Notes: Sorry for the long wait. This one is again a little shorter than the others, but it's because I had to leave a lot of what I ended up writing for the next chapter because it got too long. The next chapter shouldn't take so long, I have 10,000 words of it already typed. O_O Yeah, that is how long this chapter would have been and I wasn't even finished. Again, it's unbetaed, so all mistakes are my fault. Feel free to rail against me. As long as you keep it to yourself.
Thank you everyone who reviewed! I'm glad you're enjoying things, I hope you continue to do so. Storm Rember and Blackheart, thank you! That makes me so happy guys like Heinz! He's such a weird guy, he seems sort of genuinely oblivious but also a bit of a trickster, it's hard to tell what he's really thinking, but I think most of them time he's more aware of what he's doing than others think...01200120, thanks! I tend to write really long chapters, as is probably apparent, so a big word count isn't too hard for me, but actually getting anywhere with the story, now that would be an accomplishment. Hope that things go well for me! Silver-Cresent-MOON1995, glad you think Tris is in character! She turned out to be very tsundere. O_O I know she is in the original, but I was worried I might be exaggerating it a little too much. TamariChan Thank you! I'm glad things don't seem too predictable, I do worry about that a little. But I figure even if you guys do catch on to what I have planned the anticipation will be adequate to keep you reading...hopefully. Also, thank you L.A.H.H., Kaze, LoudLittleThing, roserapier, Anonymous, loveretriever! You guys are great, and without further ado, the long awaited chapter four.
Chapter Four
It took much longer than she would have liked, but Tris finally managed to wrangle Chime up, scolding her harshly (and then breaking down and giving her a quick, reassuring pat), before finishing her shopping.
When Tris returned to the house on Cheeseman Street, she found Briar sprawled out on a couch, absorbed in a very large book that she'd never seen him with before. Chime flew off to pout about being chastised for her bad behavior and Tris let her, knowing to indulge the dragon too much in sympathy would be to encourage more such escapades. Setting her goods down on the kitchen counter for the moment, she entered the sitting room and angled her head to read the cover of Briar's mysterious book.
"Farming in the Ancient World: How Our Ancestors Fed Empires," she read aloud before frowning.
Wasn't this one of the books she'd seen at Master Nelsin's book shop yesterday? More specifically, one of those she'd sorted through from the pile that had been owned by that damnable Heinz?
Tris glared down at her brother through her glasses, coppery brows knitting together with a snap. "Briar, you didn't."
The man in question peaked over the top of the book, wearing an innocent look that Tris didn't believe for a second. "Oh, hey, merchant girl, didn't see you there," he said pleasantly.
The weather witch's dark expression deepened as she ignored his feigned casualness. Her fists went to her hips and she glared down at him with sparks in her eyes. "You did-you went down to bother Master Nelsin about Heinz, you rat!"
Briar rolled his eyes at his sister's dramatics. Girls could get worked up over the silliest things. "Hey now, Coppercurls, I just felt like a book. I didn't bother Master Nelsin none."
He so had, Tris thought.
Briar shrugged. "And if I just happened to get one that used to be owned by your friend then what can I say? The man's got good taste."
"He's not my friend," she growled through gritted teeth, closing her eyes and counting meditatively, trying to suppress the urge to throw a leaven-bolt of lightning at her brother that would shock him into the next century.
Gods, what was with her siblings' fascination with Heinz? Just because he was enough of a nuisance that she felt the need to fervently voice her opinion of him did not mean she somehow secretly liked him or whatever nonsense they were cooking up in their brains when her back was turned. These three were much too focused on men (or women). Honestly, Tris didn't need a significant-other to validate her existence, couldn't they see she just wanted to be alone?
This was why she didn't read romance novels. They gave normally sensible folk grand delusions about 'love'. If she didn't know quite a few couples who were so deliriously happy together as to mirror the kind of feelings those novels described, she might question if it existed in that form at all. Certainly Tris had never felt it.
"Whatever you say, Sister Dear," Briar said, absently turning a page. The girl had to keep reminding herself that one didn't strangle their housemates.
Tris was about to say something snide and cutting when they were alerted to Daja's presence through their bond. An instant later the smith herself walked through the door wearing the dreamy expression that signaled she'd just come from seeing Yosleen.
"Hey, everyone," she said with a grin, leaning her trader's staff against the wall of the room as she came in. "Oh, Tris, you're back. That's good."
Tris narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Why?" she asked.
Daja's grin faltered slightly. "What, I'm not allowed to welcome my sister home?"
"Not when you, and Briar and Sandry are so obviously up to something behind my back. For all I know you were out plotting with Yosleen about it as well."
"Are you still on about that?" Daja said, rolling her eyes as she moved to sit in her favorite chair of the room, located near the couch where Briar was lounging with Heinz's infernal book. "We aren't up to anything. You're just being paranoid," she insisted, kicking off her shoes.
"Man, Tris, you're a bit grouchy today," Briar said without taking his eyes from his page. An instant later he amended, "More than usual, I mean. Something happen while you were out?"
Tris's face turned red with embarrassment and shame. Yes, she was being crotchety and her friends didn't deserve it. Tris took a deep breath to steady herself. She definitely needed to meditate extra tonight.
"I suppose you could say that," she said uncomfortably, crossing her arms and looking away from the two curious pairs of eyes now trained on the redhead.
Briar finally tore his eyes away from his book. "Well, it couldn't have been as bad as yesterday, could it? Come over and tell your sibs," he said after sitting up to make space for her on the couch and patting the seat next to him.
