I felt a shiver run down her spine as she pressed her body against mine and pulled my arm tighter around her. “I could get used to this.”
The long-buried feeling of desire fought for control of my mind when the heat from her bare skin warmed mine, but before I could form the feelings into words, the exhaustion of our long trip finally caught up with me all at once. I gave her a final squeeze and mumbled something resembling, “goodnight, Lia,” before falling asleep.
---
Morning came far too early and brought a flurry of activity along with it. Hana knocked and stuck her head into the bedroom to wake us while the sun was still pink in the sky. Elise had failed to come back in the night, as I had expected, but she had kept her promise of setting our new lives into motion. Three officials arrived at the house exactly at sunrise, each toting a satchel full of tightly wound maps, and were intent on choosing the exact location of the new Corell homestead.
Once we were all assembled back in the dining room, we began the arduous process of homing in on a property. As the residential areas of Mayaan were already full to capacity, our choices were limited to plots outside of town in the surrounding forest. The maps showed four main roads leaving town, one in each cardinal direction: west to the coast, east to the Mountain Gate, south to the Lybesian capital, and north towards Doram. While the southern, eastern, and western roads were all wide and well-marked on the maps, the northern road looked to be little more than a dirt path that wove upwards in an increasingly circuitous route towards the mountains.
All of Marten’s decisions were made in the interest of a single goal: attract as little attention as possible. After deciding on the northern road, we were presented with a series of maps that increased in detail with every successive decision. Large blocks of the forest were marked out in color-coded sections that indicated the price and availability of all land within the town limits, and I took careful mental notes as to where those borders ended. Each choice led to another choice, and after what felt like hours, we had focused in on three separate plots of land, all roughly four miles outside of Mayaan’s center. When the plots were selected, we were immediately escorted outside to an awaiting carriage that would take us to view the land.
After an hour of travel, we reached our first potential plot, and the next phase of our work began. The rest of the morning and most of our afternoon was spent inspecting each of the three properties, all of which were entirely undeveloped and covered in emberwood trees. Our attendant officials showed us the various boundaries of the lots, marked by small colored flags hanging from trees next to the main road. According to our main guide, unclaimed land became a much more closely regulated affair after a large surge in emberwood exporting caused issues between logging companies and landowners who had conflicting ideas of property boundaries.
Of our three stops for the day, the last proved to be exactly what we were looking for. Situated on a particularly sharp bend in the road, the lot extended back into the forest for nearly half a mile before widening into a square perfectly sized for a house and an adjacent barn. The lots on either side of it were designated as logging sites, with the back property line bordering unincorporated forest land to the north.
When Marten informed the officials of which lot we had chosen, we traveled back to Mayaan to finalize the deal. We arrived at Three Barrels, which I learned was the name of Elise’s company, as the sun began to dip below the horizon. Elise greeted us herself at the door and led us to her office, where she apologized profusely for not returning the previous night and promised to make it up to us with a lavish dinner after our paperwork was concluded. After a multitude of signatures and the exchange of nine hundred and fifty Imperials, our business was finally completed. Elise had already made contact with her contracting partner and set plans for them to arrive the following morning, when the real work would begin; she assured us that we were welcome in her home for as long as was needed, but was confident we would have our own house to live in within a week.
As promised, she treated us to dinner when our planning was finished. We returned to her favorite restaurant, where Bella seemed to have anticipated our arrival and set out six table settings with ale and fresh bread. We were served with a dinner of braised beef, cheese croquettes, and fresh greens, and we ate together well into the evening. When our meal was finished, we returned to Three Barrels and retrieved Marten’s wagon before heading back to Elise’s house. She promised to meet us there within the hour, but the hour came and went without her appearance, and we all retired to bed soon afterwards.
