On Mount Alyppia

Pining

She would start lessons the next week, thrice weekly, Assuntina's father told her on the carriage ride back. She nodded absently, then asked if he could drop her off to see Leonid. It had been too long, she pointed out. Nearly a month. Her father liked Leonid and was friends with his father, so it took little pleading for him to drop her off at the Amato's villa, promising to send a carriage to pick her up in the evening.

Assuntina nodded to the maid who greeted her at the door and waved her away to weave through the corridors herself. "Leo!" she said, bursting into his room. "I found the girl. The girl from the tree. I found the girl!"

Leonid, reclining on a couch, didn't look up from his book. "Good for you," he said, turning a page.

"You don't understand, I know where she lives! I know her name, I spoke to her!"

"So did I," Leonid said, turning another page, far before he would have been able to read it.

"You did? That's wonderful!" Assuntina frowned. "You should be happy. Why are you... Are you... Brooding?"

Leonid slammed his book shut, finally looking up. "She's a Lippian, Tina."

Assuntina paused. "Oh."

"It's been days and I still can't believe it. A Lippian, spying on me, watching me, it's..." He shook his head in disgust.

Assuntina shrugged. She had always told herself Lippians weren't as bad as everyone said, but in practice... They were rare, and odd, and they were different than regular mortal men. They did frightening things. They were different, and their fathers were nymphs, killers. They had always made her uncomfortable.

But the girl, Arista, hadn't. "I'm sure she meant no harm."

Leonid sighed, running a hand through the dark curls that hung to his shoulders. "I doubt it. And I care not. I want nothing more to do with her."

"Then why are you so upset?" she asked, pulling herself onto a stool. She was sure enough of the answer, but wanted to know what he would say.

He shrugged. "I don't know... My work, my sculpting, it sometimes is the only way I can bear everything. It's of importance to me, and no one seems to care. But she... she seemed completely mesmerised in my work. It seemed... It felt she understood. I don't know, perhaps I imagined it all, but... It matters no more."

"Hmmm. Why were you so obsessed with her in the first place?"

Leonid blew out a breath. "I don't know. She... she, well... I suppose she interested me, somehow. Like an old book, or an interesting piece of art... Only she's a person."

Assuntina raised a brow. She'd thought of a reason much simpler. "How does her being a Lippian change any of that?"

"I can't- I don't- It doesn't- I- I don't wish to speak of her any longer," he stammered. "Can we not speak of something else?"

She shrugged innocently. "Then I suppose you have no interest in knowing she lives on the streets and her name is Arista?"

Leonid looked over. "Arista?" he said incredulously. He had joked about that name before, too.

Asssuntina nodded in sympathy. "Leo, I know Lippians are odd, and can be dangerous, but she seemed harmless. Shy. What happened? How do you even know she is a Lippian?"
Leonid bit his lip, pacing across the room. "She came to watch me, for the first time in days, only... She had a patch over one eye."

"Yes," Assuntina said. "I saw that." She had forgotten to mention it, somehow.

"I was working as I always do," Leonid continued. "When I heard a noise. I looked over and the branch she sat on had snapped. She had fallen down into the yard. I ran over to see if she was alright, and she seemed... Terrified. She barely spoke. She said she must leave and started climbing the wall, like a spider. The wind came through, and then the scarf fell off her head and her hair... Her hair was white, Tina," he said. "White, like snow. Not grey or yellow, white. It was the strangest thing I've ever seen."

Assuntina didn't let her curiosity show. "What happened then?" she prompted.

"Nothing," he sighed, plopping down on the couch. "She ran off." He added in a much lower voice, "I still have her scarf."

"Hmmm," Assuntina said, using all her energy to keep from teasing. "Is it really... a problem? Yes, the girl is a Lippian. But she is the same girl, only with whiter hair."

Leonid shrugged. "Perhaps," he said, less hopelessly than before.

Assuntina smiled. Oh, she had gotten to him.