Tris sighed, realizing there was no way out of this, not that she wanted to hide it from her siblings exactly. She just suspected that she already knew how they'd react.
The weather witch moved to take the proffered seat and Daja leaned in attentively from her chair. Adjusting her glasses and smoothing her skirts, Tris set her shoulders as if readying for battle.
"Wow, was it that bad?" Daja asked. Tris gave her a sharp look and the trader girl shut her mouth.
"It was terrible, if you must know," she informed them. "Chime decided to go winging through the streets, chasing a magpie and screeching like a banshee. I ended up chasing her halfway across town." Briar and Daja both winced in sympathy.
"I guess that explains why she flew upstairs as soon as you both walked in," Briar remarked.
"But that isn't even the worst of it," Tris said gravely. "As I was dashing like a mad woman after her, making a fool of myself, I collided with someone standing on the side of the street and the both of us bounced off each other to the ground."
"You didn't get hurt did you?" Briar asked concerned.
Tris had actually forgotten all about her injuries in the heat of the moment, but upon remembering they immediately began to throb. How typical. She opened up her hands to show her siblings, getting her first good look at them herself. They were definitely scraped raw, but so shallow that they'd clotted almost immediately. There were still a few bits of dust, sand and gravel in them. Hopefully they wouldn't get infected.
"My hands are a bit scratched up," Tris said, but it was pointless as Briar was already rummaging through his mage kit for some sanitizing liquid and balm to numb it a bit and aid in the healing.
"Man, bad day," Daja clucked, shaking her head and Briar pulled Tris's hands over and got to work, cleaning out the grit. It stung a bit but Tris was used to his medicines and forced herself to be a good patient.
"It gets even worse," Tris assured her, aiming a particularly annoyed expression at Briar, who raised an eyebrow in question. An instant later he realized it wasn't actually him she was glaring so vehemently at, but the book he'd lain on the arm of the sofa to attend to Tris.
Suddenly he got it.
Briar grinned as he put away his medicines, having finished his doctoring. "The person you ran into was that man Heinz, wasn't it?" he snickered shamelessly.
"Yes," Tris bit out, making it sound as if it physically pained her to say as much. Her expression was one of intense revulsion.
Daja tried desperately to keep herself from smiling at her agitated sister, puffed up like an offended cat. "Huh, what a coincidence," she said in as level a voice as she could manage. Daja could see clearly that Tris was sparking, tiny lightning forking across her hair and glittering along the mage's brass glasses frames. There was no sense making herself a target; metals were pretty conductive, the trader knew, and her body tended to act like them because of her magic.
"Coincidence? That I doubt," the redhead spat.
Daja raised an eyebrow. "You think he's actually stalking you?"
Tris frowned, readjusting her glasses and gathering excess lightnings as she did so into her hand. "Well, no, that I couldn't say," she admitted, rolling the sparks between her fingers in a nervous manner, like Sandry might roll stray threads. "What I meant was clearly the Gods have it out for me."
"Clearly," Briar quipped, rolling his eyes.
"Well, what happened after you knocked him over?" Daja wondered. "Was he an ass about it, demanding an apology?"
Tris shook her head gravely. "Worse," she said, "he wanted to know if I'd finished my books yet."
Daja blinked. Briar nearly fell off the couch laughing.
"It is not funny," Tris insisted, narrowing her stormy eyes balefully down her long nose at her brother. "It's ludicrous, the man is deranged. He should be in a quiet healing house somewhere, with people to keep him from harassing the rest of the world with his idiocy."
"Those are some strong words, Tris," Daja said, amused. Maybe it was strange to say, but Daja rather suspected that Tris was enjoying hating this man. If she really didn't want to talk about the situation, she just wouldn't and nothing in the world could make her open her mouth on the subject. "Why do you say he's an idiot?" Daja asked, "aside from the obvious, anyway." The obvious being attracting Tris's ire.
The weather mage snorted. "I asked him what made him think I even had any intention of reading the books, and do you know what he said? He said—and so inoffensively that I assume that he must have been patronizing me—'who buys books they have no intention of reading?'" The girl scoffed as if this was the most heinous sentence ever uttered by a man.
Both her siblings simply stared at her.
"He makes a good point, Tris," Briar argued as he scratched his chin, actually sounding a bit impressed. Obviously Tris had been in full tongue-lashing mode from the start of this incident and this Heinz was able to deliver this kind of reasonably phrased comeback in the face of Tris's thunderous fury, which was bad enough even without the magical enhancements. Briar suspected the man of having some serious chops.
Daja tried very hard to keep a straight face as she shook her head at her sister's hysterics. "Let me see if I understand you correctly. He's an idiot because he was…logical?"
"No," Tris said, rolling her eyes. "He's an idiot because at the time he was still on about that bet, and because after I'd rudely crashed into him he'd recognized me instantly and acted as if it didn't even happen, launching into some bizarre introduction to his friend. The man makes no sense, Daja. He's obviously not in complete possession of his wits."
Both of her friends perked up. "There was someone else there?" Briar asked at the same moment Daja said, "At the time? You mean you got him to drop it?"
"Not exactly drop it, per se. Rather I got him to admit that if I refused to participate there wasn't anything he could do to enforce the matter," Tris answered. "And yes, he was speaking to a friend, Geoffrey Crato, he said his name was, outside the man's shop."
Briar racked his brain but couldn't come up with anyone he knew by that name. "What shop was it?"
"Oh, I don't know, I had more important things to deal with," Tris said, batting a hand dismissively. "The man was a surveyor and cartographer, apparently, so it probably had something to do with that. It was on the corner of Carpenters Way and Peacock Row."
