The Unknown Alchemist

Chapter 28 - Bridges

"Avery? Hey, Avery?" Adelyn said. "Maybe you should think about getting a few hours of sleep. Petra mentioned something like eight hours or so?"

"Huh?" Avery's eyes flew open. "Can't right now. I need to head to the school. I promised the headmistress I'd help with their bridge building contest."

She took another bite and grabbed an apple while she got up from the table. Just as quickly as she arrived she skipped out of the room.

"She's working too hard," Roedin stated through clenched teeth.

Hayden considered. "Oh, I don't know. She is working hard but she loves it. We're not forcing her—she's passionate. I think she's brought a nice balance to the pack. She thinks analytically and doesn't react with an explosive temper like pretty much everyone else in this room." He looked around the table pointedly.

"I love that she doesn't put up with nonsense from anybody," added Adelyn.

"To a fault," Roedin said. "She has no fear response. She actually told the blacksmith that his steel was flawed because of a contaminant in the source ore."

Arctos started laughing at the memory. "She just walked right up to him and pointed it out. I thought he was going to explode in the shop, but she just shrugged and offered to correct it, chewing on an apple the whole time."

"I would have paid money to see that!" Adelyn laughed.

"It's not funny," Roedin said tersely. "The blacksmith wouldn't have thought twice about killing a human."

Hayden sighed, rising from the table. "We'll watch out for her, Roedin. You know we do. But I won't risk the wrath of the headmistress by keeping her from... whatever bridges they're building."

**************

Arctos returned from his inspection of the Corinthian training camp a few days later. He arrived at the house to meet with Hayden and bumped into Roedin and Avery heading out. Roedin was clean-shaven and dressed in fresh shirt with a new jacket designed to fit closely around his wings. Avery wore a long, warm coat over a winter dress, her eyes sparkling with excitement. He recognised Cora's taste in Avery's carefully styled hair.

"Hi Arctos! We're going to a concert! Maestro Tulrik has written a new symphony and it includes a brilliant cello solo or so I hear and they needed to bring in seven trumpets for the second movement because he made it so complicated but that's not as crazy as the piano part that can only be played by Hisperia faunids because it requires at least thirteen digits and--"

"And we are going to be late if we stand here all night giving Arctos the playbill," Roedin cut in.

Avery rushed out the door waving goodbye over her shoulder.

Arctos could have laughed out loud as he watched the Whisperer escort a positively ecstatic mortal down the street. To his astonishment, Roedin offered the crook of his arm and after only the briefest of hesitations Avery reached up and took it with her own. The gesture wasn't intimate but conveyed a sense of respect and trust between the pair. He closed the door behind him and found Hayden leaning on the frame to the sitting room with a grin on his face.

"Never thought I'd see the day," Arctos said as he walked past Hayden into the sitting room and helped himself to a drink. Hayden sighed and followed him in.

"Mating bonds can make you into a different person. That happiness is contagious. You can feel her emotion like it's your own and suddenly it's the most important thing in the world. I'm pretty sure Roedin would learn the cello and play in the orchestra himself, if it made her happy."