Although there were no strangers on our doorstep the following morning, Marten roused us while the room was still dim. In spite of Elise’s assurance that her contractors could complete the job without any work on our part, he insisted that we should be present for the construction, and no amount of protesting grumbles from me, Marin, or Lia could change his mind. After a quick breakfast, our group of five piled into the wagon once again and made the trip to the future site of the Corell homestead as the sun rose into a cloudy sky.
A long chain of empty carts on the roadside informed us that we were late to the gathering before our destination came into view. A crowd of over fifty workers swarmed around the trees where our property adjoined the main road, encircling the trunks in small teams. Whirring saws and staccato cracks filled the air with a lively rhythm, and the peppery scent of emberwood sawdust tickled my nose as we parked at the head of the column and disembarked from the wagon. A tall man with a long black beard came to greet us, clearly briefed by Elise on our identity. He greeted Marten warmly, and they immediately wandered off together as they discussed the future of the project.
“Well,” Hana remarked as we watched her husband disappear into the crowd of workers, “I imagine we won’t see him until nightfall.”
“So...now what?” Marin asked. “Should we just stay here and wait?”
“Oh, no,” Hana laughed, “we can head back into town if you’d like, dear.”
“If we have the day free, I was thinking that I’d like to spend some time with Elise,” Marin answered. Her eyes grew wide when she realized what she had said, and she rushed to clarify. “To watch her work! I—I thought that, seeing as she’s so successful, I might be able to, uhm, learn something from watching her do day-to-day business.”
“That sounds like a lovely idea. I’m sure Elise will be glad to see us,” Hana answered, patting her reassuringly on the shoulder. “Lux? Lia? Would you like to come as well?”
“Actually, I was planning on taking a walk. Exploring the forest, getting the lay of the land, that sort of thing,” I answered.
“I like the sound of that,” Lia grinned. “No offense, but I don’t think I want to watch how Elise does her...business.” Marin’s brow furrowed at the statement, but she bit her tongue and stared into the dirt with pursed lips. “We’ll see you later tonight, okay?”
Hana nodded. “Alright. Enjoy your day, you two.” She followed Marin to the wagon and joined her on the driver’s bench, and the two rode their way back down the road towards Mayaan.
“So,” Lia started, bumping me with her hip as we made our way into the trees, “what are we looking for on this nature walk, exactly?”
“If the maps we saw yesterday were scaled properly, there’s about thirty miles of uninhabited forest between Mayaan’s town line and the Doram border. That sounds to me like the perfect place for a couple of people looking to disappear and build a home together,” I answered with a smirk. “How about it? You up for a bit of shopping?”
“I’m in!” she exclaimed, bouncing along beside me excitedly. We wound our way around the laborers as they worked on clearing a path into the forest and walked until we reached the clearing where the Corells’ house would eventually be built. “Are we looking for anything in particular out here?” she asked as we picked our way through the dense trees.
“I’m not entirely sure. I figured that we’ll know it when we see it,” I shrugged. “It
would be nice if we could find a flat, empty spot without a lot of rocks or trees. Hopefully next to some surface water like a stream or a spring.”
“Maybe we’ll just find a house already built for us!” Lia teased.
“It’s not like we can’t clear out trees and dig up rocks, but it would be convenient if we didn’t have to,” I shot back, nudging my shoulder against hers. “We’ll obviously have to do some amount of work. You know, seeing as we’re building the entire house ourselves.”
“Why is that, by the way?” she asked. “I know we need to be secretive about it, but we can trust Elise, right?”
“Of course. If she says her men are trustworthy, I believe her. They wouldn’t have any reason to think we’re anybody out of the ordinary, either.” I sighed as I thought through the potential chain of events for the thousandth time. “But if Virram gets even the slightest idea that her men helped us out, it just takes one worker being captured and tortured to ruin our peace. Even after everything that’s happened, even living in another country...I can’t rule that possibility out entirely. So I won’t risk it.”
“I understand,” she said sadly.