"Oh yeah, I know that place. Never been in it, though."
Daja sighed, shaking her head at her redheaded sister. "I don't get why you're so annoyed about this, to be honest, Tris. I saw your candle lit late into the night, so obviously you're enjoying your books. Why don't you just take him up on his bet? You'll get a free book that you might really like. Sounds like a win-win situation to me."
"It's the principle of the thing, Daja," Tris explained with a scowl.
"What principle?" Briar wondered with a raised brow.
"The principle where I will not be drawn in by the likes of him to be patronized and looked down upon, all for a couple books I could purchase myself!" the weather witch declared harshly.
Briar shrugged, unconvinced. "I don't know, I'd take the free books." But of course he would say that, he'd lived on the streets as a child and that mentality he gained there still sometimes showed through. Anything free was fine by him.
Tris snuffed superiorly. "Absolutely not. You two haven't met him. You don't know what he's like."
"Well, show us then," Daja suggested.
Tris frowned. She actually hadn't expected that response, though she probably should have. Tris just…really didn't want to show them her memories about Heinz. She and her siblings were closer than friends, closer than blood, as close as four people could be without being a single person, but they'd long since agreed that they were still allowed to keep certain things to themselves if that really wanted to. And Tris, well she didn't want to share this.
On the one hand, she had the suspicion that if Briar actually knew what Heinz looked like he'd be off sniffing the man out like a hound, going door to door if necessary in some warped kind of sibling concern for her love-life or lack there of, regardless of what she or Heinz thought of the situation. On the other hand, she…well, even to herself, in some much ignored and hidden away part of her she knew she was over-reacting in regards to Heinz. That she was being neither logical, nor charitable in her interactions with him and he didn't quite deserve any of it, nor did she really hate him. She didn't even know him well enough to hate him, though he definitely infuriated her, which was a good start.
She was just afraid, afraid he'd be just like all the other mages she'd met over the years who detested her for her abilities. Her friends still couldn't really understand what she'd been through, being disliked and shunned at every turn. It came to the point where enough was enough, the hurt and disappointment wasn't worth the risk to let anyone in. She'd gone on her whole life without needing to rely on anyone but her sibs and teachers, there was no reason that needed to change. If she showed Daja and Briar her memories of Heinz, she was certain they'd try to cajole her into opening up to him. They were constantly worried that she had no friends outside of their circle and a few shop keepers who, though quite pleasant, didn't exactly share her interest in magic. It was good to meet new people, they said, and mostly she agreed, but when it came to other mages…well, they'd made it quite clear they didn't want anything to do with her, and so she would have nothing to do with them. It was better that way, for everyone.
Daja saw the guarded expression on her face and raised a brow but just said, "Well, if you don't want to, it's alright."
Tris frowned. "I'm just tired. And I still have work to do today. Perhaps later." It was an excuse and they all knew it.
"Whatever you say, Coppercurls," Briar said with a smug grin as he laid back into the couch with his book and picked back up reading. Tris didn't like that look one bit, but arguing further would just make him that much more certain that she had some kind of secret crush on Heinz (which absolutely wasn't the case). So instead she stood up, and started gathering her supplies.
"Hey," Briar said distractedly before she left the room, "did you know that in Balai they grow plants upside down from hanging pots?"
Tris momentarily forgot to be annoyed as she imagined this method of gardening. "No, I didn't," she admitted, wondering about the mechanics of it all. "How do they keep the dirt from falling out?"
"Some kind of canvas around the stalk, apparently," Briar said, "and they use a special soil mix to keep all the water from draining out right away. They grow huge vegetables like that. I'm thinking of trying it out."
She wondered what upside-down strawberries would taste like. "Huh," Tris said, intrigued, before frowning and adjusting her glasses jerkily. "Did you read that in Heinz's book?" she asked accusatorily.
"In the liner notes," Briar answered easily, immune to her vexation. "There's some kind of diagram here too, but I think I'd need a magnifying glass to make it out. These notes look like they were written by ants."
Tris almost moved toward her brother to examine the diagram with him, but she stopped herself, shaking her head clear. She didn't care. She didn't want anything to do with Heinz's book.
Her mage supplies in hand, she headed towards her mage's workroom without looking back.
Once she was in blessed seclusion, she took out all of the herbs, vials, stones and other paraphernalia used in magic that she'd been low on and stored them in the appropriately labeled bin or shelf. Next she carefully took out her paper dragon, admiring it for a moment before setting it somewhere it wouldn't be soiled or harmed until she found a place for it in her room. Even if it was indestructible, as Calyra claimed, there was no point taking chances. Extracting the flier that the young mage had given her from where Tris had stuffed it in her mage kit, she smoothed it out and found a place for it in the ledger where she kept all her important dates, finances and addresses. She also rewrote the address down on one of the crisp pages, in case the flier was misplaced.
Alright, now to work, Tris thought and she set about making more charms and potions to sell for the next day.
In the midst of drawing magic signs, grinding herbs, mixing oils and whispering spells over her work, Tris's mind drifted and eventually hit on her siblings' odd behavior the day before. Those three are definitely up to something, Tris thought, but what? If I'm not included in it then they are clearly colluding for something about me in particular. They had better not be trying to do something to help my business, I can do this on my own!
She thought about it a little more and decided she'd just have to be sneakier then them and try to figure it out before they managed to make too much trouble. That or find some way to bribe or guilt one of the three into betraying the group and revealing the mystery. Maybe they'd slip up and think something about it mind to mind and she could listen in.
