Chapter 101 A Hero’s Ailment (Part 3)

The woman behind the stall was old. Hers was a face mostly wrinkles. She squinted up at me, at my horns, or perhaps at Solara between them. The look lasted only for a moment. "Can I help you, dearie?" she said, and her voice came out with a small rasp.

"Show me your finest item," I said, glancing at the table. Rings and bracelets and pendants lay in rows across a faded blue cloth, silver and copper and here and there a thread of gold. They were all useless, with no power save for shining.

"It's all right 'ere," she said, gesturing with a leathered hand.

Ren stepped next to me. I looked at her, and expected her to protest. After hours of searching for weapons, I now stood in front of a cart that had none of them. Instead, her eyes were wide, and her face was faintly red. "Y-you gonna buy her a ring?" she said. Her voice sounded oddly choked, as if she had just barely managed to force the words out.

"No," I said. A ring would be useless. There were more than enough reasons. Ash was a Hero, and while she did not at present have a sword, perhaps she would one day take one up again. A ring would make her grip difficult. A ring would also make it difficult to wear gauntlets, and I knew the fool Hero well enough to know she would sooner not wear them at all than take the ring off. Then, there was the fact that a ring could catch on things. Tight spaces. Horse reins. Armor fittings. Yes, a ring would be more curse than gift.

My gaze trailed over all of the items the woman had on display. It settled on a necklace. It was a simple thing. A thin silver chain, and at the heart of it a small green gemstone in a plain setting. There was nothing at all that could catch or snag. It was, I realized, not so different from the thing that already hung beneath my own collar. A small bead on a leather cord which had never once hindered me in anything.

Solara's weight shifted between my horns. She leaned forward, and down, until her head hung upside-down at the edge of my vision, her golden eyes fixed on the shining rows below. Her beak opened a fraction. I had a suspicion of what she meant to do.

"You will not eat this, Solara," I said.

Solara chirped. It was, I did not doubt, meant to sound innocent. It did not succeed. I felt no Essence from these items, and they were certainly not 'food', but Solara's appetites had grown. It was best to be careful.

"Give me that," I demanded, pointing. Then, I paused.

It matches your eyes.

"In blue," I said. "A light blue. One that has the slightest of grey at the edges."

The woman looked up at me, then at the necklace. "Have a few more like it, but not one of 'em in a different color," the woman said. "And grey at the edges? Ain't nothin' look like that dearie."

I stared down at the offending necklace for a time, willing the gemstone to change color. It did not. Its green just stared back at me, defiantly.

"Hey, she'll love it," Ren said by my side. "You don't need to overthink this." Solara let out her own chirp. For once, she was in agreement with Ren.

I took the necklace in my right hand, and I channeled my marks. The Requiem from my right, and the Cradle from my left. The threads of Bloom reached out toward the threads of Ruin. The woman let out a gasp. I ignored her. Several people around us stopped and stared. I felt their gazes. I ignored them too. Ending met Beginning, and between them, there was only the Becoming.

It caught on the first attempt. Good. It would have been unbecoming to fail in front of an audience.

A thread of every color touched the green gemstone. My Essence drained. I willed the color to change. The impression came, from the rock itself. The rock was content with being a green rock. It had a name. It was an emerald. I asked it to be a blue emerald instead. The next impression was simply a shrug. This rock didn't much care what color it was, so long as the rest of it was the same. Then the color changed, slowly. It started from the center of the gemstone and spread outward, and within moments, it was blue. A light blue, with grey at the edges.

"I can't-" The old woman's voice was just a whisper. "I can't believe my eyes. It's- it's beautiful," she murmured.

"Holy shit…" Ren said from beside me.

Solara let out a mighty chirp. I raised the necklace up so she could see. She craned her neck toward it. "Do you approve, Solara?" The baby phoenix let out a long and slow trill. She approved, and she approved a great deal.

I looked back at the woman. "I will take this. Name your price."

The old woman was still staring. She collected herself slowly and shook her head. "Are you… Lysanthia? The one they're all talking about these days?"

I didn't know who 'they' were, but I had not heard of anyone else carrying my name in this city. "Yes," I said.

The woman nodded. She looked again up at my horns. Then, oddly, she smiled. "Take it, then. Don't have to pay me nothing."

"Wait, seriously?!" Apparently, that had been enough to knock even Ren out of her stupor. "You're just giving it to her?"

I shared her concern. Nothing worth taking ever came without its price. Without its string attached. I looked at this woman, and I could not imagine what greater game she might be playing.

"Aye," the woman said. "Don't know much, but heard you did something good with that stuck-up bastard in his manor. City's been nice lately. So take it, lass. Take it before I change my mind. Wasn't that expensive anyway."

I did not understand. I understood the custom well enough. One exchanged coin for goods and services. One bought goods for less, and sold them for profit. To give something for no cost at all seemed only foolish. "Very well," I said. "T-thank you," I added, after a time.

The woman just waved. Ren and I stepped back. The bead was warm against my skin. I paused, and turned. "You said you had others like this?"

It was late by the time we returned. The sun had begun its long descent, and the shadows of the Academy's towers stretched across the whole of the yard. Evening would come soon, and after it, my last night in this city before a woman cut the air open and pulled us somewhere far away.