“In the end, I think it’ll work out for the best. There’s nothing more satisfying than building something with your own hands,” I encouraged her. “After we’re done, we’ll have a home together. Just you and me. We’ll be able to do whatever we want, go wherever we want. And it’ll always be there when we come back from our adventures.”
Her cheeks blushed as she grabbed my hand and squeezed it tightly. “I think I can live with that,” she said in a small, cheery voice. We walked together quietly for another half hour until we came upon a fallen tree and sat down for a break. “Do you really think we’ll find a place like the one you’re hoping for?” she asked, swinging her legs over the edge of the fallen log.
“The way I see it, there’s no chance we can search this entire forest. At least, not on foot.” I pulled up my legs and crossed them beneath me. “However, what we can do is find some promising spots from here to narrow things down, then check them out on foot after.” A quick pulse of mana washed over me as Lia beat me to the punch, and I joined her energy with my own a moment later as our exploration began.
The untamed northern forest held a multitude of distractions from our main goal, and we indulged in them willingly. Freedom to do what we wanted without the threat of danger following close behind was a new experience for us; I felt like we could fully enjoy each other’s company for the first time since we had met, and I planned to do so for as long as possible. We watched a skulk of baby foxes playing in a hollow stump and laughed as they climbed, jumped, and tumbled over the rotten wood. A quick blur underground drew our attention down into a burrow where two rabbits hid from the predators above, their hearts pounding in their chests.
Our focuses eventually diverged, and after an hour we had each found three potential locations for our home. I made a quick mental map of the spots I had chosen, then followed the gentle flow of Lia’s mana to her selections in turn. When our meditation was finished, we had five stops to make on our trip; unbeknownst to one another, we had each chosen the same spot as our foremost pick, and I marked it as our first stop. It sat nearly five miles away from the future Corell homestead, and at our leisurely pace, it took us over an hour to arrive.
The first stop became the only stop as we entered the clearing and instantly knew it was exactly what we were looking for. The clearing itself was far too small for a house, but the area surrounding it was perfectly flat with sparse tree cover. As soon as we arrived, we bypassed the spot and immediately ran to what had drawn our attention to the land in the first place: a spring-fed stream which babbled noisily as it ran across the forest floor about thirty yards away from the clearing. The source spring sat a quarter mile away on an elevated stone shelf, dumping a steady supply of clean, shimmering water down a rock face into the natural stream bed below.
“It’s so pretty!” Lia shouted as she splashed into the crystal clear water. It lapped gently at her knees when she reached the center of the stream, which was about eight feet across at our current location. “And it’s not freezing, either! Come in here, it’s really nice!”
“I think I’m good, thanks,” I said, taking a step back. “I don’t want to be—” My mouth was suddenly filled with water as Lia splashed a wave into my face. She took a step back and lowered into a ready crouch with a devious grin on her face while I blew the surprise water out of my nose. With a quick flick of my wrist, I unhooked my cloak and threw it to the ground behind me, then dashed into the river to take my vengeance.
Our impromptu battle was brief; she had expected my attack and easily deflected my opening attempts to grapple her. However, she failed to account for the knee-high water she was standing in, and her first attempt to reposition was slow and clumsy. My foot caught the back of her heel, and a simple shove to her shoulder knocked her off balance. I held her arm tightly as she fell, pulling her up as soon as her head dunked completely below the surface of the brook. “You were right! This river is surprisingly warm,” I laughed as she wiped the water from her face.
“That was a bit much, don’t you think?” she pouted, cradling her long braid in both hands. “My hair is going to be wet all day now!”
“It’ll be a good reminder to not pick fights you can’t win,” I scolded her sarcastically. She threw her head back and groaned loudly, then held out a begrudging hand. I wove my fingers between hers and turned back towards the clearing. As we left the stream, I scooped up my cloak and dropped it around her shoulders as an apology, and her mood brightened significantly.
“I know that we haven’t seen the other spots yet,” she said once she had comfortably nestled into the cloak, “but this one just feels...right.”
