starting to look blue from the cold, and I hesitated.

I had never kissed anyone before. I wasn't certain how...

Somewhere beyond the trees, something clattered loudly against wood, followed by wheels rattling over uneven ground.

I froze.

No.

Not now.

Emma lifted her head, and I turned toward the road as lantern light flashed between the trees. A carriage was coming toward Tillshade.

For one tiny, terrible moment, all I could think was that whoever was in that carriage had the worst timing in the entire kingdom.

Then it drew closer, and I recognized the carriage.

The lantern light shifted. It wasn't a normal flame. A tiny fire elemental stirred inside the glass, its body pulsing with a low, warm brilliance.

My heart stopped.

Mom. Dad.

I was on my feet and sprinting before I realized I had moved.

They were home.