After the battle on top of the Pharos, Penelo found a way to convince Gabranth to join the party. Our story begins with a vignette of a night in the Ridorana Cataract, before returning to Balfonheim... (7 chapters in total have been planned, outlined, and drafted.)
Intoxicating Little Games
Penelo giggles after uncorking another potion and applying one more spell. Her two patients—her identical swordsmen—have finally found peace from their pain.
She has always liked how Basch looks sweet, almost bashful, when she insists on tending his wounds. Usually he claims he can do without, but he stills the moment she raises her hands to heal him. And now she knows his brother, Noah, and she likes the way he pouts with raised chin, and casts a look of doubt after she says he'll fall ill if he does not drink another ether. Nonetheless, he sips from the phial as she holds it to his lips and never once do his eyes leave hers as he swallows.
She is amazed by the perfect similitude of their features. They recline just to the left and right of where she sits, and she thinks of games they could play to see if she can always tell them apart. She wonders what sort of mischief they got into when they were her age. Later, she will ask them.
Her pink toes press against the skin of Basch's arm and pull away before he can snatch them. They play at this again and again; Basch laughs and she cannot stop giggling when Noah complains.
"Beyond the pale light of our lantern lurk hostile creatures who wait for us to mistakenly drop our guard. This foolishness only invites them."
Noah lies on his side, behind her, curled around her, and the heat from his bare stomach dampens the back of her cotton shirt. The night is balmy and she is awash in excitement.
"Don't worry, I'm keeping watch," she says.
"You are playing." Noah squeezes her leg and Penelo's chest swells with pleasure. She knows the power she can hold over them.
Basch's hand drops, covering her toes. "She keeps guard well. I trained her and I always protect her from the worst."
"You claim to protect her, yet you do this? You're a fool. You'll get her killed and then what will you think?" Noah swallows two syllables of a vulgar phrase, but he quiets the moment she leans back, once her weight falls against his ribs. His arm encircles her. She can feel him breathe.
She gazes at one and then the other.
"You shouldn't listen to him," Noah whispers as she smiles at Basch. "When young, he never showed discipline in the field. Never. Now, we should quiet ourselves, and listen for what watches from beyond."
Penelo knows they will kiss once she lies against Noah's body and she wants to learn how his lips feel when touching her skin. Basch has closed his eyes.
As she slides down to settle in Noah's arms, she is unable to stop thinking about her girlfriends in the village along the Nebra and how they will clutch her hands and giggle and shriek when she tells them that Basch has an identical twin and that she has slept with both of them.