I took a deep breath as I surveyed the clearing again, then nodded. “You’re right. This is the one.”
“What do we do now?”
“Now we wait,” I answered, taking a seat on the ground. “Until we have our building supplies, the best thing we can do is watch the contractors work. I got a lot of experience repairing houses when I worked at Ashedown’s forge, but I’ve never had to build a house from scratch before.” I laughed as she sat down next to me. “It can’t be that hard, can it?”
She leaned back and stared at me from beneath a furrowed brow. “That doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” I said, putting an arm around her shoulder and pulling her close. “We’ve got all the time in the world to figure it out.” She nodded as she snuggled against my shoulder, and I closed my eyes and rested my head on hers. Dancing light from the noontime sun shone down through the trees and warmed my face, tempered to perfection by a gentle breeze blowing through the forest. This is where our life starts. With our task for the day completed early, I was entirely content to do nothing but enjoy the moment of peace. The comforting metronome of Lia’s gentle breathing beside me combined with the beautiful weather was too much for me to bear, and I quickly dozed off.
A soft tapping on my knee woke me some time later. “Lux? Are you awake?”
“Mhmm.”
“I need to ask you something.”
The worry in her voice dispelled my midday drowsiness, and I sat up with one final yawn. “What’s on your mind?”
“It’s my parents,” she answered. “After you fell asleep, I started to think about all of the places I want to go on our adventures. I want to explore Lybesa, and visit Doram, and see the Eastern Forests, but every time I thought about leaving, I felt this knot in my stomach whenever I imagined saying goodbye. After everything that’s happened, I just…” she trailed off, shaking her head, “I don’t know. It just doesn’t feel right to leave them unprotected anymore.”
The thought had crossed my mind as well, but the out-of-the-way location of their new house had mostly assuaged my worries. She clearly had more to say, so I nodded for her to continue.
“I k
now we can’t just stay here and watch over them forever; I think I’d go crazy if they were the only people I could talk to.” She looked away towards her hands and fidgeted nervously. “So, I was thinking that, maybe...we could train Marin to fight. Like we do.”
I felt an immediate, visceral rejection of the idea in my stomach, but I clamped my jaw shut before I could protest out loud. “I’ll be honest with you, Lia: I hate the idea. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad one.”
She looked up at me with wide eyes. “Wait, really?”
“Really,” I nodded, letting out a deep sigh. “Marin has been nothing but kind to us since we met her. She risked her life multiple times to make sure we all got to Lybesa safely, and she hadn’t even known us for a week. Obviously, she’s a good person.” I took a moment to fight against the reflexive clenching of my jaw before I continued. “How I feel about Val shouldn’t influence the decision.”
Lia hugged me tightly. “Thank you, Lux.”
“Don’t thank me yet; there’s a chance that Marin won’t want to learn how to fight,” I said, patting her on the shoulder. “And if she does, we can discuss teaching her about magic later. I’m still not sure we should teach magic to anybody, let alone Val’s sister.” I flinched as the words left my mouth. “Not that that matters.”
She put a hand to her mouth to hide her grin. "I know she'll say yes. She keeps telling me how much she wants to help, and how she, uhm, how much she admires me for being strong."
"That settles it, then," I said, grinning at her blushing cheeks. "You'll be the one to train her."
"M-me?!" she asked, recoiling in shock. "I don't know how to train anybody! I'm still learning things from you!"
"Oh, nonsense. You're the second best fighter in the entire world, Lia." I paused for a moment and raised my eyebrows up and down until she laughed. "As long as I'm around, I'll make sure you never stop learning new things, but that doesn't mean you aren't ready to be a teacher. I'm learning new things from you every day, too, you know." I stood up and stretched my folded legs. "Besides, it's not like I won't be around. I'll be sparring with both of you all the time."
Restart Again: Volume 3 Page 15
