Chapter Seven - Mixed Bag

We each took turns running to her water closet and donating our suppers to Imre's famed sewage system. Each time, the person who had remained in the bedroom dressed and nothing was said about it, nor were any glances stolen at bodies. No laughter was found about a damn thing.

What was worse than the initial revelation itself, and the way it colored our relationship of the last few weeks? I'll tell you what: the fact that we still slept in the same bed. Only now there was no camaraderie, no hand-holding or cuddling or any of that. Just two terrified fools staring up into a canopy.

In the same instant, I'd found my family and lost a lover.

The next morning, we woke and stared at each other, almost as one. It ached to do it, and yet neither of us could look away; we just kept scrutinizing our faces, eyes darting here and there. Someone would whimper or make some other motion as if about to break down into fits, and the other person would automatically reach out to comfort... then draw their hand back as if singed. It was like pouring scutten into an open wound continuously. For hours.

No, we didn't talk. No, we didn't cry. Once in a while somebody would smile, in a hopeful-yet-hopeless sort of way, before the smile fell away in favor of a hollow gaze. So when I say we stared at each other, I mean it. That and little else.

Finally (thankfully), there came a knock at the door. I hid behind the bed, and Devi answered it, and she was as cheery as ever with her latest customer, who wanted to borrow several talents to pay off a bet he'd made with a bloke over a few drinks. She handed him the money, he handed her the vial of blood, and off he went.

"So," I said quietly as I reappeared.

"So," she replied tersely, snapping a desk drawer shut.

"So I'm off to the Eolian."

"Good luck. Not that you need it."

"Right."

My hand was inches from the doorknob when she hissed, "I'll miss you."

"You will not."

"I will." Her voice was no louder than before, and yet I still felt like she was shouting. "I miss you when you're away."

"I miss you when you're right in front of me," I countered. My voice broke as I said it, and then my heart was seconds from rupturing so I left.

Then I took the stage, strummed a few foot-tapping melodies for the masses. I did this all through the day, taking my cue to play when no one else was disposed to. That is, until late in the evening when there was a large crowd there, and one bloke had just earned his talent pipes after two span of repeated attempts.

I tuned my lute and started playing "Tinker, Tanner", just a little something to liven their mood as well as my own. Halfway through it, I completely fell apart. I could taste the audience's shock; they wanted to know why one of their regulars, who was normally so dependable a source of cultured entertainment, had suddenly contracted stage fright. I didn't know why. Or I did, but I was more surprised than they that I was allowing it to interfere with my art.

So then I did something I've never done before or since. I sat down and wrote a song in full view of onlookers.

At first, I thought Stanchion would pull me off the stage for doing something so stupid. It really was, you know; the Eolian was a place to display one's skill, not cobble it together. But all were silent. I played and played, everything pouring out of me; not just Devi, but the lingering aches of losing my parents, and the streets and backalleys of Tarbean, and Denna's desertion, and being whipped, banned, expelled. But it all rested beneath a patina that was the complications of Devi.

My whole life taken together, and I called it "Mixed Bag".

I could spot the true music lovers in the crowd when I was through; they were the ones applauding enthusiastically, wiping their eyes, nodding to themselves as if they understood - because in some small way, they could. My feelings showed through. The others who nudged each other and spoke in quiet whispers as they politely clapped, they were the casual listeners, the ones who came to be seen by the right element or merely to enjoy a drink with friends. They probably thought my abstractly invented instrumental was well done, but couldn't grasp why I had switched to it in the middle of a common bar tune. Which was more than fair, as neither did I.

The tips didn't pour in from all comers that eve. However, one or two of those with a genuine ear for the lute took me aside and pressed more than enough coin into my hand to make up the slack. When I answered their questions and stated the name of my new "masterpiece", they smiled wistfully and agreed; one of them suggested I change it to "Bittersweet" or "Half A Glass". I told her I'd consider it.

I lingered over my supper, then dropped by over at Anker's to see if I might find Wil or Sim, or perhaps even Fela; it was the only part on the University side of the Omethi River where I might not be gutted on sight. No such luck. So back to the moneylender's I wandered.

She opened the door very, very slowly to me. Just a crack.

"You'll have to bunk somewhere else."

I nodded. "Might I ask why?"

"I'm with a client."

She was only half-dressed. Someone was paying off their debt by unscrupulous means. I gave her a tight smile and said, "There's a gutter somewhere around here with my name on it."

"Ordal's ignorance..." Seemingly from thin air, Devi produced a talent and shoved it into my chest. "Find an inn, you mongrel."

Then the door was closed to me. Forever? For the night, at the least.

An inn I found, and I bought a bottle of brand from the innkeeper before heading up to my room. The talent paid for all. I drank a little off the top of it, then a little more... and before I knew it, the bottle was half empty. Stopping myself from a splitting headache come morning, I then crawled into bed and spent a few minutes replaying what I remembered of the song I'd written for Devi.

It was a sad, empty song. And I loved it.

To Be Continued..

NOTE: What does anybody think? Is it too weird... or just weird enough? I'll probably be wrapping it up in the next couple chapters. R&R please!