Girl of Iron and Magic

18.

18.
PRESENT DAY

It was annoying that Maloru was the only person Lotte could speak to, since she didn't want to see him at all. She returned to them an hour later with Fintan sitting on her shoulder and the ache of a new tattoo pulsing on her stomach.

Both Rowan and Maloru wore twin expressions of shock when she returned. Lotte had no idea what she looked like, but she assumed the enchantment worked.

"Holy cheese," Rowan muttered.

Maloru looked away, colour flooding his dark face. "Now I understand what you were talking about..." he said, his tone sulky.

It was annoying how vulnerable and hurt he looked, as if he were a beaten puppy. Lotte vaguely knew she'd be just as vexed if he were to act cheerful too. She just found being around him very uncomfortable.

Get used to calling me Sylvarnan, she thought. It wasn't exactly an elvish name, it was what elves called girl-child. It was shortened to sylnan or changed to sulsylnan (my child) as endearments, but they didn't have to know that.

Lotte didn't know how long the enchantment would hold. It could be weeks or months before she'd be her old self again. Some tattoos wouldn't run out for years.

At least not having the best ingredients was a good thing, for once.

They travelled a mile more on foot, with Rowan constantly complaining about her aches and bothers, before climbing down a shallow ravine with earth soft enough for Maloru to root himself. They were out of view from the road and even if airships travelled overhead, they wouldn't be seen.

It was just her and Rowan again.

"Don't you get cold?" Rowan asked. "You're supposed to be half human."

Lotte did get cold, a little. Not as cold as a human felt outside during a wintry night. But it wasn't as if they were in freezing temperatures, it was just not hot like summer.

To the red light of her gaze, Lotte gathered some sticks into a pile. Using a twig dipped in mud, she drew a fire enchantment on a crumbling old leaf and placed it underneath the sticks.

They crackled in a sudden blaze. Lotte didn't expect the effect to be quite as sharp. All her enchantments seemed to be doing that lately. Maybe silence was the price she had to pay for magic. If that was the case... maybe she could fashion a new voice for herself out of all these enchantments.

She and Rowan hunted around the little ravine, feeding more sticks to the fire until it seemed to calm.

The human woman crawled as close to the flames as she could, sighing with pleasure. Lotte could feel the heat. It was nice. But, just as she didn't mind the cold, it didn't make a meaningful difference to her.

She proceeded to make, to the light of the fire, a few paper enchantments to ease Rowan's aches and to keep her warm. Humans really were a lot like babies with how gentle their constitutions were.

"You know..." Rowan said after an hour of silence. "I know it's unfair to talk to you when you can't talk back, and..." She shrugged her shoulders, looking upwards towards the stars. "I've built my whole life, one lie at a time. I'm not the best person, I'm not the best friend. Maybe I don't deserve to have a single nice thing anymore. But I'd like to believe..." Rowan looked at her in a time of sidelong way, as if she couldn't approach Lotte directly. "I'd like to believe that even liars should get second chances."

Lotte paused her drawing, brush hovering over the paper. She didn't really have a response. Silence eliminated so many possibilities.

"And I'm not just talking about me," Rowan continued. "Mal tells me you just met a few days ago. Do you even know what he went through before you met? Yeah, he made a mistake. But I'm sure he thought it was the best thing he could do. He's just a kid, you know? Kids make mistakes, and then they learn from them."