And what is with Briar? she wondered with a harsh frown at the mixture she was grinding with a stone pestle. Why is he being so nosy about Heinz? It seriously seemed as if he was trying to set her up with the man.
Tris scowled. I've hardly even spoken with him, I've only even met him twice! And I hate him. He's stuck-up, nosey, morose-looking and, and-and too tall. And he teased me! What could I possibly see in him? And more to the point, what would someone like him see in a fat redhead with a long nose who'd been an absolute snark to him even if he had been stuffy to her first?
Boys didn't like girls like her, Tris was resigned to that, at least not smart boys with at least half-decent looks and their whole carriers ahead of them. Maybe one day a wise, older man to whom a young, pretty girl was no longer something he would require or expect to receive, or a kind boy, mature and smart, but more humble in appearance, might fancy her, but this Heinz fellow was neither of those things and a mage on top of that. He'd been on the scholarly side, it was true, but remembering back to their confrontations he wasn't remotely ugly, even if he didn't have the striking handsomeness of a court stud but a more quiet attractiveness
This is just ridiculous, Tris thought, stowing away her finished potions and charms. Briar knows better than to try and set me up. Or he will, when I tell him to back off tomorrow. He's probably just trying to make me be more friendly. Well, fat chance of that happening. I have my siblings and my teachers and my shopkeeper friends. I don't need anyone else, much less a stuffy academic mage. I already have all I need.
Tris wiped an unexpected tear from her eye and took a deep breath before opening the connecting door to her room and Chime's musical welcome, their confrontation earlier already forgiven and forgotten.
She smiled. Everything I need…
Daja and Briar waited until they heard the door to Tris's workroom upstairs shut before they all but leaped over the furniture to seclude themselves in the tea room, as far from prying winds as possible. Their maid, Amyl, gave them an odd look as she passed by with a broom and dust pan, but any servant working in the three's household got used to their quirks rather quickly or they quit, and she merely shook her head and went about her duties. That girl was getting a pay bonus as far as Briar was concerned.
Cloistered in the tea room, Daja immediately frowned at her brother. "Way to be subtle, thief-boy. If she isn't on to us now, then she's not the sharp redhead I know she is."
The green mage batted a hand dismissively as he leaned back in a chair. "Oh, don't worry about it. I always tease Tris about these sorts of things. She won't catch on to our greater scheme."
Daja crossed her arms, staring at the table worriedly. "She better not until the time is right. You know how she'll hate it, and use the opportunity to shut herself off even more."
"I know, I know," Briar assured his sister with a weary sigh. Why did Tris have to be so smart? They had to be so careful whenever they so much as wanted to surprise her with a special dessert for her birthday. And she was so independent! Couldn't she just rely on her siblings every once in a while? Really.
"And what's all this about that mage?" Daja asked curiously. "I thought we decided a mage wouldn't be a good idea. Are you actually thinking of him as a candidate?"
The former thief shrugged. "Well, aren't you? She's already half in love with him already."
Daja had to admit Tris seemed to have developed some kind of fixation on the man, but to her it seemed more of the rivalry sort of relationship. That didn't really bode well for romance, in her estimation. Eventual friendship maybe, but romance probably not. "She is not," the smith objected with an eye roll. "She hates his guts, she said it herself."
Shaking his head, Briar clucked his tongue superiorly. "You just don't know how these feisty girls like Tris work, Daja."
"I do too!" the trader said, actually a little insulted at the implication that she didn't understand how to attract a strong-willed woman. Honestly, who was the single one in the room right now? Exactly—not Daja!
Her brother grinned at her expense. "I'll admit Yosleen has spirit, but she's hardly on Tris's level, wouldn't you agree?"
"Well, I suppose," Daja had to concede with a shrug. She couldn't imagine Yosleen making the kind of fuss that Tris was over that bet she'd gotten herself into with the mage. The smith would take her sweet and saucy Yosleen over someone with the hot and cold temper of Tris any day, no offense to her sister.
"Trust me," Briar said, stabbing a thumb at himself confidently. "I've got an intuition for these kinds of things. Not to mention I talked to Master Nelsin today and he seems to be of the same mind. Or he doesn't think it's a lost cause, at any rate. All I've got to do now is talk to this Heinz person myself and see what he thinks about Tris."
Daja frowned. "But how are you going to find him? All you have is part of a name, he could be anywhere in the city!"
Briar leaned back in his chair, wearing a smug look. "And in the hands of a lesser man, that would be a problem—ow! Hey, I was kidding don't hit me so hard," Briar protested, rubbing the arm Daja had punched lightly in response to his airy quip.
"Don't joke around, this is serious," Daja said.
"I have a plan, honestly," Briar explained. "You know that shop Tris, the mage, and his friend argued in front of? I'm going to go there to snoop."
"You think that will work?" Daja couldn't imagine just anyone would be willing to talk about one of their friends with someone they didn't even know for such frivolous circumstances as theirs. If some stranger came to her asking about one of her friends out of the blue like that, she'd be downright suspicious.
"Why not? With my charm, anything is possible."
The smith narrowed her eyes at her brother as she smirked. "You're lucky I know you're not actually this arrogant." Briar shrugged, grinning from ear to ear. "Well, you do that I guess," Daja said, resigned, "I've got a lead of my own to look in on later tonight."
"Huh, really?" Briar asked, his brows rising in surprised.
It was Daja's turn to smirk superiorly. "Yep, Yosleen knows him, one of her customers. Apparently he's wealthy, intelligent, kind, young and quite good-looking."
"But is he a good enough person to see the good in Tris?" Briar asked her worriedly.
