Chapter 18: Idle Hands Inspire Malcontent

The next day they were sitting ducks. Since the danger had passed, the only thing it tried was their patience. It couldn’t be helped.

Sitis needed a few day's rest. He insisted he didn’t, but no one was listening to him. Lacuna stayed by his side constantly. It would have been more touching if most of the time she wasn’t pushing him down and nagging him to rest.

Aureum wandered the roadside. She had left the tent nearly as soon as she woke up. It was suffocating. The entire night had felt too hot and too full of the sounds of people sleeping.

She came across Mendax on her early morning walk.

“Don’t they need you?”

“He needs either a professional or rest. Seeing as I’m neither, I’ll leave him to his girl.”

Well, he won’t need more stitches as long as he stays lying down. Good luck, Lacuna.

It wasn’t Aureum's intention to go anywhere specific. She was just trying to get some fresh air and find a quiet place to layer.

Mendax followed her. She tried to ignore him, and he let her.

He didn’t constantly leer at her, and he didn’t continually talk. Both had time and space to explore their thoughts. She still had the chance to layer peacefully.

Still, after layering for a bit and seeing him still there, layering himself, it felt rude to continue to ignore him.

Time to entertain the strange man.

It wasn’t that Aureum didn’t appreciate her life. Nor was it just his hideous face. Something about Mendax made her not wary precisely, but watchful.

Maybe I’m focusing too much on the power disparity.

He’d killed an elemental beast himself. That beast had been distracted, but a normal sorcerer would have bragged about the heroics for weeks.

He behaved like it was nothing. And that chilled her.

“You can’t be a traveling doctor if you don’t carry your own tools with you,” Aureum said.

“I’ve just got… a bit too much experience with first aid. If it was one of you ladies, I’d probably be carrying you to the city for some real medical attention.”

“We’re close by the road, should I call the next wagon down? We might be able to get a ride for Sitis.”

“Don’t bother. I said he was sturdy. By the time we go through the effort of moving him, he’ll probably have healed enough already.”

Not to mention Sitis himself would declare it unnecessary. Aureum let it drop.

Again, Mendax was quiet after that. His demeanor surprised her after last night. But last night hadn’t been normal for any of them.

Rambling might have been his way of dealing with stress.

When Aureum glanced at him, it was the same expressionless face she’d seen last night.

He must be tired.

“Thank you for everything, by the way,” she said, as she stood up.

He looked at her with an expression she couldn’t read. His eyes slit as his mouth thinned.

“I was just doing what any passerby would,” he said. He stood up himself and took a theatrical bow, with his arm out.

“Yes, I’d like to believe that. But even if most people wanted to help in that situation, they couldn’t have. If by some miracle they killed the wolf, they probably wouldn’t have been able to help Sitis. We’re lucky you showed up.”

She spoke to him while they walked back.

“Lucky…” he looked at the ground, and then grinned back up at her, “Yes, you are.”

The grin just warped the awful marks across his face. In the sunlight, Aureum could make them out more clearly. They weren’t warts, they looked closer to scales. If scales twisted and grew into each other.

“Does it hurt?”

“What?”

“Your face.”

He twisted his head to the side, and she realized he was miming listening closer.

“I shouldn't have said, should I?”

“I’ve heard worse.”

He straightened himself.

“No, they don’t hurt. Yes, they’re similar to the mutations beasts have. Whether it has anything to do with my short height is unknown. Yes, that gives me some talent with mana. No, I can’t control more than one element.”

“Sorry.”

He shook his head.

“It’s normal to be curious. I’m through getting worked up about it.”

Aureum fiddled with her fingers. There was no point trying to be delicate or polite now. She spoke without looking at him.

“Hey, I thought it might be rude to offer money for saving my life, but at this point—

“Ha!”

She looked at him. He looked back and waited.

“At this point, I don’t think I could be more rude, so I might as well ask.”

“Who doesn’t want money?”

“So, how much do you want?”

Aureum was pretty confident that she could match anything he asked. Even if he asked for everything she had on her, it would be a small price to trade for Sitis’ life, or her life, or Lacuna’s.

And it might be why he was sticking around, maybe he was waiting for an award.

But he just did the strange slitting of the eyes expression again.

“I’ve still got a conscience. How about three lapillis?”

Three lapillis. It wasn’t even the price of a piece of candy these days.

“Three? If you don’t want any money, I can think of other ways to pay you back.”

“I’ll take three lapillis. They’ll remind me of the time I saved two beautiful ladies… and one stubborn man.”

Mendax grinned.

Aureum frowned.

He doesn’t want money.

That made him even more strange than his face.

“I don’t like the implication that our lives are worth just three coins to you," is what she said.