My final full day in Koralis, and I had spent it acquiring a necklace for a Hero.

It should have annoyed me. The old me would have burned something over it. Instead, all I found in myself was a single small hope. I hoped Ash would like it. Though of course she would like it. I was giving her a thing, and to receive anything from my hands was praiseworthy on its own, never mind what the thing actually was.

Ren led me through the corridors, and stopped a half-dozen paces from our door. It stood open, just a crack. Through the gap I could see Ash on the far bed, on her back, staring up at the ceiling. There was no tome.

"Hey," Ren whispered. She had come up close to my shoulder. "Come to the mess hall in like… half an hour, okay?"

I looked back at her. "What?"

"Just do it," Ren whispered quickly, already turning. "Now go." And then the girl was running away down the corridor, on her tiptoes, in what she surely believed was silence. I looked up at Solara. Solara let out the tiniest chirp.

The girl was strange, but she had been useful today. For that alone, I would go to the mess hall. If she meant to waste my time there, we would have words. I turned back to the door. Opening it was easy. It was already slightly open. All it needed was the slightest pressure, and the thing would swing. I hesitated. I did not know why I did. My hand reached out toward it, and stopped.

The necklace sat in a small pouch the woman had given me, one I had slid inside my pocket. Ash would like it. No, she would have to like it. I took a deep breath. I had faced down dragons. Had faced down Gods. Had faced down the entire Pantheon itself. I would not be afraid of nothing. I pressed my hand against the door. It creaked as it opened.

Ash's eyes found me. They widened, and then she sat up. She said nothing. I took a step inside, and closed the door behind me without turning. Solara let out a chirp, one of normal volume. Ash waved at her, but still said nothing. I did not know why she was so quiet. Only that I did not mind it, not now.

I approached the bed. Ash watched me approach. I looked around the room, and found the tome. The one that Ash had been reading. It was on the table, next to all the others. I sat at the bed's edge. Only when I was seated did she speak.

"Hey, Lys," she said. Her voice was very soft. She was not looking at me. She was staring at her own hands with more focus than they deserved. "Did- did you have fun?" she asked. "Wherever you went."

I had not told her. I had only told her that I would be leaving, and for some time. "I would not use the word 'fun'," I said, "but it was more agreeable than I would have assumed."

Ash slowly nodded, and for some reason, she became small. Her shoulders hunched. She stared further down. I did not like to see her look this way. Solara let out a chirp, and she flew from my head, half-falling and half-gliding, and landed in front of Ash's hands. She pecked at one. Ash idly brushed her, but she still did not look up at me.

"I'm sorry," Ash said.

"What?"

"I'm sorry," Ash said again, quicker. "I'm an idiot. I was just looking at that stupid book all day, so you-" She shook her head. "-so you decided to leave me," she said, in a voice smaller than I had ever heard it.

"Ash."

She looked up at me, and her face was blank. It looked blank. I knew her too well. Her lower lip sat in the slightest of frowns. It trembled even as I watched.

"I did not leave you, fool," I said. "I left to return. There is a difference, and it is not a small one." I reached inside my pocket. My right pocket. "You were-" Something had lodged in my throat, and I had to speak past it. "You were in distress. And you said my powers could not fix it. So."

I set the necklace between us.

The gemstone caught the last of the evening light through the window, and it held it, and gave it back in blue. A light blue, with grey at the edges. Against the plain sheets it looked like a small piece of sky that had been cut free and cooled. I stared down at my own empty hands, and I did not know why.

"So I tried to find you something that-" I fumbled for the words. "I know that I have certain… deficiencies. Others speak more kindly than I, and read with a glance what I cannot. So I went out to try and buy a thing." My voice was small. Not as small as Ash's had been, but still small. "This… Orvyn. Knowing of her has shaken you. I do not know how to unshake you, but-"

And I felt very foolish. For whatever ailed the Hero, a simple necklace could not heal it. I should have bought the pauldrons. Those, at least, might have been of some use.

There was a gasp. I looked up. Ash held the necklace in both hands, staring at the gemstone that hung between them. Her thumb had found the stone, and it moved along its edge, slowly, along the place where the blue thinned into grey. She traced it once. Then again, slower. Her arms trembled. Tears lined her face. Her face looked more stricken than I had ever seen it. I had seen this look before. I had made ten thousand people wear it. Why had I ever-

The breath left me. I was pinned to the bed under a Hero's weight. She was shaking on top of me. Some of her tears fell on my skin. They were warm. All of her was warm. Much of her was soft. Her grip was fierce. As fierce as a Hero's should be.

"I-I love it," Ash said. Her voice cracked. She was still crying. "Thank you. I- I love it so much."

Something that had been wound tight inside me all this day finally loosened. Slowly, very slowly, my arms wrapped around her back.

There was a small chirp from beside us. I turned my head, and found Solara watching us with those golden eyes. She regarded the two of us for a long moment. Then she sat down where she was, tucked all four wings against her sides, and trilled.

It seemed Ren was useful after all.

I held the Hero, and she held me, and the last of the light moved slowly across the floor. Even now, I doubted that one necklace, however beautiful, could cure whatever ailed her. But for now, it seemed it was enough.