Unfortunately, Daja could only shrug. "We'll see," she said.
After dinner, Daja saddled up her horse again, this time bound for the Starmer warehouses at the docks. It was finally starting to get cool, but the quickening wind and fat clouds moving in warned her that things were about to get a whole lot wetter. Not that she needed the visual warning.
You'd better bring an oiled rain cloak. Tris mind-voiced. It will be pouring within the hour.
Thanks, she sent back, carefully concealing the thoughts regarding her purpose for the outing behind mental shields. Tris thought Daja was just helping Yosleen out with something regarding the Merchant's Guild. What she didn't realize was this explanation was obfuscation for an interview with a prospective romantic interest for her.
Daja smirked. Tris is seriously going to owe us big when we finally do manage to hook her up with a man, she thought. All the subterfuge we've had to go through for this is ridiculous.
The ride through the evening streets was uneventful. The worst of the foot and horse traffic had waned but the roads were still crowded enough that it was quite safe to travel. Not that Daja was a particularly vulnerable target, armed with her trader staff and mounted, her frame strong and broad-shouldered for a girl, even one hardened from working fully have of her life at this point at a forge. Still, she took her quiet commute as a good omen and thanked the trader gods. Daja even managed to find the Starmer warehouses without too much trouble.
Trotting up to the building, she dismounted from her horse and eyed the compound respectfully.
That's a lot of export goods, she thought with an appreciative whistle. No wonder the Starmers are one of the most wealthy and successful merchant families around.
"Hey, you!" she heard, jerking out of her examination to find two armed and lightly armored men approaching her.
"Move along, this is private property!" one of the men informed her. He was a big man, arms knotted with muscle and undoubtedly a guard for hire, protecting the building from burglars and raiders and the like. He probably scared the street thieves witless. Or maybe not. Street kids were made of stern stuff, if Briar and Evvy were any indication.
"I'm Daja Kisubo, a smith mage," she informed them soothingly, extracting her mage's medallion from beneath her clothing to provide added authority. "I'm here to inspect the Starmers' goods."
The guard who had told her she was on private property scowled, but looked at the medallion nonetheless as his companion stood ready to counter any funny business. Finally he dropped it. "Looks real enough," he said to his companion with a shrug.
The other guard tilted his head at Daja and glared. "Where's the usual girl? The blonde?"
"Right over here, nothing to worry about, she's with me, boys!" came an upbeat, lightly flirtatious voice and the clop of horses hooves on cobbles. Daja turned around to see Yosleen riding up on her roan mare, Sweat Pea, looking gorgeous to Daja's eyes with the early moon and lamplight glinting off her golden curls.
Yosleen reigned in her horse and dismounted, walking up alongside Daja, leading her mare. "She's my assistant for tonight," the appraiser said with a wink, beaming a smile that made the two men visibly melt. They either didn't notice or didn't care that as soon as she was close enough to the black woman Yosleen wrapped an arm around Daja's waist and leaned into the big smith like the affectionate lover she was. "I hope that's alright?" she asked the men innocently as a faint blush formed on Daja's cheeks.
"I-It should be fine," one guard said while the other stumbled over saying, "Y-yeah, yeah, it's okay." Both men were fixated on Yosleen's face, oblivious to everything else, especially Daja.
Yosleen gave them another brilliant smile and handed off her horse's reins as Daja did the same. "Find a place for our horses, would you please? Thank you!" she said and walked arm in arm with Daja into the warehouse, leaving the guards to fight over who got to take care of the horses for them.
As soon as the men were out of ear shot, Daja cracked a grin. "Is it really fair to make them think they have a chance with you for chores like that?" She and Yosleen were past the point where they ever became seriously jealous, especially when it came to men (neither of them were interested in the opposite sex). They knew that, for now at least, they were each others' one and only.
"Not really," she admitted impishly, with an unrepentant shrug, fluttering her long eyelashes up at her lover. "But I'll be as unfair as I have to be, if it's for you."
Daja nearly swooned but kept it together. "This isn't for me, though, it's for Tris," she felt compelled to point out.
Yosleen shrugged. "Well, yes, but Tris means a lot to you, so she means a lot to me, too. Not to mention she's a personal friend."
Warmth swelled in Daja's heart. Smiling, she squeezed her lover's arm. "How did I get so lucky, finding you?" she wondered aloud.
Chuckling softly, Yosleen teased, "Mmn, I don't know. You are lucky, aren't you?"
Daja laughed and the two let go of each other as they weaved around storage crates and barrels, approaching a clearing in the center of the huge building where one important looking young man stood with a ledger and other men and women were working together to haul containers into the open where they could be opened.
"That's Daeved Starmer," Yosleen whispered to Daja, pointing to the important looking man supervising the others. By necessity he was standing in the brightest lit area so as to read from his ledger, so Daja actually got a pretty good look at him.
Daja's first impression of Daeved was of a lean and stiff-backed young man in his mid-twenties, a few inches taller than Daja in height. He wore trousers and a tunic in dark blue embroidered in silver and black, a tunic patterned in the same colors, and a silver cravat of silk. They were expertly tailored and impeccably pressed without so much as a single thread out of place, and Daja doubted a mote of dust would even dare land on him. Sandry would no doubt have approved. By contrast his short black hair was wavy and unruly, sticking out artfully around his darkly-tanned face. He wore silver-rimmed glasses before his large, blue-green eyes and he would have been exceedingly handsome had not his expression and manner been brisk and humorless.