He rolled his shoulders and shrugged.

“I’ll figure out a different way to pay you back,” Aureum said.

“So now I got a free favor?”

“No. That’s not how this works.”

“I do remember saving your life? Did that not happen? Was it all a dream?"

“I didn’t ask for help. So it’s up to me what to value your help at.”

“I see. I see.”

Aureum nodded and stiffly fled back to the door of the tent. Of course, Mendax’s goal was the same. They both had to stop at the sounds of voices inside.

Or Aureum stopped, and Mendax had no choice but to wait.

They had nearly walked into the middle of an intimate scene.

“I shouldn’t be saying this when you need to be focusing on getting better, but I need to tell you now. Maybe it’ll help you value yourself better.”

Lacuna was the one speaking.

Is she going to do it? She sounds furious.

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Aureum tried to turn away, but Mendax stood in the way. She couldn’t exactly explain that they needed to leave immediately without causing the disruption she was trying to avoid.

Lacuna hadn’t stopped speaking.

“I like you. No, I love you! Please rest, at least for me!”

Mendax’s eyebrows lifted as Aureum’s head swiveled back around.

She did it! It was such a straight shot too! There’s no way that could be confused!

Aureum cheered Lacuna on with all her heart, but Sitis’ hand clenched. His face couldn't be seen through the tent’s slitted opening.

“And what should I say? Should I be grateful that Mors’ apprentice is interested in me?”

Ah, for Bonum’s sake! Do I really have to be an uninvited guest to Lacuna’s heartbreak?

Aureum turned again towards Mendax.

“We should go,” she murmured.

He looked down at her in amusement, then stepped past her.

He pulled open the tent flap as a sneer split his hideous face.

“Is that right? Are you dumb enough to reject her?”

“We were just leaving!”

Aureum gripped his arm and pulled. Mendax barely moved. It was similar to trying to pull a tree. With only one arm, Aureum wasn’t taking him anywhere. Probably not with two, either.

Lacuna and Sitis looked up at them.

“So? Say it directly to her. I want to hear all of it.” Mendax said.

“Stop it,” Aureum said. “Let’s just go.”

“Come on, it’s not like this is a secret place!”

“It’s not something other people get to intervene in,” Aureum growled at him, to Lacuna, she tried her best to be gentle, “Do you want to leave Lacuna? We can leave Mendax and Sitis for each other to deal with.”

“No,” Lacuna said. “I need to hear this.”

Her eyes shone with the beginning of tears, but she looked Sitis square in the eyes.

“It’s all right if you don’t return my feelings,” she said. “I’m just glad you heard me out.”

Sitis, lying down, turned his head.

“I have nothing to give you in return, Lacuna.”

Aureum’s stomach dropped. She looked at Lacuna’s forced smile.

“That’s all right.”

She got up as tears began to stream down her face. As she left the tent, Aureum went to hold her hand and follow her, but Lacuna pulled away.

“Please leave me alone,” Lacuna gasped.

Aureum stood holding air. She turned her head from Sitis to Lacuna, before slowly lowering her hand. It clenched into a fist.

“Why did you have to do that?!” She shot at Mendax. “It was awkward enough for her without you making it torture!”

“That was the point… though I didn’t mean to make her suffer as well.”

Mendax looked at Sitis.

“Why don‘t you ask him why he decided to break your friend’s heart.”

Can we call each other friends?

Aureum and Lacuna had barely known each other for a week. Even more reason not to get involved in her love life.

“He doesn’t need to,” Aureum said, not giving Sitis much chance to reply. “I don’t like how he chose to reject her, but his actions are his own. Nobody is owed love to another person—even if I think they would be great for each other.

It’s none of our business, Mendax!

I guess I should be grateful that you love to interfere in other people’s affairs. But I doubt it’s welcome here.”

Mendax gave a slow blink of surprise as he listened to her.

“You don’t want me to be involved, so you’re getting involved yourself?” He raised his hands. “Fine. I’ll go after he answers my question.”

“I already did,” Sitis growled.

“You may have shown that you’re stupid enough to reject her, but now I wanna ask why you did that.”

Sitis lifted himself up.

“It’s none of your business!”

Aureum pushed him back down and winced. She’d bumped her tender arm the wrong way. Sitis saw it and stilled.

“Hey, if you pop a stitch you’ll have to deal with me even more,” Mendax said, “so stop it.”

Sitis glared, as menacing as anyone bedridden could be.

“I don’t care if you want to waste your day standing over me,” Sitis said. “Why would I answer to you?”

Mendax rolled his shoulders into a shrug.

“I want to know the privilege that allows you to reject a beautiful girl. And apparently, I like to stick my nose where it’s not wanted.”

Sitis considered it.

