Girl of Iron and Magic

18.

Lotte could do nothing but stare at Rowan. So, Maloru hadn't told her that he was a little older than he looked. Not that she was surprised. He didn't exactly trust Rowan because of her humanity.

Maloru idealised elves a little too much. The way he had stared at her with her enchantment in place, his eyes drinking in the sight.

Lotte shook her head. She was being too harsh. Of course he'd long to be surrounded by those like him after living his whole as a stranger. What would Lotte have given to meet another Leilan Lotte like her?

Even though she had always been an odd duck even among Yomi Lotte, she could still remember the excitement she felt the first time she met them.

Lotte handed Rowan the completed enchantments and motioned for her to put them under her clothes.

Rowan, sadly, did not understand. "These are pretty," she said politely. "Thanks."

Lotte rolled her eyes.

"Oh," Rowan said after a moment. "This is some kind of magic? This paper's all hot. You made them to help me?"

Lotte nodded, trying to keep her expression neutral.

"Ah, I get it now. You want me to put it up against my skin."

Lotte bowed her head into a nod.

"Well," Rowan said. "This is progress. Thanks...."

She made to put the enchantments under her clothes, but hesitated. "It's alright, though? Don't humans...doesn't magic kill humans?"

That was, of course, a grand misconception. Just like elves could eat flesh with traces of iron in it without falling ill, humans had no problem enduring magic. It was all a question of balance, Poe had taught her.

A balance that Lotte had disrupted inside herself.

And even Poe's teachings in her mind were losing their footing.

"Good night," Rowan said, after a time. It looked like she decided to trust Lotte with the enchantments. She was lying comfortable near the dying flames.

Lotte lay across from her, not among Maloru's roots like she usually did. It was hard to get to sleep. She felt the night-elf enchantment on her making her cling to wakefulness as the darkness whispered in her mind.

Lotte had meant for an illusion, but it didn't quite feel as illusionary as she hoped. She was taller, her senses stronger, as if she had simply given intensity to her elven side, obscuring her human side.

Leilan elves could go weeks at a time without sleep. She worried she wouldn't be able to see Blue again. After the events of today, with the bitter aftertaste of quarrelling with Maloru, she needed Blue more than ever.

She wanted to see him so badly. She closed her eyes, wanting and wanting and wanting.

She continued wanting, and without realising, she was there.

Or was she?

Blue was before her, his eyes wide with surprise. The tower room was around them—somewhat. But something was odd. She was lying on the floor as she had been when she went to sleep. And she didn't feel quite as asleep, or distant.

In fact, she could hear Rowan's breathing coming from somewhere in the tower room.

Blue was taking her in. Apparently, even here she looked different. "You missed me that badly?"

Lotte felt her face flush, and the rosy glow of her skin was lighting up the night even outside the tower room. "What makes you say that?"

"Instead of coming to see me, you summoned me to you." There was something gentle and sad about his smile, but more than anything, he looked at her with longing. She could tell he wanted to hold her, but he was being oddly restrained.