By looks alone, there was nothing Daja could find to be disagreeable. Tris herself being a rather stern person, she suspected that if Daeved proved to be as no-nonsense as his manner suggested, there wouldn't be an issue. And Daja, despite having no preferences for men herself, was aware enough of the male archetype for beauty to judge the young man to be very good looking. Ordinarily however, Daja would never have picked this person out of a crowd for her sister, mostly because upon first glance he didn't seem the type to be especially kind or accepting. Daja was really trusting Yosleen's judgment in this.
Yosleen grinned, winking clandestinely at Daja, which made the smith mage raise a brow. She knew her lover well enough to know that the other woman was being crafty. The girl could turn a deal better than Tris and convince anyone of just about anything, it was just one more reasons he was an asset to the merchant's guild. So what was she up to now?
"Yoohoo! Master Starmer," Yosleen suddenly called out, waving to the young man.
The young man looked up from his ledger, needlessly adjusting his glasses as he said, "Ah, yes, Mistress Morrowell, thank you so much for coming. I know the weather doesn't appear to be the best for travel." His voice was as pleasant, official and brisk as the rest of him.
"Not at all," Yosleen told the man with a smile as they came to stand in front of the man together. "And it wasn't so bad, the rain seems to be holding off. We might even all be home in our beds before a single drop falls."
Not much of a chance of that, Daja thought wryly, remembering Tris's warning.
"Nevertheless, thank you," he said with a polite bow of his head in gratitude. "And who is your companion?" he asked, eyeing Daja with interest.
Giving Daeved a saucy smile that was nothing short of suspicious in Daja's eyes, Yosleen pulled her forward, leaving the trader girl wondering what exactly was going on before her lover said, "This is my dear friend and assistant for the night, Daja Kisubo, smith mage. She was kind enough to agree to help me examine your goods tonight."
Suddenly Daja was feeling like a deer caught in the hunter's sights, as the man raised both eyebrows and leaned forward interestedly. "Daja Kisubo? Of the four Winding Circle mage children?"
"Well, yes, though we aren't children anymore," Daja said, self-consciously. She wasn't usually called out or recognized this quickly, especially by non-mages. It was kind of unnerving.
"No, I don't suppose you are," Daeved admitted. "I grew up hearing of your exploits in my own youth. Summersea is quite proud of our resident prodigies."
The mage blinked, nervousness suddenly evaporating. "Really?" she said, surprised and rather touched. She hadn't had the same experiences as Tris, but she'd been subjected to her fair share of fear, jealousy and aversion. She couldn't honestly say she'd ever heard anyone tell her they were proud of her accomplishments, except for her siblings and teachers.
"Oh yes, especially the merchant community," he said with complete sincerity. "You're contributions to the pirate crisis were especially noted. Your efforts probably saved countless of my family's crewmen's lives, not to mention the value of our ships and cargo. The pirates would have slaughtered and stolen everything they could find if they'd reached the docks."
"Well, thank you, and you're welcome," Daja said with a genuine, heartfelt smile, accepting the hand, the man held out to her for a shake.
Daeved smiled back. It was a small, hesitant and understated display of emotion, but Daja recognized it because she'd seen the same kind of smile on her practical, no-nonsense sister Tris. It was the smile of someone who wasn't used to being noticed, who didn't like to show what they were thinking or feeling, but was nonetheless a deeply kind and honest soul. That smile, more than anything else, convinced Daja.
Oh yeah, he's a good one, Daja thought, beaming back at the man who was starting to look a little confused by this enthusiastic reaction to a simple, returned smile. And she was certain Tris would like to hear a non-mage say something nice about her and her sibling's magic for once instead of shrinking away in fright.
Pleasantries over, Daja and Yosleen got down to work. They had to keep up their cover, after all. Daeved helped direct his employees to open and line up the crates to be inspected and Yosleen pulled out her inspection equipment as Daja hovered behind her, interested both in the jewelry she was about to help inspect and earning a bit more about what her lover did.
"So what do you have for us this time, Master Starmer?" Yosleen asked as two men began yanking the nails out of the crates.
"Urpan metal jewelry and quite a bit of seed jewelry, mostly traded with spices," the man answered. "I have a local contact in the Western Lands who has a number of trade posts, and he's making quite a profit off cumin and saffron. Spicy foods are becoming very popular there."
"I suppose the love of spices is universal," Yosleen said. "And seed jewelry? That's a new product."
Daeved nodded, as his men pulled off the cover of the crate, exposing the various goods. "We think it will go over well with those who want something exotic but don't have the means to purchase precious metals."
Yosleen approached the crate, Daja close behind her. Looking over her Yosleen's shoulder, she was enchanted by what she found.
Jewelry, very beautiful and of obvious exotic origins, filled the shipping container to the brim. Head dresses, necklaces, arm bands, bracelets and rings; their gold, copper or silver surfaces glinted in the lamp light, their gems glittering with color and fire. She noticed the seed jewelry immediately by sight without the need to use her magic, and was surprised to notice how handsome they were, the dried seed pods forming perfect beads strung in intricate forms, their surfaces lacquered bright, vibrant colors to the point that they resembled finely-painted glass. Despite their humble worth, they had a mysterious air and charm.
"Lovely!" Yosleen said, upon seeing the box's contents. "This looks like quite the selection of specimens of the Urpan style, and everything thing looks authentic enough upon first glance. Let's start the inspection, shall we? Daja, you take the metal. Make sure everything is what it's supposed to be."
Daja nodded, following her more experienced lover's lead. She knew metal-work, but she'd never worked as an authenticator or appraiser before, while Yosleen performed that job every day.
