Able found a letter in his journal. He'd smoothed the page he was about to write on and felt a lump under it. Now he sat staring at the tightly folded paper marked with his name in a hand he did not recognize. When and where had he left the notebook unattended?
He'd returned to Aimsby and settled into a routine of slipping through the western gate, the other side from the enforcer barracks, and into the Records building to do his research. He was also helping Faith to properly archive the crates of files that had been moved here from the defunct legislative halls—had in fact negotiated the stressed Mayor Rosefarm into paying him for this task so that he could afford lodgings in this city. He'd been combing through the legislative records for two weeks now—knew this because he wrote the date at the top of the next page of his notebook every morning when he sat down, as he had a few minutes ago.
Faith clearly hadn't written this letter, but she might have slipped it into his notebook for someone else...but why not just hand it to him? His nerves pricked all over his hands and mouth and the top of his head as he took a careful look around the old storage room, peering into the corners where the light from the single chandelier above could not reach. Satisfied that his only companions were sorted records and the infant catalog of them, he drew a steadying breath and unfolded the letter.
It has come to our attention that your interest in some of our older operations has born fruit. There are not many who know the purpose of the provider, and fewer still its fate. You have followed the careful journey to the place where it ended, yet you remain here instead of returning home. This does not surprise us. If you wish to finish what he started, spend an evening at the black horizon.
It took Able several breaths to return life to his mind. Did he want to finish what his father started? What...did his father start? What could possibly be left to finish?
Pa's aim had been to spare his sons and all other sons from the draft for a war eight years over now. Or had there been something else? Ma and Uncle Noble had certainly kept anything they knew from Able in effort to protect the family from any royal investigation. So either there was something he didn't know, or...the Sons of Justice had watched him long enough to bet on sparking his curiosity and letting him do the rest. No amount of swallowing was making his throat less dry.
The latch of the door gave its customary scrape to announce the contraption was about to swing open. Able swallowed one last time as he casually refolded the letter and he kept his eyes on the page in front of him. Faith shouldn't think anything of it.
"You should have told me you were in town," Daytime Green scolded playfully as she slid into the chair across the table from him. God's eyes.
"I—uh, hi." Able cleared his throat and fought to keep talking while his fingers congealed around the letter in his hand. "I didn't know you were in town to tell."
"Didn't ask about me then," her tone was unhelpfully enigmatic.
"Been avoiding Tanner." He quietly set the letter, potentially written by the very mole the enforcers were desperate to out, on his notebook while keeping his eyes trained on Day's face. "And by extension anyone who might mention me to him."
"Mm." She nodded, apparently appeased. "Maybe you shouldn't."
"I—no?"
She shrugged with half a smile. "He's on his way to Birchurst this very moment. Got a message and rallied his personal squadron on the spot. I wasn't briefed, but his countenance was dire, to put it mildly."
"What's in Birchurst?"
"Nothing, usually." She scratched her neck then set her chin in her hand. "It's a pretty big farming and logging community, one of the most stable in Borealund."
"I see." He drummed his fingers on the table. That rapid rider he had shared a room with back during the barricade incident: he'd come from Birchurst, he'd said. Able had later caught him meeting other Resistance members in secret. "Thank you for telling me." He closed his notebook and managed not to sigh in relief as he slid it safely into his bag.
"So...you're going, then? Just like that?" Day unhelpfully had her mouth behind her hand, so Able could make little of her expression.
"Uhm... Did-did you think I wouldn't follow up on a lead you gave me?"
She frowned and looked down at the table. "No, just...without asking how I've been?"
Oh God, he had forgotten how much she had been flirting with him when they last spoke! Then again, he might be lucky that she attributed any odd behavior on his part to this. "...you made it sound urgent."
"Well...maybe." Her hand migrated back to her neck and rubbed it, and her other one mirrored its motions. "But you're never going to catch up to him anyway."
"I wouldn't count on that." He still settled back into his chair with a soft sigh. It'd been near a month since their dalliance. "I'm sorry. I thought it was...you know, just a uh...spur-of-the-moment thing?"
"Don't worry, it was." Now she brushed non-existent dust from the table. "But I liked it. And...and I like you. And I know you aren't looking to get tied down, and I can't bother with that sort of thing either right now so doesn't that—that is to say, could we try, maybe? To make something of this?"
Okay, so...the granddaughter of a famous marshal was asking him to be her paramour. It was difficult enough to weigh the pros and cons of an arrangement like that even without this damned letter heavy in the satchel against his leg, and now a pair of dark brown eyes swam past his mind's eye. Would being close to Day obscure his feelings for Lark? ...or only make it easier for her to figure them out?
"Well, then." She abruptly stood, making him jump. He was startled again by the tight anger in her face.
"You don't want me to think that over?" he asked anyway.
"You have to think it over." Her sharp tone was punctuated by a rigid shrug of her broad shoulders.
"Day, you're a Green," his own voice was even and reassuring, or so he hoped, "while I'm no one. I come from nothing, as the others in the university are ever eager to remind me. Can you not imagine the considerations I have to take into account?"
"What, you're a social climber not up for some social climbing?" she remarked flatly as she took one step closer to tower over him and the table.