“Fine. If it will make you leave. It doesn’t have anything to do with privilege though.”

He took a long breath.

“If you look in all of Bonumbas, you won’t find someone more beautiful than Lacuna. You also won’t find someone more kind.”

Aureum’s looked down on Sitis in disbelief.

If you like her so much just accept her confession.

“I love her,” Sitis said. “So I won’t ruin her future.”

This explanation satisfied Sitis. He was impervious to Mendax and Aureum looking down on him with disdain.

“And how,” Mendax said dryly, “would you accepting her ruin her future?”

Sitis tried to shrug but grimaced.

“I have no blood family. Do I have to go beyond that?”

It meant Sitis had no quality techniques for forming his pearl and nothing to pass down to any children. Mendax shook his head.

“So you’re willing to keep yourself within the small expectations of your little world instead of challenging yourself to grow into somebody worthy of her?”

He laughed.

“What a coward.”

Then he stormed, as mercurial as a cat. Aureum looked down at the vein popping out on Sitis’ forehead.

Oh boy.

She kept her mouth shut, staying only to make certain Sitis didn’t do something to hurt himself. That would be a perfect ending to this entire mess.

“I can’t even protect her,” he gritted out. “Am I supposed to act like a hero from some legend?”

Aureum cocked her head.

Was that the root of the problem? A little injured pride?

Sitis’ jaw locked as he scowled at her.

Aureum wisely decided against voicing her unwashed opinion.

“I thought you were going to become an ascended sorcerer. So aren’t you going to change all that? Besides, she wasn’t asking for marriage. Why not just… try it?”

“Just try it? Like a pair of socks.”

“Everything doesn’t have to be so serious all the time you know.”

Sitis scoffed.

Aureum forced herself to wait a few moments more. But it seems that’s all a cracked stone would say. He didn’t try sitting up with either, too busy feeling sorry for himself. So Aureum was gone.

It was easy for Aureum to find Lacuna. She couldn’t sense Mendax, which was good and bad.

She didn’t know what that man had been thinking, sticking his nose into things.

He could wait.

Aureum found Lacuna sitting alone, a few minutes from anyone, crying as quietly as she could. Finding her was easy, but approaching her was not.

What would Lacuna want?

But Aureum wasn’t a mind reader. She could only guess what she might want in that situation. With that in mind, she walked towards Lacuna and sat beside her, saying nothing.

Lacuna turned her face away. Aureum put a hand on her shoulder. For a while it was quiet sobbing, the flowers blowing in the wind, and Aureum patting Lacuna with her good hand.

“Does he really not like me?”

Now, what would she do?

I’m not covering for him, he can tell her himself or die alone for all I care!

“If he doesn’t, he’s a fool! You’re perfect!”

“Not perfect enough…”

“Look, people have a lot of reasons for rejecting something perfectly wonderful. It could just be their tastes, the fact that they’re blind… or that they’re just an idiot!”

“You already said that Aureum,” Lacuna said, there was a sad smile alongside the tears now. “But I understand. It was stupid of me to say something now when everyone’s emotions are high. I should have waited until he was better at least. I was inconsiderate.”

“Listen to you! You don’t have to make excuses for somebody who hurt you! Make excuses for yourself! Just get mad at him! I dare you!”

Aureum’s tone was half joking. She couldn’t even manage to give Lacuna a playful nudge, and not only because her body ached. Lacuna looked too pitiful.

“But I’m not mad,” Lacuna said. “I’m just hurt.”

In the silence of Aureum’s shock, Lacuna’s tears started again.

Well. I failed.

Aureum stood up, and Lacuna’s head followed her. Aureum held her good hand before her.

“Come on, let’s go for a walk. The scenery is nice at least.”

It was a nice day. Clear skies with a gentle breeze.

Lacuna hesitated but took her hand. She might have thought Aureum had something deeper in mind, but Aureum was fresh out of ideals.

If I can’t comfort her, I can distract her. Hopefully.

“Hey, do you know the names of these flowers? That’s sorrel! It tastes sour, so they’re also called sour ducks. My mom said that I had tried to eat some when I was a baby.

Ah, these are just daisies.”

“‘Just daisies’,” Lacuna said. “They’re pretty.”

“Well, they’re well known for a reason.

That’s some Queen’s Lace! They’ve got such fine tiny petals for a wild carrot.”

Thus began Aureum’s frantic pop quiz on naming flowers. It wasn’t perfect, but Lacuna seemed better. The tears had dried, at least.

“If you help me put up my tent, Lacuna,” Aureum said. “Or put it up for me as I watch, we can both sleep there tonight.”

Aureum still had her arm in a sling after all.

“I hadn’t even thought of that,” Lacuna said. “Let’s do it.”