Setting up the jewelry on the table provided for them to work at, Daja poured over the metalwork as Daeved and his employees kept a quiet eye on her work. She poured her magic into piece after piece, taking a moment to admire each piece's craftsmanship and foreign style as she did so. Most of them rang with the feel of pure metals, or the standard levels of impurity introduced for strength, sheen or color in the materials. She could feel, faintly, the slight differences in the metals that told her they were mined somewhere far away from most of the materials she knew and commonly worked with. It was exciting to touch something so novel and different with her power.
A few of the pieces, however...she noticed they had some problems.
"This one is plated," she said immediately upon picking up a necklace made up of gleaming silver plates held together by a clever method of using chains and interlocking bevels on the plates' undersides. "Nice plate, well done, but if you payed full price for it you've been cheated, I'm afraid," she told Daeved, wryly.
He nodded, understanding as he took the piece and examined it himself, finding what Daja said to be true. "I see. That's unfortunate. We're usually careful about turning away the fakes, but some of the well-done ones do get by our buyers. It's the chance you take in this business," he explained, accepting Daja's bad news gracefully. Daja rather respected this reaction, since she'd known a lot of merchants who would argue up and down that their goods were exactly what they claimed they were, if for no other reason then they simply couldn't stand the idea that they'd made a mistake.
Daja shrugged. "You can still get a good price for it," she said, trying to show him the bright side, "just not what you would for pure silver metalwork."
"That's some consolation," Daeved responded, placing it in the pile for assets which were less valuable than advertized.
Daja and Yosleen continued their work, chatting lightly with Daeved and the men working that night as they did so. Daeved wasn't really the talkative sort, so it was hard for Daja to get much a feel for him, other than that he was a quite, composed sort of man who took everything in stride. It was a pretty good sign to Daja, who was liking this person more and more for her sister and for his general merits. Despite his attire, he wasn't the flamboyant type in the least, and really seemed to have a genuine appreciation for his personal good fortune, and was possessed of a positive but practical attitude. He wasn't especially outgoing when it came to showing friendliness, but the more she and Yosleen tried to bring the man into conversation, the more she started to think he was just shy.
Yosleen smiled at the man as she examined an intricately woven seed-necklace. "So Daeved, I haven't heard much about you lately from the other merchant families I appraise for. Shouldn't you be looking for a wife soon?"
The previously stoic-mannered man turned cherry red right before Daja's eyes and the smith mage had to stop herself from giggling as Daeved adjusted his glasses nervously, stammering, "Oh, well, um, I'm not, I'm not really...in much of an, um, hurry."
Daja smiled at this unexpected side of the otherwise sharply dressed and professional man. The contrast was definitely amusing but she couldn't entirely say she approved of making the nice, unsuspecting young man squirm with what was obviously an uncomfortable topic of conversation. Was this what Yosleen had been planning from the beginning? A bald-faced inquisition? She trusted Yosleen, but this seemed a bit forward, in her opinion.
Yosleen continued, seeming to enjoy herself just a little too much as she prodded the bewildered merchant with more questions. "Really? I'm surprised your family is being so understanding. I would think they'd want to make a useful match of you," she said.
"Oh, yes, my family is very understanding of my, erm, preferences," Daeved answered awkwardly, shifting his gaze as if looking for exits, his hand tightly grasping his ledger, held in front of him like a shield.
"So they're letting you choose your own partner?" Daja asked.
The man nodded, but now he was almost completely obscured by his notebook, so he added a quiet "Yes."
Daja smiled, happy about this news. That was the one thing she'd been a bit worried about, upon finding she thought Tris would really like the young man. If he was already betrothed to another girl, as merchant families often arranged, it would have made this whole visit pointless.
"You know, Master Starmer," Yosleen said in a pleasant, casual tone that made Daja wary. "You should really meet Daja's sister, I'm certain you two would have a lot in common."
Daja's eyes flew wide. Yosleen! What are you doing, she thought in a panic, but Yosleen continued to smile knowingly, despite seeing her lover's obvious alarm. The smith mage suddenly wished she and her love could communicate mind to mind. Or that they were standing closer to each other so she could elbow her.
Daeved tried to not look flustered, which paradoxically made him look twice as flustered to Daja's eyes. She shook her head, trying not to chuckle. This poor young man...
"M-mistress Kisubo's sister? I...I don't really, um...I don't—" he began before being interrupted. Which was just as well because he seemed to have no idea what to say in response anyway.
"Oh, you'll love her," Yosleen professed, riding roughshod over Daeved's protests as Daja watched in awe. "Trisana Chandler, from the Chandler merchant family, you know? You should have lunch, say, the day after tomorrow at noon? You'll be free then, won't you?"
Daeved could have lied, it wasn't as if either of them were soothsayers, but his honesty betrayed him as he stuttered, "Well, yes, bu-but—"
"It's settled then!" Yosleen declared, smiling. "Daja, you have a card with your address, don't you?"
"Oh, er, yeah, here," she said, fumbling at her mage kit to fish out one of the address cards she gave out to potential clients or buyers, hardly knowing what was happening with the speed of it all.
Daja handed the man the card, which he accepted, ever the polite businessman, but still refused to come out from behind his ledger. He seemed incapable of facing the two women while the topic remained on his love life. "I know you'll get along just marvelously!" Yosleen added as he examined the card cautiously.
Daeved made a sound not unlike whimper, to the laughter of his employees who had been watching the exchange with amusement.
Oh Gods, Daja thought with good humor, going back to the jewelry she'd been neglecting in favor of the conversation between her lover and Master Starmer. I really should have told Yosleen this was more of a scouting mission, she realized belatedly, before biting her lip to stop herself from chuckling at the absurdity of it all.