"I'm suggesting," he continued carefully, "that you might think a little more about what it entails. For example, what does your father think of social climbers?"
"You think he's going to ruin you if he finds out?" Day raised an unimpressed eyebrow.
"Or shoot me in the face to save himself the hassle." Able raised his eyebrows and shrugged. "I don't know your father."
"Convenient that you're worried about that now, and not before you crossed that line," she snapped.
"I—well, it's not that I didn't think on it, just not as much as I should—"
"Damn it, Chronicler," she finally raised her voice, "just say you don't want me! At least respect me enough not to lead me around by the nose!"
"Day..." he pleaded before he put his face in his hands. He then rubbed it in effort to pull himself together. He was prattling like a coward, and she knew it. He took a breath before he looked back up to meet her eyes. "I won't lie to you."
She was quiet a moment, then put her hands on her hips. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"I don't want you storming out of here thinking I meant something I didn't say. I don't know whether I want to be with you, okay?"
"You don't know?" She looked like she wanted to flip the table. She probably could too, crates of books on it and all.
He held up both hands for peace. "I like you; don't think I don't. And you're probably right that your family shouldn't give me more pause now than it did then. I like to think things through; probably I like to think things through more than is good for me. But still I'm on very awkward footing on this job as it is, and I will not feel comfortable taking up with you, having not taken the time to consider how it's going to affect my work going forward. And if that makes you as impatient as you rolling your eyes suggests, maybe you should take a moment to consider that I am always going to be like this."
"'Always,' huh?" She stopped rolling her eyes so she could glare at him. And now he knew. He didn't want to be with her. Not if it meant confrontations like this one.
"Okay, that's fair," he groaned and slumped onto his elbows. Better for her to leave angry than to know what had been and still was on his mind.
But she sat down across from him again and was quiet. "It's not all fair," she said after a moment. "You've always been stodgy and awkward, so you're right that I don't know my own business if I'm going to be judging you for it now."
"Thanks, I think?" He raised his head and propped it on one hand.
She shuffled a little awkwardly herself. "How long do you want to think about it?" What?
"...why does the offer still stand?" he asked, and when she looked taken aback, quickly explicated, "You were so angry just now."
"Yeah." She looked lat him like he must be stupid. "Because it sucks. It sucks to be constantly thinking about someone for a couple weeks only find out he hasn't been thinking about you." Oh. That...that's what she wanted from him?
In that case, she'd be even angrier to know the truth. But she still deserved it, so he took a shaky breath. "...because I was thinking about someone else." As expected, her temper started to flare, so he continued, "Someone I shouldn't be with, haven't been with, either, but can't seem to keep out of my mind."
"Well, that's typical," Day hissed. "Glad I am not too ugly to rub one out in while you're pining for the greater prize. How much should I bet she's everything you've ever dreamed of? Since I've got this nice loser's streak going."
Part of Able, the animal part that would chew off its own leg to escape a trap, wanted to just blurt out that 'she' was a he. So, good thing had no way of knowing if that was true or not today? He set his forehead in his hands and instead asked, "Why do you do that?"
"Excuse me?" She sneered.
"Turn everything I'm trying to tell you into a slight or an insult."
Day sputtered then huffed and leaned back in the chair, arms folded over her chest. But her gaze grew soft as she stared into the shadowed corner. ...she looked attractive again instead of frightening. Huh, so he liked powerful people so long as they weren't directing their power at him? Is that why he still had a hard time thinking of Lark as the Shadow? Although the Shadow had never attacked Able, who was doing such an excellent job of keeping Lark off his mind, there.
Day finally whispered, "Because when you told me I was the best you'd had, it was too good to be true, but I guess I really wanted it to be anyway. I wanted to believe you. That I'm fine the way I am and there's nothing wrong with me."
Able blinked. Goodness. "Wrong with you? The only thing wrong I can think of is you've got me worried what you're going to do with your temper."
"Heh, exactly." She snorted and scuffed the floor with her boot. "Girls are supposed to be cute when they're mad."
"You may be bitter about it, but there's no way you'd be happy living that way."
She raised her eyes from the floor to look at him, her expression conflicted.
"And there are men out there who are not cowards like me," he added.
She looked down again. "You'd be surprised." What did she want from him now?
"Look, you're a better choice for me than the other someone, and I like your body just fine, okay?" he tried. "I don't know why I'm irrationally fixated on—on them. And I mean no slight nor insult when I say I wasn't looking for anything other than insight into the situation here in Borealund when you came in here to find me, and now that you've given me news about Birchurst, I am anxious I could be missing a significant event."
"Yeah, I shouldn't have led with that," she grumbled, her face screwing up with disgust. "I thought it an 'excuse' to see you since you hadn't come looking for me all week. And if you're going to be that impatient with my insecurities, we have no business pursuing this, so, good luck, Chronicler." She kicked out so that her chair scraped away from the table as she found her feet.
Able just put his face in his hand again and let her take the last word right out the door. He was almost too wobbly with relief to stand, so he waited a few minutes for his heart to settle and Day to get further away. She too might calm down before they spoke again. The moment he could, he left the fortress to find Venture Bay.