But it's not like I don't completely approve of the young man and think he and Tris would get a long excellently, so I suppose it's alright. At the very least I think they'd be great friends, she decided. They have similar temperaments where it counts and their differences appear complimentary. And it's just as well Yosleen swooped in like that, even if it was embarrassing on Daeved's part, what other chance would we have to ask him to interact with Tris? Daja realized. It would be strange to send an invitation later, she thought. This was better.
Smiling slyly, Daja felt pretty good about her candidate's chances. Oh, would she have something to tell her siblings at tomorrow afternoon's meeting! Not only did she have a name, she had a ''date'' already planned! And she'd have a chance to make it up to the shy man for the uncomfortable situation—she'd be sure to set him and Tris up in an expensive place to eat, completely paid for her by her so their merchant sensibilities would have difficulty turning down the offer.
She grinned excitedly, mentally pumping a fist in success. Briar was going down! Daeved would definitely win Tris's heart before that Heinz man ever did. She could see her victory already.
That evening Tris came in from letting the rain pour over her face and soak her to the bone, feeling refreshed rather than chilled or drowned, as others might. She loved the rain. Sometimes she wished she could be a drop of water, falling from the sky to pool on the ground and wash the world clean. She'd flow along streams and rivers, eventually to the great sea, before rising into the air on a hot day and falling again on another, in some place new and far away. There was something beautiful in the simplicity of it, something appealing about being an observer of people's lives rather than a participant. But she supposed it wouldn't be as fulfilling. Life was hard, but she'd learned there were good things about it that made all the difficult times worth it.
Using her magic to pull the water from her clothes, she stepped back into the house dry but feeling uncomfortable in clothes that felt tacky against her skin from the sudden drenching and drying. If Sandry had done it her magic could have averted this, but Tris was a weather witch, not a thread mage, there was only so much she could do.
Not a moment after Tris had stepped inside, Daja rushed in from the rain, her lips blue and water dripping off her head, the only place which hadn't been protected by her raincoat, spelled by Sandry to repel water. Tris went ahead and pulled the water off her with her magic.
"Ah, thanks," her sister said, handing her coat over to the maid with a grateful nod. "It just started coming down all of a sudden."
"I did tell you it was going to start raining before you got home," Tris said.
"I know, but it looked like I might make it for a bit there," Daja shrugged with a smile. The girl positively glowed. She always looked that way after she'd been with Yosleen.
Tris sighed, feeling a bit jealous. "How was helping Yosleen?" she asked.
Daja grinned, leading them both into the sitting room to sit down. "Great! It's a lot of work, sorting through merchant's entire cargo of jewelry, but we got it done. It was pretty interesting, too. The jewelry was from the western lands across the sea, I actually bought something small for you, Sandry and Amyl. I'll give you yours now."
Tris squirmed, feeling uncomfortable by this display of affection as Daja fished in the pocket of her tunic. Tris didn't much like receiving gifts. Or she did, but she hated the feeling that always accompanied it. The feeling that she was somehow in the other's debt for it. It was silly, she knew, but she couldn't help it.
"You know I don't much like wearing jewelry," Tris muttered darkly. She was a practical girl, she didn't like wearing money when she could use it for something else. Like books. Or mage supplies. "You didn't have to get me anything."
Daja rolled her eyes, smiling at her so typical 'Tris-like' behavior. "Don't worry, it was cheep, I got it for helping out. And advertizement purposes. Besides, I think you'll like it. It's just a small thing, nothing too extravagant. Here."
Tris grudgingly held out her hand to accept the gift with a faint blush on her cheeks, embarrassed. Even after years with her friends' kindness she still found it hard to accept at times.
What Daja dropped in her hands was surprisingly light. A bracelet, she realized, made of an intricate pattern of braided leather strips, strung with beads made of...wood? They seemed too light to be any substance she knew, and they had curiously carved designs in their alternating blue-lacquered and bare, cream surfaces. She put it on, feeling a bit silly, but she found she didn't mind it as much as she did metal jewelry. She always felt like a fool or imposter playing dress up when she wore jewels or precious substances. The bracelet was quite handsome, but didn't look as if she was trying to show off. She...actually liked it.
"Thank you Daja," she said honestly. Daja smirked as if she'd known all along Tris would warm up to the gift. Frowning, she narrowed her eyes at the trader in annoyance before shaking her head and recovering a neutral expression. "What's it made of?"
"Seed pods. They're a brand new product," Daja answered. Chuckling she teased, "Be careful with showing it around, you might just start a trend." Tris's rolled her eyes. "Well I'm going to bed. See you in the morning."
"Good night, see you," Tris said, and Daja left for her room. Admiring the jewelry, Tris retired to her room, headed for bed as well. She dressed in her night things by lamplight and performed her bedtime routine. She pointedly ignored the two books on her dresser, even though they practically called out for her to do some before-bedtime reading, like she usually did. Getting into bed, she was told herself to blow out the candles, to go to slepp, that she wasn't going to read the books, she was going to put off finishing them as long as possible just out of spite, in case she ran into Heinz again, which seemed almost inevitable. He was obviously put on this earth to be the bane of her existence.
She was about to blow out the candles.
Any second now.
She was definitely going to go it. It was happening right now.
"Cat dirt," she said as she reached for Tales of the Painted Desert, using Sandry's favorite curse.
You've won this round, Heinz, she thought as she settled in to read a new chapter of the excellent book with eagerness. But I still won't accept your damned bet.